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Author Topic:   TICHQ: Transcend Ironmen Part V

Zorak Zoran posted 05-12-99 12:14 PM ET
This thread is a dedicated forum for veteran SMAC addicts. Go get yourself a few victories on Transcend level using the fairly lame Ironman limitation. Then come back and spout your opinions about tactics, interfaction comparisons and other bits of SMAC dogma.
Zorak Zoran posted 05-12-99 02:37 PM ET
Smeagol: I'm not understanding your objections. The extra drones from low efficiency for the Spartan Police State is more than corrected by the high police powers of colony garrisons.
How do I population boom early? I don't, and never have. It is an interesting, but largely unneccessary exercise. One can conquer most of Planet in the early stages of the game with size 4 colonies pumping out Veteran Impact Rovers.
I stay Police State for the entire game, adding Green and Knowledge when they become available. This often makes me allies with UofP or the Gaians, which keeps me in the technology game. And the liberal use of probes can remedy any other deficiencies in this arena.
I don't believe that I can "make you" a Spartan. From my perspective, the Spartans are the perfect faction. They have solid advantages, and no real disadvantage. I find their style very ascetically pleasing as well.
In single player, we can all whoop up on the computer with whatever faction we want, so why be so down on the Spartans in particular? In multiplayer, I'll put my Spartan war machine against a feeble Morgan megacorp any day of the week.
So, what is there not to like about the Spartans?
K posted 05-12-99 03:53 PM ET
Damn right. The Spartans are easily the most balanced of the factions, and most stable in those early years.
Alkis posted 05-12-99 06:37 PM ET
In my last game (TI) I played the Spartans. It was the 4th faction I tried with the early free market strategy (after experimenting with the PK, Morgan and the UoP). I also had a new idea... read on.
I am sure Zoran would shudder if he could see that game. Anyway I used free market most of the time and as early as 2230 approximately. Also, I never used police state. My SE choices were free market, then Democracy, then Dem/Planned for the pop boom, then back again to Dem/free market and I added Knowkedge when I discovered it. I chose to build the Virtual World and the Human Genome from the early Projects. Also, I played with 7 bases for the first part of the game. 7 jewels. My new idea was to build the Ascetic virtues which I did of course. With that, you can even have a fleet of aircrafts without drone problems. Spartans is the only race that can do that. You just have to home-city them equally between your cities. The first one a base builds does not create a drone, it's the second one that does so. So in the end I had seven penetrators and some interceptors (these they don't add ANY drones). I was in a war with Yang for more than 70 years and all this period I kept playing with free market without police. The war started long before air power. You see, there are no drones if your troops stay inside your border. Sometimes I had to move outside, say to capture a city. In that case I had only one drone per troop (great advantage of the Spartans). I built 2 punishment spheres but much later, one on the east and one on the west front. In conquered bases of course, I never tantalize my own people.
It was really an interesting experience with the Spartans. Their production sucks of course but I had enough credits to buy anything I wanted, including Secret Projects. What I liked, is that I played the Spartans like the Athenians!
Alkis posted 05-13-99 08:57 AM ET
Sorry, I made a typing mistake.
I used free market as early as 2130 (not 2230 as I wrote, that would be pretty late)
StargazerBC posted 05-13-99 06:04 PM ET
WOW! The Fifth Installment ::grins:: It's been a while, Hello everyone!
A way to Pop Boom-Rec. Com., Child. Rec., 10 or 20% Psych early on (the ratio of money lost to Psych % is in favor of Psych in early game since one's probably not making much anyway) and food--Food's most important because the more people you have, the more you need per turn.
B) Have one Feeder City with good lush green food sources and build colony pods to transport to your Target City every turn. I use this strat. when there's a nice section close to my Capitol but not in my city ZOC. Then, I build a Feeder city on the food area to crank out Colony pods to expand.
*I think Analyst did an excellent job of explaining it if you want to forage through the old TI threads a few months past.
Why I don't Build Punishment Spheres anymore:
Having played the game over and over again, the main object isn't winning anymore--it's the gameplay. Thus, I don't build huge--Kill'em all in one wave Battlions which require Punishment Spheres. Since I don't need a large army to mob up the map (I love unconventional guerilla warfare, might take longer but eah), the Punishment Sphere becomes a detriment to getting Golden Age. I like it when all my cities achieve Golden Age (30% Psych, heheh). For a Builder in Multi-player huge maps, Golden Age almost becomes a necessity. If you don't want to spend the money on Psych, there's an artificial way of getting Golden Age. . .
David Johnson posted 05-15-99 06:42 PM ET
Why not just make all the aircraft home to one or two small cities and -- who cares if they riot? [they wouldn't be producing anything anyway, what with all the upkeep costs].
Darkstar posted 07-20-99 02:19 PM ET
Boosting another TI thread into a higher orbit...
