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[baruk]

I've noticed that screenshotting everything quickly becomes a compulsion. I going try to limit myself to between 3 and 7 shots per year - in particular I can probably cut out all the diplomacy screens. The maps are the main thing.

2123
Détente

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Resolving the transport bug

 Last year's cliffhanger involved 2 mind worms being buggily deployed on a freshly captured isle of the deep - the transport only has room for one of them, so what happens?

In this shot I have dropped off one mind worm at the north pole. The second worm is left behind and luckily seems able to float!

The next pic:

I was able to pick up the stranded mind worm, dropping it off at a nearby promontory. Meanwhile the gun foil found another pod.

Meeting Miriam

I discovered the Believers living on The Boot, under the leadership of some daft old woman. I traded them centauri empathy for their world map:

- The Believers have gun foils available. Which is annoying (probably traded to them by the Spartans).
- All demands for impact weaponry were ignored.
- Finally we agreed to a treaty.
 Note: there were six diplomacy screenshots here I decided to leave out. Not necessary!

The Home Front

- The formers split up to build a couple of new roads. The garrison in Fallow Time can scout the newly built fungus road each turn for more native life.
- UN Education Agency is building a transport foil, so I'll have my gun foil sweep the nearby area for pods as a priority.

The question of whether or not to trade for more tech

 Since I need money to hurry several constructions, I've decided to trade for as much tech as possible in order to sell it on to Lal (and possibly Santiago). If I don't trade techs, then someone else will, since most factions seem to have access to doctrine:flexibility and will soon start contacting each other.
 As previously mentioned, the drawback to obtaining more techs is a higher breakthrough cost. However, my thinking is that research should now play second fiddle to my plans for world domination - I have all the early techs that I need (apart from planetary networks), so I can now focus on ploughing energy credits into my burgeoning military-industrial complex.

The Diplomatic Roundup

 I contacted Santiago, and was able to trade centauri ecology, ethical calculus and biogenetics for applied physics, information networks and her world map. I then got in touch with Lal, selling him the two new techs, along with nonlinear mathematics for a total of 75 credits.
 Perhaps a dubious decision to trust Lal with impact weaponry, but I somewhat doubt that he will trade it to his nemesis Yang.

The two new techs:

Random thought: A network node in Gaia's Landing could be a worthwhile investment.

Fugu, the Spartan homeland:


For my seventh and final pic, a notable diplomatic coup:

- The truce takes the pressure off a little. Perhaps I can consider expanding a little a more whilst I marshal my forces.
- Yang also revealed he had developed synthmetal troops. Impact rovers will not have it easy trying to take his cities, but will still be useful in conjunction with native life.

Hurrying production

- The sea former was hurried for 28 energy credits, saving two turns of production (or 14 creds/turn).
- The impact rover was hurried for 57 energy credits, saving 3 turns of production (or 19 creds/turn).

 Not sure if this was an effective use of money, but I should still have enough credits available to hurry the recycling tanks at Fallow Time in a couple of turns (it hasn't yet reached the threshold of 10 minerals).

[Patchy]

Do you have the tech for crawlers yet? Forget what was needed for them. But mining and roading that mineral bonus just outside of Gaia's landing and Nessus Shining + sending a crawler to gather the minerals would give one of your bases a nice bump in production. Especially since that bonus is on a rocky tile it looks like.

[baruk]

Do you have the tech for crawlers yet? Forget what was needed for them. But mining and roading that mineral bonus just outside of Gaia's landing and Nessus Shining + sending a crawler to gather the minerals would give one of your bases a nice bump in production. Especially since that bonus is on a rocky tile it looks like.

Industrial Automation I don't have as yet. If I'm (very) lucky, Morgan will have researched it and will trade it to me - I should run into him soon. Building that mine remains a medium-term plan, something I hope to accomplish in the next 20 turns or so.

[baruk]

2124
Lal grows a spine

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Today's Headlines
Morgan makes his mark:

Hey, I want to build that! I can get by without it though, as I rarely go for the mega-terraforming projects, boreholes and what-not. Forests are generally more my thing.

