The Tlaxcalan Hegemony - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.46

[bvanevery]

Details isolation breeds weakness

isolation breeds weakness

MY 2291.  The Free Drones lose a city that was surrounded by enemies.  Granted, it's only the Data Angels liberating what was once theirs.  But it's a reminder that if I want "divide and conquer" relations to stay permanent, I have to completely surround cities.  Now that I have a Treaty with the Data Angels, they shouldn't be able to attack Free Drone Central.  However my allies the Gaians attack it all the time. 

Details political opportunity

political opportunity

Now with this, and all the pop booming I've undergone, I should be able to wrest the Governorship away from Miriam.  Then I can Reinstate the U.N. Charter, as casual atrocities are of no help to my Pax Tlaxcalan agenda at all.  I want factions to make peace and make me money though trade, not suffer permanent war and grievances with each other.  I've seen Miriam working on some kind of X unit, but I haven't really seen anyone else doing so.  She doesn't even have any land adjacency to anyone.  I never did get the land bridge completed, due to the ongoing Truces with her and Aki Zeta5.  And nowadays, it seems like keeping Miriam "off the continent" is a better idea than not.  At least, I should probably settle the Cyborgs' hash first.  They owe me a Treaty.

Details and I thought everything was keen

and I thought everything was keen

Deidre gave me a large number of offensive military units this year, divesting herself of far-flung adventures.  I've already got 1 offensive unit per city, so I'll need to be careful about distributing these and minding my POLICE rating.  I ran into her in the field while trying to re-home them appropriately.  She wanted me to resume the war with Domai.  Of course I'm not going to do that, I've spent a lot of time pacifying him.  Before I could ask her to beg off, she cancelled our Pact!  Well gee, she's showing a lot of trust that I won't just use all these donated units on her.  Considering that she just split my empire in half, it's a real inconvenience.  Can't exactly go after the Cyborgs or Believers up north, with Deidre's peaceful lands in the way.

[bvanevery]

Details unwanted Cyborgs

unwanted Cyborgs

MY 2292.  It occurs to me that I could solve my "travel corridor" problem by establishing more bases.  I can certainly cut the Gaians in half, instead of vice versa.  However I've lacked a supply of unhappy colonists.  Far to the north, the answer has presented itself.  All the usual amenities and a Tree Farm haven't been enough to placate this crowd.  So rather than build a Hab Complex and an expensive Hybrid Forest, which will hardly make me any money anyways up there, let's pack 'em off to greener pastures!

Details how Miriam sees it

how Miriam sees it

It occurs to me that in my mod, the Cyborgs and the Believers are natural enemies.  The Believers want Theocratic and cannot choose Cybernetic.  The Cyborgs want Cybernetic and cannot choose Theocratic.  Why are they allied?  It shouldn't take much to get them to fight.  On the diplomatic screen, you can actually inspect what other factions think about each other.  I rarely remember to do this, and it's not the greatest UI compared to other games I've seen.  But this screen seems to say, the Cyborgs know that Miriam is Seething at them.

Details how Aki Zeta-5 sees it

how Aki Zeta-5 sees it

The feeling is not mutual.  This screen says the Believers know that Aki Zeta-5 is Noncommittal towards them.  This is probably because Miriam's personality is Aggressive and Aki's is merely Erratic.

Details where to bridge

where to bridge

I need to get these 2 love birds in land contact with each other!  Sparks will probably fly.  Unfortunately I'm not seeing any way to do that that isn't a treaty violation.  Mind controlling a base is also a treaty violation, which brings the other ally into the scuffle.

Perhaps when I make my corridor through Gaian territory, I'll gain enough influence over the land, that I can make my bridge.  That Cultist Speeder is sitting on the place where I originally intended to bridge, as the Believers don't control the water at that point.  However the Gaians control the land just south of it, so it didn't work.  If I controlled that land by exerting influence from far away, then I could do my bridging project and get out of the way.

[bvanevery]

Details chatty Cyborg

chatty Cyborg

MY 2293.  I've been moving my Scouts around to escort a bunch of Cyborg troops off my property.  They've almost left, but suddenly this turn, Aki Zeta-5 wants to have a chin wag.  How well is this going to go?  Actually not that badly.  She begs, she admonishes, but she doesn't threaten.  She doesn't sell me a tech.  I get her to leave Domai alone, which will make my pacification of the region a bit easier.  Then she signs off.  And now I see why she was gabbing at me: our Truce has expired.

Details get off my rail T !

get off my rail T !

