Yang the Wanderer

[bvanevery]

I will not speak of the disastrous game on a Huge map where I started on a small island with the Believers.  What are the odds?  Long story short, don't sign a Treaty.

This time, I got a tiny island start, and a slow transport to go with it.  I put 1 colonist on the transport and headed north.  The other colonist, I founded The Hive immediately.  It had access to a sea nutrient resource, and I thought perhaps I could use it to spawn more colonists.  That actually never happened.  Instead I built it into a Secret Project producing base, and it eventually produced The Human Genome Project.

To the north was a large land mass with Mt. Planet just into the interior.  With my 2nd colonist I settled the northeast side of the rim.  That was farther than I wanted to go, but I triggered a fungal stalk on my initial landing.  Fungal stalks seemed to be a bit of a theme in these parts, cramping my movements on what otherwise would have been good land.

While exploring with scouts, I got a 2nd slow transport.  I didn't end up using these to convoy anything more at all.  They just wandered around exploring the ocean rim.  All of my focus went into spreading on the new land mass, and eventually I relocated my HQ to Mt. Planet.

I chose Explore, Discover focus, hoping to get ships and Secret Projects.  Also wanted to get a Planned economy going, of course.  I did lots of continental exploration, first with scouts, then with rovers.

I remembered a good trick for increasing the speed of base growth.  Little cities make colony pods, then travel to a central city and join the population there.  This requires the land to be already prepared, which wasn't a problem, as I ended up with a fair number of Formers.  I buffed my capitol on Mt. Planet to size 6, which was the limit of what the paltry fungal infested food up there could support.

I had Mt. Planet working on a copy of The Command Nexus, as Deirdre already did The Weather Paradigm, and I didn't have any other SPs I could build.  The Hive, my original starting point in the ocean, actually completed The Command Nexus, mostly by a big shot of money when I found the Unity wreckage up north.  I know where everybody is, and it's a pretty spread out map distribution.

I had gotten comm frequencies to a couple of factions, but I quickly found I didn't want to talk to them!  Everybody in this game has a reason to hate me.  Miriam, Lal, and Roze all hate my Police State.  Deirdre, Cha Dawn, and Morgan all hate my Planned economy.  At least within those groupings, they're also capable of hating each other.  Roze started with a Truce, but after a long time passed, she rang me up "just to let me know" that she wanted me dead.  From thousands of miles away.  I expect the same out of anyone I've talked to.

Oddly I found no Artifacts for the longest time.  Recently I found 1, and it's been a long walk getting it back to base.  My own research finally got me Planetary Networks though.  Lal had not managed to finish The Virtual World meanwhile.  I had just arranged a whole pile of scouts on Mt. Planet to take out the hated fungus stalk there, that has vexed me since the beginning of the game.  I went through with the devegetation and accepted a 1 turn delay dealing with The Virtual World.  Next turn I moved the unneeded scouts into my capitol, disbanded them, sent spare recon rovers from other cities and disbanded them, and spent all my money.  Voila, Virtual World!

Now I'm building Network Nodes.  Not because I need them right now, but because they don't cost support and I've got the breathing room to do it.  Deirdre bridged my continent a ways to the west, so a military campaign could be imminent.

My exploration units are finishing up the continent.  The final frontier is The Garland Crater, far to the east.  The route eastward has been obstructed by 2 fungal stalks for a very long time.  I was going to clear those when I got the opportunity to complete The Virtual World.  With war looming, will I get around to it?

My fruitless wanderings with the 2 slow transports weren't completely fruitless.  I discovered The Manifold Nexus a good ways south of my ocean starting point.  I'm slowly using my 2 slow transports to convoy a colonist there.  I will get it, as no other faction is remotely close to the region.  So then I'll get to be an honorary Greener.

I've switched to Explore only focus as the main thing I'd like to have is ships, to get all those pods sitting around in the ocean.  And, uh, to Make The Hive Great Again.  Yeah it's got The Command Nexus but otherwise it's sitting in the ocean and not so great.

[bvanevery]

Deirdre completes The Empath Guild and bribes me to help elect her Governor.  I figure "why not her?"  She's adjacent to me by not all that much land, especially now that I've begun eXterminating the fungal stalks with spare recon rovers.  If she gets stronger, then I get more stuff when I kill her!

Surprisingly, nobody else declares war on me, and plenty of people trade techs with me.  I don't think they've realized the true horror that is Yang yet.  And, some of them are already at war with each other.  Deirdre trades me ship tech.  I figure I cannot out-Explore Deirdre, so I switch to Conquer focus.

Lal lets go of Industrial Base, even though The Merchant Exchange hasn't been built yet.  Many factions are working on it, and at first I don't think I'll try for it, expecting someone else to complete imminently.  But then my bank account seems to rise rapidly, perhaps from all of these fungal stalks I'm killing.  I have 1 Artifact and decide to go for it.  In a few turns I've got it done, at my Mt. Planet capitol city!

