Conniving Multiplayer - Game 3

[Buster's Uncle]

Don't go voting for any real estate con men, then.

[Pierce Ji-Yang]

  The People's Perfect Collective has reached 70 population without having to resort to "unnatural methods"

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that other civilizations have to reach such heights. A complimentary party has been thrown.

In other news: after settling the disagreement with the aliens they have decided to make peace for the good of all people on planet.

[Nevill]

The Glorious Spartan Federation admits that the events of the last turn went rather poorly, as they have lost most of their auxiliary fleet at the hands of vastly better equipped alien sympathizers. Yet those men and women didn't give their lives away for naught, as they succeded in their primary goal - to escort a SpecOps team with a secret mission to the very heart of the Drones' stronghold!

However, a new betrayal awaited them there. Their so called 'Pact Brother' Lord Shorty who has been behaving more and more erratically as of late, going so far as to insist that the Spartans move their bases away from his (just how on Chiron did he expect them to do that?), has started the year with an offer of apologies so obviously fake, Colonel Nevill knew it spelled nothing good.



Indeed, it turned out that the Lord has chosen to shield the wretched hive of scum and villainy with conventional missiles, hoping that the diplomatic status would serve as a deterrent for Spartans' righteous cause. He didn't have anything to say when Drones attacked their holdings and sank their ships, though! Such hypocrisy! 



It was only natural that Colonel has told him to remove his foul rockets out of SPARTAN territory, which Lord Shorty chose to ignore, pretending that there were none. It took all of Colonel's willpower not to attack them right then and there (which would prompt hostilities from two sister nations unaware of the Lord's deceit), and half an hour of pestering over VIP channel for the mask of false friendliness to finally drop off and for 'Peacekeepers' to reveal their true motives - the extermination of all humanity starting with their paragon, the Colonel himself!



It came as no surprise, though. Colonel knew all along that those willing to parlay with Aliens can never be trusted. He could only hope that Howellites and the Chairman would see their ally for what he truly was.

[MercantileInterest]

Well, so much for that. I'd actually be able to defend myself if my units didn't keep switching sides. Never before seen such a horrific use of probes. Ugh.

Come and get me, you fascists!

[Nevill]

Well, it comes with a cost. You actually managed to annoy me pretty hard with your switch to Fundamentalism, the costs have become exorbitant.

Where the hell would I find 644 credits!?

However, the switch came a little too late, as my units were already in the vicinity of Headquarters.


With those gone, all bases/units count as equidistant from HQ as if it were 16-or-something tiles away, dropping the costs to acceptable levels.

Fun fact - destroying HQ actually raised the costs of units that were farther away from it than 16 tiles. Your cruiser in the northern hemisphere cost only 130 credits to bribe, now it costs 227 as the rest of them.

Even so, the cost of 1 cruiser is greater than my annual income. I had to sell some buildings to afford one.


But yeah, once I had that, the combat was over. They are just too powerful and too expensive. As far as I know, you only have 1 last one left (in the north).

[MercantileInterest]

Should have switched to Police State/Power. Immune to bribery. But I didn't want to hurt my precious industry. See how well that worked out.

[Nevill]

The invasion of Steel Drones proceeds unabated.

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.

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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!

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.

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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.

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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...

[Nevill]

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.

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Look at the base... production completes next turn.



Add a rocket to the mix, click on the base to relocate workers...



Production delayed! With enough rockets, you can just starve enemy bases and there is nothing they can do about it!

[MercantileInterest]

Looks like you're right. Smaniac rockets used PSI which really worked best on units like like formers and I wanted to copy the effect while also restoring the original conventional missiles. Oh, well.

[MercantileInterest]

//Initiating Transmission//

Origin: Union of the Steel Driving Men
Carrier: 480MHz-2400MHz, Broadband
Time: 1600Z, November 11, 2187
Destination: All Factions
Stamp: The Last Stand

John Henry was working on the railroad
And his hammer was striking fire
He drove so hard that he broke his poor old heart
And he laid down his hammer and he died, lawd, lawd,
He laid down his hammer and he died.

Well they took John Henry to the graveyard
And they buried him in the sand
And every locomotive that goes roaring by
Says: their lies the steel driving man, lawd, lawd,
There lies the steel driving man.

//End Transmission//



It is over.

All active players wish to concede victory to the Spartan Federation. Well done, Nevill.

Now, let's get some screenshots for our lurkers. Can't do so myself, due to technical issues but everyone has my maps anyway. Everyone also has Nevill's, seeing as I stole them and broadcasted them across Planet. I also infiltrated him with a probe boat years ago, which is how we reestablished contact.

Cheers, everyone.

[Nevill]

Ah. I kinda thought you guys would try to unite and push back. Was surprised you weren't allied already, seeing all of you pacted and no one trading me anything.

The mod is interesting, but some of the exploits of the original remain. Again, the game was won on the back of the Planetary Transit System which saw me from 20+ to 60+ pop in a single turn, and to 150 pop in 15 more turns. If that's not broken, I don't know what is.

I still have comments on mod balance (civics and the like) if my opinion is of interest.

My screenshots are on the other rig. I might be able to scrounge something on a weekend.

[MercantileInterest]

We had united against you since the probe team incident in the Pearl Sea but when you stole my Projects and invaded Peacekeeper territory, the others gave up. You were about to receive a sizable Hive invasion but with all those perimeter defenses and the collapse of his allies, Yang called it.

By the way, I somehow missed your earlier post. That's a sweet tactical diagram.

Would very much appreciate your comments.