Deirdre is impeding my Colonist.  I want to settle my city south of Song of Planet, securing my hold over that branch of my rail lines.  More to come afterwards as more citizens up north become unhappy.  I could use a probe team to slip past interfering Cultists and go all the way through Domai's territory, to bring my Colonist up from the other direction.

Details crowded conquests

crowded conquests

Unfortunately, Domai is obstructing my rail link to the south.  I need to build an alternate route.

Details coastal connector

coastal connector

Mischief managed!

Details open sesame

open sesame

The corridor is opening.  I just need more unhappy colonists.

[bvanevery]

Details I love talking to people

I love talking to people

MY 2295.  I think the Believers and Gaians are fighting again.  I run into a Believer probe team in my backyard.  How much of a joy is this going to be?  Yeah, a Seething Theocrat, wonderful.  She declares war.  Well if only I had a clear corridor and enough Formers to make the land bridge in 1 turn.  I had that capability once upon a time, but I conquered so much other stuff, and got so many Formers killed putting them into battle zones, that I'm relatively lean on the whole thing right now.  At least I don't have the Cyborgs declaring war on me at the same time, which is what would have happened if I had done this.

[bvanevery]

Details northward ho!

northward ho!

MY 2297.  My capitol maxed its size, providing me with another Colonist.  With respect to the Gaians, I now have full control of my rail line.  Of course there are these wide corridors for the Believers to come down, and I wouldn't want to get in the way of them fighting the Gaians.  The Cyborgs are a wildcard as they could declare war on me at any moment.  I'm not sure how soon I'll get to do a land bridge with so many units milling around.  Also, my Formers are all busy.  I generally don't build Mines until I've got Hybrid Forests and my cities get large.  Now it's time.

[bvanevery]

Details here we go with robohead

here we go with robohead

MY 2298.  For once I'd just like to ignore these people.  But that usually starts a war, and there's a chance in talking, that it won't happen.  So I accept the hail.  She wants Invictus back.  Of course I tell her to suck it, so she declares war.  She kills a Fungicidal Former, big deal.  She's not gonna like the retaliation.

Details Miriam's mischief

Miriam's mischief

The Believers sign a Treaty with the Gaians, and tear up some of my rail lines to her.  Both acts are irritating.

Details make way for the minions

make way for the minions

My citizens are about to become happier!  Time to pop boom.

Details what I'd like you to expect

what I'd like you to expect

I'd like Cha Dawn to not be in my way anymore, seeing as how we have the same Future Society.  I see that he's at war with Domai, so I go to talk to him about it.  However, I can't ask him to knock it off with Cha Dawn, because Cha Dawn actually has no diplomatic status with me and is not my "friend".  I do manage to get him to stop fighting the Gaians, which might reduce some of the foot traffic.  Mostly though he's fighting the Data Angels and he says I've got to go talk to them.  He signs off.  When I go to talk to Cha Dawn, I get nowhere.  And after the conversation, I still have no diplomatic relation.  I think this means I'm in a Catch-22 that I can't resolve!

Details flake

flake

I don't want to push piles of military units through Domai's territory.  It's godawful tedious.  That said, I could make a continuous line of units if I really had to, instead of escorting stuff one unit at a time.  Still it is better to swallow my wounded pride and get Deirdre on board again.  I don't know why she jilted me in the 1st place.  I'm as Green as all get!  Miriam is our mutual enemy, so this is not a hard decision.  She's allied with Roze so I'll go talk to her now.

Details diplomatic progress

diplomatic progress

I get her to stop bothering the Drones.  I really don't need all these units tromping around on my land.  Since we have the same enemies right now, and the same common ally, I propose an Alliance.

Details hey lady I'm noble you suck

hey lady I'm noble you suck

She pretends she didn't surprise attack me.  Well, I don't need her compliance or help.  Just stop stirring the pot in my backyard.

Details give me stuff

give me stuff

Last year I killed a defending Believer probe foil with my probe cruiser.  An Isle kept it safe from counterattack, and this year I steal some military hardware.  I won't take a Believer base until I've built a land bridge, so my Isle just leaves.

Details your invasion derailed

your invasion derailed

Reasserting control over my rail network is trivial.  Previously I upgraded all those Fission units Deidre gave me to proper Missile Fusion units.  The Cyborgs had a little bit of armor that could stand up to them, but it was nothing an opening mindworm hit couldn't fix.

