Passive Aggressive Tactics - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.46

[bvanevery]

Details smothered

smothered

MY 2263.  I have completely encased Chainlink Break.  Will it starve to death?  I don't actually want that, but this was the only way to make progress with the land, given my new base location.  If they do starve, then this will have been an awfully slow, not exactly cost effective way to destroy a base.  On the positive side, them starving doesn't count as an atrocity on my part.

[bvanevery]

Details go Sparta!

go Sparta!

MY 2265.  I had a feeling that if I linked the city by rail, it would fall back into Spartan hands.

Details touching the fungus

touching the fungus

I have just barely brought the Manifold Nexus into my territory.  It became dodgy because of the Cyborgs suddenly settling nearer to it.  It is not secured.  I need to get another Colonist up there to make it safe from encroachment.

[bvanevery]

Details it finally occurs

it finally occurs

MY 2266.  Perhaps getting this close to the Manifold Nexus and her capitol, finally triggered her to act.  Well I'm not sure what a passive aggressive style of warfare is going to be against her.  I will make sure to secure the Manifold Nexus though.  Oh, and the Virtual World.  Gotta gets me some Virtual World!  That means conquering Alpha Prime.

Details offensive offensive

offensive offensive

On my eastern front, I summarily vaporize a large number of Cyborg troops.  They really weren't well positioned for their surprise.  +4 PLANET makes for awfully powerful mindworm attacks.

Details zipping up the line

zipping up the line

On my western front, I lose a Super Former to one of Aki's sexy new Fusion Gatling Needlejets.  I ignore the planes and drive a rail as rapidly as possible towards Alpha Prime.  With luck, the AI will be too confused and out of position to attack my railhead units.  The planes might land at Chi Plains, in which case I will shell them mercilessly and destroy them with mindworms.

Details hunting for tech

hunting for tech

I was unable to steal B5 Bio-Engineering.  One of Roze's bases was guarded by a Foil Probe Defense.  The other had already been stolen from.  I'm hoping that bases to the east will be easier pickings.

[bvanevery]

Details yeah that's pretty much mine now

yeah that's pretty much mine now

MY 2267.  Rails are powerful.  I brought most of my mindworms back from the east, all the way to the west, and blew through the defenders easily.  I don't take the base immediately, as once I do, I'll be seeking a Truce.  Instead I build a bypass rail around the city, connecting to the rest of the Cyborg rail network.  I want to ride the rails, destroy Formers and Sensor Arrays, and discharge every single Infantry Probe Team I've got!

Details long sea trip

long sea trip

One of my Destroyer Probe Teams finally makes it to an undefended Datatech sea base.  I switch my capitol to the Longevity Vaccine, and I have enough money to rush it.

Details a big city

a big city

I don't need to steal money, so I just concentrate on sabotage.  I encountered a Foil Probe Defense that was landlocked.  Surprisingly, I only lost 1 Disciplined Probe Team weakening it, and then killed it with a 2nd.  I'm using up my worst probe teams first.

Details after many probes

after many probes

That took all of my Disciplined probe teams.  I gave them a Drone Riot for good measure.  I still have 7 unused teams, but I don't want to attack Pi Complex with them.  It contains the Planetary Transit System and if Aki won't sign a Truce, I want it next.  The rails don't allow me to get to much of anywhere else that matters.  It's not that good of a network.  Nowhere near as spiffy and conquery as mine!

Details you the total weenie

you the total weenie

Was it worth it, that surprise attack of yours?  At least I finally got a diplomatic relation out of you.  And the Virtual World!   

Now that I've got the Manifold Nexus secured, it occurs to me that I don't have to keep torturing Domai.  Is he ready to be treated to a lower grade of passive aggressiveness?  Nope, he won't even talk to me.  Will he talk if I sail a probe ship up to him?  Nope!  Stubborn cuss.

[bvanevery]

Details not mathematician

not mathematician

MY 2268.  He wants to talk now.  About nothing!

[bvanevery]

Details she wants more of a beating

she wants more of a beating

MY 2271.  Androids can't relax.  You heard it here first.

