Yang the Radially Paranoid

[bvanevery]

My empire in my previous game was marked by long term inefficiency.  I had a lot of dead ocean territory south of my capitol that was never turned into financially productive centers.  All of my conquests were so far away that I got 0 energy and research out of them.  That's because I was too nice to the Caretakers, who were my next door neighbor allies from the beginning of the game.  So I am very determined to make an empire that's radiating at a nearly perfect circle from my capitol.  This means if I build The Merchant Exchange, I want to make sure it's at the center of a reasonable land mass.  Once that SP is built, it pretty much stays the capitol forever, because too much energy is lost from inefficiency under Yang's regime.

Huge map, average settings, random opponents.  I start on some kind of an island with Mt. Planet apparently just to my southeast.  I settle a river square next to my starting square, in order to ensure a positive credit flow and some kind of time limit on how long it takes me to get to a Police State.  That doesn't turn out to be any great difficulty as I pop enough pods that give me credits, to go Police State even when I only have 2 cities.  I choose Discover, Build focus because I expect to build SPs and am doubting I have immediate enemies.  The land mass seems large enough that I shouldn't have to immediately get off the island.  I gain 3 Artifacts during initial exploration so figure I should bang out a SP reasonably soon.

Soon I've researched Biogenetics.  I bang out The Human Genome Project in a mere 2 turns, using all of my Artifacts.  I'm often coy about using Artifacts at the beginning, but I wanted to discourage anyone from trying to build SPs.  I figure if they don't think they can even get started on certain things, maybe they won't.  I can't tell if I was successful in that strategy or if everyone else just has bad luck / is incompetent at early spread, but nobody challenges me for SPs at all.  Soon I get The Weather Paradigm, The Virtual World, and even The Command Nexus started, with no competion.  As I'm nearing completion of some of these, Deirdre finally starts on The Empath Guild.  I'm not doing Explore so I figure she's going to get it and I'm not.  Generally speaking, it looks like in this game I won't be trying to out-Explore the dedicated Explore faction.

I switch to Build only focus because I've gotten the techs I need for the Discover SPs.  I've expanded to 7 cities and I'd like to plop The Merchant Exchange and a new HQ somewhere good.  I've only covered about half of my island so there's stuff to choose from.  I also got a slow boat popping one of my pods, so I've been able to explore some nearby islands and pop pods on them.  When I complete The Weather Paradigm I eventually start linking these minor islands to mine, making my land mass slightly bigger.  It's pretty clear that the southern foot of Mt. Planet would be a good site for a capitol.

H'minee starts on The Merchant Exchange.  At this point I've built everything useful that I know how to, including Network Nodes for the most part.  I have finished The Command Nexus, so I build Probe Teams with the intent of protecting my cities from any random interlopers, and to provide "poor man's supply crawlers".  Pretty soon I've researched Industrial Base as well, so I start The Merchant Exchange.  I hold onto my cash and it doesn't take very long before that + Probe Teams = my new financial center.  I pop out a new HQ a couple of turns later as well, with all the money I saved using Probe Teams to build the SP.

H'minee switches to The Empath Guild.  Deirdre shortly completes it, but oddly enough, does not call an election.  Does she figure that I have higher population than her and would win, even with a 2x bonus on her part?  Is she under threat from either the Caretakers or the Usurpers, both of which are in the game?  On the graph the Caretakers and I have equal power.  The Usurpers are weak and so are the remaining human factions.  I know the Spartans and the Cultists are in the game, and maybe the Peacekeepers but I'm not entirely sure of that.  Nor do I care.  Previous game experience was "better kill the Aliens first" if I want to win the game anytime soon.  Last time I was friends with the Caretakers waaaaay too long and eventually it got so boring I quit the game.

Deirdre has started working on The Planetary Energy Grid.  That's a bit annoying as I've just researched Industrial Economics and would very much like to get the Grid myself.  However I can't complain too much as I've pretty much run the table on SPs otherwise.  I'm doing much better in that regard than last game, where my ally the Caretakers got The Human Genome Project, putting it out of my reach.  The Usurpers got The Virtual World and it was on literally the other side of the map, so I didn't get it until very late in the game.  The Planetary Energy Grid was similarly very far away, so took an awfully long time to wrest.  Well that might happen again this game for all I know, but at least it's only 1 of the core SPs instead of 3 of them.

Gonna keep my Build focus for now.  Deidre's gonna call her election eventually I figure.  Unless one of the Aliens kills her, which would be fine by me.  The only human faction I'd have a chance of being friendly with is the Spartans, and only if they stay out of my hair long enough for me to get Advanced Military Algorithms, and only if I want to do Power instead of Wealth.  Last time I did the whole game as Wealth so I don't exactly count on it.  Particularly as I still have NO CONTACTS, I might be quite isolated and Wealth might be the logical thing to do.

