My old group of veteran Centauri players is starting up a new multiplayer game but this time around Nevill will be playing with us. He has a lot of talent, so we're looking forward to the challenge. The rules are as follows:
A player may not:
1. Reload the game multiple times or load the game into the scenario editor
2. Conduct diplomacy prior to having met in-game
3. Use colony pods to increase a base beyond its maximum population limit
4. Use build queue manipulation or other exploits to hurry production at reduced costs, or build something that could not directly be built
5. Take advantage of the stockpile energy bug by adding it after units in build queues
6. Upgrade crawlers to more expensive designs before adding them to secret projects
7. Connect multiple artifacts to the same network node (supposedly possible if you rename the city)
8. Set the home of a unit to the base of a pacted AI faction
9. Start a terraforming task in one square, cancel it, move to a different square and then finish it there (in case of combat terraforming)
10. Perform an act of aggression against a player and complete pending negotiations in the same turn
11. Reverse engineer custom units to gain undiscovered abilities, weapons, armor, etc.
Reverse-engineering is allowed (i.e. capturing a unit and making new units from it in the workshop, even though you lack the tech).
As for probe teams, PBEM games are bugged in that the person using the team gets to decide how the faction should react upon discovery. For this reason, exposed probe team actions must always result in the harshest reply (dissolve pact/treaty).
Finally, Planetary Council information must be fully shared with all players upon request (the game doesn't properly show how the factions voted to all players, only the result).
Our faction lineup is as follows: ;domai; (MercantileInterest), ;lal;, ;morgan;, ;marr; (AI), ;caretake; (AI), ;yang; (Pierce Ji-Jang), ;santi; (Nevill). We've selected aliens for tougher AI and in the hope that their permanent war will distort our diplomacy.
Onward to victory!
"My fellow laborers,
We have come under attack by militants of the Spartan Federation. Unable to deal with the alien incursion into their territory, they instead blamed the raids on our people and responded with devastating force. The Steel Driving Men are a peaceful coalition with no weapons. They butchered our folk with wanton cruelty. So, like the great proletarian hero Themistocles, we have soldered and welded together a great flotilla. The sea will shelter us from this jingoistic aggression."
- Foreman Domai
The Great Endeavor
Propaganda off: That went well. Having gotten the idea into my head that Nevill meant to attack me, and knowing that he hadn't built any garrisons, I launched a preemptive strike, eliminating Sparta Command and another city. Unfortunately, he immediately blasted my attack force with rovers and then used his higher mineral supply to rapidly construct a retialiation force. I was, of course, annihilated.
Glorious Leader has arrived! ;yang;
The Command Structure of the Steel Driving Men
Ruling Party: The Living Standard
President: Antonine Goesel
Chief of Labor: Benjamin Berkhardt
Chief of Maritime Operations: Bill P. Floyd
Chief of Supply and Agriculture: Irwin Stotts
The Working Man's Union
Foreman: Bran Domai
Lead Agitator: Samuel Schlick
Lead Financier: Roger Benton
Lead Developer: Paul Wilkinson
The Union has several hundred members among the Peacekeepers, largely in the Temple of Sol. A number of agents operate in Howellite territory but, as no official contact has been made, they have not yet succeeded in establishing a minimum wage in that faction.
My fellow workers,
In the fifty-ninth year of the Unity Mission, we've achieved a feat undreamed in the history of man. We have placed a city upon the mighty deep. Cannery Row now stands in the midst of the Wormfloat Channel. Bountiful nutrients and energy resources will shortly lead to great prosperity.
On behalf of the Union, I now claim all the seas around the salt stained shores of our homeland. United Nations reports reveal a plot by the Human Hive to establish an oppressive neocolonial enterprise upon the oceans. Such an attempt will be met with full legal and social resistance.
- Foreman Domai
By the Sweat of Our Brows
Still stuck on the bottom of the power graph. Meanwhile, the Howellites and the Peacekeepers possess roughly equal empires. Lal has assembled an army well drilled of 'Assult Boyz' and legions of probe teams. Wonder what he's up to. The teeming masses of the Human Hive have increased to over 30 population, or about twice as much as everyone else. The Spartans have mustered roughly ten impact rovers.
Our AI alien friends are puttering about doing nothing noticeable.
The Book of Planet: First Victory
The alien defenses have at last fallen and Colonel Santiago takes up a survey position
near the perimeter. The Elite Spartan Death Commando Force moves in on the breach with
quick, decisive movements, their lasers refracting on the resonance fields around
Manifest Doom.
Bursts of light and fire erupt from the base, followed by waves of vibrating sound
and energy that hit the chest like a jackhammer. A nearby guard goes suddenly pale.
"Alien screams," the Colonel says, as another burst of fire and a loud pop comes from
the strange four-legged bases. "They tear the resonance field when they die."
