posted 03-22-99 03:17 PM ET        

I am Gaians in the south, Hive is second biggest and to the north of me, and Yang is planetary governor. Spartans are 3rd and to the north of Yang, near the north pole. Morgans, UofP, and PK are an a large island to the east of Yang, Morgans and PK's are trying to prune UofP and succeeding slowly.

Yang has Spartans squarely on his side in Pact against me. Morgan hates me because I saved UofP from death at his hands, same with Lal. It really was dumb of me to save UofP instead of Pact'ing with Lal... judgement call at the time (early game) and I blew it... such is life. I did not think Lal would live.

So eveyrone is against me. Tech is fairly even because they are all sharing it. The research game is like 4 .vs 1... and I'm the one. Furthermore, frustratingly, they have gobs of money they use to upgrade all their units to every new tech immediately, which should be impossible because I have de-terraformed about 60% of all opponent bases in this game... I just don't get where their money is coming from (I now believe this is an apparatus of skill level... the higher the level, the easier it is for AI to buy chit)

Yang is sending about 10 conventional missiles a turn on me, which hurt for a while but I'm getting that handled (air complexes, perimeter defenses, AA tracking police shard troops), but it realy set me back defending them every turn (why can't sentried interceptor aircraft scramble and shoot down missiles???????!!!!!!). Spartans send occasional attacks, Lal/Morgan weak but steady attacks at UofP, which I'm still protecting although they are not very useful anymore. Like I said tech is equal so I have no military advantage even though I'm about the same size as Hive and Spartans put together. I don't get that either.

The silly bastards have raised the solar shield and ocean levels are dropping fast, massive setback to my city growth as all my coastal water improvements are elmininated in favor of barren land. Currently planting forrests on new land as fast as I can, just discovered super forming about 20 turns ago.

Because the tech level is even... what should I do?? They all hate me, won't even talk to me. I have terrible time trying to take cities because tech is even and they have sensors/ECM's/AA's/Perimeter defenses/airbases in every damned base. Land bridges to my continent are being created by the solar shield... invasion is imminent. I am probably 2 or 3 discoveries away from Quantum power. There is no way I can get the governership as 3/4 of the planet population is aligned with Yangbutthole, including Lal the Douschebag and his billion frickin' votes.

What can I do? Can't out tech them. I can defend all my bases, but it will be a war of attrition, as it has been now for 20 years. I also accidentally committed an atrocity on Yang with a probe team so he will never, ever come around to my view, social changes or not.

C'mon gurus... help me out of this pickle? I never thought I could lose at this game, but it could happen in this one man. One dumb pact decision and it has come to this... wowsers.

posted 03-22-99 04:39 PM ET            

What do you think of Thinker level Squid?? I think it's pretty damn tuff.

Thue: If you'd really like it, I can send it to you. I'm at work right now, it'll have to wait until I get home. I will send it.

posted 03-22-99 05:16 PM ET         

Actually, I didn't have many problems w/ Thinker. I was the Gaians on the central island in the Huge Map of Planet. I had little competition there, and eventually grew my population so big that I voted myself into supreme leaderhood w/o any support from the others (except one pitiful, one-city faction I had defeated)

I just started my first Transcend game as University. About fifty turns after I start, (in other words, as soon as I manage to control the drone riots caused by bases over 3) The Spartans waltz in and take my capital without even a real fight. Needless to say, I quit that game, and am probably going to try again as soon as I get off this forum.

posted 03-22-99 05:19 PM ET            

Such is life.

posted 03-22-99 05:32 PM ET            

I am also playing on huge map of planet, and I am in the elephants trunk and Hive is where you were in yours. However, the solar shade has bridged us together. (I do not like these variable sea levels stuff )

Hmmmm, hmmmmm, hmmmmmm, this inviting a PB from the silly blue bastard might actually be a stroke of genius. Spartans are not powerful without him... this might be a damn good idea. Maybe even brilliant... LOL

Wonder what happens if he doesn't PB me back? I'm pretty sure he will, but hmmmmm?

One other thing I think I'm gonna do is blow away Lal to get his votes away from Yang. I could have shot at governor and get the fricking melting going quick. The silly wimpy bastard is at vendetta with Yang but still give him PK votes and not me , when in reality I would really, really like to pact with the baloneyhead!! It would benefit him greatly but he's too pissed off. What an idiot. Crazy...

Gaian Base to Airbase1:
Warm up Planet Busters number 1 and 2 for immediate launch. Target package CASTRATE_YANG.