I'm Unsurpassed.  I don't have a full map, but from what I can see, many factions got crummy island starts like I did.  The difference is, I have the foresight / "algorithm" to get the hell off the rock immediately.  Heading towards the biggest apparent land mass happened to be The Win, because nobody else was on it.  Yang is truly a terror when left to expand unchecked, as he can seriously Build.  His research is sufficient to get him access to Secret Projects, and his Support allows him to send out lotsa scouts to collect money and Artifacts.

Miriam is also good at the scouting eXploration drill, I found out a couple games ago, but she sucks much harder at technology.  She also doesn't have Yang's prodigious +2 Industry bonus under a Planned economy.  Granted, I didn't get Planetary Economics for a long time, but Yang still starts with +1 Industry.  That's better than Miriam's +0.  I say Yang is definitely a superior faction to Miriam on a Huge map, because you can be very isolated and need to do everything on your own.  Yang's good at it.  You'd better murder Yang in his crib, otherwise he becomes a terror.

Currently I'm building a round of Children's Creches, profiting from all these technology trades we made.  It will help slightly with Growth, but experience shows that I won't get my bases big simply by waiting.  I'm going to try the "small cities make colonists to feed bigger cities" trick, doing cities successively in turn while my Formers keep working.  I think I've still got land that's underutilized.

The Hive will start fishing the ocean for pods shortly.  I've already lost my 2 slow transports to Isles of the Deep.  I suppose I could also make some military ships and try to capture an Isle, since The Manifold Nexus makes me +1 Planet.

Eventually Deirdre and I will go to war, but I'm not in a rush.  Maybe she could do me the favor of settling all the land west of me, so that I can just come and take it over.  I killed the big fungal stalk between us and am working on clearing the last bits of fungus from my city radius.  I think developing the minerals output of Mt. Planet is probably more important than taking anything from Deirdre.  The Empath Guild would be nice to have eventually, but it's a bit of a long march to Gaia's Landing at the moment.

I've got enormous "vertical" growth opportunity, given that I completed both The Human Genome Project and The Virtual World.  So I think I should capitalize on that.

[bvanevery]

Lal asked for an alliance against Cha Dawn.  He offered Intellectual Integrity, which I didn't have, and The Citizen's Defense Force wasn't built yet.  I said hey, whatever!  I probably wouldn't be able to do a damn thing to help him, but if he feels better that he has an ally, fine, I can work with that.  I got started on the CDF in my capitol.

Shortly after, Deirdre declared war on me.  I happened to have 4 probe teams en route to her perimeter cities when she did that.  3 of 'em made it.  I mainly just stole from her for awhile, while continuing to eXploit my own resources.  Sometimes I'd steal a Secret Project tech and build it right out from under her nose.  I got The Planetary Energy Grid that way, switching the CDF to the PEG to complete it.  She got the CDF, which does me no good, and The Planetary Transit System, which I don't care about as I'm done eXpanding.  She really should have completed the PEG when she had the chance, as it's far more valuable.  I did the typical trick of selling all my energy banks to get the cash to complete the project.

Deirdre would tend to make forays on the western base of Mt. Planet.  I couldn't do much about her tearing my improvements up, but I'd kill her every time she'd come.  I just kept doing that while building my own stuff.  It was far more profitable than going after her stuff.  For instance, I eventually mined the entire rim of Mt. Planet.

I felt a bit sorry for her, because her troops weren't very good, and I had long since prepared for invasion by mindworms.  Vast arrays of forests and sensors to stop forward movement.  Plenty of probe teams to keep anything from being stolen.  Fortress Dystopia!

Miriam started to encroach near The Manifold Nexus.  The computer started to think that she was stronger than me for awhile, which made me mad.  Then I went through some kind of increase in tech and military units, which made me regarded as the badass again.  Eventually Miriam went to war, and Morgan too.  They all hate me except Lal; the irony.  It took forever to infiltrate Miriam's faction, because she had some ships patrolling, and some probe teams guarding.  Round about the time I got Marines and started attacking her from the coast, I finally got in there.  As expected she didn't have any tech to steal.

I stole Doctrine:Initiative from Deirdre and barely beat her to completing The Maritime Control Center.  I don't think it would have been super important if she got it first, because I don't need it to invade her.  All I have to do is decide I want to conquer her instead of build stuff, and down she'll go.  We keep skirmishing over the land just west of me.  She tries to build a base, I steal from it immediately, then destroy it.  Oftentimes before she even manages to garrison it, but last time I flubbed.  I could have used a probe team to bypass some enemies that got in the way, but I didn't think of it until after I'd committed other moves.  No matter, I threw a bunch of Recon and Impact units at her and messed her up.  Didn't care if I lost some, as I was already in the R-Laser era.  Now I've got Missiles, so she can be really really dead if I want her to be.

Deirdre did complete The Xenoempathy Dome instead of The Maritime Control Center.  I didn't even realize she had that tech.  Maybe there was a blackout, maybe she just got it, I don't know what happened.  I didn't have the resources to rush a 2nd project, so she was going to get something.  I think I'd rather have the MCC because it keeps Miriam at bay.  It does make crossing land to Deirdre a bit more challenging, as there are lot of fungus networks in the No Man's Land.  I could just crank out mindworms and flood them though.  I'm sure that by now, my productivity is vastly superior to hers.

