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===========================================================================
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC)
System: Windows (PC)
Authors: Jim Chamberlin and
Chris Hartpence (aka Velociryx)
Contact: Jim Chamberlin - red_phoenix_1@hotmail.com
Chris (Vel) - quazimojo1@aol.com
Version: Final (06/11/01)
===========================================================================
{{ Disclaimer }}
This document may ONLY be found on the sites indicated at the end of this
document.
This document was made for personal use only. No part of this document may
be copied or used in any form of media withthout the express written consent
of Jim Chamberlin. Unauthorized use of any information herein is a direct
violation of Copyright Law, and legal action will be taken.
This document is Copyright © 2001 Jim Chamberlin and Chris Hartpence.
All Rights Reserved.
===========================================================================
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Version - 0.1 - 3.3 - Made and updated the guide on a regular basis.
3.4 - Made the ASCII art and included a few little notes.
3.5 - Added more ASCII art and changed my name and email
address.
3.6 - Minor Changes.
3.7 - Minor Changes.
3.8 - Added the URL of the HTML version of this FAQ.
3.9 - A minor change.
4.0 - All kinds of changes.
I've decided to take the Dialogue section out of this FAQ
and put it in a completely different FAQ. In my opinion,
this will make it much easier to navigate this FAQ.
I've also rewritten a few sections to update what's going
on. There were a few sections that haven't been updated
since last fall, so they certainly needed to be changed
in one way or another.
I even noticed a wrong email link. I never had the email
address I had listed in here, heh. That's why I haven't
received too many emails on SMAC.
4.1 - I like the fact that I took the Dialog out of this FAQ.
I also decided to take the Fictional Story out of here
and put it in a separate guide. Afterall, I think this
will make is easier to navigate.
Would anyone care to comment on the "newer" look?
4.2 - A few minor changes.
4.3 - A few changes.
4.4 - A few changes.
4.5 - A few changes.
5.0 - Huge changes. I basically made a whole new FAQ.
5.1 - Added a somewhat large list of tips/strategies
5.2 - A minor change.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
If you have questions, suggestions, comments or anything you'd like to submit,
email me at [Address Removed By Author]. If you submit something, and I use
it, you will be properly credited. Also, if you send me something, include
your name in the body of the email. I've received a few emails from folks,
who have submitted things to me that have had a sudden increase in SPAM since
their email address was put in my FAQs, so I will no longer be doing that if
I can help it. Any email you send me for this game should have "SMAC" of
"Alpha Centauri" as the Subject. This allows me to sort my email better.
The large part of this FAQ was written by Chris Hartpence (aka Velociryx).
I thank him very much for his contributions!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Table of Contents
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Introduction
Changes in the Alien Crossfire Add-on Pack
The Factions
The Landmarks
Special Projects
Facilities
Technologies
Getting Started
Focus
Economy
Military & War
The Middle Game
The Supply Crawler
Late Game
Final Thoughts
Hot Keys
Unit Design Info
General Tips
Credits
================================================================================
Introduction
================================================================================
It is vitally important that you understand just what kind of game you're
playing. I mean this on two different levels, and will take them one at a time.
First and most basically, keep in mind the fact that Alpha Centauri is not a war
game, but an empire-building game. War is, of course, a part of the process of
creating an empire, but it is only a means to an end. This is not to say that
you cannot enjoy the game if you treat it as a war game and nothing more. Many
players do that, and they love the game. It is a perfectly valid approach to
playing. In fact, there are factions which are specifically designed for this
type of play-style. Bear in mind, however, that if you choose to play the game
exclusively as a war game, you are denying yourself a significant and
fascinating portion of the overall experience.
The second thing I mean is that the game actually begins before your map screen
comes up. Everything in Alpha Centauri is important, and if you want to excel at
the game, then from the moment you begin setting up the parameters of your game
world, you should be considering how they may impact your game.
To that end, and in order to get your mind turning on the subject, we'll examine
each of the options you can select from:
Planet Size: This will impact how much time you will have to develop in
isolation before other factions begin to find you. If you want to mix it up
from the start, shrink your world size. If you're looking to explore the
various "Builder" elements in the game, expand the world size.
Oceans: Another factor that will impact how long it takes other factions to
contact you. Oceans represent a pretty formidable obstacle. You've got to
research two techs before you can even start building a boat, and then you must
begin exploring the planet at the less-than-lightning-fast rate of three or four
squares per turn. On the other hand, setting oceans to a minimum may well create
a game where all the factions wind up starting on the same continent!
Cloud Cover: A more subtle option. Impacts the amount of rainfall the planet
receives. This, in turn, impacts the amount of green, nutrient rich squares the
world contains. World with heavy rainfall are nutrient rich, allowing for easy
growth and expansion. Worlds with minimal cloud cover are arid and dry, making
each base a very big and important deal, especially in the early game. In a
word: Rainy = Rapid Development. Aird = Slow Development.
Native Life Forms: This will dramatically alter the flavor of your game, and it
will do so in a number of ways. First, the higher the setting, the more fungus
you will have to contend with, which will slow your development (as your scouts
and colony pods will either have to spend several turns going through or around
all the fungus, and your formers will need to spend several turns per square
just clearing the fungus to make use of the underlying terrain. Second: More
fungus = more chances to run into worms. This might be a good thing, if you're
geared for combat, or if you are the Gaians, with their inherent ability to
capture worms. On the other hand, if you are Morgan, intent on running a Free
Market Economy, this could have some pretty serious implications for your game.
(Note: If you're playing for score, then use Abundant Native Life forms, as you
will receive a 25% bonus to your score).
Optional Rules: Many of these are pretty self explanatory, and most do not need
comment. However, there are a few….
Blind or Directed Research: This is probably the most important choice you will
make in the whole pre-game setup, as it will dramatically influence how you
proceed from turn one. Blind research more or less leaves you in the hands of
Fate. It makes for a very "realistic" game, but can also be immensely
frustrating, if you suddenly find yourself neck deep in a war and have few if
any combat-oriented techs. Directed research is the favored choice by the bulk
of gamers, mostly for the control it gives over the game environment, but
whichever you tend to favor, I strongly recommend trying the "other" choice out
from time to time, just to give yourself a taste of some other perspective.
Random Events on/off: These are mostly mild boons or minor irritants, but they
can occasionally be really painful (Asteroid strike wipes out your biggest and
best base, solar flares destroy all your Orbital Power Transmitters, etc)., so
consider if you want to deal with that on top of the rival factions or not.
Also, if you're planning to try for an economic win, you will probably want to
turn this off!
Unity Pod Scattering: I like to refer to this as the "Easter Egg Hunt." If you
want to add a random element into the game, and generally make life a little
easier for all players involved, then turn this option on. Otherwise, turn it
off. You still may have a few pods, but they'll be isolated to your starting
position.
TechStag: Turning this option on will have an enormous impact on your game! It
will slow you down immensely. This, in combination with a huge, high water level
planet can mean a hundred years or more of isolation before some other faction
finds you. Think carefully before you activate this! If you are a fairly passive
player, this may be for you, otherwise, you might find yourself very bored!
Spoils of War: A huge benefit to war-mongers, as it means you can get away with
almost totally ignoring infrastructure development, and focus exclusively on
building up your army!
Ironman: Disallows use of the autosave feature. No going back to undo mistakes.
Also, increases your score by 100%.
Do or Die: If you're planning to win by conquest, this option could be your best
friend.
Aggressive Opponents: The AI factions are already pretty aggressive, and this
makes them doubly so. If you're going for a diplomatic win, you might want to
leave this one off.
================================================================================
Changes in the Alien Crossfire Add-on Pack
================================================================================
New kinds of worms:
Yep....three of them, to be specific. First, Sealurks. Watch out for these
guys....they're rather similar to IoD's, except they don't act as transports and
tend to be "lone wolf" units. I've not had much luck in catching them (none,
actually), so I can't say either way whether they're any good as an addition to
your naval forces.
Next, Fungal Towers: I've never captured these guys either, and frankly, I doubt
it's possible. They get morale upgrades depending on how much fungus they're
surrounded by, and tend to spawn worms fairly regularly.
Finally, spore launchers: Artillery for worms, and they are annoying!
Oftentimes, when and IoD comes to pay you a visit, the Spore Launcher will not
land on the shore, but remain on the Isle, and snipe at your terrain
enhancements, forcing you to build an empath foil to deal with the IoD in order
to get rid of the sniper. UGH! (Alternate plan: Build an artillery unit of your
own and duel with the sniper).
Seven new factions:
Five human, two alien. You'll find details on the new bunch a bit later in this
guide!
New techs, weapons, facilities, and secret projects:
About half a dozen new techs, spawning a variety of new weapons and abilities.
I'll not go into specifics here, as all of this is covered elsewhere in the
guide, but suffice it to say for the time being that there are a LOT of new
capabilities you can give your troopers, opening up whole new vistas as far as
exotic and special purpose troopers go! The new facilities are great as well,
giving you base-specific probe modifiers, missile defense systems, additional
defensive bonuses and ways of getting better still production out of sea
squares!
Project-wise, it's a mixed bag, with far and away the most useful (overpowered!)
project being the Cloudbase academy. One thing further, the Hunter-Seeker
Algorithm has been weakened so that it's not quite the final word protection
against probes that it once was. Nonetheless, it's still a crucial project to
snag, but again, more on that later.
Bug Fixes....LOTS of Bug Fixes: Most significantly, artillery now actually does
something in the game, and on Transcend level, the maintenance cost bug has been
fixed, meaning that Transcend level bases are only one third as profitable as
they used to be, but that is as it should be.
================================================================================
The Factions
================================================================================
Once you get your game world set up, you will want to take a moment to really
think about what faction you want to play. I say this because, while all the
factions are quite good, if you select a faction that does not mesh well with
your personal gaming style, you will probably not have a very good time. Are you
an avid war-monger from the get-go? If so, don't play Morgan. And, speaking of
play-styles, you will find three terms used throughout this guide, beginning
here in the faction descriptions. Don't worry too much about the specifics, as
we'll get to that later, but here's a general set of definitions to give you the
gist of it for the time being:
Builder-Style: Focuses on infrastructural development over military concerns.
Hybrid-Style: Attempts to strike a balance between infrastructural development
and military concerns.
Momentum-Style: Largely ignores infrastructural development, in favor of
military concerns.
Below is a listing and brief overview of the original seven (7) SMAC factions.
The information contained in this section will serve as one of the primary
building blocks for sections to follow (including the section on combat).
The Original Seven:
You know them, and whether you love them or hate them, you need to be aware of
each faction's inherent strengths and weaknesses so you'll understand how to
exploit the one you're playing. It's also a good idea to know what to expect
from the faction who just dropped a scout rover off in your territory.
The Lord's Believers (Sister Miriam Godwinson):
An odd faction (because it is exceedingly unbalanced....see below), but
extremely powerful when played correctly. Sitting still with The Believers will
get you killed very quickly. This group needs to be aggressive to survive, and
they're quite well-suited to that. As you might expect, they are at their most
powerful when played Momentum-Style, where their +25% bonus when attacking and
their +2 Support (big army) really shines through. The Believers' main drawback
is their lagging research capability, which is partially offset by having access
to outstanding Probe Teams. Note that this is not a perfect solution, however.
Research is a passive thing. You build a base and research just happens. To get
anything out of your Probe Teams, you must take an active stance with them,
sending them out regularly to infiltrate datalinks and steal that much-needed
technology to keep your army up to date. Not that this will be any big deal for
fans of the Lady Miriam....they're used to moving lots of units around the map
every turn.
Also, one hidden advantage of The Believers is a good amount of cash. This is
actually an outgrowth of the poor research problem (why put money into your labs
if they're not going to net you much of a benefit? You're better off adding to
your cash pool so you'll have more funds to subvert enemy units and the like).
I hope the fans of The Believers will forgive me for calling their faction an
odd one, but when I clarify that statement, perhaps they will agree. If you
imagine the three play-styles I mentioned earlier as being a continuum, with
"Builder" on the extreme left and "Momentum" on the far right, then Miriam would
be slammed all the way to the right. Play her pretty much any way but Momentum-
Style, and you're asking to get hammered.
A Builder she is not. Building Network Nodes and other Lab-enhancing facilities
is impractical because of your inherent research penalty (made even worse
if/when you switch to Fundamentalism). Why build a facility with a "per-turn"
upkeep fee when you can just zap your current opponent with a probe team?
Besides that, huddling in your bases as Builders are wont to do negates your
+25% attack bonus. Drop into "Hermit-Mode" with this faction, and you're in for
a tough game (Though it might make for an intriguing challenge sometime). She
could be played as a Hybrid, but again, the primary function of Hybrid-Play is
to give you sufficient infrastructure to do peace-time research, something
Miriam just isn't very good at.
