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

[Mardoc]

In foreign news, Sareln's recaptured Consensus, and built enough troops to more than boost his Power past where it was when Maniac attacked. Apparently Maniac didn't try to hold it against that stack. Domai's down to just his capital, so I expect to meet Iskender soon. Somebody built the Command Nexus - probably Iskender again. Sian's still holding steady at 5 bases, and he's apparently built a Morgan Entertainment building (he has the resource showing in the trade screen).

Aside from the foreign drama, the state of the Pirate empire is pretty good .

In the south, I've sent a sub out scouting. Was thinking this iceball might be a good spot for Maniac, only upon looking at it, there's a health resource I want! The White algae. I dunno, if we decide to provide him exile, maybe we give him a city on the most southeastern spot, and found a city ourselves on the tile 1S of the sub? Or maybe give him a spot including it, but demand the resource from him?

Probably safer just to let him die.


To the east, our new cities are starting to be able to produce! And we've gotten enough Formers to the area that the resources grabbed will soon be useful, on top of that.



In the north, both Fleet in Being and Dreadnought are starting to look sexy. 5 more former turns to finish Dreadnought's mining platforms (for now anyway), while Blockade just needs the health supplied by the claimed resources. The Monolith was connected this turn, and the Fungal Gin is in progress, so we can afford to grow and mine without pissing off Planet.


Finally, bordering Sareln, we've got some progress too. I'm strongly considering a Perimeter Defense in Carrier as its next build. And/or Marines. Need to make sure he stays on the mainland like he claims is the plan. Meanwhile, Blockade is producing a colony pod for its nearby dot, and will likely proceed to immediately make another pod for the dot further south. One very handy thing - it turns out Kelp spreads on its own. We never planted the tile 3E/1N of Carrier, but we'll certainly be able to use it!



What's all this add up to? Demographic dominance (except, still, the hammer production). And hammers are coming along nicely. The only category missing is military, but I think our navy is still on par with the neighbors, and tanks still can't swim. Not that I intend to ignore building military units, of course, just that I'm not yet panicked.

[HidingKneel]

Yay! Turns are moving again.

As for the conflict: Maniac staying in the game and pestering Sareln sounds good for you. Even better if Iskender ends up making the necessary sacrifices.

Public diplo also reveals that Sareln has been building some naval forces. You're probably safe for the time being while his attention is occupied by Maniac, but now that you've unlocked marines, I think it's time to build some real garrisons. Especially given how healthy your demographics look.

[Mardoc]

Public diplo also reveals that Sareln has been building some naval forces. You're probably safe for the time being while his attention is occupied by Maniac, but now that you've unlocked marines, I think it's time to build some real garrisons. Especially given how healthy your demographics look.

I take it you'd vote 'yes' on this one, then?

I'm strongly considering a Perimeter Defense in Carrier as its next build. And/or Marines.

I'm in general torn. We don't have much of any way to rush a defense, when it becomes necessary - the closest we can come is, in a few techs, to build Cloning Labs for Genites/InVitros. So we need to invest before it's necessary.

On the other hand, everything we invest in the economy comes back multiplied. We could build 3 Marines now - or a colony pod that turns into a colony producing 6 Marines in the future. And we're only ~6000 beakers away from some truly awesome unit improvements; aircraft break the civ4 military model wide open.

I think for now, it'll be something like 1/3 of our cities on a military build at all times, the rest on something economic. If we grow at a sufficent pace, that'll add up to a lot of military regardless



In foreign news, I think I figured out what this means:

Base Swap?

Looks like Maniac lost Consensus, but took another of Sareln's cities, Logos

Makes me rather confused why Maniac thinks extermination is a likely result. But this is all to our good, of course, killing Sareln's units and stalling him for the moment. And denying him production!

Given Sareln's , I suspect that his main stack is intact and advancing.

At home, we've got two bases working on Marines, two on Colony Pods, and the last three on an Aquaformer, Bio Lab, and Wealth. Should be a pretty good mix for the moment - some Marines, but also a good deal of economic growth.

Further southern exploration shows that the iceball could actually be a darn good site for a base. Get a little food from Kelp and the Algae, and that's a lot of good hammer tiles!



And, final bit of happiness: at EOT, we're currently tied for max hammers! Now, presumably that won't last any longer than it takes Sareln to recapture his base/take some of Maniac's, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts. Course, the downside is that the score is starting to reflect that, as we pulled substantially ahead of Iskender this turn.

Still, at the moment things are looking good

[Bigger]

it sounds like Maniac is actually winning. I guess we'll find out soon enough, but in any case I don't see why he will need a safe base from us or from Iskender.

As for the Kelp expanding on its own - that makes sense. He may be modelling it after AC, where kelp AND land forests frequently spread on its own - however, only if they were unimproved otherwise. (i.e. kelps with a mining platform or solar panels do not spread, or forests with roads or sensor arrays).

[Mardoc]

it sounds like Maniac is actually winning. I guess we'll find out soon enough, but in any case I don't see why he will need a safe base from us or from Iskender.

Well, Sareln does have a pretty darn big stack, and the best MFG in the game to keep boosting it. It could be that Maniac's nibbling around the edges, and that'll work only until the uberstack arrives at his core.

Also, we don't have Maniac's demos. Might be that he's losing more than Sareln is.

[Mardoc]

Well, Maniac's still one city up on Sareln. He's gotten his treasury up to ~330 energy, too. I think he can do this thing. If, of course, he actually tries - can only spend that treasury so fast, and I'm surprised he hasn't started doing so yet.

