How to play the Gaians on thinker or above

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Author Topic:   How to play the Gaians on thinker or above

Cyggy posted 07-16-99 08:24 PM ET
I'm having a real hard time with the Gaians on thinker level; perhaps someone out there has a good stratagy...
That -2 morale kills me every time. "very green" and "green" units are useless. I tried going power and mass producing units, but my neighbors know my units suck and roll right over me. Any suggestions?
Oh, and I know the obvious: Command Nexus, etc.
Thanks!
Alkis posted 07-17-99 02:24 AM ET
Try playing with "Wealth". Then your very green troops will become so green that they will merge with the environment and become invisible.
Especially if they stand on forest squares
ErisDiscordia5 posted 07-18-99 10:13 AM ET
A few tips:
-- It's a bit tedious, but you can send your troops past a monolith before they go to war.
-- DO use Wealth. More money = ability to HURRY infrastructure = healthier cities = more units, etc.
-- Send your attackers against non-combat units (formers, colony pods, etc.) first. It's extremely easy to rise units above the first experience levels; usually they only need to win one battle.
-- Send scout patrols wading through the fungus to find and attack/capture mind worms. Unlike your early armies, these will have decent morale and will have a 3/2 advantage over your enemies most of the time, when you attack. Even Miriam can't beat that :-)
-- DON'T ATTACK! There are builder factions and conquerer factions. Gaians are a builder faction. Build a large, strong empire, and then you can produce so much tech, money and units that war, when it comes, will be much easier. Remember, the Gaians are called a "pacifist faction".
sandworm posted 07-19-99 10:42 AM ET
build biology labs and start producing mind worms, use them to capture and kill more mind worms and they will grow into better units.
its best to hunt in fungus patches near monoliths for easy lifecycle advances. Use some of these to supplement your main ground units.
Build the command nexus if you can, barring that the citizens def. force. Both is best. Any SP that increases the lifecycle of home-grown mindworms is a plus.
I only use wealth in times of peace. If you're careful you can use research at war, but starting out you might want to just stay with power.
If you don't have a lot of nasty neighbors starting out, build mostly forests and wait for the tree farm tech. You may be a little fish for a while, but once you put up tree farms and hybrid forests your power graph will shoot straight up!
Earwicker posted 07-20-99 09:40 AM ET
Patience through the starting years is the hardest thing for the Gaians. I second the good advice above. Stay out of trouble with other factions (play nice) and get somebody else to keep the warriors off your back. Worms are your best bet for a military at first -- go all-out for harvesting ($$) and capturing. If you can keep the wolves at bay long enough to build your infrastructure, the Gaians are a tough faction to beat.
If you can get him with worms early, it's pretty easy to make Morgan into a useful stooge.
Timexwatch posted 07-20-99 02:32 PM ET
For strategic value, get the Xenoempathy Dome, then you can put up a fungal defense wall. If you are bordering an agressive neighbor, cut off the roads, plant fungus in between and keep mindworms in there. I've played this defese against 2 or three opponets at a time and manage to come out unscathed. This also applies if you are on an island. Plant fungus around the island and snipe at any ship that tries to come through. If you are Gaian and have the Dome, Planet is your tool....
StargazerBC posted 07-20-99 11:41 PM ET
Many people would classify the Gaians as "Builders"--in that sense, it's very true that they have a "weak military" and must rely on infrastructure, technology, money to survive. Although of note, mindworm harvesting is very effective to create an offensive army early on. It is very important you create this army early because of AI unit's low starting morale (therefore an advantage to you). You can also forego researching weapons and armor and head straight for tech's that increase research, infrastructure, etc. Of note, it's actually very easy to make money and a huge independent army (esp. if you have "Green") without changing your Social.
First and foremost. Since you can build recycling tanks, do so. Forest squares around your city and let the rest be fungus (since gaians have an nutrient advantage). You'll want to forest (think 3x3 with center being your city) around your city only to create a buffer zone just incase someone wants to sneak in and attack (forest negate most movements to 1). Remember to do so for every city. This strategy works particularly well if you want independent mindworms to "defend your cities." put an independent mindworm or two in a city, watch as those speed 2 rovers suddently stop outside of yoru city and tell your mindworms to attack. Psy atttack is 3-2 infavor of the attacker . Don't rely on this defensive mindworm strategy later on though, only good for early game.
Always Always harvest mindworms outside of your cities' territory. Make sure they are "independent" when you capture them. If they are not independent, release or disband. repeat EXCESSIVELY (and never stop). Once you have 8-9 mindworms your momentum will drastically increase as a warmachine while still building SP's and buildings without having to worry about an offensive Army!!