Details getting with the future

getting with the future

I need a lot of AAA units to cover these offensive moves.  I finally upgrade all the old Clean but feeble armored units to something a bit tougher and more disposable.  This is the end of the line for this weapon series because with Photon armor, a Laser isn't free anymore.  These will become my "battlefield impediments", and I'll make a new round of Photon units to garrison cities with.  I throw the Disciplined units out into the field, as I don't think anyone's in range to hit me on the ground.  The AAA will be good enough for air attacks.  It will at least make it expensive for them, even if they do succeed.

Details gimmie more tech

gimmie more tech

The nearest Cyborg city has already been stolen from, so I have to send my hovertank probe team farther into enemy territory.  The Xenoempathy Dome makes that quite doable.  I gain D8 Sentient Econometrics, the last tech anyone had that I didn't know.  The Cyborgs have had it for quite awhile and surprisingly, in all this time they have not completed the Self-Aware Colony.  I can't rush it because I've had way too many things to spend money on.  And if I were going to rush something, I'm not done with the Empath Guild yet.  I won't bother to pop my 7 Artifacts until those 2 Secret Projects are completed.  That said, Miriam is readying a Conventional Missile prototype, so I'll have to watch out for her wiping out my cities with Artifacts in them.

Details baby candy

baby candy

I send some mindworms to trash the Cyborg city.  The combat is easy, even though the odds calculator said they would win.  It's bugged like that, with mindworms.  I'm not sure anything can stop my mindworms.  I've not bothered to make anymore because Deidre gave me so many offensive weapons.  It really wasn't smart for the Cyborgs to pick a fight with me.  My conquest gets their attention and they call a Truce.  I get them to stop messing with the Data Angels.  Still can't butt in about the Cultists because of my lack of diplomatic relation with them.  That's a weird circumstance.

Details bwok bwok bowk

bwok bwok bowk

I decide to place my Colonist conservatively, back from the Believers' coastline.  I considered asserting myself up there, but this leaves room for the Believers and Cyborgs to go fight each other.  This will probably be my last new city for awhile as it's time to make everyone grow.

Details just budgeting

just budgeting

My JUSTICE rating is higher than I thought, but I can't have any budget I want without penalty.  Switching to 30-40-30 does not trigger any pop booming.  I may need to get to +4 JUSTICE and budget much more drastic happiness.  Picking either Socialist or Knowledge seems to lose me 100 credits / year.  Socialist might Domai up, and will frost Deirdre.  It also reduces my mindworm oomph, so it's not ideal.  You might notice that I'm allowed to pick it, unlike the stock game where a Planned economy is forbidden to Morgan.  This is because it isn't that great a choice.  It's not any crazier than Morgan going Green, so why not allow it?  Anyways I'm not there yet.  I consider Knowledge but it'll put my POLICE rating at -5.  I have very few units in enemy territory right now, but I might as well pull them all back before bothering with this.  Status quo maintained for now.  I need money to complete my Secret Projects, and I haven't built Hab Domes yet anyways.

And so ends a whirlwind turn of action.  I don't have any more Formers to move around, so that's it for now.

[bvanevery]

Details waffle iron

waffle iron

MY 2299.  Miriam decides that she was stupid.  Everyone agrees that she was stupid.  Everyone!

Details the benificent man

the benificent man

I pull all my military units back to my home territory.  The Believers don't have anything to kill on the ground anyways.  That will have to wait until my Formers are finally ready to make a land bridge.  Right now they're too busy making Mines.  And there won't be any more of them for awhile, as I'm working on Hab Domes.  With my units at home, a -5 POLICE rating is of no consequence.  I am now quite just, I can do any budget I want.  My troops will also fight better.

Hm, it seems I completely forgot to hit the OK button on this change.  So next year, I'm still doing Wealth.  The money's good and nobody's particularly upset, so I stick with it.  Justice can wait!

[bvanevery]

Details think your happy thoughts

think your happy thoughts

MY 2302.  I finally complete the Empath Guild.  The Cyborgs simultaneously complete the Self-Aware Colony.  It's not easy getting every Secret Project done in my mod.  I could have done it if I'd wanted to divert my happiness and Hab Dome projects, but the Self-Aware Colony actually ruins POLICE rating in some cases.  It doesn't account for Non-Lethal Methods.  I keep thinking that one of these days, I'm going to conquer the Cyborgs and take all their Secret Projects, but I never get around to it.  I'm like a big mushroom that only grows in one spot.

Details stuffing the ballot box

stuffing the ballot box

I tell everyone I'm in charge now.  Note that if I didn't have 2x votes, they would have barely beaten me.

