How many bases?

[TLF]

How many bases do you usually build when playing against the computer?

How many do you think is enough?
I don't really like managing too many cities.
I'd just build 1 or 2 if I thought it would be enough.

I ask because I have never gotten very far in a game because I get a bit put off by managing the cities.

 

[vyeh]

It depends on the difficulty level and the size of the map. For a standard size map at Transcend, I end up with around 20 bases, not counting the bases that are conquered in the late stages.

 

[NwabudikeMorgan]

I usually play Standard size maps, on librarian, and end up with 12-15 bases before i go conquering.
My maps tend to have large unpopulated tracts, however. The AI and myself will simply leave some islands alone, for example.

 

[huronbraxx]

i'm nuts, sometimes i play on a large map and try to fill it all in. sometimes i settle for just filling a nice large island with garrisoned shoreline, you can conquer a tiny planet with just 1 city

 

[Perfection]

enough is never enough

 

[Elliot]

Like you said, the biggest disadvantage to building additional bases is the micromanagement involved. If you were not deterred by 15 minute turns, I'd say never stop building bases. You can win the game with 1 base. I like playing with 3 bases , or a game of 8-12 bases. It really depends on how hard the game is for you. If it is easy, build fewer bases. If it is too hard, build more bases.

 

[sendos]

As much as efficiency is concerned, so around the 10's.

 

[FlayerSlayer]

I usually end up with somewhere from 15 - 25 bases filling a continent and maybe a few scattered conquests useful for staging areas.

I'm playing a Standard sized PBEM (Play By E-Mail) game with two friends now and have 23 bases while they each have around 20... but we've basically run out of land to build on now (and water, come to think of it).

 

[xerkon]

Right now on the standard map of planet I have 43 bases. I'm on year 2310. As Elliot said, lots of bases = long turns.

I think it kind of depends on how you like to play the game. If you're just looking for a quick victory then you'll be capturing bases a lot so you don't have to build many.

 

[vyeh]

It also depends on the faction and your strategy. Since Morgan has an initial population limit of 4, it would make sense to pack Morgan's bases as much as you can to utilize land until hab complexes and crawlers come.

 

[Volcanon]

The sky is the limit as long as your efficiency rating is good.
For super fun colonizing later on, build needlejet colony pods.

In any case, mass micromanagment can be mitigated with using the governor and automating everything. You can even automate military units (which I don't recommend, because they generally do the stupidest possible thing, probably why they didnt let you automate military units in civ3).

 

[Acronym2]

Like you said, the biggest disadvantage to building additional bases is the micromanagement involved. If you were not deterred by 15 minute turns, I'd say never stop building bases. You can win the game with 1 base. I like playing with 3 bases , or a game of 8-12 bases. It really depends on how hard the game is for you. If it is easy, build fewer bases. If it is too hard, build more bases.

You can win the game with one base? This sounds like an interesting thing to try! At least it tells me that my preferrence of only building a few bases in the very best locations is not neccessarily a losing proposition.

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

It really depends on how you want to play the game. If you are enjoying building your little empire in a sand box, then you can build as few bases as you like. If you are playing multiplayer or trying to set some sort of speed or score achievement, then more bases are typically better, and certainly by the late game all the penalties that might keep you from settling more bases (save boredom) are negated by techs / SPs.

The AI in vanilla SMAC is not that good and as the game progresses the human player will tend to pull away rapidly. Fortunately the game is very deep with a lot of ways to play, a lot of factions etc., so it's still interesting to me despite this. Also there are a lot of challenging scenarios / mods as well as multiplayer if you want to get your butt kicked.