A particularly good build order:
scout, terraformer, coloy pod, recylcing tank. Don't worry about recreation commons because you'll be constantly expanding and not have to worry about the drone riots (adjust economic to social so you can manage a city of 3 as you won't gain much money, wherease social's 30% is still 30% regardless of how much or how little money you shuffled) Anyway, you'll be making a lot of your starting money from Mindworms
Of course, adjust the build order accordingly. If you have 2 scouts, you make want to skip straight to a former. Send the dependent unit to defend and the independent to hunt/harvest worms.
It's ideal for your second city to be the one cranking out new colony pods. It's only good to do this if you can build city2 around 1 or 2 nutrient tiles, otherwise you can wait until your third city.
mcostant posted 07-21-99 11:45 AM ET
Well, if you are in real trouble you can cheat a bit Use the "hidden feature" (bugs? SMAC has no more bugs, ok?) that works also with "enhancement 4" (it must be a feature, no bugs can survive to 4 quality assurance test by Firaxis & EA teams, right? ).
Grow a mindworm. Press P for Patrol. Click with mouse and space bar for 3 turning point:
Et voila'! A demon boil worm, setted for a strange patrol movement. Cancel command and you have a Big Beast to keep your enemy away.
OK, it's sort of cheating, so use it only if you feel more happy and less stressed (it's only a game, isn't it?) and do not bully with other player about how good point you reach .
Plato90s posted 07-21-99 11:51 AM ET
This is the first I've heard of this "feature". Is this how the wild worms get bigger and meaner when I start clearing them out?
There's been many occasions when a boil of mindworms come flowing out. First worm I attack is a boil. When that worm is killed, I can see the other worms grow bigger. Next worm I hit is a Mature Boil. After that, the remaining worms get bigger still. Finally, all the rest are just Demon Boils.
I've tried this with a saved game, attacking different members of the same group of worms. It appears to be true - these worms grow as their friends are gettin killed.
Series II posted 07-21-99 12:25 PM ET
See my reply in "Baby can you Pop my Pod" about the advantages to popping pods with mind worms. It is a great strategy. I took the UOP from a military strength of unsurpassed to Feeble using worms I freed from pods near their territory.
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Author	Topic: How to play the Gaians on thinker or above
Cyggy	posted 07-16-99 08:24 PM ET I'm having a real hard time with the Gaians on thinker level; perhaps someone out there has a good stratagy... That -2 morale kills me every time. "very green" and "green" units are useless. I tried going power and mass producing units, but my neighbors know my units suck and roll right over me. Any suggestions? Oh, and I know the obvious: Command Nexus, etc. Thanks!
Alkis	posted 07-17-99 02:24 AM ET Try playing with "Wealth". Then your very green troops will become so green that they will merge with the environment and become invisible. Especially if they stand on forest squares
ErisDiscordia5	posted 07-18-99 10:13 AM ET A few tips: -- It's a bit tedious, but you can send your troops past a monolith before they go to war. -- DO use Wealth. More money = ability to HURRY infrastructure = healthier cities = more units, etc. -- Send your attackers against non-combat units (formers, colony pods, etc.) first. It's extremely easy to rise units above the first experience levels; usually they only need to win one battle. -- Send scout patrols wading through the fungus to find and attack/capture mind worms. Unlike your early armies, these will have decent morale and will have a 3/2 advantage over your enemies most of the time, when you attack. Even Miriam can't beat that :-) -- DON'T ATTACK! There are builder factions and conquerer factions. Gaians are a builder faction. Build a large, strong empire, and then you can produce so much tech, money and units that war, when it comes, will be much easier. Remember, the Gaians are called a "pacifist faction".
sandworm	posted 07-19-99 10:42 AM ET build biology labs and start producing mind worms, use them to capture and kill more mind worms and they will grow into better units. its best to hunt in fungus patches near monoliths for easy lifecycle advances. Use some of these to supplement your main ground units. Build the command nexus if you can, barring that the citizens def. force. Both is best. Any SP that increases the lifecycle of home-grown mindworms is a plus. I only use wealth in times of peace. If you're careful you can use research at war, but starting out you might want to just stay with power. If you don't have a lot of nasty neighbors starting out, build mostly forests and wait for the tree farm tech. You may be a little fish for a while, but once you put up tree farms and hybrid forests your power graph will shoot straight up!
