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Author Topic:   Missile Barrage!

Drago Sinio posted 06-28-99 07:05 PM ET
I tried something new (to me) in my current game. I had never built many, if any, conventional missiles before, but decided to try it this time. I was about to invade Morgan, playing as UoP, and saw that his defensive units were quite strong(lots of commando and elite), which seems unusual for Morgan. I had a lot of infantry units in the area, having just used them to defeat the tree huggers. But the defenders in the Morgan bases were so strong, that It would have been difficult to take the bases without huge loss of troops. I could have upgraded all the troops to heavier weapons and armor, but that would have been very expensive. So I decided to mass produce missiles. I odered up about 25, which took between 5 and 10 turns to produce, one each from 25 different bases. I then started taking out Morgans cities one by one, just missiling all the defenders and walking in with my infantry. I started with the largest cities within range and worked my way down to the smaller ones. I was able to take his 5 largest land based cities, including 3 SP's, with no loss of troops, in just a few turns once I had all the missiles built and flown into the area. (large random map). And then Morgan just rolled over and surrendered to me. And this was for the cost of 25 missiles. Seemed like a good trade to me. I also made about 500 credit profit from taking the cities, since it was Morgan. And of course now that he surrendered, I can keep hitting him up for more credits whenever the mood strikes me. Has any one else tried this strategy? What do you think?
Krushala posted 06-28-99 07:21 PM ET
I used missles for the first time yesterday in a scenario. Worked pretty good. It seems like they always take a defender. In civ2 I would use missles on battleships and they wouldn't do sh*t. Of course the ai wasted lots of my battleships. I think they are a better option for human players in smac.
Goose1 posted 06-28-99 11:35 PM ET
Drago, excellent plan. I was like you and thought that missiles were sort of useless. But you've changed my outlook.
Thanks, good strategem.
Natguy posted 06-29-99 01:41 AM ET
Hmmm...I think I'll try it! As soon as I finish the game I'm on now (I'm experimenting with Pubnishment Spheres as UoP...works great! I on a major war of conquest on the Spartans now...on Free Market!!!)
Drago Sinio posted 06-29-99 06:35 AM ET
I just tried the same tactic on the Spartans in my current game, but it's not as worthwhile against them, as they dont tend to build big bases or SP's. I did use the missiles anyway though, its FUN! And they were farther away,I didnt have many troops nearby, so I took some of their nearby sea bases first, and brought in some drop troops by transport. Then it was just fire a few missiles, and drop in to take the city. It was more expensive though, in terms of the cities I got for the expense of all those missiles. I forgot to mention you should infiltrate their datalinks, or be the Governor, so you can pick which cities to hit with the missiles. Otherwise you would waste the missiles on transports and formers and such.
In those cases I dropped in next to the city, after taking out the defensive units, and destroyed the weak defenders with the drop troops.
Beta1 posted 06-29-99 06:52 AM ET
This tactic does work well in general but if the AI has the tech to build aerospace complexes and tachyon fields (or even just decent armour and AAA) you might find they just sit there and take it.
Resource Consumer posted 06-29-99 07:20 AM ET
An intresting use of missiles has been exhibited by AI Yang.
He missiles Isles of the Deep that are cruising along in no man's land just mindworming their own business. Can't be a cost effective use of resources, surely.
Cruelty to dumb mindworms that's what I call it.
Plato90s posted 06-29-99 04:09 PM ET
Nah, enough missles will take care of anyone. I've had bases with Aerospace Complex. Tachyon field, garrisoned by 3 elite units with Antimatter Plate, AAA, and Singularity Engine. They survive a few waves of 3-4 missles. But then Yang got upset and hit my city with about a dozen missles. Not even a 1-<10>-1*4 unit can take on 4 missle strikes and win.
Krushala posted 06-29-99 07:28 PM ET
The only downside I can see is drones. Missle units like other air units cause unrest. Of course this can be solved by building them in a city with a punishment sphere. Have that city cranking out missles continuosly. I'll have to try that. With one city doing missles you only need a couple of drop units to take and hold a city. And don't have to worry about aerospace complexes restricting your drop units.
