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Author Topic:   Pangaea Tactics?

Mcerion posted 03-25-99 04:47 PM ET
Any general tips for survival on a single super-continent would be much appreciated. I find myself being overrun from all sides all too often.
Fiannaidh posted 03-25-99 06:44 PM ET
If you are starting a new game, expand your colony pods as fast as possible, until you have way more territory than anyone else, next, get a ton of military units in each cities, with the most being around your perimeter, and any high production cities. Next start building about 2 formers per base, then start building up your bases and stealing technology, framing other factions, and making other factions fight each other, You should try to stay out of the fighting as much as possible, and be sure to have a large army that can be quickly mobilized in case yang, mirriam, zakarov, morgan, or santiago decide you have too much power. If you are desparate to maintain peace you can give some of your more useless technology to factions as gifts, especially give to the factions that are losing wars, you don't want anyone eradicated unless you do it yourself. Avoid pacts except with diedre and lal, and even avoid those unless the situation is just too good to resist, i.e. you three have one corner of the continent totally under your control with no other factions separating you. Don't trust mirriam, yang, zakarov, morgan, or santiago, infiltrate EVERYONE's datalinks, call for governal elections only when you are sure you can win, or one of your pact brothers can win. sabatoge enemy secret projects with your probe teams (in production) and use thought control on enemy border cities, total thought control won't decrease your reputation (at least, not as much if any), and will not declare vendetta (handy, eh?). Get 'Copters first and fast, don't waste time with navy until end game if enemies have sea bases, and then it's best to use grav ships and copters. Drop troops and Planetbusters are also things you really want first. If it's easy, use probe teams to assassinate prominate researchers (can only be done at enemy HQ) every few turns, to ensure they don't get any technology, and as long as all your enemies are fighting each other because you've been framing other factions for stealing their tech, they can't get any by trade. This makes it feasable to give losing factions a tiny technological gift to prevent their eradication, as I mentioned earlier.
Mcerion posted 03-26-99 04:56 PM ET
Are you saying build troops before terraformers and base facilities? Other than that question thanks for the tips, I'm going to give them a try in my next game.
Tommyboy posted 03-26-99 05:06 PM ET
In case of war, try to pick your battlefield whenever possible. Look for strategic choke points where an enemy advance will have to stop and counter attack. Stack your attacking units on the same tile as your defending units and attack, retreat, (repeat as necessary). It really helps if you have a nearby city to heal. Another neat tactic I have found useful at times on a large continent is guerilla warfare. By using speeders, or other high mobility troops (mindworms are great for this purpose), it is possible to harrass an enemy's line of advance by ambushing selected units that stray too far from the main group and retreating back into the fungus. As far as builds, that all depends on the situation. I generally tend to build at least one defensive garrison before I build formers.
Good Luck
Fiannaidh posted 03-26-99 06:17 PM ET
this is for early game only, and especially with other factions near by, if Santiago sees a couple of size 2 bases with 1 scout patrol for a garrison, she might not be able to resist the temptation, if, on the otherhand, she sees 3 recon speeders, she'll have second thoughts, after all, it's only size 2
JT2 posted 03-26-99 10:41 PM ET
Actually, I've had quite good Pacts with Zak, Morgan, Sant, and Yang. Miriam is the only one you can never trust. eliminate her as quickly as possible.
If you start in the middle, expand to the closest shore. Being surrounded is never a good thing.
Spig posted 03-27-99 05:12 AM ET
If you're in this sort of situation, then explore in all directions. Know where your enemy is, and when you descover planetry networks (or is it polymorphic software) send out your probes. It is important that you find your enemy quickly!
Fiannaidh posted 03-27-99 02:22 PM ET
it maybe possible to have a good pact with them, but I'm always suspicious that they'll turn on me when I need their help the most. They're ruthless and power hungry. I have had a decent pact with santiago before, but that was only becase I had her totally contained, with a huge army around her, and she kept renouncing the pact, even then!!
