a war that drones on

[bvanevery]

Yeah, I deleted SMAC on one of my laptops.  It was still installed on the other one.  I somewhat came to terms with my feelings about the Free Drones.  It is probably the faction I've played the least, over all these years.  Not having a Green economy available does affect my playstyle, as that's pretty much the "go out and conquer" economy.

Playing again on a Huge map, I started right next to the Hive by water.  He turned out to be the most powerful player in the game, due to a huge land mass available to him.  The Pirates were also nearby and bothering him.  The Hive and I were allies at first but I knew that couldn't last.  As I was ready for it this time, he did not get the drop on me, although I did play a Democratic Planned Wealthy society as long as I could get away with it.

Then I transitioned to Fundamentalist only.  And then Democratic Power.  Later, Democratic Planned Knowledge.

I cashed in all the Artifacts I had found during the peaceful period.  This got me a major tech advantage for a time, enough to take over half his empire.  Now I am the most powerful player in the game, not him.  Nevertheless his empire was so large, that he's still a threat now.  He had mostly caught up with me technologically as well.  I actually had to steal Orbital Spaceflight from him and he lobs the occasional Conventional Missile at me, which is annoying.  He caught up with Fusion Power as well somehow, and Silksteel, and Chaos weapons.

He's got this "midpoint" city that he's supplying the crap out of, that I cannot easily break.  There's no other land route and the sea isn't a great option.  Someone else got The Maritime Control Center, my ally Aki Zeta actually.  The Pirates are on the north side of the land bridge, and the Sargasso Sea is extensive to the south.  I do have 2 major advantages over him though: I can build mag tubes, and I just got Tachyon weapons.  So I think a railroad right into his face, is the likely answer to the current impasse.

The war is kind of a drag at this point though.  It's been going on a long time, and I've only killed half his empire.  Fortunately it was the wealthier half, with important Secret Projects in it.  Of all the Projects anyone has ever built, I'm missing only 3 so far.  Owning all of these still isn't enough to put Yang to bed though.  He's a monster.  Yang on on a large land mass, where he's been allowed to expand early and thoroughly, is one of the worst opponents the game can offer.  I'd say only the Usurpers are truly worse under such conditions, since they start with huge tech advantages.  However they don't tend to maintain those advantages over time, and it's totally permissible to use chemical weapons on them.  Whereas with Yang, I don't want sanctions for nerve gassing him.

Well I hope Tachyon weapons work a treat.  I'm still waiting for them to crank out.  I've added Sopoforic Gas Pods to the armament, to give them as much punch as I can.

The Pirates haven't created much problem for me, even though we're nominally at war.  The Usurpers have occasionally sallied down and been slightly annoying, but they haven't taken anything.  I'm mainly worried about the Usurpers being allowed to grow unchecked, while I'm trying to polish off Yang.  However at least one can always nerve gas them.  The Pirates are also capable of becoming a big problem if they're allowed to go unchecked for long enough.  They have that funky ability to get more minerals out of the water than the rest of us.

Zhakarov, the Caretakers, and Aki Zeta aren't important at this time.  It's primarily a 2-way war between myself and the Hive, with the Pirates and Usurpers unfortunately catching up because they're being left alone.

Later... hmm, oddly, Yang has been suiciding his units against my border city.  That's going to make my invasion somewhat easier.  I'm trying to build up enough Fungicidal Fusion Formers to make a railroad completely inside of 1 turn, so that all of my assaulting can be instantaneous with cheap bonus getting infantry.  I've definitely got enough offensive units, the problem is them getting creamed in a counterattack, if I go now.  Don't like being a sitting duck in front of an enemy city.  That's pretty much how Yang is killing himself now.

