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[Mr.Person]

Am I the only one who read MIND WORMS in a big booming voice?

[baruk]

WELCOME TO GAIA'S LANDING

 You may notice a couple of unexpected things:
- I have spent the 10 starting energy credits to hurry my former. Where terraforming is concerned, you can't start too early. And no-one starts earlier than the Gaians in this respect.
- I have re-arranged my energy allocation, in this case 80/20 in favour of labs. I can't get more than 3 labs right now due to the inefficiency penalty suddenly kicking in and eating my scientists. Next turn (after the former is built) I will switch my worker to the sea-based energy bonus square - this will allow me (with 100% labs) to reach a dizzying 5 labs per turn (I lose 1 lab to inefficiency, but it's worth it in this case).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[baruk]

2103

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Disaster averted! My scout patrol prevailed against the mind worm, taking 30% damage but getting promoted from very green to green.
 Furthermore, I have chosen to research Social Psych, which is a pre-requisite for the discovery of Secrets of the Human Brain.

 The scout and colony pod team move directly south to a river square, which will serve as a decent spot for a settlement. The newly built former heads SE with a plan to link both cities by road.

[Patchy]

That looks like a nice strong location to try your fast transcend. Good luck.

[PTTG??]

Sounds interesting.

Might have to play this again. I install this game first on my computers for tradition, but I don't play at all anymore.

[baruk]

2104

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Good news: my breakthrough in Social Psych is the first on Planet, meaning I should be ahead in the race to the first Secrets tech.

 The second colony pod founds Nessus Shining. Our starting scout patrol can now rest here until fully repaired. Some more muscle is needed to explore the other supply pods, so I have the new city build another scout patrol.
 Our former builds the first section of the Landing-Nessus highway.

 However, something is wrong here. I have sensed a disturbance in the force..

[baruk]

You may have noticed the odd discoloured screenshot - I'm now trying a new fix for that I found after browsing some of the other SMAC Let's Plays - you go into AlphaCentauri.Ini and add "DirectDraw=0" beneath [Alpha Centauri].
But there's something else bothering me..

Oh my Science! Why mind worms are not the only BUG on Chiron

And I'm not talking about the Hive or the Believers for once.
  So, I noticed that pulling in 7 labs a turn was still not quite enough to research the new tech (Biogenetics) right away, as it costs 8. However, this raises a technical point about the game - since I had 3 labs to go until the next tech last turn, and I was producing 5 labs a turn, then what happened to the left over 2 points?
 It's the dreaded tech overspill bug/undocumented feature, I'm afraid - research happens on a city by city basis, and if one city's research is enough to discover a new tech, any remainder from that city gets wasted, disappearing into the ether. A new research project only starts using the next city's research points.
 Now that I've remembered about this, I'm going to have to try optimising my lab output to minimise any annoying wastage.

 The upshot
 I drop my energy allocation back to 80/20 labs, and I switch my worker in Gaia's Landing from the sea back to the rolling rainy square. I end up with 5 labs (3 + 2) and 1 energy per turn - I should pick up Biogenetics in two turns without any overspill.

 Counting the cost
 Due to my oversight, my main city lost one food, one energy and one mineral. Hopefully not a big deal. I'm sure bigger mistakes are waiting for me down the road - and I always have the nagging doubt that I'm simply using an inferior strategy (or that the Spartan laser rovers are waiting behind the next patch of fungus).

edit: Before I forget
 Must remember to switch production in nearby cities to something expensive whenever I'm about to pop a pod - to make the most of any minerals completion bonus. I always forget to do this! Note that it doesn't work for Secret Projects or colony pods.

[baruk]

It wasn't a Spartan Laser Rover at least..
2105

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hey that was MY supply pod, jerk!

So.. Yang then. Not as bad as running into Santiago, I'll grant you. But a shame that my military doesn't exactly.. exist yet. So it looks to be a scout patrol slap fight for a few turns. Hopefully he won't make a bee-line for my unguarded capital.
Note that I refused a demand for centauri ecology before his declaration of vendetta - I suspect that appeasement would do more harm than good in this case (I may be wrong here). He's only "Feeble", though.

