Does Miriam suck?

[bvanevery]

Comments and questions about the strategies I'm using in this game, are expected and encouraged.  Please make them in this thread.  As my AARs become longer and longer, I think that's the only way to keep this readable.  Don't worry about "interrupting".  I guarantee I can reestablish the flow with a massive wall of text and 5 screenshots if need be.

I want to play a builder game where I make a lot of SPs, preferrably most of them.  I don't want to play a tech cripped, production cripped faction.  That's what happened with Santiago last game, relative to 3 other strong research factions.  I said if I got Santiago on the random draw, I'd reroll.  I'd also reroll Aki Zeta-5 because I've done so many games with her recently and I know how she works.

Would I object to the Believers?  She's tech crippled, but not production crippled because she has piles of support.  That's who I drew.  Is that enough to make a viable builder empire?  It may depend on who else is in the game and who my neighbors are.  I've played an isolated builder-oriented Miriam before, and did pretty decently for a time.  But IIRC, then I came in contact by land to a Santiago sitting on the Monsoon Jungle.  All I could do at that point was fight fight fight, the whole builder SP thing went down the toilet.  Other factions of course did all the SPs, being far away, unimpeded, and able to get the tech to get the projects started.  No way I could steal from them because they were too far away.  And even if I could, I was at war with Santiago and couldn't afford much in the way of SPs.

So there are things that Miriam definitely can't handle.  Experience has shown that her faction power of kick butt Probe Teams, is undermined by the vast distances of a Huge map.  Only luck would overcome it, like starting next to the University for instance.

What are the other factions in this game?  I'm checking that up front and center.  The Caretakers, the Morganites, the Peacekeepers, the Spartans, the Cultists, and the Drones.  Many of those can be serious threats.  The one faction I'd like to be farthest away from me, the one I'd wish to win the "unrestricted lottery", would be the Cultists.  They never make good use of it, they are a stagnating faction.  Might have to do with their -1 Industry penalty.  Ok well, let's see how things actually are on the map.

Things look flat.  I'm probably on an island, but it might be a good sized one.  If I'm on an island, then someone is going to be unrestricted in their ability to expand.  How do I deal with that?  I'm not likely to be able to research SPs and finish things quicker than other factions.  Domai is in the game and represents a lower bound on how long anyone can wait.  Once he gets something, it gets built.

I could build The Weather Paradigm and land bridge to other factions.  However in the past when I've done this, either deliberately or accidentally with an earthquake, it can have really bad consequences if one has a violent neighbor.  One gets into a war, without a moat, and is stuck with it.  So that means I also want to explore off my island, before deciding whether to bridge it.  This is sounding like an Explore, Discover focus, because I'm probably going to want Fundamentalism and probe teams too.

The land I was given is bad.  I can hope that the pods will be good, or that some kind of good land feature is nearby.  I move a colonist onto the adjacent pod, knowing that mindworms can't harm me on turn 0.  Also if it becomes a nutrient I can put my capitol there.  I'm not going to put my capitol where I've landed, 1 square inland.

Oh good God, that's unusual, and really sucks.  I don't ever remember getting to start on a Xenofungal Bloom before.  Well I sure hope I'm next to the Monsoon Jungle or something because otherwise, this might be a pretty short writeup.  I'm not settling anywhere near this mess, and I have to leave my Scout in place so that I can extract my colonist from the center of the fungus.

That land looks so dry to the north, that it could be the USS Unity crash site.

Next turn my pod pops a Monolith.  That dry land still looks Unity-like, but it's uncertain.  I move the fungal colonist to where the Scout is, and the Scout to the river.  It will go south to pop that pod.

[bvanevery]

No exciting crash site, just crappy land.  I might have to put my capitol on the river, in reach of the Monolith.  Then find where some real land is.  This is not looking like a good start.

[bvanevery]

I pop a nutrient on Rolling terrain.  I have some difficult choices to make about that.

I could found my capitol in reach of both the Monolith and the nutrient.  However a newly minted city will only make use of one of them, which means half of my starting resources are wasted.

