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Author Topic:   Favorite strange, but useful, units

nydam posted 06-29-99 03:54 PM ET
There has been some discussion of favorite units, but I was wondering about people's favorite "odd" units. (e.g. not standard 24/12 tanks - as much as we might love them)
What I am referring to are units that are:
1) Useful
and
2) Use a strange combination of technologies
Here's my favorite example:
Transport Needlejets
Strange Factor: An entire colony mounted on the nose of a fighter jet?
Use: Instant expansion, expansion over water, no mindworms killing the transport on the way to the new base location
Earwicker posted 06-29-99 04:18 PM ET
I think what you're describing is needlejet colony pods (also a fave of mine). Needlejet transports were the subject of a post a while back about how useless they were (carry too few units, serious movement restrictions).
A good useful unit (you decide if it's strange) is the Clean Police: a 1-1-1 scout with non-lethal methods and clean reactor. Costs only 20 energy to upgrade from a 1-1-1 scout or (better still) a 1-1-1 trained scout. Keeps recently captured bases in line without hampering their productivity.
nydam posted 06-29-99 04:26 PM ET
oops - I did mean colony, not transport
Resource Consumer posted 06-29-99 05:35 PM ET
Not that original, but I enjoy drop speeder probes. Particularly for nobbling pressure domes in coastal cities and then in the same torm 4+ super fusion sea formers (or less woth the WP) lower the terrain - goodbye city.
Zoetrope posted 06-30-99 05:20 AM ET
"Strange [ways] indeed." (With apologies to the lyricist.)
One of the marvels of Colony Needlejets is that you can make a base on the second half of the journey, about 24 squares from your nearest base or airfield. Most operations during this second stage will crash the jet, but not this. So the range of these beauties is prodigious: you can found colonies a _long_ way from home in two turns.
Yes, there's some risk of being shot down by a fighter or other SAM unit in mid-flight, but it's slight, otherwise what are you doing planting a new and undefended colony so close to hostile action?
Earwicker: yes, I upgrade to Clean Police a lot. Great little unit.
RC: You're mean.
I love all drop troops.
There's a thread about Psi Gates. Frankly, who needs them? They're much too little, much too late. Drop capability is available in mid-game and is SO much more powerful.
Resource Consumer posted 06-30-99 08:43 AM ET
Zoetrope,
...but effective
Same here. My favourites.
Beta1 posted 07-01-99 09:22 AM ET
Well i resisted mentioning them in thelast fav. designs thread but I can resist no longer.
Armoured probe teams used as garrisons
Wank posted 07-01-99 07:31 PM ET
Armored probe teams used as garrisons? I'm sorry, I have seen posts regarding probe teams being used as garrisons and killing other units (besides other PTs) but I was under the impression that probe teams were, well, unusable to kill another non PT unit?
Please explain...
Wank
Horgawitz posted 07-01-99 08:43 PM ET
I've always found amphibious formers to be very usefull.
Series II posted 07-02-99 08:46 AM ET
Needlejet colony pods - Never used one, but hummmmmm
I have a huge world with lots of fungs and active native life. I have needlejets and am about to get choppers. I would love to make some 'rest stop' cities between me any Zak (100+ squares away) and Gaia (50+ squares away). Land colony pods just aren't doing the trick. They are slow and undefended.
A needlejet colony pod will do the trick nicely. With 3-4 of these I can plop down a colony most anywhere.
This is going to be fun.....
MAKETUMBA posted 07-02-99 09:54 AM ET
never even thought such a thing was possible'
cant wait to try it, thanks, i just started playing i need more food like this....
w/o/manual or civ experience...
sandworm posted 07-02-99 10:13 AM ET
trained scouts or scout rovers with Psi armor - cheap, yet oddly effective defenders - esp w/ bioenhancement/command centers/creche and Neural amp (I think +50 psi defense), just dont make them with better than a 30 reactor, remember that psi combat bug.
maybe not strange enough, apologies
amphibious formers - can you even MAKE an amphibious sea unit chassis? I thought you had to wait for gravships to get a land/sea former unit.