[bvanevery]

Details kiss this face

kiss this face

Look at those puckered lips, smoochy smoochy.  This guy's so ugly he crashed my browser trying to upload him.  Who says I want to be talking to his dozen units milling around??  I can totally see the engame of this Tlaxcalan idea as complete genocide, when you finally get sick of all their BS.  It's an expensive way to conquer, and getting the empire to the point where the vanquished are not irritating takes some serious doing.  I'd cough up a bunch of clean border guards but now I've got a Space Elevator to build.

Details stack of ridiculous

stack of ridiculous

He declares war.  Because he's as stupid as he looks.  I begin summarily crushing him, starting with his silly people in the field.  How did he think it was a good idea to put a giant pile of unarmored units next to my border, and then declare war?  AI doesn't know what the rules of the game are.  I swear one of these days I'll write a game with better AI.  On my 2nd attack, 8 units die at once.  Taking a city doesn't settle him down though.

Details shortcut to ugliness

shortcut to ugliness

Roze has got quite a number of units on my land, getting in the way of me moving my stuff around.  We've got a Treaty, so there's no basic reason I should be putting up with this.  Recently I noticed that the Commlink menu entries can be right-clicked on, and that a "Demand Withdrawl" option is available.  I try it out, and it works about as well as I expected!  So, how shall I cut Roze off further?

Details blocking the rail

blocking the rail

Taking this city, is about as irritating as I can be to her.  It also happens to be the most vulnerable.    I don't have any "victim" cities attached by rail, and no Formers free to make attachments, so this is strictly a Speeder / Hovertank operation.  After conquest, Roze still wants to fight.

Details jungle seal

jungle seal

I'm almost out of offensive units.  I take Domai's last coastal base in the Monsoon Jungle to hopefully get his attention.  It works, he begs off.  I've now got my own continuous corridor through the region.  Domai will still jam it up anyways though, as he wouldn't sign a Treaty.  Plus if Roze is any indication, Treaties won't make the AI behave itself.  But hey, at least Domai has to think harder before using my land as his travel corridor.

Details spitballing

spitballing

I have some ancient boats near my capitol, that I used to bring my last 2 hovertanks against 2 Disciplined Silksteel defenders.  The Elite one barely survives.  Lacking Marines or any more Speeders, I use an Elite Scout to take the base.  An AAA unit covers the nearly dead hovertank.  This conquest continues the policy of taking every other Data Angel city, creating the maximum hassle for them.  It's enough to get Roze to sign a Truce, but not a Treaty.  Whatever.  She didn't act like she had a Treaty with me anyways.

[bvanevery]

Details reputation for treachery

reputation for treachery

MY 2304.  I can't find a UI readout for another faction's Reputation rating.  Roze's can't be good.  She's stabbed me twice now.  Her "big win" this time was killing a hovertank former.  I am running out of cities to "honeycomb" her with, and may soon have to start reducing her to a few enclaves / ghettos.  For now I will go through the motions though.

Details checkerboard

checkerboard

I continue my irritating pattern of taking every other city.  Roze now only has 2 cities that aren't landlocked, and they are on an inland sea.  She's not going anywhere and I suppose I could let her stay at war with me if I want.  I don't actually, but I've got other priorities than coughing up enough units to completely suppress her.  She signs a Truce again, but I have no reason to believe it will hold.

Details not contained

not contained

The Believers have learned C7 Probability Mechanics, so I set out to steal it.  They have conveniently left me a new, weak sea base to do that at.  They can make Planet Busters now, and I see 1 city that's working on one.  However it'll take 26 turns to complete a prototype.  Letting an Aggressive faction complete one is problematic though, because they do tend to use them.  Now with luck, they just nuke the Gaians.  But even that can be suboptimal, if they nuke the city with the Ascetic Virtues in it.

[bvanevery]

Details probably cheating

probably cheating

MY 2305.  The annoying Believers are patrolling the waters.  They sunk my cruiser probe team.  I send out my own ship and sink their foil for spite.  My capitol is historically where I put my Covert Ops Center, but it's been way too busy to make another ship.  I do have 6 other Covert Ops Centers in various Data Angel cities I've conquered, but they're typically busy as well.  It's not really that important to me as there's a huge jump in expense from Missile to Chaos weapons in my mod.  Missiles are the last viable weapons for a Fission reactor.  To afford Chaos, you need to have figured out Fusion reactors.  Even then, Missiles are a much better deal if you don't need the pinnacle of firepower.

Details fill out

fill out

I've got another Colonist.  I'm reluctant to put it anywhere near the Believers or the Cyborgs, because the distance from my capitol makes the cities hard to keep happy.  With my current society I will keep having these unhappy citizens out west, even building expensive facilities like Hybrid Forests.  I think it's time to try some different choices.  I still have some units in foreign lands though, so I'll take this up again next year.

