Basic SMAC strategy?

[Sevorak]

Just picked up a copy of SMAC to get me ready for Civ3, since Civ3's supposed to have some SMAC like elements, and I'm finding the strategy is quite different (which is good). I'm usually a Civ person, so I'm used to Wonder races and virtually no combat in the early stages. That's not happening right now, so I'm having to retool my strategy a bit. Obviously there's either no or an incredibly cramped ICS in SMAC - I haven't been able to build cities appreciably fast unless I'm in a Rainy area or the Jungle. I've also seen the SSC potential of Merchant Exchange, Supercollider, and Theory of Everything. I've also seen just how incredible major use of Supply Crawlers will be.

However, I'm finding it difficult getting much past Talent level. I end up boxed in on all sides with everyone Seething at me very quickly. Any basic strategy tips from the SMAC experts?

-Sev

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Almost all strategy, basic to advanced, is cover in Vel's Stategy Guide (serch for Velociryx or Vel's to find a link). If you question can be framed more narrowly a specific answer or link to a thread herein can be provided.

 

[Sukenis]

Sevorak,

Your strat is based on what faction you are. As the Believers you will not have the same strat as the Morganites. Tell me what faction you are (you like) and I can give you much better tips that what is in the guide (faction specific tips, the guide is good, jus tnot all inclusive).

 

[Sevorak]

In general, I've retained my "build-up" Civ mentality: I aim for peace and technology with a moderate-sized empire first, then after I've acquired high level techs and have a developed set of cities I produce a small amount of high-quality forces to go forth and conquer whoever's Vendetta to me at the moment.

In according with the build-and-tech mentality, University and Peacekeepers are shaping up to be the ones that really fit me best. The Peacekeepers especially - their package of abilities is really attractive, especially growing to 9 without a Hab Complex coupled with extra Talents at 1,5,9 etc. meaning that a Rec Commons isn't needed as early.

-Sev

 

[Sukenis]

Sevorak,
Are you still needing tips and if so do you need them for the Universtiy and Peacekeepers?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Morgan is great for a builder strategy, you just have to get Industrial Automation early and build thoses hab complexes.

If you are going to build HUGE empires, nothing beats the efficiacy and planet rating of the Gaians, but you have to get the clonning vats secret project.

 

[Sevorak]

Sukenis,

Any help you could provide on University and Peacekeeper play would be greatly appreciated. You're right about the guide - Vel's is excellent, but as it admits itself, a little general and vague in places.

Lefty Scaevola,

I'll give Morgan a try too. The Hab complex thing scared me off it for my first four or so tries, but I'll give the Morgan/Free Market thing a go and see if it doesn't fit building as well. Thanks for your suggestion.

One additional unrelated question: is there a "solar plant" in SMAC? Can I reduce Eco damage in a base to 0 regardless of mineral production? Temple of Planet looked like it, but it's only available after Voice of Planet and doesn't appear to have any actual effect. I ask this because in my last game, UNHQ was churning out 180+ minerals per turn, and this resulted in major fungus rampages through my beautiful forests every turn. Massive Planet rating doesn't appear to do anything either - I was running Democracy/Green/Knowledge/Cybernetic for +4 Planet.

-Sev

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

eco damage reduction:
Most important factor: beggining AFTER YOU SUUFER your fist "pop" of eco damage fungus growth (you should deleberately build up mineral production at one base to get this early) each tree farm, hybrid forest, centauri preserve, temple of planet, that you build increase you eco safe mineral production AT ALL bases.

Tree farms and Hybrid forests also have the effect of reducing terrafroming eco damage at their home base. Centarui preserves and temples of planet reduce mineral production eco damage at their home base. Increased plamet rating reduces eco damge.
Minerals from nessus mining facilities do not count toward mineral eco damage (but i am not sure about minerals "multipled" from these by facilities such a obatic assembly plants.

If Morgan get hundreds of bases he will need to switch to green economy for efficiancy at some point.
Morgan if running demo + free market motsly relies of probe units for conflict.

 

[spycatcher34]

Yeah you have to watch out for that planet, shes a killer!

Sorry...In all seruiosness though there are alot of improvements that help to reduce the a(e)ffect on planet. Umm the ecology(i think) preseve helps. Temple of Planet..doesnt tht add atalent to your city agin dont kill me if im totally off on everything.

On the peacekeepers, when i first played they were the ONLY faction i would play. Even now they are still one of my favorites. The best thing you can do with them is to build a strong infastructre and have a strong core of cities that can produce things quickly. Also it is imparative that you control the council and have the most votes.

One noticable difference ive obseverd between civ and smac is the +100 city strategy doesnt work very well. It is far better to have fewer wel devloped cities than hundreds of low producing pit cities.


I sure hope this helped.


- spy

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by spycatcher34
One noticable difference ive obseverd between civ and smac is the +100 city strategy doesnt work very well. It is far better to have fewer wel devloped cities than hundreds of low producing pit cities.

I am slightly fond of the 505 city strategy, leaving each of the other factions one pet city.