Later... I never had enough Formers to build the entire rail line in 1 turn.  Too many other empire expansion needs for those Formers.  Instead I built 1 tile of the rail line here and there, using ECM AAA Silksteel Fusion units to try to give protection.  They actually weren't tough enough to prevent a Chaos Rover from destroying them.  However Yang must have lost a lot of units suiciding against me, and I think I started to outproduce him slightly.  I got the rail line to within 1 tile of that "midpoint" city I needed to take, and then had to hold there for a few turns.  Eventually I did have enough Formers to build the last link in the line, and then wiping out his remaining garrison with Tachyon Infantry was trivial.

Meanwhile, both the Pirates and the Usurpers have been lobbing some missiles at me.  In response I am building a navy.  I'm also finally building Fusion Labs and Hybrid Forests nearly everywhere, because I've got enough land military units already and want to use up the old inventory.  I just got Bioengineering so am working on The Longevity Vaccine.  I will probably make some Clean units here and there, especially Trance Clean units as all they do is sit around waiting for mindworms to show up.  Which haven't been, because I think my previous raft of Tree Farms has made my empire ecologically friendly.  One advantage of the Planned economy over Free Market, is I'm not particularly pissing off Planet with that.  I don't think any of my cities are polluters at this point, and the Global Warming / flooding seems to have dried up.

I got Photon armor, which I haven't deployed much yet, so I don't know how it holds up.  Everyone else has gotten Fusion weapons so it's probably not enough to stop anyone cold anymore.  It can cause various units to stop moving and not want to attack this turn though.  I've been marching a few AAA ECM Photon units around to provide cover for my speeders and formers on the front line with Yang.

I'm still focusing on Build.  The main techs that have eluded me so far are Super Formers and any kind of factory.

Later... still no factories or Super Formers!  Got hovertanks though.  Those are useful for zipping out of cities, wrecking something on open ground that's outside the immediate radius of my city, and zipping back in again to safety.  It tends to wear Yang out faster as he tries to cross open ground to get to me.  It's like every speeder unit is equivalent to an Elite rover and has a bit of terrain movement bonus as well, although usually I'm on roads anyways.  I haven't done much hovertank combat over the years, as usually the shape of the game is more resolved when I get it.  This game is a bit "off-sequence" as to the techs I've gotten.

For the longest time I avoided making Needlejets / Penetrators, on the premise that I might want to go Free Market and then they would be a waste / burden, making too much unhappiness.  However I built The Longevity Vaccine.  That makes 2 drones happy under a Planned economy, so I have more incentive to stick with Planned now.  My money is fine, about 60 credits/turn, plus whatever I get from conquering a base here and there.  So I'm building Penetrators and Copters now, as well as Interceptors to wipe out his defensive fighters.  With the combined arms approach, hopefully I'll start to improve the speed at which I wipe out Yang.  He's weakening, but it still feels like a slog yet.

Almost all bases have built Hybrid Forests.  I may even start building them on oceanic bases, as I don't need a navy at present.  The Pirates were annoying me, so I finally sent over an ancient raft of Marines and took 1 of his cities.  That was enough to get him to declare a Truce.  That's all I really wanted, since the point is to make Yang surrender and the Pirates are at war with Yang anyways.  I don't think the Pirates actually do any good against Yang, but it's the thought that counts.  A few of my bases with Naval Yards are building Clean AAA cruisers with minimal weaponry, to deter the Pirates from further adventures.  If he starts dropping Conventional Missiles on me again, hopefully I'll have a lot of those Clean units built up and he won't be able to just empty a base.

Meanwhile the Usurpers have been throwing a lot of missiles at my original home island, which is at the extreme northeast of my empire.  I just got MMI, so I will be completing The Cloudbase Academy and The Cyborg Factory real soon now.  Having Aerospace Complexes in every city, removes my historic need to build planes on my home island.  I can build those nearer my front line with Yang instead, and start popping off my own Conventional missiles in return.  I do already pop off 1 every 2 turns from my capitol, as I didn't want to accumulate a bunch of units I need to support from there.  I periodically need to do things like build The Theory of Everything, The Supercollider, The Longevity Vaccine, etc. so I want that base's production pretty much unimpeded.  Possibly the next one of that nature would be The Network Backbone, although it could be some time yet.

