Ideas on my upcoming war with the Gaians

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Author Topic:   Ideas on my upcoming war with the Gaians

Series II posted 07-01-99 09:33 AM ET
Here is the situtation: I have a line of 10 cities (each 3 squares apart) making a front/border between me and the Gaians. I am number 1 and they are number 2. We will be at war soon. I am designing a defense to their worm armies. I am waiting until I get better tech (drop pods) to start attacking. Here is my plan:
1) Plant forest directly in front of the border cities to stop Gaian units approaching my cities. This will allow me to attack them.
2) Connect all front cities by roads. This will allow me to move units between neighboring cities in 1 turn.
3) Plant sensors behind the forest line.
4) Garrison in each front city:
1 scout - non violent methods, empath
1 scout - non violent methods, trance
1 speeder clean - high morale
1 artillary - high morale, deep radar
Do worms get att/def bonus for terrain other than fungus. I know their life cycle gives them bonuses. Are their better ways to defend against the Gaians in this example? Are their better units to garrison my cities with. I am the hive and I have the Nureal Amp, Hunter Seeker, Longevity VVaccine, Weather Pardigm, Command Nexus and Virtual World. I am currently Police/planned/wealth.
Beta1 posted 07-01-99 10:40 AM ET
I would put some decent armour on one of the units - you would look pretty stupid if they turned up with a couple of speeders mixed in with the worms. Perhaps high moral on the trance unit. Make the speeder trained, +50%psi attack instead of clean. It should eat worms for breakfast then. Keep the sensors behind the cities or they will get demolished. Dont plant forests. If you want to use the terrain as a barrier level any rocky bits and lower it below your cities to give your arty an edge andmake sure the squares on the enemies side have no roads.
Really you want some planes based just behind the front to intercept the worms before they arrive.
Resource Consumer posted 07-01-99 10:44 AM ET
Surely you must have better armour than simply scout (implies no armour)?
Resource Consumer posted 07-01-99 10:45 AM ET
Slow system,

Beta 1 beat me to it.
Earwicker posted 07-01-99 10:52 AM ET
Build sensors behind the line of your cities, not behind the forest - -that way there's no way for them to be pillaged.
Get some probes in there to pick off any unit coming across that might be useful to you. Also, infiltrate her datalinks so you know what's coming: if she's sending some rovers, an ECM or two would work wonders.
Build your defenders as trained scout infantry (1-1-1*1, cost 10), then upgrade them to trance police (a few, not all, with armor). That way you get 3 special abilities, and the boost will help a lot.
Focus on attack capability over defense. Nature will do the hard part for you -- stopping them before they can attack. I'd build empath song speeders over scouts for the extra attack/ movement to the fight. A powerful conventional attacker is a must in case they send armored trance garrison marching across (which would move just as well through the forest as anything else and use your terrain against you).
Plato90s posted 07-01-99 12:20 PM ET
More artillery. Lots more artillery.
Worms are very vulnerable to artillery strikes. Where a normal unit usually takes less than 15% damage from a single strike, you can take up to 30-40% damage on a Mindworm. A minimum of two artillery units for each city [BTW, you can't get high morale and deep radar w/ artillery. Artillery already counts as a special ability.]
You don't want to put a speeder in every base because that's expensive and inefficient. You want to concentrate your speeder force in groups of 2-3 and use your roads to move between your cities. With each city only 3 spaces apart and connected by roads, 3 speeders in one city can also be deployed to 2 adjacent cities and attack once. Instead of being able to attack twice in 3 out of 3 cities, you can attack 3 times in 1 out of 3 cities. Since you're unlikely to face a simultaneous assault on multiple cities [AI likes to concentrate], this deployment makes more sense.
With the same tactical considerations, you may want to build 1-2 Trance speeders to act as mobile defense, just in case the worm stacks get to be too much.
Series II posted 07-01-99 04:41 PM ET
OK, how about this:
1) build trained scout rovers
Garrison my cities with:
1 2/max/2 (att/def/speed) Police +50% psi defense
1 2/max/2 police +50 psi attack
1 max/max/2 clean, deep radar
1 max/1/2 clean artillery
This will allow my cities to get up to about 9 pop with no drones and will give me 102 good psi and convential defense and attack units.
For the up coming war buld a lot of: 1 max/max/2 clean, deep radar and several 1 max/1/2 clean artillery. I plan on destroying enemy city garrisons with choppers and needle jets and using the speeders as support and garrisons.
Basically I an thinking about a complete speeder army and chopper/needlejet air force.
I know the speeders cost a little more and that infantry get bonuses to attack cities. Neither of these concern me that much. I have more minerals than I know what to do with and 30% off build cost.