Also when a city gets to size 2, it is better to have minerals as the 2nd tile, not food.  That way a colonist can be made quickly.  Going to size 3 requires keeping people happy, otherwise it's just wasted.  Now, I do start the game with Social Psych, so I have options that other factions don't have in that regard.  I could rush a Rec Commons, and thereby be working with an early size 3 capitol instead of size 2.  However my experience is that building infrastructure way too early, is a good way to thwart one's colonial growth.  I don't know that the extra food makes up for taking longer to grow to size 3.

Finally, as city sites go, this is a bad patch of fungus to be next to.  I'm under pressure to get something done as I'm a few turns behind already, but considering my other options is in order.

I could risk the river gauntlet and pop that pod with my colonist this turn.  If I don't stir up a mindworm doing so.  Not a terribly safe move, but being this far behind, gambling in order to catch up might be advised.

I could colonize the river square not in reach of the nutrient, and just use the Monolith.  Then my northern pod keeps walking, probably westwards.  This still leaves me with a capitol next to fungus, but it'll be easier to snip that fungus.

I could abandon the river area entirely by moving west onto the rock.  My northern colonist could move 1 square west and settle the capitol there next turn, in reach of the Monolith.

The better land is generally on the southwest side of a land mass.  Going east is probably more dry stuff.  Since I have 2 plans above that call for the northern colonist to go west, I will do so now, and see what kind of land is available.

Well I'm somewhat glad I did that.  Obviously not a good place for a capitol, in sight of water yet inland.  With 2 lovely fungal patches for seaborne mindworms to bother me as well.

I will move 1 square up river to reveal more land, move 1 square back to my original location, and found my capitol where I am.  That at least puts me entirely inland.  The Scout will go to the river and pop the pod in 2 turns.

Notice that because of this completely crap start, my 2nd colonist is going to take a long time before it gets to anywhere useful.  That fungal bloom definitely hurt.

[bvanevery]

I bring my independent Scout home because it doesn't require support, so is better to keep.  I use my more expendable supported Scout to make it easy for him to move onto the fungus.  When I head down river, I pop a 2nd Monolith.  This feels like The Lord of the Rings!  I've got the Two Towers.  This provides a lot more motivation to make a Rec Commons.  I've been switching to that just before popping a pod, hoping to get a completion, and then switching back when I don't get it.

[bvanevery]

Wow I just can't catch a break with this 2nd colonist.  So much for the "southwest coast" theory, this island seems to be completely dry.  Is this whole world dry?  I chose Average settings for everything, but that can still have variations.  If someone is sitting on the Monsoon Jungle while the rest of us are struggling like this, that faction is going to kick our butts.

I find myself totally unwilling to ruin my nice Capitol setup by cramping it with a 2nd city in range of these Monoliths.  That's a short vs. long term choice, and I may pay the price.  This colonist is going to have a lot more walking ahead of it.  Pretty much has to backtrack all the way to the east, unless the Scout finds something worth it to the south.

[bvanevery]

The Scout reveals nothing tempting.  It is 4 squares from the Colonist to the Scout, if I move along the river and risk mindworms.  4 squares also puts me 1 square east of the northern Monolith.  That's a sure chance of acceptable settlement somewhere, out there, and the southern way is not.  So I will begrudgingly head back the way I came.  I learned about that sort of thing driving around in real life cities and forests.  Sometimes you've gotta turn around and go back the way you came, not throwing good time after bad.

Either route requires moving 1 square east onto the river, so I do that for now.  The Scout has 1 more turn to find a miracle.

[bvanevery]

No miracles.  I pop an Artifact.  I seriously doubt I need to escort it back to base.  In fact I've chosen Explore only focus because I surely need to get off this dry rock.  I said I wasn't going to play a "tiny island" start, so I reserve the right to terminate this game early if things aren't working out.  What does the power graph say?  Umm, it doesn't.  Is that a No Contact thing?

[bvanevery]

Doesn't look like I missed much, going the other way.

[bvanevery]

I think I have been walking around for so long, that I may not have immunity to mindworm attacks anymore.  Consequently, I was not willing to use the colonist to pop the pod.  The radar looked like there could be a land bridge to the north, but what I immediately see is fungus and water.  I will go south 1 square and settle.