Right now though I want Tree Farms to get my eco-damage under control.  Then it's probably time to take Deirdre out and own her Secret Projects.

[bvanevery]

I still eXploit more than eXterminate.  I got Air Power which made it fairly easy to clear Deirdre's "fungus inroads" and repair the improvements she pillaged.  Now I just shoot her people as they try to approach.  I think her cities may be out of my present bomber range though.  I haven't really tried because I only just finished the local defense and repair operations.  I've built tree farms, some Hybrid Forests, and a couple of Centauri Preserves, which has brought my eco-damage down to zero.  Pretty good considering the huge pile of minerals being mined on Mt. Planet.

I am eXpanding slightly eastwards on the continent.  My easternmost city had access to The Freshwater Sea, and I was impressed by the nutrient bonus one gets out of that water.  The far end of the small sea had an energy resource, so I thought, why not put a sea base there??  It looked cool.  The Garland Crater would only be a couple more city settlements away.  It's covered in fungus so I'm making a bunch of fungicidal formers.

I am also finally eXpanding on my southern coast.  The land to the south of Mt. Planet, which I unluckily covered in fungus at the beginning of the game, I've finally cleared out.  It was something to do with all my Formers while repelling Deidre earlier, to keep them from getting destroyed.  I can make a nice coastal sea base with good land available there.  It's very close to my capitol, so should provide good economics.  I will probably do a similar thing just north of my capitol, as quite a tree line has developed.

I skirmish with Miriam in the south sea.  I took another base of hers off my coast, using my Marines from shore.  That's a pretty good way of summarily executing the computer; it's a bit of an exploit.  She's putting Destroyers in the water to bother me, but I'm putting Artillery on my coast.  My coast is slightly larger, because a pod that was under a fungal stalk, triggered an earthquake.  This raised one of my captured bases from the sea to the land, which was actually a good thing, as it cements my hold on The Manifold Nexus territory.

Miriam is not worth having a full scale campaign against.  She didn't build any Secret Projects and the land we're fighting over is fairly worthless.  I'm mainly motivated to protect my hold on The Manifold Nexus, by creating buffer territory where she can't sneak up on me.  She's busy invading Morgan, who might have 1 Secret Project to his credit, can't remember.  Miriam is nominally the #2 power but not even vaguely a match for me at present.

I get Bureaucracy warnings now when I add cities, so I only wish to do it when I think it's profitable.  I'm not sure how soon I'm actually going to invade Deirdre.  My limited eXpansion projects seem like a good priority.  I'll need to decide if any of Deirdre's Secret Projects are truly valuable to me.  I think I built most of the ones that are really important.  Hm, I think she did build The Ascetic Virtues.  I'd definitely like to have that.

[bvanevery]

Deirdre's research is a little bit better than mine in some ways, it seems.  At least, she comes up with techs that I haven't.  I tried to steal Advanced Military Algorithms from her for quite some time, but her theftable cities were remote, behind a line of Cultist sea bases.  A couple of movement 6 skimship probe teams I sent that way, got killed.  So I concentrated on infrastructural stuff and put little effort into trying to steal.  Then Deirdre performed the gift of establishing 2 new cities, 1 that I could steal and destroy instantly, the other a highly vulnerable sea base.  Unfortunately I just discovered Advanced Military Algorithms on my own, the turn before I could steal it.  A bit of a waste, but at least I finally got her map.

While I'm at it, I should remember to kill that sea base before it garrisons or grows to size 2.  I don't want new Deirdre cities.  I want to take over her old cities that have Secret Projects in them.  Upon further reflection, seizing The Empath Guild could be worth a lot of money.  Although, everyone else on Planet will vote against me, so it may not even be enough.

I have mostly pursued the policy of limited eXpansion, attempting to develop a strong economic core around my capitol.  Also still trying to move east to The Garland Crater, but I haven't even developed the land around my sea base in The Freshwater Sea yet.  So the Crater will be some time yet.  Need even more Formers.  Fortunately now that I'm Police State Planned Power and have gigantic cities, I've got lots of support.  As many units as the size of my base!  My industry is fine as before it was at +2, so now it's +0.  I'm merely paying "normal rates" for everything and I get to kick ass.

Since my only Aerospace Complex is in my capitol on Mt. Planet, and I've got piles of minerals there, I have continued to pump out Missile Needlejets.  This has had the effect of clearing out Deirdre to the west.  1 of her cities is in range of normal strikes, and a 2nd is within range of Elite strikes.  That's not counting that I could just put the Needlejets in my western coastal base, not my capitol, but I like to keep healing them up.  My aerial bombardments have completely emptied that 1 city, so I'm moving forwards with older units to claim the ground.  I'm bringing probe teams with me because Pre-Sentient Algorithms has not been discovered yet by anyone.  I did think of sending mindworms into the field because they're immune to probe teams, but Deirdre became so weak due to my bombardments, that it was not needed.  So, this invasion is less of an eXtermination decision, and more of a consequence of having eXploited Mt. Planet so heavily, that it's precipitating the collapse of any other threat around it.

