Cha Dawn braves the unknown

[bvanevery]

My last game sucked.  As the University I got bottled up by both Aliens and was ultimately dispatched by one of Marr's probe teams.  Even though I had prudently researched all needed conquer techs to steamroll him.  I simply never had the productivity to make good on it, and failure to come up with my own probe teams proved my undoing.  So this game, I have a lot to think about as far as fighting Aliens at close quarters at the beginning of the game.

Huge map, average settings, Transcend, random factions including myself.  I draw Cha Dawn.  I start on pretty good land with a bunch of pods around.  I don't settle immediately because I notice a pod on the coast.  If it turns into a profitable resource, I wouldn't have been able to use it from my initial position.  In fact it would have been a "miss", no city would have gotten to use it.  Delaying my capitol turned out to be a smart call as I popped a mineral.  I also cloned my scout, so my 2 garrison units aren't costing me anything.  I built 4 Formers, leaving exploration to the mindworms.

The radar looked like I might be on an island, although it wasn't easy to tell.  Out of caution, and lacking a brain for what the heck else to do right now anyways, I opted for Explore only focus.  It's been awhile since I've played either Cha Dawn or the Gaians, so I'm not sure what the best way to proceed is.  I do remember that relying overly much on mindworms for one's army, does not actually build an effective army.  It takes a long time and one doesn't end up with all that many units.  They can also end up far away from where they're needed.  Whereas, colonizing a "core" empire with sufficient cities is always a safe strategy no matter what the faction.

To the west, I set off an earthquake.  This may have caused land masses to touch that were otherwise separate.  I will never know for sure.  The presence of a Monolith that I didn't pop, is sinister.  The Usurpers are in this game, and not the Caretakers.  Am I about to get a rematch with them?  On the graph the Usurpers are very strong, and all the human factions are weak, like myself.

[bvanevery]

Dingy dang, that's the Monsoon Jungle!  And it is surely occupied by whoever popped that Monolith.  I must try very hard not to make any political contact.  I may be able to settle this corner of the Jungle innocently, before anyone can protest that I took over their land.  That's a lot of land and fungus to get through though.  I do have Doctrine:Mobility though, so Doctrine:Flexibility may be just around the corner.

[bvanevery]

I meet some Spartans.  We trade lasers for formers and sign a Treaty.  Now I can make some Recon Rovers.  I am doubting that they are the occupants of the Jungle.  They claimed ignorance of Marr's, Zhakarov's, and Roze's comm frequencies.

I've got 2 Artifacts now.  One is in my capitol already.

[bvanevery]

I think I just answered the question of who's next door to me.  It's as I feared.  They must have walked over all the fungus to the west, while I was busy defeating mindworms with my own to the south.  Small possibility that they came by sea, but an overland journey is a more likely explanation for the wounds.  Well I hope he doesn't start shooting immediately, and I'll try to stall him with Scouts until my mindworms arrive.  Better a wounded Ogre than a full strength one!

[bvanevery]

He didn't speak immediately, but chose to move his Ogre 1 square away.  Next turn he moved to some fungus I presume.  And then he decided to speak.  Without potential for interruption or gainsay, this is all he had to say:

Details marrimminent

marrimminent

Ok.  Guerrilla war it is then.  At least he gave me a little bit of time to get my mindworms closer to home.  My spore launcher has begun shelling him, although I don't know if it does any good.  I've rushed an untrained Recon Rover that only needed 2 turns to finish, so I don't think his Ogre should be able to harm my bases.

My tech outlook is not good.  14 years until the next breakthrough, and I don't have ships yet.  That's with pursuing Explore since Turn 0.  This is a forced situation, I've not been given any choice here.  I can't control earthquakes, I can't control getting Marr sitting on top of the Jungle next to me.  I guess I can talk to Santiago and see if she has anything to trade.

