Infectors

[phoenixcager]

What's the best strategy to use when all the AI's gang up and start dropping infectors on you from space? I know building the Immunity Chip will solve this, but what else can be done.

I've never encountered this before in my one year of playing CTP, so it's a bit irritating. Also how do you 'disinfect' a city?

Does anyone regularly use infectors offensively as part of their game strategy?

[Solver]

I like Infectors before my attack wave.They're good on maps with lots of goods, as infection has a 10% chance to spread in each turn. You can't disinfect the city, it will stop after a few turns itself. I recommend, that if happiness is going really puny in this city, you create a couple of Entertainers.
Basically, if the AI drops Infectors through space, it means it's advanced. It would be very nice if you can stop their space raids, but that's very difficult. Create a couple of Infectors (or other stealth units) on your own, and station them in the cities, so that you can see enemy Infectors when they drop near your cities.
Of course, the ultimate solution is building the Anti Virus Cell Wonder. Not only it prevents Infections, it also improves the overall happiness. But you can also build Bio Filter improvement in one of your cities, to protect it from Infectors and Nanoviruses. That's harder, however, but can work well in your main cities.
It might be interesting to counterattack with Infectors. Find out which of their cities have many trade routes (if you can find a city with 8, it's perfect) and infect these cities.
As always, the best counter for stealth units is seeing them before they do any harm.
And, I must say, I like Infectors. First they're expensive to build, but when you have really large cities, they're nice to help your attackers. Remember that it's much easier to take an unhappy city than a happy one.

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[phoenixcager]

Thanks for the reply Solver.
Wow! you can't 'disinfect' cities, eh? Then I'd beter stop those guys before they get near me.
Thanks for the advice.

[John Markenham]

To counter the computer from dropping units on me I build a star cruiser, and get the globe sat, then all I do is just catch the pod that they are in and get the easy kill, I ussually only use one star cruiser too for this.

[Conquesticus]

I have a naval strategy that I use infectors for. I like to play with oceans maximized and quite a few islands (makes it easier for the AI civs to survive and get strong faster, so the game's tougher), so the navies play a bigger role than normal. If my enemy's beating on me, and I can't invade his land and take him out because I don't currently have a big enough military, I'll strand em. I'll land some infectors, infect the hell out of coastal cities that are building fleets, slow down production, maybe sneak a bombing raid in here and there, and eventually blockade or bombard him, either or. It'll keep him there and also harass some pretty important cities. In the meantime I build a big fleet with tons of jarheads going with. I use it as a "not ready for war yet" tactic. It's cheap and easy to use.

[Solver]

Catching pods with just one Cruiser? I don't think it is enough. If you play vs. humans, good players will defend the pods with something else, at least a Space Fighter.
Conquesticus:
PBEM game R2_Islands should be nice for you, I think. You'd like the settings, but we have no free places. Perhaps you should read the thread, so that if someone needs a substitue, you will do that.

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[John Markenham]

I usually have more, I just use one for the pods. I never play against humans because my files are all modified, and I did it so noone else has the same thing.
[This message has been edited by John Markenham (edited November 16, 2000).]

[phoenixcager]

John: One space cruiser is good enough for the job? I tried using space fighters, but that didn't work....ended up wasting a couple of good units.

[John Markenham]

I use one for the pods, but I still have others that fly around to kill enemy fighters and whatnot. I don't use space fighter much though. I'll ussually have one space city that I build a bunch of pods around that can **** out cruisers pretty fast so I ussually use stacks of two to go out and catch enemy fighters, I haven't really seen the computer stack fighters much, so two ussually does the job.

[phoenixcager]

OK, I get the picture. Thanks!