Game notes: Play Miriam fast and hard, but pick your battles carefully. In the
field, you're troops are very hard to beat, and when you switch to Fundy, you've
effectively got your own little private "Hunter-Seeker Algorithm" running. A
word of caution though: All these combat advantages can make you arrogant.
Resist that! It's the one thing that can really get you in trouble quickly.
Against a single faction of comparable size, you should have little or no
trouble smashing through their defenses, but you must take care to only fight
one war at a time. Take on too many opponents at once and you'll find yourself
overextended and unable to crank out troops fast enough to support all your
various campaigns. Also, you've got to remember that unless you find a rival
faction in the very early part of the game, chances are good that your opponent
will start with better technology than you. That being the case, your first
skirmishes may or may not go your way, attack bonus or not.
Recycling Tanks, Rec. Commons, and Energy Banks (when you get the techs for all
this stuff) are really about all you need before Hab-Complexes. Depending on
your strategy, you can either build Hologram Theaters in size 6-7 bases or
allocate 30-40% to Psych and forget the Theaters (you're probably not
going put much effort into research anyway), so you can afford to dump some
money into Psych), or, you can forego any of these once you get the ability to
make police units, and simply solve your drone problems that way.
Unlike most other factions, you can delay building Command Centers and still
fight an even battle with the folks who have them (though a selective one here
and there might be a good thing, enabling you to crank out an "elite core" to
enhance your already amazing military apparatus. You also don't really need a
perim defense, as your best defensive strategies tend to be counter-attacks or
pre-emptive strikes.
Once you find someone to smash, send feelers into their territory and find an
easily accessible base, then start hitting them with probe teams to get up to
their level of technology. Once you are at technological parity, you will almost
certainly win the war with them (you can crank out the same types of units, plus
you get the +25% bonus on your attacks). Just keep up the pressure and don't
lose your focus, and you will almost certainly be around for the end-game.
The Hive (Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang):
A particularly nasty faction for a number of reasons, and another excellent
Momentum-Style group. Unlike Miriam, you can afford to sit still during periods
of the game, and you've got tons of safe places to do it, as your group begins
with your own personal "Citizen's Defense Force" up and running, meaning that no
matter where your troops go to rest and repair, they'll have the benefits of
your Perimeter Defense.
Chairman Yang's main strengths are impressive. Rapid population growth and
excellent industrial production means that you can build colony pods quickly and
expand rapidly (and relatively safely, thanks to your Perimeter Defenses), and
if you had any money at all, this faction would be all but unbeatable, but this
is the big equalizer. Where Miriam is lagging in research capability, you have a
corresponding lag in Economy. Simply put, you're strapped for cash, so you're
going to have to build everything you want (no rush building or buying much of
anything). Also, without much energy, you've got limited research capability,
which means you will need to make use of your Probe Teams nearly as much as
Miriam.
Game notes: Make early use of your industrial capacity. Thanks to rapid
population growth and the +1 Industry bonus, you can expand very quickly, and if
you get the "Command Nexus" project, coupled with your inherent Perimeter
Defenses, you become dangerous indeed (and while we're talking about it, if you
happen to get the Planetary Transit System, the rest of the world is in a good
bit of trouble). Even without the secret projects though, you will quickly find
yourself with a sprawling empire very quickly (not much infrastructure
development, but that's no big deal for you), which can support an immense army.
You may not have Miriam's attack bonus or Santiago's morale, but you can almost
always count on having more troops, and with your greater numbers, you can
simply overwhelm your opponents, whomever they might be.
Like Miriam, it is important to test your enemy's defenses before committing to
full-scale war. Your lack of energy relative to the other factions really
hampers your research efforts and makes it likely that in the early goings, you
will have inferior technology. You can't subvert enemy troops as a rule, because
again, that takes money, but you can have your Probe Teams zap enemy bases and
pull techs down that way. And, like Miriam, once you've reached technological
parity with your enemy, you can smash him hard.
You might need to focus less on mineral production and more on energy
production to even be able to afford many base facilities. Take care not to
focus too heavily on energy (or at least not at the expense of minerals) lest
you erode the advantage your +1 Industry bonus nets you. Any facility that has
no upkeep cost is good for you! Unfortunately (fortunately?), you don't need
Perim. Defenses, 'cause you have them already, and the only other "freebie" is
the Recycling Tanks (which helps you even more than the others, thanks to your
+1 Industry), and as such, it should be at the top of your list! After that,
plan your builds carefully, checking your base's energy production against a
given facility's upkeep. Morgan never has to worry about that kind of thing, but
you do. Command centers everywhere would be great, but you'd probably be better
off going for the command nexus project (which gives them to you free) than
trying to support one at every base.
With your enhanced Industrial output, it is not at all difficult for you to end
the fight very quickly. Just amass so many troops and hit from so many different
directions that your opponent can't stop them all. And once you get a toehold in
his territory, that is the kiss of death, as now he has to contend with your
enhanced production capability right there on his turf.
It is possible to play The Hive as a Builder or a Hybrid, but you will suffer
from chronic energy problems, which means you won't be as effective as some of
the others. Still, if you find yourself with a bunch of allies and you're
feeling honorable, you can do the Hybrid thing well enough to get by until
someone picks a fight.
The Spartan Federation (Colonel Corazon Santiago):
Perhaps the most balanced of the "Momentum" factions, the Spartans achieve a
good balance between solid, well-trained troops and the ability to do something
other than fight. If any of the Momentum Factions can easily make the switch to
Hybrid (and possibly Builder) play, The Spartans are it.
Their advantages make them magnificent fighters, either offensively or
defensively, (effectively a Command Center at every base, further enhanced by
actually building a Command Center), they can research at normal rates, and have
a decent amount of energy (unlike Miriam and Yang, respectively). That doesn't
come free though, and they pay the price with a penalty to Industry. Where Yang
can build things quickly, The Spartans are hampered by higher costs, which will
slow their expansion in the early game.
Game Notes: Slow and Steady. This may seem a contradiction to the Momentum style
of play. What I mean by that is: Use the strengths of that style (as covered
later), but take great care not to overextend yourself. Of all the Momentum
factions, this is most dangerous for you. You have to be careful if you're the
Spartans. Control is the Key to the Kingdom for you. Yes, you've got a wonderful
army (In fact, you're the only faction in the game that can stare down the
barrel of a Believer's gun and smile calmly). But it can all come apart for you
if you get reckless.
Recycling Tanks are a must, to help offset that -1 Industry, and after that
your builds will depend on your current situation. Spartans don't mind police,
which can delay the necessity of anti-drone facilities. If you're not close to
anybody who wants to fight, focus on energy and lab-enhancing stuff. The
earlier you get them built the better, especially since they're more expensive
for you. If you ARE close to potential enemies, go for Command centers before
Perimeter defenses. For the Spartans (and in fact, for all of the Momentum
players), the best defense is a good offense.
As mentioned above, your expansion will be slower than average, thanks to your
higher build costs (and it will be significantly slower than Yang's), which
means that each of your bases is a big deal. Yang can afford to lose a base or
two. You cannot, so defend them carefully. The most successful Spartan players I
have ever seen will expand slowly and carefully until they encounter another
faction, and then attempt to make peace. If there is any resistance at all to
the notion of peace, then (in the Spartan mindset), the faction is a potential
threat and should be eliminated.
When it comes to combat, the Believers will simply rush forward, relying on
their factional attack bonus. The Hive will tend to simply use numbers to
overrun, but in general, The Spartans do their damage with relatively few troops
in the field (a good thing, since they take more time than usual to replace).
Most people are frankly amazed when their bases begin falling to groups of two
or three Spartans, where other factions might send in three to six.
In times of peace, The Spartans can make the transition to Hybrid Play fairly
well, though they will be hampered somewhat by their higher build costs. Still,
once the infrastructure is in place, they do as well as the Peacekeepers or
Gaians, with their better troops making up for the PK/Gaian special abilities.
The Peace Keepers (Brother Pravin Lal):
In a word, durability. The Peace Keepers are an exceedingly good faction for a
number of reasons. You might not think so at first glance (after all, the only
adjustment they've got to the Social Engineering table is a -1 on Efficiency,
and what the Hell good is that?). Trust me, the Peace Keepers have more than
enough of what it takes to overcome their one weakness.
First and easiest to relate to is the double vote capacity. If you follow an
average to brisk expansion policy, you can all but guarantee that you will be
elected planetary governor, and once you are, you get Infiltrator access to all
factions (as good as the Empath Guild, for free), and a big trade windfall. Not
bad for doing what you would have been doing anyway.
Second is the extra talent your bases attract per four citizens. This is like
the Genome project on steroids, as it's impact on your bases is relative to the
size of the base (as opposed to being constant, in the case of the Genome).
Control will rarely be a problem for you, and can generally be nixed with the
simplest of base facilities (Rec. Commons, or nothing at all if you get the
Virtual World & build a Network Node).
Third, bigger bases. Do not discount the ability to exceed Hab-complex limits!
Especially if you're playing blind research, the extra time this gives you is
extremely important!
Finally, there are advantages to being, well....average. True, you don't get the
vaunted Spartan Morale Bonus, and you don't get the Economic windfall of the
Morgans, nor the Population and Industrial boost of Yang, but you don't get any
of their penalties, either, and the Efficiency problem can be overcome with base
facilities. All in all, this puts you in a very strong position.
Game notes: The Peacekeeprs can do everything fairly well, but they don't really
excel at anything. This is both a blessing and a curse. While they have no real
weaknesses to exploit (ask anybody who's tried just how hard it is to increase
drone activity in a PK base), and essentially, your lack of a truly pronounced
strength is a strength in its own right, in the form of flexibility. Pay special
attention to anything regarding Hybrid play as you make your way through this
guide, as it will likely hold doubly true for you. Flexibility can be a
dangerous thing if you make bad choices as the PeaceKeepers. If a Spartan or
Gaian Hybrid makes a bad choice and gets into trouble, they can fall back on
their army (of excellent soldiers or mindworms), but the Peace Keepers only have
"average" soldiery, and may find themselves hard pressed if they get involved in
a conflict they're not ready for.
Still, there's an enormous amount to be said for the sheer durability of Lal's
Peace Keepers, and no matter what the current game environment (war or peace),
you will find that they will serve you well.
After the requisite Recycling Tanks, go for the Children's Creche. Your bases
can get to size 9 before you need a Hab-Complex anyway, and the efficiency kick
will offset your faction's only disadvantage, plus give you a boost in garrison
morale (making your average troops able to fight defensively and be on par with
any Momentum player who might find you). Perim. Defenses are free and should be
incorporated into your strategy if you're close to hostiles, otherwise drift
toward energy and lab enhancing goodies.
Gaia's Stepdaughters (Lady Deidre Skye):
An absolutely fabulous faction, especially in the early game! Their minor
faction negatives are more than offset by the ability to capture mindworms at
game start, and their ability to draw resources from fungal squares. These two
advantages simply cannot be overstated! The fungal-resources ability will save
your formers time in the early game, allowing you to draw resources from squares
in their natural state, and the mindworm capture ability gives you the perfect
"pod-popping" unit!
Game notes: Your very first objective should be to catch a Mindworm. Fortunately
this is not difficult to do. Just start trolling around in fungus, and before
long, one will appear. In every game I have ever played the Gaians, I've
captured my first worm on the first try, so I suspect that's a given, and as
soon as you have your first worm, send him out hunting! Even if the pod in
question unleashes more worms, they'll ignore your little critter, and he can
either go about his business or kill/capture the newly spawned worms. Either
way, it's a boon for you! Do the same thing as soon as you get a foil of some
kind and you're set for the rest of the game. The goodies you can uncover by
being the first player out the gate to do some serious pod-popping can quickly
put you in a position of power, and while you're doing that, your empire is
growing and expanding.
Militarily, you're a little weak, but the right base facilities can help offset
this (and, if you'd rather fight defensively, add a Children's Creche, and
you'll be on par with most of your adversaries). Energy and Lab production are
good, and when coupled with the results of your massive pod-popping campaign,
can easily put you on par with the "Builder" factions.
If you are feeling aggressive, you can easily shift the Gaians into a Momentum
stance, using the worm rush strategy to augment your otherwise pretty average
soldiery. On the other hand, if you find yourself getting hordes of alien
artifacts and such, you can kick into builder mode and reap the benefits.
The Mindworm advantage tends to wear down over the course of the game (when the
productive capacity of your bases is such that you can simply build what you
need in a single turn, so why bother trying to catch them), so if you're going
to make use of it, then do it earlier, rather than later, and by late game,
there aren't many un-popped pods (both of these reasons, I suspect, are why the
Gaians tend to fade in the late game if controlled by the computer), but the
ability to draw resources from fungus squares increases over time, until fungus
squares are ultimately the most productive in the entire game.
