Hey y'all

Well, I was at Best Buy yesterday, and the urge to pick up a Computer Game in addition to The Joshua Tree by U2 struck me... so I looked around at the bargains (I almost never buy a game when it comes out -- Civ III is an exception :) )..and there was SMAC for $10. So I said, Why not?

So I printed out the instruction manual and have been reading through it. I also got a copy of Velociryx's strategy guide.

But I think I'm even more confused than I was before.

Is there any advice available to someone brand new to the game (but quite familiar with the Civ series)? I think my main problem is that I keep trying to mentally equate SMAC components with Civ components (Worms=Barbarians, Former=Worker, etc.) and that might not always be easy to do.

Of course, I'd probably be on better footing if I actually tried to play the game, but what fun would that be? :)
I'm actually planning on loading/patching the game tonight, but I don't think I'll have time to play.

Also, what Faction would you recommend for someone who dislikes fighting in Civ and usually goes for a Space Race victory? I'm thinking University of Planet, but since I don't have any experience in the game, I don't know how easy (or hard) they are to play.

Thanks

Hey ChrTh,

When you do play your first game, try the Peacekeepers (fairly balanced). You can go either way w/ them. Of course they don't have the bonuses for military strengths, but you get a huge plus in the diplomatic arena. In fact, as Pravin Lal, a player gets double the votes for planetary governor.

Currently, I'm playing a lot of Civ3 , but I will definitely spend some time w/ SMAC again. Are you on a PC or a Mac? I ask because they are still selling the add-on (Alien Crossfire - SMAX) for Mac. It is definitely worth a purchase also. I'm sure you could find it for PC on ebay or some place else.

Like in Civ3, expand as quickly as you can. Those terraformers are awesome, play around with them and you can transform your faction into a powerhouse economically. The design workshop is the feature I loved the most. Designing units to combat or defend against particular faction's strengths and weakness.

There are many features in SMACx that I wish were in Civ3, such as the design workshop (or something similar), diplomatic options, and a surrender option for subjugated factions. Of course, every once in a while they'll turn on you - makes it interesting.

Got to go - enjoy!

The odd thing I found about SMAC is that if you don't like fighting, you're in for a tough time. I've almost always played either Morgan or the UN in SMAC - both are closer to my style of play and actual ideals. With this in mind, occasionally, I've played the Gaians as well.

Every SMAC game I ever played ended in a bloody and savage world war, brought about not by my actions, but by an FDR-like feeling in mid-game that I'd better help out my more liberal neighbors before there weren't any left. The result is my stepping in to help one ally, followed by a total war, with me bombing the crap out of enemy infrastructure as I frantically try to hold back the more totalitarian powers long enough to build up land forces for a counterattack. Over time - e.g. a night - the counteroffensive usually breaks through, and the nice part about SMAC is that victories are often obvious; once the defence line crumbles, it REALLY crumbles and advances at Patton speeds are possible until you own half the globe and can vote yourself a UN victory.

Unless I've lost - which is rare - every SMAC game I've ever played has ended like that. Exciting stuff, but it doesn't exactly sound like the calm space race you're looking for!

R.III

DO NOT PLAY AS THE UNIVERSITY IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST GAME

The unhappiness is cripling. Play as Lal. And don't try to relte the units because you can just change them to your likings. You cna make formers a hugely effective defensive unit if you want.

The following Social engineering choices are good for me.

Democratic
Planned/Green
Cant remember the name, but the sciency one.
Doent matter, cybernetic is good

All victory conditions are made easier by expansion and conquest of bases.

It is not impossible to play SMAC as a purely builder, but it certainly is very hard. One of the reasons for this are the faction ideologies. If you choose Green, Morgan will hate you. If you choose Free Market, Deirdre will hate you. Therefore, you have to be very keen on diplomacy to overcome those warlike aspects.

I have to back up what others said: play with the Peacekeepers, they are fairly balanced for a newbie, at least until you get used to the most subtle aspects of the game. Make a liberal use of the design workshop, building units with a high degree of specialization, in order to meet the various weaknesses and strenghts of the factions. Learn how to use crawlers; they can be your best friends in crucial moments.

