Roze vs. Random, 256x128 map, no supply pods

[bvanevery]

I think Santiago is the worst case for getting a random faction on a giant map.  She has to go find someone to kill.  In my last game, it took me 100 years to find my "next door neighbor" !  That was Yang, and then it took me 200 years to force him to surrender.  Although, I think I could have done it sooner with a different development attitude, which is part of why I've started a new game.

I consider Roze to be the 2nd worst faction to get on a giant map.  Her primary power is a built-in Datalinks ability, but she has to infiltrate other factions for it to work.  That means, like Santiago, I have to spend time finding them.  Unlike Santiago, once I've infiltrated I don't have to invade them.  I can just sit back and let the common techs roll in.

Roze has a saving grace that she starts the game knowing Planetary Networks.  That means she can build The Virtual World early, and she can do Planned economy as soon as she's got the cash.  On such a big map, you can build a good number of bases at a -2 efficiency penalty, before seeing any noticeable effect.

256x128 map, average settings.  Supply pods only at landing sites, and often not even then.  Transcend.  Other factions in the game: Hive, Caretakers, Usurpers, Believers, Pirates, Cult of Planet.  Gonna be a violent game!

I start on a modest sized island that holds The Garland Crater.  That's a really nice thing to sit on, and suits my hankering to build secret projects, after having missed so many last game.  I also have 2 land minerals deposits, which become my sites for building projects.  I can sustain 2 projects at once.  I've also got some sea minerals and a good smattering of nutrients.  This is a nice piece of land.  No reason to go anywhere for awhile.

I choose Discover and Build technology.  I learned my lesson a few games ago, that getting Formers late is deadly.  Got my Formers out in good order and they made good sites.

Miriam showed up by slow boat.  Offered an alliance if I'd go kill Yang with her.  I said sure, why not?  Primary benefit is she traded me Social Psych.  Or did she give it to me as a bribe?  I forget.  Anyways, Miriam is far away to the west, and doesn't actually know where Yang is.  She did start with some sea supply pods, and maybe she had some on land because her home island is so tiny.  Maybe one of them had Yang's comm frequency.

My main motivation this game is to "enjoy" it.  I'm concerned that when I do tedious tasks, I ultimately end up quitting these long games, because they become boring and pointless.  So, this game I'm not going to push a lot of explorers around.  I will have to send out some skimship probe teams eventually, but the sort of "scour every cranny of the map" thing I tend to do, I'll pass on that.  Need to adopt a more depth-first, long distance approach to exploring.  The goal isn't to find cool resources, of which there aren't really any on a map with no supply pods.  The goal is to locate the other factions and infiltrate them.

I'm not going to farm piles of mindworms, and maybe I won't even go Green, just to keep that from happening.  I leveled up all these Demon Boils last game.  On the positive side, sending the mindworms back and forth across a big patch of fungus, made me a lot of money for awhile.  On the negative side, those Demon Boils never saw combat.  I shipped 'em home, they garrisoned my empire, but the war with Yang was aqueous by the time they got home.  Couldn't use my many isles of the deep either, because the war was on an inland lake, inaccessible to my wild caught isles.

If I get in a war with someone, I'll consider ignoring them.  Or going all out to destroy them, which I really didn't do as Santiago against Yang.  I think taking 200 years to finish someone off has some disadvantages.  It really hurt my economy and tech for a long time.

I'm now aware of "how to do minerals with crawlers", but I'm not going to fixate on it.  A Genejack Factory is worth a lot of crawlers.  I have a good understanding of how to limit eco-damage now.  Tree farms and hybrid forests lessen the damage over your entire empire.  If you have reason to build enough of these, then you'll be able to cough up lots of minerals in a city without penalty.  End of last game, my threshold was about 60 minerals before I saw any damage.

Well I hope I like this game better!  I'm starting things right by building The Human Genome Project and The Weather Paradigm.  Hopefully.  The Caretakers are trying to build the latter, but I usually have way better minerals infrastructure in the early game.  AI doesn't know how to seek out the nearest good pile of minerals and mine it immediately.