I'm tempted to offer to pay him for his Radiotropic Fungus; we could definitely use the +Planet, and we know he can use the cash. Didn't do so yet, though.

At home, I've found even more reasons to keep building Colony Pods:


Our first Marine finished at EOT; we'll queue up another next turn. But our farmer's gambit has definitely paid well for us so far! Definitely going to continue investing in growth, in addition to enough military to take us off the bottom of the Power score.



We're researching High Energy Chemistry - that does two nice things for us. First, it connects our Helium-3 health resource, and second, it gives us the option to turn formers into bunkers. Hopefully we don't need that, of course, but it means investment into formers won't be entirely peaceful. After that, I think it'll be time to go back to Planet research, and pick up Centauri Empathy and Psionics. After that, we'll see where we are and reevaluate. Those two will give us the ability to train Isles, 2 more Planet resources, and a bunch of random lesser bonuses.

[Mardoc]

The biggest debate this turn was whether or not to sink Maniac's cargo foil just outside our borders. Ended up deciding he won't be willing to make another enemy just yet, even if he does have troops on board capable of taking Carrier. But it did mean I ended turn with three Marines queued, not just two as per the plan .

I discovered something else nice...holy cow can Marines book it inside cultural borders! 6 tiles/turn - that's faster than they can move on board transports! That will be very, very useful. Of course, to leave our borders we'll still need some boats, but that's all right. Still currently focused on homeland defense for our military.



And, with a completed Mining Platform at Fleet in Being, decided to reduce our GNP lead to put us firmly in #1 MFG. 66 hpt to the next highest of 60. Now, granted, Sareln's #2, and he's probably about to pick up some more land. But that puts us #1 in all the economic stats, and with more resources and colony pods and growth still coming on top of that.

Which is also why I decided to bite and buy an Acolyte. May even buy more than one from Sian, depending on the hammer situation. But I want to grow the cities onto Mining Platforms, and that means placating Planet. 2 Mining Platforms ought to pay for a 26 hammer Acolyte darn quick. The extra happiness would be handy too, although less vital given our set of available resources.

In other news - finished a Colony Pod at EOT. It'll be going to the trench site by Sian, that's the nicest/closest spot we've got at the moment.

And our southern exploring sub got eaten by an Isle. Knew that was a risky choice . I suppose it won't be too many turns now before we can afford to send out proper exploring teams, teams that include empath song boats, and enough numbers to use them. Or even, Empath song Isles. We'll be up to 9 colonies very soon, which means three perpetually on military, that ought to get us to a better state soon enough.

[Mardoc]

Oh, one more thing. Given the possible delay between Maniac needing his base and us being able to give it to him (on the sly), we probably need to actually decide about now if we're going to try to save him. I think I've actually identified the best spot, if we're going to do that - one of two, anyway. Either we build him a base on the mainland up by ex-Dierdre, and see if he can come back from there. Or we build him one on our home island, in that spot we've ignored due to having no resources. I think I like the mainland spot better: he'd have room to expand that isn't into us, and

Pros:

• Bothers Sareln. Spies can keep doing damage for a long time after Maniac's militarily insignificant
  
• Might get us espionage data
  
• Likely to get us a long term friend (although not guaranteed). A long term friend who knows Planetfall inside and out.
  

Cons:

• Bothers Sareln. Unless we hide it, and Maniac also doesn't spill the beans, and if we can manage that, it'll be hard to ask for info. Sareln would be a better ally than Maniac, if he wins.
  
• Moves a human foe from far distant to our border. Sure, today he'll be grateful. What about 50 turns from now?
  
• Costs us 80 hammers, and time
  

I think on balance, it's not worth doing. Mostly because, well: it looks to me like Iskender's going to be our main threat. I don't really understand how, given that we've kept #1 in the demos for a while, but his score suggests he's keeping up with us. Maybe he's conquering a lot, making a profit on his miltary investment? And I *know* he's good at civ4 warfare. I suspect we'll want Sareln as an ally when clashing with Iskender is unavoidable. Maniac's done enough damage to him that he won't be our main competition, we don't need Maniac to survive and keep him down.

And if we don't need to hurt Sareln - if in fact we'll be trying to ally with him - well, then the pros certainly don't outnumber the cons.

[HidingKneel]

I agree with your analysis: not worth it. If Sareln ends up on top of this thing, we want to be on his good side. Especially if he's close by and already has a little bit of navy.

[Mardoc]

I agree with your analysis: not worth it. If Sareln ends up on top of this thing, we want to be on his good side. Especially if he's close by and already has a little bit of navy.

Which, ahem, raises a different question - do we throw in on Sareln's side? Sink that ship before it can find Iskender, go pillage Maniac's capital, etc? The sort of thing that's likely to make a friend out of Sareln, and if we're careful, wouldn't cost us much. Certainly we can get the trade routes just fine from other empires.

The issue there, of course, is that we have to commit, well, now. It's rather an empty gesture if we wait until Maniac's on the ropes. And there's the secondary issue of, make it too easy for Sareln and we have to worry about him again.

I think I vote no on this one, too. We can't afford to divert the resources we'd need to make any substantial difference, without getting a profit from it. And besides, I rather think letting him escape to Iskender is a good thing for us, better to have a base producing EP than Spartans. Plus all the same issues about Maniac's loyalties in 50 turns apply to our rival rather than us. Oh, and, of course, Iskender's talk and support of Maniac would probably drive Sareln into opposing him anyway, whatever we do.