And make sure you study Vel's guide; an awesome work, by all means.

Other than that, have fun! :cool:

Thanks for the advice. I understand about the military aspect; I've already adjusted my Civ game to reflect the necessity of military action in Civ 3, so I am prepared to eventually take action--once I get the hang of it.

I played last night for about an hour. I'm playing the Peacekeepers, and I think I'm in the lead at this point. (At least, that's what the graph says). I have 4 Alien Artifacts, and I've gotten one hooked up (didn't realize you could only have one at each location, so now I'm working on getting Network Nodes going, and I think I'll work on Virtual World.

I'm still more or less going through the motions though. I don't know enough about the Techs do make intelligent choices (although I've started studying Dave Gager's excellent Tech Tree), but I'm starting to get an inkling. My forest is growing nicely too :)

One question though: I can't call a Council. I have 5 Commlinks set up, and I was told that the Spartans were destroyed pretty early in the game. Do Factions come back? Do I need to reach a certain Tech before I can call a Council? I think my math is right: 5+1+1=7, right?

I also have Brotherhood Pacts with everybody...that's good, right? I'm guessing they can still break it, huh?

Also, I have no clue regarding the Social Engineering aspect. Maybe after I got a grip on the Tech I'll look at that next.

And how hard is it to win via Transcedence? And is anyone else a little taken aback by the notion that humans need it? ;)

Thanks again. I'll keep y'all updated how it's going. I still need to patch, but my internet connection was done last night, so I wasn't able to do so.

Humans should transcend. We are a fairly worthless species, it would be nice to evolve into something better...

Anyway, if your going for a Transcendance victory, make sure you have a city with uber production. And also have large amounts of defending units because Mind Worm's are going to be erupting all over the place. Chances are your territory is going to get changed into fungus too, so having the improve fungus techs helps too.

Originally posted by ChrTh
One question though: I can't call a Council. I have 5 Commlinks set up, and I was told that the Spartans were destroyed pretty early in the game. Do Factions come back? Do I need to reach a certain Tech before I can call a Council? I think my math is right: 5+1+1=7, right?

Unless you went for custom optional rules and checked "do not restart eliminated faction" each faction gets a restart "escaped using the landing pod" after its first elimination.

Ah, thanks Lefty. I'll continue pursuit of the Spartans :)

(Actually, I have one HUGE tactical advantage in the game so far: I'm the only Faction with a ship! I got it from a Goody Hut, er, I mean, a Unity Pod :) )

Thoses unity foils are psspore units but better that nothing. They carried 1 less unit and are one speed slower than self built foils. After I get anyting better, I usually scrap the unity foil in a base for minerals.

Ok, a couple questions:

Do I really need Pressure Domes? Should I have had my ocean-bordering cities build one of them instead of Recycling Center?

Also, what Wonders of the World, er, Secret Projects, are worth getting? (Especially in terms of the early game)

EDIT: Btw, didn't have a chance to play last night (sick), but my cable modem is working again, so I'll download the 4.0 tonight and play some more.

If y'all want me to keep posting my progress, I'll be glad to do it. If you get bored with it, let me know and I'll shut up :)

do not build presuure dome unless you are planning to raise sea levels or commint massive eco damage.

(1) Pressure Domes? Yes, definitely. In fact, build these instead of Recycling Centers in all cities (per Vel's advice). Also, in late game when global warming begins melting ice caps or the council votes to launch a solar mirror, you'll want a Pressure Dome in all coastal and low-lying cities.

(2) The Weather Paradigm is crucial to getting a production edge over the other factions. You can build certain improvements (such as thermal boreholes) before you get the tech to build them. If you've got Vel's guide, read about turn-advantage. Once you understand this, you'll become pretty powerful. Depending on your level of difficulty will determine how easily you can get the SPs, but if you utilize supply crawlers, you might could nab several SPs. Gosh, I've forgotten two of those first four. Get Virtual World also.

