posted 05-18-99 05:05 PM ET         

I keep track of how long it will take to grow each colony, and make sure to anticipate the growth with police units and/or rec commons as necessary. This is not a static strategy, but is fluid depending on the growth rates of the colonies.

Usually, I'll set down the second city near the first, so that police units can switch easily from one to the other (and also to get the second city cranking energy for tech sooner). So I'll usually have my first new city planted by 2104 (or even 2101 if my first base lands on a friendly river). I will build two scouts in each of the initial two bases, so that I will have a total of five scouts (the first is independent), and no support cost. This will allow my population to grow to 3 with no drones. By that time, I will have a recycle tank and rec commons in each base (hurry with cash a bit if necessary to head off the drones), and now my pops can get up to 4 with no problem. At this point, when my formers (one per base at this stage) are just getting cranked up, it will be awhile before I grow again. I will thus have two bases of pop 3-4, supporting two formers and 4 scouts, plus the "free" initial scout (yes, I spend the extra mineral to support the three units per base; it's more than worth it). Note also that the second scout at each base can be used to explore until the pop of its base nears three.

Now I build 1-3 colony pods per each of my initial bases to keep the bases from increasing pop, and to expand. Then I turn the best mineral base to Human Genome and use any artifacts to hurry it. So now I can grow my bases to pop 5 w/o a problem (each base will have two police units and a former, as I said before don't be afraid to spend one mineral in support, plus timely rec commons and extra talent from HGP; the police units will eventually be promoted to top-of-the line war units when necessary). The other of my twin starting cities builds the Command Nexus. Then I go for Virtual World and Citizen's defense force, only stopping for the other low level SP's if time permits. Use the artifacts to advance the SP's!!!!

My two core bases keep cranking out the SP's while the perimeter bases grow to pop 3-4 and do the amoeba thing, so that I can keep growing. As each base matures, it is used to do the necessary stuff such as building enough probe teams to have two per base, building prototype units so I'm ready for war, chipping in on SP's, and building supply crawlers. Mix in the base facilities as seems appropriate.

Bribe the warmongers until you have 6-10 cities, the four core projects I mentioned above, the probes, and the latest prototype units.

Then (circa 2150) go bash in their skulls.