I've thought of launching an amphibious assault against the Usurpers and gaining a foothold on his mainland.  However I think such units are better spent wiping out Yang.  I'm wondering if it's possible to out-shoot the Usurpers with my own Conventional Missiles.  I don't really want to use chemical weapons / atrocities against him yet, because taking over 1 of his cities is often a way to get him to beg off and leave me alone.  The time to commit atrocities against an alien, is when you intend to completely, utterly, and finally destroy them.  If I did that, I could nowadays declare Diplomatic Victory, given all these size 16 cities I've got everywhere.  But I'd have to wipe out the Caretakers as well, and combined that's not a short campaign.  I might want to make the Pirates surrender first, given that they're closer to my own territory.

Too bad this game doesn't have some wonder weapon that doesn't require dozens of mouseclicks just to take 1 city.  I'd like to do 1 mouseclick and take 5 cities!  Dream on.

It is worth noting that in the time I've written all those "Later..." remarks, I have taken 2 of Yang's cities, and 1 of Svensgaard's.  THAT'S IT.  Talk about droning on!

[bvanevery]

Yang's empire is finally starting to dissolve.  I've got something close to air supremacy.  He sends out the occasional interceptor and I may lose a unit, but my old inventory of interceptors is much larger than his.  In an air war, I clearly win by attrition now.  He lobs the occasional Conventional Missile, but I think it's a waste of his production, and he doesn't always pick good targets to destroy.  If I lose an old fashioned fission Former, so what?

He doesn't have enough ground units to seriously challenge me on open terrain anymore.  I have old Formers building rail lines to his cities willy nilly now, and they're not really being counterattacked.  If he sends an ECM unit onto open ground, I kill it with a Copter.  If he sends out an AAA unit, I kill it with a speeder or hovertank.  Gas Tachyon hovertanks are also strong enough to blow up his units inside his walled cities, if he only has AAA units and didn't make any ECM units.  Ditto Gas Tachyon Needlejets and Copters if he only made ECM and didn't make any AAA.  His reserves are getting pretty thin now, in this regard.  If he's got both ECM and AAA, send in the rail line and the infantry.

My oldest fission units run around destroying all the bunkers he built.  Those things are so annoying to trip over, and in my experience they're a horrible defensive hole in one's empire, not an asset.  Quick let's give a rallying point to the enemy!  I've used some of his bunkers against him in that manner, as part of the conquest, when he had more strength to offer resistance.

I finally got Super Formers.  I haven't built any yet, as I'm currently shifting all my dirty police units to the front, and replacing them with clean police on my back line.  I'm not even making offensive units anymore, I'm using what I've got, which aren't even that numerous.  I mostly have to garrison the cities I'm summarily blitzing, as soon as rail lines come near enough to them.

The Pirates are still in a Truce with me, and Noncommittal about it.  I'm building nice water stuff around that base I most recently took from them.  I'm raising the ocean floor because it's crap water.  Meanwhile the Pirates are settling some water adjacent to my home mega-continent.  That's nice and peaceful of them.  If they give me any crap, of course it's instantly mine.  I wouldn't mind maintaining them as a weak opponent forever.  Given that I'm Knowledgeable and that drives them nuts, they must be pretty weak if their attitude towards me is Noncommittal.

Zhakarov declared war on me when I wasn't paying attention.  I'm Knowledgeable so that's a lame move on his part, although he is allied with Yang.  He sat on the sidelines for a very long time.  He has no operative military effect, being so far away.  I could go seize his capitol, which contains The Virtual World, but that's a drag and a non-priority compared to conquering Yang.  Maybe by the time I conquer Yang, I can come all the way around the world on some super rail line?  I'll have to check on that possibility... yep, with Yang out of the way, the continent leads straight to Zhakarov's capitol.  Just a spit of water separating.  I don't have to do a tedious mouse-clicky maritime operation, I can come by land and take him over completely.