Yes, keep posting. This is bringing back memories as Yang "convincing" my fellow factions to join the Hive. Hmmm, and subjugating Deirdre and Santiago. :)

I tried numerous times yesterday to reply so lets see if this one actually goes thru'


ChrTh,

Welcome to the best Civ-style game made to date bar none (IMHO)

Before I get into a discussion of game mechanics/strats and tactics, it sounds as if you like a builderish type of routine. With that inmind I highly recommend either of the two builderish factions but if I were to make a single recommendation for factionto use I would say University. Although you've been warned about drone issues with UoP, you'll need to learn drone management sooner or later and you might as well learn ASAP. UoP (again IMHO) is the strongest faction available as it is flexible, has tremendous built in builder strengths vis-a-vis free facilities and research bonus and can pop boom easily.

This being said I'll lay out beginning expansion game strats for UoP and if your interested would be willing to do the same for other factions like Morgan or Peacekeepers.

In this I'll cover 4 distinct topics:

1) Base placement and early game t-forming
2) SE choices
3) Tech Beelines
4) Setting yourself up for the big Pop Boom


Finally I would recommend the following game set ups for builder style game

Large world
Average everything else
Difficulty (up to you but as you get comfortable Transcend will become a breeze)

Faction - UoP

Directed Research - This is the MOST critical game variable you'll set and is key for builders as you have critical tech beelines

I prefer look first as well but thats a matter of preference.
The rest of the game settings are up to you.

Hey Whattya Know it works!!


Ok now for some serious game play discussion using UoP.

Firstly don't be concerned about the whole drone thing it is easily manageable. Once you get he hang of it you'll be ahead of the game once you play other factions. UoP is so insanely powerful the whole extra drone issue and susceptibility to probe actions are minor nuisances that can be overcome.

OK Topic 1

Base Placement -

The most important thing in base placement and subsequent t-forming is having yourself a +2 nutrient square. Nothing else is as important as this initially.

Reason being is you are looking to increase your population to size 2 ASAP in order to allow colony pod productions. In the early game its all about pumping out pods ASAP.

So good spots to settle are: Anywhere that a monolith is within base radii, anywhere you can have a rainy rolling or worst case rainy plain square. Also don't forget about nut specials. You can't go wrong placing a base either on or near a nut special.

(Little hint: Specials and base squares are the only spots where Factors of Production limits are removed. Meaning a +2 nut special can allow 3 or more nuts prior to gene splicing tech. A base square can have energies of 8 or more, etc. Also the special only removes restricions for that particular resource type. Later on you'll be drooling once you see a rocky mineral site. Just meant to be mined and roaded and crawlered for big min output. I digress.)

Secondly look for other goodies such as rivers. Placing a base on a river is never a bad situation. It allows a natural road for pod movements. It contributes extra energy (kinna like in CIV2 with extra trade and movement). This can seriously help your early game tech builds.

Of the above features tho', I hihgly recommend monoliths.

Once you've got your first former you'll be looking to make a farm (in the event you have none of the above squares) on a rolling moist. After that you probbaly will be roading out to next base sites and foresting. I prefer base spacings of 3 squares on the diagonal when terrain permits. It allows a colony pod on a road to move in one turn and set down in the next. Any closer than that and I find myself too jammed up. Farther than that I feel is too wasteful in terms of land useage. (more on that if your interested)

Topic 2

SE Choices:


SE management is one of the most critical parts of the game.

You look at times to achieve some certain critical values namely:

+2 econ (or greater) - allows +1 energy per square
+6 growth - pop boom one pop point per turn like WLTPD
+4 eff - paradigm efficieny allows free allocations of energy to labs/econ without penalty

These to my mind are the big one for builders others are imprtant as well but these are kinna the basics for builders.

SE managment is kinna tied to tech beelines so let me firstly say you are going to beeline to important techs that allow certain SE choices. Think of it like beelining to Monarchy in Civ2. In this case your beeline is to Industrial Automation (allowing wealth and other goodies)

I tend not to spend any EC's in the early game in order to allow myself the opportunity to change to an advantageous SE choice ASAP.

Normaly conventional wisdom for all other factions except UoP the SE changes occur something like this.

First SE change is to planned
2nd is to planned/wealth
3rd is to FM/wealth or (optionally Demo/Planned/wealth)
others as the game situation dictates

For UoP tho' the research is so fast you should have discovered planned way before you have the EC's to make the change. Right around the time you discover Ind Auto (IA) you should just be getting enuff EC's to make your first change (at least thats how it is at transcend level).

