ACDG5: The Wardroom

[vyeh]

The University will need four turns to build the Maritime Control Center and we will build it in three.

It's time to get the IoD's, mindworms, the superformer and the gun foils home.

If Yang offers a blood truce, let's see if he is willing to pay us something. (Say no to his initial request for a blood truce.) We're way ahead of him in tech. If we can get some credits from him and get our units home, it would be worth ten turns of peace.

BEFORE ENDING 2156:

(1) Change Ushuaia to fusion sea colony pod (expansion site is 2 sq. SW of Morgan Distribution; if we don't colonize, Morgan will).

(2) Seaview former 1 sq. S of Seaview constructs thermal borehole.

(3) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. SE of HQ moves 2 sq. N, 1 sq. NE and crawls 4 minerals for Drydock.

(4) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. SW of HQ moves 2 sq. NE, 1 sq. E and crawls 2 minerals for Drydock.

(5) Drydock supply droid 2 sq. W by NW of HQ moves 1 sq. SE and crawls 2 minerals for Drydock.

BETWEEN 2156 AND 2157:

(6) HQ builds former. Change to supply.

(7) Drydock builds missile needlejet. Change to colony pod mk2.

(8) Gateway builds fungicidal formers. Change to fungicidal sea former.

FOR 2157:

(9) Gateway fungicidal former moves 1 sq. W, attempts to move 2 sq. NW.

(10) Athens former droid and Gateway former 1 sq. SE of Athens move 1 sq. NE and plant forest.

(11) Gateway missile needlejet at Athens attacks Deep Community (hopefully this will encourage Yang to pay us to end the vendetta he started).

(12) Drydock missile foil and impact foil move toward Deep Community (if Yang doesn't pay us, we'll be able to use the missile foil to destroy the replacement plasma sentinel and the impact foil to occupy Deep Community, which will destroy Deep Community and give us some credits).

(13) Sunken City plasma hoverboat heads toward Ushuaia (to protect expansion base and Ushuaia fungicidal sea former from mindworms; with the new missile foils and, soon, chaos foils, fighting mindworms in protected waters is all that the plasma hoverboat is good for).

(14) BRCM former and Seaview former 1 sq. SE of BRCM move to 1 sq. S of Seaview and build thermal borehole.

(15) Seaview fungicidal sea former plants kelp (Lt. Nahkrinoth's recommendation is even more useful since this square will keep the new Fungal Fields base from starving).

(16) Drydock former droid 2 sq.. NE of Drydock plants forest.

(17) Ushuaia recon rover 2 sq. NE of Drydock moves 1 sq. N.

(18) HQ former and HQ fungicidal former in Fungal Fields remove fungus.

(19) HQ trance scout holds.

(20) Drydock missile needlejet at Drydock moves 6 sq. N, then goes to Athens (avoid attacking Spartan land units; we're interested in maintaining a sea blockade; with luck, those land units are sucking up minerals in support).

(21) Suez former moves 1 sq. SE.

(22) East formers 2 sq. S by SW of Persepolis build road.

(23) Ushuaia former 2 sq. W by SW of Ushuaia plants forest.

(24) Bay Area former 2 sq. S by SW of Bay Area moves 1 sq. E and plants forest.

(25) HQ former at HQ moves to Syrtis and re-homes.

(26) HQ scout at Seaview moves to BRCM, re-homes and holds.

(27) Independent scout at BRCM moves to Seaview and holds.

(28) Gibraltar missile foil moves to Water Music.

(29) Drydock missile needlejet at He Walked on Water flies around He Walked on Water (to see if there are any impact foils northeast of He Walked on Water) and returns to Water Music.

(30) Drydock missile foil moves to 1 sq. S of He Walked on Water if needlejet did not spot any Spartan naval combat vessels of weapon strength 4 or more. Otherwise Drydock missile foil moves to Water Music.

(31) Gun foils and IoD's head west.

(32) Gateway trance rover supply 1 sq. E of Gibraltar moves to Gibraltar and assigns 180 minerals to The Maritime Control Center secret project.

(33) Ushuaia supply 1 sq. SW of Bay Area moves to Gibraltar and assigns 30 minerals to The Maritime Control Center secret project.

(34) BRCM supply 2 sq. E by SE of Gibraltar moves to Gibraltar and assigns 30 minerals to The Maritime Control Center secret project.

(35) Gibraltar worker moves from 3-0-0 kelp square to 1-2-1 forest square.

(36) Seaview doctor becomes worker on 1-1-0 square 2 sq. NE of Seaview.

(37) Sunken City doctor becomes worker on 2-2-2 monolith.

(38) Hurry Sunken City recreation commons for 2 credits (partial payment).

(39) Gateway worker moves from 2-0-1 square to 1-2-1 square.