My useless ally Aki-Zeta is building The Living Refinery.  I don't have Advanced Spaceflight yet.  The Pirates have got it too.  No one else does.  I guess technically I do have some Elite land based probe teams and could seek to steal it from the Pirates, without being detected.  I've also got Algorithmic Enhancement capability and could build a Covert Ops center.  That could be a plan.  I want The Living Refinery but am not willing to open up a front with a stable ally to get it.  Aki-Zeta is like my "backyard", and although she can't hurt me, I don't see a reason to be fighting over there.

Still don't have any kind of factories.  I could probably double my productive output and not do ecological damage.  Some base got a production boom and went up to 50 production!  No eco damage from that at all.  I guess having lots of trees and piles of Hybrid Forests keeps the global warming away.  That reminds me, Aki finished The Xenoempathy Dome and I haven't bothered to trade her for Centauri Meditation.  Can't hurt.

Hmm, turns out Aki had Retroviral Engineering, which grants Genejack Factories.  She's not as useless an ally as I thought.  I traded her the Tachyon technology for that, seeing as how she has Shard tech now anyways.  She wants a lot of money for mere Centauri Meditation, and thinks MMI is beneath her dignity!  You don't have any Copters girl, what's your problem?  Well whatever.  Not like my life revolves around CM anyways.  Any kind of factory though, that's useful.  All bases will have one shortly.  I've got enough happiness, shouldn't be a problem.

Will the mindworms come?  Well to that 1 industrial booming city, yeah, they will.  Post-Genejack production is at 72, and eco-damage is 94!  That's pretty darned high.  All other cities are zero.  Hope that isn't enough to single handedly trigger massive planetary flooding.  On the positive side, I doubt I have many turns of industrial boom remaining.  Only 2 mindworms so far, a big spore launcher and a locust of chiron.  I killed the spore launcher with a trivial independent Disciplined Scout Rover left over from the stone ages.  I've stocked that city with ancient fission units, a few Trance units among them, but mostly just to kill stuff offensively.  Or take casualties if need be.  I expect I'll get a pop and an attack every turn until the boom is over.

Lucky me, the boom ended next turn.  No eco-damage anywhere now.  Increasing unhappiness due to Genejack factories and the expanding size of my empire, have caused me to end the Planned economic choice.  I've gone to Simple because I'm still at war with Yang.  He's now thoroughly on the ropes.  Meanwhile, Zhakarov got Advanced Spaceflight, so I don't need to worry about pissing off the Pirates.  I will steal it directly from this fool who's at war with me.  Once acquired, with my stellar economy I can probably complete it in a couple of turns.  It'll take other factions 20+ turns to build, not counting their cash reserves, which they tend to be stupid about using anyways.  So with a quick crossing of the water, I'm not worried.

[bvanevery]

Well, that imagined land bridge isn't soon to happen.  Yang did not take good care of the western half of his empire, and it needs a lot of terraforming.  I've made a pile of clean super formers to deal with it, pretty much as many as I could possibly want to manipulate.  I don't really believe in letting the AI do it as it makes a lot of stupid stuff.  Once I had all bases under active refurbishment, I stopped making new formers.  Didn't have any left over for a northern rail route to Zhakarov.  Marines are approaching by sea to pick off the last 2 of Yang's bases up there, and a couple of hovertanks by land for the 1 land base.  Then the way is clear, and it's a question of when the super formers get done working on everything else.

Yang is almost dead.  Maybe he would surrender by now, but we're in the middle of a solar flare.  I intend to leave him some bases so he can surrender.  I may have to hammer them to eliminate some Conventional Missiles he's built up.  A lot of unpopped pods are in his vicinity, and if I get an Artifact out of one of them, I can't very well have him destroying it with a missile.  In the past, I've seen the AI do that sort of thing.