Details harder target

harder target

I build a bypass rail around Pi Complex, mainly to take out a Sensor Array, but also so I can do my usual probe team trashing thing.  The city itself, I want to take intact.  Unfortunately the base has some kind of security on it, and my chance for doing a focused sabotage of the Perimeter Defense is 0%.  I will have to take it with mindworm brute force.

Details stool softening

stool softening

The bypass rail allows for the interesting tactic of attacking from the wrong side of town.  The Spore Launchers are all uniquely placed on fungal patches, so will be ok defense once the city is taken.  I do a mild amount of artillery damage to the defenders.  Even little nibbles like this can be helpful when you only have a marginal combat advantage though.  It can be the difference between a dead mindworm, and a barely alive but victorious mindworm.

Details don't leave fungus next to cities

don't leave fungus next to cities

It turns out this is going to be a complete cakewalk.  I'm noticing that the defender doesn't get a Perimeter Defense bonus against the mindworm.  That is seriously overpowered.  I'll need to have a word with the binary hackers about that.  Won't help my mod, but it should be made to help somebody.  I'm saving a game just in case there's any kind of forensic question about this.

Details field cover

field cover

I totally sabotage the city to the north.  I have a few more probe teams, so I start clearing out obstructions on the road to the west.  In the course of that I build a rail, and I run out of mindworms.  So I bring up my 1st Fusion unit to wipe out a mere Former.  After that my probe teams trash the city, wiping out half its facilities, many of them exceedingly expensive.  What a waste! but war is hell.

Details civilian casualties

civilian casualties

Losing her city doesn't take the fight out of her, so I execute the colonists.  I use a Green Synth Garrison on one of them as a training exercise.  Then I realize I'm finally out of garrison units.  I find a Scout I hadn't noticed before, which I would have rather used to kill a Former when I still had probe teams.  I have to overkill with the Unity Mining Drill because it's all I've got left.  I have 1 unused Particle Impactor this year, otherwise everything got fired off!

[bvanevery]

Details counteroffensive

counteroffensive

MY 2272.  Aki moves against me in the east with enough force to actually cause me harm.  If I allowed all those units to attack my base next year, they would in fact take it.  Actually it's a bit of stupidity on their part that they didn't take it this year, but maybe they only just jumped onto my rail network.  They will definitely pay for their mistake.

Details mindworm junction

mindworm junction

Almost all of my mindworms are sitting on the fungal patch next to Pi Complex.  I can't build a road on it, as my Super Hovertank Former prototype won't be done until next year.  I haven't completed the Xenoempathy Dome either, because I keep having to compete with Aki and Roze to complete Secret Projects.  Case in point, Aki just started the Network Backbone and I need to steal the tech for that.  I can't put a road or rail on my mindworm's square, but I can put a fungal patch next to their square.  This would create a "mindworm interchange" that gets them back on my rail network.  They'd lose 1/3 movement, but the rail is complete all the way to their targets, so that doesn't matter.  If I build this interchange, I can make a total bloodbath out of those Cyborg units in the east.

Technically, I do not even have to build anything, as long as my rail touches my target.  I can move 1 square north onto the river, 1 square southeast along the river to get on the rail, ride the entire length of the rail if I want, and kill something.  Rails are powerful!  I will kill as much stuff as I can, before actually committing to building anything.

Details interior access

interior access

I don't think the Cyborgs had any techs to steal last year, but strictly speaking, I didn't check.  They definitely only alerted me to new tech this year by starting the Network Backbone.  Which I will now start as well, and surely finish before them.  What can they do?  Any remaining big city they've got, will soon have no facilities in it at all.  They will be a husk of an empire.

Details quite destructive

quite destructive

The Cyborgs have put 2 oddly Elite units next to my city, so I send an oddly Demonic mindworm to kill one of them.  As usual, the odds calculator lies and it's actually a total cakewalk.  The armored Speeder unit, I send an old Particle Impactor after it, because if I do well with a mindworm it's just going to disengage anyways.  That will put it on a stack of units that will all get wiped out with successive splash damage.  The Particle Impactor dies because it was a Fission vs. Fusion matchup, but the Speeder takes 40% wounds.  The Spartans just donated some armored Particle Impactors so I use one of those next.  As expected, it takes 70% wounds and disengages to a square with another unit on it.  When the mindworms come, it'll die in the stack, or be awfully close to it.

