I have noticed a lack of strategy threads here. I figure now that I am getting more involved in MP game that my made up on my own strategies will likely not work against some/most players. I would rather enjoy hearing ideas from the more experienced SMAC players.
I have read the faction profiles on Vel's guide. While most of that is helpful, it just doesn't go as in depth with some strategies as I was hoping. Please do not give me a link to something on 'Poly. If you do I will ask you why we have a forum here if you are just going to link me to relevant content on another site. I think this would be a good opportunity for me to maybe learn some new stuff as well as generate some content for the SMAC forum here.
As I stand now I really don't have much in the way of a set strategy when I start a game, as I usually just go with what I think will work the best at the given time. I do have factions that I do enjoy more than others, and feel I play them pretty well against the AI. I have recently though come to like the Consciousness, and with scient's patch the angels are looking tempting to have a go with. I am fairly new to both of these factions. For this thread I would like to focus on The Cybernetic Consciousness. Depending on how the responses go I may create others threads later on.
Here is my general game plan with the consciousness. I really dislike ICS, and as such will usually avoid it. If I get the weather paradigm I make condensors+farms and boreholes. I generally prefer this over forrests as I hate having the low food output of forests, as I find this combined with the factions already incredibly hard to popboom withs -1 growth really iritating. If I miss the WP I kinda just make a farm and forest mix farms so I can maintain some kinda growth and the forests for shields.
Since I usually play with blind research I do not have much experience with B-lining but I do have a fairly good grasp of it. I usually get centauri ecology as the first tech so I can get started on terraforming right away. I then usually make my way to IA switching to planned as soon as it is obtained. I then pickup ethical calc for the children's creche and democracy and work my way towards cyber ethics. after I have planned Democracy and creches in place I will attempt to do a GA pop boom, while doing this I work towards environmental economics to lift the resource restrictions. After this point I do not usually follow a set path except when I finish with the pop boom I switch to free market and knowledge.
I do not use crawlers that much if at all. Perhaps that is a flaw in my game play, what I do with other factions is rely on base size and terraforming improvements which works fairly well for me, and I do not see crawlers worth using except for rushing SP's.
...This is my normal order of things unless there is a need to get aggressive like when the Believers, Hive or Spartans starting uncomfortably close to my territory in which case, I will pick up non linear math before continuing on to IA. Since Consciousness start with both prereqs for Non linear math it is not that big a deal for me to do so, I may also get doc mobility as well. Plus taking the fight to them is more rewarding then letting them take the fight to you since The Consciousness has the ability to steal tech upon capturing a base.
So I guess what do people think I could do to improve my play with this faction? Is there anything I am doing that is viewed as a complete phail? What is the most logical next step for me after getting Environmental Economics? Doc Air or fusion is what I aim for more often then not.