JayPegg posted 07-02-99 11:15 AM ET
sandworm-
I think Horg is talking about a land former put on a transport and then using it as a sea former. I've done it before when I had some extra terras and transports around. And remember, if you put two terras on the transport and assign them to the same task it is finished twice as fast!
I also find that psi armor scouts with amp works great! I love those things late on.
Monkeyboy posted 07-02-99 11:45 AM ET
I particularly enjoy Foil Probe units. Fairly cheap, and just fun. The AI generally will have coastal cities within stricking distance. This way, I can probe without landing.
I generally keep them as cheap as possible (no real armor) so I can churn out lots of them.
Monkeyboy.
googlie posted 07-02-99 12:04 PM ET
Psi gates? - Try the Trojan Horse strategy
Use your needlejet colony podder to found a base deep inside enemy territory or behind enemy lines. Insert one or two drop garrison units, and rush build a psi gate.
Next turn insert 20 behemoths (or whatever your best assault unit is) from your other 20 bases with psi gates (they can only transmit one per turn but can receive an infinite number per turn)
Roll out and conquer
googlie
Beta1 posted 07-03-99 12:18 PM ET
Sorry about the delay in replying
If you are playing a SE choice with low support ratings before the HSA comes up it is (often) important to protect front line cities against probe attacks. If you give a probe team amour then it looses the -50% non combat unit penalty (as do formers/colony pods when given armour). This also means that the unit is not automaticly destroyed by collateral damage when the last conventional garrison unit is destroyed. Therefore if the base is attacked and the normal units overwhelmed you still have the probe team which must be destroyed before the base can be taken. You effectively get one extra defender +anti-probe defence in one unit (and a support free unit as well).
Also if an attacker (non-believers) is stupid enough to park a unit outside your base on its own you just use the probe team to capture it.
The last neat trick is that when you build the HSA these units become unnessacery so you can use them offensively - you immediately get an entire army of probe teams read to annoy the opposition with.

Beta1 posted 07-03-99 12:19 PM ET
Sorry that should have been low probe rating not support.
Doh!
Series II posted 07-06-99 08:19 AM ET
Pod Poppers -
1/1/1 scout unit with drop pods - It serves 2 purposes:
1) investigate pods
2) drop into fungus squares so that you can move alien atrifacts to that square without encountering mind worms.
I have found that mind worms are never encountered when a unit drops on a fungus square.
After I build the space elevator I will be trying out drop supply crawlers and drop formers. I plan on dropping a 100 or so from my sceince city on energy squares all over the map.
googlie posted 07-06-99 11:36 AM ET
Series II:
Great idea. I'm going there tonight (I'm a converted HUGE user of supply crawlers - both land and sea)
Googlie
Series II posted 07-07-99 10:38 AM ET
I started using these ('Pack Animals') last night:
Drop anything that you can disband for 10 or more minerals. Although not really mineral effective I use these to drop into a city that I have just captured. I than disband them and buy whatever it is that I need at that city. Once you have the first 10 minerals cost to hurry something goes down a lot.
ErisDiscordia5 posted 07-08-99 09:10 AM ET
I can't wait to use those Drop Transports -- hope they fixed that in v4 .
I have considered using heavily armored transports, but so far no real use for them has occurred to me.
I have also considered 'copter colony pods -- a bit slower than needlejets, but slightly higher overall range.
Drop rover probe teams, of course, absolutely rule.
Fiannaidh posted 07-08-99 06:05 PM ET
A clean scout, no armor or anything, just a 1-1-1 clean scout with a big reactor to make it cheap. Just fill up every square you can get to with these and your mindworm problems all but disappear (although it is really weird and there are other, easier ways)
Zoetrope posted 07-09-99 11:20 AM ET
I suppose that's true, ErisD5; chopper colony pods will suffer damage, but who cares as long as they last long enough? OTOH, I'm concerned that the last step of trying to form the colony might kill the copter instead.
Beta1: in version 3 recently I used a Silksteel Probe team defender in mid-game (enemy had Shard I think), but the instant the regular defender died, so did it.
googlie: That is good news. I was afraid that it was one unit per turn on both transmit and receive. But if I can rush supply crawlers and other non-drop units from all other bases into one base in a single turn, then Psi Gates do have a use.