[bvanevery]

2165.  Despite researching Discover and Build, I gain Doctrine:Flexibility.  I did have Doctrine:Mobility before.  Did I get it from Miriam?  Anyways, Miriam doesn't want it in exchange for her Industrial Base; thought I'd try.  She had the comm frequency of the Pirates though, so let's see what he says.  Won't sign a treaty.  He'll sell Progenitor Psych for 125 credits but I don't have it yet, only 110.  Better luck in a few turns.  Later... got it.

2172.  Caretakers build The Weather Paradigm.  I previously built The Human Genome Project.  I change production in my 2nd secret project city to The Virtual World.  No competition for that, should be cake.

2183.  Svensgard has declared war on me.  Miriam got a map of his territory.  I know where to infiltrate the Pirates, the Usurpers, and the Believers.  Was also quite surprised to find I'm English Channel distant from another piece of land.  It must be pretty flat and eroded, there's hardly any radar signature to it.  This seems to be a watery world.  Some others have got some pretty miserable islands compared to me.  In fact, looking at the power graph and knowing how the Usurpers are positioned, I'd say I'm the only one that got decent land.  The Pirates are doing the strongest, by far, but I don't think the AI knows how to build a good empire out of the Pirates.  It can certainly make trouble for me with ships if it decides to focus on me though.  I hope he's far enough away, and sufficiently ignorant of my location still, that he may not show up for a bit.  I need to get some techs stolen to defend myself with.  Right now I'm defended only with untrained scouts.

2184.  Marr signs a treaty with me.  I think he likes my Planned economy.  He's also pathetic.  He won't trade techs though.

You know, I swear the AI cheats about ships in the water.  I was in wide open water, no terrain restrictions.  Svensgard sunk my skimship probe team.  It's not even his territorial waters, it's on the far side of Marr's island.  Yeah, he could have a lot of scouts roaming around, but I think the AI cheats.

!@#!@#$!$# he did it to my 2nd skimship probe team, to the south of Marr's island!  Completely different location.  Either he is swarming with scouts around Marr, or he's cheating.

2190.  Pirate ships show up on my coast and the war begins.  Don't know if that's cheating... we're close enough that he could have just found me.  Fortunately I do have synthmetal laser skimships to greet him.  I was worrying about the small waste from my Planned economy, but now I figure I need the production.  He will probably prove to have better trained ships, but maybe I'll get a defensive bonus being in port?  Or having synthmetal for defense.  Over the long haul I expect I can out-spam him.  The Garland Crater means my minerals productivity is pretty good, plus I've got 3 land mineral deposits and 3 sea deposits.

The "English Channel land mass" that I was hoping might be a big deal, is just a small island adjacent to my large island.  It's got a few resources and I could colonize it, but it's not hugely important or exciting.  Let's put it this way, it ain't no Garland Crater.  I've got 14 cities and both The Human Genome Project and The Virtual World.  I don't need to colonize anything until my cities start hitting 7 population.  Even with a Planned economy that will take some time.

2192.  Oh sonofab@#$! this s**thead put a Recon Rover on my territory and killed the scout in one of my cities.  I hopemy high probe team rating gives me the ability to bribe it.  And that I can halt the movement of my synthmetal garrison walking in the area before it blithely goes somewhere else.  Grr!  I wonder if Miriam traded Svensgard "our" world map.

10 credits to capture??  HA!  Eat s**t you miserable fat f***.  Maybe I should just buy his fleet instead of fighting it.  Actually I have better ships though.  And skimship probe teams have to survive to buy stuff; doesn't work so well on open water.  Works great when defending in port though.  If the port is garrisoned, and he's hitting me before I had a chance to.  I hope he doesn't have much more. 

[bvanevery]

2197.  I beat Svensgard to finishing The Merchant Exchange, as I expected I would.  I cleared his first wave from my territorial waters, but now he's got laser plasma skimships coming.  Tougher than what I've got.  Guess I need to buy 'em!  My skimship probe teams aren't in the right positions right now though.  I'm trying to work one around to infiltrate Marr.  The other, I sent the long way around my island when the fighting started, as my coastal bases weren't garrisoned and he was attacking with a rover.

I went Democratic some turns ago, as I prefer Efficiency 0 to -2.  I don't mind the population growth for now, although it's making some cities take "time out" to build Network Nodes.  I accept the loss of support. 

