Third time's the charm - Mardoc plays the Pirates [SPOILER]

[Mardoc]

if you're expanding onto undeveloped sea, build more sea formers!!!

We've been in pretty good shape until now - but it's hard to say we have enough formers, true. We're working exactly one unimproved tile at the moment, so up until now we're fine.

But, yeah, I did just explain how we're going to need a whole bunch more improved tiles in our core, while simultaneously expanding outward, didn't I?

[Bigger]

yes, and you also mentioned not having enough stuff to build

[HidingKneel]

yes, and you also mentioned not having enough stuff to build

Hmm... Sareln and Maniac at peace? That doesn't sound good.

[Mardoc]

yes, and you also mentioned not having enough stuff to build

Hmm... Sareln and Maniac at peace? That doesn't sound good.

No, it doesn't at all. Our long national vacation may be over soon. Still, at least we got ourselves a very nice start.

On the other hand, this is a good sign:

Sareln, PYFT please.

Anyway, turn is with Sian, so there's a good chance I see it today. I'll try to report.

[Mardoc]

So I'm not entirely sure what's newsworthy at the moment. We haven't founded any new cities lately, although we've a colony pod ready to found one next turn. For the most part we've just been teching and growing.

We've received an invitation to join the UN! I'm pretty sure it's not worth the turn of revolt, though, especially if we ever get around to building some Naval Yards.


Our explorations of our neighbors' lands hasn't really revealed all the much to us, except that the continents end a bit more abruptly than expected.




Iskender got around to founding the port by us . Fortunately it's culturally crushed for the moment. Still, we're going to have to accumulate some forces near here, maybe build a couple more Perimeter defenses on top.


The northern ocean is getting to be pretty well developed; I'm definitely glad we grabbed this area:


And, here's a summary of what we've been building lately. Pretty much just happiness buildings:


All in all, though, the demos continue to be lovely. In fact, we're up to #3 in Power!


Next turn we complete Biofuels, and I'm waffling on the next tech. One option is Atmospherics. That would give us Fungicide, Oil, and obsolete our 26 hammer, Str 4 Marines, in favor of 40 hammer Str 6 Drop Troopers. That's essentially one full size worth of unlocked growth, and a pretty good unit who's very mobile. It would also unlock Nanotubes (the most awesome econ tech in the game for us) and Fluid Dynamics (the plane option) Alternately, we could pick up Magnetic Propulsion. That would make all our new boats Stealth, unlock destroyers and tidal harnesses, but wouldn't do much for the economy. It's closer to Cryogenics' plane, and to Nuclear Reactors.

At the moment, I think Atmospherics next would pay off better. Drop Troopers should give us a lot more security, extra growth is always nice, and closer to Nanotubes is very nice as well.

[Bigger]

rival worst GNP: 1!! ouch
I assume the rival best 385 is iskender?

[Mardoc]

rival worst GNP: 1!! ouch
I assume the rival best 385 is iskender?

Rival worst is Domai, who's dead until/unless someone has a base revolt.

Rival best, I think is actually Sian. I don't know for sure, because I don't have enough espionage points - that's the other thing that all these Empath Guilds and Holographic Theatres is supposed to help with. But, well, I don't think it's a coincidence that Iskender built the Human Genome Project and has a deep tech beeline in the line that Great Doctors bulb. I think that's where his beakers have come from, not the nominal GNP number. I know that Sian has gotten to the tech that enables Morgan Aerodynamics, because I've seen Rotors. Plus, he's got a whole bunch of bases as well, and doesn't seem to have much of a military; those hammers have to have gone somewhere.

Anyway, it appears the game might be back on track. I had a turn this morning. Played in 10 min on my way out the door, so no pictures, but you can have a brief report.

Sian flashed an Isle of the Deep at us; I'm actually a little surprised it took him so long to do so. Given its location, up by ASW, it's not a threat, just something to be aware of. In fact, that was pretty well calculated on his part; he had it show up in our sight in one of the only spots where it can't attack us this turn, yet there's no mystery about the fact he's got Isles now.

Our Planet Rating is finally up to 2! This is a big milestone, as it means that Isles we train get to start with a promotion. Our rating will continue to increase for a while, but as it's pretty much impossible to get it above 5 for the second promotion, I'm content with leaving our Planet rating as a backburner thing, without a lot of effort spent. I expect our rating to peak around 3 or so, and it should stay high for a long time yet. Averaging like this means that every turn has less impact than the turns before. Fortunately, that should allow us to build some Boreholes without tanking our Planet rating.