 

[Sukenis]

This is not just to Sevorak but to all. Morgan should not use free market. While I might just be to used to playing on transend where everyone is agressive, anything above a 2 in economy on the social engineering scale is worthless. You must have many allies for this to benefit you. You main goal is getting a 2 in economy since this will effect all you bases to a great degree. Since morgan has a +1 allready, wealth is all you needto get economy to 2.

As far as Hab complex problems with Morgan. I have allways liked this. When playing on transend, controlling a bases growth is very important. Without Habs you have less to worry about drone wise.

As far as the University goes, science is key. After that much of the strat is map specific. If playing where an enemy faction can easily get to you then you need to defend you cities with attacking units. This way you can hit an attack force before they can smash your cities. Hunter seeker is important but if you fail to get it you will need at least 1 probe team per city. Social engeneering depends on the other factions. Pick a faction to ally with (I normally do the closest unless it is the Believers or the Spartans) and use there social engeneering values. Clean choppers are king for the university.

As far as the peacekeepers go, I play then like the best ally I have. Except for the hive, the peacekeepers can become any faction. Just morph them into who you want to be firends with.

A tip if you are ever using a free market. When clean units come out, make only clean units. Build a punishment sphere in one city and set all the clean units hom ein that city. This way you can have a nice army and not have to worry about drones.

A tip if running a low support rating is to defend cities with probe teams. Put the beat armor on a probe team and you have a defender with no support. Just make sure that other probe teasm do not kill them all.

 

[Sevorak]

I'm getting a general idea here that a good strong ally is the best way to survive the early game. Am I right?

Plus some more questions. Terraforming:

In the early game, what do you do with flat and moist squares? Rolling and moist squares? Forest, farm, mine, what?

I generally forest arid squares. Is that a good policy?

At about what elevation is the solar-mine changeover? If I'm looking at a rolling and rainy square of about 1000m elevation, should I be building a solar collector in hopes of raising, or should I be building a mine? Or should I never consider building solar collectors, or never consider mines?

Should I consider raising most squares to 3000m+ elevation, to optimize energy collection? Or should I be constructing hordes of echelon mirrors instead?

Condensors: how much environmental damage do they do? Should I eventually have enough to make every square Rainy?

Boreholes: how much environmental damage do they do aside from adding the +6min to the base? Should I build a lot of these?

In the early game, should I leave a lot of Xenofungus in base radii, leave a bit of Xenofungus in base radii, or exterminate it all?

In the late game, how much Xenofungus, if any? (like above)

I know it's a lot of questions, but most of them are yes-no kinds of things. Any help appreciated, and thanks for the help so far!

-Sev

 

[Sukenis]

Keep in mind I only play on transend so my methods may seem odd at anything lower.

As far as allies go, good allies can make a game for you. This is dure to trade mainly. If you play your cards right you can make more off of trade that base energy production.

I tend to get good trade by beating down a faction, make them submit, and then rebuilding them. This gives you an ally that will never turn on you. You can also give unwanted captured bases to them. Just keep them with as many cities as you have to max out trade. You can slave mutiple factions and make even more.

As far as teraformsing goes, I do nothing but forest. No farms, no mines, no solar collectors, nothing but forrest. In the higher up difficulty levels this gives controlled growth so that drones are no a problem. Normally when I have the drone controlling facilities in place with when tree farms come along. Once you get tree farms, forest are one of the best all around production suqares. When hybrid forrest show up they are the best (except for fungus while play the Gians, late in the game fungus us best).

 

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Sev et. al.

Regarding Morgan (assuming directed research)

THis is what I normally suggest. DO NOT pick your first tech as centauri ecology go straight for Biogenetics.

Place first base and immediately start work on Merchant Exchange. Set second base and immediately work on Merchant Exchange. Wait for Biogenetics to be discoveerd approximately 2-3 turns later and immediately switch production of both bases to recycle tanks, rush buy both.

Now your set for some immediate production bonus.

Second step beeline to IA. In the process:

DO switch to Free Market (despite the advice of others), most of your intent here is to simply pump out energy at base squares. True anything above +2 econ doesn't do a thing for worked squares but the real benny is the base square. And as you are really attempting to pump out bases you are oscillating between size 1 and 2 bases so fully 1/2 to 1/3 of you total squares worked are base squares (which have no energy limitation) The dif in energy between Econ 2 (wealth only) and econ 4 (FM and wealth) is huge. You'll run into drone issues but you'll plop base down after base down and first thing will be a rush built recylce tank. With that you'll still manage base growth to size 2 even if you have to convert a pop point to doctor.

T-forming questions (generally for any faction).

Always , always, always look for a 2 nutrient square or to make a 2 nutrient square (i.e. farm a rolling moist). After you have secured a 2 nutrient sq/base then proceed wtih forestation. I generally run heavy on specialists so after I've bootstrapped mineral might via crawlers next phase is base growth. At his point I'll normally look to beeline to clean reactors pump out formers like mad and start reclaiming the interior with condensor/farms so that I can support large pops with dew squares actually worked/crawlered resulting in massive populationas specialists.