Krushala posted 06-29-99 07:29 PM ET
I meant to say morgan would benefit the most from that strategy.
Plato90s posted 06-29-99 08:41 PM ET
Huh? The anti-drop zone applies even if the city has no defenders in it. As long as the Aerospace complex is up, you can't drop into the zone.
Krushala posted 06-29-99 08:57 PM ET
You're right. Forgot about that. Well I usually build drop hovertanks. If there is a aerospace complex I will try to drop on a road outside the city radius and roll in. Sometimes the ai puts cities too close together to do this though.
Drago Sinio posted 06-29-99 11:26 PM ET
Wouldn't it be a shame if a probe team slipped in there and sabotaged the aerospace center? Just before the missile barrage? And I thought of another good use for missiles. If you ever noticed, the AI will switch production from whatever it was working on to a defender the instant the last base defender is destroyed. SO, if you are in a desperate race to complete an SP with an enemy faction, and when they were almost done with the SP a Missile barrage took out all their defenders, then they would have to abandon the SP and switch to a garrison unit. It seems to me that 4 or 5 missiles would be a lot cheaper than rush building your SP. Any other devious uses for missiles?
Hamburger Hacker posted 06-30-99 12:36 AM ET
Drago, why not let the enemy finish the SP and then use your missiles and take the base. Then switch your other base to the next SP. Why waste all those minerals when you can take them?
Drago Sinio posted 06-30-99 07:02 AM ET
Hamburger Hacker, Yes that would be a better idea, if the location was right. If on the other hand the enemy city was located deep in their territory where you might not be able to defend it once you had taken it, you would, I think, be better off building the SP in one of your own cities. That way you would'nt risk losing it again to the other faction. Also if the SP were one of the science SPs where the location is important because you want the Supercollider and the Theory of Everything, for example, in the same base.
sandworm posted 06-30-99 10:15 AM ET
Could you hide the missiles in an airfield outside of the city radius to avoid the unrest penalty? It worked in Civ2.
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Author	Topic: Missile Barrage!
Drago Sinio	posted 06-28-99 07:05 PM ET I tried something new (to me) in my current game. I had never built many, if any, conventional missiles before, but decided to try it this time. I was about to invade Morgan, playing as UoP, and saw that his defensive units were quite strong(lots of commando and elite), which seems unusual for Morgan. I had a lot of infantry units in the area, having just used them to defeat the tree huggers. But the defenders in the Morgan bases were so strong, that It would have been difficult to take the bases without huge loss of troops. I could have upgraded all the troops to heavier weapons and armor, but that would have been very expensive. So I decided to mass produce missiles. I odered up about 25, which took between 5 and 10 turns to produce, one each from 25 different bases. I then started taking out Morgans cities one by one, just missiling all the defenders and walking in with my infantry. I started with the largest cities within range and worked my way down to the smaller ones. I was able to take his 5 largest land based cities, including 3 SP's, with no loss of troops, in just a few turns once I had all the missiles built and flown into the area. (large random map). And then Morgan just rolled over and surrendered to me. And this was for the cost of 25 missiles. Seemed like a good trade to me. I also made about 500 credit profit from taking the cities, since it was Morgan. And of course now that he surrendered, I can keep hitting him up for more credits whenever the mood strikes me. Has any one else tried this strategy? What do you think?
Krushala	posted 06-28-99 07:21 PM ET I used missles for the first time yesterday in a scenario. Worked pretty good. It seems like they always take a defender. In civ2 I would use missles on battleships and they wouldn't do sh*t. Of course the ai wasted lots of my battleships. I think they are a better option for human players in smac.
Goose1	posted 06-28-99 11:35 PM ET Drago, excellent plan. I was like you and thought that missiles were sort of useless. But you've changed my outlook. Thanks, good strategem.
Natguy	posted 06-29-99 01:41 AM ET Hmmm...I think I'll try it! As soon as I finish the game I'm on now (I'm experimenting with Pubnishment Spheres as UoP...works great! I on a major war of conquest on the Spartans now...on Free Market!!!)