Well indeed she did: Doctrine:Flexibility for Social Psych!  Now I'm switching to Discover focus.  I've already got Biogenetics and Secrets of the Human Brain.  I'm not making the same mistake I made last game, having no probe teams.  With ships I also stand a chance of contacting other factions for trade, although who knows how far away they are.

[bvanevery]

I have a mindworm and a recon rover ready to strike the Ogre next turn.  This incident will resolve in my favor shortly.  I find that spore launcher shelling does also scratch the Ogre a little.

Probe teams in 11 years, with luck.

[bvanevery]

The Jungle may be empty.  Marr may have just taken a very long walk with the Battle Ogre from somewhere else.  Or maybe he did come on a slow Transport.  I've left my strong mindworms and spore launcher behind a line of fungus, forming a natural border.  I have a weak mindworm scouting back and forth.  I cloned my Recon Rover while I was at it, so the free one is heading back to base.

Unfortunately I researched Ethical Calculus.  I traded it to Santiago for Information Networks.  She hasn't claimed any knowledge of other factions, despite my best prodding.  I'm too busy colonizing to worry about putting ships to sea right now.  Next tech in 18 years.

[bvanevery]

The Monsoon Jungle looks unoccupied, but it seems to have been cleared of pods, perhaps by Marr's Ogre.  If he walked through this, it could be part of a vast landmass.  Or he could have landed on a slow Transport with the Ogre and walked it.

While waiting for tech, I decided to talk to Santiago again.  She didn't have any but agreed on a Pact.

[bvanevery]

Not completely cleared of pods after all.  Perhaps Marr came from the north, made a more or less straight line south, then turned east.  That would explain the sinister Monolith I found.  How he managed to elude me on my own lands with my mindworms running about, remains a mystery to me.

Lacking a credible threat, I started using the larval mindworm as a scout.  The rest I've kept back as a defensive line.  The larva ran into another larva and killed it.  Then it healed at the Monolith to become pre-boil.  I will still scout with that, as it's the weakest mindworm I have.  Now it also has a screen of scouts to more or less accompany it.  I replaced all my garrisons with Hardened Trance Scouts.  That won't help against Marr, but it will against mindworms.

I've begun The Human Genome Project in a "food and forests" city.  The Usurpers and the Drones have been working on The Weather Paradigm.

[bvanevery]

Santiago seems to have verified that the Jungle is all mine.  Provided nobody interlopes before I actually colonize it.  I figure Marr arrived by transport, but where from is a mystery.

Santiago got me in touch with Roze.  Santiago was sporting Planetary Networks at the time, which had me a bit concerned about Roze being unwilling to trade it again.  But sure enough, she was in the giveaway mood, and I got it for something dumb.  From Roze, I got Chairman Yang's frequency.  Who was also in a giveaway mood and traded me Doctrine:Loyalty for something done.  So I've clearly got some priorities now: build build build!

Yang wanted me to fight Roze, but I refused.  He swore a Pact with me anyways.  Yang has the USS Unity crash site in his territory, so now I know where Domai and Zhakarov are.  They are the 2 bright dots on the minimap.  Domai is at the left side of the map southwest of me.  Domai is at the bottom of the map, south-by-southeast of me.

What to research now?  I wasn't expecting to get probe teams this quickly.  Well, how about Explore?  I don't need to be Green, but I might want to make my own mindworms.  Now that I know the immediate threat is not coming from the land, I should get some ships in the water and try to capture some Isles of the Deep.

[bvanevery]

Zhakarov shows up.  We traded something and signed a treaty.  He sold me Domai's frequency.  We signed a treaty.  I could hold an election now but I couldn't win it.  Roze and Domai both have more votes, and it would be between them.  I have 2 allies but if they aren't voting for me, it doesn't help me.

So, I am only at war with Marr.  Nobody knows where he is yet.