I suppose I'll just need to bring the air campaign forwards.  I don't need more planes.  I need lots of Police 3-Pulse units, probe teams, and formers to connect the conquests with my empire core.  Maybe Deirdre will wise up and start making AAA units someday, but for now, she's helpless.

I've been working on emptying the ocean around The Hive of pods.  I've pulled some Artifacts from that.  I haven't cashed any yet.  I don't think I'll cash any until after Deirdre is conquered.  Stealing from her is useful.  I don't know that her research will be as good after I conquer her, because I'll own most of her bases.  And although in some games I've given them back to my new vassal, so that the AI can spew units with them, I'm not inclined to do so this game.  That can be a good trick for "blitzing" a standard sized map.  The AI is actually a resource; the same "cranked up" stats that work against you when they're your enemy, start working for you once you've conquered them.  But I don't need such assistance, I am supreme.

The Believers have almost destroyed Morgan.  I think he was the only other faction with any strength of research.  Certainly wouldn't be the Cultists.  I think both Roze and Lal were stillborn on small islands.  The Cultists have been hammering Lal forever, and Lal did finally break his Pact with me.  Can't blame him, as I never did a damn thing for him.  But hey once upon a time he gave me Intellectual Integrity for no work on my part, just so he could feel better about himself.  That was the key to completing The Planetary Energy Grid later, so I thank him for that!

Lal is the only faction that has a Treaty with me.  Some day he may declare Vendetta.  If he does that, then what would constrain me from committing atrocities against everyone?  I wouldn't use nukes, because they flood the planet.  I've done way too much work on my land to risk that.  Nukes also get one kicked out of the UN, which means you can't declare Diplomatic Victory, for instance.  Maybe the thing to do, is to have an offensive war of atrocities on 1 faction at a time, i.e. the Believers.  After they're gone, decide whether to eXterminate others.

[bvanevery]

To bridge the gap between Deirdre's empire and mine, I built some Rover Formers.  Even though we're in the Fission era and they're expensive.  Heck I have these massive production cities, it wasn't hard to bang 3 of them out.  They rapidly built the road that carried all the hurt forwards.

Deirdre did start building AAA units.  However I approached with enough of a force mix, that I could generally destroy her with something else.  AAA units are a bit expensive and she didn't manage to field all that many on her mainland.  Mostly it was a roll-over with my never-ending air force.  Well I guess that's actually a fly-over.  I was often limited by the walking speed of police units and waiting for probe teams to arrive.

Gas Chaos Needlejets were particularly effective at knocking out the best non-AAA walled city defenders.  They'd get really wounded but would do the job.  The older Missile Needlejets would pick off the weaker units.  I rotated my air corps all the way back to my capitol to heal them, essentially fighting with only 1 Aerospace Complex, because I'm cheap.  I had enough planes that this didn't make all that much of a gap in my ability to make attacks.  Some waiting, but not much.  The Romans used this same sort of "circulation" tactic when grinding up enemies with their Legions by the way.  Tired troops move to the rear, fresh ones come forward.  Doesn't matter how awesome the enemy started, eventually they get worn down.

Deirdre did 1 annoying thing: she slipped a probe team past me through the fungus and captured my chaos artillery unit.  That's a tech nobody else has yet.  Fortunately she's too stupid to work the unit design interface and get all the possible chaos units.  Also in practice, she was unable to manufacture any to oppose me.  It really did her no good.  My mistake was forgetting that the fungus stops my movement, not her movement because she has the Xenoempathy Dome.

Or had.  Her mainland is completely invaded now.  I own every Secret Project that's been built in the game except The Planetary Transit System.  That's in the hands of the Believers, who seized it from the Morganites.  They're dead now.

Deirdre isn't surrendering.  I think she's got like 4 sea bases.  I'll do a pro forma destroyer probe team run to get her world map and make sure she didn't run off somewhere.  Maybe everyone has hated my politics for so long that nobody's going to surrender?

At the end of my next turn I will complete The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.  I was pennies away from completing it this turn.  Lal is working on it as well, but he just started on it, and I've been at it for awhile.  So unless he's got a huge stack of Artifacts and cash, and enough brains to spend them, it's mine.  Meanwhile I've covered every one of my land cities with a probe team.  I've even enhanced recent teams with ECM, as I figure that's helpful against attacking enemy probe teams.  I didn't armor my probe teams as I'm not that worried about incursions.  Just need 1 more turn and my spooks can retire!

Some other factions have got Silksteel armor.  Lal, at least, and recently Deirdre.  I suspect that I got it through The Planetary Datalinks so maybe Roze has it too.  I've never been able to infiltrate Roze or Lal, as their empires are too far away.  That will change after getting rid of Deirdre.

My "limited eXpansion" plan has been vastly outstripped by my eXtermination of Deirdre.  I'm still not anywhere near to colonizing The Garland Crater.  However that eastern city sitting on The Freshwater Sea, nearly has the land around it improved now.  I'm preparing a site for my 6th "ring city" around my capitol, in the extensive patch of forest to the northwest.  The trees are so thick there, that a Tree Farm will need to be produced almost immediately.  No problem, I've got the money!