Jus my thoughts


Og

 

[october]

Well I am playing the best game of Alpha Centauri that I have played since I got it a year or so ago. By "best" I mean the longest lasting, or the farthest into a game I have gotten. Let me explain why I haven't finished a game yet... every time I started a game in the past, I ended up buying a new computer game that took my attention. First game of SMAC I started, I got Sid Meier's Gettysburg shortly thereafter, and was playing that. Then, another time I started a game and then bought Starcraft, which I was addicted to for months. I had two addictions to Starcraft that took time away from SMAC. Then Civ3 came out, and I played that. I have not finished a game of Civ3 yet, but am getting close. I got Empire Earth recently, which took me away from my game o Civ3. Now, I put EE away for a while, and I am on SMAC.

SMAC is great and in many ways better than Civ3. It's hard to say what is better for sure, for any game will have strengths and weaknesses.

As for strategy, I am playing as the Spartan Federation. All of the games started with Spartans, except one I have i0n progress as the Hive. I was attracted to the idea of minimal army support and good police ratings. I am finding the governors a bit annoying, but I just like things to be just MY way. I can see the value in the governors. But now, I have them all set just to manage civilians, and I manage production myself. I am also finding water bases to be rather unproductive unless they are near land. What I like to do is build one near land and put forest on the lant squares, and lots of kelp and tidal harnesses in the water. Is there any real advantage to having water bases? On my land bases I got rid of all the fungus in the city radii and have farms and solar collectors and mines, and I build forest on arid squares. I have not gotten in a real fight yet though the Peacekeepers are at war with me. I'm in a military buildup right now, but the Gaians are trashing the peacekeepers.

So I ask, what do people think of the governors? What are the best secret projects to go for early? Best way to terraform? I guess each one of us will have their own favorite style, and depending on faction. I don't see the Spartans being anyone's favorite. What is a good base defense? (RIght now in most of my bases I have two defenders {ECM Probability sentinals}, and an air superiority unit {chaos interceptor}). I selected automate air defence for the air units, and what happens is they fly out of the city to attack something, then they stay there until I order them back home. Is this right? I would have thought they would fly back, if they were automated.

Are clean units really support free? I could build an unlimited supply of them? Also, if there is a punishment sphere in a city and units from there are clean, is there really never a problem? Tell me more about that strategy please.

Ok enough rambling and questions.

-october-

 

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Q1) Water bases?

A1) Sea bases are great in order to provide a stop over for an invasion force a base for air forces etc. Aside from military resaons sea bases are among the best for energy production. While hampered in terms of mins a sea base is a great raw energy producer if t-formed using kelp farms and tidal harnesses. A relatively low t-forming initial cost but produces largish energy. Rush build the science and econ facilities and you've gotten a nice base that has plenty of nuts for growth. Much later inthe game the bases become fairly mineral-wise productive with the build of several Nessus Mining sats. But by and large, I find myself mostly building and improving land bases.

Q2) Governors

A1) Never used them never plan to. The more you give to the AI to control the more the AI screws up your game. Same applies to automating formers. I don't mind micromanagement. Your game improves significantly by taking bases and formers out of the AI hands.

Q3) T-forming

A3) WHole volumes could be written on this subject. The jist of anything in the early game is this. Make sure your first worker can work a 2 nutrient square. All subsequent workers normally should work forests. Later on in the game you'll look to either stay predominantly forest or go to a specialist routine where you are doing more adavanced t-forming such as condesnor/farms and boreholes. Always look to take advantage of specials such as building a mine and road on a rocky square (this nets you 7 mins pre-restriction lifting era, a perfect site for a crawler!)

If your interested in more info check out www.civgaming.net there is a lot of written material on the game in general and t-forming in the SMAC academy section.

Q4) Good Defense

A4) Best defense is offense. No but seriously, add to your mix a probe team and perhaps a best armor AAA unit and you normally should have more than enuff against the AI. Keep rovers in reserve for counter attacking. Build facs like aerospace and perimeter defense, childrens creches and you in pretty good shape. You normally only need worry defending the outer bases. The inner bases normally just get 1-1-1 police units for garrison puposes and drone quelling.

Q5) Interceptors

A5) I personally don't like automating these guys either.

Q6) Clean

A6) Yep infinite builds (up to game limits I suppose) w/o support. They're pricey. SO what I like to do is simply this. Any unit that I plan to have around a long time I look to make clean. Police Garrison units, and formers being the primary two. Combat units such as choppers, noodles etc., I figure its more important to churn out lots of cheap ones and send them to the front. Perhaps in time of peace I may upgrade them, but more often thean not I've got better uses for my EC's.

Q7) Punishment Spheres

A8) Yep a PS combined with clean reactors could churn out all the units you would ever need. More over most people build from all over the world send their units to one PS base and rehome their units there viola! a whole army/air force/navy of support free drone free units. This allows wars in Free Market for any faction.