2203.  I infiltrate Marr.  Since we have a treaty I'm not going to steal from him.  I'm keeping my synthmetal skimships in port, in multiples, for counterattack.  Sven's most recent run at me, he died shooting at my ship in port.  Maybe it confers a defensive advantage.  I'm starting to get skimship probe teams arranged on my coast, so that I can buy any plasma unit he sends my way.  Once I've got the defensive probe teams ready, I'll try to sail 'em to infiltrate him.  With my Planned economy I'm pretty spammy, so maybe one will get through.

I'm realizing that the only faction in the game that will get upset over a Planned economy, is Cha Dawn.  And the graph says she must have gotten a 1 square island or something.  DOA.

The first 100 years of this game, is a lot less tedious than it was in the last game, because I haven't spent all this time pushing exploration units around.

2204.  As if on cue, he shows up with a plasma coastal for me to buy.  10 credits, party on!  That's my cue to bum rush him with all my synthmetals.  Should be able to spearhead some skimship probe teams into him with a 7 ship flotilla.  And if not, well, I'll replace 'em with tougher ships.

[bvanevery]

2210.  My relationship with Miriam is souring because I'm Democratic.  She's made peace with Svensgaard and won't go back to war with him.  However she did trade me High Energy Chemistry for 100 credits and provide the location of the Caretakers.  They are not far east of me, should be easy to infiltrate.  I will take a transport with 2 probe teams, as the city Miriam revealed is a land city.  Meanwhile the pirate ship spam is so profound that lots of my older synthmetal fleet is dead.  They were unable to protect the skimship probe team I was trying to escort into pirate waters, it's dead too.  I will wait until all the synthmetal ships are dead before I start on a plasma fleet.

2 of my cities are size 7 already.  That took less time than I thought.  They are not threatening to push past size 7 though.  Must be all of my forests slowing them down.  I will colonize that small island next to me.

2219.  The 1 skimship probe team I was trying to sneak into Svensgaard's waters, he summarily sunk.  I'm not going to bother anymore.  Not until I'm ready to spam him with a plasma fleet.  Currently I'm building research hospitals and colonies.

I'm double the graph power of the Pirates now, and they're the 2nd leading faction.  This game should be a trivial victory because all the land powers got a bad start, probably on tiny islands.  Although, I suppose it's possible that someone is so far away, that they'll have time to recover and build up.

2221.  Yang calls an election.  Everyone votes for Svensgaard.  I vote for myself and still win.  Cha Dawn was the missing human faction.  She doesn't like my Planned economy, won't sign a treaty, and won't reveal map info.  These factions are all so sad, I'm wondering if infiltrating them will never get me any techs anyways.  I'm also wondering, does being Governor count as infiltration for Roze's faction power?

2223.  Upon first contact, the Caretakers foolishly declare war upon me.  Don't they read bar graphs?  Don't they know I'm highly motivated to seize The Weather Paradigm from them?  They really shouldn't have completed that project.  It'll definitely be a lot easier to go east, away from the Pirates, to conquer the Caretakers.  Doubt they have much of a navy yet, haven't encountered any ships.  It's a big fungal maze out there.  She's actually sitting on or near some nice land, but I think my own empire is better served by staying localized.

2225.  I'm having an aridness problem.  Is it a result of Caretaker terraforming?  That would be weird as it's kind of far away.  Is it from planting lots of trees?  Well from a population control standpoint, it's not so bad to have some bases stop growing.  My initial settlement pattern was a bit on the "smallpox" side.  I really could use a Condenser.

I picked up Nonlinear Mathematics and Field Modulation, possibly from my infiltrations.  Not quite sure when I've researched and when I've datalinked it.  In the latter case, the UI display usually comes up much faster, without any "contemplation" before it happens.  I still need to get Secrets of the Human Brain from the Caretakers.  Hmm... checking, I must have researched Nonlinear Mathematics myself, as only the Caretakers have it.  Wish I could have stolen it from them.  Must have datalinked Field Modulation.

2227.  My colony pod spam was getting a bit ridiculous, so I dropped the Planned economy.  Now I have efficiency +2.  I've got impact skimships in production.  Svensgaard loses many of the battles even against my laser ships for whatever reason, but the impact ships should really put a hurting on him.