Deep in the southern ocean by The Manifold Nexus, I have built an Aerospace Complex and have begun bombing Miriam.  I don't have anything remotely like the Mt. Planet air corps, just 1 Gas Chaos Needlejet so far.  I destroyed a coastal city of hers using Marines, because somehow she reduced it to size 1.  Maybe she built a colonist, maybe the land dried up and she ran out of food.  I'm building Amphibious Silksteel Garrisons to accompany my Marines, to take and hold coastal cities.  In short, a modest invasion of the Believers will soon begin.  I consider it a low priority campaign though, because her land is worthless and just makes me inefficient.  She's got planes now, so I'll need to be building some defensive tacticals.  I figure all I really need to do, is use my superior production to gradually erode the bottom of her empire.

I've got The Empath Guild, but currently not enough votes to overcome everybody hating me.  In time that will change, as I have +3 Growth, good land, piles of Formers, The Ascetic Virtues, and a lot of Gaian cities to fill out.

I've got lots of fungicidal sea formers, so I've started building a fleet of AAA Silksteel Chaos Battleships.  I'm continuing with my Conquer focus because I really want Neural Grafting.  I don't particularly need Fusion Power, as none of my enemies have it yet, and I've got better guns than everyone.  And massive productivity.  Did I mention productivity?

[bvanevery]

A couple turns later I got Fusion Power.  I never did get Neural Grafting.  Roze got it, and next turn I'm finally going to steal it.  It has taken awhile to bring an AAA Chaos Destroyer and a Destroyer Probe Team all the way around the Gaian land mass, and then farther up north, to perform the theft.

I've also recently researched Orbital Spaceflight.  I'm working on a Conventional Missile and a Sky Hydroponics lab.  The latter will help with that big black area north of my huge continent.  My continent is sufficiently wide from north to south, that when I settled the southern side of it, I never made any northern coastal bases.  I've got some now to the northwest, that I took from Deirdre, but they've been garrisoning and leveling up and aren't fit for offensive production yet.  Meanwhile, Deirdre's former homeland in the west is almost fully garrisoned now.

With my very powerful Fusion ships, I seized a ring of sea bases around the perimeter of my empire.  So, nobody is capable of bothering me navally anymore.  Not that they were doing much before, but Miriam would make the occasional sortie.

I have built Fusion Labs in a radius around my capitol.  I don't bother with farther flung bases that have lower scientific output.  Everywhere gets Network Nodes and Biology Labs, but that's it.  I'll build a Research Hospital if it's the only way to make people happy anymore.  I needed to do that for my base that sits on The Manifold Nexus, since my cities can go to size 16 now.

I am about to finally settle 2/3rds of The Garland Crater.  It would take another city to access the remaining 1/3rd.  That may happen someday but it'll be awhile.  "Fill-in city" projects have taken a vast amount of time.  I only really just settled my 6th ring city around the Hive, the one that's deep in a pile of woods.

I think I will make a city in the bare region just west of Mt. Planet.  That used to be the No Man's Land between Deirdre's empire and mine.  It is primarily inland and the natural base placement will be landlocked.  I'd like to raise the southern tip to eliminate ocean squares I can't make good use of.  I hope that doesn't change the weather patterns for my huge coastal city at the base of Mt. Planet.  It may not, because the water in front of the city will be undisturbed.  But if it does, there's always terraforming!  Not like I don't have enough developed ocean squares to support any amount of population anyways.

I don't yet have enough votes to declare myself Governor, but I'm gaining.  In my empire core, some of my cities go to size 16 now.  When that happens I will make colonists, and push them to the fledgling cities I've just created in the same region.  In that manner I hope to speed my population growth.  Even +3 Growth takes awhile to wait for.  The Cloning Vats is the ticket, but we're not in that tech era yet.

I've got a transport with 4 Amphibious Chaos Rovers I could go assault someone with.  I made those instead of more traditional Marines because the bases that made them were far inland, and they needed to get to the Gaian coast by long roads.  The 4th unit is only just arriving at the coast, same time as a transport rounded the Gaian west coast, so I feel very much logistically justified in that decision.

The original intent was to seize Cultist sea bases to the west, then stock them with cheaper garrison units from the mainland.  But I like my current perimeter and can't be molested.  Also, city improvements are a higher priority than building more garrison units.  I could go seize The Planetary Transit System from the Believers, but I would need a bigger invasion force to hold it.  Also that SP doesn't really do me any good.  Starting cities at size 3, often causes citizens to starve.  And I don't have any difficulty controlling the citizens of small cities, as I have "doubly effective" police.  1 Police unit pretty much does it.

I suppose it would be practical to assault the last 2 Gaian bases and see if she'll surrender or not.  If she won't, might as well put her out of the game, to stop other factions from benefiting from trade agreements if nothing else.  I could take 1 AAA Chaos Destroyer as an escort, since the Cultists do like to attack with Needlejets.  Yes, I think I like this expenditure of resources, because the transport is already in that region and it's quite doable.  Goodbye, Deidre!