Anyone see holes in my all speeder land force?
RedFred posted 07-01-99 06:41 PM ET
Series II, are you sure you are going to war soon? I always thought that pacting with #2 on the depth chart would be an unstable situation if you were number one...however my current game is causing me to rethink this.
I am #1 (Morgan) pacted with #2(Deirdre) and #3 (Zac). We have been best buddies for about 100 years and 1,2 & 3 for about forty. Go figure. I'm not even Green, Knowledge. It is a TI game, mostly default settings.
Needless to say, I have been watching the long common border with the Gaians with great interest and beefing up the "D".
BTW, if (when) she does hit me, it will be mostly with conventional forces. She has only hatched a couple of mindworms so far.
-R

Series II posted 07-02-99 08:28 AM ET
I am not sure about the upcoming war. My pact brothers the PK have taken the first Gaian city. The more they take the futher my border is with the Gaians. Zak just declared war, but he is about half way across a very huge world. I just got needlejets. I might try and remain peaceful, but I would like a piece of the Gaian empire (particular the merchant exchange at Gaia Landing).
I need to send some probes to Zak and fill in the holes in my research. With a movement 3 transport it should take about 35 turns to get there. Maybe I will research the mairtime guild next.
On another note my all speeder theory might be good, but I have a lot of infintry already built. It is easier to upgrade them than build new speeders. The speeders will be my army and the infintry my garrisons.
Series II posted 07-02-99 08:31 AM ET
Another thing. I think Dedrie has a lot of mindworms. I also think that she has been releasing them near my border cities. One border city got hit with 12 mindworms in 3 turns. It was not planet because the city had only 3 mineral production.
There are also other places several 'native' mind worms have just appeared.
Earwicker posted 07-02-99 10:08 AM ET
Those max/max/2 clean psi units sound reeel expensive. Are you sure you have that much time before the war starts? Besides, if you're building them clean, why not have more 1/max/1 clean special units and max/1/2 clean special units. You could build them quickly (or at least upgrade to them without monstrous costs). If she's using mind worms, any of those units could be used on counterattack against a worm parked outside the base.
googlie posted 07-02-99 12:21 PM ET
If you have the 2 special abilities capability, build copters with psi attack and air superiority and put them on alert.
They'll take out mindworms and needlejets very effectively (they don't lose their 50% ground attack as do needlejets that are tactical, 'cos your not using conventional attack weapons on the ground, you're using psi-attack)
googlie
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Author	Topic: Ideas on my upcoming war with the Gaians
Series II	posted 07-01-99 09:33 AM ET Here is the situtation: I have a line of 10 cities (each 3 squares apart) making a front/border between me and the Gaians. I am number 1 and they are number 2. We will be at war soon. I am designing a defense to their worm armies. I am waiting until I get better tech (drop pods) to start attacking. Here is my plan: 1) Plant forest directly in front of the border cities to stop Gaian units approaching my cities. This will allow me to attack them. 2) Connect all front cities by roads. This will allow me to move units between neighboring cities in 1 turn. 3) Plant sensors behind the forest line. 4) Garrison in each front city: 1 scout - non violent methods, empath 1 scout - non violent methods, trance 1 speeder clean - high morale 1 artillary - high morale, deep radar Do worms get att/def bonus for terrain other than fungus. I know their life cycle gives them bonuses. Are their better ways to defend against the Gaians in this example? Are their better units to garrison my cities with. I am the hive and I have the Nureal Amp, Hunter Seeker, Longevity VVaccine, Weather Pardigm, Command Nexus and Virtual World. I am currently Police/planned/wealth.
Beta1	posted 07-01-99 10:40 AM ET I would put some decent armour on one of the units - you would look pretty stupid if they turned up with a couple of speeders mixed in with the worms. Perhaps high moral on the trance unit. Make the speeder trained, +50%psi attack instead of clean. It should eat worms for breakfast then. Keep the sensors behind the cities or they will get demolished. Dont plant forests. If you want to use the terrain as a barrier level any rocky bits and lower it below your cities to give your arty an edge andmake sure the squares on the enemies side have no roads. Really you want some planes based just behind the front to intercept the worms before they arrive.
Resource Consumer	posted 07-01-99 10:44 AM ET Surely you must have better armour than simply scout (implies no armour)?
Resource Consumer	posted 07-01-99 10:45 AM ET Slow system, Beta 1 beat me to it.