Biofuel came in at EOT as expected. It gives us another health resource, tradable quantities, the option to revolt to Autarky (not worth it, I think), and the option to build Bioreactors (not worth it most places, but worth reevaluating once cities have grown a lot).

I think it'll be Atmospherics next. It's currently showing 7 turns until completion, which seems quite reasonable for the benefits we'll gain.

I'm a bit torn; we'd get another prereq bonus if we pick up some spying techs. But, we're not going to use what they unlock, any time soon. I expect to want to pick them up eventually, if for no other reason than as prereqs for stuff deeper in the tree. I think losing some efficiency in exchange for short term benefits is probably correct; don't pick up the spy techs just to save on prereq bonus, wait to grab them until we absolutely need them. But deliberately ignoring efficiency feels wrong! Even if it's, as I tell myself, efficiency only in one subsystem, and the bigger picture says that spending a couple thousand beakers too early to save a couple hundred isn't worth the delay on techs we'd actually use. (double especially if the use happens to be a need for Str 6 Drop Troopers instead of Str 4 Marines). So I think we'll simply go directly for Atmospherics.

In longer term tech plans, there's a couple destinations I really really want, the challenge is simply priorities. Nanotubes will be an option immediately after Atmospherics. That gives a whole passel of benefits: a Str 6 sub, +0/2/3 to every trench (currently, while on a growth phase, we're working 12 of those, and it'll only increase), and the option for the Subsea Trunkline building, which is another +1 hammer/trench, along with +1 health/+1 happy with resources we already have. For only 80 hammers. That means it pays off for any city with 4 Trenches and no plans to grow, or possibly pays off for any city with even 1-2 Trenches if we can use the happy.

Cryogenics and Fluid Dynamics are both mainly about the planes. I think they have economic benefits, but they're smaller if so. I still think Planes will be *the* military tech in Planetfall, the question is whether we expect war soon or not. And of course, where we'll fight; Bunkers and culture can mostly substitute for planes in a defensive war.

Other than that, it's mainly just been growth. All but two cities have room in their happiness caps, and they're certainly growing. Cities have been getting either a Empath Guild or a Holographic theater, not both just yet. I figure there's no point in boosting excess happy from 2 to 4; better to wait for the city to be near its cap again before we up it. Which means that most of what went into the queues this turn is military. I've mixed in a couple Aquaformers because we're getting a smidgen behind on improved tiles, but I figure more Marines and subs can only help our situation.

The main downside to civ-wide vertical growth is that we've currently no Colony Pods in production at all. On second thought, next turn I may take a couple bases that are waiting on Aquaformers to improve tiles to grow onto, and set them on Colony Pods. Delaying growth won't hurt as bad in cities that would have been working a 2/1/0 or 2/0/1 tile with the extra population. And I really don't want to stop founding new cities, there's too many good sites left. Hopefully by the time those cities get their improved tiles, others will have hit the cap and be able to take up the slack.

[HidingKneel]

But deliberately ignoring efficiency feels wrong! Even if it's, as I tell myself, efficiency only in one subsystem, and the bigger picture says that spending a couple thousand beakers too early to save a couple hundred isn't worth the delay on techs we'd actually use. (double especially if the use happens to be a need for Str 6 Drop Troopers instead of Str 4 Marines). So I think we'll simply go directly for Atmospherics.

I think this guy would approve of your analysis:

Rule of thumb - if a project doesn't pay back in 20 turns in civ, it's not worth doing. Obviously you'd prefer even faster paybacks.

And your plan sounds good to me too (though keep in mind that's just based on your description of what the techs will do for you, since you're way beyond what I've seen in my own experience with the mod). Economic techs that directly benefit you >> espionage techs that might be useful in the future.

I also approve of a perimeter defense near Iskender. And shoring up defenses in general. Given the strength of your economy, someone's got to take a swing at you sooner or later. At least public diplomacy means you'll have advance warning of any dogpiles.

[Mardoc]

So, Sian's in trouble. Potentially. Given that we were at 3rd place military, and I'd classify ours as still basically a skeleton, Sian's got to have basically nothing.

I'm tempted to intervene, except, well....we can't right now. Don't have enough military for an expeditionary force. Nor do we have anything that can fight Invitros on land, except if we were to build some Mindworms. What we could do is cut off Iskender's reinforcements, we've probably enough Isles to do that. But that requires Sian be able to kill Iskender's first wave - and if he can build a military to do that, who's to say that military can't kill Iskender's second wave too?