I have 2 powerful inland bases working on Fusion Speeder Supplies, in anticipation of my theft of Neural Grafting.  It should take very little time for me to bang it out.  I don't have big cash reserves though.  They have gotten sucked up pacifying all these bases I've taken.

I still haven't used Punishment Spheres anywhere.  Maybe I should do that with the Believers, because they're so far away from my capitol.  I will consider the math on that, i.e. buying Punishment Spheres vs. my already prolific Police abilities, Rec Commons, and Network Nodes.  It may not actually be practical or important for my despotic regime.

[bvanevery]

Miriam and Cha Dawn went to war with each other.  I took advantage of their divisiveness and voted myself Governor.

I've revealed the entire map.  I'm cleaning pods from islands in the southern ocean.  I got some more Artifacts out of that.  I haven't cashed any, and at this point I don't see a need to.

Both Miriam and Cha Dawn have Orbital Spaceflight.  They'd each like to build a nuke, but it'll take them a long time.  I've completed mine.  I'm not sure if I researched OS independently or got it through The Planetary Datalinks.

I took 1 of Deirdre's 2 remaining cities.  I couldn't take the other one because a Believer sea base was blocking the water route to get there.  I had to take that instead, and I only had 2 ships to hold the bases with.  Eventually I'll bring up a 3rd ship and Deidre will finally die.  Her last base is stuck with No Minerals, so she's not going anywhere.  Too bad she's so stubborn and just wants to die.

I'm surprised that I can add colonists to cities all the way up to size 16.  I thought the limit was to size 8, but maybe that's another game.   I've found you don't even need a Hab Complex to increase the city size.  I don't know if that's because I have The Ascetic Virtues or not.  So, one of the paltry cities ringing my capitol, has now been made massive.  I will repeat that drill until the core of my empire is filled up.  It's sort of a laborious version of The Cloning Vats.  I also feel a bit like the Replicators from Stargate:Atlantis, when they're globbing in a huge congealed mass on their home planet.

It's not profitable to build expensive facilities in distant perimeter cities, like Fusion Labs.  My Efficiency is 0 and will remain so; I don't even know if a Cybernetic society would change that.  I've built Happiness facilities to the degree warranted, including a spendy Hybrid Forest at The Manifold Nexus.  Just to make 1 more citizen happy!  Not worth it, but the industrial output of that city is really not needed anyways.  Another city in the region that I've had for a long time, doesn't have as many people, so no need for more facilities.  There, I'm building Gas Fusion weapon Marines for lack of anything better to do.  When I've got some garrison forces ready I'll take one of Miriam's mainland cities.

I've only built 2 Aerospace Complexes.  They crank out Fusion weapon Tacticals, just to garrison my cities with.  My old fission Needlejet force destroys anything that comes my way just fine.  Fortress Dystopia!

Although my population increase tactics are interesting, I don't know if it'll get me enough population to secure a Diplomatic Victory without further bloodshed.  It's hard to tell.  I'm doing it mainly for the economic benefit, to have a strong financial core around my capitol.  I've got an approximate grid of 8 cities ringing the capitol now, in a diamond formation.  That's pretty much all that could be needed.

Also let's face it, it's just a personal Builder vision of what this continent should look like.  I'm not going to bother to settle the oceans though.

I'm not sure how I want to win this game.  It's clearly been more of an eXploit and eXpand than an eXterminate.  The latter just doesn't seem particularly profitable.  Meanwhile Yang is clearly a good Builder.  Therefore, a better faction on a Huge map than some of the alternatives.  Like the Believers.

[bvanevery]

Deirdre is dead.  Her fault really, she had plenty of chances to surrender.

I continue to populate my new core cities.  I've almost garrisoned every city with some kind of Tactical now.  With my 2 Aerospace Complexes, I think I will just start creating Orbital Power Transmitters instead.

I don't see that I have any incentive to invade anyone, as my own land is worth far more than anyone else's.  I'm about to complete The Living Refinery, which awards +2 Support.  I won't need Power for the gigantic support anymore.  Truthfully I probably don't need gigantic support in any event.  My cities are big and have lots of minerals.  However, I will have it.  I'm going to switch to Wealth.  Perhaps I'll pop Artifacts until I get Mind / Machine Interface, so I can crank out The Cloudbase Academy and The Cyborg Factory.  I don't think anyone else has discovered Fusion Power yet, so even if my present troops are wimpy, I don't think anyone can touch me.  But The Cyborg Factory is good insurance when one is running a Wealthy society.

I think if anyone else was going to come up with techs, they would have done it by now.  I have Tech Supremacy.  If I cash Artifacts now, I widen the gap.

I just got Monopole Magnets.  I will build mag lines everywhere.  I may even build them across the ocean.  Well, maybe going around the rim is faster.  Anyways in the words of Donald [Sleezebag] - thinking of him this morning as though he were in the game - "it's gonna be Yuuuge!"

I might as well pop all the pods in the northern ocean.  It must be lightly traveled, if so many pods are still up there.

So this is really pretty much Alpha Centauri Theme Park at this point.  Everyone else is so pathetic.  Miriam and Cha Dawn sprawl a little, but they're still pathetic.

