Dune Wars : Game 2 - Arrakis. Desert Planet.

[AnotherPacifist]

I had "upgraded" to the 1.7 version, and I can't seem to play, even after I replaced the old Dune Wars folder. There must have been some files that are needed (or changed) outside the Dune Wars folder.

 

[negyvenketto]

Do you think it might be a good idea to lower the turnset length to 10 or 15 turns instead of 20? It took me ~2hrs to run 20 turns and do a really poor write up, maybe smaller chunks would be more manageable.

For me it's a brilliant idea. If nobody wants to grab it I will play 10 turns.

 

[Slvynn]

I'll be back from busy mode soon perhaps i'll play some sets on this week, hopefully...

 

[Stochastic]

I had "upgraded" to the 1.7 version, and I can't seem to play, even after I replaced the old Dune Wars folder. There must have been some files that are needed (or changed) outside the Dune Wars folder.

OK, that's too bad, but any input you might still have would be much appreciated

For me it's a brilliant idea. If nobody wants to grab it I will play 10 turns.

All right, go for it. 10 turn sets sounds good to me too.

I'll be back from busy mode soon perhaps i'll play some sets on this week, hopefully...

Woo! Our leader is back!

Here is a better review of the current goings on.

Settlement
Proposed plan for settlement of the southern tip of our continent. The idea is to cover as much land as possible by ring 2 so that we can start terraforming that section asap.

Spoiler :

One more spot we could get to the east:

I have a force waiting to take the barbarian city of Old. I was thinking of waiting for it to grow to size 2 so that we don’t have to spend the hammers building a settler (put them into military instead)

War
War on Feyda could involve two fronts,

Spoiler :

The box is a location we could build a fort to hit Unayzah

but I don’t think we have the military to pull that off.

Feyda is one turn away from being able to build master guardsmen. While we have a very high military score, it is almost entirely made up of master guardsmen, so we probably barely have the troops for one attack front.

In addition to the forces on the border:
We have rocket troopers in Coanua and Tasmin Sink that could be relocated.
We could pull 2 Maula Mortars and a Grenade trooper from Hobbar’s gap with the suspensor transport.
Could use the light carryall in the area to pull the rollers, some crysknives and master guardsmen over as well.

In my last post I talked about building some Hornets for cultural bombardment, but, from our current knowledge of Feyda’s city placement, we would not have the range to attack is cities from the early cities we’d take. Maybe we should go for Liquid fuel next? I think bombers might just have range, and the missile launchers would be a useful city attack unit to get.

Generally we need more (in my opinion in order of importance):
Rollers for offence/city attack
Maula mortars for cultural bombardment
Carryalls for transport
Thopters for anti melée and rapid empire defense

Golden Age
I talked about switching civics. If we are still in expansion mode we probably don't want to go into imperial as that will slow down our border pops. Any other ideas of what to do with our great people?

Here is a screen shot of a summary of wealth by Pliny on trun 251 that I didn't put up in my post:

Spoiler :

 

[davidlallen]

I had "upgraded" to the 1.7 version, and I can't seem to play, even after I replaced the old Dune Wars folder. There must have been some files that are needed (or changed) outside the Dune Wars folder.

I am able to do this regularly. I rename my local directory where I create new versions to "Mods/dw-my-local" so there is no directory "Mods/Dune Wars". Then I install whatever version I want, say 1.6.1 + 1.6.5, which creates "Mods/Dune Wars". If I want to go back, I now rename "Mods/Dune Wars" to "Mods/dw-pure-165" and rename "Mods/dw-my-local" to "Mods/Dune Wars". I have three such directories, "my-local", "pure-165" and "pure-17". It is some small work to remember to rename them before loading user submitted save games, but it works well for me.

If this is not working for you, what specific error do you get?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

If this is not working for you, what specific error do you get?

whenever I click on the saved file, Dune wars doesn't load, but BtS loads. Maybe I need to completely move the new Dune Wars mod folder outside and the old one is the only folder with Dune Wars in it.