Horgawitz and JayPegg: using land formers on a sea transport to terraform the oceans is so unexpected I never imagined it.
Hmm, I wonder whether gravship transports can pick up sea formers and use them to terraform land?
ED5: Firaxis (redwood bole?) claim that the drop transport bug is fixed; also that Singularity reactors now have value 40 to correct for the psi combat bug.
They also assert (yet again) that the missile bug has been dealt with. I hope so, else it's into Alpha.txt to give myself range 100 missiles again. (I don't like the automated missiles' preference to hit remote Hive seabases and mindworm stacks, so it has to be manual control.)
Fiannaidh: yes, I've also been thinking of filling every square with probe teams (before I get clean reactors).
Another useful trick (the "Customs Check") is to cover every coastal square with cheap units (cheap to make and to support), so that the Hive or Spartans or Believers (or whoever is the bully today) cannot land troops to make contact and threats with. (This is an application of someone's suggestion to do this to prevent Isles of the Deep from landing their Passenger Mindworms.)
ApcJK posted 07-09-99 04:33 PM ET
Copter colony pods? Just imagine those helpless colonists falling into the sea when the turn ends
Fiannaidh: Putting a big armor on a cheap unit actually makes it more expensive. Better check what's the best reactor for clean 1-1-1.
Plato90s posted 07-09-99 04:38 PM ET
You can't transport sea units. Only land units can be transported. Besides, why not just build gravship formers?
As for your probe teams, they are still considered a non-combatant unit even if they are armored. Non-combatant units are destroyed when the last defender in a city is destroyed. Different rules apply in the open.
Basil posted 07-13-99 01:23 AM ET
My favorite strange unit: Drop grav hovertanks.
Once you have the Space Elevator and decent weapons/armor tech, these babies become expensive, but effective ways to rain firepower onto an unfriendly place..
The needlejet transport / colony pod ideas are just plane (pun intended) Siiicccckkk.
Hmmm...how about drop planet busters?
Basil
Zhaus posted 07-15-99 01:47 PM ET
Okay, you can't use these in a "real" game but:
Edit alpha.txt, create a technology called "Disabled Features" (or whatever) "Feature" for short, now there are several things you can replace the technology "Disable" (which keeps players from building them) with "Feature" (allowing you to build these with the "Disabled Features" tech). The most interesting is a non-combat package called "Alien Artifact". Use the scenario editor to add the tech "Disabled features" and now you can build Alien Artifacts! They work the same as the ones in the game, but they look completely different.
As for possible real uses, I would suggest a game in which the precursor alien civilization is present, and primarily build artifacts and monoliths. If there's a way to make that technology nontransferrable, then civs will have to mediate between conquering some precursor land and units, but ensuring that they don't kill the "goose that lays the golden egg".
K posted 07-15-99 04:16 PM ET
Submarine supply ships
Drop supply crawlers(w/ Orbital insertion): To hurry production anywhere.
Drop probe teams
Oh yah, and why would you fill every coastal square with probe teams when you can do it with supply crawlers. No support, they work the land, and you never have to worry about random Isles of the Deep dropping off a laod of worms. Amphibious enemies and enemy aircraft are a problem, though.
GioVAX posted 07-22-99 10:47 AM ET
needlejet transport?!?!?
I built this but couldn't make it work: how did you do that?
BTW: I have the italian version of the game (that is equivalent to a patch 2 english).
Zoetrope posted 07-22-99 11:59 PM ET
GioVAX: Air Transports should work the same as Sea and Land Transports - do they work for you?
Note that Air and Sea transports only carry one unit each - though I think you can edit Alpha.txt to change that.
Zoetrope posted 07-23-99 12:00 AM ET
Correction:
Air and *Land* transports only carry one unit each (unless you edit Alpha.txt).
Melkur posted 07-23-99 10:26 PM ET
My personal favorites is:
the singularity penetrator supply crawler
(or the drop hovertank supply crawler)...
