RK-04 Alien Crossfire

Version: Warlords (Cosmichail said so because Toku is tougher in WL than Vanilla)
Leader: Any
Map: Large Standard this time, and I'll grab one of those custom map scripts for a weird game experience.
Speed: Epic
Difficulty: Emperor, likely (come on, what can be so hard with an extra settler?)
Victories: UN Disabled
Settings: Raging Barbs

Welcome to the second Alpha Centauri-themed succession game in the RK series. This time, it's Alien Crossfire. Caretakers vs Usurpers.

Variant: Tokugawa/Japan has been selected for the Usupers faction. The team (that's us) will be playing as the Caretakers.

1. Caretakers and Usurpers start with an extra Settler (actually in SMAX they start with "2" extra colony pods but that's overkill).
2. Once the Usurpers have been met, must declare war on them and stay that way throughout the game. Must eliminate the Usurpers before Domination or whatever victory is achieved.
3. Optional rule (subject to roster vote): May not trade with any other civ until Philosophy (equivalent of Human/Progenitor Psych)

Closed roster, maybe a 6th guy:
1. RK
2. Furrie
3. Ralph
4. Cosmic
5. Scowler

Game will start when RK-02 finishes.

Checking in and looking forward to kicking Toku's **s. Geez I don't know much about Alien Crossfire but it sure sounds cool. Love those words like Progenitor.

Now when you add that settler Robo in World builder don't look too closely. I personally never want to see ahead and I like surprises.

EDIT: Robo please don't go with tilted axis or any map that has land going right to poles as I have a graphics problem with those maps. I am planning to get a new video card soon but have other priorties right now.

Here's a background FYI: Progenitors are the aliens in Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (SMAX). They have two factions: Caretakers and Usurpers who have different ideas on how to run the Planet. They both have an overpowered start. Five human factions are available as cannon fodder.

In SMAX you can mix and match regular and expansion factions in the start screen, but usually (IMO) having the Caretakers, Usurpers or Captain Svensgaard in a game imbalances it. Unfortunately you are still limited to 7, so no "Huge 14 Civ Planet Map" I think... (I haven't gotten to checking out back then if SMAC/SMAX had mods...)

Thanks Robo. I also noticed it's on emperor and warlords. Of course the extra settler is a big help and have played vanillla emperor and won. It can be tough however I do find if you negotiate tech trades a lot you can keep in line. Can you imagine Toku's get for a axe combat upgrade and for archer drill/and CG1 too. That's going to be tough. I am still experimenting with warlords leaders but have come to like Ragnar, Ramesses, Wong Kan (UU so so but UB is pretty good). I think for this variant we might want to have the aggressive trait. On emperor we should choose wisely.

Currently I am playing Stalin in a solo game but I think his traits are too weak for emperor. How about Genghis Khan since he aggressive and imperialistic. That bonus for building settlers and 100% great general emergence would be a great help in a warring game.

Only suggestions and whatever the team wants to do I am game.

I'd advise against Stalin. Stalin is reprotedly bugged, there are people in the WL forums posting about stuff like not getting the Aggressive bonus of Combat 1.

GK is great, but I'm just playing a regular game with GK, so I'd be biased against him.

Hello, i'm all ready to play and kill some Usurper but !

Ok sorry I just read Cosmichail's edit about his graphics now. Ok...
1. it won't be on Tilted Axis
2. we won't use Toroidal wrapping

And when I said custom map script... I meant something from the mods section.

Welcome, Furrie and Cosmichail.

Ok I started the game. After a few tests, I've decided to use Planet Generator.



Here's a decent start:

I randomized the leader, and Cyrus (CHM/IMP) popped out. Good thing, coz he's almost a Genghis Khan (AGG/IMP) but with +1 happiness that we can surely put to good us in this Emperor level.



I set the Usurpers to war with us in the worldbuilder. Remember, we have extra settler, so does Toku. Is the AI omniscient and send us units immediately? If so, I must remake the map and turn off the initial war.

Once we decide to start (if initial war works fine without AI sending us units right away), I'll let Furrie play first. He's out of SG's to participate in.

First round: 40-30-30-30-30
Second round: 20's
Third round: 15's
Fourth round: 10 until the end of time.

Just keep the story in mind.
We are Lular H'minee of the Cartakers


And our enemy is Judaa Marr of the Usurpers


EDIT: How the heck do I use worldbuilder to edit the name/empire settings of another player?

i'll play when you say GO RK

Go, but only your turn while we finish RK-02

Excellent idea! Signing in

I have two questions:

1. Are we likely to suffer catastrophic war weariness if we are at war with Toku for the entire game? Is it possible in WL to switch off WW for a single opponent? (I don't play this kind of game much so I'm not sure of the process now - I just remember CTIV-05 Peaceniks Re-education Camp becoming an utter misery with the WW problem)
2. In SMAX the Caretakers would view with suspicion a faction who has any kind of dealings with the Usurpers - should we follow this rule? For example, no trading with anybody who is Pleased with Toku; declare war on anybody who is Friendly with him.

Thoughts?

The answer is no. As long as we don't attack them and as long as no units of ours die in our borders WW won't hurt much. We can attack when we're ready (Drama at least).

And as for your second "problem". No one will be friends with Tokugawa I'm sure of that.

We'll be an isolationist until Philosophy anyway.

EDIT: I realized that declaring war stifles Toku's economy. I want him to GROW BIG before we take him on! So after Furrie's turn, I'll declare peace and remain that way until we need to take him out. Sorry, I wanted to be at war with the Usurpers all game. But no. In one of my further test games Roosevelt and Churchill outgrew Toku because I was at war with him, despite him starting with 2 settlers.

