AnotherPacifist
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2007
- Messages
- 4,878
These comments apply to immortal/standand random map/normal speed (I'm about to win with Zakharov at immortal, and have done all the other civs at emperor)
1. Settle on spot usually works (unless you're Miriam and see lots of fungus around--regenerate map is usually best). A landbound city is usually best because you'll be able to work most tiles and not worry about blockades by natives at sea. Supply pod becomes a Unity Rover while city builds former. (The only possible exception is if you see lots of DNA and artifacts around that can be improved without addition tech, in which case you can forgo the former)
2. Leave capital undefended for now, use rover and scout to get pods.
3. Popping a chopper is the most important thing. If you do, kill some mind worms for XP. 1 chopper = 1 other faction conquered early on. I usually pair up my rover or scout with a promoted chopper and attack the closest faction. The rover/scout protects the chopper while it heals and as soon as it can attack again, it does so. At the end you may want to sacrifice the scout or rover to take out the faction early on, but don't sacrifice the chopper (because you maybe able to kill another faction early or at least use it to steal formers with impunity).
4. Research track depends on your faction, but the overall goal should be to allow your former to do something when it's made but at the same time allow you to build the Unity Hydroponics Pod (needs defense tactics and soil enrichment). E.g. if you're Morgan or Yang, you can go straight for defense tactics, because you can build windmills or mines; if you're Lal or Zakharov, you should go for either geology or ultraponics)
4. You HAVE to build the Unity Hydroponics Pod. If not, restart. (Early terraforming is just too good to give up)
5. Chop any adjacent fungus if your former is idle (don't build too many farms or mines if you can't use them). You don't want a fungus tower in your territory.
6. You'll run into culture problems soon, so getting early command centers is important Goal is to have at least 8-10 good cities some of which can build energy primarily to have a decent research rate.
7. Do not research anything that is good for Planet; you can pollute all you want as along as you put units adjacent to fungus or have boundaries that are clear of fungus. Really important techs to have early on are polymorphic software (for free tech from Unity Library--I have not missed this once), superconductors (for happiness; don't need early if you're Santiago), industrial automation (for defense perimeters), terraforming (for Edenism to fight other factions' culture). If you miss Edenism, Memetics (Homo Superior) is the other good religion to found.
8. You HAVE to build the Planetary Datalinks. (It's possible to win without it, but it'll be much harder because you'll have to trade for techs you didn't research and you won't get other techs later on).
9. Beeline for Singularity Mechanics (Kinematics, Nanites). The AI will not beeline and usually fills in their tech tree, and your research should not be traded away. While your most productive city builds the Nanoreplicator and Skunkworks, other cities build dimensional gates and then research, so that by the time you have singularity mechanics, you can build it in the superproductive city, and near the end you can just buy it with cash (usually saves about 4-6 turns with 0% research).
10. A word on fungus: just make sure that your borders are free of them before you go settle them. If you have a neighbor who won't clear their fungus on your border, kill him/her, because it will have natives/fungus spawn inside your borders. If you have a sea tile with fungus, block the adjacent tiles that can spawn fungus with units or bunkers.
The five times that I lost was because I didn't take out Lal (who won diplomatically), or I declared war too soon without realizing either a mindworm was near my undefended capital, or it was Deirdre who traversed fungus too quickly for me into my capital when I was about to kill her with a chopper.
1. Settle on spot usually works (unless you're Miriam and see lots of fungus around--regenerate map is usually best). A landbound city is usually best because you'll be able to work most tiles and not worry about blockades by natives at sea. Supply pod becomes a Unity Rover while city builds former. (The only possible exception is if you see lots of DNA and artifacts around that can be improved without addition tech, in which case you can forgo the former)
2. Leave capital undefended for now, use rover and scout to get pods.
3. Popping a chopper is the most important thing. If you do, kill some mind worms for XP. 1 chopper = 1 other faction conquered early on. I usually pair up my rover or scout with a promoted chopper and attack the closest faction. The rover/scout protects the chopper while it heals and as soon as it can attack again, it does so. At the end you may want to sacrifice the scout or rover to take out the faction early on, but don't sacrifice the chopper (because you maybe able to kill another faction early or at least use it to steal formers with impunity).
4. Research track depends on your faction, but the overall goal should be to allow your former to do something when it's made but at the same time allow you to build the Unity Hydroponics Pod (needs defense tactics and soil enrichment). E.g. if you're Morgan or Yang, you can go straight for defense tactics, because you can build windmills or mines; if you're Lal or Zakharov, you should go for either geology or ultraponics)
4. You HAVE to build the Unity Hydroponics Pod. If not, restart. (Early terraforming is just too good to give up)
5. Chop any adjacent fungus if your former is idle (don't build too many farms or mines if you can't use them). You don't want a fungus tower in your territory.
6. You'll run into culture problems soon, so getting early command centers is important Goal is to have at least 8-10 good cities some of which can build energy primarily to have a decent research rate.
7. Do not research anything that is good for Planet; you can pollute all you want as along as you put units adjacent to fungus or have boundaries that are clear of fungus. Really important techs to have early on are polymorphic software (for free tech from Unity Library--I have not missed this once), superconductors (for happiness; don't need early if you're Santiago), industrial automation (for defense perimeters), terraforming (for Edenism to fight other factions' culture). If you miss Edenism, Memetics (Homo Superior) is the other good religion to found.
8. You HAVE to build the Planetary Datalinks. (It's possible to win without it, but it'll be much harder because you'll have to trade for techs you didn't research and you won't get other techs later on).
9. Beeline for Singularity Mechanics (Kinematics, Nanites). The AI will not beeline and usually fills in their tech tree, and your research should not be traded away. While your most productive city builds the Nanoreplicator and Skunkworks, other cities build dimensional gates and then research, so that by the time you have singularity mechanics, you can build it in the superproductive city, and near the end you can just buy it with cash (usually saves about 4-6 turns with 0% research).
10. A word on fungus: just make sure that your borders are free of them before you go settle them. If you have a neighbor who won't clear their fungus on your border, kill him/her, because it will have natives/fungus spawn inside your borders. If you have a sea tile with fungus, block the adjacent tiles that can spawn fungus with units or bunkers.
The five times that I lost was because I didn't take out Lal (who won diplomatically), or I declared war too soon without realizing either a mindworm was near my undefended capital, or it was Deirdre who traversed fungus too quickly for me into my capital when I was about to kill her with a chopper.