A change in diplomatic relations:

Vendetta on the Hive, nice going Lal! Perhaps a result of Yang threatening him for his newly acquired nonlinear mathematics tech?

Pod-Popping
I got my first materials pod:

Note that I switched each of my colonies' production to Network Nodes beforehand just in case I got this result (since it's the most expensive building). Fallow Time is not the best spot for a Node right now, having only 3 energy income, but it wiil grow into it soon enough. Arguably a Children's Creche, whilst cheaper, would have been a better choice.

Sea Exploration
I found two more unity pods:

-[off-map] The other isle of the deep continued to explore Chokepoint Island, but found no sign of inhabitants.

The Home Front

- The new sea former started building a tidal collector on the energy bonus square. There's always a risk of these units getting eaten by native life when they don't have an escort ship to keep them safe, but I've decided to gamble.
- The road between Nessus Shining and Fallow Time is completed.
- [Power graph] The Gaians have had the largest military since capturing that second isle of the deep two turns ago.
- [Diplomacy} No contact with other powers this turn, as they can get huffy if you constantly pester them. Talking to them every other turn is a good rule of thumb.
- [Research] The Peacekeepers have switched their breakthrough goal to Planetary Networks, the vital tech that allows both Planned government and Probe teams. It will, however, take them 16 more years to obtain it.

[baruk]

2125
Windfall

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pod-popping has become a lucrative venture:

This replaces all that cash I blew through hurrying units the other turn. What will I spend it on?

Worm hunting
A mindworm at the north pole ran into company whilst moving through fungus. It failed the capture attempt and had to fight:


It won, gaining a level and 10 energy credits worth of planet pearls:


The home front

- Fallow Time finished building the freebie Network Node. It's up to 5 labs a turn from 3 (apparently the 50% node bonus rounds up). Next breakthrough will be a turn earlier in 2129 as a result.
- The scout rover finally made it back to the monolith to heal up.
- The impact rover got promoted at a different monolith. It is now disciplined.
- A former moved into Nessus Shining. The next terraforming project will be a road to the south west.
- [Diplomacy] I sold centauri empathy to the Spartans for 25 creds.

Sea exploration

- Still no sign of life on Chokepoint Island.
- The gun foil can start exploring the Cylonhead next turn.

The Shopping List
 I now have 170 energy credits to spend. There are several possibilities:

- Colony Pod at Nessus Shining ~40 EC
- Recycling Tanks at Fallow Time 44 EC
- Children's Creche in Gaia's Landing 60 EC
- Network Node in Gaia's Landing 108 EC
- Upgrading scout rover to impact 60 EC
- Upgrading gun foil to empath song 30 EC
- Upgrading gun foil to hypnotic trance 30 EC

 Note that I will wait until I have 10 minerals accumulated before hurrying constructions, because otherwise the cost is doubled.

[baruk]

2126
Artifact

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This year's pod-pop turned up our first relic of alien civilisation:


It was found in the southern seas by the isle of the deep exploring the coast of Chokepoint Island. It will be many turns before the isle returns home, hopefully I can keep it alive until then.


Activity at the North Pole
We're one mind worm better off:

Several turns back I dropped a surplus mind worm off at the north pole, giving it instructions to head east towards the HQ. It managed to find a friend - it captured a native mind worm that popped up from the fungus. The pair still have a long walk of 4 or 5 turns towards the monolith in the east. This is practically a Disney movie! Someone should suggest nicknames for the pair..

Sea Exploration

- The northern isle of the deep has collected the damaged mind worm at the pole. The plan is to collect unity pods from the various islands.
- The gun foil found a monolith on Cylonhead, confirming that it is inhabited.

The Home Front
We found a Hive scout patrol:

- The mind worm moved adjacent to The Hive to check its garrison. There are two units defending it, one synthmetal garrison, one scout patrol. I'll need at least 3 units, better 4 or 5 to have a chance of taking it.
- The former in the north finished the road on the rocky/nutrient bonus square.
- [off-map] The Spartans founded a fifth colony.
- [Diplomacy] I sold the Believers Lal's comm link for 20 creds. Which is not bad going!
Hurried constructions
- Spent 24 EC to finish the colony pod at Nessus Shining.
- Spent 98 EC finishing a Network Node at Gaia's Landing. I think it's worth it for 4 extra labs a turn.

