AAR 6 - Final Doom

[Green1]

Yeah you did an awesome job with the music and pictures, jarl, great work.

A suggestion: When you guys do your next AAR, I suggest you balance the factions out somewhat. These were... relatively balanced to an extent, but the annihilators were ridiculous just because any human playing the annihilators will be ridiculously powerful (especially ete.) Most of that will be pre-disscussion, though.

If you do put in very powerful factions, make them AI controlled.

Alternatively, maybe I'll look at all the potential factions before designing a monster faction to handle them.  I think the Stranded could have beaten the Exterminatus if played by a human the whole time, but the Annihilators were too much and exploited their major weakness, and of course the Stranded were not played by a human the whole time and the AI doesn't seem to know how to handle them.

Next one a lot will be done differently. But, this has lived up to it's name - Final doom. There will ALWAYS be a monster, probably. But it will be AI controlled. I have thought, however, of a clash of the monsters type power battle at some point. So we may see powerful baddies again. 

From here on out, it is the tale of the Exterminatus and their struggle to survive. But I need to pop open a beer before I get started and eat. It has been a hard day at work. Something tells me it will be a hard night at play.

[Green1]

Harbinger Ex'itus awakens.

Being a religious figure of his stature, he is used to attention. But not the crowd of concerned military advisors jumping him right as he steps out of the stasis pod!

"Let me at least shake of the grogginess... Well you?"

"Yes, our lord prophet, most naturally selective, most..."

"Silence! My sleep was not well. I had visions of doom and death....", as a medical officer injects him with a hypotonic.

To the war room.

Gathered around the table were his most trusted advisors. Ex'itus inhaled deepy through his mandibles. The news would not be good.

- The Warrick human was feared dead, the last human base of Routine Regime overwhelmed by reports of many multiple demon boil mindworm units controlled by the abomination Annihilator.

- Both First vanguard regiment and the ambassador sent to watch over the Warrick human were lost. No military presence exists in the near the former human lands.

- Attacks had been repelled by the over strength garrisons at Planet Dust which presides over the Manifold Nexus, a vital strategic landmark.

- The reports of the fall of Routine regime tells of carpets of mindworms, the like of which decimated multiple units. More than likely heading to Planet : Dust.

- Scouts have already spotted initial Annihilator native units to the south. Perhaps more hidden in the two fungal ridges approaching the rest of the empire.

- the mindworms are deadly. Only the most well trained and experienced troops stand a chance.

- The sea to our north becomes more deadly. Isles of the Deep have been spotted and some cruisers have been lost. Our navy must be modernized.

"Hmm... any GOOD NEWS?"

"Yes, Lord Harbinger...."

- We have 3 alien artifacts awaiting Network Nodes...
- We can have missile troops to replace our Gatling troops, not that it makes a difference against hordes of mindworms.
- We are researching Doctrine Airpower and may have Needlejets if we can hold off the swarm.

Looking at the path to Warrick's former lands, it became clear why the reinforcements failed. Even columns of troops moving along the coast which was less harsh terrain still had a vast distance to cover and were vulnerable to ambushes from the vast fungal ridges.

"Russia...."

"What, Harbinger? What is a "Russia?"

"It was a nation from these insect human's world. The Adolf Hitler the Warrick creature admired had, as I had mentioned, many great ideas. BUT, his pride and genetic inferiority towards drug addiction and paranoia failed him. He sent troops ill prepared into the Russia land without proper equipment and over terrain the enemy was favored at. The terrain was large and in depth and hostile like the terrain in those areas. YOU.. my Generals made THAT same mistake...."

"What do you mean, Lord... Are you calling me an insect human from an extinct species holonovel?"

"SILENCE... take this fool from my sight and nerve staple him..."

"You see, adaption is needed. We have genes from our ancient forebears. Each iteration, if it does not kill us we learn from. We can even evolve and learn from studying what NOT to do, even from an insect..."

The junior war general led off, all anyone could do was look at the screen table and stare at the western front...

[Green1]

First thing....

there has been lax in reading and internalizing the truth of natural selection. Also, internalizing the concept of of POWER! This will be first and foremost.

Next, we have the technology for crawlers! We are evolved to EXTERMINATE.. not work and hide in bases! Let the crawlers work!

Formers! Colonies! We will take away their "Russia" and turn the tables against them until we can strike at the Abomination's heart....