[vyeh]

Re sea formers:

With fusion, they're cheaper, so it makes sense for Suez and Gateway to build fungicidal sea formers (and possibly a fusion sea former for Suez) to terraform and prepare sites for sea bases.

I think we should focus on the Believer sea bases. They would be protected from land units (including probes) without amphibious ability.

[Nahkrinoth]

"(Lt. Nahkrinoth's recommendation is even more useful since this square will keep the new Fungal Fields base from starving)."

Sweet! I'm accidentally useful!

Is there any math on how kelp and forests spread?

[vyeh]

It is always more powerful when a single move can serve two purposes, e.g. moving crawlers closer to a secret project and crawling resources on the way there).

You might be interested to know that a borehole makes sense for Seaview. It is very attractive to use the two bonus freshwater squares for workers; however, neither square is very good for mineral production (even with a mining platform, each will produce only one mineral until Advanced Ecological Engineering). Both will produce a lot of nutrients, so a zero nutrient square is not a problem.

With three formers available (two from Seaview and one from BRCM; since we cashed in crawlers, there is a surplus of mineral rich squares), we can construct a borehole in 8 turns.

As far as ecological damage goes, one fungal pop before we start constructing tree farms is desirable, although it would be unfortunate if the borehole was wiped out.

I'm not aware of any math on forest and kelp spreading.

[vyeh]

The Drydock supply droids will be moving. There are several rocky squares with mines and roads. These produce 4 minerals compared to the 2 minerals produced by forests.

If we move the droids from forest square to forest square until we reach the rocky mined road squares and crawl 2 minerals at the end of each movement, there will be no loss in minerals for Drydock.

After cashing in the supply crawlers and trance rover supplies, some of the bases have low mineral production. We'll need to produce more supply crawlers.

6 missile needlejets are probably enough. Two will be assigned to the Water Music theater. Two to Athens and two to escort a sea colony pod to the Atlantic Ruins.

We also need to build more sea formers to prep squares for sea bases and more sea colony pods.

The Believers are on their way out. Morgan has the land units to take over all of the Believing land bases. However, Morgan has no naval nor amphibious units, which means the Believing sea bases are invulnerable for the moment. We should take them out since our strategy is ruling the seas.

[vyeh]

We will be in position to attack He Walked on Water with three units. If the Believing impact foil isn't destroyed, it won't be able to attack because our needlejet will be overhead and the Believing impact foil doesn't have AA.

Assuming we don't get a tech from the Planetary Datalinks before we research Superstring Theory, our choices will be:

Advanced Subatomic Theory (leads to silksteel alloy armor [4])
Intellectual Integrity (nonlethal methods)
Centauri Meditation (IoD)
Adv. Ecological Engineering (super formers, soil enrichers)
Organic Superlubricant (fusion laser weapon [10])
Orbital Spaceflight (sky hydroponics lab, missiles, planet buster)

While superformers would be nice, I think we should go for Organic Superlubricants and try to trade for Adv. Ecological Engineering, following our "claws and fangs" strategy.

[vyeh]

It is very important we cash in the trance rover supply for 2157. We're in a race with University for the Maritime Control Center.

BEFORE ENDING 2157:

(1) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. SE of HQ moves 2 sq. N, 1 sq. NE and crawls 4 minerals for Drydock.

(2) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. SW of HQ moves 2 sq. NE, 1 sq. E and crawls 2 minerals for Drydock.

(3) Drydock supply droid 2 sq. W by NW of HQ moves 1 sq. SE and crawls 2 minerals for Drydock.

(4) Sunken City doctor becomes worker on 2-2-2 monolith.

(5) Hurry Sunken City recreation commons for 2 credits (partial payment).

(6) Gateway trance rover supply 1 sq. E of Gibraltar moves to Gibraltar and assigns 180 minerals to The Maritime Control Center secret project.

(7) BRCM worker moves from 2-1-1 square to 1-2-1 forest square.

(8) HQ scout at Seaview moves to BRCM, re-homes and holds.

(9) Independent scout at BRCM moves to Seaview and holds.

(10) Seaview worker moves from 1-1-0 square to 2-1-1 farmed square.

(11) Syrtis worker moves from 1-2-1 forest square to 1-2-2 forest river square.

BETWEEN 2157 AND 2158:

(12) If Yang contacts us (since Deep Community is in trouble), speak to him. If he asks for a blood truce, decline initially. Accept a bribe from him for a blood truce. Seek an even tech trade not involving our weapons, armor or fusion reactor. Do not give in to extortion. Seek and accept a treaty. If you get a treaty, attempt a pact.

(13) BRCM builds missile needlejet. Change to supply.

(14) Seaview builds recreation commons. Change to supply.

(15) We will discover superstring theory. Research organic superlubricant.