Addendum: this works.
I can play a 20 turns if nobody objects.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

1. Founded CHOAM headquarters (+41 gold) with great merchant. We might as well adopt Imperium with our many, many cities, since to get good science going Meritocracy is too expensive. I'll probably switch when we have high council (Great Convention balances out the -25% culture from Imperium) Razed Old (smuggler city)--it's in our way for the new city anyway. Next tech should be ablative shields then personal shields for shield fighters (might as well bypass the bladesmen route).
Devote all espionage to Feyd and send our great nobleman towards the east (to expand borders quickly after capturing Unayzah.

2. Great techman born in Sahnin Pass. Founded Rajafiri's Nest (I figure the fewer cities the better since our maintenance is rapidly going up, even though that patch of land could easily sustain 3 cities)

3. Academies in, Quizarate founded in Sahnin Pass. We finish Wet Planet Conservatory (instantly making our cities grow 1 but makes our big capital unhappy), start Imperial War Academy and Istislah in Chapterhouse. I take 2 turns for high council then a big civic change.
4.Imperial War Institute done, we can churn out rollers in 3 moves and maula mortars in 1-2 moves from our capital. Send all light carryalls there to get loaded up.
5. Founded Tecrube Sietch (pretty good spot with some mesas). Started GA with 3 great people. Switched to Imperium, Great Convention and Free trade. Science is now up to 75% from 55% with positive gold

6. Uneventful
7. Corrino asks us to declare on Tleilax, we decline.
8-10. Uneventful. Found Sietch Legg

11. Great prophet born in Chapterhouse, I send him to get Quizarate shrine.
12. DOW on Feyd. Takim captured

13. Personal shields in (wow are they expensive)--go for refining techniques and eventually need factories. Partially bulb genetic manipulation (somebody wanted mentats?) Capture Unayzah and instant cultural expansion.

14. Uneventful
15. Genetic manipulation in, mentats are expensive (7 moves) so I got for refining techniques first. Carthag captured.

16-17. Uneventful. Feyd is willing to capitulate but we say no.
18. Istislah completed in Chapterhouse. Temple of Alia founded--here goes our descent into Abomination!

Time to spread some Quizarate in cities that don't have our shrines. Also, Imperial is just culture, not much use for us, and Yatsa Pass is a measly size 4, so I would displace cities without Feudal Estates with Quizarate. Cave of Tears captured.
19. I see my desalination actually produced some green tiles...we should do the same for others. Ukhshunuba Pass captured.

Question: does groundwater need to have a well for surrounding tiles to be terraformed?
20. Our shield fighters are getting to where the action is, without any shields to destroy.

To do:
Found a city east of Red Pass--can access 3 wind traps, 2 mines and 3 resources
Destroy the Harkonnen
Next target should be Corrino before they can use their Saudaukars
Need factories and space ports for hammers and easy transportation...forget about the mentats for now
Build forts to expand our empire (e.g. near Rajafiri's Nest) so that they can be terraformed

 

[davidlallen]

Question: does groundwater need to have a well for surrounding tiles to be terraformed?

Yes. tencharsneeded

 

[Stochastic]

Nice progress eliminating the Harkonnen!

Looking at the trade screen it looks like we could renegotiate our deals with the Ordos and Atreidies for extra gold. Also, Ix is willing to trade 9 gpt, we should probably try to milk them as well.

Good point about going for Great Convention, but why did you stay in Fauferlauches? I know private property is bad for war, but maybe serfdom would help us improuve our land?

I would displace cities without Feudal Estates with Quizarate.

Does spreading Quizarate destroy the buildings as well? I thought that it just removed the religion.

As an aside, what makes a tile get the "open water" trait? I noticed that one of our tiles have that property

 

[davidlallen]

As an aside, what makes a tile get the "open water" trait? I noticed that one of our tiles have that property

This is the third level of terraforming. A tile will upgrade to anchor grass, then grassland. There is a possibility it will upgrade further to have open water. This is nice, because then all the tiles next to it have fresh water, and they can upgrade. For example, in your screenshot, the tile southwest of the open water can now upgrade because of the open water. (Unless the city has a Reservoir of Liet, which allows upgrading of any tile within the city BFC).