Especially with no base razing, Sian's got defensive depth. He ought to be able to build a bunch of Mindworms and Spore Launchers, which should be pretty good units against Iskender, given the disparity in their Planet ratings. Even against Invitros.

Nah, I'm thinking armed neutrality for the moment. Keep military in the queues, send out some scouts to keep an eye on the war, but still put most of our efforts for the time being into peaceful expansion. Simultaneous goals of either outgrowing Iskender despite his conquest, or developing a military that's capable of decisive intervention. What *is* tempting is to maybe build some Worms and gift them to Sian. Or to gift him some Isles. And, ahem, to hope Maniac's proposal is genuine and happens, that would nearly ensure Iskender's next victim I think. If it doesn't simply keep Sian alive.

So, had a turn yesterday. What happened?

First up, Biofuel. A number of goodies: Methane Ice that was preimproved is now available, we can upgrade Flamethrowers to Hyperians (decent against, say, Infantry units like Invitros ), revolt to Autarky (but I don't think it's worth it yet), and build Bioreactors (+1 energy to any Kelp/Fungus tiles, 80h).

I actually don't think we'll be using most of those anytime soon, except of course the Methane Ice. Bioreactors will be useful later, once we have big cities working a lot of Kelp tiles, but not until that's true.

So, when I was saying Sian's got defensive depth, here's what I meant:
9 cities - and has had them for a while now.


Meanwhile, Iskender, the aggressor, has about the same, 10 cities. We know that two of them are very new, we've got eyes on them:

It's really going to come down to their tactics. And whether Maniac or I intervene.


What else happened IBT? Well, we picked up a free Isle . Not 100% sure that's a good thing, its location means it would have harassed Iskender if we weren't here. I promoted the killing Isle with the Psi defense promo, I figure that'll make it into an excellent exploring unit, and an excellent harvester of the bounty of Planet.

Found out what Maniac was referring to in 'probe team didn't go where directed even though I wanted to'. Yep, Consensus lands just teem with Spies. At some point we really ought to set up some sort of screen in case Maniac tries to use open borders and an invisible boat to spy on us. Will be easier once we can have more than one Probe team in the world (they're restricted based on total EP you've generated in the game).

Also, you can see that the ocean south of Sareln is yet more beautiful sea colony lands . Not yet going to dotmap this area, we've something like 8-10 colonies of higher urgency, but...we'll admire it.

Let's take a quick look at the demogra...what the hell?



What in the world does everyone else think they're doing? We've been only gradually building military, with like 20% of our total hammers. I'd still consider our troops barely adequate to repel barbarians...and that's what qualifies as #2?

Well, we're likely to keep that title, our hammer lead makes that easy to do.

Finally, I'll give you guys an overview of the state of the civ.

In the south, our cities are mostly focused on growth. I've got Carrier on a Colony Pod, because three Aquaformers in the area isn't quite enough; I have a fix en route, but for the time being, let's go claim us some Energy bonuses. Or maybe push west. There's lots of good options.

I really need to have the formers from the northern islands fly down to hook up those good land tiles; that was the main reason for settling Port, after all.



In the middle, our core is also focusing on growth. These cities are looking beautiful, with a great deal of both hammer and energy production. They're in excellent shape to take advantage of the Empath Guilds, Hologram Theaters, and the Crystals, Oil, and Fungicide that are expected soon. They've each built one of those happiness buildings recently, and now just need time to grow into their new caps. Well, and potentially a few more improved tiles to work. That means they'll be set on a combination of military and Aquaformer builds - mostly military I think, because although we're at the edge, Aquaformers are pretty much keeping up.


To the north, our cities are starting to become useful. They're getting close to their happy caps, so a round of Empath/Holograms all around is in store. Meanwhile, the Aquaformers are keeping up, but only barely . Won't be getting quite as much from these cities to contest with Iskender, but they're maturing very quickly. ASW, without many good tiles to grow onto, will go ahead and spit out a couple of Colony Pods to seal off our eastern border, and give us either forward bases for an intervention or defensive depth, as the case may be.


Any questions, thoughts, concerns? In particular, any thoughts on what should be done about the Sian/Iskender situation? My gut says we mostly want to stay out, but this might be the right time for a few gifts to Sian; give him 3-4 Isles, say, and his chances will improve a lot.

[Bigger]

what is the benefit of saving, or helping to save, Sian? Is Isenkder in danger of becoming a runaway?