Got the game, i'll play tomorrow afternoon.
Got to play another SG first, then i'll get baptised in the students club and then go out till 5-6-7-... am
so i'll report tomorrow night hopefully

Ok I'll play first then.

Congratulations then on your baptism!

Ok checking in; don't worry about Emperor its eminently winnable especially in an SG with an extra settler (probably no harder than monarch solo)

My one request is a bit more background on the game / leaders / charachters etc to help with playing / reporting in "charachter" from the SMAC experts.

Ralph

p.s. The +1 happiness at Emperor is huge - my favourite emperor warlord trait.

sounds fine RK, i should have been baptised last year, but I had some issues so i'll be baptised this year, problem is, they know me now so i'll be handled pretty rough

Lular Hminee, the disastrous space battle above the skies of Planet has ended, and the shattered remnants of your flagship are preparing to land on the surface. Your only comfort is that the Usurper vessel was destroyed as well--but you can look forward to facing your nemesis somewhere on the vastness of Planet. You now shape the destiny of your Caretaker faction, which has just made PLANETFALL!

Motivation: Initial settling schematics in the following diagram. Encircled herewith are the special tiles. This isn't a Fantasy Realm game, but please get used to the presence of any Flood Plains Plains or Flood Plains Grassland tiles, and look for them when you settle.



Good News: We receive the secrets of Archery from some helpful natives.

Explanation: Names for Progenitor cities are too long for Civ4's primitive City Naming Interface. We have had to cut the word "Decision" from the capital name.

Explanation: Second city not founded too far from capital to prevent crippling maintenance costs.

Proposal: Technological path is Animal Husbandry then Pottery then Masonry then Mysticism. Pottery needed ASAP since we need to settle more cities.

Strategy: We have stone this game. I want to go for the Pyramids. With all of those fantasy tiles I propose that Tau Ceti Memory be our Specialist city.

Good News: We receive 39 energy credits from some helpful natives.

(Mission year 3670-3640 BC)

Report: Our reconissance team slays berserk animals.

"Manifold" Warrior -> Archer
"Tau Ceti Memory" Warrior -> Worker

(Mission year 3460-3430 BC)

Affirmative: We have rediscovered the ability to manage native livestock. A helpful species of native livestock has been discovered near Tau Ceti Memory.





Condescension: We have discovered a puny settlement of a human called "Montezuma" who thinks he is of any significance.

(Mission year 3280 BC)

Annoyance: The native wildlife actually believe they can prey on our scouts.

(Mission year 3220-3160 BC)

"Tau Ceti Memory" Worker -> Warrior
"Manifold" Archer -> Archer
(Reasoning: Both cities need to grow to a Population Level of 3)

Affirmative: We have begun to manage the unruly native livestock by placing them around a fence.

(Mission year 3130 BC)

We have rediscovered Doctrine: Mobility (The Wheel)
"Pottery" is next.



Insignificant: A pathetic human method of alleviating sorrow, termed "Buddhism", has been founded by Montezuma.

(Mission year 3100 BC)

Our scout drives deeper into Usurper territory, begins to retreat after sending us footage of Usurper activity.



(Mission year 3010 BC)

"Tau Ceti Memory" Warrior -> Settler
"Manifold" Archer -> Immortal

Threatened: Soon, more powerful forms of native life begin to appear.

(Up to Mission year 2800 BC)

Inferiority: Our scouts were treacherously ambushed by native wildlife. Perhaps they have some measure of intelligence too?

Superiority: One of our Archers prove that even evolved native lifeforms are no match for our prowess, by slaying two attackers. But unfortunately there are more persistent buggers on the way.



Notice: We have met the following deluded human leaders who believe they have the right to own land on our Planet.



Proposal: A settler is about to be built, and "Manifold" must build multiple prototypes of our new advanced military unit, "Immortals".

Proposal: Here is a "Diagram of Optimal Terrain Mapping: Areas Proposal" (™ of Scowler), for any future Caretakers.



Proposal: Please consider the construction of Stonehenge and Pyramids (recommended research path is Mysticism -> Masonry -> Mining -> Bronze). Our people can make good use of those Secret Projects, and we have the resources to hasten the construction process.

Notification: Please download our chronicles from the Datalinks.

Note: We have an additional archer in Tau Ceti Memory, it's hidden behind the warriors.
Note2: On the Dotmap, city 4 should probably be North by 1 tile, but will lose freshwater health bonus.

Welcome aboard, Ralph! You can go to the factions section of the SMAC website to check out the Alien Crossfire factions and their ideals: http://www.firaxis.com/smac/factions.cfm

I'll try to explain it in brief: Alien Crossfire is an alternate storyline to SMAC. Ignore the Unity, ignore the UN... basically the Progenitors (aliens) have had a civil war and are fighting over planet. The Progenitors are in two factions, the Caretakers and the Usurpers. The Progenitors look down on humans and don't care much about their welfare as long as their purposes are achieved.

Usurpers are trying to force Transcendence while Caretakers are trying to stop them.

Progenitor factions begin the game with 2 additional Colony Pods and an extra Scout Rover and Laser Garrison.

They usually communicate in the form of "Adjective/Impression/Goal: Statement".

Humans and Progenitors cannont communicate until human factions research Progenitor Psych (or as our equivalent, not in the game, Progenitor Factions research Human Psych). Here in this SG, represented by no tech trading/open borders until Philosophy. We picked Tokugawa as the Usurpers because he is an isolationist and will probably "play" by our variant.