Guess what's first? If you said anything other than Recycling Tanks, smack
yourself! After that, your options are wide open, and dependent on your
proximity to hostiles. If you're near weak opponents, build a Command Center to
give your average troops a boost and charge! (Average troops augmented by
mindworms!). If you're near strong enemies, drop to the defensive, with
Children's Creche and Perim. Defense, using Mind worms in harassment and
delaying roles, and if you're not near anybody, go for energy and lab enhancing
facilities per the PeaceKeepers.
The University of Planet (Prokor Sartory Zakarov):
Your labs are your life. They are your only advantage in the game, and if you
don't use them well and wisely, you will find yourself in trouble very quickly.
As such, you must focus the bulk of your efforts on increasing your energy
output, as it is energy that drives your labs.
Game notes: As the University, you've got four manageable problems, and one HUGE
advantage. First, your troops are utterly average. Nothing at all to write home
about. But, with technology as your ace in the hole, that need not frighten you.
Play that card correctly and your average troops will outgun anything your
opponents can bring to bear on you. Your second problem is a chronic difficulty
with drones. The solution to this is a steady program of expansion (which can
almost turn your problem into an advantage). Expansion is good for you for two
reasons. First, it partially solves the drone problem you've got as your
population is kept in check by the creation of new colony pods. And second,
every time you make a new base, you're getting a network node for free in the
bargain (and maybe a hologram theater!)....this is extremely efficient from a
cost-per-facility-basis (for the price of one colony pod, you're getting a new
base, a network node, and possibly a hologram theater....I think you will be
hard pressed to find a better value for your money anywhere in the game), not to
mention the effect it will have on the number of research points you can
generate. Your third problem is Probe Teams. They generally have a really easy
time infiltrating your datalinks, which, as you might expect, is bad for you.
This can be overcome by posting your own Probe Teams around, but that is far
from a perfect solution. Finally, you've got a less tangible problem I like to
refer to as "CRS" (Chronic Researcher's Syndrome). What this means is that, yes,
you're getting a bunch of technological advances, but until you turn those
advances into tangible things for your empire, they don't do you any good, and
they certainly won't stop Chairman Yang's forty-three Impact Rovers that just
sauntered into your territory. As a University Player, you need to focus on
turning your tech advances into things: base facilities, new weapons, and the
like. Only then are you really getting the most out of your abilities.
Since so many base facilities center around controlling drone problems or
increasing Lab output (both of which should make a University Player salivate in
Pavlovian style), this is an ideal faction for Builder-play, but some
interesting variants crop up if you try the other styles.
If you focus on increasing the overall energy output of your empire at all
though, it is very easy for you to simply run away with the game, from a
technological standpoint. You can do things that will make the other factions
green with envy. Once you've infiltrated everybody's datalinks and have rendered
yourself immune to their Probe Team actions (you DID get the Hunter-Seeker,
yes?), you can monitor the production queues of all enemy bases, and if they
start making something you don't care for, missile the base garrison to death
and orbitally insert your own troops. Presto!
Recycling tanks are first, but not by much. Recreation commons
almost has to be second, and then you'll need an Energy bank to help pay
maintenance. After that, go for any lab-enhancing facility (Research Hosp. Is
the next one you'll have available) you can get your hands on, and defensive
improvements as you can (keeping an eye on your drone situation and ready to
drop a Hologram Theater (or use police units if not running Market) if needs
be).
Morgan Industries (CEO Nwabudike Morgan):
Another odd (read: Unbalanced) faction, and quite possibly the most underrated
of the bunch, the Morganites are structurally diametric to the Lord's Believers
(where the Believers are really well designed to play Momentum style, the
Morganites are likewise well designed for Builder Style, and both factions have
a harder than average time getting out of their primary style). As a group, the
Morganites are plagued by one minor disability and one really nasty one, but are
blessed in more ways than imaginable with the lifeblood of the game.....energy.
As an economist, this faction was my early favorite, and probably still is,
overall, though I must say there are certain features I admire about all of the
groups.
Game Notes: Your minor disability is the fact that your bases are stuck at size
four (4) until you get the technology to build Hab-Complexes. That's easy to get
around. A program of thin, rapid expansion will completely negate your "small
city syndrome." Much more pervasive though, is the problem you have with
support. This alone is what keeps you from playing too much like a Hybrid or
Momentum player, at least until Clean reactors (mid-game).
Face it, until you have Clean Reactors, you're not going to have a big army, and
all of the social choices you are tempted to make only worsen your support
problems. You'll almost certainly be tempted toward Democracy (once you get Hab-
Complexes), which only magnifies your support problem, and your other tempting
social choice in the early game actually worsens your military problems in the
form of low morale (Wealth). Taken together, these are not ingredients which
make you a military powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination.
Having said that, you might be wondering what good they are, and my answer would
be simple. Money. Specifically, one energy per square. That is the holy grail,
and you can get to it much more easily than any other faction in the game
(everybody else has to run Market, but you can do it with Wealth alone). Of
course, a lot of new players take one look at Market's penalties and wonder what
good it is, but think it through: +1 energy per square, times the number of
bases you have, times their size-class, and that's BEFORE you take into account
energy banks and other economy-enhancing facilities. That's not a one-time
bonus, either. That's the amount of extra cash you're getting every turn. I'll
give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the floor and get over the shock, and
then we'll continue.
In short, you can very easily make obscene amounts of cash (not to mention the
fact that Wealth gives you a +1 Industry rating). What this means for you is
that you can very quickly afford to do absolutely anything. Why worry about
making much of an army when you can keep a couple Probe Teams scattered around
your empire and simply subvert the would-be invasion force? Sure, keep a core
group around, some sturdy garrison types, but the rest of the army is entirely
optional for you, and when you DO subvert enemy troops, compare them to the ones
you're using for garrison duty. If yours are better, disband his to speed up
whatever secret project you're working on. If his are better, keep them and
disband your obsolete troops.
The majority of the base facilities you can build do one of three things:
Control your drones, boost your labs, or boost your cash. All three of these
things are important to you, so Morgan almost always draws Builder types. Every
once in a while, someone comes along to play Morgan as a Hybrid, but he's a
merchant at heart, and merchants do not profit by killing their customers, so of
all the factions, Morgan tends to be the most steadfastly peaceful.
Not to say they can't fight, mind you. There is nothing more humiliating than
unleashing a big attack force only to have it subverted out from under you and
then turned back in your face! And the Morganites have enough money to fight a
very long attrition war. They don't need great troops, because they can crank an
endless supply of average ones. Kill one, and two more appear. Sooner or later,
you'll either give up the fight or be crushed by the weight of them.
One hidden disadvantage of the Morganites, though, is that all that money tends
to breed complacency when it comes to building military units, and also, there
is a risk that you will become haughty and assume you are untouchable. Avoid
this! About the time you think that, the guy with the Hunter-Seeker algorithm
(or, just as bad, Sister Miriam) will come looking to pick a fight with you!
If I said Recycling Tanks, would you be surprised? Followed closely by the
Energy Bank (to enhance your cash and make it easier to rush-build everything
else), Recreation Commons, and Network Node. If you're not close to anybody,
then don't even bother with offensive/defensive builds, focusing entirely on
infrastructure. This will put you on par or better than the University, and
should see you taking the tech lead in short order.
One final note: Morgan is a LOUSY choice if you want to play Momentum style. The
support costs limit the size of your army, and your troops are only average to
start with.....if you want to play Momentum style, find a different faction
unless you're just looking for a way to challenge yourself.
And those, in a nutshell, are the factions that make up the game. Think about
which one(s) mesh the best with your personal style and play them relentlessly
until you feel you've perfected your style with that group, and then move on to
another. Within each faction, you will find a staggering number of nuiances,
which will translate into an almost limitless number of game variations to play
out!
================================================================================
The Landmarks
================================================================================
There are several landmarks on Planet. Most of the landmarks give you
extra resources.
FRESHWATER SEA: The richest aquatic region of Planet which provides +1
Nutrients per square.
GARLAND CRATER: Made by a comet or another flying object, this crater
produces an extra +1 Mineral bonus.
GEOTHERMAL SHALLOWS: Many underwater geysers provide +1 Energy per square.
GREAT DUNES: A desert which provides no bonus resources. It is a rather
inhospitable place to live.
MONSOON JUNGLE: A vast rainforest- like area which produces +1 Nutrients
per square.
MOUNT PLANET: An enormous active volcano, which produces a +1 bonus of
both Minerals and Energy per square on its slopes.
NEW SARGASSO: A large growth of underwater fungus. If provides no bonus
resources; however, you can harvest the fungus.
PHOLUS RIDGE: The geothermal energy produced here, produces +1 Energy per
square.
SUNNY MESA: It provides no resource bonuses, but due to its elevation, it
is a good spot for solar collectors and Echelon Mirrors.
THE RUINS: A ring of monoliths, which provide no bonuses, other than the
monoliths themselves.
URANIUM FLATS: A location with many elements, which provide +1 Energy per
square.
================================================================================
Secret Projects
================================================================================
ASCENT TO TRANSCENDENCE: End of Human Era
ASCETIC VIRTUES: Population limit relaxed; +1 Police
BULK MATTER TRANSMITTER: +2 Minerals at each base
CITIZENS' DEFENSE FORCE: Perimeter Defense at each base
CLINICAL IMMORTALITY: Extra talent at each base
CLONING VATS: Population boom at all the bases
COMMAND NEXUS: Command Center at each base
CYBORG FACTORY: Bioenhancement Center at each base
DREAM TWISTER: Psi Attack +50%
EMPATH GUILD: Commlink for every faction
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT: +1 Talent at each base
HUNTER- SEEKER ALGORITHM: Immunity to Probe Teams
LIVING REFINERY: +2 Support
LONGEVITY VACCINE: Fewer drones/ more profits
MARITIME CONTROL CENTER: Naval Movement +2; naval bases
MERCHANT EXCHANGE: +1 Energy each square at the base
NANO FACTORY: Repair units; low upgrade costs
NETWORK BACKBONE: +1 Lab per commerce/ net node
NEURAL AMPLIFIER: Psi Defense +50%
PHOLUS MUTAGEN: Ecology Bonus; Lifecycle bonus
PLANETARY DATALINKS: Any tech known to three others
PLANETARY TRANSIT SYSTEM: New bases begin at size three
SELF- AWARE COLONY: Maintenance halve; Extra police
SINGULARITY INDUCTOR: Quantum Converter at each base
SPACE ELEVATOR: Energy +100%/ Orbital cost halved
SUPERCOLLIDER: Labs +100% at the base
TELEPATHIC MATRIX: No more drone riots; +2 Probe
THEORY OF EVERYTHING: Labs +100% at the base
UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR: 2 Free Techs
Virtual World: Network Nodes help drones
VOICE OF PLANET: Begins Ascent to Transcendence
WEATHER PARADIGM: Terraform +50%
XENOEMPATHY DOME: Fungus movement bonus
================================================================================
Facilities
================================================================================
(#)= Maintenance
- AEROSPACE COMPLEX- +2 Morale: Air; Air defense +100%;(2)
- BIOENHANCEMENT CENTER- +2 Morale: Air; (2)
- BIOLOGY LAB- Research and Psi; (1)
- CENTAURI PRESERVE- Ecology Bonus; (2)
- CHILDREN'S CRECHE- Growth/ Effic/ Morale;(1)
- COMMAND CENTER- +2 Morale: Land; (Varies)
- ENERGY BANK- Economy Bonus; (1)
- FUSION LAB- Economy and Labs Bonus; (3)
- GENEJACK FACTORY- Minerals; More Drones; (2)
- HAB COMPLEX- Increase Population Limit; (2)
- HABITATION DOME- Increase Population Limit; (4)
- HEADQUARTERS- Efficiency; (0)
- HOLOGRAM THEATRE- Psych; Fewer Drones;(3)
- HYBRID FOREST- Economy/ Psych/ Forest;(4)
- NANOHOSPITAL- Labs and Psych Bonus; (4)
- NANOREPLICATOR- Minerals Bonus;(6)
- NAVAL YARD- +2 Morale: Sea; Sea Defense +100%; (2)
- NESSUS MINING STATION- +1 Minerals ALL Bases; (0)
- NETWORK NODE- Labs Bonus; (1)
- ORBITAL DEFENSE POD- Missile Defense; (0)
- ORBITAL POWER TRANSMITTER- +1 Energy ALL Bases; (0)
- PARADISE GARDEN- +2 Talents; (4)
- PERIMETER DEFENSE- Defense +100%; (0)
- PRESSURE DOME- Submersion/ Resources; (0)
- PSI GATE- Teleport; (2)
- PUNISHMENT SPHERE- No Drones; -50% Tech; (2)
- QUANTUM CONVERTER- Minerals Bonus; (5)
- QUANTUM LAB- Economy and Labs bonus; (4)
- RECREATION COMMONS- Fewer Drones; (1)
- RECYCLING TANKS- Bonus Resources; (0)
- RESEARCH HOSPITAL- Labs and Psych bonus; (3)
- ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY PLANT- Minerals Bonus; (4)
- SKUNKWORKS- Prototypes are Free; (1)
- SKY HYDROPONICS LAB- +1 Nutrient ALL Bases; (0)
- STOCKPILE ENERGY- Minerals to Energy; (0)
- TACHYON FIELD- ALL Defense +100%; (2)
- TEMPLE OF PLANET- Ecology Bonus; (3)
- TREE FARM- Economy/ Psych/ Forest; (3)
================================================================================
Technologies
================================================================================
Biogenetics
The alien environment on Planet brought a host of unforseen
health problems for the colonists. Early inquiries into
{Biogenetics} center on the prevention and treatment
of these problems. Researchers in this discipline seek
an understanding of the entire human genetic code.