BAHAHAHAHHAHA

posted 03-22-99 06:32 PM ET            

If the defense is holding up on all fronts, left it so. Destroy roads with gun jets, AI does't coordinate attacks to well without roads. You don't need those roads, you are not going to attack them head on. If the enemy have to attack from sea, a few MK2 jets with isle of deep will defend quite well.

Against missiles(Which I agree is very anoying), build scout patrols in one central city(s) and sent them everywhere where the missiles are falling to be the designated defender. You don't want to play attrition with good troops.

Now. Concentrate 5-6 shard- graviton rovers against the weakest of your opponents. Target his/her capital, and one or two large cities. Ignore formers. You want the guy alive. Force him to surrender.

Don't force him to go to war with the other guys, since he can give you all the tech of the other guys. Give him cities closest to the enemy as a shelter for your own attacking forces. You can attack your enemy and retreat back to the safe heaven.

Repeat it against the second smallest guy.

Once you have enough votes in the council, revoke UN Charter, and bomb your biggest enemy with PB's. Limit PB use to only one faction. Whoever is left will surrender within 10-15 turns.

Hope it helps.

posted 03-22-99 08:04 PM ET            

I didn't know that there was any defence against missiles. In my current Thinker game (version 3.0, no crashes or hangs yet, beyond turn 2400, what blessed relief) everything I've tried: Aerospace, Perimeter, AAA as primary defender, has been entirely ineffective. When the Spartans sent a missile, they always took out the best defending unit. The only counter measures that worked were: (1) support the proposal to melt the icecaps which Santiago opposed so I knew she wasn't prepared for that, (2) retaliate, (3) build many clean 1-1-1 police units (I'm UoP) so that every city always had a defender, and (4) follow up my own missile attacks by invading each now defenceless Spartan city. Pretty soon Santiago, who when she attacked me was easily number one in almost everything, was reduced to three or four small sea bases.

I must point out that I started this game while fatigued and unwisely neglected colonisation after the first half dozen cities, so I began the counter-attack at a low ebb. If the Spartans had prepared an invasion force to coincide with their missile attacks, I would have lost my best cities and been in major difficulties. Their mistake was one that I did not make.

Other factions got Virtual World and Genome project, so I was busy containing drone riots by building happiness facilities and balancing doctors/empaths with hunger.

I have found that UoP does well as Free Market/Wealth, as for most of the game this combination maximises energy to such an extent that it also maximises research. All of my cities had zero (0) ecodamage almost all of the time, so the mindworm attacks were minor nuisances.

Morgan my neighbor has always liked me a lot, and I keep him up with recent technology so we can trade and he can help us defend ourselves.

Lately I've gone Green (for the two obvious reasons of restraining the native mindworms and preventing war with the Gaians who have expanded like wildfire on land and sea and are now easily number one). My persistent Greenness irked Morgan (who's now doing most of the planetary ecodamage) so he cancelled our alliance pact, then thought better of it (he's done very well out of the pact, even got his share of Spartan cities) and offered pact again _in the same turn!_

Not only Morgan, but also the Gaians who won't be drawn into an alliance pact with me (lest I dominate the planet) and whose troops don't even respect my borders, have been regularly giving me troops to defend my borders against Santiago and Miriam.

posted 03-22-99 08:20 PM ET            

As for the missile defense, I've never had such trouble with it as I've had in this current game. The defense I have concocted is working perfectly now... but it may be suspect when quantum then singularity power comes up. I too threw 1-1-1's at the problem at first, but he was blitzing 2 sea bases and I could not transpo enough often enough. For now, my airbase/perimter def/2 or 3 AA Shard garissons is defeating every missile he sends... so I'm happy as pie for the moment. I will admit I was really, really frustrtated for a while in figuring that out.

WHY SENTRIED INTERCEPTORS CANNOT SCRAMBLE AND SHOOT DOWN MISSILES IS BEYOND ME. Also, would be nice if they came up with a missile defense system like the Patriot Missiles used in middle east... great idea for a unit.

As for your Zaharhov question, yes I need a pact brother badly, he *is* my pact brother right now, but he only has 2 good bases, and three bad ones I have tossed to him. He is nearly useless to me at this point. I have the HSA, so he gets probed to death, I can't very well give him high techs in good conscience now can I? I need a bigger pact brother like Lal... but I screwed that up Miriam is long since dead by my hand, everyone is else is long term vendetta... I misplayed diplomacy badly early in the game and now I pay the price.

Good luck with yer game. UNLEASH THE HOUNDS!

posted 03-23-99 07:08 PM ET            

Yes I did "release the PB hounds", it was quite fun as I have never done that in a real strategic situation game before. I found Yang's single PB and targeted that city. BOOM! Vanished. Kewl. Threw in another PB for fun on his biggest city. KABOOM.