Make the change ASAP TO WEALTH FIRST. After the change to wealth, this is also where I also depart from conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom normally is to go planned next. I however make the next switch as Free Market. At this point energy credits are flying in and I am rush buying rec tanks and rec commons. Once the population is drone stabilized I am building crawlers like no tommorrow. Every base is set to crawler production and set to harvesting minerals back to base. Once all bases have 15ish mins ea. its time to build any and all SP's.

At this point when I switch to FM, I normally have 6 bases established (no more as other will now cause bueracracy drones). When a base hits size 2 I am required to make one citizen a doctor. No sweat with the aforementioned +2 nut squares you have no issue. After you have a rec tanks at the base you'll likely set the one worker on a forest so that the base has a 4 min production value before crawlers.

Your probably asking why the switch to FM. Its all about capitalizing on energy production and fueling the early game research. +2 econ means practically nothing at this phase of the game as the energy restriction have yet to be lifted. But +3 or greater means massive energy at the base square.

If you choose to follow conventional wisdom tho' planned is not bad it gives you growth a garrison elimnates a drone so size 2 bases are drone free but require a doctor before size 3 (again at transcend). You lose a little tho' in terms of research speed but make up for it big time in terms of industry bonus.

I find tho' that the extra EC's from FM allow builds every bit as fast as planned as I rush build and have faster research as well.

Og

Topic 3

Tech Beeline:

Industrial Auto is your Holy Grail. It gives you wealth as previously mentioned. It gives crawlers which are probably the most important unit in the game with the possible exception of formers and colony pods.

My tech beeline normally follows this route:

If I have +2 nutrient squares at the landing site it goes like this:

Free Tech - Industrial Base
Industrial Economy
Planetary Networks
Centauri Ecology - formers (Normally I can't get IA after Plan Nets)
Industrial Auto.


If you have any energy specials, a monolith, or bases on rivers you can get IA by 2114ish. By that time you should have 40 EC's bankrolled to make the first SE change to wealth. If not hopefully you've trolled some fungus and have killed a worm or two.

Failing to have a +2 nutrient special makes Centauri Ecology move to the head of the list. Thenit normally looks like

Free Tech - Cent Ecology
Ind Base
Ind Econ
Plan Nets
Social Psych - (IA doesn't normally show)
Ind Auto

THis normally means you haven't gotten to IA until 2119 ish.

YMMV depending on if you pop a nice pod. cash in any alien artifacts etc. (warning tho' early cash in can derail your tech beelin slowing you down if it's not in the beeline path)

After the IA beeline conventional wisdom says go for restrictionlifting techs. I can discuss that later if you are so inclined.

Setting yourself up for the big pop boom. Normally occurs after Planetary Economics is discovered.

This is another reason why I run FM/wealth.

I switch to Demo/FM/wealth and then rush buy as I need to aorund the vaious bases the following facilities

Childrens creche
Rec Commons
Tree Farms

Once these facilities are in place you switch to Demo/planned/wealth and viola you have an instant pop boom.

Allow growth up to hab complex limits. and begin next phase of growth.

IIRC, as you have SMAC and not SMAX the darn golden age feature never worked as it was supposed to so a Demo/FM/Wealth w/ GA doesn't give the pop boom even if you have all the above facilities.


Before this tho' you'll likely be going after Special Projects. So heres a tidbit. Crawlers are like caravans in CIV2, they cash in for full mineral value. Whats more you can upgrade them to best armor and some other bells and whistles like trance in order to bump up their equivalent min value. In essence doing this allows you to buy SP's with the scads of energy you have rolling in using FM/wealth.

Any of the beginning SP's are winners. Not a clinker inthe bunch. But of all of them you as UoP want desperately the Virtual World. This little SP turns your one huge negative into a non-issue and makes you instantly more powerful than any other faction when it comes to raw expansion power.

By the time I start Sp builds others have started. But since I have bases that are crawler powered and still pumping out crawlers for cash in, I can easily out muscle other for SP's. As a consequence I often forgoe going after the more expensive Virtual WOrld so I can make sure I get some of the cheaper ones first. SO normally look to get Weather Paradigm, Human Genome, then Virtual World, then Merchant Exchange, and then Planetary Transit. Again YMMV.