Industrial Base
The first colonies lack any kind of factories or heavy
industry, so the creation of an {Industrial Base} becomes
a high priority for economic growth. This Industrial Base
emphasizes small-scale manufacturing with primitive assembly
lines and simple currency instruments.
Information Networks
Survival equipment from the [Unity] contained a variety
of computers purpose-built for the needs of a frontier
society. However, they must first be connected into
{Information Networks} before scientists can utilize
their power.
Applied Physics
The colonists must create new tools from the wreckage of
the [Unity] to survive and expand. Early inquiries into
{Applied Physics} emphasize this adaptation of existing
technology for the new environment.
Social Psych
The overcrowding aboard the [Unity] following the premature
wakeup caused terrible conditions for the crew, but also
generated valuable data concerning humans under extreme
environmental stresses. Analysis of this data provides
the first comprehensive, mathematical insight into the
{Social Psychology} of humans.
Doctrine: Mobility
The early colonists quickly learned the importance of
reconnaissance and self-defense in this most alien
of environments. {Doctrine: Mobility} formalizes
these cornerstones of military might, representing
the first attempts at an organized defense policy
on Planet.
Centauri Ecology
Finding adequate sources of nutrients, energy, and
minerals is the most immediate problem facing the
colonists after Planetfall. An
understanding of the basics of {Centauri Ecology}
provides humans with the tools they need to begin
shaping the world around them-how plants grow, what
geological structures exist, and how natural energy
sources may be exploited on Planet.
Superconductor
The power requirements of [Optical Computers (D3)]
and the nascent [Industrial Base (B1)] stimulate
research into high-temperature {Superconductors},
an advance long considered a ‘holy Grail’ by physical
chemists. A {Superconductor} is a material
that does not resist a flow of electrons. Using a
{Superconductor}, power can be transmitted at incredible
speeds over vast distances with no degradation. Bulky
and expensive cooling equipment for high-powered
machinery or weaponry becomes unnecessary, because these
materials remain cool and efficient as electricity passes
through them.
Nonlinear Mathematics
By using the power of [Information Networks (D1)] to speed
calculations and encourage collaborations, researchers
make giant strides in the field of {Nonlinear Mathematics},
with significant military applications.
Applied Relativity
Albert Einstein developed his theories of relativity between
1905 and 1916; complete explanations of his work may be found
in a number of sources. Later research into [Advanced Subatomic
Theory (B3)] and [Superconductors (C4)] demonstrated that his
postulates, though innovative for his time, were incomplete. {Applied
Relativity} takes Einstein's basic theories and updates them to
encompass an understanding of newly-discovered phenomena.
Fusion Power
An extremely clean, powerful, and efficient source of energy,
{Fusion Power} was known on Earth for decades as the reaction
that powered the stars. However, scientists could not control
the huge magnitude of released energy, so the only practical
application for {Fusion Power} was in bombs of enormous destructive
power. With the advent of [Superconductors (C4)], and by using
[Pre-sentient Algorithms (D5)] to monitor and control the released
energy, humanity finally has access to cheap, abundant, and
reusable power.
Silksteel Alloys
The growing field of [Industrial Automation (B3)] causes
increased demand for new kinds of material that can withstand
the incredible stresses of the robotic factories. Discoveries
in [Advanced Subatomic Theory (B3)] provide engineers with
these materials, dubbed {Silksteel Alloys} for their
extraordinary tensile strength and flexibility.
Advanced Subatomic Theory
Discoveries in [High Energy Chemistry (C2)] point the way
to a new {Advanced Subatomic Theory} that tries to detect
and quantify the smallest possible underlying particles of
matter. Using self-modifying [Polymorphic Software (D2)],
the physicists developing this theory give mankind a window
on the infinitesimal building blocks of the universe.
High Energy Chemistry
Breakthroughs in [Applied Physics (C1)] and [Industrial Base
(B1)] lead to an understanding of {High Energy Chemistry}.
This discipline seeks to understand the properties and
behavior of matter at very high temperatures, and results
in new types of materials that remain in a stable plasma
state even when superheated by intense laser stimulation.
Frictionless Surfaces
Discovery of the [Unified Field Theory (D10)] allowed
scientists to alter the fundamental properties of matter
itself. The discovery of {Frictionless Surfaces} proves
the most useful application of these techniques. As the
name implies, {Frictionless Surfaces} consist of materials
that remain unaffected by friction, a force that slows
down motion by changing kinetic energy into heat energy.
Moving objects made of these materials do not slow down
as they come into contact with other matter.
Nanometallurgy
Driven by the requirements of [Doctrine: Initiative (E5)]
and the mathematical models behind [Probability Mechanics
(B7)], {Nanometallurgy} techniques allow engineers to
manipulate metals at the molecular level.
Superstring Theory
One of the more contentious debates that ran through the
physics community of 20th century Earth centered on the
viability of {Superstring Theory}. This theory attempts
to unify the theory of gravity and other fundamental forces,
and posits that all characteristics exhibited by subatomic
particles, such as protons and neutrons, may be described as
vibrations of fundamental, one-dimensional ‘strings’. This
concept had been abandoned as untestable, until the development
of [Nonlinear Mathematics (C2)], which offers mathematical
models supporting {Superstring Theory}.
Advanced Military Algorithms
Military requirements have historically pushed technology
forward, and no better example can be found than sophisticated
software development. From the first computers, designed to
calculate artillery shell trajectories, to {Advanced Military
Algorithms} developed from [Polymorphic Software (D2)] and
[Doctrine: Flexibility (E2)], mankind has worked to extend
warfare into the digital world.
Monopole Magnets
Magnetism, like electricity and gravity, is one of the
fundamental forces of the universe. Prior to research
in [Superstring Theory (C5)] and [Silksteel Alloys (E4)],
all known magnets were dipolar, with a north and a south
pole. Development of a {Monopole Magnet} permits radical
new applications for science and industry.
Matter Compression
Breakthroughs in [Nanominiaturization (B8)] and
[Nanometallurgy (E8)] lead to complex {Matter
Compression} techniques. Using these techniques,
scientists can create materials as dense as the
inside of a star, with significant military and
industrial applications.
Unified Field Theory
Scientists have long worked towards a single theory
that explains all fundamental forces in
nature (gravity, magnetism, etc.)-a {Unified Field
Theory}. Advances in [Monopole Magnets (B6)] and
[Applied Relativity (D5)] help reveal these fundamental
mechanics of the universe.
Graviton Theory
[Quantum Machinery (D12)] and [Mind\Machine Interface
(B6)] pave the way for an understanding of gravity-the
weakest fundamental force in the universe, but one that
acts at infinite distances. With {Graviton Theory},
physicists can detect and measure the long-predicted
gravitons-particle strings that ‘carry’ gravitational force.
Polymorphic Software
On Earth, only theoretical mathematicians and entertainment
software programmers used {Polymorphic Software}--self-modifying
code--to any success. On Planet, the requirements of the budding
[Industrial Base (B1)] and [Information Networks (D1)]
spur widespread development of neural net applications that rewrite
themselves in response to data inputs.
Applied Gravitonics
Once physicists discover [Graviton Theory (E13)], they
turn their attention to {Applied Gravitonics}--the control
of gravity itself. By controlling and manipulating the
graviton strings that carry gravitational force, mankind
can levitate objects regardless of mass or proximity to
other objects.
Quantum Power
Earth scientist Max Planck first coined the term "quantum"
to describe an individual particle of light. Planck though
each quantum was indivisible, so that a fraction of a
quantum could not exist. One of the more startling
discoveries arising from [Unified Field Theory] was
that individual quantum actually could be split into
component sub-particles, much like atoms may be split
through fission. The energy released by {Quantum Power}
is several orders of magnitude greater than ordinary [Fusion Power].
Singularity Mechanics
Knowledge of [The Secrets of Creation (D11)] paved the
way for understanding {Singularity Mechanics}. This
technology seeks the physical causes and composition
of black holes-phenomena produced by points of infinitely
dense matter that warp the fabric of space and time
itself. Probes guided by onboard [Self-aware Machines
(B11)] transmit the data necessary to replicate this
natural occurrence in controlled laboratory conditions.
Controlled Singularity
As engineers quickly discovered, it’s one thing to
understand [Singularity Mechanics (D12)] and another
thing entirely to attempt {Controlled Singularity}--harnessing
and directing the powers of a black hole. Breakthroughs in
[Applied Gravitronics (E14)] finally make this technology
possible, with a host of amazing and potent applications,
from radical new types of weaponry to global power sources.
Temporal Mechanics
Breakthroughs in [Eudaimonia (E12)] and [Matter
Transmission (B17)] lead to the last great discovery
of the physical universe: {Temporal Mechanics}, the
manipulation of time itself.
Probability Mechanics
With operating systems powered by [Pre-sentient Algorithms
(D5)], computers finally gain sufficient processing power
to unravel the mysteries of {Probability Mechanics}. With
this breakthrough, humans can accurately predict many
seemingly random events.
Pre-Sentient Algorithms
The philosophy of [Cyberethics (B4)] and the technology of
[Advanced Military Algorithms (E3)] pave the way for
development of {Pre-sentient Algorithms}. These open-ended
neural net programs can sort and process exebytes of data,
‘learning’ as they do so and adapting to the world they observe.
Super Tensile Solids
The requirements of [Advanced Spaceflight (E8)] and
the possibilities inherent in [Matter Compression
(C9)] lead to research in {Super Tensile Solids}. These
materials possess such strength as to be functionally
unbreakable in a natural environment.
Planetary Networks
Once the colonists discovered how to survive, they focus on recreating
some of the organizational tools left behind on Earth.
Following the implementation of simple [Information
Networks (D1)], the creation of a standard for {Planetary
Networks} emerges as a high priority for the scientific community.
Digital Sentience
When utilized as part of [Industrial Nanorobotics
(B9)], the [Mind\Machine Interface (B6)] provides
the key spark needed by computers to at last achieve
{Digital Sentience}. These new artificial intelligences
have all the hallmarks of an individual organism:
they respond to their environment, adapt to stimuli,
and even exhibit advanced ‘personalities’ based on
their respective abilities and preferences.
Self-Aware Machines
Following the advent of [Digital Sentience (D10)],
computers have only one great leap left: the evolution
to {Self-Aware Machines}. These machines are capable
of complex, higher-order thinking, and value the experience
of existence as much as any human. As with other living
organisms, self-preservation is paramount for these specimens.
Doctrine: Initiative
The slow moving foils and transports developed under
[Doctrine: Flexibility (E2)] provided an adequate early
naval force. However, materials and manufacturing
advances resulting from [Industrial Automation (B3)]
make possible new classes of powerful ships developed
as part of {Doctrine: Initiative}, which stresses the
importance of global naval superiority.
Doctrine: Flexibility
Many radical young military officers felt that [Doctrine:
Mobility (E1)] did not go far enough in the development
of fast attacks and quick reconnaissance, because Mobility
only takes land forces into account. These leaders work
to create the first navies on Planet, based on {Doctrine:
Flexibility}--co-ordination and co-operation between forces
made possible by control of the sea.
Intellectual Integrity
The search for {Intellectual Integrity} arises from
questions posed by [Ethical Calculus (E2)] and [Doctrine:
Loyalty (C2)]. According to this philosophy, valid
wisdom comes merely from asking questions unburdened
by prejudices. Only by shedding those pre-conceived
notions can we achieve the clarity of undistorted knowledge.
Synthetic Fossil Fuels
The extreme efficiency with which the neural net
fungus managed Planet's vast ecosystem kept extensive
deposits of organic material from forming over the epochs.