(16) Sunken City builds recreation commons. Change to fusion sea colony pod.

(17) Gibraltar builds the Maritime Control Center. Change to recycling tanks (Gibraltar has built a secret project before building any facilities; it did get a naval yard from the Maritime Control Center).

(18) Persepolis builds recycling tanks. Change to fungicidal formers.

FOR 2158:

(19) East formers 2 sq. S by SW of Persepolis plant forest.

(20) Ushuaia former 1 sq. SW of Ushuaia moves 1 sq. SW.

(21) Ushuaia fungicidal fusion sea former moves 1 sq. W and cultivates kelp farm.

(22) Suez former builds road.

(23) Ushuaia recon rover in Fungal Fields holds.

(24) BRCM needlejet at BRCM moves 8 sq. W and then returns to Sunken City unless it spots a Believing sea unit, in which case it attacks.

(25) Syrtis former moves 1 sq. S.

(26) Gibraltar missile foil at Water Music attacks He Walked on Water.

(27) Drydock missile foil near He Walked on Water attacks He Walked on Water.

(28) Drydock missile needlejet at Water Music moves 5 sq. N, 3 sq. SW (to see if there are any Believing sea units), 2 sq. S, 1 sq. SW (to protect missile foils) and attacks He Walked on Water. The priorities are: (a) sink any Believing sea unit that is a threat to our ships; (b) attack He Walked on Water; (c) protect missile foils in the event movement orders can't be followed because of a Believing unit.

(29) Sunken City plasma hoverboat near Gateway heads to Ushuaia.

(30) Gateway fungicidal former near Athens moves 1 sq. NW.

(31) Drydock missile needlejet at Athens patrols, attacking any enemy sea unit.

(32)
(a) If we are still in a vendetta with the Hive, Drydock missile foil attacks any surviving defender. If there is no defender or after the missile foil has destroyed the defender, the Drydock impact foil occupies Deep Community (it will get healed when it does) and both foils continue patrolling, looking for enemy sea units and enemy bases to destroy.
(b) If we are in a blood truce with the Hive, Drydock impact foil returns to Athens and Drydock missile foil patrols looking for Spartan and Believing sea units.

(33) Gateway needlejet returns to Athens after patrolling.

(34) Gun foils and IoD's continue journey to passage between University and Hive. Keep the units together (those gun foils are vulnerable).

(35) Bay Area worker moves from 1-5-2 square to 1-3-1 square 2 sq. S by SE of Bay Area (this is temporary until we get the Drydock crawlers on some rocky mined squares).

(36) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. W of East moves 1 sq. E, 2 sq. S and crawls 5 minerals for Drydock.

(37) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. W of HQ moves to 1 sq. W of East and crawls 2 minerals for Drydock.

Note: We want the ecological damage at Drydock. If we get a fungal pop before we build a tree farm, that tree farm raises the clean mineral limit for all bases. At this point, all that we would lose is a road or a forest. The monoliths will still produce 2-2-2 even if there is fungus and we have an unused forest.

(38) Gateway trance scout at East and East trance scout at Suez change places.

(39) Seaview recon rover at East moves to Gateway.

[Nahkrinoth]

I agree about the sea minerals. The entire lake should be filled with kelp and tidal harnesses especially if it's going to be our science city.

Organic Superlube is fine. I'd like to get some sky farms or tree farms going some time soon though.

[vyeh]

We can terraform the freshwater sea squares to 4-0-3. The freshwater sea can be a big boost to the other bases around it. Boreholes, especially for Suez, will give the bases adequate mineral production and together with the freshwater sea squares tremendous energy production.

We can build tree farms; if a tree farm is built after the first fungal pop, the clean mineral limit of all bases is raised by one. If it is built before the first fungal pop, the limit isn't raised.

Sky farms require orbital spaceflight, which we have the prerequisites for.

I'm not sure about tree farms or sky hydroponics. Because we're not producing psych and barely producing any credits (we fluctuate between 0 and 10% economy), the only benefit of tree farms is the nutrients. Bigger bases means we have to spend more to maintain the drone control facilities.

[Nahkrinoth]

Bigger bases also means more resources and faster units. Once we take some real estate from Miriam and the other factions divide her up we should concentrate on building infrastructure and picking out new targets.

[vyeh]

Crawlers can substitute for workers. What do you mean by faster units?

We need to think about the Spartans. They are researching orbital spaceflight which will give them missiles and planetbusters.

We can start with Fleet Anchorage.

The Spartans have one Falcon.

[Nahkrinoth]

They'll build faster. I'd rather have workers getting multiple resources from a square rather than a crawler getting only one.

I'm not suggesting going all out builder, but 3 or 4 bases concentrating on infrastructure while the rest handle warfare.

