1 planet down, 1 to go. Grand Antichrist of the UN, Nicolae Carpathia, has arrived!

[Maniac]

Wow, that's crazy, having that kind of information without needing to spend a single espionage point.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Going well! He didn't withdraw his rover back to HQ, that could have saved him if I made some bad rolls!

3 Tanks vs 2 units in his capital. The first flamer has 25% fortify, I have 66% odds on him. The second won't, and neither will he heal at the start of Sareln's T55. Odds are strong. Aren't I glad I haven't started any Hydro plants anywhere!

Mist accused me of having 4 tanks. A little off He also told everyone he has Choppers and Genites. No he doesn't, he teched Social Psych a few turns ago. And, I don't think he could have bulbed Factionalism and Memetics in just a few turns. Wait, he just gained ~40 points over 2 turns, uh, better worldbuilder the bulbs.

Edit: Holy crap, Great Doctors can bulb Factionalism.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

T33: Human Genome project was built by Mist
T38: A Great Doctor was born
T50: A Great Doctor was born

Yep. Mist had 2 GDs, then bulbed Factionalism and Memetics. He can build 13h genites. I'm fucked

[Nicolae Carpathia]

No pics until later.

Sareln decided to ragequit and attacked my scout patrol (on rocky terrain) with a flamer, killing it on fairly low odds. That sucks, it's another unit I need to leave behind as a garrison. He then covered it with a unity rover, leaving Great Conclave undefended. Didn't have the means to exploit that, but doesn't matter.

What did matter was that I took Sareln's capital (and hence the Unity Hydro Bay) for no casualties . First Tank promoted to anti-personnel, killed a flamer at ~76% odds, and the collateral made the second flamer also killed at ~76% odds. His capital lost a size, and has a ton of planet disfavour because of how Sareln's arranged his tile improvements. I'll go into it in more detail, but in summary, you don't want planet disfavour inprovements like farms and mines in the BFCs of multiple bases.

Mist's power is rising and I don't know how I could ever deal with Genites. There's a line of defensive terrain all the way Mist's land to mine. Well played, two Great Doctor bulbs led into a dangerous beeline and a deadly timing attack. My only hope is to switch into Terraforming and hopefully get rid of some of my fungus that would otherwise give him defensive bonuses.

What I really need are 20 turns of peace to build up and catch up on GNP and techs. And I won't be having that luxury considering the military differential between Mist and I.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Where we last left off, I was worried sick about a attack by Mist.

I still am. Here's the layout of the conflict zone. I've been attempting to contain Mist, I'm ahead on demos, and trying to catch up in military.

I have ~9 tanks in the area right now, more incoming. Not enough.

I've decided to mimic what Mist has pulled off, Great Doctor bulbing Memetics for S4 units. 4 turns to Factionalism and hence choppers & genites. It should be noted that unlike Mist, who did a triple revolt to Knowledge/Planned/Police state, the UN is not allowed to take police state. Which is a huge deal, right now police state is worth +20% production and *20* free units . I can outproduce him on my territory, but Mist can split my defences and probably take my westernmost city, if he tries.

My land. Notice that many of Sareln's old improvements have been pillaged away. That was because these mines and farms were inside the BFCs of multiple cities. This is a bad thing, it means the same improvement is counted *twice* for the purpose of ecodamage. Hence, I'm replacing them on the marked tiles, "i" for farm, "m" for mine.

Two things of note. Next turn, when New Jerusalem's maintenance bay completes, it's swapping to build wealth, Great Refuge is switching to a Scout Patrol, and Great Conclave is switching to another maintenance bay. The goal is to keep my funds high, and give me the option of performing a pair of Genite upgrades. They're $31 each. Genites are 13h more expensive than Scouts. So upgrades will be worth it if I need to defend, because wealthbuilding is 200% of hammers, and my I have a commerce multiplier in my capital

Second thing of note, I'm starting to clear out fungus! Let's hope it keeps going and I have enough time before Mist lays the smack down.

The two halves of empire aren't joined by trade routes. Hence, I'm setting here in a half dozen turns, get my capital access to Sareln's gold.

Finally, demos. Nice land! Yep, I'm definitely not out of the game, despite facing off against an overpowered leader

However, something I just noticed. I used to be #1 in power, thanks to my siege tank spam. I dropped to #2, because Genites are worth 800 power, and Mist now gets +120% production on the things (12 hammers each!).

But I'm not #3 in power! What? Who could that be? Bob having a Isle capture cascade? The things are 1200 power. Selrahc? He has Genites, could he have been spamming the things, and is about to stab me from behind? We don't have a sealed alliance, I can imagine that he did what I did: spotted my borders, backed off and massed units, appear with overwhelming force.

I could be dead very soon . Let's start diplo'ing!

[spellman]

That was because these mines and farms were inside the BFCs of multiple cities. This is a bad thing, it means the same improvement is counted *twice* for the purpose of ecodamage. Hence, I'm replacing them on the marked tiles, "i" for farm, "m" for mine.

Oh, that's handy to know.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

An update!

Mist traded 1 Genite and a Flamer for 1 Tank. I've been baiting mist for a while, dangling a Tank in range. There was a 2-fold purpose, to trade Mist down, and to to periodically check Mist's city for any nasty surprises.

You may have noticed I settled in Mist's face. All to control territory, and to draw out a response. Mist is after Ascetic Virtues to (a) expand onto ocean, and (b) get some food into his frozen start.

My current plan is to tech Retroviral Engineering (for unique Genejack Factories), Cloning (for Cloning Vats) and bulb Gene Splicing with a Great Doctor. After that, Planetary networks and Nanominit to get my espionage economy going.

My empire. Coming along nicely! I did land the best land in the game, didn't I? Despite all the weed in my play, I'm doing well. Though it hasn't shown up in my score.

Cities. Working on getting Amnesty Town up and running, and getting rid of the fungus before I hit 0 planet favour and start getting worm pops (I'm assuming that's the trigger for fungal blooms). I've been losing 0.05 planet favour/turn.

Also notice that Haven City has a settled Great Doctor. I really regret that. But that was before I knew the power of bulbs.

Mist is going to be a naval power, I need to get some ships into that bay. Luckily it's a fairly protected bay. Still need to worry about Mist landing troops past the chokepoint, that will work because I can't build roads to reinforce the core.

[spellman]

Navies? Exciting!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

The border with Mist. These kind of images are a pain to make.

Our arrayed forces. I'm still holding the line.

Contact with both Bob and Selrahc. I have trade routes with both. I've offered Selrahc free health. Bob has an awful lot of cities, though he did get a free sea colony pod.

Next city. Need to get some food into it, and then park on the rocky riverside ridges.

Border with Sel, and some potential city sites in my sphere of influence marked. He can't really argue against me settling the first ring around my capital. Selrahc is getting the best land between us.

Selrahc's core. Rather mediocre. Plus, no wonder he was mad about Grenade Fruits.

City screens. Potential next builds are highlighted. EXPANSION MODE.

[spellman]

So how do you like the high/low land combat?