And their hard carapaces burst open like popcorn kernels, she also thinks, but
extensive training has already calmed the guard. The popping increases, and the screams.
She and the guard turn away as a hard faced lieutenant turns on a device that dulls the
sonic assault. In the snow covered hills north of the base, alien refugees flee into rocky
canyons, a few being chased down by extermination rovers.
At last the pops slow in frequency and the all clear signal comes. Two guards at the
breach stand at full attention and Santiago can feel the pride radiating from their stiff
faces. She nods to them as she passes.
She enters the base, the first base captured from the alien menace.
//Initiating Transmission//
Origin: Union of the Steel Driving Men
Carrier: 5148 MHz, Narrowband
Time: 0800Z, June 28, 2174
Destination: The Spartan Federation
Stamp: Defiance
The captain said to John Henry
I'm gonna bring that steam drill roun'
Gonna bring that drill out on the job
Gonna whop that steel on down, lawd, lawd,
Gonna whop that steel on down.
John Henry said to the captain
A man ain't nothing but a man
But before I'd let that steam drill drive me down
I'll die with this hammer in my hand, lawd, lawd,
I'll die with this hammer in my hand.
//End Transmission//
Foreman Domai's address at Pig-Iron Plaza:
My fellow laborers!
Honest folk want honest work, an honest woman, honest homemade stew and cold liquor at the end of the day. My fellow laborers, we are all honest men! From the boomtown of New Botany Bay to the steaming smokestacks of the Crucible, from the isles of industry to the fishing quays of Cannery Row, from the shops of sweat to the pits of grime, we are honest men. We want a fair chance, a fair wage and a free land. Not the poorest among us would willingly give up the strength of his working arm for any privilege. We are honest men!
There's another type of man, a greedy man. He wants to sit on cushions sipping effeminate cocktails while groaning serfs moan under the lash. He wants indentured maidservants knotting up on the laces on his pampered wife's sleeves. He spits at the thought of honest work. The greedy man takes up arms to seize the fruits of the working man's labor.
The Spartan Federation would wrap chains around our necks. [Booing] Earlier today, we boarded one of their ships in the Pearl Sea, our sea, to conduct a routine smuggling check. Well, I don't what our sailors found there because the Spartans surprised and murdered every last one of them. [Uproar. Eighty-nine seconds elapse before crowd subsides.] Even after this callous act of war, I tried to negotiate with Santiago. [Booing]. She didn't want to hear from me. From us. She wanted war! [Tumult]
The Spartan heart pumps greed rather than blood. They destroyed the University. [Gasps] They slaughtered the placid herbivorous Progenitors. You've heard of that atrocity but you haven't heard of the Planet Cult. Decades ago, a lost Hive expedition settled by the freshwater sea. Cut off from the rest of humanity, they flourished as a content and fecund society. No, you haven't heard this before. Our scholars have only recently pieced the story together. The Spartans butchered the Planet Cult! In the night of a thousand tears, they struck across the entire civilization. Thousands died in fire. The surviving males were forced to toil on statues of paramilitary officers until they collapsed from exhaustion. The females, and I shake to say this, the females have endured lives as breeding animals, with no thought to their happiness. From this stock, Santiago has raised a generation imperious and cruel, an endless legions of Janissaries. Their supposed cloning vats? Lies! Foul-faced, treacherous, maggot breath lies!
They want to start a war but they're not going to like it when we finish it. To the factories, to the shipyards, to the forges, to the anvils, to the smelters, to the armories; build for victory! The Steel Driving Men will fight! [Thunderous outpouring of support. Repeated cries of 'down with Sparta' and 'death to Santiago'.]
The invasion of Steel Drones proceeds unabated.
(http://s20.postimg.cc/ednbadlrx/Cunning_Plan.png)
Here we see battered and bruised defenders of The Forge hastily withdrawing from a besieged base that was pelted with Havoc rockets for the entirety of the last turn to make a counter-attack impossible. They are taking cover behind ECM troops, but they stand no chance against the Missile rovers in the open field.
I also wanted to use this post as a pretext for commentary on the mod balance, because boy, do I have those.
Armor is still as useless as ever, and relocating sensors and bunkers to an obscure tech didn't help. Ok, so bunkers were obscure in vanilla, but sensors are a necessity in the early game and can make all the difference for a defender, considering attack/weapon disparity. Defensive play needs to be encouraged.
I'd probably make sensors and bunkers available MUCH earlier. A tier 1-2 tech, if not at the start. Their absense makes invasions a walk in the park.
Disposing of the defending troops with yet another Havoc rocket, brave Spartan soldiers entered The Forge, ripe for pillaging... er, liberation. The dreaded outpost whose cruisers have so mercilessly harassed Spartan fishermen boats for the past decade has finally fallen!