 

[AnotherPacifist]

OK, so we need to build some wells where the main purpose is to give more tiles a chance to terraform, even though those wells won't be worked. Desalination is rather cumbersome and takes a long time.
Also, build forts next to tiles that cannot be reached yet by our culture so that the wells can work their magic.
Don't forget to get the Fai Revenue Service (Statue of Liberty) soon (7 moves for the tech I think).

Yet another question: does a higher level well (shallow vs deep vs groundbore) make terraforming quicker?

 

[Ahriman]

Yet another question: does a higher level well (shallow vs deep vs groundbore) make terraforming quicker?

No. Terraformnig just needs fresh water, and this is provided by any well.
The only difference between wells is the tile yield.

The only thing that affects terraform rates is the total # of catchbasin/reservoirs you have.
(I don't think we have an Ecologist mentat do we? And weather satellites aren't yet implemented.)

 

[davidlallen]

(I don't think we have an Ecologist mentat do we? And weather satellites aren't yet implemented.)

I have received zero playtest feedback so far on Mentats. There is no Ecologist Mentat. The weather satellite is implemented in the 1.7.0.4 patch, but it doesn't affect terraforming; it prevents sandstorms from entering your cultural control.

 

[Stochastic]

For me it's a brilliant idea. If nobody wants to grab it I will play 10 turns.

All right! Do you want to take the next set? If so, I think our current roster looks like this:

AnotherPacifist -->Just Played (20 turns)
Negyvenketto --> UP! (for 10 turns?)
Slvynn --> On Deck (if you have the time)
Stochastic

AnotherPacifist and Slvynn, do you have an opinion on playing shorter sets now that we have a large empire and war?

I have received zero playtest feedback so far on Mentats. There is no Ecologist Mentat. The weather satellite is implemented in the 1.7.0.4 patch, but it doesn't affect terraforming; it prevents sandstorms from entering your cultural control.

Well, we should be able to get some feed back in this game, I expect that we will be using mentats in the near future.

I think an ecologist mentat could be really cool, maybe they could build a catchbasin/reservoir of Liet that does not cost water?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Wow, a mentat that can "think" water into bubbling up.

 

[Stochastic]

Wow, a mentat that can "think" water into bubbling up.

Hah! Yeah, I suppose that does sound a little silly now that you mention it. I guess I thought that he would make things more efficient through better understanding of systems.

 

[negyvenketto]

Nice warring I'm amazed how much progress can be done in 20 turns
Will play 10 more soon.

 

[negyvenketto]

Am I right to think Shai-Hulud can also spread automatically to conquered cities? Please continue spreading it by missionaries as well.

Finished Refining Techniques, started Mentat Logic

War going well

Traded for Caladanian Wine with Leto as well as this one. I hope you won't mind.

Just for fun, attacked Sand Warm with Wasp Interceptors. Nice graphics

Finished Mentat Logic, started Liquid Fuel. Queued 3 mentats. Please make a screenshot when they finished, just to show how to use them.

Troops approaching to the last Harkonnen foothold.

And the victory status.

No Autolog this time. Since I reinstalled the mod, forgot to tick autostart logging.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

BTW, a nice trick after you built 3 Mentats (national limit) is to buy another one from off-planet trade.
I think liquid fuel-solid fuel (free burseg) and industrialism (factories!) should be our goal soon.

 

[Ahriman]

I think an ecologist mentat could be really cool

An ecologist mentat, if implemented, woudl increase your terraform rates, and maybe give a small local water bonus.

Am I right to think Shai-Hulud can also spread automatically to conquered cities?

No. Mahdi spreads like that, and Tleilaxu Zensufism (if you're Tleilaxu). Nothing else does. You have to use missionaries, or very slow natural spread.

a nice trick after you built 3 Mentats (national limit) is to buy another one from off-planet trade.

Mentats should be removed from offworld trade purchase. As should espionage units. This really should remain combat units only.