[vyeh]

Some squares aren't suited to multiple resources. Rocky squares are best mined and only produce minerals. What infrastructure are you recommending?

[vyeh]

BEFORE ENDING 2158:

(1) Ushuaia worker moves from 2-1-1 square to 1-2-1 forest square (to speed up sea colony pod).

(2) Hurry Athens recycling tanks for 2 credits (partial payment).

(3) Bay Area worker moves from 1-2-1 square to 1-3-1 forest canyon square 2 sq. S by SE of Bay Area.

(4) Syrtis worker moves from 1-2-2 forest river square to 1-2-1 forest square freeing up forest river square for HQ's fourth worker.

(5) Change Gateway to trance scout infantry.

(6) Change Persepolis to fusion sea colony pod.

BETWEEN 2158 AND 2159:

(7) Athens builds recycling tanks. Change to colony pod mk2.

FOR 2159:

(8) Drydock missile needlejet at Athens patrols waters around Fleet Anchorage, looking for enemy ships to attack.

(9) Drydock damaged missile foil in Spartan waters heads back to Athens unless it spots an enemy base to occupy.

(10) Drydock impact foil heads toward Fleet Anchorage.

(11) Athens former droid 2 sq. E by NE of Athens moves 1 sq. SW, 1 sq. S, 1 sq. W.

(12) Gateway fungicidal former 2 sq. SW of Athens removes fungus.

(13) Seaview recon rover at Gateway holds.

(14) Gateway trance scout at Suez and Suez scout at Gateway exchange places.

(15) Sunken City plasma hoverboat near Persepolis moves to Ushuaia.

(16) Ushuaia former 2 sq. SW of Ushuaia builds road.

(17) Bay Area former 2 sq. W by SW of Ushuaia moves 1 sq. S.

(18) Ushuaia former 2 sq. W by SW of Ushuaia moves 1 sq. S.

(19) HQ former in Fungal Fields build road.

(20) HQ fungicidal former in Fungal Fields moves 1 sq. NE.

(21) HQ trance scout in Fungal Fields moves 1 sq. NE.

(22) Gateway former 1 sq. E of Athens moves to Gateway.

(23) Gateway missile needlejet at Athens rests.

(24) BRCM missile needlejet at Sunken City moves 2 sq. W, 1 sq. SW, 3 sq. W, 2 sq. SW, 2 sq. S, 1 sq. SW and attacks He Walked on Water. The priorities are: (a) sink any Believing sea unit that is a threat to our ships; (b) attack He Walked on Water; (c) protect missile foils in the event movement orders can't be followed because of a Believing unit.

(25) Gibraltar (10% damaged) missile foil near He Walked on Water attacks He Walked on Water.

(26) Drydock (35% damaged) missile foil near He Walked on Water either occupies He Walked on Water or attacks He Walked on Water.

(27) If Miriam contacts us, speak to her. If she asks for blood truce, refuse her.

(28) If Drydock missile foil occupied He Walked on Water, attack Believing sea former.

(29) Drydock missile needlejet near He Walked on Water patrols west and then returns to He Walked on Water if it has been occupied or Water Music.

(30) Syrtis former cultivates farm.

(31) 2 of Water Music workers become doctors.

(32) Persepolis worker moves from 1-3-1 forest canyon square to 1-2-1 forest square.

(33) Suez worker moves from 1-1-0 square to 1-3-1 forest canyon square.

(34) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. E of Bay Area moves to 1 sq. E of Gibraltar and crawls 4 minerals for Drydock.

(35) Drydock supply droid 1 sq. W of East moves to 1 sq. E of Bay Area (do not crawl any resources - minerals would be wasted).

(36) Bay Area worker moves from 1-3-1 square to 1-5-2 bonus mineral square.

If University hasn't ended pact and kicked our units to Athens:

(37) Move IoD's and gun foils to waterway between the Hive and the Univesity.

If University has ended pact and kicked our units to Athens:

(37) Bay Area and Drydock gun foils goes to Ushuaia.

(38) Boil IoD loads boil mindworm and a pre-boil mindworm and heads to Sunken City (we may be able to use this mindworm to take Judgment Seat after naval units and needlejet have taken out the defenders).

(39) The other pre-boil mindworm in Athens hold.

(40) ETU-125 moves 1 sq. SE, 1 sq. S, 1 sq. W.

(41) Preboil IoD holds.

[vyeh]

A new sea base only needs to get three nutrients from its workers because of the built in recycling tanks in the pressure dome.

Since sea squares including ones with fungus produce one nutrient, we only need to have a guardian ship (while the base builds a garrison) for each sea colony pod.

So all sea bases should be building sea colony pods and the coastal bases should be thinking about it.

This is a fast way to population growth since the parent base loses one population and the new base gains 3 population.