Some characteristics of this mod derive from Smaniac, such as increases to foil speed, transport capacity, sensors with mechanical resonance and Naval Supremacy combined cruisers and amphibious pods. The name 'Naval Supremacy' was my own idea.

Want to talk about the Planetary Transit System. Your play style gives you a lot more cities than any of us have, so you get a bigger advantage. Last game, the Project made me the largest faction on Planet but not as large as the next three factions combined. The wretches still teamed up on me. I don't like to ban a wonder entirely but 'no crawlers or TPS until turn 100' would be a reasonable multiplayer rule.

[Buster's Uncle]

I want to encourage all the post-game analysis talk y'all can stand to do - and let me know if/when you'd like this thread moved to AARs, where it fits about equally, but won't be buried as soon as the other MP games come back to life...

I loved the in-character crap-talking/propaganda throughout, and a lot of the accompanying art was really wonderful - I follow all the games as they progress -I'd be a terrible mod if I didn't read everything- and this is surely the most entertaining MP game I've ever spectated.  Good on y'all for that.

[Nevill]

Hmm, how was he going to invade me if he didn't have Naval Supremacy? Spartans are not very invade-able from land, what with elite units and Havoc Rocket scouts.

You had a good chance of shaking me up with air units (and Lal was getting Fusion), but he goofed up a bit and left his 'copter in a lone border base and a spy parked nearby. Whenever you mind conrol a base, you get all the units in the base and in a 1 tile radius, so I bought the base, got another spy out of the deal, and then the copter made short work of the defenders on a base next to it, clearing the path for my units and letting me steal a lot of tech. I was planning to invade from that side next turn, even had the cruiser-chain prepared and everything.

I actually didn't plan to invade from that direction initially, it was a spontaneous call after the Drones fleet got sunk and the ocean was not protected anymore. Interesting that for all your low place on the powergraph you've put up the most resistance and I had to expend massive amounts of resourses to pull off the campaign. If you held your Project base (which only fell to a surprise attack), I'd probably have a much harder time.

My plans for Lal were to bombard his spies in the Northern Watch Tower and then use tried-and-true strategy of attacking from sea transport with land probes, then (once his probes are dead) sabotage his perimeter defence and invade with regular units. If that failed, I had a Rover Colony Pod to build a base on his side of the gulf and launch the invasion from there, but it'd be hard if he had 'copters and I didn't. I really lucked out on him moving that 'copter to the base I bought, giving me the necessary unit design.

Of the events of note I can remember two. First, I was planning to build another Project (the Perimeter Defence one) in 2180. Got the crawlers for it and everything, and even built 10 probes to disband them there because I didn't have crawlers before 2175, but  then the Drones somehow got wind of it and finished it 1 turn before me. I have no idea how they knew, or if it was a coincidence, but I was left with no project and a lot of idle probes. Naturally, my thoughts turned to making use of them.

Second event was me getting a transport foil out of Unity Pod and packing it full of Elite rovers to pay Lal a visit in the early 2150s. I bore him a grudge for trading Lasers to Drones which they used to invade me in 2127, but no one would trade me Seafaring so that I could actually build a ship and pay him a visit. So I got all riled up when I got a Unity transport and set sails for PeaceKeeper HQ. But then I spotted a Unity Pod on an island on the way there and decided to pick it up. It caused an earthquake and an eruption of a volcano, destroying my naval ride and cutting several of my bases off the ocean. I was *so* mad.

The plans for Lal invasion had to be postponed for 40 more years after that.

As for my playstyile, I adapted it to the hand I was dealt. I saw what Lal had on his bases and how he built them 'upwards', with a lot of buildings and superformers, and decided that I can't compete in vertical growth. So I went full horizontal - lots of small undeveloped bases with crappy units, but A TON of them. He had about 20 (don't remember?) superformers, I had 60 regular ones. He had Recreation Commons, I had scouts for police. He had Research Hospitals, I had -3 to Research and +100% of my energy directed into Economy, with my tech progress dependent fully on Probes. A lot of how I played was determined by how technically underdeveloped I was. Spamming bases was just the fastest fix I could get, and it worked exceedingly well with PTS. Also, I mostly spammed coastal bases to keep churning out a stream of cheap ships to counteract the Drones' Naval Supremacy. Those cruisers were nasty.

It wouldn't be susteinable in the long run (after pop-booming era), but the game didn't get there.

No PTS and no Crawlers until turn 100 sounds like a decent home rule. Guys from my old community went a bit further and banned them altogether, but in 2200s they aren't that big of an issue.

Edit: sometimes I forget how to speak English. :|

[MercantileInterest]

You'll have to ask Yang about his invasion plan. His biggest problem was the distance.

As for the perimeter defense project, that was coincidence. I just had a bad feeling and acted on it by buying the project early.

My plans for you involved my allies researching nerve gas and a whole lot of helicopters. After eradicating your coastal bases, I planned to resettle my old homeland and then ally with you against Yang. Not (hopefully) as a wartime ally but to prevent him from moving much farther east than the crater. Ideally, you and Yang would be left at an equivalent power level, while Lal and I could population boom up to unholy levels and elect ourselves supreme leaders.

Ruling the seas with Heavy Warships was a lot of fun. +4 Industry allowed me to get away with building a lot of those. Wonder if it's possible to give free AAA to naval units but not to ground troops. The Drones' -3 Research didn't apply, since my allies kept feeding me tech. Then again, they only did that to counterbalance the Spartans, so not something which can be relied upon every game.

No one gave you Seafaring because we all feared a Naval Invasion.

NB: Howell wasn't part of the alliance against you. Although sympathetic, he wasn't involved. By the way, what were you planning with that base holding three impact rovers and building an isle of the deep?