Drago Sinio	posted 06-29-99 06:35 AM ET I just tried the same tactic on the Spartans in my current game, but it's not as worthwhile against them, as they dont tend to build big bases or SP's. I did use the missiles anyway though, its FUN! And they were farther away,I didnt have many troops nearby, so I took some of their nearby sea bases first, and brought in some drop troops by transport. Then it was just fire a few missiles, and drop in to take the city. It was more expensive though, in terms of the cities I got for the expense of all those missiles. I forgot to mention you should infiltrate their datalinks, or be the Governor, so you can pick which cities to hit with the missiles. Otherwise you would waste the missiles on transports and formers and such. In those cases I dropped in next to the city, after taking out the defensive units, and destroyed the weak defenders with the drop troops.
Beta1	posted 06-29-99 06:52 AM ET This tactic does work well in general but if the AI has the tech to build aerospace complexes and tachyon fields (or even just decent armour and AAA) you might find they just sit there and take it.
Resource Consumer	posted 06-29-99 07:20 AM ET An intresting use of missiles has been exhibited by AI Yang. He missiles Isles of the Deep that are cruising along in no man's land just mindworming their own business. Can't be a cost effective use of resources, surely. Cruelty to dumb mindworms that's what I call it.
Plato90s	posted 06-29-99 04:09 PM ET Nah, enough missles will take care of anyone. I've had bases with Aerospace Complex. Tachyon field, garrisoned by 3 elite units with Antimatter Plate, AAA, and Singularity Engine. They survive a few waves of 3-4 missles. But then Yang got upset and hit my city with about a dozen missles. Not even a 1-<10>-1*4 unit can take on 4 missle strikes and win.
Krushala	posted 06-29-99 07:28 PM ET The only downside I can see is drones. Missle units like other air units cause unrest. Of course this can be solved by building them in a city with a punishment sphere. Have that city cranking out missles continuosly. I'll have to try that. With one city doing missles you only need a couple of drop units to take and hold a city. And don't have to worry about aerospace complexes restricting your drop units.
Krushala	posted 06-29-99 07:29 PM ET I meant to say morgan would benefit the most from that strategy.
Plato90s	posted 06-29-99 08:41 PM ET Huh? The anti-drop zone applies even if the city has no defenders in it. As long as the Aerospace complex is up, you can't drop into the zone.
Krushala	posted 06-29-99 08:57 PM ET You're right. Forgot about that. Well I usually build drop hovertanks. If there is a aerospace complex I will try to drop on a road outside the city radius and roll in. Sometimes the ai puts cities too close together to do this though.
Drago Sinio	posted 06-29-99 11:26 PM ET Wouldn't it be a shame if a probe team slipped in there and sabotaged the aerospace center? Just before the missile barrage? And I thought of another good use for missiles. If you ever noticed, the AI will switch production from whatever it was working on to a defender the instant the last base defender is destroyed. SO, if you are in a desperate race to complete an SP with an enemy faction, and when they were almost done with the SP a Missile barrage took out all their defenders, then they would have to abandon the SP and switch to a garrison unit. It seems to me that 4 or 5 missiles would be a lot cheaper than rush building your SP. Any other devious uses for missiles?
Hamburger Hacker	posted 06-30-99 12:36 AM ET Drago, why not let the enemy finish the SP and then use your missiles and take the base. Then switch your other base to the next SP. Why waste all those minerals when you can take them?
Drago Sinio	posted 06-30-99 07:02 AM ET Hamburger Hacker, Yes that would be a better idea, if the location was right. If on the other hand the enemy city was located deep in their territory where you might not be able to defend it once you had taken it, you would, I think, be better off building the SP in one of your own cities. That way you would'nt risk losing it again to the other faction. Also if the SP were one of the science SPs where the location is important because you want the Supercollider and the Theory of Everything, for example, in the same base.
sandworm	posted 06-30-99 10:15 AM ET Could you hide the missiles in an airfield outside of the city radius to avoid the unrest penalty? It worked in Civ2.