(http://s20.postimg.cc/gxiy4h9bx/2016_07_16_134956.jpg)
Deciding to press the advantage, Colonel has ordered even the wounded troops into battle to crush the remnants of The Forge's defenders once and for all. Their only cover, now that ECM troops were gone, was a lone Impact Rover, and when it fell, the former defenders perished with it.
Just checking, you guys are aware of the 'Designate Defender' function, right? It decides who is going to defend against an attack. Normally, the one with the better chances is chosen, however, there are considerations when you might want someone with worse chances to take the hit.
Like in this case - if a wounded rover was designated as a defender, it would have died, but a healthy one would have remained. As it is, the healthy one was chosen, and when it died, the wounded received 30% collateral damage and they both were annihilated.
It is a function that is very relevant with the Havoc rockets flying around. You want scouts to tank those hits, not the more expensive stuff.
With the path to The Anvil Of Man now free, the plan went into the second phase. A rover that was tactically withheld on a ship hidden deep within the ocean was transported close to the shores and reloaded on another vessel waiting in a nearby fungal patch. The vessel darted into the gulf past The Forge and deposited the rover deep inside the enemy territory, allowing it to capture the undefended base with a sudden strike.
Ok, so ships were completely useless in vanilla after the game went into air units era, so I understand a desire to buff them. However, it only facilitates the expoit the original game had where you can build a chain of transports to allow you to transport a large number of units all across the map in a span of a single turn. Load them on one transport, reach another, unload them onto another, rince, repeat. You can have an endless stream of reinforcements going that way, much like Magnet Roads, as long as you have the minerals to churn out transports.
I am puzzled why the transport capacity was expanded. Was it not enough in the original?
Naval Supremacy has cruiser transports coupled with Amphibious Pods, and that's total [nonsense] when you don't have either. You just can't defend sea bases against that. I am not sure what the appropriate solution would be, though. Pre-made units to counter this, perhaps?
I was a very sad panda until I stole Naval Supremacy from the Drones.
Air units are still cheaper than Naval ones and still eat them for breakfast, though. I was thinking that maybe an AAA ability could be made free. Air is way too OP.
Immediately upon taking the base, the Spartans were presented with the proof of the Drones' foul misdeeds - they have been building Hatcheries inside their bases, hoping perhaps to breed unthinking chattle to toil for them like their Alien masters have taught them. Appalled at such a vicious atrocity, Colonel Nevill ordered the dismantling of a vile structure.
Did Lord Shorty know about this all along? Was it why he tried to interfere with the cleansing? Were the PeaceKeepers compromised as well? How far has the Alien perversion spread? Colonel knew the answers he wanted could only be obtained at the Golden Palace...
(http://s20.postimg.cc/jsw1bcdbx/2016_07_16_143406.jpg)
Also, may I note, Havoc Rockets are basically cheating.
They cost 2 mineral rows to buy, and they completely devastate formers, crawlers and terraforming. Yes, they are destroyed in the process, but any unit attempting the same would be, too. And the *range* on those things! They can hit targets from halfway across the map, and there is absolutely nothing other player can do to defend against them. There aren't enough units in the world to protect all the formers and tiles.
And the rule 'if they can reach you, you can reach them' does not work on them at all, since they are very ineffective against armored units. So set up a forward base, move all the rockets there, and you can bomb your opponent into the stone age.
I have 50+ bases, 30+ of which produce 7 minerals or more. I can build about 50 rockets in 3 turns. If I wanted to, there would not be a single terraformed tile on the Planet in a decade. How is that fair!?
Worse yet, they completely trivialize scouting. Normally you would send troops through fungal fields, hoping to catch an opponent unaware. Can't check all the fungus, or can they? Well, fear not, Havoc rocket is here to save the day. With the range of 14 tiles it can trawl through fungal fields with impunity. Who needs to build sensors or risk their scouts when they have this?
I was afraid of Shorty's copters for a while, considering that they are cheap and have a decent range if you use them as suicide bombers. Now they are completely useless as an attack unit since I will probably have an advance warning about them, and you still can't put armor on air units to protect them (it's too expensive to justify the costs).
The Havoc Rockets range needs to be dialed down to about 8 tiles or so, and cost increased to 30. Maybe even 40, though that's pushing it a bit. And they would still be effective defensive units.
Not to mention they can screw your opponent majorly if you have infiltration with them.
Look at the base... production completes next turn.
(http://s20.postimg.cc/if4eg1e2l/2016_07_16_094509.jpg)
Add a rocket to the mix, click on the base to relocate workers...
(http://s20.postimg.cc/m3u3fio3h/2016_07_16_094543.jpg)
Production delayed! With enough rockets, you can just starve enemy bases and there is nothing they can do about it!