Because of this lack, the fossil fuels known on Earth
never developed, forcing early colonists to rely on less
efficient alternative sources of energy. However, advances
in [Advanced Subatomic Theory (B3)] and [Gene Splicing (B3)]
finally allow humans to short-circuit the eons-long process,
providing them with the {Synthetic Fossil Fuels} needed
to build advanced vehicles and machinery.
Doctrine: Air Power
Mankind had brought the knowledge of atmospheric flight
to Planet, but not the materials to build and maintain
large quantities of aircraft in Planet's harsh conditions.
With the discovery of [Synthetic Fossil Fuels (E4)] for
materials and a renewed emphasis on [Doctrine: Flexibility (E2)],
humans can again make the leap into the clouds.
Photon/Wave Mechanics
Physicists had puzzled over the mystery of light for
centuries: Why does light exhibit properties characteristic
of both a wave and a particle? In 1924, Prince Louis-Victor
de Broglie, a French scientist, proved that all particles
actually possess a wave aspect, which explained how light
can act as a wave even though it does consist of
particles, called photons. Following breakthroughs
in [Silksteel Alloys (E4)] and [Applied Relativity
(D5)], subsequent scientific inquiry focuses on the
manipulation of {Photon\Wave Mechanics} so that light,
even powerful laser beams or intense solar emissions,
can be diffused and warped as needed.
Mind/Machine Interface
Research into [Neural Grafting (C4)] demonstrated that
direct communications between the human brain and a
digital counterpart are theoretically possible. This
{Mind\Machine Interface}, requested by leaders
implementing [Doctrine: Air Power (E5)] for a new
generation of aircraft, bridges the gap between the
mechanical and the biological.
Nanominiaturization
[Monopole Magnets (B6)] and [Organic Superlubricants
(C7)] lead to a revolution in engineering: {Nanominiaturization}.
With this technology, which emphasizes new assembly methods
and high-tensile strength materials, microscopic machine
components can be constructed and all manner of bulky,
heavy equipment can be shrunk to a fraction of its original size.
Doctrine: Loyalty
[Doctrine: Mobility (E1)] proved a sound dogma for the
early years on Planet. However, as the struggle for
survival against native Mind Worms and rival factions
intensifies, many younger officers repudiate the old
guard’s emphasis on Mobility as the dominant military
policy. Based also on the revelations of [Social Psych
(B1)], the new {Doctrine: Loyalty} stresses extensive
training, defensive facilities, and zealous dedication
to faction leaders as the foundation for survival and
success in combat. {Doctrine: Loyalty} emphasizes a
two-way fealty--soldiers are expected to lay down their
lives without question, but in return they receive
respect, power, and positions of authority in the new
social hierarchy.
Ethical Calculus
Throughout the history of mankind, philosophers have
grappled with the question: ‘How shall we then live?’
{Ethical Calculus} lays down mathematical principles
uncovered by [Social Psych (B1)] to address this question,
essentially providing calculations and functions that
determine appropriate human behavior.
Industrial Economics
Early industry on Planet centered on the creation
of a frontier [Industrial Base (B1)] featuring primitive
assembly lines and simple currency instruments. Soon,
leaders in the financial sectors push for a more
comprehensive {Industrial Economics} policy to accommodate
free trade and other strategies for multiplying capital.
Industrial Automation
The creation of [Planetary Networks (D2)] and
widespread adoption of [Industrial Economics
(B2)] lead to rapid industrialization of the
virgin Planet. Lacking the traditional masses
of Earth’s working class, leaders must now develop
complete {Industrial Automation} for production
and assembly , building modest factories where
all repetitive nonskilled jobs, from janitor to
VP of Sales, are handled by sophisticated robotics.
Centauri Meditation
[Centauri Empathy (E3)] and [Ecological Engineering
(E4)] reveal the vastness and complexity of the
ecosystem on Planet. Research into {Centauri
Meditation} illuminates the next, almost terrifying
step-the attempt to communicate directly with
Planet itself.
Secrets of the Human Brain
All past research on memory, learning, the senses,
and other aspects of the human brain did not answer
one basic question: what is the biological mechanism
of self-awareness? Research into [Biogenetics (D1)]
and [Social Psych (B1)] finally resolves the last of
the {Secrets of the Human Brain}, providing mankind
with understanding of the fundamentals of consciousness.
Gene Splicing
Widespread adoption of the philosophy of [Ethical
Calculus (E2)] removes opposition to genetic
experimentation in plant and animal DNA, while
advances in [Biogenetics (D1)] provide techniques
for the incipient field of {Gene Splicing}. This
technology allows researchers to insert new DNA
coding into existing genetic material so that
entire traits, from disease resistance to a stable
personality, can be copied from one organism and
transferred to any number of others.
Bio-Engineering
[Gene Splicing (B3)] and [Neural Grafting (C4)]
exemplify crude and invasive techniques for modifying
an organism. The more refined {Bio-engineering}
method arranges a desired genetic code directly
from the component compounds, enabling widespread
and economical cellular transplants for an entire
population.
Biomachinery
Early experiments in [Retroviral Engineering (C5)]
and the [Mind\Machine Interface (B6)] paved the way
for true {Biomachinery}--the full integration of
man and machine at the cellular level.
Neural Grafting
The insatiable drive for efficiency spawned by
[Industrial Automation (B3)] drives the development
of {Neural Grafting}. This new technology, based
on [Secrets of the Human Brain (D2)], allows
attachment of digital circuitry directly to
the neural cortex. With these implants, humans
willing to undergo {Neural Grafting} can enhance
many aspects of their physical being, from heightened
senses to faster reaction times.
Cyberethics
Widespread adoption of [Planetary Networks (D2)]
and the philosophy of [Intellectual Integrity (E3)]
allows for a coherent system of {Cyberethics},
outlining the proper relationship of computers
to society.
Eudaimonia
{Eudaimonia} is a philosophical system that takes
its name from an ancient Greek word for fulfillment
and happiness. Based on economic equity made
possible by [Sentient Econometrics (E11)] and
rooted in opposition to the excesses of [The
Will to Power (E8)], {Eudaimonia} encourages
each citizen to achieve happiness through striving
to fulfill completely his or her potential;
freedom, creativity, and individuality flourish
in governments that adopt this philosophy.
The Will to Power
Following the development of [Homo Superior (E7)], many
advocated a return to Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy
of {The Will To Power}. This philosophy stresses
the importance of strength, asceticism, and
resolute action, often at the cost of compassion,
charity, and other traditionally religious
qualities.
Threshold of Transcendence
The [Secrets of Creation (D11)] and [Temporal
Mechanics (B18)] brought humanity to the brink
of a new era--the {Threshold of Transcendence}.
In this transitional state, people begin preparations
for the final stage of human evolution, selling
possessions, cleansing their bodies according to
a new code of asceticism, and meditating alone
and unprotected in the remote regions of Planet.
Matter Transmission
[Matter Editation (B16)] and the [Secrets of
Alpha Centauri (D12)] point the way to one of
the most celebrated concepts in science
fiction--{Matter Transmission}. Transmitters
based on this technology disassemble objects
into the smallest component sub-particles, then
transmits those particles and their underlying
structural blueprint to a receiver. The
receiver reassembles these objects according to
the blueprint, recreating the original in
every nuance and detail.
Centauri Empathy
Based on [Secrets of the Human Brain (D2)] and
[Centauri Ecology (E1)], {Centauri Empathy}
espouses a philosophy of environmental harmony,
emphasizing the search for mankind’s proper niche
in the global ecosystem.
Environmental Economics
Industrial expansion often comes at the cost of
ecological stability. The business practice of
{Environmental Economics} addresses this problem
by finding and exploiting areas where
environmental and industrial concerns overlap,
such as sustainable resource use, eco-tourism,
and organic product development. By combining
the principles of [Industrial Economics (B2)]
and [Ecological Engineering (E4)] in this new
business model, ecological stability becomes
a profitable endeavor.
Ecological Engineering
Humans have always shown remarkable skill at
innovation and ingenuity in the face of environmental
hurdles. Expansion on a new Planet highlights
these traits once again in the form of {Ecological
Engineering}. Based on the discoveries of [Centauri
Ecology (E1)] and [Gene Splicing (B3)], this research
leads to new ways of thriving within the existing
ecosystem, rather than competing with it.
Planetary Economics
Early industrial policy on Planet centered on
individual markets and sectors, such as
[Environmental Economics (B5)], but these
separate sectors create inefficiencies. Proponents
of [Intellectual Integrity (E3)] insist that these
inefficiencies are unnecessary, and work to create
a system of {Planetary Economics} where goods and
services can flow freely.
Adv. Ecological Engineering
The discovery of [Fusion Power (D6)] opened up
staggering possibilities in a number of endeavors,
including the field of [Environmental Economics
(B5)]. Based on the cumulative experience from
thousands of construction projects undertaken
since Planetfall, {Advanced Ecological Engineering}
marks a new milestone in man’s ability to manipulate
his environment.
Centauri Psi
[Centauri Genetics (E6)] and [Advanced Ecological
Engineering (B10)] revealed the physical composition
of native life forms, but did not explain the
mysterious and terrifying psionic attacks these
creatures employ. Unlocking the mechanics of
this directed, psychic assault requires intense
investigation of {Centauri Psi}--the method used
by the Mind Worms to communicate and co-ordinate
their assaults.
Secrets of Alpha Centauri
Some digital sentiences churn through exebytes
of Planet-related data in their never-ending quest
to untangle [Sentient Econometrics (E11)]. The
best of these sentiences do not stop at sorting
economic data, but extend their inquiries into
[Centauri Psi (E11)] and other Planetary phenomena.
They work to reveal these {Secrets of Alpha Centauri}
as a kind of personal challenge, to prove themselves
as machines that can not only conquer the intricacies
of human society, but also the magnificent complexities
of a Planet-wide ecosystem.
Secrets of Creation
Those who embrace [The Will To Power (E8)] must
eventually confront the ultimate philosophical
question: What is the purpose and order of the
universe? Confirmation of the [Unified Field
Theory (C7)] finally gives mankind the tools to
answer this question in the search for the
{Secrets of Creation}.
Advanced Spaceflight
Resumption of {Advanced Spaceflight} begins
shortly after mankind begins [Orbital Spaceflight
(E7)]. With this technology, spacecraft can once
again reach the moons orbiting Planet and,
eventually, the stars themselves.
Homo Superior
Breakthroughs in [Biomachinery (B9)] and [Doctrine:
Initiative (E5)] paved the way for a new kind of organism
that is equal parts human and computer. The human
aspect thrives at physical manipulation and emotional
experience, while the digital aspect excels at
calculation and data processing. This {Homo Superior}
integrates the best of man and machine.
Organic Superlubricant
Machines with moving parts have long been subject
to wear and tear as the parts grind against one
another. On Earth, traditional lubricants such
as oil were used to minimize these effects.
Planet lacks large reserves of such materials,
until the invention of [Synthetic Fossil Fuels
(E4)]. With {Organic Superlubricant}, scientists
can create lubricating compounds that act like
simple life forms, seeking out areas where they
do the most good.
Quantum Machinery
The discovery of [Quantum Power (B11)] ushers in
a new industrial revolution. In factories across
Planet, tiny {Quantum Machinery} built using
[Nanometallurgy (E8)] techniques provide amazingly
powerful and efficient labor for every imaginable
type of production and service.
Matter Editation
Not long after the breakthroughs in [Super Tensile
Solids (B10)] and [Self-aware Machines (B11)],
engineers clamor to research the last major hurdle
in physical manipulation--{Matter Editation}. This
technique actually changes the physical structure of
individual atoms, altering characteristics like
energy states, spin, atomic weight, and the number
of protons as though they were entries in a database.
This technology is the modern embodiment of the ancient
quest to turn lead into gold-transmutation of elements
made possible by atomic manipulation.
Optical Computers
The widespread adoption of [Polymorphic Software
(D2)] increased demand for faster computers. The
revolutionary {Optical Computers}, which use photons
traveling at the speed of light for binary
calculations, prove nearly 70% faster than old
electron-based devices. Based on successes in
[Applied Physics (C1)], {Optical Computers} also
exponentially improve storage capacities and access
times.
Industrial Nanorobotics
The business leaders of Planet quickly perceived
the commercial potential of [Nanominiaturizion
(B8)], and constructed factories based around
{Industrial Nanorobotics}. These factories
utilize traditional [Industrial Automation
(B3)], but at a fraction of the size and cost.
Productivity skyrockets along with profitability,
as tiny robots churn out new products for consumption.
Centauri Genetics
The first contacts with Planetary sentience during
research on [Centauri Meditation (E5)] caused widespread
excitement among the scientific community. They propose
using new [Retroviral Engineering (C5)] techniques to
unravel {Centauri Genetics}--the structural blueprint
of native organisms.