Details all aboard!

all aboard!

I finally make a fungal interchange to the east, just to get 1 mindworm back into the action.  It takes the effort of 3 Super Formers to do the planting.

Details repulsed

repulsed

The battle isn't even a contest, it's a rout.  I've been making some untrained Gatling Interceptors just in case someone tries something with planes.  They prove very useful for covering my units.

[bvanevery]

Details rock carving

rock carving

MY 2273.  I deploy my 1st Clean Hover Former.  It's much quieter this year, so I don't need to do any heroics with mindworms and fungi.  I carve a road into rocky terrain, in anticipation of building a Mine there.  I've done this sort of procedure on most Rocky terrain squares in my empire, but previously it would cost a unit a lost turn to do it.  Generally now I'm shifting to a mix of AAA garrison units and Hover Formers.  I have Gatling Interceptors heading towards Domai's territory to stop his sea bombardments and occasional Impact Rovers.  My population grows, and if I make enough Hover Formers, perhaps I can really interfere with everyone.  I don't think I basically need any new tech.

[bvanevery]

Details shootout

shootout

MY 2276.  I think Miriam or Roze gave Domai the planes.  He doesn't have any in production, and his bases are kind of feeble.  I've been moving Interceptors in this direction, and I manage to kill one of the planes.  Mostly I'm retreating my Formers from the region, but the work around my own bases is pretty much done anyways.

I'm having trouble containing Domai.  His rate of expansion, exceeds my rate of land working.  Nor can I seem to make a Truce with much of anybody.  It's difficult to be passive aggressive when everyone's just aggressive.  It's not my style to buy people off, and I need my money for Hab Complexes and Secret Projects anyways.  Usually I shut people up by taking their bases, but I've taken everything I actually want to take.  I'm a bit baffled and just fumbling forwards right now.  Maybe as I get bigger and have more and more productivity due to pop booming, I'll think of something.

Details block up

block up

I've resumed the push to take control of the University's waterways.  I haven't seen planes, but there are lots of ships.  Recently Miriam sunk my Transport that was bringing back an Artifact.  That stung.  I'm taking the precaution of using AAA defense units to cover my Super Formers.  I don't feel like losing any more of them.  I really have quite the skeleton empire if anyone had any brains about making an assault.  On the other hand, I think I've done so much damage to the Cyborgs that they won't be troubling me for awhile.  It's Roze that's kinda sad, her not knowing how to take the battle from her continent to mine.

[bvanevery]

Details berm

berm

MY 2281.  I can now raise 2 squares per year.  Raising land in my mod is 2x as expensive as in the original game.  I've sealed this ocean channel, and will build a city on the point of control next year, giving only myself access.  My merely Disciplined 3-Pulse AAA units have proven effective against University Gatling Needlejets.  They can survive 1 hit, and the University hasn't had more than that to offer.  I don't fear them at all.  They may try to send ground troops, which I'm sure will be just as easily destroyed by my mindworms as the Cyborg troops are.

My main problem is a fair amount of shelling, by both the Believers and the Free Drones.  I haven't bothered to make enough artillery to fend them off.  The truth is I still don't have all my cities garrisoned with modern AAA troops.  I did just learn Silksteel Armor and those will start to deploy next year.  I was trying to get to Missile chassis technology but I haven't been given that choice of direction for some reason.  Thus my dreams of bombardment with Fungal Missiles will have to wait yet longer.

Currently, this game feels less like passive aggressive, and more like pacification.  Maybe that is an inevitable stage.  The Free Drones and the Believers are both more spammy than I may be able to control for awhile.

[bvanevery]

Details cash surplus

cash surplus

MY 2285.  Finally I have the money to rush the Network Backbone.  I think next year I'll go Cybernetic and see if I can make peace with the Cyborgs.  My cities are mostly not in Golden Ages anymore, so Eudaimonic isn't particularly helpful now.  I did trigger massive empire growth that way though.  I had to spend massively to get that.  My garrisoning is also almost done.  I'm starting to make clean artillery pieces to repel the ships on my shores.  I probably need more Interceptors as a few too many planes are flying around.  I've never invested in Aerospace Complexes at all.  I have 1 that I took from the Cyborgs.

