posted 06-04-99 05:36 PM ET         

Go for production and pump out the troops quickly. That 25% bonus only applies when you are attacking, after all.

The only real important goal of research is probe team. Once you have that, you can use the probe teams to keep you updated on what everyone else is working on. Be sure to build the HSA, if possible, to deny it to the enemy. Because the guy with the best tech development tends to be the one that wants to build the HSA - don't allow it. How else are you going to steal his tech advances?

posted 06-04-99 05:49 PM ET            

The Hive is a very powerful faction with incredible production benefits that make them a brutal military power throughout the game. I don't like them personally, though.

The Believers are my personal favorite faction partially because of their unparalleled military mid to late in the game. The Hive may have a production advantage, but the quality of the Believer's units is far superior.

Let me explain...

First of all, there are the probe teams. The Believers have a very good economy--better than either the Hive or the Spartans. This provides them with enough cash to let their probe teams (all elite, of course) go to work. And a beautiful sight it is! The Believers should produce a probe team army and let them buy, steal, and sabotage everything they can reach. Since they all have 3 moves, they can reach a lot. An elite probe team can destroy a base improvement OF YOUR CHOICE 50% of the time. So by producing 2 probe teams, the Believers can be assured of destroying an enemies hybrid forest, for example, thereby "winning" 5-10 times the production they lost by making the teams. And when supporting the Believers ground troops, base defenses can be destroyed, supporting units can be bought, etc... all to a devastating effect.

And then there's the +25% offensive bonus, a military advantage no other faction can make up. This makes the Believer's units the best on Planet.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Believer units and cities can't be bought once a fundamentalist govt is achieved. This is an amazing military advantage. HSA? Who needs it?

posted 06-05-99 09:19 AM ET            

play the role of the puppet master. it�s effective to let your partners fight your wars. give technology, bases, money or units to them. think about the role of religion in history. most religions gained real world power by manipulating the structures of the government, social life or economy.
ok, that�s was (mostly) in the past, but on alpha centauri it should work again.

posted 06-07-99 03:34 AM ET            

If I find the Uni, I make him submit. Usually knocking out a couple bases will do it.

In peacetime, go for Demo/Planned for the growth. In war, go Fundy/Green. And grimmy, you need HSA, to keep it from the heathens.

I have found that if I'm nice at the start, the others will trade techs with me, or let me buy them. Another thing--the first ten years, since you can't do research anyway, crank up the energy to 80% (No, not 100%, because the diminishing returns will get you there).

And unlike the stupid AI, and Hitler, try to fight only one war at a time. With me, it's almost always the Hive. The Spartans are generally the second to die.

posted 06-07-99 08:52 AM ET            

Fundamentalism made the most SE sense -- I noticed that scientific progress was only marginally improved with other choices, and not enough to offset that morale and probe bonus. Once I got enough bases, I made enough progress in labs to manage to get techs I needed.

The other suprise on SE was Green. The abundant life that was chasing around my colony pods left me alone a little bit, and I even managed to capture a few IotD's. Try it on for size.

I leaned hard on neighboring factions. Got techs and money through intimidating Morgan, PK's, and UoP. When they had given me everything, I moved in on their bases and got two stooges out of it.

The extra support and morale were key for going out pod-popping. Mind-worm money and artifacts! Network Nodes were useful only for linking artifacts. The support also helped quiet the Transcend Drone Mob with 1-1-1 cop units in addition to trance defenders

It was a great departure from my usual builder style and a nice change. Very fast game -- by MY 2200 or so I had complete control of the south, my two stooges giving me the occasional tech, and massing forces to go against Santiago and Skye (who had already knocked out Yang). Every so often I'd forget my strategy and say "this base needs a tree farm", then catch myself and get back to missile speeders.

Lots of fun not worrying about reputation or bullies when you can just throw your weight around.

SP's were Command Nexus, Citizens Defense (which I never needed but it kept it away from the others), and Xeno Dome to help my troops move. Around 2230 or so the choice was "build another SP (Neural Amp or Maritime Control) or mount final assault?" I opted for the latter, and my quickest conquest yet. By a long shot.

posted 06-10-99 03:25 AM ET            

One game map with so many islands around and yet you don't have doctrine flexibility?

posted 06-10-99 05:59 AM ET            

In last game (I haven't finished it yet) with tech stagnation, random huge map has so much water that I sit on my island for more than 100 years (yeah, no Unity pods). Yeah, UoP and Gaia were stronger than me, I had wars with 4 factions and pact with 2.
When I started my first war, I used Fundy/Green, then Fundy/Green/Power. Only when I got HSA, I switched to Demo/Green/Power. My first project was The Planetary Datalinks, second Amplifier, and third HSA. I came up after getting commlinks to other factions.

I think that for True Believers only one strat works: pods, pods, pods, rovers, rovers, rovers, Resicling Tank-Rec Common, Command Center, more rovers. Unfortunately, on Transcend Huge map it is possible to build only 10 bases with no problems with bureaucracy....

I read some posts where people wrote about Believers as builder faction (Demo/Planned/Wealth, alocation to psyc). But Believers never can be faster than UoP in tech, and much slower compare to other factions. So, their usual victory is Total Conquer, or Supreme Leader. Their power in fanatic bonus, great support and best probes. Moreover, Demo/Planned combination on transcend is little boring coz you should build psych facilities, not fight. Slow growth (with Green) hurts seriously, but effic helps a little with drones.

Strenth of Believers is money. Compare to Hive, Believers can upgrade their troops to superior models very fast, in five-seven turns after completing prototype. Money help to buy bases (I dont buy units, rovers and planes clean field very fast). Money help to buy units and facilities in the heart of empire. Buy Punishment sphere in conquered bases and go to new troops.
Actually, TLB dont need any project to compete (remember UoP with HSA, VW and more, more ?).

posted 06-10-99 09:32 AM ET            

HW: On the contrary. Blind research is /far/ more realistic. That's why I play with it on. Ask anyone who does research for a living and while trying to find x found y, z, and triple-A. Think about how many common household products are the accidental side effect of space travel (and don't I wish more taxpayers and Congresscritters /would/ realize that). Many of the most famous inventions and scientific discoveries were /entirely/ accidental; in the same realm, but not at all what the person was going for.

Having the autogovernors and auto-units on /does/ constitute having the computer player for you, I'd agree with that.

ObOnTopic: I'm not a probe team user for the most part. I did two things to make the Believers viable (and in my first game with them they were /significantly/ ahead on tech after about 2250, btw).

1. Keep Spoils of War on. Even though I don't fight /much/, I do fight, and I know some of you are conq-oriented.

2. Start out by building as many cities as you can without starting to put them in lousy spots. Don't build /anything/ else but colony pods and scouts (and, once you can, terraformers) if you're on a big landmass, until it's covered. That extra population more than makes up for the penalty to research.

posted 06-11-99 12:11 PM ET            

I'm enjoying this so much, I may never get to try PK or Hive (Why didn't I listen to Holywarrior sooner?).

sandworm

posted 06-13-99 09:29 PM ET            

Some of you have had strong opinions on blind research--so here's some more for you.

Do or Die?
Spoils of War?

posted 07-06-99 06:48 AM ET            

Igor asked about Huge maps: at Thinker, the Believers still win between 2200 and 2300, no sweat.