[Green1]

Probe attacks capture 2 Gatling Infantry units. Spore launchers try to bombard, but are crushed by our elite artillery units. The artillery units also weaken the mindworms.

Once formers are out, we will clear paths and have defense in depth and slowly push towards the enemy in two columns.

Any line coming along the coast will be flanked.... and EXTERMINATED!

[Green1]

Carpets of mindworms arrive.

That tiny patch of fungus along the coast provides easy passage around Planet:Dust and allows the Abominations to flank from the north and unopposed access to the research and industrial center of Umbral Blot.

We have a loose net protecting the south and a massive column wave approaches from Umbral Blot.

The Battle of the Manifold Nexus begins!

[Green1]

We push them off.

But, that fungus patch to the North of Planet:Dust and the vast fungus ridge to the west could harbor more worms. It probably does.

We lost two units, they lose 6.

The religious fervor from Ex'itus' speech in the war room upon awakening has everyone in good spirits, despite the bleak outlook first thought.

But this battle is FAR from over...

[Green1]

Ex'itus thumbs his claws on the holotable, occasionally pulling up reports.

The Cruiser Sel'ectuse was sank in the northern sea protecting a colony pod. Fortunately, the pod got away and into a port. More and better ships would need to be made. A cruiser probe team was sailing towards an Annihilator base to hopefully gane some technology, but he counted the odds slim that the probe would not be discovered.

Just then, the science advisors came in. A newly built network node had studied one of the alien artifacts. Nueral Grafting is discovered.

One of the scientists then talks about a project... one that if built may break the stalemate at the Manifold Nexus and the overall war. A Neural Amplifier. IF the Annihlator did NOT build this first, it would blunt the attacks of the mindworms and dreaded locusts.

BUILD it AT ONCE...

It was the first time in a while Ex'itus felt a bit good.

[Green1]

Ben'redst Gej'for:bf, Special Selection Unit (Navy)
LOCATION : North Sea outside of former Stranded base called Nonsense : Leave

I evolve.

Ever since I was a youngling in a crèche, I remember the when I first saw the sea. My mentors told me the sea on Sirius Ab was purple from the glinting light of a blue sun. I imagine it in my head. But, this sea is brackish and blue -black, with the exception of the light blue fungus. We cut through a lot on the voyage here. Even though we are taught that fear is the evolutionary advantage that keeps us alive, the apprehension of a hidden Isle of the Deep or worse was still unsettling. But we arrived.

The plan, at least on the holopad is simple. We don wetsuits and rebreathers and swim under the fungal mat approaching Nonsense : Leave. There is an old pipe leading in past the humming Tachyion Field, a defensive tech of the Stranded left here. We then don tattered uniforms of the Stranded and make way through the city.

Swimming under the fungus was scale-raising enough. We then donned tattered civilian clothing to look like the "rest of the slaves". Sounds so sterile, doesn't it?

The holy texts speak of the conquered as those unworthy. Those who must be exterminated. I was not prepared to see what I saw.

"OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY OBEY...." on and on.

It was mixed over in both the human word and progenitor resonate for it, almost a unsettling chorus emanating from the air itself and into the mind. I saw the deadened eyes of former Stranded. When one could not move and work, mindworms came up and ate him. Another was dragging a load of soil somewhere. Barely plodding along, a claw missing and infected with who knows what. Whenever he stopped, a locust would sting him. But, so weary he was, he could not even muster a sound to resonate pain.

Even more unsettling, a red, electrified ring built above the city. In Special forces school, we KNEW what that was. It was the "EYE" of the Annihilators.

You see, the Annihilator is NOT one being, it is EVERYWHERE. That is one of it's eyes. If the red, dark glaze of the beam from the electrified ring glows on you, the SWARM itself sees you!

We "mull" casual.

the objective: Some of the more "valuable" slaves et a bit more food to work on weapons for the swarm. Usually the "nicer", if you can call that, of the buildings. A few close encounters with the red beams and a mindworm boil we though saw us, and we are there.

What we find... is interesting. The secret to controlling locusts....

I do not, nor want to remember how we got out of there. But the ONE thing I do remember that has affected my faith. The humans fear extinction, but I say that there are worse things than extinction. Working to death for THOSE monsters and still being destroyed is worse.

I would rather be exterminated....


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We gain Centauri genetics from a brave naval probe team action.

