Does Miriam suck?

[bvanevery]

The Caretaker ship meets me in open water.  We sign a Truce.  Wisely, she won't sign a Treaty.  To be honest I don't need anything from the Caretakers.  The last item of interest was a map, and Domai sold me that for 50 credits.  I'm leading her ship with mine though, just in case she decides to make a surprise attack.

[bvanevery]

The Caretakers knock off the isolated Spartan base that's in the way of their march to Morgan.  All 3 are at war with each other.  Morgan has gigantic piles of defensive units, and walls, so straight assault isn't going to get anyone anywhere.  I think they'd be vulnerable to having their minerals pillaged though.

Morgan blocked 1 of my probe teams from access using a garrison unit.  The other team, I made a mistake moving onto a Jungle square.  I didn't realize it was rocky, and it stopped my movement.  So that team will be dead.

[bvanevery]

I outmaneuver Morgan, sending an Elite unit over that very same rocky terrain that tripped me up before.  I steal Advanced Subatomic Theory.  I now have tech parity with everyone in the game, assuming that Domai and Lal have nothing further.  I have no reason to expect they would have anything.

I research Doctrine:Initiative.  Next turn I will begin it.

I could pop all my Artifacts now.  I just got yet another one, that I can get home fairly soon, so why not?  Thinking about this for a moment... Morgan is Fundamentalist, so he's not likely to provide me any further research.  At least, not at speeds worth waiting for.  Ok, sure, let's pop.  What do I get?  Well I've got 5 SPs to build now.

It'll take me 2 more turns, but I'm switching to Democratic Planned Wealth.

This turn I am merely Democratic.  Let's see what Lal has to say about that.  Oops, we're in sunspots.  He's not saying anything.

I don't think we've ever held an election.  Morgan currently has 76 votes to my 58, but I will be catching up.  Lal still has 72 votes, so he must have some sea holdings that haven't been crushed by the Caretakers.

[bvanevery]

Who's the Builder now??

I'm surprised to see Domai working on The Planetary Datalinks.  I guess that's the problem with sunspots, you lose your awareness of what's going on.  Glad I decided to take a screenshot or I wouldn't have known.  I'll need to prioritize that one to block him.  I'm about to infiltrate his datalinks, so hopefully I'll be able to see what progress he's making.

[bvanevery]

Domai is building it at Free Drone Central.  His production rate isn't a serious threat, but I don't know if he's using crawlers.  Our Industry rates are actually equal.  He's Democratic Free Market Knowledge with a +2 Industry faction advantage.  I'm Democratic Planned Wealth, giving me +2 Industry as well.

He has a 1008 credit reserve, plenty to finish the project if he had any brains.  But my experience is the AI doesn't have any brains about cash reserves and SPs. 

I've got an Elite probe team crawling around his coast, jumping on and off a Transport, so that I can get map data without pissing him off.

[bvanevery]

Yet another Artifact discovered.

[bvanevery]

Domai's rate of progress has noticeably increased.  He is using supply crawlers.  He's got 1 more in the city itself to use.  I'm still slightly ahead of him, but he's getting too close for comfort.

[bvanevery]

Domai is rushing The Planetary Datalinks.  His readout is now 0 turns to completion.  I don't get any warning about this because of the sunspots.  When I started the turn, I was just barely short of enough credits to complete the project myself.  However I popped some pods and killed a few mindworms, giving me enough.  I also probably could have disbanded a 1-2t-1 unit to make up the difference, as I was very close.  Ok, I have rushed mine as well.  I've saved the game, because to be honest if he wins, I'm going to save scum this until I win.  I'm never quite sure what the rules are for who wins a photo finish.

I've also got an Elite probe team sitting on that Transport, which I could use to sabotage his project.  Just sayin'.

In other news, the Caretakers take a Morganite city in the north of the Jungle.  I'm surprised at that.  The Spartans were accosting that city earlier but it seemed to be holding.  Perhaps someone got aggressive with probe teams.

[bvanevery]

Chew on it deliciously, Domai!

My scout rovers got beat up something fierce by some mindworms.  I do have some survivors, and they made a noble contribution to finishing The Planetary Datalinks.