[bvanevery]

Details upgrades r us

upgrades r us

MY 2285.  I've been working on the Xenoempathy Dome since forever.  I switch it to the Nano Factory because it's a cheaper project, and begin building the Dome elsewhere.  I've gotten along fine without it, seeing as how I have very little war.

Details fiddling the factions

fiddling the factions

Cybernetic doesn't actually make me any more money.  It's mainly a political move.  It will also allow me to choose something other than Wealth to maintain my money.  The Cyborgs aren't talking though.  Even sending a probe team up to them, doesn't get their attention.  I switch my budget to 40-30-30 as I do not have the GROWTH for pop booming anymore.

[bvanevery]

Details closed campus

closed campus

MY 2286.  I encase Oceanographic Lab in land.  This is only the 2nd city I've trapped in this manner, the 1st one being the Free Drones eons ago.  This style of attack is a bit effort intensive, compared to all my other terraforming concerns.  Perhaps I am reinventing the game of Go inside of SMAC!

Details worker power

worker power

I switch to Socialist.  I don't lose any money doing that, because +3 ECONOMY for some reason wasn't any more valuable for me than +2.  My PLANET rating isn't as impressive as it was, but I don't think it matters.  It's still +2 which is better than most.  If I had the Manifold Harmonics I'd want it to be +3, but that's not going to be available for quite awhile.  Domai still won't talk to me.

[bvanevery]

Details before land rise

before land rise

MY 2287.  Most of my kelp and tidal harness squares were made eons ago, before the oceans were dangerous.  Any undeveloped ocean squares, I'm just raising into land.  I think that's easier than bothering to make defensive ships.  Someday my armor will be strong enough for that, but I'm deliberately doing slow research, and armor is not my priority.

Details plant the forest over the ship

plant the forest over the ship

Land raising can be used to kill an enemy ship.  This even works when you're at peace, provided that you have the right to raise the land there.  So it's a legit passive aggressive strategy during peacetime!  Of course we're at war, so it's merely another way to kill.

Details I have a lot of hover formers

I have a lot of hover formers

With the Weather Paradigm, it takes me 8 Super Formers to raise land.  Otherwise it would take 12.  I could have raised land just to the southeast, on the causeway, to improve the base.  But this way I kill an enemy ship while I'm at it. and the hydration of the land will be better.  Prevailing winds are west to east, so it's best to have water just west of your land.  If you put too much land west of you, you risk drying it all out.  That's not a problem if you intend to have forests as they don't care, but it can ruin farmland.  I have 3 Condensers around the Garland Crater, because of previous dryout problems, so maybe that area is immune now.

Details begin westward encasement

begin westward encasement

I'm going to mostly starve Marine Biology Lab to death.  Maybe I'll make some crazy water channel all along the University's northern coast, capping it with my own access city.

[bvanevery]

Well, I'm calling it quits on this one.  I was really bored with the game yesterday and merely somehow managed to find a way to plod along again for a little bit.  Today in the early A.M. I released version 1.47 of my mod.  A big part of the reason I do AARs is to showcase the current version of my mod, and now 1.46 isn't current anymore.  Sure there's not much difference but to me it's a perception / advertizing thing.  Meanwhile I came up with an actual version 1.47, which honestly this month I wasn't expecting.  Since that got posted to r/4Xgaming, I've done my advertizing for the month. I don't need an AAR.

This game isn't exhibiting good tactics.  Surrounding cities, has turned out to be a form of sandboxing.

Is it interesting to see happen anyways?  I'm not convinced it is.  It might be a little interesting to me as I play the game, but I'm not convinced it's making an interesting writeup.  Perhaps if I had a focused montage or animation sequence of a specific city getting surrounded, it would be interesting.  Something where the flow of events leading to encapsulation can be readily seen, instead of just having the event scattered throughout a long narrative.

I've also found the amount of open war in this game, disruptive.  This may be primarily because I'm an Alien.  Most of the tactics I wanted to show, and had in mind, only make sense during a Truce or Treaty.  If it's open war, there's not a lot of point to doing something other than conquering.  It would be a lot easier to demonstrate how to conquer quickly and massively, than what I've done here.  I mean, Domai?  Obviously I could have made him my thrall.