LKendter plays SMAC again

[LKendter]

I have decided to finish this game, even though I am not happy with the game due to growing tall, not wide to start.  I want to find more pieces of stuff I forgotten before I start my next serious game.

I noticed a weakness in the help for techs.  It doesn't mention the misc tech effects such as remove mineral limits.

I badly need air units.  2 bases were emptied via air attacks.

It feels weird being Morgan and Santiago being my best friend.  

I add the university to my list of civs with Vendetta against me in 2,276.  So far I've seen just one unit reach my borders.  I killed one of their ships I found at sea.  

Thanks to supply crawlers I complete the Longevity Vaccine.

Now that I finally have planes the attacks from the Hive has stopped.  I've even managed to hurt him a bit.  I still see Hive domination as my biggest threat right now.  There have taken cities from Santiago and Deidre.  

Thanks to supply crawlers I complete the Neural Amplifier.  It is nice to finally be getting some projects built.

I forget how absurd the game posts combat odds.

[TheHumanHydra]

Heh, yeah, I sometimes have to convert to Civ-4-style percentage odds.

[LKendter]

Well this game is screwed. Despite Deidre and the Hive being stuck in a forever war, she turns on me again.
Air power shreds 2 colony pods, several units and multiple terraformers. I knock a few planes down and capture a Gaian city. She steals it right back with a mind control probe destroying my main offensive stack. Then I lost even several more terraformers that I though were out of range.

To make it worse, my vendetta forever of the Hive is way above me in tech and I can't fight his planes very well.

I've learned a massive amount of lessons to make the next game better.

[TheHumanHydra]

 Yeah, this game has quite the learning curve. Next time's the charm, am I right?

[LKendter]

I'm going to play a some no report games to refresh the brain more before posting another one of these.

Current test gaming reminded me why supply crawlers are so powerful.
Mineral cap is now off. Pod popped 3 free mines at 4,5,5 minerals early in the game. Supply crawlers cost 30. Those 5 tiles pay for themself on the 7th turn of use. 14 bonus minerals makes a big difference on getting projects to complete.