-Darkstar
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Author	Topic: TICHQ: Transcend Ironmen Part V
Zorak Zoran	posted 05-12-99 12:14 PM ET This thread is a dedicated forum for veteran SMAC addicts. Go get yourself a few victories on Transcend level using the fairly lame Ironman limitation. Then come back and spout your opinions about tactics, interfaction comparisons and other bits of SMAC dogma.
Zorak Zoran	posted 05-12-99 02:37 PM ET Smeagol: I'm not understanding your objections. The extra drones from low efficiency for the Spartan Police State is more than corrected by the high police powers of colony garrisons. How do I population boom early? I don't, and never have. It is an interesting, but largely unneccessary exercise. One can conquer most of Planet in the early stages of the game with size 4 colonies pumping out Veteran Impact Rovers. I stay Police State for the entire game, adding Green and Knowledge when they become available. This often makes me allies with UofP or the Gaians, which keeps me in the technology game. And the liberal use of probes can remedy any other deficiencies in this arena. I don't believe that I can "make you" a Spartan. From my perspective, the Spartans are the perfect faction. They have solid advantages, and no real disadvantage. I find their style very ascetically pleasing as well. In single player, we can all whoop up on the computer with whatever faction we want, so why be so down on the Spartans in particular? In multiplayer, I'll put my Spartan war machine against a feeble Morgan megacorp any day of the week. So, what is there not to like about the Spartans?
K	posted 05-12-99 03:53 PM ET Damn right. The Spartans are easily the most balanced of the factions, and most stable in those early years.
Alkis	posted 05-12-99 06:37 PM ET In my last game (TI) I played the Spartans. It was the 4th faction I tried with the early free market strategy (after experimenting with the PK, Morgan and the UoP). I also had a new idea... read on. I am sure Zoran would shudder if he could see that game. Anyway I used free market most of the time and as early as 2230 approximately. Also, I never used police state. My SE choices were free market, then Democracy, then Dem/Planned for the pop boom, then back again to Dem/free market and I added Knowkedge when I discovered it. I chose to build the Virtual World and the Human Genome from the early Projects. Also, I played with 7 bases for the first part of the game. 7 jewels. My new idea was to build the Ascetic virtues which I did of course. With that, you can even have a fleet of aircrafts without drone problems. Spartans is the only race that can do that. You just have to home-city them equally between your cities. The first one a base builds does not create a drone, it's the second one that does so. So in the end I had seven penetrators and some interceptors (these they don't add ANY drones). I was in a war with Yang for more than 70 years and all this period I kept playing with free market without police. The war started long before air power. You see, there are no drones if your troops stay inside your border. Sometimes I had to move outside, say to capture a city. In that case I had only one drone per troop (great advantage of the Spartans). I built 2 punishment spheres but much later, one on the east and one on the west front. In conquered bases of course, I never tantalize my own people. It was really an interesting experience with the Spartans. Their production sucks of course but I had enough credits to buy anything I wanted, including Secret Projects. What I liked, is that I played the Spartans like the Athenians!
Alkis	posted 05-13-99 08:57 AM ET Sorry, I made a typing mistake. I used free market as early as 2130 (not 2230 as I wrote, that would be pretty late)
StargazerBC	posted 05-13-99 06:04 PM ET WOW! The Fifth Installment ::grins:: It's been a while, Hello everyone! A way to Pop Boom-Rec. Com., Child. Rec., 10 or 20% Psych early on (the ratio of money lost to Psych % is in favor of Psych in early game since one's probably not making much anyway) and food--Food's most important because the more people you have, the more you need per turn. B) Have one Feeder City with good lush green food sources and build colony pods to transport to your Target City every turn. I use this strat. when there's a nice section close to my Capitol but not in my city ZOC. Then, I build a Feeder city on the food area to crank out Colony pods to expand. *I think Analyst did an excellent job of explaining it if you want to forage through the old TI threads a few months past. Why I don't Build Punishment Spheres anymore: Having played the game over and over again, the main object isn't winning anymore--it's the gameplay. Thus, I don't build huge--Kill'em all in one wave Battlions which require Punishment Spheres. Since I don't need a large army to mob up the map (I love unconventional guerilla warfare, might take longer but eah), the Punishment Sphere becomes a detriment to getting Golden Age. I like it when all my cities achieve Golden Age (30% Psych, heheh). For a Builder in Multi-player huge maps, Golden Age almost becomes a necessity. If you don't want to spend the money on Psych, there's an artificial way of getting Golden Age. . .
David Johnson	posted 05-15-99 06:42 PM ET Why not just make all the aircraft home to one or two small cities and -- who cares if they riot? [they wouldn't be producing anything anyway, what with all the upkeep costs].
Darkstar	posted 07-20-99 02:19 PM ET Boosting another TI thread into a higher orbit... -Darkstar