Earwicker	posted 07-20-99 09:40 AM ET Patience through the starting years is the hardest thing for the Gaians. I second the good advice above. Stay out of trouble with other factions (play nice) and get somebody else to keep the warriors off your back. Worms are your best bet for a military at first -- go all-out for harvesting ($$) and capturing. If you can keep the wolves at bay long enough to build your infrastructure, the Gaians are a tough faction to beat. If you can get him with worms early, it's pretty easy to make Morgan into a useful stooge.
Timexwatch	posted 07-20-99 02:32 PM ET For strategic value, get the Xenoempathy Dome, then you can put up a fungal defense wall. If you are bordering an agressive neighbor, cut off the roads, plant fungus in between and keep mindworms in there. I've played this defese against 2 or three opponets at a time and manage to come out unscathed. This also applies if you are on an island. Plant fungus around the island and snipe at any ship that tries to come through. If you are Gaian and have the Dome, Planet is your tool....
StargazerBC	posted 07-20-99 11:41 PM ET Many people would classify the Gaians as "Builders"--in that sense, it's very true that they have a "weak military" and must rely on infrastructure, technology, money to survive. Although of note, mindworm harvesting is very effective to create an offensive army early on. It is very important you create this army early because of AI unit's low starting morale (therefore an advantage to you). You can also forego researching weapons and armor and head straight for tech's that increase research, infrastructure, etc. Of note, it's actually very easy to make money and a huge independent army (esp. if you have "Green") without changing your Social. First and foremost. Since you can build recycling tanks, do so. Forest squares around your city and let the rest be fungus (since gaians have an nutrient advantage). You'll want to forest (think 3x3 with center being your city) around your city only to create a buffer zone just incase someone wants to sneak in and attack (forest negate most movements to 1). Remember to do so for every city. This strategy works particularly well if you want independent mindworms to "defend your cities." put an independent mindworm or two in a city, watch as those speed 2 rovers suddently stop outside of yoru city and tell your mindworms to attack. Psy atttack is 3-2 infavor of the attacker . Don't rely on this defensive mindworm strategy later on though, only good for early game. Always Always harvest mindworms outside of your cities' territory. Make sure they are "independent" when you capture them. If they are not independent, release or disband. repeat EXCESSIVELY (and never stop). Once you have 8-9 mindworms your momentum will drastically increase as a warmachine while still building SP's and buildings without having to worry about an offensive Army!! A particularly good build order: scout, terraformer, coloy pod, recylcing tank. Don't worry about recreation commons because you'll be constantly expanding and not have to worry about the drone riots (adjust economic to social so you can manage a city of 3 as you won't gain much money, wherease social's 30% is still 30% regardless of how much or how little money you shuffled) Anyway, you'll be making a lot of your starting money from Mindworms Of course, adjust the build order accordingly. If you have 2 scouts, you make want to skip straight to a former. Send the dependent unit to defend and the independent to hunt/harvest worms. It's ideal for your second city to be the one cranking out new colony pods. It's only good to do this if you can build city2 around 1 or 2 nutrient tiles, otherwise you can wait until your third city.
mcostant	posted 07-21-99 11:45 AM ET Well, if you are in real trouble you can cheat a bit Use the "hidden feature" (bugs? SMAC has no more bugs, ok?) that works also with "enhancement 4" (it must be a feature, no bugs can survive to 4 quality assurance test by Firaxis & EA teams, right? ). Grow a mindworm. Press P for Patrol. Click with mouse and space bar for 3 turning point: Et voila'! A demon boil worm, setted for a strange patrol movement. Cancel command and you have a Big Beast to keep your enemy away. OK, it's sort of cheating, so use it only if you feel more happy and less stressed (it's only a game, isn't it?) and do not bully with other player about how good point you reach .
Plato90s	posted 07-21-99 11:51 AM ET This is the first I've heard of this "feature". Is this how the wild worms get bigger and meaner when I start clearing them out? There's been many occasions when a boil of mindworms come flowing out. First worm I attack is a boil. When that worm is killed, I can see the other worms grow bigger. Next worm I hit is a Mature Boil. After that, the remaining worms get bigger still. Finally, all the rest are just Demon Boils. I've tried this with a saved game, attacking different members of the same group of worms. It appears to be true - these worms grow as their friends are gettin killed.
Series II	posted 07-21-99 12:25 PM ET See my reply in "Baby can you Pop my Pod" about the advantages to popping pods with mind worms. It is a great strategy. I took the UOP from a military strength of unsurpassed to Feeble using worms I freed from pods near their territory.