It was a few months ago but, at the point where I'm going for transcendence, the whole world goes crazy (factions attack, planet attacks, etc.) So I don't want to spend a lot of time building the secret project. Big expensive (flying or hovering) supply crawlers let me transport their entire value quickly the the project. I think I got the job done (2000 minerals) in about 5-10 turns, maybe less.
The great thing is that you can fine-tune the size of it by fiddilng with the reactor and armor. That way you can get just the right size to pop one out each turn.
Is this a common technique?
BTW, I'll have to try the needlejet colony pod sometime. It sounds fun.
~ Melkur
5thbusiness posted 07-23-99 11:25 PM ET
Continuing the theme of more mobile colony pods, I have used a nutronium drop colony pod for tactical effect once or twice. Late in a game, playing the UoP, I was having a very hard time fighting the Hive. I landed a drop colony pod (orbital insertion), accompanied by some drop marines, 2 squares away from Hive headquarters. As Yang's minions tried to destroy this base which suddenly appeared in the middle of their empire, my forces took advantage of their distraction and turned the tide.
-amphibious formers, good idea...
Drago Sinio posted 07-25-99 07:18 PM ET
Here's what I do as soon as I am researching the Air Power Tech. I build a rover in each of my bases, or two if i have the time, then the instant i get the Air power tech, the first thing I do is build a needlejet transport in each base, and one needlejet colony pod. Then when all the transports are built and the rovers are ready, I plop down the needlejet colony pod as close as possible to an enemy base that is right in the heart of their territory, usually i pick the one with the most secret projects. Then I fly in the rovers with the air transports to the new base. All of a sudden the enemy finds about 20 rovers in the middle of their territory, and the best part is I then use the transports to cover the rover attacks. The enemy usually doesnt have anything that can shoot down the transports yet, so the rovers are virtually invincible. In the meanwhile i build one attack needle jet in each base, and gradually replace the transports with the armed planes. Then the transports bring in some infantry units to defend the bases I have taken from the enemy. By that time the enemy usually had gotten the air power tech, but they no longer have enough bases left to take advantage of it. This is my favorite "blitzkrieg" type of attack, and it is available before missiles, copters, drop units and all that good stuff.
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Author	Topic: Favorite strange, but useful, units
nydam	posted 06-29-99 03:54 PM ET There has been some discussion of favorite units, but I was wondering about people's favorite "odd" units. (e.g. not standard 24/12 tanks - as much as we might love them) What I am referring to are units that are: 1) Useful and 2) Use a strange combination of technologies Here's my favorite example: Transport Needlejets Strange Factor: An entire colony mounted on the nose of a fighter jet? Use: Instant expansion, expansion over water, no mindworms killing the transport on the way to the new base location
Earwicker	posted 06-29-99 04:18 PM ET I think what you're describing is needlejet colony pods (also a fave of mine). Needlejet transports were the subject of a post a while back about how useless they were (carry too few units, serious movement restrictions). A good useful unit (you decide if it's strange) is the Clean Police: a 1-1-1 scout with non-lethal methods and clean reactor. Costs only 20 energy to upgrade from a 1-1-1 scout or (better still) a 1-1-1 trained scout. Keeps recently captured bases in line without hampering their productivity.
nydam	posted 06-29-99 04:26 PM ET oops - I did mean colony, not transport
Resource Consumer	posted 06-29-99 05:35 PM ET Not that original, but I enjoy drop speeder probes. Particularly for nobbling pressure domes in coastal cities and then in the same torm 4+ super fusion sea formers (or less woth the WP) lower the terrain - goodbye city.
Zoetrope	posted 06-30-99 05:20 AM ET "Strange [ways] indeed." (With apologies to the lyricist.) One of the marvels of Colony Needlejets is that you can make a base on the second half of the journey, about 24 squares from your nearest base or airfield. Most operations during this second stage will crash the jet, but not this. So the range of these beauties is prodigious: you can found colonies a _long_ way from home in two turns. Yes, there's some risk of being shot down by a fighter or other SAM unit in mid-flight, but it's slight, otherwise what are you doing planting a new and undefended colony so close to hostile action? Earwicker: yes, I upgrade to Clean Police a lot. Great little unit. RC: You're mean. I love all drop troops. There's a thread about Psi Gates. Frankly, who needs them? They're much too little, much too late. Drop capability is available in mid-game and is SO much more powerful.