I've decided to spread the comm frequencies around, to see if any map data comes back to my allies, to tell me where Marr is.  Yang didn't like that I wouldn't go to war with Roze.  To shut him up about that, I asked him to stop fighting Roze.  They signed a Treaty.  I'm sure that can't last but it'll buy me blessed silence for now.  Perhaps I should have made a move on that before, instead of waiting for Yang's attitude to shift to Noncommittal.  Either of them could actually be a long term ally, I have flexible choices that way.  But I can't have both.  Right now, Roze is more powerful than Yang on the graph, but not by much.  Nobody is terribly powerful, not even Marr.  He's almost even with me, and I'm Unsurpassed.  I'm just barely ahead of everyone else though.

Ah hell, let's see what Marr says!  He says he wants 75 credits.  Screw you Marr.

Santiago did pick up a map of Free Drone and University territory.  That's useful, but Marr is nowhere to be seen.

I talked to Yang again.  He didn't ask to buy a comm, but his attitude is now Solicitous, which is good.

Talked to Santiago yet again.  Sold her Zhakarov's frequency.

Talked to Roze again.  Sold her Zhakarov's frequency.

Talked to Yang again.  He didn't want anything.

Talked to Santiago again.  She didn't have anything further to report.

Talked to Domai again.  He's still Ambivalent and whining about wanting my tech.  I think that's it then.  I've learned all there is to know.

With some of the cash I made, I rushed a couple of Recycling Tanks.  I need to colonize!

[bvanevery]

Next turn someone called an election.  We elected Domai.  He's my southern neighbor and Ambivalent towards me.  I'm not happy about that, but Yang voted for him, and I agree that Roze should be kept weak.  If only so that I can choose which of those two I wish to ally with long term.  Also if Domai gets too strong, it's easier for me to invade him.  Roze is pretty far away.

Domai and I each have 7 cities.  However mine are in a tighter grouping than his.

The weird thing about Domai is he doesn't have to be a natural enemy.  He cannot go Green, but as a human, I'm not bound by what my faction does when it's an AI.  My exclusion is Wealth and there's actually no faction in the game that requires people to be Wealthy to be happy with them.  Someday down the road, I'll need to choose between Santiago liking Power and Zhakarov liking Knowledge.  Just realized, nobody in this game cares what my Economics are.  Only my Politics and Values.  Domai will care about a Future Society someday if he lives that long.

Oh, well I guess Marr cares about my economics.  But he already declared war so I don't care what he thinks.  My economics are that Alien skins are good for holding water, and mindworms will eat anything in the pits.

[bvanevery]

I complete The Human Genome Project using 2 Artifacts and cash.  Roze, surprisingly, trades me Industrial Base for Polymorphic Software.  Well maybe it's about to be finished by someone.  I sell Zhakarov Marr's comm frequency.  Hey, knock yourself out!  Maybe we can find this weirdo.  Is he in that ocean spot west of my lands, with the edge of a city showing?  Or is that something Domai settled?  I guess I'll find out eventually.  Is he in this big dark mass in the middle?  There's definitely some major islands in there at least.

My allies Santiago and Yang aren't very happy with me anymore.  Roze loves me.  Must be the comm sex.  You know, Cultists have a way with pink worms.

[bvanevery]

Zhakarov did obtain a map from Marr.  Yep, he's holed up in that spot just west of my lands.  That explains where the Ogre came from.  Just landed on my shores on a slow transport and walked roughly east to west, popping pods as it went.  Nearly dead by the time it got to me.

Santiago traded me Nonlinear Mathematics for Polymorphic Software.  I have little to fear from Marr, but I shall get some skimship probe teams in the water to steal his armor.

[bvanevery]

A new election is called.  We pick my ally Santiago.  Domai tried to bribe me, but I'd rather have her than Domai.

Some SPs got built.  I'm working on The Citizen's Defense Force, which I don't think anyone else has yet.  It'll be awhile though.

I have 9 bases and got a Bureaucracy warning.  I don't really have road capacity so am going more vertical for now.  I'm building a number of skimship probe teams and they are starting to deploy.  One got completed fast by a pod.