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[baruk]

2110
- The hunt for mind worms continues in the SE. No luck yet.
- The damaged scout is heading to Gaia's Landing for repairs.
- The former continues to lay down roads.
- Both colonies switch to building recycling tanks. With Lal buying our tech on a regular basis, we should be able to finish them in the next few turns.
- I sold Lal the Hive commlink for 10 creds.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I switch the worker in Gaia's Landing to the energy bonus square. The city still gets to grow in 2 turns, whilst producing one more lab point. This is enough to get the Secrets tech a turn earlier, in 2113.

[baruk]

Summary: 2101 to 2010

The bad
- No nutrient bonus.
- No unity rover.
- No captured mind worms.
- Encountering the Hive's military early whilst unprepared. Yang's scout stealing two of my supply pods was very painful to watch (but not as bad as losing a city I suppose).
- Not getting Secrets tech available as early as I'd like.

The good
- 2 Energy bonus squares for my first colony.
- A river and a monolith for my second colony.
- Fungus/river squares for mind worm hunting.
- An early pact with Lal.

The mistakes
- Forgetting about the tech overspill bug.
- Forgetting to prepare for the supply pod completion bonus (by switching colony production to expensive stuff), though it didn't cost me anything this time.

The decisions
In order of most to least controversial
- Hurrying the former in 2102. With 3 supply pods nearby (and unknown neigbours), arguably building a scout patrol should have been the priority at game start. This may be hindsight induced by that run-in with Yang.
- Prioritising road-building rather than getting an early forest. I decided that early game I was mainly going to use the 2 food squares in order to grow ASAP, so mobility became the priority. But an early forest would have had a chance to spread.
- Researching Doctrine:Mobility rather than Industrial Base. Synthmetal troops could hold off the Hive for a while, buying more time for me to find a mind worm army.
- Not trading centauri ecology to the Hive for peace. Appeasement could have given me the breathing room I needed to build a third city. Alternatively, Yang could have just have kept demanding more tech. Not a clear cut decision.
- Going for recycling tanks rather than more units. Extra units would start costing me support, and the extra food per turn will be particularly useful since my colonies lack a nutrient bonus.

Plans
- To finally collect that supply pod North of Gaia's Landing. It seemed too risky to do this until I had two scout patrols available in the area.
- Hurrying our recycling tanks (once they hit 10 minerals) will cost about 40 creds each. I think it's a good investment.
- Secrets of the Human Brain happens to be a pre-requisite for centauri empathy, which allows the GREEN social engineering choice. This would give the Gaians +3 GREEN overall (but costs 40 energy creds).
- Doctrine:Flexibility is another priority. We want to expand to other islands, of course, but also we want to be the first to collect supply pods from the sea. Cheap gun boats are the best approach, as we can always capture Isles of the Deep to use as transports.

Get Involved! Was there anything you would have done differently?

[IronyOwl]

I probably would have gone for improvements rather than the road. They're handy, but it's a pretty significant bonus to resource production to give up for getting your troops from one point to the other faster. Especially since for the most part you don't have any troops.

I wouldn't worry too much about the supply pods. There wasn't a whole lot scouting would have done for you at that point, so turtling was the right move. The pods might have had something vital in them, but could just have likely been something not worth worrying about (or even bad).

Disapprove of not trading Yang the tech for peace, though, at least until you're ready to dispose of him. In my experience, buying yourself more time like that is almost always worth it unless you're ready to go (or at least ready to get ready to go) right then and there.

[Patchy]

Well what can I say. If you know reasonably well what you are doing, winning against the ai isn't that hard, and it becomes more a race against your own best time for winning. The fast transcend plan has always been a bit risky in my eyes. It's very dependant on chance events going right for you, and too many of them going wrong can seriously set back the time with which you transcend. Looks like at this juncture you might need a change of plans, maybe a fast conquest or still try for a reasonably speedy transcend.

Anyways I'm with Irony here in thinking you probably should have given the hive the tech for peace to start with. Afterall, tangling with an ai opponent on transcend difficulty while you have only a few scout patrols is generally bad news.

[baruk]

 I'm taking a calculated risk with Yang. I feel that all I need is one captured mind worm to change things dramatically in my favour.
 Additionally, I'm not sure if a truce with Yang is worth all that much. If he researches Laser his power rating will shoot up, and he is likely to backstab me (perhaps I give the AI too much credit here).

 If I'm the first to research Secrets of the Human Brain, my plan is to take centauri empathy if available. However, if I still don't have any mind worms by then, it may be a good idea to grab industrial base for Synthmetal.

[baruk]

2111
 An uneventful turn.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hurrying the recycling tanks at Nessus Shining.
I make a partial payment of 34 energy credits so that it finishes next turn. As long as you already have 10 minerals, the cost of hurrying a building is 2 credits per mineral.

[baruk]

2112
A busy turn, 3 notable things happened:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. The recycling tanks at Nessus Shining was completed: the first base facility on Planet.


2. My scout patrol finally popped the unity pod north of Gaia's Landing and got.. a monolith. A very nice find, but of course I feel silly for not exploring it earlier.
 I had decided to delay exploring it until I had 2 scout patrols in the area. This would give me a chance of capturing any resultant mind worms with the backup unit (if they popped up next to Gaia's Landing).
 Additionally:
- the former finished the road between the two colonies. Its next project will be a forest on one of the moist squares.
- Gaia's Landing grew to two population.