[bvanevery]

Details common knowledge

common knowledge

MY 2306.  It seems I won't need to make a probe ship after all.  Saved by the Datalinks.  I wonder who researched it other than the Cyborgs and the Believers?  And if I've got it, the Data Angels now have it too.  Maybe I should build Flechette Defense Systems everywhere, as various factions will have their Conventional Missile prototypes done soon.  It's probably also about time to cash my Artifacts, as I think I have tech parity with everyone.

Details death from above

death from above

I have new tools for conquering distant enemies.  I'm also now at a crossroads where strictly speaking, this game is a sandbox.  If I wanted to win quickly, I'd build lots of Sky Hydroponics Labs, grow my population quickly, and vote myself Supreme Leader.  But I embarked upon this After Action Report with a specific premise.  My enemies are certainly not surrounded and made helpless yet!

Details defund the POLICE

defund the POLICE

I finally make the switch to Knowledge.  The money hit isn't that bad.  Not having lousy MORALE will also help the new corps of Drop Missile Interceptors I'm cooking up.  With orbital insertion these are extremely useful for blowing enemy planes out of the sky, wherever it's needed.  Attacking right after a drop has a penalty, but the Air Superiority bonus is so overwhelming that I doubt it'll matter.  My few remaining Gatling Needlejets are making people miserable so I disband them.  I was sorry to lose the one historic specimen of a Fission Laser Needlejet as well.  I couldn't upgrade any of those to be Interceptors.

I find that even a 70% PSYCH budget will not get people to celebrate.  20-70-10 is the maximum I'm willing to do, so short of micromanaging Specialists, I guess I'm not pop booming.  I switch back to 40-30-30.

Details so you want more money

so you want more money

I start cashing Artifacts.  Another terribly Morganic thing to do would be to amass the money necessary for Economic Victory.  That's a lot of dough though, 78.5k credits with my current ECONOMY rating.  Doable with Orbital Power Transmitters and the Space Elevator, but I've gotta go make some vacuoles!

I start on the Neural Amplifier, the Nethack Terminus, the Cyborg Factory, and the Cloning Vats.  I also learn Phasers, Nanohospitals and Paradise Gardens.  So much for Flechettes, I think I need some supply crawlers!

[bvanevery]

Details don't fear the mindworm

don't fear the mindworm

Details it won't be terminal

it won't be terminal

MY 2309.  I complete 2 Secret Projects simultaneously.  I've also started the Pholus Mutagen and the Manifold Harmonics.  I've stopped making so many Supply Crawlers though, in favor of Paradise Gardens.  These projects are all extremely expensive and I don't want to get too fixated on them.  I've also begun a Tectonic Missile prototype, which would finally solve my Believer land bridging problem that I never get around to.  I could finally put the Believers and the Cyborgs right at each other's throats.

[bvanevery]

Details air superiority

air superiority

MY 2310.  Miriam lobs her first Conventional Missile at the distant sea base I took from her, killing an Isle.  One remains.  My Formers have also finally attracted a substantial contingent of Needlejets.  I won the air battles but my planes are pretty beat up.  I do have a few of the Drop Interceptors but I didn't make many because suddenly I had all these Secret Projects to complete.  I'm not sure how much more terraforming I can push north.

Details good hunting

good hunting

The odds for drop combat are interesting.  Orbital Insertion and Air-to-Air cancel each other out, as predicted.  But I did not expect my Missile Launcher to be shooting against "No Armor".  I thought it was supposed to be weapon-to-weapon combat.  If the plane had had armor, would it defend better against an Air Superiority attack?  A mystery.  For now, I'm killing the thing!

Watching an air-to-air battle the next turn, I see that weapon values are used between Air Superiority units.  This still leaves the question of an Air Superiority unit attacking a plain Needlejet with no such ability.  Would armor help its defense?

[bvanevery]

Details bow to my borg

bow to my borg

MY 2311.  If I ever get around to making new military units, they will be tougher.

This game is feeling most unnatural.  Of course in a regular game I would have forced the surrender or destruction of the Data Angels, Free Drones, and Cult of Planet long ago.  Possibly the Gaians as well.  In the late game I nevertheless find myself following traditional imperatives, rather than the vacuole strategy.  There's just too much stuff I'm not willing to cede to the enemy.  Once I've got the Cloning Vats, if my population rises high enough, I'm just going to declare myself the winner.  I don't think I can justify sandboxing.