I know I selected "supply pods only at landing sites", but I'm disappointed that the New Sargasso doesn't have its usual pack of supply pods in it.  What's the fiction there?  The supply pods must not have created the sargasso, as then there wouldn't be any New Sargasso in this game.  So why were they ever there at all?

2233.  Got the Caretaker's world map.  They're pathetic, only 3 cities on 1 island.  No Doctrine:Flexibility.  If I can get over there soon, I can conquer her.  I'm building trance transports, and not building any new warships to go against the Pirates.  The old inventory can just keep hassling him.  Svensgaard isn't a prize, he doesn't have The Weather Paradigm.

Wish I knew where Yang was, so that I could steal Doctrine:Loyalty from him.

Marr joined forces with Svensgaard, so looks like I'll be conquering his ass too.  Miriam won't go to war with Svensgaard, despite being at war with Marr.

I think since I'm Governor, and have infiltrated both the aliens, technically I've infiltrated everybody.  I should get any tech that 3 factions have.  If I lose the Governorship, then I won't have infiltrated Svensgaard, Yang, Cha Dawn, or Miriam.  But given the bar graph, that seems unlikely.  Other than the Pirates, I dwarf the other factions.


I'm realizing that conquering the Caretakers, when they only have 3 cities, poses some difficulties if I want her to surrender.  Assuming she even will... not sure if alien factions surrender to humans.  Anyways, it means I have to take out the city with The Weather Paradigm first.  I also have to ensure that when it drops to size 1, if it gets counterattacked by the other 2 cities, I can't let it die.  Gotta keep The Weather Paradigm intact.

She's got a big stack of units in that city, not making it easy to take it.  She's out of minerals and I could tear up land to make her lose some units for loss of support, but I'm not sure that's such a hot idea.  I do have a lot of scouts... I could cover the land with some scouts, and insulate their perimeter with armored units.  I don't like the idea of sending scouts out for a suicide mission, even if they are only scouts.  It's not the character of Roze, as I am playing her.  Nor is it the hacker way of doing things, it's a military desperation approach.  Which we are not.  We are the most powerful faction in the game, by a large margin.

I lack artillery, but I've realized I do have ships.  So I'm making a navy after all.  I'm going to need it to shell that city, to soften it up.

[bvanevery]

2243.  I seem to have researched Doctrine:Loyalty.  As opposed to datalinking it.  I can't find 3 other factions that have it, only 2, so I guess that was my research.  Since I've built my navy and starting to build the land forces to hit the Caretakers with, I consider this useful.  I was working on The Planetary Energy grid but shifted production to The Command Nexus.  I don't think anyone is in a position to get the Grid anytime soon.  I cleared the support of my capitol so that I can work on a secret projects, but I don't think I can afford a 2nd secret project making city.  I've got a lot of ships and various peons that need to be brought to Caretaker territory, nevermind the ground forces needed to do the killing.

Svensgaard has gone Free Market, so I don't think he has quite the open water naval harassment force he used to. 

Cha Dawn has allied with Yang.  She had the temerity to threaten me while approaching with a transport.  She met my plasma coastal in open water to deliver her threats.  Guess what happened?

Miriam managed to get me a map of where everyone is.  That was useful of her.  I will feel a little bit bad if she decides to break our alliance because of my democratic nature.  I'm sure I'll get over it.  Hmm, everyone else is at war with me.  Miriam is at war with some of them, so maybe that will keep her on my side for a time yet.

2248.  Once I finally got my navy in range to open fire on the Caretaker city that contains The Weather Paradigm, I was quite surprised to find it only has 3 units in it now.  It's still supporting a pile of units and has no minerals.  It's trying to build a ship, but can't.  Where have all those units gone?  Are they trapsing around their small island somewhere?  Kinda odd.  I'm not knocking it as it may make my invasion much easier than I was expecting, but still odd.

I completed The Command Nexus and have all free bases working on plasma impact infantry.  All other factions are looking pretty weak now.  I think this game is going to be about the academic exercise of tagging these home islands.

