A civ vet explores Alpha Centauri (SMAC)

[haphazard1]

This discussion is making me paranoid that I ought to be building more troops.

I really have only built units to fight mind worms so far -- all cheap, weak stuff since combat with the native life does not benefit from stronger armor and weapons. I have access to better stuff; probably ought to prototype a good, tough land unit and a better, tougher naval unit and get a couple out.

How is the power rating calculated?

[Fluffball]

As long as you're not seeing anything, I wouldn't freak out too much. If you don't have a high social support rating you'll easily cripple yourself building large numbers of units (as you noted early on in your game.) The war monger AIs will have lots of units that don't cost support due to their civics.

If you keep building things like base facilities and colony pods, you'll get the tech edge on her, and to quote Santiago herself "Superior training and superior weaponry have, when taken together, a geometric effect on overall military strength. Well-trained, well-equipped troops can stand up to many more times their lesser brethren than linear arithmetic would seem to indicate."

It is worth prototyping new units every now and then though, because prototypes have a colossal price tag if you try to rush buy them. And you want SOMEthing available just in case a transport lands.

[T-hawk]

In terms of game mechanics, Santiago is mostly right that smart beats numbers; but that's not really driven by morale or training, it's the tactical situation.  No amount of morale or special abilities will make a 2-armor unit stand up to a 4-attack unit; combat is all about arranging the tactics so your unit makes that first attack.  This is particularly true for naval units with no terrain or sensors for defensive cover; it's nearly impossible to ever out-armor an attacker, so the winning unit at sea is pretty much whoever attacks first.

It's normal for an AI to stay at vendetta for a long time without ever sending any units to attack.  It's feasible to rely on whatever you've got around for police and worm detail, cheap 1-1-1 or 1-1-2 units that can be upgraded to whatever is necessary at whatever point of incursion.

prototypes have a colossal price tag if you try to rush buy them.

Or one supply crawler applied towards the prototype.

[T-hawk]

More mechanics for haphazard: Yes, build boreholes.  Build enormous amounts of formers to drill the boreholes; six per base is not too many, and one borehole pays back the support for them.  One condenser per base is typical, often worked by a supply crawler.  Get the Weather Paradigm if you can.

The best way to settle the ring of monoliths is pick and choose base sites outside the ring, two squares away so each base can reach 2-3 monoliths.  Settling in the center for all 8 looks obvious but isn't so practical, since it takes forever to grow to size 8, unless you're in position to get a population-boom going.  Spend former turns on boreholes and condensers and forest rather than clearing fungus. There's a Fungicide special ability for formers that comes available sometime soon, that doubles the rate of clearing it.

[haphazard1]

I am planning to divide the monolith ring among three cities; it was hidden in the xenofungus and I placed a city where it can work two monoliths before they were revealed. The other two cities will bracket the rest of the monoliths and grab some other useful tiles. One monolith actually has a nutrient bonus on the tile.

Weather Paradigm was built by Yang before I even started Human Genome Project. I will just have to build more formers.

I am prototyping gatling laser/plasma steel armor rovers and foils now for some 5-3 units, which hopefully will be good enough for a while. Yang has been boasting about his laser/synthmetal (2-2) units and Santiago about impact/synthmetal troops (4-2); I am more worried about the Spartans as I assume they will have good morale. Is there a naval unit equivalent of the base facility that gives bonus morale to land units? (Command? Something like that -- I am still learning the names of everything.)

[Fluffball]

Is there a naval unit equivalent of the base facility that gives bonus morale to land units? (Command? Something like that -- I am still learning the names of everything.)

Command Center for land and Naval Yard for water. There are very early special projects that put one of those in every one of your bases, someone may have built them already?

Early in the game, it's entirely possible and practical to defend in the water since the attack and defend values are so similar. If you've got 3 armor and Santiago's got 4 attack, you'll win some of those or at least make the unit effectively useless.