Should I just eXterminate Miriam?  Like with a nerve gassing Chopper?  I can probably do it fast enough that she'll never get a nuke off.  I don't think anyone likes her either.  So she's not going to sneak a nuke into someone else's base to bother me with.

Ok I popped my Artifacts.  I think I had 7.  I got "stuff", and SPs to build, but I didn't get Mind / Machine Interface.  No Choppers for me.  eXterminating Miriam will wait, until it is more convenient.  Choppers are the "finish off lots of weak units" unit.

[bvanevery]

I've mostly built a round of Robotic Assembly Plants everywhere.  I'm not going to build Genejack Factories.  I don't even need the productivity of the factories I'm already building, and Genejacks make cities more unhappy.  I've got happiness "under control", but not excessively so.  Any empire expansion, or any facilities like Genejacks, will upset the balance.

I'm still filling in my inner cities and my mag lines are coming along.  At this rate it'll be quite awhile before I have mag lines all the way to the Believers though.  I'm imagining I'll get Mind / Machine Interface before then, but, who knows?  Last Conquer tech I got was for The Theory of Everything.  I think it's possible to end up skipping techs for awhile, depending upon what else you got on the tree.

My only eXpansion is a push around Deidre's last cities, to secure land so that sea bases don't get cramped.  It's a really slow exercise because I'm not bringing anything in to assist.  Just whatever the bases make locally.  Mainland resources are better spent on Super Formers to build mag lines.  Opposition in the region has been extremely light, so the status quo is fine.

Everyone's got Fusion Power now but Miriam.  I have not committed any atrocities against anyone.  I don't believe anyone will ever make peace with me.  Granted, I've never been interested in paying anyone to make peace with me.  Got better things to spend money on, always, in every game I've ever played.  Only exception might be, avoiding getting crushed by an Alien faction at the very beginning of a game.  Sometimes you can't even buy your way out of that trouble though, because sometimes you can't even talk to them before they declare war.

Turns are slowing down a lot.  A whole bunch of mouseclicks to build tiles and make city improvements.  Decide what gets sped up with money.  Make sure I haven't missed any invasions anywhere.  Kinda dull, but I'm still interested in the evolving shape of this empire.

I've got a Trance Photon Transport finally rounding my west coast.  I guess this is what it felt like when people needed to sail around Cape Horn.  Soon it will be in the north ocean picking up pods.  The southern ocean is all but cleaned of pods.

The Formers on the island with The Manifold Nexus, didn't need to develop any more city stuff.  So I had them link a nearby island, that contains The Uranium Flats.  I am unlikely to settle it as it is too far away to be profitable.  Even The Garland Crater, which is much closer to my capitol, seems rather pointless at this late stage of the game.  I've developed half of it, and I doubt I'll put a city on the other half.  Maybe mining what remains, and putting some supply crawlers there to take the minerals, would be appropriate.  These terrain features are a lot more important at the beginning of the game, i.e. having Mt. Planet as my capitol very much helped my cause.

Now those few formers are raising land northwards, hoping to eventually link with my original starting island that contains The Hive.  I'm simply not going to bother to link to the Believers' continent, until and unless I plan to eXterminate them.

Okay, um, I'm definitely starting to feel Empire Fatigue.  Where's my MMI?

[bvanevery]

Finally got MMI.  Since everyone hates me, I don't have the votes for Diplomatic Victory.  If I eXterminated Miriam, I might have the votes.

I've completed a rail line on my continent.  I'm going to try to raise some land around the eastern rim of the southern ocean, to reach my forward line of sea bases ringing the Believers.  I'm also deploying my non-super Formers westwards on some islands, hoping to make a land link up to "Deirdre's last stand".  That will take awhile, and I'm using the expendable units in case Cha Dawn decides to shoot at them.  I haven't bothered to garrison those sea bases with Tacticals, but I could.

I'm building The Cloudbase Academy and The Cyborg Factory in the middle of the ocean, since those bases have huge "subsea trunkline" driven productivity and no connection to the land.  They will take all of 5 turns to complete.  I really don't need more of a navy right now.  eXtermination of the Believers calls for Gas X Shard Choppers, locally produced on her border.  She's still working on 1 nuke, but it's 11 turns away.  I figure I'll just hit it with something before then and she'll never complete it.

I've picked up an Artifact from the northern ocean.  I'm only getting a new tech every 7 turns, so that is helpful.  My budget is 50% economy, 10% Psych, 40% research and has been that way for a very long time.  A Police State doesn't need much psych, but a little bit helps with the big bases.  I'm Police State Planned Wealth.  I did not go for Knowledge because I gain no efficiency doing so.

I still haven't completely maxed the population of the core of my empire, but I'm getting close now.  I make Hovertank Colonists because I can complete them in 1 turn.

[bvanevery]

While waiting to complete The Cloudbase Academy and The Cyborg Factory, my ever-burgeoning legion of Super Formers completed the eastern oceanic rim rail line.  It reaches all the way to the Believers.  So, I'm not going to commit atrocities.  I'm going to flood her with Gas Shard Hovertanks, which should have no problem knocking out her puny fission units.  I've timed their production to complete the turn after The Cyborg Factory completes.  On that same turn I will instantly create a land bridge. 