Hmm, the Caretakers just attacked me with an unarmored impact foil.  Killed one of my ships.  That's ok, I have 8 where that came from.  Their city is at minerals -1 now, what's going on with them?

2253.  H'minee's got 1 lovely spore launcher shooting at my ships.  How drole!  The irony is they are trance 3-res impact skimships.  I think I defend better than she attacks, judging by the wounds her spore launcher took.  It won't last long.  I will ignore it and let it attack me.

Why does she have 1 garrison in her city that's "certified unshellable" ?  It never takes any wounds, despite the pounding it gets.  Other units are down to 50%.

I got Ecological Engineering.  Now if I just had some supply crawlers and hab complexes.  Hmm, I think this means I can make Condensers now!  I can get started rather than waiting for The Weather Paradigm.  I've got an awful lot of arid land that needs fixing.

Miriam disowned me.  She's not into democratic sex.

[bvanevery]

Ok, I'm having a bit of an enjoyment problem.  I'm totally sure that the AI is exhibiting gross incompetence in this game.  It just doesn't know what to do on a mostly water world when it starts on a small island.  And that's everyone except the Pirates.  Part of me is mildly interested in the exercise of cleaning these people up.  The other part of me is like, why bother?  It's 2259 and there's no doubt I will win.  Nobody can touch me.  Svensgaard has gone Free Market which means I'm gonna clobber him at my leisure.  I will probably have excess impact infantry from my last victim, so I won't go after him first.  Probably will take out the Usurpers.

Pushing the units over to the Caretakers is proving a bit boring.  The peons are all stationed at a base I built that's halfway there.  I'm now starting to move over the impact infantry, and I've stopped production on more of them.  I have 5 transports doing the ferrying.  I've got 3 ships shelling the victim city, and 3 more just idling around his island because they don't really have anything to do.  I've been shelling his sensor arrays, I don't think he needs those.

2266.  I complete The Planetary Energy Grid.

Marr sails a transport to my shore with 2 recon rovers in it.  Svensgaard covers it with a feeble ship.  I blow the ship out of the water with my ship from my port.  The transport is uninjured, what's up with that?  Since I don't have a 2nd ship, I try to buy the transport.  I can't, I don't even get a message about it.  On a turn that I reloaded, I couldn't buy his rovers once they landed either.  Why?  He's not Fundamentalist, and I'm the most powerful probing faction in the game.  Feels like a bug, or cheating.  Cash reserves are 219 credits.  I've bought Svensgaard's ships for 10 credits; granted Marr's capitol is much closer.

2267.  Those recon rovers attack my plasma garrison in my city and summarily die.  Hardly a scratch on the garrison.  I sink the transport.

Cha Dawn has a scout messing with one of my far bases.  Problem is, I only have a green scout defending.  I'm trying to get a probe team over there.  I guess having them on every island is a good idea.  Since I have The Command Nexus I can probably also buy a better garrison unit in time.  I picked up free transport earlier, from 1 of 2 supply pods oddly positioned near my home territory.  I guess "supply pods only at landing areas" isn't quite literally true.  I've seen the rare supply pod on the map here and there.  Anyways I can disband that transport for the minerals to make a new garrison.

I've got 2 synthmetal garrisons that I'm trying to land on the Caretaker island.  He's got this roving horde though, which makes me wonder if anywhere I land is pointless suicide.  Maybe I should have made impact rovers.

3:30 AM and I'm bagging it for the night.  Got stuff to do tomorrow.  Not a very satisfying point to leave off, although at least I did get the Grid.

[bvanevery]

2269.  Why can't I bribe 2 scouts, but I can bribe 1 synthmetal laser infantry?  This smells like a bug.  A stack of multiple units shouldn't be invulnerable to subversion, it should just cost more.  Cha Dawn only has a Frontier society and is far from home.  I bought that laser infantry for 10 credits.

I'm realizing that rather than suiciding on the Caretaker beach with my 1st wave of units, I could send a probe team to bribe the impact rover that's wandering around.  Use that to disrupt their defense, secure the beachhead.  Units might die but it's definitely the Data Angels way of doing things.  Wonder what it will cost?

2270.  I subverted a Pirate laser skimship off my coast.  Then Marr shows up with impact skimships and blows up my skimship probe team.  I'm losing old laser plasma skimships fighting him.  Guess that part of the navy's getting remodeled.  I will support the coast with artillery.