Sentient Econometrics
For all the sophistication of its mathematical models,
[Planetary Economics (E6)] proved no better at
predicting the actions of markets and populations
than Wall Street prognosticators of 20th Century
Earth-there are too many unknown variables with
unforeseeable consequences. Proponents of {Sentient
Econometrics} take the best ‘intelligent computers’
developed under [Digital Sentience (D10)] and set
them to identifying these variables and predicting
their consequences. Under their diligent efforts,
economics finally becomes a true science.
Retroviral Engineering
{Retroviral Engineering}, a specialized branch of
[Bio-engineering (B4)], uses engineered viruses to
deliver genetic alterations. This application can
be used for peaceful, healing purposes, but can also
be twisted by the same militant researchers behind
[Advanced Military Algorithms (E3)] into a weapon
of terrible destruction.
Orbital Spaceflight
The early colonists certainly bring the technical
understanding of spaceflight with them, but they
lack the materials and infrastructure necessary
to construct spacecraft. Eventually, implementation
of [Doctrine: Air Power (E5)] furnishes the
infrastructure, while advanced [Pre-sentient
Algorithms (D5)] provide the tools for mankind’s
return to {Orbital Spaceflight}.
Transcendent Thought
Based on [Controlled Singularity (C16)] and
[Threshold of Transcendence (E19)], humanity
finally unlocks the keys to the final stage of
human evolution with {Transcendent Thought}--the
ability to contain a self-awareness, or ‘soul’,
outside the bounds of a corporeal form. Those
who so choose may now complete the Ascent to
Transcendence, joining their consciousness with
the Planetary mind in ageless immortality.
================================================================================
Getting Started
================================================================================
You've got your planet the way you want it, picked out a faction that fits "you"
pretty well, and now you're looking at the map. Not that there's much to see
just yet, amounting to all of about ten squares, but….it's a beginning., and at
this point, the game is fairly intuitive. Obviously, you need to found some
bases and start building stuff in order to advance the game, but once you get
the ball rolling, and your research efforts start to generate a few
technological breakthroughs, you will very quickly find yourself with a
staggering array of different things to build, and this has a tendency to throw
off the novice player. What to build and when? A very good question indeed, and
hopefully this section will help to shed some light on things.
Expansion and Growth:
With all of two colony pods and a scout patrol, it's a little early yet to be
thinking in stylistic terms. Right now, survival is the priority, and ensuring
your survival means having a good number of bases to work with. Regardless of
what kind of game you're playing, you're not going to get very far without a
solid foundation. Having said that, getting your empire up to a "critical mass"
with regards to overall number of bases is vitally important. Opinions vary and
differ about what exact number this "critical mass" is, but you could almost
universally ballpark it in the 10-15 range.
So, what's the best way to get to that number of bases in a hurry? Well, there
is no one "best way," but there are a number of pretty interesting approaches,
each with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. (Again: Remember that
during this phase of the game, your Empire is embryonic....it is not really
large enough to have a set "playing style." That is to say that any of these
early game strategies can be pursued by equally well, regardless of the play
style you eventually wish to fall into (Builder, Momentum, or Hybrid).
Early Game Paradigm #1: Monster Terraforming Avantage
Unless you're running democracy, each new base you found gets 10 free minerals.
This means you can get your token scout patrol guard for that base for free the
turn after you build the base in question. It also means you can add 25 energy
credits to it (before considering industry bonuses or penalties), and get a
former the turn after the base build, and THEN start work on your scout patrol.
Depending on what you do with your former at that point (and to that end, if
you're going to uses this approach, pay very close attention to the Basic
Terraforming section on the pages that follow), you can net yourself a powerful
advantage indeed. The simple fact is this: you are competing in time with one or
more opposing factions. The faster you can get your formers out and improving
things relative to your opponents, the better off you will be, as it will give
you the opportunity to make use of those improved production squares while your
opponent is not, netting you a mineral, energy, and/or nutrient advantage over
your opponent for each and every turn you are able to maintain that advantage.
Keep doing that with every base you found, and over the course of the game this
will net you a HUGE advantage, as each base's former will gain somewhere between
6-10 turns of terraforming activity over and above what your opponent is
getting. That's six to ten turns per former you have out terraforming. To give
that advantage some kind of tangible reference point, make the blanket
assumption that an improved (terraformed) piece of real estate will net you 2
FOP's (factors of production - energy, nutrient, or mineral) over and above what
a non-improved land square will net you. Multiply that by 6-10 (from above - the
number of "free" terraforming turns you can expect to get over and above your
opponent, and we will assume ten, for simplicity's sake), and further multiply
that by the number of bases (formers, specifically) you've got. Whatever number
you get is a fairly good estimate of the total advantage you've netted yourself
(ie., If you have ten bases, each with a rushed former, your estimated advantage
using the formula above would be (2*10) * 10 = 200 FOP's. If you consider that a
Trance Scout Patrol costs you 10 FOP's (10 minerals, specifically), you begin to
put the advantage in perspective. Of course, not all 200 of your FOP's will be
in the form of minerals. Likely, they will be a mixed bag of all three, but
that's okay too, because what it really means is that, relative to your
opponent, your bases will produce more minerals more quickly, give you more
money, and grow faster (which will enable you to make even MORE bases!). Keep
this theory in mind for later, when we get to the economy section….we will build
on it significantly.
For the moment, simply understand that taking this approach will help you grow
your empire more quickly than the norm, and it will also give you a viable
intra-base infrastructure more quickly than your opposition can put together.
Intra-base infrastructures consists of things like roads, bunkers, airfields,
and sensor arrays.
The beauty of this approach is that if you want to get a veritable HORDE of
bases up and running quickly (sans infrastructure, but that will come later),
then this is bar none, the best way to go about it. Build your formers first,
and while your base is working on it's token scout patrol, you can be
terraforming as mentioned above, and finish your first square at about the same
time your scout is done....then get to work on those colony pods!
The only infrastructure you will want to focus on with this style is Rec.
Commons (and only then if it looks like your base will grow to size three before
you could complete another colony pod at that base). The rest of your
infrastructure will come after you've reached critical mass, or covered your
entire continent in bases, whichever you choose.
The number of your bases will grow exponentially, and you'll fill up the
continent VERY quickly! (And, even though they will all be small, this will give
you an ENORMOUS pool of resources to work with. You can visually divide up your
empire in regions, and pick a certain base in each region for rapid development
via rush building, to give each region a strong point). The exponential growth
can be seen thusly: You begin with two bases, build two pods to get
four....everybody builds pods (after the former/scout thing), and you've got
eight before you know it.....16....32.....repeat as needed.
Main weakness of this style: If you get unlucky, and the worms come calling in
the few turns it takes to build the scout patrol after your former is out and
working, you lose the base. It's an exceedingly fast style, but not without
risk.
Early Game paradigm #2: Security Over Speed:
The basic assumption here is that, the world is a dangerous place, and you'd
better be prepared for that. To that end, the build order is similar, but the
timing is fundamentally different.
Build your two bases. Keep your freebie scout patrol in one of them.
The base containing the freebie scout starts working on a former first (and then
builds a scout of its own). The empty base builds a scout first and then a
former ((Stylistic Note!!: If you compare these two styles in play, you will see
that the first style nets you about 8-10 turns of additional former operation,
but does so at the expense of leaving the bases vulnerable for approximately 4
turns)).
Terraform as mentioned in the next few pages, and the next build your bases will
do will be another scout (which will eventually perform escort duty). In the
meantime, your freebie scout is now available for exploration, and the bases are
secure.
After the second scout is built, they can accompany the formers if they want to
do some exploring, or hang around in the bases until the colony pods are done.
When the pod is done, the "extra" scout moves to the new site with the pod, so
that from the get-go, the new base is protected (and you can change ownership of
the scout to the new base by using Ctrl-H, when the scout is in the base
square). The new base then builds a former/scout/pod and repeats the process.
Main weaknesses: Overall, this is a good deal slower than the first method, both
in terms of how quickly you get the pods cranked out, and in terms of how much
terraforming you get done, but the trade-off is safety. If you're on a landmass
with company, or are worried about worms, this is probably your best bet.
Expansion Paradigm #3: Specialized Base Expansion
This is great for people on small landmasses and for Marketeers. It's also great
for multiplayer games at it increases your overall flexibility (at the expense
of speed of colonization)
The initial scheme runs pretty similar to #2 (above), keeping your freebie scout
at home for a few turns until you build base guards, then, the focus turns
immediately to Rec. Tanks (for the additional +1/+1/+1 kick per turn. Then build
a pod, then a rec. common, and then back over to any one of the following: more
pods, guards, prototypes, or secret projects (depending on your needs at the
moment).
The big strength of this paradigm is the fact that your bases will be
exceedingly stable. You will only rarely experience riots, because your
infrastructural development will be kept pretty well in time with your base's
growth cycles. This style also facilitates an early switch to Market, and that's
a HUGE boon! However, it is not without its drawbacks.
The drawback here is a lack of speed. All that focus on base facilities means a
slower rate of expansion. Yes, you will have stable, profitable bases, but you
will also have fewer production centers. Depending on how your game developes,
(and on local geography)that could be anything from a minor irrtation to a
crippling disability.
Finally,
Expansion Paradigm #4: A Focus on factors of Efficiency.
This focuses on the specific points in the game when extra drones are created by
the growth of your empire. Here are the threshold points you need to remember:
Huge Planet: 11 Bases
Large Planet: 9 Bases
Standard Planet: 6 Bases
Small Planet: 5 Bases
Tiny Planet: 3 Bases
Go above any of these numbers on the planet of size 'x' and you get drones.
Therefore, the idea here is to grow your empire in "spurts." Let's assume you're
on a standard planet. Your first goal then, is to get yourself to six bases as
quickly as you can. Use the methodologies in Paradigm #1 to do this.
Once you are up to six bases, build a Rec. Tanks & a Rec. Commons, and then
switch to Market and start cranking out pods again….you next goal being twelve
(12) bases.
Once you get to twelve, stop again, and build the Rec. Tanks and Rec. Commons at
your newest bases, while your original bases go to work on more advanced
facilities, then move to the next "tier," of eighteen (18). Repeat until you
have filled up the continent.
The advantage here is that you solve the extra drone problem due to size, you
blend speedy expansion with infrastructure builds, and you do it in relative
safety. The drawback though, once again, is raw speed. This is still not as fast
an approach as paradigm 1, but it is probably the most balanced of the lot.
A quick note about SE choices in the Early game: You will find both Planned and
Wealth hard to beat in the early game, and both of them together are powerful
indeed!
Both Planned and Wealth confer a +1 Industry, with Wealth adding an Economy
kick, and Planned giving you a Growth bonus, and the good news is that a single
facility (the Children's Creche) can overcome the disadvantages of both of these
SE choices!
So, if you have Children's Creche's in all your bases, you're looking at nothing
but positives for running Planned/Wealth, and your bonuses (before you even
consider faction-specific bonuses) amount to:
+2 Industry (20% discount on all builds)
+1 Economy (+1 Energy per base)
+4 Growth (40% faster growth in all your bases, half coming from Planned, and
half coming from the Children's Creches themselves)
Terraforming 101:
Now that you've got a few different ideas to play with regarding how to pursue
expansion, it's time to take a closer look at the very best, most versatile unit
in the entire game: Meet "The Former."
Take a look at the good ol' Former. Get to know him very well indeed. Smart use
of this little unit will be instrumental in winning the bulk of your games, and
even in the mid and late game (after most of the really important terraforming
has already been done), you will find this unit to be surprisingly useful, and
always valuable.
The biggest thing to remember about terraforming in the early game is that you
are under some pretty tight restrictions until you reach certain key
technologies. Effectively, no square (unless it contains a resource bonus) can
produce more than two FOP's, regardless of type. Nutrient restrictions are the
first to be relaxed, then mineral, and last, energy.
Because of these relatively tight restrictions, and because of game mechanics
(ie., each citizen requires 2 units of food), growing big bases in the early
game just isn't very practical. In truth, getting big bases in the early game
really isn't al that important. There will be time for that later. The most
important thing to consider about early game bases is getting a base from size
one to size two, and then being able to build a colony pod or basic piece of
infrastructre fairly quickly (decent minerals).
To that end, the Monolith is the very best friend you've got in the early game.
The square gives you two of each, minerals, nutrients, and energy, plus it will
net your fledgling scouts a much needed morale boost to help battle the worms.
There's no such thing as too many monoliths in your territory!
Not far behind the monolith are rolling and rainy squares. These little guys
give you two nutrients and a mineral. Not bad, and it will help you grow quite
nicely, no terraforming at all needed. Later, a farm/solar collector can be
added to the square to heighten its natural advantages, and these squares are
even nicer if they happen to have a river running through them as well, as that
will give you an energy kick, on top of the food!