So here I am next turn expecting retaliation from Santiago (yang has no PB's built, I got em). Everyone is vendetta against me now, so I expect it. Hmmmm, first turn nothing. Second turn nothing. I mean NOTHING. No admonishments except from my pact mate UofP. QUIET. Third turn I look crosswise with a little malice in my eyes at Lal and he immediately goes treaty (scaredy cat) paying me 750 credits (wahooo!). I captured a morgan city next turn and give it to him and then ask for governor votes and get them. 4th turn, no PB retalization yet, I get governorship. Try to melt the polar icecaps but vote fails because I forgot to bribe Lal on that one too DAMNIT. Interestingly he would not answer my page on the voting screen... a$$hole. Dumb mistake by me.... 20 more years.

All I ever wanted in all of this was to melt the damn ice caps to compensate for the damn solar shade. Oh well.

Well now check this out. I start picking off a few Hive cities (at great expense mind you, because tech is even and he has perimeter defenses and stuff and it's costing me a lot of units), and all the sudden Santiago comes on the comm link and agrees to a blood truce. Comletely out fo the blue. Can you believe that? Yang's bestest pal pact sister from 5 turns ago is fickle as a pickle LOL.

I agree w/Truce because I want to completely eliminate Yang... not one trace of blue on this damn map!! So check this out... the little bitch see's Yang weakening and decides to get in on the act!!! LMAO! She is now taking Hive cities from the north, I am taking them from the south... Yang has lost 50% of his population in about 10 turns. Lal is within 5 more turns or so (I'd guess) of becoming my Pact brother for help defending against Morgan, Zahkarov has already forgiven me out of complete fear... and I'm sitting here wondering why I was ever worried enough to post this thread in the first place because I am sitting so fat and happy and it's not even funny. The game is basically over for the intent of determining a winner I think.

I never had a clue a PB could do so much for me . I always feared them like the plague. Amazing stuff . This game is in the bag, I will have to face a war with Santiago in about 30 years but she will be alone against me and Lal by that time, if I play my cards right. Morgan should be gone and dead as I am going to help Lal eliminate him so we can both focus on the coming Spartan War together.

What a game. What a game. Amazing The PB was *THE* answer.

posted 03-25-99 02:37 PM ET            

Yang did indeed finally retaliate with a PB. Fortunately for me, and quite strange, he targeted a relatively young size 13 developing base with no SP's or any major relevance. It hurt a bit ya, but not much really. I am still on the 2.0 patch so he had available that AI PB range bug but chose to target an irrelevant base... hmmmm.

The really interesting thing is the city was built in the center of the Ruins. The strangest thing... THE LAND WAS NOT DAMAGED, ONLY THE CITY VANISHED! I was flabbergasted as I expected the Ruins to vanish in the PB explosion... it was left untouched! I have alread dropped a new base in there (all previous terraforming was untouched as well!!) and it is already size 16 after only about 30 years and building a hab complex. Bizzare man.

All in all, as Giant Squid predicted, Yang now stands alone, the 4-faction research conglermate I was up against is gone, and life is rosy. Squid is a genius

Santiago, #2 power at less than half my power, shows her complete and utter lack of brains. Instead of continuing to pick off Yang bases from the north while I rolled up from the south, she has instead decided to fight with me, lauching a stupid ineffective suprise attack about 20 years ago. Dumb beyond belief. She is paying the price as I have submarine super formers sinking her coastal cities after Drop Probe Hovertanks remove her pressure domes. She would have been so much smarter to take a dozen Yang bases and build from there. DUMB!

Lal is my bestest pal Pact bro now and #3 power, a key conerstone in my end game strategy successfully executed. He is doing quite well in keeping the slowly shrinking Morgan occupied, along with an occasional excursion against Santiago. That has all worked out brilliantly, I needed that. I just give him a few high end troops each turn and he does the business.

No more PB's have been necessary, the silly bastard Yang is within 20 years of elimination (there will be ZERO BLUE on this map - YES!), Spartans are stuck in a war with everyone, and I now have singularity tech and lasers, some size 31 and 32 cities, and it's all in hand, although time consuming because of a lot of warfare.

Great game this has been , first time I've really been challenged hard in midgame. Thanks to Squid for the PB advice that changed the whole game to my favor. Brilliant move it was.

posted 03-25-99 06:57 PM ET         

Thanks! Now, if only my genius worked on Transcend level... (started about my eighth attempt this morning...)