Once you have the SP's you want then look to build the above mentioned facilites in order to set up your pop boom.



Hope these tidbits help.

Again, welcome to the best CIV-style game made.

Hope you have fun,

Og

Damn Ogie!

Thanks for the strat. I'll take a good long look at it before I get back in the game.

Sorry I haven't posted anything new, but I've been working all weekend, and what little time I had was spent getting totally destroyed in Civ 3 GOTM 5. Yikes!

I also have a question. I'm going to apply the 4.0 enhancements. Will that screw up my current saved game? Should I finish the game first before putting the patch on? What do you think?

Go ahead and patch it. Shouldn't make a big difference.


Og

Let me know if your interested in specific Peace Keeper starting strats, as if I read correctly that is what your starting with.

I feel bad. I wasted last night tackling the Civ 2 GOTM. Oy, that was bad. I just gave up...and then reloaded Civ 2 on my PC since I was having issues.
And of course, since I felt bad mucking up the GOTM, I played another Civ 2 game. Doing ok so far, but the Celts are really pissing me off. But the Great Library/Leo's Workshop combo is MINT for a King game...so we'll see how I finish that one up tonight. And then I'll get back to SMAC. I promise! :)

All this GOTM'ing makes me wonder, though, have we tried a SMAC GOTM? I think it would be a good idea, but then again, I'm a sucker for GOTM (although I think after I finish my current game I may abandon Civ 2 for a long time). I guess the only real issue would be the Alien Crossover add-on (or lack thereof)...what do y'all think?

Peacekeeper Tips:

Play the peacekeepers to their strengths and be cogniznat of the weaknesses

Faction strengths:

Extra Council votes
Extra Talent every 6(?) pop points
Pop limit of 9 before hab complexes reqd
Pop limit of 16 before hab domes reqd

Weaknesses:
-1 efficiency
No Police SE choice (not really a weakness at all)

What's more is that there is really no big downside to this faction so it allows Lal to morph into any play style you wish.

I'll cover the initial builder style game:

Points of Discussion:

1) Initial base layout and t-forming
2) SE choices
3) tech beeline strats & Special Projects
4) Pop booming


Base Layout/t-forming

1) Not much difference with regard to initial t-forming then with say UoP. The big thing is that you find and/or make a +2 nutrient square. UoP is blessed with Biogenetics as a starting tech allowing builds of recycle tanks. If and when you can get enuff energy credits a rush build of rec tanks is a great way to make a base self sufficient and a colony pod producer.

There are some significant base population numbers (at least thats the way I look at it). 3,and 5 being the ones I look most strongly at. If you achieve Planetary Transit SP then every base you establish will start with a population of 3. It is important that the base be able to support a population of 3. This only occurs if the base and worked squares have 6 nut contributions. Since in the early game the most productive squares (excluding specials) are 1stly a monolith and then a forest. You want to have as many workers as possible on these types of squaes. Monoliths are a hit or miss proposition but forests are easy to t-form. BUT.... if you work all three squares as a forest then you don't have enuff nuts to support 3 pop points (5 vs. 6 required) thus again the reason to have a +2 nutrient square or a recycle tank.

A small size 3 base then has a min contribution of 5-8 (5 being worst case where you had a rainy flat and 8 being best case where you had 3 forest worked squares and a recycle tank). Size three is a stable situation that gives a goodplatform to build from in terms of crawlered mins to bring yourself to a total min contributionof 15 or higher to force a fungal pop.

As far as size 5 goes, it marks the beginning of my second phaseof the game. Namely specialization. This is kinna an advanced topic that I can go into later but suffice it to say it is the first time you get to use specialists other than drone reducing specialists such as doctors, empaths etc.

2) SE choices - Again SE choices are one of the reasons why SMAC is so different from any other CIV game and is one of the most important tools to run a good game.

Look at the faction benefits and then the weaknesses. Lal benefits strongly from inherent drone quelling and large base population. He has some efficiency issues tho'.

