S.o.S 1 (Stories on Soyuz) a forum game

[TalladegaKnight]

Hopefully posting a common game for everyone to enjoy will help get these forums going.

I've played this 50 turns in or so and has the potential to be a good game where we can compare strategies and tactics.

Here is a screenshot of the settings

Spoiler settings :

I chose Barre because he is a flexible leader to play. Soyuz because that is the level I am currently on. Dwarf Map because I like some randomness on who the opponents are going to be. Archipelago with continental surveyor and laboratory for the possibility of early trade routes.

Here is the starting area and attached is the initial save.

Spoiler starting land :

I only ask that you put your playthrough info in spoilers so no one is unnecessarily spoiled if they do not want to be.

Things to discuss would be planetfall spot, early tech and build orders, and any AI interactions of note.

I also request a turn 100 and 200 report to give everyone a benchmark on where you are in the game. Of course put a final victory summary as well.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[tedeviatings]

Decided to give it a shot and to my surprise I am already finished. A couple of words on what I did:

Victory Condition
I decided to go for a domination victory following the harmony affinity path. Since it was Soyuz I did not expect the game to be hard, so I wanted a short game. When you have tech lead and only 3 opponents on a water map, frigate rushes usually ended the game pretty fast in Civ V. So that's what I went for. As for affinity, when your game plan is to end the game on affinity 5 units it does not really matter. In the end I settled on harmony because of the xenomass for my capitol and I haven't played it a lot yet.

Early Game

Spoiler :

So, first things first... Landing spot. I really wanted to be on the cost and I really wanted to have the xenomass. Also didn't want to destroy resources. That leaves two spots, center or bottom-right. I decided on center because bottom-right would mostly give me more water tiles and I prefer land.

Next things to decide on are build and tech order, I'll start with build order and a couple of reasons as for why I did what.

Build Order
Worker > Trade Depot > Worker > Clinic > Vessel

So I knew I wanted to have a trade route to my first outpost asap. I also really wanted a worker. In the end I wanted the worker more and got the trade depot afterwards. Here is how things looked like around that time:

Spoiler :

Here you can see where I placed my capitol and my first outpost. There is one lost alien on my island and I'm working on making it zero.

As you can see on the screenshot, getting a trade unit after the depot was sadly not a good idea, although I really wanted to get Ayaan going. So I got a second worker and a clinic instead while I waited for Ayaan to grow into a city and shoot the stupid sea cow. Got my vessel afterwards.
Not quite sure anymore what I built after that. I wanted another explorer but got a pioneer first I believe. Then a recycler, more pioneers and a lab and trade vessels - but I'm not sure in which order.

Tech Order
Planetary Survey > Ecology > Chemistry > Engineering > Computing > Alien Sciences

I'm not sure at all how optimized that was. My virtue settler was in the middle of the desert so I really wanted to get it a vivarium. My capital was busy building other stuff than recyclers and labs anyways, so I decided I could afford to delay Chemistry. After that Engineering just because I really want to see titanium when I'm expanding.
The Computing into Alien Sciences thing is rather unusual for me but expansion was slow so I didn't feel I already needed health buildings. I had this idea of going computing, getting a gunboat, finishing the "kill a station" quest and getting harmony 2 of that (had found first level earlier). Shortly after that Alien Sciences would finish and I'd get early access to xenomass with harmony 2 for fast building quest and awesome xenomass tiles. Of course I only got 11 / 12 affinity xp, so there's that. Good thing the AI is even worse at this game than I am.

Virtues
3 Prosperity > Industry

I basically wanted virtues that would help with my goal of a cruiser timing push. Early settler is always good, so I got it. I like knowledge - but not for this type of game. That leaves industry and might. I figured industry would essentially give me better cities, might better units. Well, the idea of timing pushes is to have advanced units early, so they would be enough strong either way. Which is why I went for better infrastructure with industry. Maybe might would also have been good if it had sped up my timing sufficiently.