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Author	Topic: Pangaea Tactics?
Mcerion	posted 03-25-99 04:47 PM ET Any general tips for survival on a single super-continent would be much appreciated. I find myself being overrun from all sides all too often.
Fiannaidh	posted 03-25-99 06:44 PM ET If you are starting a new game, expand your colony pods as fast as possible, until you have way more territory than anyone else, next, get a ton of military units in each cities, with the most being around your perimeter, and any high production cities. Next start building about 2 formers per base, then start building up your bases and stealing technology, framing other factions, and making other factions fight each other, You should try to stay out of the fighting as much as possible, and be sure to have a large army that can be quickly mobilized in case yang, mirriam, zakarov, morgan, or santiago decide you have too much power. If you are desparate to maintain peace you can give some of your more useless technology to factions as gifts, especially give to the factions that are losing wars, you don't want anyone eradicated unless you do it yourself. Avoid pacts except with diedre and lal, and even avoid those unless the situation is just too good to resist, i.e. you three have one corner of the continent totally under your control with no other factions separating you. Don't trust mirriam, yang, zakarov, morgan, or santiago, infiltrate EVERYONE's datalinks, call for governal elections only when you are sure you can win, or one of your pact brothers can win. sabatoge enemy secret projects with your probe teams (in production) and use thought control on enemy border cities, total thought control won't decrease your reputation (at least, not as much if any), and will not declare vendetta (handy, eh?). Get 'Copters first and fast, don't waste time with navy until end game if enemies have sea bases, and then it's best to use grav ships and copters. Drop troops and Planetbusters are also things you really want first. If it's easy, use probe teams to assassinate prominate researchers (can only be done at enemy HQ) every few turns, to ensure they don't get any technology, and as long as all your enemies are fighting each other because you've been framing other factions for stealing their tech, they can't get any by trade. This makes it feasable to give losing factions a tiny technological gift to prevent their eradication, as I mentioned earlier.
Mcerion	posted 03-26-99 04:56 PM ET Are you saying build troops before terraformers and base facilities? Other than that question thanks for the tips, I'm going to give them a try in my next game.
Tommyboy	posted 03-26-99 05:06 PM ET In case of war, try to pick your battlefield whenever possible. Look for strategic choke points where an enemy advance will have to stop and counter attack. Stack your attacking units on the same tile as your defending units and attack, retreat, (repeat as necessary). It really helps if you have a nearby city to heal. Another neat tactic I have found useful at times on a large continent is guerilla warfare. By using speeders, or other high mobility troops (mindworms are great for this purpose), it is possible to harrass an enemy's line of advance by ambushing selected units that stray too far from the main group and retreating back into the fungus. As far as builds, that all depends on the situation. I generally tend to build at least one defensive garrison before I build formers. Good Luck
Fiannaidh	posted 03-26-99 06:17 PM ET this is for early game only, and especially with other factions near by, if Santiago sees a couple of size 2 bases with 1 scout patrol for a garrison, she might not be able to resist the temptation, if, on the otherhand, she sees 3 recon speeders, she'll have second thoughts, after all, it's only size 2
JT2	posted 03-26-99 10:41 PM ET Actually, I've had quite good Pacts with Zak, Morgan, Sant, and Yang. Miriam is the only one you can never trust. eliminate her as quickly as possible. If you start in the middle, expand to the closest shore. Being surrounded is never a good thing.
Spig	posted 03-27-99 05:12 AM ET If you're in this sort of situation, then explore in all directions. Know where your enemy is, and when you descover planetry networks (or is it polymorphic software) send out your probes. It is important that you find your enemy quickly!
Fiannaidh	posted 03-27-99 02:22 PM ET it maybe possible to have a good pact with them, but I'm always suspicious that they'll turn on me when I need their help the most. They're ruthless and power hungry. I have had a decent pact with santiago before, but that was only becase I had her totally contained, with a huge army around her, and she kept renouncing the pact, even then!!