In the beginning game stay as far away from planned as possible. The benefits of growth andindustry are nice but at -3 efficiency you'll kill almost all of your energy input thus stagnating your tech advance rate.

Planned is both Lal biggest boon and bane. In the beginning stay away when you pop boom, He pop booms like no other faction so planned becomes his savior. Until the pop boom tho' you want to stay clear.

So normal SE choices (for me at least) go something like this:
First SE change - Free Market
Second SE change - wealth
3rd SE change - Demo (occurs at point where I am no longer plopping down colony pods)

Upon you first SE choice Free Market you are attempting to increase energy and fuel your early game research. Because Lal has a talent as his first population point he can run Free market very easily without drone issue. At transcend levels only at a size 3 does he need concern himself with drone reducing means (psych allocation, rec commons or doctoring a citizen). But he has the ability to have size 2 bases churning out pods w/o drone issue. This is key as inthe early game your bases normally waffle between size 1 and 2 as you pump out colony pods.

Addition of wealth upon discovery of Industrial Automation puts your economy into overdrive.

If you had SMAX and the patch that allowed golden ages to yield +2 growth thus allowing a pop boom then you could run demo/fm/? and a GA to pop boom.

NOTE: One downside to FM. It makes you turtle. Unless you have found a bunch of independent units your ability to explore the world is very much hampered by the drones generated by having units outside your territory limits.

Tech Beeline Strat & SPs

Pretty much the same story here. Your looking to get to IA ASAP. Normally tho' the time frame is a good 10-20 turns longer than UoP. As before you want centauri ecology as one of the beginning techs so that you can get formers ASAP. After that beeline to IA for wealth, crawlers, and Planetray Transit SP's.

Again with regard to SP's there isn't a bad one in the bunch. FOr Lal there really isn't a strong favorite but if I had to pick, I'ld pick two nice ones. Firstly Weather Paradigm. Build the WP first and it allows you to get the advanced t-forming features. (Of these advanced features I build a LOT of condensor/farms yielding 4 nuts and later condensor/farm/soil enrichers yielding 6 nuts but that leads to specialization topics). Secondly Human Genome this allows base sizes of 4 w/o any drone quelling enhancements when running FM.

Pop Booming -

What can I say that I haven't before. Pop booming makes Lal absolutely fearsome. Once he completes his boom he has larger populations per base than anyone else and with double the council votes this makes him very fearsome indeed.

The recipe for the boom is the same:

Rec Commons
Tree Farm ( or a bunch of condensor farms)
Childrens Creche

As you start to run into drone issues the following are required:

Hologram Theatre (or Net Node if you've built Virtual World)
Research Hospital (only helps tho' if you've got some psych allocated or a doctor or two)

Your second boom willbe targeted to propel you from size 9 to size 16 and will likely require a hybrid forest facility for both drone quelling and extra nutrients from forests (which can be gotten around if you build a bunch of condensor/farms but again I digress).


Of course the boom is all kicked off by the switch from Demo/FM/wealth to Demo/Planned/Wealth. I normally allocate a little (say 20% psych at this point) in order to hopefully get a golden age at the larger bases thus a +2 econ and also to fend off droen issues during the growth spurt.


Anyhooo.....


Hope this helps


Og

ChrTh,


I'll get you hooked on SMAC yet (not the drug but the game). 'Course you'll probably curse me as the game is definitely an addiction.

SMAC GOTM -Absolutely. I'ld definitely be in for it.

Og

A Couple of Morgan pointers

Faction Strengths:
starts with 100 ec's
+1 econ
Extra trade income from treaties/pacts

Weaknesses
-1 support
pop 4 limit before hab complex
pop 11 limit before hab domes
can't run planned (Pre SMAX Golden Age patch no ability to pop boom w/o Cloning Vats SP)

Morgan is considered the ultimate builder faction of SMAC. The reason is simple he is the energy King. But in order to play him right, it definitely takes some getting used to. He is weak militarily in the early game due to his poor support. So if he's not building military he is best suited building facility and infrastructure.