Resource Consumer	posted 06-30-99 08:43 AM ET Zoetrope, ...but effective Same here. My favourites.
Beta1	posted 07-01-99 09:22 AM ET Well i resisted mentioning them in thelast fav. designs thread but I can resist no longer. Armoured probe teams used as garrisons
Wank	posted 07-01-99 07:31 PM ET Armored probe teams used as garrisons? I'm sorry, I have seen posts regarding probe teams being used as garrisons and killing other units (besides other PTs) but I was under the impression that probe teams were, well, unusable to kill another non PT unit? Please explain... Wank
Horgawitz	posted 07-01-99 08:43 PM ET I've always found amphibious formers to be very usefull.
Series II	posted 07-02-99 08:46 AM ET Needlejet colony pods - Never used one, but hummmmmm I have a huge world with lots of fungs and active native life. I have needlejets and am about to get choppers. I would love to make some 'rest stop' cities between me any Zak (100+ squares away) and Gaia (50+ squares away). Land colony pods just aren't doing the trick. They are slow and undefended. A needlejet colony pod will do the trick nicely. With 3-4 of these I can plop down a colony most anywhere. This is going to be fun.....
MAKETUMBA	posted 07-02-99 09:54 AM ET never even thought such a thing was possible' cant wait to try it, thanks, i just started playing i need more food like this.... w/o/manual or civ experience...
sandworm	posted 07-02-99 10:13 AM ET trained scouts or scout rovers with Psi armor - cheap, yet oddly effective defenders - esp w/ bioenhancement/command centers/creche and Neural amp (I think +50 psi defense), just dont make them with better than a 30 reactor, remember that psi combat bug. maybe not strange enough, apologies amphibious formers - can you even MAKE an amphibious sea unit chassis? I thought you had to wait for gravships to get a land/sea former unit.
JayPegg	posted 07-02-99 11:15 AM ET sandworm- I think Horg is talking about a land former put on a transport and then using it as a sea former. I've done it before when I had some extra terras and transports around. And remember, if you put two terras on the transport and assign them to the same task it is finished twice as fast! I also find that psi armor scouts with amp works great! I love those things late on.
Monkeyboy	posted 07-02-99 11:45 AM ET I particularly enjoy Foil Probe units. Fairly cheap, and just fun. The AI generally will have coastal cities within stricking distance. This way, I can probe without landing. I generally keep them as cheap as possible (no real armor) so I can churn out lots of them. Monkeyboy.
googlie	posted 07-02-99 12:04 PM ET Psi gates? - Try the Trojan Horse strategy Use your needlejet colony podder to found a base deep inside enemy territory or behind enemy lines. Insert one or two drop garrison units, and rush build a psi gate. Next turn insert 20 behemoths (or whatever your best assault unit is) from your other 20 bases with psi gates (they can only transmit one per turn but can receive an infinite number per turn) Roll out and conquer googlie
Beta1	posted 07-03-99 12:18 PM ET Sorry about the delay in replying If you are playing a SE choice with low support ratings before the HSA comes up it is (often) important to protect front line cities against probe attacks. If you give a probe team amour then it looses the -50% non combat unit penalty (as do formers/colony pods when given armour). This also means that the unit is not automaticly destroyed by collateral damage when the last conventional garrison unit is destroyed. Therefore if the base is attacked and the normal units overwhelmed you still have the probe team which must be destroyed before the base can be taken. You effectively get one extra defender +anti-probe defence in one unit (and a support free unit as well). Also if an attacker (non-believers) is stupid enough to park a unit outside your base on its own you just use the probe team to capture it. The last neat trick is that when you build the HSA these units become unnessacery so you can use them offensively - you immediately get an entire army of probe teams read to annoy the opposition with.
Beta1	posted 07-03-99 12:19 PM ET Sorry that should have been low probe rating not support. Doh!
