posted 07-25-99 09:35 PM ET        

I tried twice and failed twice. The third time, however, is what I am going to tell you about. I was the Hive.

I started out on a rather small island with Mount Planet. I began to fill up all I could find with new cities (I later discovered a large segment of land to the south, but the fungus it was filled with had foiled my earlier scouting attempts. I soon met up with the UoP, who were on an island seperated from me by a very narrow channel (two squares) they had more tech than me and a largret military. I had foolishly not built up an army at all besides scouts for defending. (my tech was terrible) A few years later they attacked and took one of the cities I had built on Mount Planet. Then we made peace. They later built another city on my island as well.

At around 2220 I decided that the only way I had a chance of surviving, much less winning, was if I attacked the University now. I built up a great number of Particle infantry and attacked the smaller base they had built. From it I stole Superstring Theory and began to upgrade and produce Chaos Troops. I then retook the city they had taken and set my formers to making a landbridge. As soon as it was completed I swarmed into their territory, quickly capturing the HSA, VW, Long. Vac (I had already built WP and CN)(I like acronyms) and other Secret Projects, and within a few turns had brought the entire western end of their island under my dominion. It took my a little longer to take the eastern end, but the year circe 2290 saw me the master of the University, with all their technology.

My next objective was the UoP's ally, the Peacekeepers (also quite near) They had built several seabases near their island (it was crescent-shaped, so they were in the little bay thingy) and I decided that these would be the firs thing I would take, s this would take out about half their cities. I built a force of copters, ships and drop troops and began to destroy the PKs. They also quickly capitulated.

So here is a quick outline of the factions at this point:
Hive: sizable empire, leader in tech (due to spoils)
UoP: Surrendered to Hive
PKs:Surrendered to Hive
Gaians: Southern edge of map, average power (war with neighbors the Believers had kept them at this state)
Believers: Far south. Same as Gaians.
Morganites: Destroyed by Spartans
Spartans: Most Powerful.

Since I could not get to the Gaians or Believers, I had to attack the Spartans. I decided to discard my copter force which had worked so well in favor of a new one: I began producing Conventional Missiles by the truckload. With 18 attack, they were stronger and cheaper than Shard Copters, and I didn't mind that they were destroyed. The copters would have been destroyined without taking out the enemy!

I attacked using my missile strategy and drop troops, advancing my way along the northern peninsula of the Spartans (although norhtern, it was running east-west) until I reached Sparta Command. From here it was a hop, skip and a drop to the inner core of the Spartans, conveniantly in the Monsoon Jungle. Frotunaltely the Spartans never defend their bases well,a nd within a few turns the core was mine. This was the killer stroke for the Spartans. All that was left was their seabases and smaller land bases, which I began to take. While I had been advancing throough to the core, however, the Spartans fired off a Planetbuster, destroying the Hive and another city (the Hive had the WP and CN, although I had fortunately built the Cyborg Factory elsewhere) Although I had vowed to accept no surrender from the Spartans, they surrendered, and I accepted it.

As I was fighting the Spartan War, however, the Gaians and the Believers suddenly stopped their 200-year old war and became Pact Sisters (why is it that the AI can vow to destroy antoher AI one turn and be allies the next, yet hate me forver for a one-turn war three hundred years ago?!) The Gaians now were expanding rapidly and their power was skyrocketing. I had no wish to fight them, however, as they had the strongest military on Planet (seeing as mine was mostly missiles) and I really did not feel like fighting another long war.

So I switched to Fundy, called up the Believers, and they surrendered. Voila! I now had four enemy factions under my dominion, and although they were all at war with the Spartans for nuking me, I set them all against the Gaians. It turned out, hpwever, that the big war I was preparing for never happened. I had been forced to ignore the Gaians while I was destroyingt the Spartans, but with them as my puppet state, I dealt the Gaians a swift counterattack and they sued for peace. Is till did not trust them, however. I stockpiled missles in nearby Believer bases and forces to take the bsaes with as well, although it turns out that the treason came not from without my little fiefdoms, but from within...

In the year 2290, after getting the Empath Guild from the Gaians, I ran for Supreme Ruler. As I had calculated earlier, I won. (The cloning vats, telepathic matrix and tons of orbital improvements made my population soar int he years before hte Election, thus boosting my votes)

Well, that would be a good place to end the story. I'm the Supreme Ruler, I achieved all my goals,a nd everybody's happy.

Except to my surprise, the Spartans, (whom I had comquered and who swore a pact to serve me) my ALLIES, defied the will of the council!I had expected the Gaians to do this (they did not) but the Spartans?! The only reason I can think of is that since they were in Vendetta with evrey one but me over the nuclear incident, they chose to resist rather than to live side by side with their enemies. A heroic act. Also an incredibly stupid one. I quickly brought in all my missiles from the positions to strike the Gians to positions to bombard the few remaining Spartan cities. I also began to churn them out from the already conquered Spartan bases, although since the end of the Spartan War the rest of my cities had demilititarized their production and built up their infrastructure, and this they continued to do.

And so once more I sent swarms of missiles into the Spartan cities, and flew in drop troops to take them afterwards. There was a difference, however. This time the Spartans fought to the death, making no entreaties for peace. It made no difference. In four years they were wholly destroyed, and I ascended the throne of Supreme Leader.

posted 07-27-99 01:01 AM ET            

How did Drop Troops help you capture the Peacekeepers' sea bases?

What version of SMAC were you using and what size map? In version 4 on a Huge map the Hive should have been out of range of the Spartan Planet Buster.

Why didn't you anticipate and pre-empt the PB launch? Was Deirdre Governor? In such a situation, it's always a good idea to infiltrate Datalinks before conducting a war.

posted 07-27-99 09:02 AM ET            

I was Vs. 4.0, and the PB was sent from a small Spartan city on the southern tip of my continent that I had not yet taken. I was Governor so I knew they had a PB, but I also knew that they could do no really bad damage (I was pretty much done terraforming and I had built the Cyborg Factory) And I was not yet in a position where I could take the city with the PB by the time they launched it.