AAR 5 (Morgan): Aliens are bad for business.

[Green1]

AAR 5 : Aliens are bad for business

In a bit, it looks like I am in for an insane challenge. I have searched high and low in dusty, decades old archives. I have implored the AC2 community for help. All in the attempt to be able to play against 6 alien factions.

So far, in AARs, I have had mixed results. but mostly positive, although the last one with Miriam looked scary for a minute, My first one as Lal, I had a bloodthirsty Miriam raise terrain and come and slaughter my Peacekeepers for a loss. For a while, I believed it was the ONLY loss I have ever seen in any AAR for any game. That is, until Ete lost his insane AAR. I do not feel like the lone ranger any more. One other, I won as Roze, and another sadly was not finished due to hard drive issues.

previous AARs by Green1 and result
AAR1 (Lal) - Defeat
AAR2 (Roze) - Victory - Diplomatic
AAR3 (Lal) - not finished; hard drive failure
AAR4 (Miriam) - Victory - Conquest

So, Warning: If you are expecting ownage and an expert level display of tactics, you may be disappointed. I very well MAY lose this, and I never reload or influence AARs in any way. This is actual, real gameplay and not staged.

That said, let us look at the set up of our hero and the various foes and you will see why I had to bold face that disclaimer This is either going to be the most insane show of tactical genius I have ever played in any 4x or over very quickly.

[ete]

Good luck to you.

I think if the Annihilators start on their own (hopefully small and barren/non fungusy) continent with no one to techsteal from, and a couple of the other big ones fight early (ideally, AntiMind rushes the Exterminatus, then AntiMind can't build very well) you should be okay. If you hit a big bad early on or one of them really gets rolling.. I doubt it'll be winnable without some insane tricks, even with them all fighting each other.

And poor Morgan with no commerce

Can we see your final lineup?

[Green1]

First off, our hero, Morgan.

Yeah...

Morgan is the classic industry and builder faction.  He starts off with a tiny bit of cash and the tech Industrial Base that gives him already prototyped Synthmetal Sentinels to begin with. He has + 1 Economy to start so if he gets rolling can pump out cash. But, he is not known for big armies with a negative to support. His base sizes are also limited to size 4 until habs are available.

He does get bonuses to treaties and trades, but as there are no other humans, this is irrelevant for this AAR.

[ete]

Whatever you do, don't try running FM against the Annihilators or AntiMind. Actually, maybe FM in general is not so great here, just +4 eng/base no commerce, against having worm capture and effic for tons of bases, and having police. eh, see how left alone you are.

oh, and early tip, if you can found your bases so your territory covers your island before the aliens arrive, I *think* you can stop them arriving next to you. Only works on fairly small islands though.

[JarlWolf]

The sad thing is, for such a brilliant man who did pinpoint what human behavior is (though economics come in many different forms, and approaches  ) he is facing aliens with alien behavior.

It'll be interesting to see how he fares. To your surprise I will be rooting for him, because sure, he's a hard cased capitalist and I despise capitalism in nearly any form: he as a leader and person is not bad, and represents the CEO that never was: A man with some integrity. Which is funny and interesting given his ideal of ruthless economic, right wing monopolization.

[Green1]

The Exterminatus.

This is a custom faction. The concept and .txt file was designed by myself. The graphics are courtesy of Jarlwolf. These aliens believe in evolution as a fundy religion and all impure DNA must be purged whether this is Human, Progenitor, Planet, or whatever.

All you got to do is look at the screenshot and see these guys are a powerhouse by any definition.

They have huge Planet penalties, but are no pushovers to native unites due to a psi combat bonus. They start with robotic assembly lines giving them insane minerals along with some good starting techs.

[Green1]

Our buddy, the Antimind returns.

In a nutshell - huge fungal energy rusher with insane native power. An aggressive worm rusher and highly dangerous classic monster from the depths of the Network Node archives.

[Green1]

The Caretakers.

This is the classic Alien Crossfire faction with no "enhancements". Good defensive bonuses and awesome turtler. Planet bonuses mean that the caretakers can play the native game if need be. Awesome starting facilities and techs.

[Green1]

The Annihilators...

No need to explain.. just pure evil and nasty..

Locusts of Chiron right off the bat, awesome techers and aggressive expander. The ability to pump out swarms of units that would even give Miriam or Yang pause.

This faction was designed by Ete with graphics by Buster's Uncle. It was also featured in an AAR by Ete.

[Green1]

The Procyon

This is a very interesting aquatic alien faction by Sigma. While they are not overly powerful like the rest, their isolated start and bonuses mean they can grow and build like no other.

[Green1]

The Usurpers.

Marr is the aggressive counterpart from vanilla SMAX to the caretakers. Awesome bonuses to everything along with techs and facilities.

[Green1]

Settings


Tech Stagnation
Medium Water
Abundant Lifeforms
Heavy Cloud cover
Directed Research
Large Map

[Green1]

Whatever you do, don't try running FM against the Annihilators or AntiMind. Actually, maybe FM in general is not so great here, just +4 eng/base no commerce, against having worm capture and effic for tons of bases, and having police. eh, see how left alone you are.

oh, and early tip, if you can found your bases so your territory covers your island before the aliens arrive, I *think* you can stop them arriving next to you. Only works on fairly small islands though.

Free Market will get my butt killed!!! I only see using it if I have a very isolated start.

Unfortunately, there WILL be an alien next to me probably regardless of what I do.

[Green1]

The sad thing is, for such a brilliant man who did pinpoint what human behavior is (though economics come in many different forms, and approaches  ) he is facing aliens with alien behavior.

It'll be interesting to see how he fares. To your surprise I will be rooting for him, because sure, he's a hard cased capitalist and I despise capitalism in nearly any form: he as a leader and person is not bad, and represents the CEO that never was: A man with some integrity. Which is funny and interesting given his ideal of ruthless economic, right wing monopolization.

The only thing kind of Capitalist I could see Morgan being in this kind of grim situation is to be like Henry Ford. Henry Ford was about making money, but he did have to pay attention to the desires of his employees. Many of the remaining reforms that have not been done away with in the US due to globalization Ford had a hand in. Maybe it was Ford's nature. Maybe it was because in those days it was unheard of to move entire industries to other areas just to get cheap labor and no regulations and he had no choice or no one would work in his factory.

[Green1]

The start. Nothing to write home about yet.

If we want a story, the Unity project was a disaster. Rebellions after the killing of Garland tore the ship apart. Morgan, being prepared for such contingencies and one of the chief financial backers of the mission forsaw this. As an employer, he knew what happened when you bring people in for "diversity" without background checks. As a judge of character, he was unsettled by the likes of Santiago or Yang. Even Lal had a side to him that worried Morgan. In response, Morgan's portion of the ship had secret redundant measures that spared himself and his employees. No one on the Unity was the wiser thanks to the encryption techniques of none other than one of the most talented computer scientists on Earth, Roze. Unfortunately, Roze did not make it on to the Morgan portion of the ship in time.

As the unity broke apart somewhere 1 AU from Planet, Morgan's heavily damaged portion limps towards planetfall!