My Artifact is in the water heading to port.  I only have 1 unlinked node left.  I'm going to have to make some more cities, so that the next Artifacts I get will have somewhere to plug in.  I find that to be a strange driver of growth, but then, I was awfully isolated this game.  Lots of exploring to do.

[bvanevery]

My Artifact gave me Doctrine:Air Power.  By itself, not useful or important, as nobody's come to my home territory.  However it's a prereq for MMI, which has 2 very useful SPs.  I'm determined to get The Xenoempathy Dome, but after that I will switch to Conquer focus.

I have finally realized the ultimate strategic reality of this game.  The Caretakers were adjacent to most of the other factions by land.  I was not.  So, this entire game, the AIs have been waging wasteful Fundamentalist campaigns trying to beat each other up over land.  In the Caretakers' case it is finally actually working.  Of course they have taken so long to do it, that I have surpassed them in graph strength.  I am made to wonder what a world that has only the 2 of us sitting in it will look like.

I suppose strictly speaking Domai is not down for the count, as he got an island start as well.  A much better land mass than my own actually, that I think he may have made poor use  of.  I wonder if he got as much fungus at the start as I did?  At any rate I have done massively better than him.  Apples to apples, a human Believer kicks the snot out of an AI Drone.

I am working on a land bridge to the western continent.  I've been implicitly trying to do that for a long time, but various resources have sprung up and gotten in the way.  The final connection, if indeed no more resources get in the way, is rather accidental.

In general my starting island is quite a bit bigger than it used to be.  Rather than spending time with sea formers and water improvements, I've raised as much land as possible around cities, without disturbing any water resources or closing passages of movement.  So I've got really fat primo forests now.  I've got 4 cities at size 14 and The Ascetic Virtues completes in 5 turns.

I have linked all of my Network Nodes.  I will need to make some new cities somewhere.  Where, is going to depend on what this land bridge finally works out to be.

I am realizing that I don't get to choose Knowledge and my research is as good as it's going to get.  Well, I could go Free Market, but I won't.  Too many units out exploring, and once I get The Ascetic Virtues I'll have +1 Police.  I'd rather use 2 units in my bases as police, than get the extra money and exploration restrictions.

[bvanevery]

Morgan has liberated his northern city, and seized what used to be a Spartan city before the Caretakers took it, using probe teams.  I guess it works but it's murder on the populations.  Changing back and forth between human and Alien hands, denuding is a strong possibility.  Well I'm happy if they hold each other in check.  The Caretakers have got much more of a road network leading down here than they did once upon a time, but there's a gap before the front line.  Probably got shelled or pillaged.

[bvanevery]

So sue me.  What a loon!  Doesn't he know about my Unsurpassed rating and Missile Needlejet?  I was just scouting his shore with my probe team to see what his land looked like.  The temerity to demand money from me.  Well it'll make acquiring a map a lot easier.

I'm realizing, if I knock off Free Drone Central, I get The Weather Paradigm.  Domai's empire is not part of the whole Caretaker force movement dynamic, so there's nothing stopping me from doing that.

I tried to talk to Lal when the sunspots ended.  He still wants to execute me.  He's got The Citizen's Defense Force and The Command Nexus, which aren't critical to me at this point.  Taking them would cause me to tango with the Caretakers and I don't wish to.

The Caretakers have The Merchant Exchange and The Empath Guild at Decision:Manifold.  The latter would be useful, but it's not worth war right now.  We've actually never had an election and the factions haven't all met each other.  If I could win the election I'd call one, but presently I cannot.

The Morganites merely have The Planetary Transit System, which isn't terribly advantageous.  I've actually got all the best long term SPs in the game, except The Weather Paradigm.

[bvanevery]

I have completed all my SPs.  I have also bridged to the western continent.  I have discovered Yet Another Artifact at the extreme northwest of that continent.  It will take some time to get it home but I've got fast cruisers now.  I need to build another city and a Network Node as I have nowhere to cash the Artifact.

[bvanevery]

An unwitting earthquake connects me to the Caretaker land mass.  Well, they still have to go through Lal to get to me, not to mention a lot of empty wilderness.  I guess it gives me an invasion option once I get rails.

[bvanevery]

Yet Another Alien Artifact, so now I need to make 2 cities.  I've got a sea colony pod en route to a destination now.