The 1 nuke she's working on, is at the dead center of a rather large empire.  Out of conventional missile range, for instance.  I'm trying to get a destroyer probe team over there to sabotage it, but the 1st one got sunk.  She may actually be able to complete the nuke, which is a mild reason not to commit an atrocity.  As long as she doesn't use it, in a few turns it won't matter.  My cities produce a hovertank every 2 turns!

I just got the tech for The Cloning Vats.  Soon I won't be needing to shuffle my population manually anymore.  I still hadn't quite finished maxing my last interior city.  I think this was a valid economic and growth strategy, but it's interesting how long it takes to pull off.

My transport in the northern ocean got earthquaked.  So I'll need to send another one to pick up the stranded R-laser speeders.

It won't be long before I can vote myself the winner, but I don't know if I want to.  First I will conquer Miriam.

[bvanevery]

Miriam's eXtermination is quite the rout.  I actually took that base with a nuke being produced, a couple of turns before it would have completed.  My destroyer probe teams would have gotten there first, but she had a sea former in the way, of all things!  And I couldn't bribe it.  She's Miriam, she's got Fanatics even on sea kelp duty.  I brought up a Conventional Missile to blow that thing to bits the next year, but my Super Former legion is so massive, it built a mag rail right to the city.  It's scary what a large number of those things can do, and the AI has no concept of the topology of the game fundamentally changing from turn to turn.

Even finishing off Miriam, I may not have enough votes to declare myself the winner.  Now, with Miriam finished, me in possession of all of her cities, and completing The Cloning Vats imminently, that will surely result in enough votes.  But if I didn't have the CV, I think I'd actually have to knock off another faction to win.

I've got all the "old" Formers up in the northwest.  They're gradually encroaching on Cha Dawn's sea bases, around the island portion of The Monsoon Jungle.  It's another one of those split-by-water Jungles.  I've connected some nearby islands and am slowly working on an uplink to Deirdre's dying grounds.  The bases up there have conquered a little bit on their own accord, fighting both Roze and Lal.  There's 1 city that really needs to be assaulted with Marines.  Perhaps I'll bring them all the way back from Miriam's territory and seal the deal on controlling that northwestern island.

I'm surprised I don't see more unhappiness, for all the bases I've taken.  Maybe I've been unnecessarily afraid of the Bureaucracy penalty.  My next game, I'm thinking of being more of a conquerer than a builder.  Conquering is a drag when enemies are far away though.  The whole rail line thing, is a way of bringing them closer.  I produce a unit, it goes to battle.  No piles of turns of pushing units to far away places.

[bvanevery]

Miriam is down to 5 sea bases in a small area.  3 of 'em I've destroyed every unit in them.  She only has a few units in the other 2.  I've got ships coming "soon" to take the bases, but it has taken a long time to get there.  I ordered them to the region quite awhile ago.

I finally took The Planetary Transit System and now own every Secret Project that has been built.

I've reshuffled various ancient units, such as 1-2t-1 units that were providing "Trance cover" since the beginning of the game.  My Police capability so Yuuge that they might as well be garrison units in my newly conquered cities.  They haven't basically been needed for most of the game, because I've been pretty far ahead of any eco-damage problems.  Partly because I secured The Manifold Nexus early in the game.  I never really thought about it as being beneficial for "stopping eco-damage", but it must be, because I've had far fewer problems than one would expect for the number of minerals I've mined.

Half of my Formers, I sent back to the western end of my continent.  The other half is working on an eastward route from Miriam's continent.  They will soon link up and I'll have a belt all the way around the planet.  I am not going to terraform my newly conquered lands at all.  I figure Miriam already did an ok if not great job of that, and the game will probably be over soon.

I'm working on a northwest rail line to one of Roze's islands, which I have been skirmishing over for awhile.  The Marines are almost ready to take a key coastal city of hers.  The island is sparsely populated with only 3 or 4 bases.  I'm just trying to secure the land that's adjacent to my sea bases.  I don't actually care about Roze otherwise.

I bet by the time I finish my rail projects, The Cloning Vats will have sufficiently jacked my population and I'll have the votes.  I think I need about 1200 votes and I'm at about 900.  3/4 majority is needed to win.  All other factions I think add up to less than 400 votes.

I've discovered Quantum engines.  My previous generation of Gas Shard Hovertanks was already powerful enough to wipe out the Believers.  Granted, they only had fission engines.  I've ceased new military unit production.  I have roughly a boat full of Quantum units ready to go, maybe to take the rest of Roze's island.  All mature cities are now producing Orbital Power Transmitters.

Lal killed my lone transport in the northern ocean, so I'm not currently exploring.

[bvanevery]

Miriam died.

I completed the planetary rail belt.

I did not complete the northwest railway.  At 5:45 AM I was sooooo tiiiired of building rails.  I had the votes, so I declared myself Supreme Leader.

Did I really take 5 days to finish this game?  That's not continuous play, of course.  But it's a pile of hours per day.

I could have been more aggressive.