Points of discussion:
1) Tech Tree and Beelines SE choices
2) base layout and t-forming
3) SP's

Tech Tree Beelines
The initial opening gambit that I heard of and found extremely helpful goes something like this. As soon as you found your first base change research priorities to Biogenetics. Set production of your first base immediately to Merchant Exchange SP. When you place your second base do the same.

As soon as you discover Biogenetics switch production to recycle tanks and use the 100+ credits you've got to rush buy recycel tanks at both initial base sites. Voila!, You've now got two great starting bases primed to pump out colony pods.

Techs beelines then become as follows

Biogentics - 1st tech
Industrial Econ - 2nd tech - Switch to FM ASAP
Info Networks
Centauri Ecology - Formers
Planetary Networks - Probe teams
Industrial Automation - Switch to Wealth,crawlers, and Planetary Transit System

then normally
Social Psych
Secrets of Human Brain
Democracy?
Gene Splice
Eco Engineering
Planetary Economy

After that beeline to tech that allow clean reactors (having a brain cramp right now and can't remember it). Once clean reactors are in play Morgan can build as many military units as he wants and now he is ready to play any style he wants.

Regarding SE's. FM and wealth is a great combination for Morgan. Deal with the drone issues as needed by converting a citizen to a doctor. Every new base you place the first thing you build will most likely be a recycle tank thats rush bought (use the 10 free mins and buy the rest). This allows pop growth to size 2 quickly and supports size 2 base size with one citizen on a forest and one as a doctor as needed.

Try to stay away from Demo if at all possible until you've decided to reign in your colony expansion. Reason being you want the free 10 mins and you'll kill yourself supportwise.

Base layout & T-forming

Nothing really special other than the you don't necessarily need the +2 nut squares as you'll be relying on the recycle tanks. What this means is the first worker can go straight to a forest for decent min/energy production.

Generally speaking b/c of the pop limits the amount of squares actually worked will be small. SO tight base spacing is preferable as this mean new base placement will be quick, resulting turn advantage. I alternate between 2 and 3 square spacings (vs. any other faction standardly as a 3 square spacing arrangement)

Most of the power of Morgan comes in the early game b/c of his high energy base square. Remember, the energy restriction doesn't hold for the base square. As a consequence of running FM/Wealth, the +4 econ makes base squares yield obcene amounts of energy thus powering research and funding the recylce tank rush buys. So you want to ICS with Morgan as a result.

SP's

All the earlyones are good. Generally speaking tho' I recommend going Human Genome first to aid the ICS process. Planetary Transit for Morgan is really the jewel tho' IMHO. B/c he can't po boom any additional pop points are very important. The only prob is if you get PTS then you have to remember to have a +2 nut square else you have a turn of starvation (i.e. no production even if you rush buy the recycle tank).

SP aquisistion is IHMO where Morgan really shines. After Ind Auto, Moragn should have all bases making crawlers for mins (jus like any other faction), but Morgan has synth metal already prototyped. Whats more he has scads of energy so go into the unit workshop create a synth armored crawler (add trance ability after SotHB) and build standard crawlers. Upgrade them to synth/(trance) and cash them in. Instantly the scads of energy Morgan has becomes industrial might towards Sp's.

With luck you can get all of the early ones if not at least the majority of them. Concentrate tho' on the ones I mentioned and after that I'ld recommend Weather Paradigm.


Og

Ack! Putting the 4.0 enhancements caused me to lose a Colony?!?

Well, that sucks. I guess I may as well start over, now that I have all of this strategy that I didn't have before. :)

I'm still overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of this game...but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

:sheep:

Ok, I played a new game today with the UoP.

I think I'm doing ok. Unfortunately, the Hive is right on my ass, so I wasted countless turns taking the war to them (to keep them honest). Right now there is peace, but the Gaians are rated higher than me.

I'm going to upload my game, I want people to tell me what they think so far; no future strategy, though, as I'm going to try some things first. Let me know what you think I did wrong.

Your pretty far along in the game and have only 6 bases to show for it. Further they are still at or near the pop levels before a hab complex is needed.

Looks like you've missed a pop boom. Uusually pop booms happen at least twice per game. The first one brings all your bases up to hab complex limits then the second takes you up to hab complex/dome limits. You needed to go Demo/planned/X and have creches at your bases.