Lastly here's a screenshot of something that made me sad first and happy shortly after:

Spoiler :

First I was like: Oh great, there is 1 (in words ONE) tile that I can't see and of course it spawns me a siege worm.
I had this vague notion that it would now ruin my improvements and then stay close enough my worker could not get in without being eaten the next turn. Turns out all it ever did was stay in this place until it died about 10 turns later, giving me the quest reward and making me pretty happy

Turn 106

Spoiler :

Almost finished with expanding, I have 5 cities and 1 outpost. That's as much as it's going to get, aside from captured capitals - hopefully. Trade routes and most basic buildings are up and running, my Capital is size 10 and while I would like it to be bigger it does have decent production to make up for it. Ayaan also has enough hammers to be useful. The other cities pull their weight in terms of science and culture but aren't big industrial centers yet.
As for science, I'm just about to finish my last "utility techs", after that I plan get my harmony up asap.
I also have a screenshot of what my current virtues look like. I'll go +2 hammers from manifacturies and then gold from stations, for 10 in industry. Last virtues won't matter anyways.

Spoiler :

Past turn 106 and the End

Spoiler :

So what basically happened is: I built about 10 gunboats in total, stationed a couple close to ARC just to be sure and used the other 7 to invade KP right after they got upgraded. Not being experienced enough with naval assault I lost myself the melee unit that was supposed to capture the capital but still got it maybe 5 turns later. Afterwards I made peace with her, for which she offered a city I really didn't want. I took it anyways, just to burn it down *harhar*
Anyways, after that I sent my cruisers towards Huatama (or however his correct name is) and bought and build another fleet close to ARC. Then I waited and waited for my slow explorer to cross the great ocean and join my invasion fleet that was waiting just before Freeland. When it arrived I declared war on Polystralia and ARC and took their capitals within the next 3 turns.

Spoiler :

 

[Ribannah]

A pity that you used a DLC (exoplanets map pack).

 

[TalladegaKnight]

A pity that you used a DLC (exoplanets map pack).

Can you not open it?

 

[Ribannah]

Not without the DLC, obviously.

 

[docbud]

I tried the save. I'm on a Mac--Apple Store version. I can play the saved file, but everything is at supersonic speed. I moved the explorer and he was on the tile before I could even blink my eye. I am not kidding--supersonic speed.

I am going to keep trying to play it. But I just wanted to put out a warning for Mac users. Don't blink.

EDIT: Never mind. I had to change the saved games preferences. But a question--how in the heck can anyone play the game with the quick movement? Holy crap!

 

[TalladegaKnight]

Sorry about the DLC thing. I'll put out a game without the DLC.

Newb mistake. My apologies.

I have limited time myself to play, do anything that speeds gameplay gets me more gaming. That is why quick movement.

 

[Attaturk]

Domination win T84. 2 cities.
Capital: Trade Depot - Trade Vessel - Worker
Science: Swimming - Recycler - Engineering - Computing
Settled in place, free settler was settled 3 tiles to the north.
Policies: 3 in prosperity to get free settler, 3 in industry to get %25 in second city, the rest in might
Build one extra explorer and sent him near Central to wait for my gunboats.
Warrior and initial explorer went west to wait for gunboats near Hutama and Indian capital.
Got comp on T56.
Bough two gunboats, thank you Hutama and KT for the loan.
First war started on T65 with 5 gunboats. First cleared the units to prevent recapture.
Mandira fell on T67. No losses.

Main force proceeded further west to get Hutama, two of my original cities kept building boats which I sent east to get Central.

T75 war with Hutama, T76 Freeland falls. Gunboats proceed further west to Central with smaller force approaching it from the east.

T83 atk Central, T85 Central fall. Done.

Dwarf archipelago map. Domination with gunboats is the way to go!

 

[docbud]

I won't share what I did, as this is my first game at this level. I normally play at lower levels (I'm a prince player in Civ V). But I thought I'd give it a shot.

And I gotta say I'm going pretty well at this game level. I'm at turn 203, but that's because I'm experimenting and trying different things. And it's my first time at this difficulty level.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to play it.

 

[TalladegaKnight]

I won't share what I did, as this is my first game at this level. I normally play at lower levels (I'm a prince player in Civ V). But I thought I'd give it a shot.

And I gotta say I'm going pretty well at this game level. I'm at turn 203, but that's because I'm experimenting and trying different things. And it's my first time at this difficulty level.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to play it.

Glad you enjoyed it. Let us know how it finished up.

 

[docbud]

^^I actually ended up winning. Built the beacon.