3. Lal offered me a map of Hive territory for doctrine:mobility. This seemed quite useful, so I accepted.


The Hive map. Note the monsoon jungle feature (+1 food each square) to the south. And two more unity pods.


 More science tweaking. I switch to 100% labs in order to eliminate any tech overspill next turn - essentially it means I get 4 extra lab points in the next tech I research. Micromanagement is a necessary evil for optimal play.

[IronyOwl]

(perhaps I give the AI too much credit here).

Definitely not, but even the ten turns you're relatively guaranteed with giving him the tech would generally be worth it, I think.

Then again, your strategies, especially the mind worm thing, aren't usually what I use.

[baruk]

2113
Decisions, decisions

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We're first to the Secrets tech. But which bonus tech should we take?




I take doctrine:flexibility, and then start researching centauri empathy. I've now decided to commit to my mind worm military strategy, so I pass on the possibility of acquiring Laser or Synthmetal.



 Our new tech allows us to design units with the hypnotic trance ability (+50% PSI defence). Useful as an emergency upgrade.

[Patchy]

Is UN Headquarters on the very top of Mount Planet? I thought bases couldn't be built there.... oh well, since when did the keepers get so dwarfy? I do think I've seen that a couple times though, too bad only the ai can build on it.

[IronyOwl]

Is UN Headquarters on the very top of Mount Planet? I thought bases couldn't be built there.... oh well, since when did the keepers get so dwarfy? I do think I've seen that a couple times though, too bad only the ai can build on it.

Yeah, was wondering about that.

[baruk]

It turns out you can build cities on the lava as long as the square isn't rocky. Just a goofy oversight by Firaxis.

Hmm.. think I'll split this year across two posts. It might be easier to read.
2113 continued
Yet more decisions

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's time for a third city, I've set Nessus Shining to work on the colony pod. There are two locations of note:

Items of interest:
- I've sent the northern scout to explore the small patch of land near the pole.
- The UN have finally built a second city, UN Planetary Trust.
- The former has started planting forest.
- Nessus Shining has now grown to two population.
- [Off-map] The two unity pods near the Hive have turned into monoliths. Yang's been busy.

Pressing the "E" key - A look at Social Engineering Settings


 I have my first political option available - switching to Fundamentalist. It's not completely out of the question - the +1 morale may be worth it in the future if it boosts my hypothetical mind worm army.
 Another decision: I've gone for 70/30 labs, which gets me my next tech in 5 turns, along with 3 energy a turn. The other option is 100/0 labs, which would manage a tech every 4 turns, however I would have to switch my workers to the best energy squares, costing me mineral production in both colonies. I've decided it's not worth it.
edit: I've noticed a third option, where I keep 70/30 labs and switch one worker to get tech in 4 turns. Doing this instead.

Don't be afraid to retool


 Now that we have doctrine:flexibility, we can take to the the high seas. To make the most of this advance, I've decided to switch Gaia's Landing from building the recycling tanks to a gun foil, at the cost of one mineral in retooling costs. Collecting the sea's unity pods before the other factions could potentially net us dozens of energy credits.
 Another thing worth hurrying. I make a partial payment of 5 for the two minerals I need - as a rule of thumb, units (as opposed to facilities) tend to cost anywhere between 2 and 4 energy per mineral. You have the number of minerals and their total cost so you can always figure it out with arithmetic (I round-up what I pay to avoid disappointment).

[Robsoie]

I don't know if you are aware of it, but there is an unofficial SMAC and SMAX patch that fixes several of the game problems that were never fixed :
http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7511

It has worked good for me on my recent games.
Though i can't say if it's old save game compatible, so if you have not yet applied it maybe it's better to wait for the end of your current lets play.

additionally, there is a fork of this unofficial patch that introduce lots of AI improvement :
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=56203
though this one i never tried.

[baruk]

 I might try those out in my next playthrough.

2114

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Another first on Planet:


 Lal is speaking to me again. I sold him the Secrets tech for 25 creds, so I should be able to hurry my colony pod next turn.


 I found some more unity pods:

- The ship found a pod to the west. I don't grab it immediately, I'd rather open a pod with my first movement point, so I have a chance to capture any isle of the deep, and possibly run away if that fails.
- Scouting (and Lal's map update) turned up two more unity pods in the north.
- I've moved Nessus Shining's scout garrison one square north (I had to change one worker into a doctor to avoid unrest, since on Transcend difficulty drones start at population two). I want to pop the unity pod to the northeast next turn, so it's an opportunity to capture a mind worm if one turns up (I also have to protect my former). This will look incredibly dumb if a Hive unit now pops out of the fungus to take my undefended city.

[baruk]

2115
Pod-popping

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 An earthquake and a nutrient bonus, not bad. Note the UN scout just found another monolith from the other pod. Edit: I moved the garrison unit back into Nessus Shining later.

 The gun foil managed to justify its existence right off the bat:

 Even better there was a bonus mind worm on board the isle of the deep.

 We need to expand ASAP, so I hurried the colony pod:

 It was 28 credits for 11 minerals, so a partial payment of 16 was enough to ensure it finishes next turn.