The biggest reason I wouldn't worry yet is she probably doesn't even know where you are (she could trade maps with the University or someone who does know, though.) Get a few ships out, put some units in your coastal bases, and continue your farmer's gambit. 

Also specializing your units will make them WAY cheaper to build. Tank style units are good for skeleton crews, but if Santiago shows up with 50 units, you'll want 5-1 rovers instead of 5-3.

Or one supply crawler applied towards the prototype.

Yet another good reason to not ruin the fun of the game with them. 

[naufragar]

If Santiago shows up with 50 units, you'll want 5-1 rovers instead of 5-3.

I might be way off here, but I remember armor on high mobility units costing a lot more than armor on infantry. Obviously this doesn't mean you can't do it, Haphazard, just that it might be more efficient to swarm the enemy with light rovers. I believe there's a unit cost formula somewhere in the datalinks/civilopedia.

Edit: Taken from the alphacentauri2 wiki which I'm pretty sure is just from the datalinks:

The basic cost formula, to which there are several modifiers, is:

Cost = Weapon × (Armor + Speed) × 10 ÷ (2 ^ (Reactor + 1))

Weapon value never less than half armor value
Cost is halved for units with speed of one
Cost is halved for sea units, and armor is discounted 50%
Cost quartered for combat air units
Armor cost doubled for air units
Cost +25% for each unit of special ability cost
Cost +25% if unit has two abilities and the ability it has which appears in alphax.txt first is not free (if the free ability comes second, it will increase price)
Cost +10 minerals if both weapon and armor greater than one
Cost +10 minerals if land unit’s weapon, armor, speed all greater than one

So I guess I kind of misremembered. There's no explicit increase like there is for armor on air units, but armor still gets pricey on a rover/hovertank chassis.

[v8mark]

If Santiago shows up with 50 units, you'll want 5-1 rovers instead of 5-3.

I might be way off here, but I remember armor on high mobility units costing a lot more than armor on infantry. Obviously this doesn't mean you can't do it, Haphazard, just that it might be more efficient to swarm the enemy with light rovers. I believe there's a unit cost formula somewhere in the datalinks/civilopedia.

Definitely - I think it's something like double the cost for a 5-3-2 instead of a 5-1-2.

And yes, you want to be building the light rovers en masse. Combat in SMAC is all about being the attacker - if she shows up with a lot of units you'll need to inflict collateral damage on those that are stacked. Plus you just get better odds as the attacker anyway, because 5 > 3.

[Fluffball]

Everyone has explained why 5-1 is better than 5-3, however your 5-3 rovers are still quite useful. If you have a coastal city, Santiago can land rovers and attack it the same turn, and you may want multiple defenders and still be able to counter the infantry that she left sitting there to attack next turn. They are also good for forward units in small skirmishes. Your high morale, top of the line rover could win his combat out in the field and then die to some crap unit on the counterattack.

If you've got the resources and time, there is no reason to NOT make armored units. If you don't have the resources and time, make specialized units.

Or just ignore her and leave some sentry units scattered around.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the info and advice, everyone! Very helpful.

I have added a ninth base, and have a colony pod on the way for #10. Research on Ecological Economics (I think that was the name) has lifted the energy cap. Also, fungicidal formers are very useful.

I have made contact with the Believers. Sister Miriam complains about my "whining followers" and how annoying they are. She also immediately proposed a joint sneak attack on Zakharov. The very next turn, Zakharov showed up and proposed a joint sneak attack on Miriam. I take it these two do not much like one another.

What I know of Planet in 2204:

The Believers are in the far north, to my west. I am not yet sure if that is the same land mass as myself and University; still exploring with my gun foils, but damage from mind worms has slowed the process.

Fewer and fewer places for Morgan to be hiding, if he is still alive, especially since no one admits to having met him.

As usual, I have some more questions :

- Artillery gets a special form of combat, apparently. How does that work?
- What are the placement rules for boreholes? Now that I am able to actually build them and get the full mineral and energy production from them, I need to think about where I would get the best use from them.