My 1 little slow ship will make ever increasing spirals of exploration.  If I run out of land to settle, I can always build ridiculous numbers of Formers and raise land to merely explore!  Gotta run into someone sometime, or vice versa.  I haven't built a single serious defensive unit yet because I only have synth armor and no Trance capability yet.  Only got aliens to worry about so far and they haven't been so much.  Only got 1 ship to get 1 scout at a time off my island, and not so many islands to explore, so I'm a bit exploration bottlenecked at present.  I imagine some synths will get made as my cities become either unhappy or choked by lack of food.  Then I'll fill out the island with colonists etc., forming my perfect radius from my capitol.  I actually don't have to do sea bases if I really don't want to, I could just raise land indefinitely to expand outwards.

[bvanevery]

The turn after I wrote the above, Deirdre called her election.  However she elected Lal as the Governor.  I did indeed have her beat on votes, even with her having 2x.  Rounds of negotiations ensued.  Cha Dawn and Lal struck Truces, although neither likes me at all.  Deirdre summarily declared war on me.  Santiago wanted me to help fight a war against H'minee and I refused, not having spoken to her yet.  When I did, she declared war on me, so I went back to Santiago and we made a Pact.  I never got the comm frequency for Marr from anyone and he hasn't shown up in my territory.

Santiago is just east of me.  H'minee is just east of Santiago.  I started on a land bridge to them.  At the present time, I'm getting close to Santiago's home island, but H'minee is interfering with a ship.  I've sent my own ships, but I seem to get shot up worse than she does.  I'm not putting a lot of effort into it.

Deirdre has been working on The Planetary Energy Grid for the longest time and still hasn't completed it.  I eventually got Industrial Automation and began working on The Planetary Transit System.  I think I discovered 3 more Artifacts and uncharacteristically, I didn't hold onto them.  I cashed them and didn't worry about trying to steal from anyone.  This got me High Energy Chemistry fairly early on, so I knew I didn't have anything to worry about from the Caretakers.  I also got Polymorphic Software and, much later, Doctrine:Initiative.  From my own research I got Intellectual Integrity, so now I suddenly need to build 3 SPs all at once.  Adding to the stress, H'minee is approaching on a transport with a probe team.  I don't have full coverage of all my cities, so I've scrambled to shift the ones I've got.

Deirdre landed on the northwest side of my island with a trance infantry and a Battle Ogre.  Fortunately she tried to be sneaky landing in fungus, but I had built a Sensor Array.  Even more fortunately, she continues to try to sneak around in the fungus, giving me time to build Impact Rovers to repel her.  Otherwise I could have had some difficulty, as for some lame reason that was the one and only city with 3 scouts in it.  I've since amended that situation.

My development has been more or less radial from my capitol, although the 2nd tier of my circle is not complete.  The founding of new cities ended when I got Industrial Automation because I was capable of going much more vertical.  I was starting to build a bunch of Research Hospitals when Deirdre interrupted me.  Once I repel her, it will be a bunch of Supply Crawlers instead.

I've retained my Build focus.  Who knows, maybe I'll research Adaptive Economics and finally cough up The Planetary Energy Grid.  I have no idea where Deirdre is, as Santiago hasn't managed to obtain a map of her lands.  I have not been concerned with exploring, other than fishing supply pods in my immediate waters, and linking nearby land masses.  Deirdre might be nearby or she might be far away.  When only 2 units land, it's difficult to tell.  It's a PITA to push skimship probe teams across the board in any event, I've never enjoyed spending the mouseclicks on it, which is why I was looser about Artifacts this game than I usually am.

Once I build The Maritime Control Center, it will be much more practical to explore and steal.  I haven't even bothered to infiltrate the Spartans or the Caretakers, and they are my near neighbors.

It's 5 AM and I wonder a bit at how games begin.  Seemed like a good start, then a bunch of fiddling for quite awhile with not much happening.  Then suddenly I'm dumped with 3 SPs and 2 interlopers all at once.  Sort of when it rains it pours.  Life is likely to interrupt me quite a bit over the next few days as I'll be traveling onwards soon.  I wonder if this game will manage to hold my attention.

I'm expecting more combat, and my pod fishing was causing a fair number of Isles to come inbound anyways.  Didn't seem like a good time to go for Wealth.  On the presumption that I may be fighting the Caretakers for some time, and possibly also getting into it with Deirdre, I loaned Santiago quite a bit of money.  Hopefully I get Advanced Military Algorithms someday and recoup my investment over the next 100 years.  I think it's ok for Santiago to become my puppet because she's human.  She's also not super close to my capitol, so taking her cities isn't a logical course of expansion.  More like some votes for me someday.  She's the only human I have a chance of getting along with.  Everyone else pretty much has to hate me.

[bvanevery]

My travel plans changed abruptly and I think I will have more time for this game.