I am Democratic Planned Knowledge Cybernetic now.  I've got the Network Backbone so I suffer no penalty for Cybernetic.  I've also got The Cloning Vats and wouldn't suffer any penalties for a Power choice either, but I don't see any need for that presently.  I built a pile of Orbital Power Stations and am now working on Nanohospitals.  Working on The Universal Translator.  I hope new techs give me something worth building, as otherwise I think my bases are all pretty much "done".  Perhaps I will sit back, let the money roll in, and declare Economic Victory.  I can't declare Diplomatic Victory without eliminating both alien factions.  Although doable, it's a lot of bases to go through.

The Manifold Nexus is near Zhakarov's territory, and unclaimed.  I may colonize it and then go Free Market.  In total that would make my Planet rating 0.  Right now I'm +2, but doing a Planned economy.  Those Nanohospitals are going to make most people ridiculously happy, until I get Habitation Domes.  And then population alone should make bases ridiculously happy.  I have piles upon piles of excess food that I do nothing with.

And excess production for that matter.  Got Robotic Assembly Plants and Genejack Factories in most cities.  No eco damage at all.  Highest output is in the +75 range.  I don't have any unit designs that are worth all that production.  I think it's time for Quantum engines.  I'd like something I can just tromp around and summarily destroy my enemies with.  At present, I have to actually slightly fight and slightly plan what I'm doing.  Bring the right units, protect them on the way from getting killed, that sort of thing.  In short, conquest is still a chore.

This game is getting spread out over a number of real calendar days, as, the increase in empire bureaucratic overhead, makes for longer turns that don't have exciting conclusions.  I'll do some turns and then think, hoo, I sure have been at this awhile!  Bor-ring.  I'll save the game and do something else.  I'm still mildly interested in where this game will end up.  Clearly my victory is inevitable, but what exact form of map spreading will I be implementing?

Later... the sunspots ended.  Yang surrendered with 5 cities remaining, 4 of them in the water.  Svensgaard got uppity and asked me to take 1 more city from him before declaring a Truce again.  The land route to Zhakarov is nowhere near done, as there's some fungus in the way.  A Marine expedition floated up to him and took a water city near his capitol.  I didn't think I had enough forces to hold his capitol, and I'm too lazy to push more Marine units up that way.

I finally got Flechette Defenses, which will hopefully put an end to Conventional Missile attacks.  My mainland is certainly safe now.  However distant water bases near the aliens, have been hammered so hard they have trouble getting Flechette up before they're taken back.  Again it's my laziness.  I have these massive procedures to run through every turn, and I don't enjoy having to push a lot of units around to do it.  Hard enough to terraform every tile by hand.

Got Orbital Defense Pods in production as well.  I haven't committed any atrocities, so nobody has an incentive to nuke me.  Aliens have been so far away this game that exterminating them wasn't a good idea.

Got a Tectonic missile, which I will use to narrow the water channel to Zhakarov.  I need to launch it at his side of the pond though.  On my side are some nice resources I don't want to mess up.  I'm picky that way.

Later... you know what?  I can't hide the fact anymore that I'm completely and utterly bored with this game.  I'm bagging it.  Is it too much manual terraforming for too many cities?  Not enough military units?  Too many city improvements?  It can't really be "enemies too far away", as I fought Yang for 2/3rds of the game.  Next time around, I'll try to figure out what went wrong.  It has slightly annoyed me that my ally Aki Zeta has gotten several of the Explore Secret Projects: The Maritime Control Center, The Xenoempathy Dome, The Pholus Mutagen.  Do they really add that much mobility for attacking long distance enemies, is that my problem?  Would I have been happier to ignore Yang and do a chemical weapons war on a far away alien enemy?  Should I have fought multiple enemies and not just Yang?  More balanced research?  Not sure.

But I'm done with this one and it's time to try again.