In third place would be any square containing a forest. A forest generates
(regardless of the underlying terrain) 1 nutrient, 2 minerals, and 1 energy.
Plant a forest in any resource bonus square and you've got a productive square
indeed! Just as monoliths and rolling/rainy squares are instrumental in getting
size one bases up to size two bases as quickly as possible, a couple of forest
squares in each base's production radius are instrumental in providing the base
enough mineral output to build more pods or early game infrastructure fairly
quickly.
Of course, I am unfairly biased. I am very fond of forests, both for their
efficiency and for their impact on eco-damage (which you won't have to worry
about until much later in the game). But because I am so partial to forests,
here's what I would recommend to any new player when your former is built at a
given base:
Scope out an area of flat terrain just outside your base, move the former there
and build a road. Exception to this rule: If there is a mineral or energy
resources square in the production radius of the base, and that resource is NOT
on a rocky terrain square, proceed to that square, build your road, then drop a
forest.
The road finishes in one turn on flat terrain. Start work on a forest (3 turns
to complete, in a flat terrain square)
When the forest is completed, take a peek at the production radius of the base
in question. If there is a nutrient resource square in the base's production
radius, move there and road + forest it. These two squares will provide you all
the raw materials you need to keep that base productive for the opening gambit
(and besides that, the forests will likely expand a bit on their own).
If there is no nutrient resources square, find the highest rolling/rainy or
rolling/moist elevation square in the base-production radius and build a
road/farm/solar collector there (if the square is rainy, then the farm won't
give you any immediate benefit, but will be in place for when those nutrient
restrictions are lifted) This will be the base's main square to springboard it
from size one to size two for pod building.
Once the former has done his two-square duty, he's off to do other stuff. How
you use the extra time you have with him is up to you, but here are some pretty
solid suggestions:
(My personal favorite): Scope out some places you want to build new bases, and
operate your formers in teams. One former builds a road out toward the new site,
and the other moves ahead to plop a sensor array down on the build location.
Make a road network which connects all your existing bases to facilitate defense
Don't let the former leave its base of origin at all....leave it nearby to
finish terraforming all squares in the production radius of the base. That way,
if the base is attacked, the former can scamper back inside base, get an armor
upgrade, and help defend it.
Considering the heavy restrictions you are under in the very early game, that's
about all you need to get started, terraforming wise. If you follow a smart
schedule of terraforming, providing each of your bases with a good mix of
forests and farms in rainy squares (where available), they will server you well
as the game progresses, new technologies are discovered, and those restrictions
begin to come off. The productivity of those squares will grow in time with your
empire, and you will find yourself well positioned to step into the much more
advanced Mid-game.
================================================================================
Focus
================================================================================
At this point (specifically, at the point when you find yourself with Industrial
Automation, the ability to change to Wealth on the SE table, and the ability to
create Supply Crawlers), there are few things you could do which will have a
greater impact on your game than this. Simply put, you are ready to do this. If
you delay, you will find yourself floundering. If you act decisively, you will
find yourself leaping far ahead of the pack. Also keep in mind that the things
touched on here will come back to visit you again later in the section called
"Studying the Metagame." This is the foundation of the Metagame.
We'll talk a great deal more about Supply Crawlers later on, but for now, just
realize that the Supply Crawler is the unit which makes it possible to define
your focus. They have a ton of other uses besides, but you've got to grow into
those uses. When you first get the ability to make them, using them to define
your focus is the very best move you can make. To define your focus, you simply
have your bases begin making supply crawlers whenever the opportunity presents
itself. You move the crawlers out to a resource square that is not currently
being utilized, and you begin harvesting one of the FOP's from that square for
the base that it is assigned to. Whatever factor of production you spend the
greatest amount of overall effort harvesting, that is your focus.
SMAC is all about efficiency. The more efficient you are at managing the factors
of production, the better off you will be. There are three factors of production
to manage in the framework of the game, and they must be managed over time
(which makes up a "fourth," albiet intangible factor).
You have seen the three factors, and will be spending quite a lot of time with
them in future sections, but for now, allow me to formally introduce them, and
the three possible focuses you can select:
Nutrient Focus
Mineral Focus
Energy Focus
When you put these three possible focuses together with the three possible play
styles, you get a much better sense for the type of game you will be playing.
For the time being, we will take a look at the focuses themselves, independent
of your particular playing style.
Nutrient focus: Your crawlers are out there harvesting lots of food. This has
the advantage that your bases are growing much more rapidly than they normally
would, and every time they grow, the number of squares each base works increases
accordingly, however, this does not come without drawbacks. More citizens means
more drones, and if you select this as your primary focus, you will need to
devote some time to pumping up your psych allocation, or building police
garrisons, or drone controlling facilities (or some combination of all three).
Note that due to base-size limitations, this is probably the weakest of the
three approaches, but it may have value in certain situations, and, it has the
advantage that, once your bases are of maximum possible size, you can simply
shift to a different focus. If you are isolated or at peace, and you cannot
execute a "Population Boom" (covered later in this guide), then this is a pretty
good approach to take as it will give you more citizens to work with, a good
number of specialists, and force you to spend time learning to cope with the
unruly elements of your Empire.
Much more interesting, however, are the choices of Mineral or Energy as your
primary focus.
Mineral Focus: Your crawlers are out there harvesting lots of minerals for each
of your bases. This does a number of things for you: First, it increases the
number of troops you can field per base. Eventually, no matter what your support
rating, the troops you create will begin to cost you an upkeep cost, amounting
to one mineral per unit, after a certain point (determined by that
aforementioned Support rating). Second, more minerals allows you to build things
in your production queue more quickly (troops, facilities, or what have you).
This is vitally important if you wish to put an infrastructure together quickly,
and one of the reasons it is such a strong, viable focus. Thirdly, it can give
you a decent income in the sense that if you do not need anything from a given
base, you can set that base to stockpiling energy, and reap the monetary
benefits of that base's enhanced mineral output.
It is not, however, without its drawbacks. Namely, it suffers from something of
a lack of flexibility. That is to say, mineral production is tied to each
particular base independently. If you want to boost mineral production at a
given base, you must build an additional crawler, and send it out to a new
location to harvest minerals. If you set up a given base to harvest minerals to
be your primary troop training center because of its favorable strategic
location, and the strategic situation changes, your base may suddenly be not
nearly as useful to you for the purpose you designed it. Then, you will need to
begin prepping a new base for that same role, which of course, takes time.
Therefore, a mineral focus works best when you are able to control the gaming
environment, and if at any point you lose control of the game environment, you
will find yourself scrambling to re-allocate your production.
Energy Focus: Your crawlers are out harvesting lots of energy. Again, this has a
number of effects: First, both per turn income and research rates increase. Both
of these are energy driven, and you attack two problems at once with this
approach. Second, it provides a great deal of fluidity, in the sense that your
income is not tied to a particular base, but may be "spent" anywhere you like,
and you can shift it from base to base as the situation warrants. This gives you
the maximum amount of flexibility possible, enabling you to shift as the game
shifts. Finally, it allows you to select bases on an individual basis and "rush-
build" whatever that base is currently building in order to finish it quickly,
leading to very rapid infrastructure development in selected bases.
It too, however, has drawbacks. First and foremost, an energy focus is at the
expense of minerals, meaning that each of your bases will be able to support a
relatively smaller number of troops, and that facility builds (unless you rush
them) will be comparatively slower than at bases with a mineral focus. Secondly,
an energy focus surrenders initiative to those with a mineral focus. With an
energy focus, you are essentially saying that you are willing to simply react to
changing game conditions rather than attempting to control them, and will rely
on your income's greater flexibility to be able to successfully react. It is the
tradeoff you make for faster research times.
Let me stress again that by defining your focus into one of these three areas,
that certainly does not mean that you cannot or will not build crawlers that
will harvest things outside your focus, it is merely a statement of where the
majority of your resource harvesting efforts are being directed, so think
carefully before committing yourself to one of the three. It is a tedious
process to change once you begin (especially when you get a great number of
Supply Crawlers out and working for you), and your focus will have a great
amount of impact on how your game continues to develop.
Once you settle on a focus, however, it is time to take a closer look at the
next stepping stone along the path to victory, and that would be your Empire's
economy.
Economic Theory - SMAC Style: - Creating Comparative Turn Advantage
Having already said that you can play the game without paying much attention at
all to your economy, the question above is a fair one, and to answer it, I would
say this: At the very heart and soul of Empire is the Economy. It supersedes the
army, and even technological research and innovation. Do not misunderstand me on
this. The production of war materials and research are vitally important to your
survival and eventual dominance, but an Empire's ability to produce quantities
of either is driven by the force and stability of that Empire's Economy. You
must understand that players who use a strictly militaristic focus are playing
the game from the previously discussed "Momentum" standpoint. Their key hope is
that their program of relentless assault can end the game before some Builder or
Hybrid player can build up a strong enough economy to stand against them.
Never forget these three facts:
Your Economy is the most versatile tool you have. In times of crisis, you can
configure it to crank out massive amounts of cash to fund your war effort (or
whatever), and in times of peace you can ratchet your research up through the
roof.
Contrast that to military units, which are actually only useful in three very
specific situations: If you are attacked, if you launch an attack, or if you can
make your opponent believe you are about to launch an attack (i.e. feint) (see
below on creating turn advantage). Otherwise, they simply take up space on the
board. They represent a certain amount of "potential energy." That is to say,
the potential to cause harm to another Empire or to defend your holdings.
Technological advances are likewise "potential energy." By themselves they do
nothing for you. You have to actually build something to get anything useful out
of them (a new prototype, base facility, secret project....something).
Factors of Production on Chiron:
You've already been introduced to them, and here they are again, this time, with
a slightly different treatment:
Nutrients: Enables your population to expand.
Minerals: Allows you to build stuff.
Energy: Drives your research efforts and puts cash in your pocket.
In order to build a healthy economy, attention must be paid to all three.
Your economy is driven by the function of the passage of Time acting against the
three factors of production listed above. It's like plate tectonics, with time
on one side and your productive factors on the other. You can vary your
economy's effectiveness versus Time (bigger or smaller "quakes" = speeding up or
slowing down) by adjusting your three factors of production.
Basic Economic Theory: The basics of Economic Theory are intuitive, but are
outlined below:
Makin' Big Cities: Maximize Nutrient output over time. Note that without
controls on growth (i.e., sufficient mineral production to produce anti-drone
facilities), your base will suffer chronic rioting.
Makin' Productive Cities: Maximize Mineral output over time. Lets you build
stuff very quickly. Too much mineral production leads to eco-damage, which in
turn, leads to worm rape....something you don't want to see. ;-)
Makin' Bill Gates Cities (Lots of Tech and Cash): Maximize energy output over
time. Generates money and research points very quickly, but comes with the ill-
effect that it takes a long time to build all the base facilities you need to
get to this point (i.e., it will take even longer if you don't balance this with
mineral production).
Intermediate Economic theory:
As I said above, basic management of the factors of productive is intuitive (if
you want the base to grow, give them lots of food....how hard is that?), but
since it is clear that taking any of the factors of production to their extreme
is probably detrimental in some way (to say nothing of the inefficiency it
creates), it becomes obvious that some balance needs to be struck. He who has a
clearer understanding of when to focus on which of the factors of production
will almost always be able to create a stronger economy than he who is content
to let the computer make production decisions.
Early game Economics: Energy production is basically unimportant in the early
game. You are starting from scratch. You have nothing. No infrastructure at all.
What you need is a good balance of Nutrients (to grow your population pretty
rapidly), and minerals (to build your first, most basic facilities fairly
quickly). Only when that has been accomplished should you begin to worry much
over energy production or enhancement. For this reason, planting forests is
probably the most important early-game terrain enhancing you can do. Due to
mineral and energy restrictions, early forests will produce as much as early
mines (and mines take 6-8 turns to build). Two forests (which tend to expand on
their own), or one mine? You don't have to be a student of economics to see
which is more efficient, and efficiency is the name of the game (and this
provides something in the way of a specific explanation of the terraforming
choices mentioned earlier in this guide).
Once you get your most essential base facilities constructed you should probably
shift into a more balanced mineral/nutrient mix (still not paying terribly much
attention to energy) in order to facilitate population growth, while using your
selected "focus" to heighten each base's per turn output of one of the factors
of production in particular. Here though, certain base facilities can make this
more efficient (don't kick up your nutrient harvesting until you finish your
children's creche, otherwise you're just spinning your wheels). Also, monitor
your growth constantly as your bases creep up on their maximum size, and adjust
your nutrient output accordingly. You don't want any wasted effort if you can
help it. Wasted effort and resource is an opportunity for your opponent to close
the gap on you and possibly overtake you.