[baruk]

2105 continued
To incur one vendetta in a turn may be considered unfortunate..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

More hobbledehoys!
Lal demanded Social Psych, I refused, so I now have a second vendetta on my hands.
 On the plus side, I did just find my first monolith outside Nessus Shining - however, it meant leaving only one inexperienced scout patrol back to defend. This may have been a fatal error of judgement, as Yang's scout may attack, killing the defender and wiping out the city.

I debated whether or not I should move my former adjacent to Yang's scout to distract him for a turn, but decided ultimately that I'd happily go down in flames, than surrender piecemeal and die a slow death.

[IronyOwl]

Well... at least you've got Lal's colony pod.

[baruk]

Well... at least you've got Lal's colony pod.

I let Lal's pod get away, as my scout only had 1/3 of a move left, so attacking was too risky. Hopefully Lal and Yang will meet and start kicking chunks out of each other.
edit: and my independent scout patrol was promoted to disciplined by the monolith.

2106

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nessus Shining lives! Yang's scout decided to nab another of MY supply pods - he is still close to the undefended Gaia's Landing, and could capture it in two turns, or at least force me to use my former as a defender (the scout patrol is ready in two turns). This is the drawback of going too build-heavy at the start before you've met your neighbours.
I got Biogenetics, but Secrets of the Human Brain was not available, so I went for my default aggressive choice of doctrine:mobility without really thinking, as rovers might let me catch a few mind worms.  I should have gone for industrial base, considering my current predicament. One synthmetal unit would probably hold Yang off for decades whilst he researched Laser.

[baruk]

2106 continued
A diplomatic coup

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I talked to Lal to see if he would reconsider, and before very long we had a pact! I traded him social psych and centauri ecology for his world map and 25 energy credits. However, he would not agree to declare vendetta on Yang.

Yang still wants centauri ecology, I told him he can forget it. I hope Lal doesn't trade it to him in the meantime.
My recently built scout patrol has occupied the rocky outcrop adjacent to Nessus Shining, after Yang decided to vacate the spot. A useful defensive position. I will have two more scout patrols next turn (having spent 4 energy on hurrying the Gaia's Landing scout), so the situation is beginning to stabilise.

Lal's current research project, information networks, is 6 turns from completion.

[baruk]

2107

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's Gaia's Landing's turn to breathe a sigh of relief. Yang's scout patrol moves off to the SW. I don't think I was being paranoid about the threat posed, since Yang's units beat me on morale, and infantry gets a +25% base assault bonus.
Also, the 2nd Lal colony pod returns. The AI can be seriously indecisive when it comes to building cities.

A look at my ally's HQ, based precariously above the lava at the summit of mount planet

 You may notice that the HQ building is missing. Selling Lal my tech last turn put him deep into the red, and when this happens the AI will try to wipe out the deficit by selling buildings. Lal is now losing most of his energy income to inefficiency, crippling his research output.
 I thought this might happen. But hey, I needed the money. And if it means there's one less rival in the race for Secrets of the Human Brain, then it's not a bad outcome.

[baruk]

2108

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've moved up a scout to occupy the rocky mineral bonus square, whilst Yang's unit crosses the border back into his home territories. Nessus Shining's newly built scout headed SE to be promoted at the monolith.

A closer look, and a map feature of interest
For this turn's moves, I continued chasing Yang's scout out of my territory, occupying another defensive rocky square. The other scout found a useful map feature to exploit: river running through fungus. The river movement bonus allows a unit to move through fungus several times a turn, increasing your chances of finding native life.

[baruk]

2109

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- The scout that was chasing Yang got attacked by a mind worm. It took 20% damage and got promoted to Green. A shame that you don't seem to get any planet pearls unless you're the aggressor.
- Doctrine:Mobility is done. Secrets of the Human Brain was available this time, and will take 5 turns to research. Hopefully we're still on course to beat the University at their own game.