[IronyOwl]

Heh, Iron and Pearl for the worms. Both because they're short, Pearl because evidently they have them, Iron because they're still horrifying engines of destruction.

[PTTG??]

Wait, UN Headquarters landed on top of Mount Planet?

[baruk]

The UN are indeed most dwarfy. The mind worm names have been noted down and squirreled away for future use - it will be a while before they get involved in the action.

2127
Setbacks

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A pod-pop in the north has found mind worms:

 A rover would have been a better choice to pop this pod, as it looks like I will now lose a mind worm, rather than having a chance of capturing a new one.

Sea exploration
The southern Isle of the Deep ran into a University transport foil:

You can see from the red base outlines that there are University colonies on Chokepoint Island and the Gauntlet Peninsula.

I had a chat with Zach. Here he is refusing to trade Planetary Networks:

Unfortunate. The backup plan is to obtain Planetary Networks from Lal, once he researches it
I finished the discussion by signing a treaty. There is a temptation to sink Zach's transport, and thereby promote my Isle of the Deep by one level so it has an additional transport slot. I must resist: maintaining the treaty is more important.


The home front

- The gun foil will claim another unity pod next turn. I decided against looking for Morgan on Cylonhead, as gaining all 6 comm links now will lead to an election for planetary governor. I will be better placed for the election in four turns, when I should have four extra units of population. Even then, I doubt that I'll win, but I may be able to swing the vote in favour of my ally Lal.
- The sea former, having completed a tidal collector, is now working on a kelp farm.
- Fallow Time's former has made a start on a solar collector, which will take eight turns. It ought to be worth it, as the square is at 3000+ elevation, and thus potentially worth four energy a turn.
- The colony pod has started moving towards its destination, under guard from a scout rover.
- Lal's colony pod stubbornly remains in place, refusing to settle.
- [Diplomacy] It turns out the Spartans also have Planetary Networks. Like Zach, they refuse to trade it.

Gaia's Landing has made some notable progress this year:

 The finished network node, combined with the completed tidal collector means the city can now generate 18 labs - dwarfing last turn's output of 8 labs. This brings the Gene Splicing breakthrough another year closer, to 2128 (next turn).

[baruk]

2128
Reprieve

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The native mind worm discovered last turn did not attack, and simply moved away. The plan of claiming island pods thus continued unabated.

 Perhaps a +3 planet rating affects the aggressiveness of native life? Or Planet doesn't yet treat trained native life units as hostile.

Research into Gene Splicing was completed:


Ecological Engineering was available to be studied, as I'd hoped:

This next breakthrough is scheduled in seven years time, in 2135.

 The gun foil's pod-pop gave us the Industrial Base tech.

 It seems like a disappointing result, as it's something I could have easily traded for. Still, not having to trade for it may be worth 25 creds.

I used my mind worm to scout another Hive city: People's Endeavour.

Again the garrison is one scout and one synthmetal. There was also a 2/2 laser squad occupying the monolith outside town.

The home front

- Since last turn: a Hive laser squad destroyed one of Lal's scout patrols.
- The recycling tanks in Fallow Time were hurried for 34 creds.

Diplomacy
- Sold Industrial Base to Lal for 25 creds.
- Sold Industrial Base and Social Psych to Santiago for 50 creds.
- Sold Zach's commlink to Miriam for 20 creds.
 This last item had an unintended consequence - when I contacted Zach, hoping that he would be interested in Gene Splicing, he began by suggesting a Pact against the Believers! Oh happy accident..