I didn't pop the pod sitting on the fungus because my Artifact was nearby.  I wanted to put some distance between it and any possible mindworms.  Artifact in transit is not the time to be stirring things up.

I am currently supporting 3 scouts, plus I have my independent scout in my base.  I do not think I need any more scouts coming from this base.  I have started working on a Rec Commons because the land around my base completely sucks.

[bvanevery]

You've gotta be #@@#ing me.

Still no power graph.  I hope other factions are doing as badly as I am.

[bvanevery]

Well thanks for the little things.  Did this game confuse me for the Cultists?  I suppose I'll need to put a colony there, so I'm rushing my Rec Commons to get started on a colonist.

My productivity at the 2nd base is also piss poor, a factor I didn't consider but that could be expected.  8 turns until it produces its 2nd scout!  I'm going to rush it.  I could wait until my northern scout shows up, but that's a delay of 3 turns.  What if I pop something valuable like a nutrient or minerals that I could be exploiting?  Ummm well the point is moot, after rushing my Rec Commons I don't have enough cash.  Waiting it is then.

I think that's the name of this game.  Hurry up and wait.  In the fungus.

[bvanevery]

This is a weird game.  Look how fat and happy those northeastern colonists are going to be.  Clearly they didn't do Lent.

1 year until I finally get a tech.

I've been waiting to kill that stalk with scouts, but now I'm realizing that I may need to put scouts in 2 new cities.  If I don't get Formers next turn, I have a problem.  I'd like to believe that an Explore-only focus yields Formers as the 1st thing.

Finally got a graph.  The game didn't confuse me for the Cultists.  They're the only faction more pathetic than I am.

[bvanevery]

Seriously?  I can't kill a friggin' mindworm I stir up in the fungus, when I've got a 25% attack bonus?  Well this game has been so stupid in every other respect, why not this?

[bvanevery]

I put my scout on the rocky Monolith, thinking that was good defensive terrain.  Look, near dead mindworms are not supposed to be able to do that.  I am in disbelief.  Does being near a fungal stalk strengthen their attack ability?  I'm going to have to turn the colonist around and head up north.

My scout is now Unbelievable.  I'm going to use that pun again and again.

I'm realizing that thing is going to heal on the Monolith, then attack New Jerusalem.  I need to double the guard.  I halted my Former and took a small minerals hit making it a scout.  I don't like it but if I wait, it could move a lot faster than I anticipate and really mess me up.

Or it could go for The Lord's Truth.  If I couldn't kill it before, why will I be able to kill it now?  So I'm doubling the guard there too.  Which is even more minerals lost, changing the Former production to scout.

A few turns later, it attacked New Jerusalem fairly harmlessly.  Sure I get some defensive advantage for the city, but why did I get totally killed before?  Is the Monolith actually a huge psi defense liability?

[bvanevery]

Weirdly, I got Biogenetics before I got Doctrine:Mobility.  I get another tech in 8 years.  I built Recycling Tanks in my bases.  2 bases also have Rec Commons, the northern one is working on it.

I have 11 units supported and am working on a Command Center.  I am thinking that if my scouts were trained, then I wouldn't have to fear mindworms so much.  That means fewer supported military units instead of having my cities "doubly guarded" like they are now.  More support available for Formers, to get rid of all this horrible fungus.  Also I need to take that fungal stalk down with something.

Domai started The Weather Paradigm this turn.   I feel obliged to start it as well.  He has +2 Industry.  I hope I have better minerals, and I have an Artifact.  I wanted my capitol to be my Command Center city, but given the threat from Domai, this is the only city that could conceivably win the race.  I don't like making the Command Center on my coast, as I will probably get Doctrine:Flexibility soon and would rather launch ships from there.  But I need trained scouts, and at least it is close to the fungal stalk I need to take down.  Maybe by the time I get Doctrine:Flexibility, my northern city will have better productivity.

I really think by this point by rights I should have at least 6 cities.  I've been cut in half.