Series II	posted 07-06-99 08:19 AM ET Pod Poppers - 1/1/1 scout unit with drop pods - It serves 2 purposes: 1) investigate pods 2) drop into fungus squares so that you can move alien atrifacts to that square without encountering mind worms. I have found that mind worms are never encountered when a unit drops on a fungus square. After I build the space elevator I will be trying out drop supply crawlers and drop formers. I plan on dropping a 100 or so from my sceince city on energy squares all over the map.
googlie	posted 07-06-99 11:36 AM ET Series II: Great idea. I'm going there tonight (I'm a converted HUGE user of supply crawlers - both land and sea) Googlie
Series II	posted 07-07-99 10:38 AM ET I started using these ('Pack Animals') last night: Drop anything that you can disband for 10 or more minerals. Although not really mineral effective I use these to drop into a city that I have just captured. I than disband them and buy whatever it is that I need at that city. Once you have the first 10 minerals cost to hurry something goes down a lot.
ErisDiscordia5	posted 07-08-99 09:10 AM ET I can't wait to use those Drop Transports -- hope they fixed that in v4 . I have considered using heavily armored transports, but so far no real use for them has occurred to me. I have also considered 'copter colony pods -- a bit slower than needlejets, but slightly higher overall range. Drop rover probe teams, of course, absolutely rule.
Fiannaidh	posted 07-08-99 06:05 PM ET A clean scout, no armor or anything, just a 1-1-1 clean scout with a big reactor to make it cheap. Just fill up every square you can get to with these and your mindworm problems all but disappear (although it is really weird and there are other, easier ways)
Zoetrope	posted 07-09-99 11:20 AM ET I suppose that's true, ErisD5; chopper colony pods will suffer damage, but who cares as long as they last long enough? OTOH, I'm concerned that the last step of trying to form the colony might kill the copter instead. Beta1: in version 3 recently I used a Silksteel Probe team defender in mid-game (enemy had Shard I think), but the instant the regular defender died, so did it. googlie: That is good news. I was afraid that it was one unit per turn on both transmit and receive. But if I can rush supply crawlers and other non-drop units from all other bases into one base in a single turn, then Psi Gates do have a use. Horgawitz and JayPegg: using land formers on a sea transport to terraform the oceans is so unexpected I never imagined it. Hmm, I wonder whether gravship transports can pick up sea formers and use them to terraform land? ED5: Firaxis (redwood bole?) claim that the drop transport bug is fixed; also that Singularity reactors now have value 40 to correct for the psi combat bug. They also assert (yet again) that the missile bug has been dealt with. I hope so, else it's into Alpha.txt to give myself range 100 missiles again. (I don't like the automated missiles' preference to hit remote Hive seabases and mindworm stacks, so it has to be manual control.) Fiannaidh: yes, I've also been thinking of filling every square with probe teams (before I get clean reactors). Another useful trick (the "Customs Check") is to cover every coastal square with cheap units (cheap to make and to support), so that the Hive or Spartans or Believers (or whoever is the bully today) cannot land troops to make contact and threats with. (This is an application of someone's suggestion to do this to prevent Isles of the Deep from landing their Passenger Mindworms.)
ApcJK	posted 07-09-99 04:33 PM ET Copter colony pods? Just imagine those helpless colonists falling into the sea when the turn ends Fiannaidh: Putting a big armor on a cheap unit actually makes it more expensive. Better check what's the best reactor for clean 1-1-1.
Plato90s	posted 07-09-99 04:38 PM ET You can't transport sea units. Only land units can be transported. Besides, why not just build gravship formers? As for your probe teams, they are still considered a non-combatant unit even if they are armored. Non-combatant units are destroyed when the last defender in a city is destroyed. Different rules apply in the open.