 I accepted, since I can afford to take the trustworthiness hit. However, he still wasn't interested in a trade. I even threatened him, but no dice. Zach only has 6 population, so I'm hoping he (and Lal) as loyal pact brothers will vote for me in the governor election. If I'm on the ticket, that is..
 Note that threatening him turned out to be a costly mistake, as it ended all negotiation with him for this year (as well as hurting our relationship). Karma soon had its vengeance on me when I later discovered that he is due to finish researching Applied Physics next turn, a tech I could easily have given him. A gut-wrenching waste of lab points. :-(

 I then looked up Santiago, who began negotiations by demanding Gene Splicing. She was happy to trade Planetary Networks for it!

Success here makes my impatience with Zach feel all the more foolish. Obviously the Virtual World is a much bigger deal for the University, and they value it accordingly.
 
A map of the University empire

[GlyphGryph]

Just wanted to say I'm enjoying following this! Don't really have much more to add though.

[Sheb]

Same here. I love the yearly update, it gives us a really detailled view of what's going on.

[baruk]

 Thanks guys, it's good to get some feedback. When I first read about zsozso's fast transcend games, I wanted as much detail as possible about how he went about it - I'm writing the sort of thing I'd liked to have read.

2129
Disaster

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Events since last turn
A native mind worm popped out of the fungus and ambushed my impact rover. With its retreat cut off by a Hive laser squad, the unit was destroyed.

Hopefully this should illustrate what happened (I didn't catch a screenshot of the battle). It was actually pretty close, the native life form ending up heavily wounded.
My mistake was positional, unnecessarily leaving a rover in between fungus and a Hive unit. This happened because I had tried to use the rover's second movement point to go back into the fungus, but it had bounced - whilst positive planet rating removes the movement penalty associated with travelling through fungus, I had mistakenly chosen an area of rocky fungus covered terrain, which will still cost 2 movement points.

Mop-up
A trance scout patrol from Nessus Shining moved up to dispense quick justice, and claimed the 10 energy credit prize.

This may also be a mistake, as moving the scout patrol out leaves Nessus Shining undefended for a turn. The other option was to use the scout rover, but in turn that would have left the colony pod undefended - though I suppose I could have moved it back with the rover, delaying its eventual settlement by a couple of turns.

Some positive news from this turn's pod-pop:

Once again, I prepared for the pod-pop by switching my colony production to the most expensive building available, in this case the research hospital. It does have a hefty maintenance cost of three, but it should be worth it. It acts like an additional network node, removes one drone and provides a psych bonus.

To be continued after the 2011 Dungeon Crawl tournament, Aug 13th - 28th

[baruk]

Right, where did we leave off?
I'd just lost my best military unit to a mind-worm: very annoying.
But Fallow Time got a Research Hospital built for free from a pod.

2129 continued
There's still a bit more to do in 2129.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The home front:

- I've moved Fallow Time's garrison unit into Nessus Shining to stop a potential riot. A complication of my garrison unit shuffling is that both cities grow this turn - this is the infamous/much loved (delete according to your personal taste) aspect of Civ-style games which forces you to anticipate and prevent unrest by shuffling police units and turning workers into entertainers/psych producers the turn before growth takes place.
 I'm a little rusty on the Alpha Centauri turn sequence, so I'm not sure if the new garrison unit (that is one turn from completion in Nessus Shining) will pop up in the city in time to quell any riots, or if the growth happens first, with the riot putting a stop to production. I'm more certain that Fallow Time will be safe from riots next turn, as I have a feeling that buildings that remove drones like the Research Hospital are somehow prioritised in the turn sequence.
 In other words, that mind worm really turned up at a bad time..
- The gun foil is backtracking in order to avoid Cylonhead (which I'm 90% certain is CEO Morgan's hideout). I don't want to meet the seventh and final faction leader until 2131, so that the election for governor is triggered when I have eight council votes available, rather than four.
- [Diplomacy] Lal didn't want to speak with me. Best to give it a rest this year.

Sea exploration:
 The University transport foil decided against grabbing the unity pod.

 My isle of deep off-loaded its alien artifact in preparation for popping the pod next turn - it only has one transport slot and I want a chance of getting another artifact.

[PTTG??]

Oh hey, you're back!