The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
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Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
(1) If your base has one or more talents, a single drone is okay.
(2) If you convert a drone into a technician or librarian, the drone also disappears.
Re formers working in combination:
As Nims said. If you can get a tidal harness 3 turns earlier, that is three more turns of +3 energy or a total of +9 energy. That advances your research and your treasury.
Re economic standpoint:
Looking at UN HQ,
(3) if you built a biology lab (1 credit per year maintenance), it produces 2 labs per year (3 since you have a network node)
(4) if you built a research hospital (3 credits per year maintenance), it produces 13 labs per year.
(5) if you built The Ascetic Virtues secret project (and you should cash in crawlers from other bases to speed up production so you beat the Gaians), you increase the population limit at all of your bases by two.
(6) Now is the time to consider the "trawler park." Build one or two sea formers. Send it or them out and build tidal harnesses. Crank out "trawlers" (sea crawlers) and harvest sea energy. Note that fusion trawlers (30 minerals) are cheaper than fission trawlers (50 minerals). At your current rate of production, you can crank out a fusion trawler every two turns. It takes 6 turns to build a tidal harness, so you'll eventually need 3 sea formers (note that fusion sea formers are cheaper than fission sea formers).
HQ bases do not have any inefficiency, so every trawler is 3 energy. That translates into more than 3 credits or labs since you have an energy bank, network node and a tree farm. (You get 3 credits and 2.25 labs per trawler on a tidal harness).
To convert your production capability into a conquest victory:
(1) You're in Free Market. If you want to stay in Free Market as long as possible, you need to convert a base to a specialist only or have a punishment sphere. Let's suppose you go the specialist only route.
(2) Yang is across the sea. Although air power is vital, as Nims said, air units can't occupy bases. You don't have drop pods, so that means you have to have some transports and naval units to protect the transports (I assume you lost those transport foils to hostile action or mindworms).
(3) You can't build your entire army at all bases. It takes awhile to move units along roads. A magnetic tube system would allow instantaneous movement from the producing base to the deploying base.
With that in mind, this is my suggestion:
(1) your formers build a magnetic tube network designed to move ground units to UN Commerce Committee.
(2) Convert UN Commerce Committee to a specialist only city:
(a) Send two crawlers to UN Commerce Committee and re-home them to UN Commerce Committee so they will support UN Commerce Committee. Send one of them to the condenser/farm combo and harvest 4 nutrients per turn. Send the other to the rolling rainy square and harvest 2 nutrients per turn. Together with the 3 nutrients per turn produced by the base square, there will be 9 nutrients, enough to support the 4 citizens. Change those citizens to 4 empaths. (When UN Commerce Committee grows to 5 citizens, you can go to a combination of technicians and librarians).
(b) Send other crawlers to UN Commerce Committee to crawl minerals.
(3) Build a naval force at UN Commerce Committee to occupy the Hive's sea bases. You can build chaos foils ((8)-4-4) or you can build gun foils ((1)-1-4) if you don't intend to fight naval battles.
(4) Build chaos needlejets (8-1-12) at other bases, move them to UN Commerce Committee and re-home (you may have to deal with drones if it takes more than one turn to move the needlejets to UN Commerce Committee.
(5) Use the needlejets to take out the defenders of the Hive's sea bases and the foils to occupy them. Once you've occupied a sea base, build a silksteel garrison (1-4-1) for defense. You can then use the foils for future occupations. The captured sea bases can be used by your aircraft.
(6) For the Hive's land bases, you need occupying ground troops. Build rovers at your other bases and home them to UN Commerce Committee. At this point, you should be sending a lot of formers and crawlers to UN Commerce Committee to build and harvest mines or boreholes to provide plenty of minerals. Note that once a crawler is homed to UN Commerce Committee, you can send the crawler to any square (not just those within the territory of UN Commerce Committee).
(7) Build one or more transports (0-1-4) at UN Commerce Committee.
(8) Use your needlejets to take out the defenders of a Hive port. Move the transport loaded with ground occupiers next to the port. The ground occupiers can move directly from the transport into the port.
(9) For a Hive interior base, use the needlejets to take out the defenders. You'll need to move an occupying unit overland (perhaps from a captured port) to the interior base.
(10) The Hive also can build chaos needlejets. You'll need to build chaos interceptors to protect your needlejets and to destroy Hive aircraft in flight. As Darsnan suggested, building a few SAM rovers is also a good idea.
(11) Because the Hive has equal weapons technology and aircraft, it is very important that you use all of your production to take out the Hive as quickly as possible. That means producing a lot of aircraft and the necessary occupying troops at other bases. If there are a lot of units, you may need to set up a second base (specialist only or punishment sphere) to base your war units so you don't crawl so many minerals into UN Commerce Committee that you have a pollution problem.
(12) If the number of formers that are being supported by every base grows, you might think about switching from Knowledge to Power. In addition to the support boost, you would also get a morale boost that could help your aircraft fight longer before they have to heal.
That's the basics. Note that this is basically an air war as Nims suggested. The other units (naval occupying units, ground occupying units, naval transports) are required because air units can't occupy bases. With enough airpower, you can build weak units ((1)-1-4, 1-1-2, (0)-1-4) for occupying purposes.
Re new problems:
Apparently you're overlooking the immense value of secret projects. You still have the same two secret projects (Citizen's Defense Force and Hunter Seeker Algorithm) that you had in the first save. I've already mentioned The Ascetic Virtues. If you build it, you can wait at every base to build hab complexes, which can translate to a lot of credits saved in maintenance. The Xenoempathy Dome turns fungus into roads and doubles the speed to remove (or plant) fungus.
Re subtle micromanagement problems:
(1) I think you are overlooking the value of improving ocean squares.
(2) UNHQ: move 3-2-1 sea mineral bonus to 3-2-3 forest.
(3) University Base: move 3-0-1 to 4-1-1.
(4) Academgorodok: move 1-2-2 to 4-1-2 (so you have growth).
(5) Mendelev College: move 2-1-2 to 2-2-2 forest.
(6) New Arzamas: move 1-1-2 to 2-1-1 (you don't benefit from the extra energy because it is wiped out by an increase in inefficiency).
(7) UN Disaster Relief has high ecodamage. Build a hybrid forest. Consider building hybrid forest, centauri preserves at other bases (assuming you've had a fungal pop).
The first problem is that the Hive will snap up Command Nexus. Even with some command centers in my bases, my troops get annihilated by Hive troops of similar armor and weapons.
Would it be indecorous to ask how the Hive achieved tech parity with you to begin with? Yang has excellent growth and industrial capacity, but they can't keep technological pace with anyone with the possible exception of the Believers. (and even the believers can outtech Yang if they run FM/Demo).
The second problem is the Hive mass of needlejets.
While you've been given many alternatives for coping with enemy needles, I find the most effective solution is to build a fair number of cheap impact interceptors, and have them NOT on sleep/sentry orders. My reasoning: in terms of mineral output, ground troops cost a good deal more than chaos needles. Missile rovers are cheap and good, but they can't attack everywhere. Scrambling interceptors fight enemy needles by comparing each other's attack strength, but on your own turn, your interceptors will easily shoot down any needles in sight by using your 4 attack impact weapon versus their 1 defense. By fitting your interceptors with impact weapons, you save a great deal of resources, and can field more units faster, and best of all, you should be able to upgrade to better weapons once your interceptors gain a few morale levels in the course of carrying out CAP duty.
Even if Mister Yang is running +4 industry, he can't afford to trade 8 row Chaos Needlejets for 2 row Plasma Sentinels.
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