AAR: A pilgrimage through fire and steel - [Complete]

[ete]

I feel like another game. Let's play.

I am The Advent Pilgrimage by Sigma.



They play like a mix of the cult and believers.

I'm a fan of making things hard for myself, so here's a list of things I'll be doing to increase the difficulty:
Using a low native map, despite being a native faction
Giving each opposing faction at least one useful SP from the start
Putting some of the best builder factions available in as my foes, and using a very large map to give them time to build
Putting several players who'll hate me using fundy
Banning myself from using 'copters and crawlers
Banning various tricks like speed building SPs with cheaply upgraded units
Giving each foe a handful of forest patches to seed growth and improve their mineral income
Starting every faction as wanting revenge on me
Playing on Transcend

[ete]

The Pilgrimage begins in a fairly neutral area, and looking at the map..


This is a beautiful map. Almost everything's connected, but it's got a lot of interesting structure to it. I'm not even tempted to make my usual corrections to terrain .


Popped two pods, both have resources so this is a decent place for my first base, and getting up and running quickly is important. Means you are higher in the powergraph so get treated better in politics when you first meet people. Rocky+Nutrient is always an annoying combo though, and teraform level takes a while.

[ete]

Recycling Tanks are important to both good play and living lightly.


Exploring, got a former rushed by a pod which was handy. First priority for formers is foresting that mineral bonus for a lovely 1/4/1 square early on. Though of course, always road before forest, much quicker for the formers.



Got Biogenetics. Speeders next to pop pods, catch worms, and maybe find a faction or two.

[ete]

!

And suddenly the robots set up camp right next to me.

That was quite unexpected.

hmmmm

I'm going to not give them their SP yet, since me taking it would be too easy at this point, but will give them something really good if they restart.

[ete]

I'll found the base over here anyway, just in range of the energy and nut specials. The Machine Mandate is a worthy opponent late game, but early on they tend to be very pacifistic and I'm confident I can handle them even with divided bases.

Switching to former and rushing it so I can get some forests up quicker. Scout can come after.


Knowledge is key to enlightenment, and winning AC. Network Nodes are a great way to acquire it, though my low indust will slow that down.


Lost a scout patrol, but captured a worm with the rover I'd just got from a pod. Good trade. My pod hunting will accelerate, and if the MM wants to fight I will be able to.

[ete]

I've entered talks with the first faction encountered, the Machine Mandate!


They're powerful builders thanks to that high indust (especially coupled with the AI's intrinsic indust bonus at higher difficulties), but fairly passive and have little energy due to low econ.











I do not with to treaty with them currently, if I am bigger they'll offer a lot for a treaty later, and may just get squashed. Can a machine become enlightened?

[ete]

Ah, the first consequences of the SPs I handed out.. A very, very early council called by Emperor Sepsu thanks to the Empath Guild.


And an offer of bribery from everyone's favorite academician. It's not a lot of cash, but I would've voted him over a slavedriver anyway.



So much for each new faction being a big reveal :p. Oh well, I'll make that the SPs they each got!

Sepsu has the Empath Guild, easily the weakest SP I've given away, thanks to his absolutely terrifying builder game. The latest in a game I've been on the backfoot was against him, and it was well into air power before I could push him back, despite throwing everything I had at him and feeling otherwise very well established.

[ete]

An artifact! Thankfully taking them has no political penalty, so my worms will do just that.


Though she is getting a bit annoyed about me being so near her bases.

[ete]

Rushing rec tanks is reliably good because it speeds up your infrastructure growth in general. Just remember to rush only after the first row is finished naturally, otherwise you're paying extra! In other news, forest+any bonus is awesome.


yay NNs! I should focus on some more Colonies first though, because I've found two excellent places to build..


The Manifold Nexus grants +1 Planet, which would mean more worms and more exploring, while the spot near that rocky mineral bonus square, monolith, and ready forested expanse of rivers looks.. too good to be true.

[ete]

Building things .

[ete]

Missed SoHB.


Exploration is going nicely. Another AA, a bunch of different other pod pops.

[ete]

New base! It does not catch much of that lovely river/forest planted by a pod, but getting both monoliths and both mineral bonuses more than makes up for it. This is going to be a very productive base.


Excellent. Pod rushing facils is such a great help.


Lots going on here! New AA in the top right, new foil from a pod, next colony pod ready to go get the manifold nexus (and some monoliths+river), another captured MindWorm.

[ete]

I'm going to be playing so that for each one faction I contact by land, I'm allowed to contact one by comms from the council. Though they all want revenge, so tech trading may be difficult now they're all pretty powerful.. which is why I went for a truce now. I have no weapons tech, and a load of bases I'd really like some time to develop, a treaty is good for now.

[ete]

Far enough into the game that powergraphs mean something. Let's seeee



Oh dear, the Imperium are doing as I had feared and towering over everyone else... it'll be fun to see if I can catch up before he starts getting every SP. University is doing nicely, not surprising with the start they had though. I'm last, but not a horrible last. I've had worse.

More worrying is the fact that machine mandate has both top military and top territory. I really need to be able to focus on development for some time to have a hope against the Imperium later, and a war now against the most powerful army on planet who's right next to me is not what I need.

I'm also giving the Machine Mandate their SP now, since I'm not likely to overrun them soon and get an advantage from it, which seemed possible before... yaaay.

[ete]

Planetary Networks is a good candidate for my favorite technology. It only requires one independently good tech, it gives by far the best earlygame SE option (Planned), gives Probes which usually net you several techs and are essential for most war or recon, and gives one of my favorite SPs: The Virtual World. It even opens the way to two other important techs. Sadly, the VW appears to be mysteriously taken.. but it's still a great tech.

Ethical Calculus next, for creches and to have the option of offsetting Planned's effic penalty when it starts to be a problem. Also building towards Intellectual Integrity, another excellent technology.