Secondly I note no crawlers or trawlers anywhere. You've gotten some terraformed areas around your bases that would be great to exploit using crawlers.

I can't tell what level of difficulty your playing. I also notice a lack of air units. Air units rule in SMAC preferably choppers with best weapon. Might have helped inyour war 'gainst the Hive.

On the upside it looks like you've done pretty well with a crappy draw having the Hive (Who are probably the strongest faction the computer plays by the by) so near by.

Without giving you advice for the future. I'ld say next time look to expand a bit more, Lay down more bases even if it means building sea bases. Here's a neat little expansion. Upon discovery of needlejets D:AP or better still Choppers MMI put a colony pod on either of those chassis and you can expand to islands where no one has gotten to yet. Expands your range significantly.

Seriously, it looks like once you hit the first beauracracy warning you gave up on expansion. Once you get you first six bases built up to (i.e. do your first pop boom to the point you'll need hab complexes) you'll probably look to start the next wave of colonization ('bout another 6 bases).

All in all tho' I'ld say your doing quite well. Keep at it and if the oppportunity comes to pop boom seize it (Cloning vats are soooo cool.)

Og

PS. Sorry 'bout the bum steer on the patching your existing game.

I won! :)

Ok, I'm going to upload the game later, but I thought I'd update you.

I was able to win by Ascent to Transcendence. I ended up having 9 bases, the 6 from above plus 3 I captured from the Hive (more on that in a sec).

Yeah, I didn't handle the first Pop Boom right. I did get a permanent Pop Boom, though, from a SP so that went nicely (only a couple minor riots before I got the SP that prevents them)

As for the Hive, well, they were morons. It may reflect on the level I was playing (Citizen), but considering their nature, they really shouldn't have declared a Vendetta against me...and then not attack.

Hunter/Seeker Algorithm is the BOMB. Love it. Of course, the Hive destroyed two of my buildings right before I built it...erg.

So how did I end up making the Hive pray for mercy? Three words: Locusts of Chiron. Oh yeah, plus that SP that gives you +50% PSI attack. Once I got that SP done, my LoC's didn't lose a single battle (you'll see in the saved game that all three hive cities are defended by 2 LoC's--and that's it).

Things that went wrong: well, my terraforming was close to nil at the end...my formers had gotten wiped out and I was too busy building SPs and Hybrid Forests to replace them...a hail storm and some outbreaks took care of some of my improvements. I never did make any crawlers or probe teams. Once I got my core 6 cities, I never took the time to expand, even though there was plenty of space to do so. So there is still a lot to learn, so I'm going to stick with Citizen for the next game (and pray I'm not parked next to the Hive this time).

As for the Ascent, I think it's kind've wrong that any Civ, er Faction can build it once Voice of Planet is done. If I'm Morgan, and I can't corner the Market for an economic victory, then I just sit on 20,000 and wait for the Ascent to become available and buy it. Next time I'll keep a close eye on my opponents and make sure they can't steal the Ascent from me.

One last question: Can I launch as many +1 Nut, etc., satellites into space that I want? Or is there a limit?

ChrTh,

Congrats!!!! :)

The first win is always a sweet one.

As to your question about the number of sattelites. Yes you can produce as many as you want. They only contribute as follows tho:

For each base w/o an aerospace facility each sat yields 1 Factor of Production per every 2 sats (i.e. contribution halved)

For each base with an aerospace facility each sat yields 1 FOP/sat

The number of sats that can contribute to a given base is equal to the base size. So.... If you have a size 15 base only 15 skyfarms, 15 energy sats, and 15 nessus mining sata can contribute to this base even if you have say 50 of each.

(Note: Space Elevator I believe allows sats to contribute fully even w/o aerospace facilities (no halving)

OTOH a satellite yields FOP's to ALL bases. Very, very powerful these facilities are. (Written in his best Yoda voice ;) )

I didn't give a lot if any detail of the mid game to late game but it looks like you puzzled it out pretty well on your own.

Congrats again,

Og


P.S. By the by, Yes Hunter Seeker rules, as does Cloning vats, later on so does Telepathic Matrix and some other goodies as well.

P.S.S. Let me know if you want some mid game pointers/strats.