Earwicker	posted 07-01-99 10:52 AM ET Build sensors behind the line of your cities, not behind the forest - -that way there's no way for them to be pillaged. Get some probes in there to pick off any unit coming across that might be useful to you. Also, infiltrate her datalinks so you know what's coming: if she's sending some rovers, an ECM or two would work wonders. Build your defenders as trained scout infantry (1-1-1*1, cost 10), then upgrade them to trance police (a few, not all, with armor). That way you get 3 special abilities, and the boost will help a lot. Focus on attack capability over defense. Nature will do the hard part for you -- stopping them before they can attack. I'd build empath song speeders over scouts for the extra attack/ movement to the fight. A powerful conventional attacker is a must in case they send armored trance garrison marching across (which would move just as well through the forest as anything else and use your terrain against you).
Plato90s	posted 07-01-99 12:20 PM ET More artillery. Lots more artillery. Worms are very vulnerable to artillery strikes. Where a normal unit usually takes less than 15% damage from a single strike, you can take up to 30-40% damage on a Mindworm. A minimum of two artillery units for each city [BTW, you can't get high morale and deep radar w/ artillery. Artillery already counts as a special ability.] You don't want to put a speeder in every base because that's expensive and inefficient. You want to concentrate your speeder force in groups of 2-3 and use your roads to move between your cities. With each city only 3 spaces apart and connected by roads, 3 speeders in one city can also be deployed to 2 adjacent cities and attack once. Instead of being able to attack twice in 3 out of 3 cities, you can attack 3 times in 1 out of 3 cities. Since you're unlikely to face a simultaneous assault on multiple cities [AI likes to concentrate], this deployment makes more sense. With the same tactical considerations, you may want to build 1-2 Trance speeders to act as mobile defense, just in case the worm stacks get to be too much.
Series II	posted 07-01-99 04:41 PM ET OK, how about this: 1) build trained scout rovers Garrison my cities with: 1 2/max/2 (att/def/speed) Police +50% psi defense 1 2/max/2 police +50 psi attack 1 max/max/2 clean, deep radar 1 max/1/2 clean artillery This will allow my cities to get up to about 9 pop with no drones and will give me 102 good psi and convential defense and attack units. For the up coming war buld a lot of: 1 max/max/2 clean, deep radar and several 1 max/1/2 clean artillery. I plan on destroying enemy city garrisons with choppers and needle jets and using the speeders as support and garrisons. Basically I an thinking about a complete speeder army and chopper/needlejet air force. I know the speeders cost a little more and that infantry get bonuses to attack cities. Neither of these concern me that much. I have more minerals than I know what to do with and 30% off build cost. Anyone see holes in my all speeder land force?
RedFred	posted 07-01-99 06:41 PM ET Series II, are you sure you are going to war soon? I always thought that pacting with #2 on the depth chart would be an unstable situation if you were number one...however my current game is causing me to rethink this. I am #1 (Morgan) pacted with #2(Deirdre) and #3 (Zac). We have been best buddies for about 100 years and 1,2 & 3 for about forty. Go figure. I'm not even Green, Knowledge. It is a TI game, mostly default settings. Needless to say, I have been watching the long common border with the Gaians with great interest and beefing up the "D". BTW, if (when) she does hit me, it will be mostly with conventional forces. She has only hatched a couple of mindworms so far. -R
Series II	posted 07-02-99 08:28 AM ET I am not sure about the upcoming war. My pact brothers the PK have taken the first Gaian city. The more they take the futher my border is with the Gaians. Zak just declared war, but he is about half way across a very huge world. I just got needlejets. I might try and remain peaceful, but I would like a piece of the Gaian empire (particular the merchant exchange at Gaia Landing). I need to send some probes to Zak and fill in the holes in my research. With a movement 3 transport it should take about 35 turns to get there. Maybe I will research the mairtime guild next. On another note my all speeder theory might be good, but I have a lot of infintry already built. It is easier to upgrade them than build new speeders. The speeders will be my army and the infintry my garrisons.
Series II	posted 07-02-99 08:31 AM ET Another thing. I think Dedrie has a lot of mindworms. I also think that she has been releasing them near my border cities. One border city got hit with 12 mindworms in 3 turns. It was not planet because the city had only 3 mineral production. There are also other places several 'native' mind worms have just appeared.
Earwicker	posted 07-02-99 10:08 AM ET Those max/max/2 clean psi units sound reeel expensive. Are you sure you have that much time before the war starts? Besides, if you're building them clean, why not have more 1/max/1 clean special units and max/1/2 clean special units. You could build them quickly (or at least upgrade to them without monstrous costs). If she's using mind worms, any of those units could be used on counterattack against a worm parked outside the base.
googlie	posted 07-02-99 12:21 PM ET If you have the 2 special abilities capability, build copters with psi attack and air superiority and put them on alert. They'll take out mindworms and needlejets very effectively (they don't lose their 50% ground attack as do needlejets that are tactical, 'cos your not using conventional attack weapons on the ground, you're using psi-attack) googlie