[Green1]

((I will continue this tomorrow night (US time). Till then, do not let red electrified rings see you. You may be "annihilated"))

[ete]

A suggestion: When you guys do your next AAR, I suggest you balance the factions out somewhat. These were... relatively balanced to an extent, but the annihilators were ridiculous just because any human playing the annihilators will be ridiculously powerful (especially ete.) Most of that will be pre-disscussion, though.

If you do put in very powerful factions, make them AI controlled.

I did actually suggest using non-monsters only, but yea, I agree for next time. I will say though the Annihilators are not inherently vastly more powerful than the others, I'd actually put them on the same level or perhaps below the Exterminatus and Stranded overall, but I exploited their strengths to the extreme (mass base spam, getting key native techs, using locusts exclusively on bases, then deprototying all standard combat units to force the AI into offensive native combat rather than making loads of defenders) before either of the other monster aliens had a chance to play, which gave enough of a turn advantage that Green1's playing catchup. I had not an ideal start, but a pretty excellent one. Having someone to kill and a place to expand explosively into once they went down was huge, as was stealing the PTS. Mt Planet was nice too, and going at a time where there were plenty of defensive units to recycle into useful things, and the fact that locusts let war happen much quicker (though less efficiently) so it was possible to end things against my first foe in under 10 turns.

I think that had Yitzi gone before me, he'd have been able to defeat the red unit entirely and establish several huge bases with excellent teraforming, which even in the AI's hands would have made life very difficult for me on my turn.

Had Green1 gone first, the Exterminatus could have made several more bases, and built enough infrastructure that the AI would have killed the fascists and slammed into me about as hard as I'm now slamming into him.

Alternatively, maybe I'll look at all the potential factions before designing a monster faction to handle them.  I think the Stranded could have beaten the Exterminatus if played by a human the whole time, but the Annihilators were too much and exploited their major weakness, and of course the Stranded were not played by a human the whole time and the AI doesn't seem to know how to handle them.

I agree with that. The Stranded have the potential to be extremely powerful, but the combination of stupid AI building, major harassment from locusts, and the Annihilators being able to hit them hard with psi was a perfect counter to them, even with that jungle start.



Nice characterization Green1, I like how this game has turned omnicidal religious monsters into the "good" guys. At least they only want to kill everything. I think you may be able to hold your own, if you have enough bombardment units and the right terrain (plus ideally air power) you should be able to kill endless waves of worms. Neural Amp would also be a huge boost. Getting sensors near all bases likely to be at war should be your #1 priority, followed by clearing the squares they're attacking from of fungus/rocky/forest to remove defensive bonuses. Losing the Nexus will make all combat 20% harder, and put you 20% behind in all future research, so you kind of have to hold that base too. I'd strongly recommend getting a probe team in every forward base, losing a base to mind control could be something you can't recover from.

I'd like to see the military command nexus, comparing your screen to the Annihilator one, and see what's going on with the University. Are they actually holding their own, or have they made peace?

[Green1]

University is at war with us, but I fear it is a war in words only to keep from being eaten.

[ete]

If the University is subservient to the Annihilators they're going to be feeding tech, which is going to hurt you. And when they run out they'll get eaten.

[Yitzi]

I think that had Yitzi gone before me, he'd have been able to defeat the red unit entirely and establish several huge bases with excellent teraforming, which even in the AI's hands would have made life very difficult for me on my turn.

Actually, if I'd gone before you I would probably just go for good terraforming (forests) and pop booming and then straight for a Progenitor victory, putting only as much minerals into units as necessary; if it had gone as planned, you would never have even gotten a turn.  (Which would make for a worse story than what I'd planned to have happen, which is why I wanted to go last; unfortunately, I didn't count on the AI mis-managing the Stranded so badly or you managing the Annihilators so well.)

[ete]

Ah, that was your plan.. I guess with the Jungle you may well have had enough time, though 60 rows per base is tough and relying on the AI to finish the generators would've been risky. They love cancelling projects and big facilities to make more defenders.

[Yitzi]

Ah, that was your plan.. I guess with the Jungle you may well have had enough time, though 60 rows per base is tough and relying on the AI to finish the generators would've been risky. They love cancelling projects and big facilities to make more defenders.

Yeah...I was hoping to be able to do it myself (+2 industry and +100% production), but that requires more forests.

I think that SMAC/X could really do with some smarter AI...although part of that might just be that Transcend-difficulty AI is made extra-aggressive, which makes it really stupid for a faction not designed for that aggression.