2272.  I research Industrial Automation!  Other factions are so dead.  I'm already Democratic, I'm going Planned again.  Maybe also Wealth.  Yeah, I am fighting a war, so I dont't like the morale penalty, but I'll also make more money and be able to bribe more stuff.

[bvanevery]

2288.  The war with the Caretakers is unresolved.  Every once in awhile she'd send out an impact foil and kill one of my ships.  I'd kill it back.  It gradually whittled down my navy shelling the city with The Weather Paradigm.  Fortunately I got enough things done elsewhere that I'm finally sending replacements.  She never solved her minerals problem.  Her Formers were really into raising land and actually connected the island I have my forward supply base on.  She hasn't sent any troops that way though.  I sent out a screen of 5 scout patrols, only real use I had for them, to make sure.  They even killed a fledgling base she tried to set up.  My probe teams have proven useless as she went Fundamentalist and it costs 700..2000 credits to subvert her units.  I don't have that kind of scratch.

In fact, my economy has dwindled to a measly 7 credits per turn.  I do have a big population though.  I need it because I barely held on to last election, with everyone voting against me.  I've given up Planned, as it jumped my cities to the point where people were just unhappy.  Still doing Wealth.  I switched to building The Citizens Defense Force.  After that I'll build The Planetary Transit System.  My cities are mostly done building hab complexes with a few exceptions.  They've mostly built a police unit, and most are now cranking out more trance res impact skimships.  I've got my home coast properly protected against the frequent Usurper and occasional Pirate incursions.

Even the drole Believers showed up once.  And Yang once.  They typically want a truce... I give it to them, then ask for a Treaty.  Why?  "To refrain from crushing you like a bug."  Then they declare vendetta again, which is fine with me.  When they declare a truce, they have a tendency to put a unit on my shore, plug up the workers on that square, and eventually "surprise" attack me later anyways.  Screw that.  Give me a peace treaty or @#$! off.

I wonder if the Caretakers can hold out long enough, for other factions to put up some resistance to me?  It's taking an awfully long time to move my impact infantry into position.  I do now have 4 approaching overland, moving towards a rocky area on the target city's backside.  That's only 1/3 or less of my available force though, and it's not enough to take the city.  Perhaps their job will be to hold open the land passage until the rest of the force arrives.  The AI is afraid of attacking my plasma sentinels on rocky ground, which is a good thing.  It keeps the AI a bit preoccupied to the south.

I'm visiting family in another city now.  My attention span for this game is going to be tested, as I will not have as much time to play.  I'm just too wound up tonight after the long drive to do otherwise.  I find the current situation mildly interesting, but am really wondering at my chosen tactics to try to take out this 1 city.  Better luck next time.

[bvanevery]

Because of Wealth, my offensive against the Caretakers was completely ineffective.  Contemptibly so.  Game quittingly so.  I have been mouseclicking for a long time with no result.  A hundred years of shelling?  I could have done something else with all that time.  This was a bad campaign.  I have no doubt that nobody in the game could touch me.  For instance I just stuffed Cha Dawn the turn she started The Citizen's Defense Force, by finishing it.  But as I'm currently visiting family, I don't have the patience for a game that is boring me or proving woefully inadequate in any way.

Lessons learned:

• Roze's probe teams aren't worth jack s**t against a Fundamentalist faction.
• Research Hospitals will kill your economy.  I already knew that actually, but in this game it happened.
• You can't really pick and choose which cities you're going to take over.  You have to advance on the logical front.  If you want an enemy to surrender you can leave them with 1 city or whatever, but you can't mess up your whole campaign tiptoeing around, just trying to take 1 illogical city.
• Although you might still be able to conquer stuff with Wealth, you can't just walk up to things with impact infantry and expect to fry them, like you're playing Santiago with high morale.  This was the main reason I quit.  All this overproduction of relatively expensive impact infantry, that couldn't actually do a darned thing in the field.

Winning this game was such an academic exercise anyways, the other factions had such crippled starts, that I don't think throwing the game out is anything to cry over.  I could have done that very early on and I would have been justified.