AAR 3: Lal must suffer!

[Green1]

The march through sunny mesa wilderness area continues. Guerilla operations outside Courage : To Question is dealt a blow as a recon rover hits it, leaving only a scout patrol and the spore launcher.

Then, all of the sudden city borders of Marr 1 pops up. He wants a treaty. dealing with him is like dealing with some angry bull, but we purchase Doctrine: Flexibility from him for 100 energy. We do go ahead and sign the treaty... for now.

Oh yeah, and the mystery of if two of the same prog factions are selected if they are still always at war has been solved. Even if there are say, two Usurpers, they are ALWAYS at war!

[Green1]

Doctrine Initiative is out!

Marr 2, hearing the sound of the pain train coming in the distance asks for truce for a tech, but Lal is not interested. Aliens nearby are too much of a security risk.

Our spore launcher which was part of the initial guerilla assult has been destroyed leaving a lone scout patrol.

Also, the known world:

[Green1]

H'milee 1 foolishly demands tech from me the declares vendetta. However, a worm in her territory takes an attack of opportunity against a weakly defended base of hers.

Rovers from Marr -2 ambush some of the units approaching Courage: To Question!

[Green1]

The Virtual World is ours. Scarily, though Zak now works on Hunter-Seeker Algorithm some where hidden in the blackened parts of the map.

The lone mindworm brood swipes H'milee -1's city of Great Intertwining right under her nose.

Our line of impact infrantry seems to be in a very tactically bad spot as they are caught flanked in an alien sandwich!

[Green1]

uh oh.. Zak just got Hunter-seeker algorithm AND supercollider all in one turn!

Our researchers discover High Energy Chemistry.

[Green1]

The column of troops continues to advance and by sheer numbers breaks the vice.

Meanwhile, the first of our navy detects a Hive transport foil off our coast!

[Green1]

Polymorphic Software is out of the way. Now working on Ethical calculas for Democracy.

Midworms have popped up keeping me from putting colonies out where I want them.

Peacekeeper Forces now have secured Marr -2's Courage: To Question and now prepares to advance on Marr -2's Era of Blood.

That Hive foil appears to be doing it's own thing and has better things to do than land something on our homeland.

[Green1]

Two units, a plasma armor gatling infrantry and a plasma sentinel have landed in the north. Zak is calling.

However, it appears Yang is messing with Zak. Infiltration reports that Yang captured a University sea base somewhere.

[Buster's Uncle]

When's Lal gonna suffer, dude? 

[Green1]

When's Lal gonna suffer, dude? 

I don't know. It appears that instead of the unstoppable juggernauts I thought 2 of each alien would be, it has instead weakened the aliens into minor bickering backwater 3rd world nations who will never get powerful because of an eternal 4 way war.

Zak and Yang might be scary.

[Buster's Uncle]

Could be, could be.

[Green1]

Marr -2 has been eliminated. We have placed him deep into an energy cell beneath UN HQ. Really wanted that screen shot.. but it did not come out right.

An impact cruiser heroicly destroys a University transport foil loaded with gatling rovers on it's maiden voyage. Thank goodness, too. Those could have caused some damage with the bulk of the army fighting aliens in the wilderness. It is almost like they are the Buffalo Soldiers post Civil War and the Aliens are various tribes out west. But instead of horses and guns, we are riding rovers and mindworms, baby!

We have spotted the first sight of Yang's land.

Our "Buffalo" column is heading to eliminate H'milee -1's tribe next.

[Green1]

Ethical calculus is ours. Gene Splicing is next to lift Nutrient restrictions.

The two University units armed with advanced gatling weaponry move to attack UN enforcement base as impact rovers rush to defend.

The army continues to advance towards H'milee -1's two cities encountering sporadic resistance.

One of our cruisers catches a glimpse of Hive and University forces fighting in University territory!

Hell, this might turn out instead of a "Lal must suffer" to a steel cage match between Zak, Yang, and Lal!

[Buster's Uncle]

Incidentally, should you ever want to do this more than two Prog faction thing again, there are at least 4 (I think) altered Progs among the Network Node factions in that big .zip I posted in Downloads the other day - at least two done specifically for this kind of thing.  (Fuzzy memories - it's been a while.)

Heck, I've done a set of alternate Progs myself, although Darsnan never coughed up .txt  files designed to work outside his mod - I'll provide the art if you like, and then you just have to change the names in the .txt and the filenames and install for insta-mutiProgs at your fingertips.

[Green1]

In my reading, I have run across altered progs myself. There was one ancient document that said someone had come out with an "alien civil war" set of factions. Of course, I am sure the place that document refers to has been long erased off a hard drive. (It was located on gamefaqs)

It may be interesting and it would make it easier to distiguish between the aliens when doing multiples.

I do guess at some point, I am going to have to delve into custom factions. Never tried it yet, but I do not think they issue out your SMAC/X membership card until you do. Even the youtube guys have custom factions. Hell, someone had that durn pink haired girl from some kid's show and cthulu demon cults as custom factions! I would not get that bizaare, but whatever floats thier boat.

Now, unlike some, I am not an alien hater. But there are times when I like a more "classic" game and times I like the "crossfire OMG how do i stop these things!" game.