================================================================================
Economy
================================================================================
Mid Game Economics (a look ahead): Energy begins to become important and
nutrients become secondary. Even with a purely nutrient focus, your bases will
still take a long time to grow, and by the mid-game, you've got other things to
worry about (like jacking your tech advances down to four turns or less), so you
might as well just accept that it'll be a while before your bases grow, and
focus on more immediate and pressing concerns. Pick a strategy, stick with it,
and give it time to bear itself out, building what facilities are needed to
enhance your overall strategy. (Gaians will probably want Bio-Labs to build
better mind worms, Hive will definitely want Robotic Assembly plants, everybody
will probably be gunning for Tree Farms). The key to mid-game development is to
build on your successes in the early game and enhance them with builds in the
mid-game, and increase your energy output as you can. At this point too,
facilities which reduce eco-damage are very important, because the last thing
you want to run into is a massive worm-rape when you've got your forces pressing
hard into enemy territory someplace. One ill-timed attack like that can really
set you back.
Late Game Economics (a look further ahead): By the late game, it's generally too
late to make radical changes to your strategy (which is why the "Future Society"
entries on the SE table really cannot be considered when formulating your
factional strategy--they come too late in the game for that, and by the time you
get them, you already have a pretty good idea what your standing in the game
will be....they are more designed to enhance and build on what you've already
done). Like the mid-game, your purpose here is to build on your previous
successes, but in the late game you get a bigger suite of tools to do this
(Future society choices, more exotic facilities, etc.) This brings to light a
good point: More often than not, you will win or lose the game based on the
choices you make over the first hundred turns or so. You are almost always more
effective by focusing on your successes in the early game and building them,
using them to launch you toward whichever victory condition is closest at
hand....just run like hell for it! (keeping your eye on a second victory
condition, just in case somebody bloodies your nose).
Advanced Economic Theory:
Advanced Economic Theory is all about creating Turn and Resource Advantage. What
you will learn below will help you understand how to use your Empire's economy
as a weapon against your opponents, and as an incredibly flexible tool for you
and your allies, boosting your cash and research abilities to nearly
unbelievable heights.
Turn Advantage: Building stuff more quickly than your opponents (rush-building).
Because your bases can only work on one thing at a time, the quicker you can
finish each thing, relative to your opponents, the greater advantage you will
gain over them.
Resource Advantage: Having more nutrients, minerals, and energy than your
opponents. This is primarily done by making intelligent terraforming choices,
and optimizing the outputs of the various factors of production for each of your
bases, dependent on your current needs and goals.
Winning with your Economy:
If you want to use your economy as a weapon, then you must do more than
intuitively understand the three factors of production, you must master and
control them. You must make them sing, and if you do, your economy will hum like
you have never seen, and might have never thought possible.
The key to using your economy as a weapon is to create a turn (or Time)
advantage. The bigger the turn advantage you can create over your opponent, the
easier it will be to defeat him. As you begin to take the steps necessary in
creating Turn Advantage, you may find yourself wondering if what you are doing
is having any impact on the game at large, but trust me, your doubts will be
washed away when your Shard Garrisons are defending against his Missile Marines.
Then you will understand and fully appreciate what turn advantage has done for
you.
As previously stated, Time is the engine that powers all the economies of
Chiron. It is the catalyst, and the ultimate "limited resource," and he who
makes the most efficient use of time will almost always win the game. There are
several very specific things you can do to create turn advantage for yourself,
and they are outlined below: The essential element of creating Turn Advantage is
energy, for it is energy which allows for rush-building, which is the chief way
you create turn advantage. The second way you create Turn Advantage is to build
new bases. If you have more bases than your opponent, you can accomplish more
things more quickly than he. Even if you only have one or two more bases, over
time, the difference can be devastating. Expansion and Rush-building. Those are
your tools.
The first, best thing you can do for yourself is to always, always, always rush-
build your formers and Recycling Tanks (unless you're already cranking them out
in one turn, of course). The reason for this is as simple as it is elegant: The
game is about resource management. Because of that, Formers are the most
important units in the game. They can turn a completely average land square into
an amazingly productive piece of property, which in turn gives you more
resources to work with. In the case of Recycling Tanks, consider what you are
doing: Essentially you are turning your base into a "Former" for the duration of
the build time of the Tanks, and the end result in a +1/+1/+1 enhancement to the
base terrain square.
Let us say, for sake of comparison that you and a computer opponent have both
just founded a base with exactly the same amount of productive capacity (built
on the same kind of land, and working the same kind of land). The square your
citizens are working is currently generating 1-1(food/mineral). It will take you
both 5 turns (about the average for a size 1 base) to build the former you're
working on, but you have the cash to rush-build it, so you do. Watch what
happens:
Turn 1- You issue the rush-build order. Opponent starts building his former.
Turn 2 - You move your former into position, and start working on your Recycling
Tanks (20 turns to build). Opponent gets his former in four turns.
Turn 3- Former begins to cultivate a forest (3 to go). Rec. Tanks in 19.
Opponent gets former in three turns.
Turn 4 - Former continues forestry mission (2 to go). Rec Tanks in 18. Opponent
former in 2.
Turn 5 - Former continues forming (1 to go). Rec Tanks in 17. Opponent former
next turn.
Turn 6 - Former is done! You get +1 Mineral and +1 energy from that square. Rec.
Tanks is now to be completed in 12 turns! Opponent moves former into position
and begins constructing Rec. Tanks (in 20 turns)
Turn 7 - Your former moves again - RT in 11 - Opponent forest in 3 turns. RT in
19
Turn 8 - Forest #2 in 3 turns - RT in 10 - Opponent forest in 2. RT in 19
Turn 9 - Forest #2 in 2 turns - RT in 9 - Opponent forest in 1. RT in 18
Turn 10 - Forest #2 in 1 turn - RT in 8 - Opponent forest done! RT in 12
Turn 11 - Forest #2 done! - RT in 6 (rush build for 60) - Opponent moves former
- RT in 11
Turn 12 - You get +1/+1/+1 for the tanks. Your former moves again - Begin work
on Rec. Commons. - Opponent starts work on 2nd forest square (RT in 10)
Okay, let's take a look at what just happened here: You spent 25 energy credits
(the average cost of rush building a former from a new base), and later spent
another 60 to finish your recycling tanks early. Effectively, you used cash (85
energy credits, in this example) to speed up your economy relative to your
opponent's, and here's what you got for your money:
You created a four turn former advantage over your opponent (you got four free
turns of former activity that your opponent did not get, which translates into
+4 minerals and +4 Energy)
You created a total of 10 turns of base turn advantage, netting you +10
Nutrients/+10 Minerals/+10 Energy over your opponent.
For a grand total of +14 energy/+10 Nutrients/+14 Energy. That's only a total of
38 (valuing them all at the same rate for simplicity), and you spent 85, so you
may be wondering where the advantage is in that, but if you are looking at it in
that way, you are missing the point. It's called Turn Advantage because it give
you extra turns of production at the base in question. Turns that your
opponent's base does not get. This is a good thing for you (assuming you are
able to leverage that turn advantage to do something to further the ends of your
own empire or something nasty to the detriment of your opponent) and
correspondingly bad for your foe. The mineral, nutrient, and energy savings are
only a bonus, the primary advantage is that your base is now freed up to begin
work on other things, and his base is and will be tied up for next ten turns
cranking out the stuff you're already done with. And how much did this wind up
costing you? Again, valuing all the factors of production equally: You spent 85
credits, got 38 back, which means that your net cost for the turn advantage was
46, or 4.6 (round to 5) energy credits per turn's worth of advantage you got. If
5 bucks a turn isn't a bargain, I don't know what is.
Now that you have a ten turn base advantage, the question is: What are you going
to do with it? There are a number of directions you could take your advantage,
in order to magnify it:
Research - Begin working on a network node or somesuch, and rush-build when it
gets cheap enough for your liking. Every turn you have a network node and your
opponent, that's x number of research points you get over and above your
opponent.
Cash - Do the above with an energy bank to magnify your cash advantage over your
opponent.
Control - If your base is verging on growing to a point where Drones will be a
problem, you can head that off by rush-building an anti-drone facility thus
keeping your base more productive relative to your opponent's base.
Turn - If you want to magnify your raw turn advantage, rather than focus in on
some specific factor in your economy, you can do that by forcing your opponent
to change his mind about what he is doing (and by forcing him to change his
mind, he may lose minerals, and in any case will be slowed down)
Going back to our previous example: You finished your Recycling Tanks a full ten
turns earlier than your opponent, and after taking a look at your options, you
decide that it's in your best interest to build a couple of those spiffy plasma
rovers you finished prototyping not long ago. Each will take you four turns to
crank out, so you set about doing it.
By the time your first one is done, your opponent is six turns from finishing
his rec. Tanks and you decide to see if you can spook him, so your rover drives
over toward his base.
Now the ball is in your opponent's court: If his base is lightly defended, he
just might switch his production to a Plasma Rover of his own. If he does, then
you've just magnified your turn advantage over him, because he probably lost a
few minerals to make the switch, and besides that, when he does get back to
building his Recycling Tanks, he'll be starting from scratch, and in the
meantime your base is getting +1/+1/+1 over his base every turn. That is how you
use your economy as a weapon.
You never attacked him. Your troops never drew or fired. There was no loss of
life. No battle. But you just won an important victory.
The lesson learned here: A given base can only work on one thing at a time. The
primary way to create turn advantage over your opponent is to rush-build things,
especially formers (so they can start improving your land more quickly) and base
facilities which will provide you with a calculable benefit (i.e., you can say
to yourself: If I finish this quickly, it will allow my base to begin working on
something else, and net me +4 energy (or whatever) per turn).
Once you have a turn advantage, the you can magnify it by either running through
another rushed facility (furthering your control, energy, or research edge
relative to your opponent), or to throw your opponent off balance via feint (if
you actually attack then it becomes a skirmish, a separate issue from the
Economic Turn Advantage). You can do this by creating a military unit and
sending it toward one of his bases or otherwise "bluffing" him into thinking
that you are doing something he will not like. Depending on his situation, he
may abandon his current project in order to respond to your perceived threat.
You might not yet be convinced that turn advantage is all that big a deal. After
all, the gain in energy, minerals, and nutrients is relatively small, and if you
don't have anything in particular you need to work on next, you may not believe
turn advantage is all that important, and if that's the case, I'll volunteer to
play you absolutely anytime you want!
Seriously, if you multiply your turn advantage energy/mineral/nutrient gain out
over the total number of bases you have, the numbers begin to look more
impressive, and if you multiply the number of "free" turns you gain in this way
out over the number of bases you're doing this in, you'll quickly realize that
you now have a large "window" of opportunity you can exploit in any number of
ways, with your opponent being unable to respond (or, as mentioned above, if he
does respond, then it will be at the expense of the projects he is currently
working on, which will further enhance your turn advantage), and suddenly the
benefits of turn advantage begin to crystallize.
Practice, practice, practice:
The fastest way to get better at the whole "Turn Advantage" concept is to put
this article down and go play a Hotseat game against yourself. Study the time
differences in various approaches. You will very quickly get better at
determining exactly when to execute the rush order, and how to customize the
general principles to your particular style of play. The whole really is greater
than the sum of its parts, and your personal style, no matter what it is, has
its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, and when properly meshed with
the principles you've read about in here, it will create for you a stronger,
better playing style.
Resource Advantage:
Terraforming is essentially a game within a game, and can be as simple or as
complex as you'd care to make it. I will not devote much time to this subject,
because there are too many variables and too many differing opinions on what to
do and how to do it when it comes to terraforming, so I will simply say this:
Find a set of "rules of thumb" that work for you, and stick with them until such
time as someone comes along who is capable of proving to you that they have a
better way.
Rules of thumb that I use in my games:
Rocky terrain is a bad thing: I will leave some in strategic places for the
defensive bonus, but I nearly always level it out and plant a forest if I'm
looking for mineral production from a square. As you might imagine, I make
little use of mines. If I'm going to build a mine, I'd rather have a borehole.
Forests are a good source of minerals: True, they don't net you as much as a
mine, but what of that? They give you both nutrients and energy, making forest
squares very well balanced. Almost always a good choice in my book.
Sea bases = Rapid growth and lots of energy. If you're looking to boost your
research, expand into the sea and build LOTS of tidal harnesses. You will be
pleasantly surprised at how much your energy production spikes up.
Minimize your use of mining stations for sea colonies. A better choice is to
supply crawl your minerals from a mainland borehole, and focus your sea squares
on energy and food production.
At elevations of 3000 meters or so, solar panels become VERY good energy
producers.
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Military & War
================================================================================
First understand that there are only two types of warfare you can possibly enter
into: An offensive action, or a defensive action. Beneath those two types of
warfare are a number of "tools" you can make use of, and I'll cover the basics
below:
The Basics:
So, you went and picked a fight with somebody? Or, someone decided to pick