Deirdre completed The Planetary Energy Grid.  I completed The Planetary Datalinks, The Maritime Control Center, The Planetary Transit System, and The Citizen's Defense Force.  The latter was to block Deirdre and H'minee.  I've stopped popping Artifacts because I'd like to get more techs from the Datalinks first.  I think I've got 3 I could pop.

I've got Destroyer Probe Teams starting to move towards targets.  First priority will be infiltration, as I probably won't be Governor soon.  Lal has barely more votes than myself, and more factions that like him than I do.

I still don't know where Deirdre is.  She has little harassing ships with probe teams appearing all sorts of places.  Also a few impact rovers.  I've got probe team defenses so I'm not particularly worried about theft.  However it does keep me from going for Knowledge as I don't want probe team vulnerabilities.  H'minee is also landing a couple units here and there.

I've got a lot of cash and am starting to build a bunch of Biology Labs.  I still haven't added new cities.  Still building up the old ones.

[bvanevery]

I stole some stuff, reached Tech Parity, then popped all my Artifacts and got ahead of everyone.  For instance I've got Chaos guns.  I stole Doctrine:Air Power from Marr.  It has taken awhile, but I'm finally starting on an aerial eradication campaign of the Caretakers, using Spartan bases to attack from.  Santiago is my ally again.  I didn't want to pursue Knowledge while I was stealing things, and I don't really need tons better research at the expense of probe teams + pissing Santiago off.  I'm still waiting for someone to get Advanced Military Algorithms.  It may not be me, because I'm still sticking with my Build focus.  I stole the tech for The Ascetic Virtues from Deirdre and quickly built it.  I researched the tech for The Xenoempathy Dome just before I was going to steal it from Deirdre anyways, and then built it.  Deirdre is way too exposed with sea bases all over the place, easily reached by my Destroyer Probe Teams, so she's never going to get any SPs anymore.

I have not built or taken over any new cities.  Most of my cities have Research Hospitals now.  They all have Tree Farms.  My core cities arond Mt. Planet have Hybrid Forests, and I'm starting those in other cities now.  I've built a wave of Chaos Cruisers which are starting to go on patrol now.  They will probably be used to liquidate Caretaker sea bases.  I don't want to take over new bases, as they are all too far away and won't give me any wealth.  Once the Caretakers are wiped out I'll go after the Usurpers.  I haven't thought much about getting all the way to Deirdre to take The Planetary Energy Grid, but I don't consider that a priority at present.

My land bridge towards the Caretakers is pretty much stalled.  Ships kept coming that way and troops kept landing.  To preserve the niceness of my water movement, I've needed to put Formers on transports for quite some time, to build a bridge from an island to my mainland.  It's just been too dangerous to do it.  Now with my Chaos Cruisers coming, that may soon change.  But by the time I get it done it may not matter, the Caretakers may already be dead from my air campaign against them.

I'm thinking about another quite roundabout land bridge to the Gaians, but it will be quite long, and can't be useful until I have mag tubes.  Still, I could research mag tubes any time now, as Superstring Theory is one of the prereqs and I've got that.  I've got Trance Cruisers in the water trying to fish pods in a few places, and carry scouts to islands with pods in others.

I am of course the most powerful faction in the game by a healthy margin.  I do not have the votes to elect myself Governor though.  I guess that would be another reason to send Marines after Deirdre.  If I were to get Fusion Power that would probably give me more incentive, but I expect that to be some time yet.

[bvanevery]

4:30 AM rolls around, and I find I'm not interested in the game anymore.  So I'm quitting.

I was building mag tubes at the end.  It was taking a long time to bring X forces to the few remaining Caretaker land bases.  I ran out of ability to destroy their cities quite awhile ago, because I'd bombed everything within range of the Spartans.  I was unwilling to make a new base to continue the bombing from, so I just didn't make progress for awhile.  I sailed my 1st wave of ships as far as I could to destroy Caretaker sea bases, but they wore out and Deirdre eventually cut them down.  My 2nd wave was Fusion powered and they finished the job.

I also took a handful of Deirdre's cities ringing The Monsoon Jungle.  I tried building Punishment Spheres there instead of the usual civilizing measures, as I thought they might be too far away to be terribly efficient about finances.  After that I had all these ships and I was like, what am I going to do with them?  Logically I would send them after the Usurpers, but I think at that point I started to groan with the tedium of it all.  2 games ago I got sick of pushing fleets around as well.

Perhaps a more efficient faction with stronger research is the way to go?  I spend an awful lot of time waiting on techs.  I did sufficient exploration and popped a good number of Artifacts too.  I built Fusion Labs in all my core cities, although I guess I didn't give them time to produce results when I quit.  I had just gotten Orbital Spaceflight.

I think waiting to "bring X planes over" is a flaw in my thinking.  I could invade land bases the same way I invade sea bases.  Forget the X, just kill them with Chaos weapons, walk in, and Obliterate them after they fall to population 1.  I could have gotten rid of the Caretakers sooner that way I think.  Well, try try again.