Basil	posted 07-13-99 01:23 AM ET My favorite strange unit: Drop grav hovertanks. Once you have the Space Elevator and decent weapons/armor tech, these babies become expensive, but effective ways to rain firepower onto an unfriendly place.. The needlejet transport / colony pod ideas are just plane (pun intended) Siiicccckkk. Hmmm...how about drop planet busters? Basil
Zhaus	posted 07-15-99 01:47 PM ET Okay, you can't use these in a "real" game but: Edit alpha.txt, create a technology called "Disabled Features" (or whatever) "Feature" for short, now there are several things you can replace the technology "Disable" (which keeps players from building them) with "Feature" (allowing you to build these with the "Disabled Features" tech). The most interesting is a non-combat package called "Alien Artifact". Use the scenario editor to add the tech "Disabled features" and now you can build Alien Artifacts! They work the same as the ones in the game, but they look completely different. As for possible real uses, I would suggest a game in which the precursor alien civilization is present, and primarily build artifacts and monoliths. If there's a way to make that technology nontransferrable, then civs will have to mediate between conquering some precursor land and units, but ensuring that they don't kill the "goose that lays the golden egg".
K	posted 07-15-99 04:16 PM ET Submarine supply ships Drop supply crawlers(w/ Orbital insertion): To hurry production anywhere. Drop probe teams Oh yah, and why would you fill every coastal square with probe teams when you can do it with supply crawlers. No support, they work the land, and you never have to worry about random Isles of the Deep dropping off a laod of worms. Amphibious enemies and enemy aircraft are a problem, though.
GioVAX	posted 07-22-99 10:47 AM ET needlejet transport?!?!? I built this but couldn't make it work: how did you do that? BTW: I have the italian version of the game (that is equivalent to a patch 2 english).
Zoetrope	posted 07-22-99 11:59 PM ET GioVAX: Air Transports should work the same as Sea and Land Transports - do they work for you? Note that Air and Sea transports only carry one unit each - though I think you can edit Alpha.txt to change that.
Zoetrope	posted 07-23-99 12:00 AM ET Correction: Air and Land transports only carry one unit each (unless you edit Alpha.txt).
Melkur	posted 07-23-99 10:26 PM ET My personal favorites is: the singularity penetrator supply crawler (or the drop hovertank supply crawler)... It was a few months ago but, at the point where I'm going for transcendence, the whole world goes crazy (factions attack, planet attacks, etc.) So I don't want to spend a lot of time building the secret project. Big expensive (flying or hovering) supply crawlers let me transport their entire value quickly the the project. I think I got the job done (2000 minerals) in about 5-10 turns, maybe less. The great thing is that you can fine-tune the size of it by fiddilng with the reactor and armor. That way you can get just the right size to pop one out each turn. Is this a common technique? BTW, I'll have to try the needlejet colony pod sometime. It sounds fun. ~ Melkur
5thbusiness	posted 07-23-99 11:25 PM ET Continuing the theme of more mobile colony pods, I have used a nutronium drop colony pod for tactical effect once or twice. Late in a game, playing the UoP, I was having a very hard time fighting the Hive. I landed a drop colony pod (orbital insertion), accompanied by some drop marines, 2 squares away from Hive headquarters. As Yang's minions tried to destroy this base which suddenly appeared in the middle of their empire, my forces took advantage of their distraction and turned the tide. -amphibious formers, good idea...
Drago Sinio	posted 07-25-99 07:18 PM ET Here's what I do as soon as I am researching the Air Power Tech. I build a rover in each of my bases, or two if i have the time, then the instant i get the Air power tech, the first thing I do is build a needlejet transport in each base, and one needlejet colony pod. Then when all the transports are built and the rovers are ready, I plop down the needlejet colony pod as close as possible to an enemy base that is right in the heart of their territory, usually i pick the one with the most secret projects. Then I fly in the rovers with the air transports to the new base. All of a sudden the enemy finds about 20 rovers in the middle of their territory, and the best part is I then use the transports to cover the rover attacks. The enemy usually doesnt have anything that can shoot down the transports yet, so the rovers are virtually invincible. In the meanwhile i build one attack needle jet in each base, and gradually replace the transports with the armed planes. Then the transports bring in some infantry units to defend the bases I have taken from the enemy. By that time the enemy usually had gotten the air power tech, but they no longer have enough bases left to take advantage of it. This is my favorite "blitzkrieg" type of attack, and it is available before missiles, copters, drop units and all that good stuff.