LibriumArcana.Games

So I felt like AARing but am in no mood to revive my abandoned Italian HoI2 one (though I might at a later date, pretty sure I still have the save game and mods). Instead, I will chronicle a game of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire, or SMAX, that I noticed became uniquely interesting.

I'll be kind of assuming familiarity with the game, but if you are not familiar with it, then reading the wikipedia article for SMAC and SMAX will bring you up to speed in a few minutes. I will, however, also explain some things myself, and am quite willing to answer questions.

As a warning, this first post is boring as hell because nothing happens, I'm just setting-up the situation in the beginning. It will hopefully not be indicative of the rest of this AAR, and things should become more interesting in the next update, as I will start to make plans and do stuff. Anyway...

I set up the world as follows: random map, large planet, 30-50% water, rare native life, weak erosive forces*, sparse cloud cover*, Thinker difficulty (second hardest), Nautilus Pirates faction for me, random factions for everyone else.

*Means that there will be lots of rocky (high mineral content) squares and solar collectors will be more efficient. This, along with the low water content, benefits my rival land-lubber factions.

I enabled these rules: All victory conditions, allied victory, flexible starting locations, steal tech when conquer base, blind research, intense rivalry, and world map not visible.

My opposing factions wound-up being the University (Zakharov), Peacekeepers (Lal), Drones (Domai), Believers (Miriam), Caretakers (H'minee), and Usurpers (Marr). The latter two are aliens, they don't get along with each other, or the humans.

This was just another game at first, so I took no screenshots or recorded my actions for 120 turns. I did, however, save my game in the first turn, so I am able to show you my starting position.



Peacekeeper's starting position is just East of the upper section of the displayed map area. My home base, Safe Haven, I built a bit North and West, after my scout ship ran into the Geothermal Shallows (bonus energy on each square).

What follows next is the landmark accomplishments made by the Nautilus Pirates over the next 120 years, as recorded in the Monuments screen.

2103 - Captain Svensgaard founds Safe Heaven, first Nautilus base since Planetfall. (First human base was founded in 2101 by Zakharov of the University)

2107 - Nautilus scientists make first scientific discovery since Planetfall, Centauri Ecology. (Mankind's first post-Planetfall discovery was made by University scientists in 2104)

2138 - Nautilus researchers discover Secrets of the Human Brain.

Note: It's a landmark discovery that gives a bonus tech to whomever first finds it. It's also a good way measure of who is ahead in the technological race.

2146 - Nautilus engineers build their first Naval vessel. (The Peacekeepers founded Planet's first naval corps in 2142)

Note: You need a military vessel to qualify, until then I was building only civilian ships. The warships came-in just time.

2151 - Captain Svensgaard wins first Planetary battle against Lal of the Peacekeepers!

Note: The bastard was asking for it. He kept whining about UN Charter and demanding I hand over technology. Well fuck him, Pirates don't hand over anything for free. Naturally, this was a naval battle, I used my first ship to sink his first ship.

2157 - Nautilus workers build their first base facility. (University workers built Planet's first facility in 2123)

Note: This has been an incredibly slow game for me, in terms of both expansion and technological advancement. I don't think in even my first game I took this long to get to my first facility. I'm sure all Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire veterans are snickering now.

2168 - Captain Svensgaard of the Pirates captures U.N. Aid Station to achieve the first conquest on Planet!

Note: Thirteen years to build enough offensive units to successfully invade Lal's little island, and another four to get my first conquest. I was so not ready for war, but neither was he, though he did have a bigger army.

2170 - Nautilus engineers construct their first prototype. (Peacekeeper engineers built Planet's first prototype in 2139)

Note: I didn't see the need to waste money upgrading my forces until I saw Peacekeeper units sporting lasers. Prototypes are the first unit equipped with a new technology, and they are 50% more expensive than the normal production run, a bit like real life.

2178 - Captain Svensgaard's engineers build Planet's first Secret Project: The Weather Paradigm.

Note: 50% faster terraforming, how could I not try to get this project?

2221 - The Pirates have eradicated the Peacekeepers! Brother Lal has been captured and interrogated.

Note: Seventy years, I spent seventy fucking years of the first 120 fighting the god-dammed Peacekeepers. Would have been less, but when I sued for peace and graciously offered them some technology, they brazenly asked for more after accepting the offer. Thanks to this lengthy and draining war my expansion and infrastructure projects were crippled, putting me even more behind the curve than I otherwise would have been.


This brings us to the present day, the year is 2221 and I have just eliminated the Peacekeeper faction. Despite "Do or Die" being disabled, they did not get a second chance. Messages earlier in the game informed me that Zakharov was taken out by the Ursurpers, as was Miriam, however the Believers were able to make their escape and start over elsewhere.


Here is the Pirate faction seen as a whole, it consists of 11 bases, 4 on land, and 7 at sea. I have not been able to contact any one other than Lal because my explorations efforts were hampered by that little spat we had (natives sinking my ships didn't help either). You can also see from the relative power graph that the damnable aliens have become the utterly uncontested most powerful faction on Planet. I hold the second place by far, in both directions, hence the title of this AAR.

The red squares are fungal towers, accursed things which spawn mind worm boils, spore launchers, and other assorted nasties. Worst of all, they continuously produce fungus, which constant enemy of terraformation efforts.




This is a close-up of the core of my Empire. You can also see the remains of the Peacekeeper faction. I hold three of their bases, there were one or two more that were destroyed by the fierce street-to-street combat and abandoned. Of the three remaining bases, I'm abandoning the two western ones because I do not like their location.

My best two bases are Safe Heaven and Port Svensgaard, both have a gross industrial output of 11 minerals. The display at the bottom tells you that I make two energy a year and make a research breakthrough every twelve years. It also tells you that Conqueror Marr of the Usurpers has better everything than me except energy reserves.




This is my research window, you can see that my most advanced development is Centauri Empathy, which after more than a 100 turns is pathetic. I have also displayed the two technologies that I intend to acquire in the near future, though with no directed research, I can only tell my scientists which general field to focus on.




My current military disposition: Navy consisting of two gunships (1,1,4), one laser skimship (2,2,4), and two transports (0,1,4). Army consisting of 3 Impact Squads (4,2,1), 1 Impact Rover (4,1,2), and 13 Synthmetal Garrisons (1,2,1). No air force. Special Ops division consisting of 1 probe team (1,2).

Note: Unit stats are listed as (attack, defense, movement points), probes and civilian units have no attack value.

My current civilian units consist of two land formers, and seven sea formers.

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EDUCATIONAL SPOT: Formers are engineering units dedicated to terraforming the environment. On land they can build roads, mines, farms, and solar collectors; plant farms and forests, and remove fungus. With advanced technology, or Weather Paradigm, they can raise or lower terrain, build echelon mirrors (super solar collector), condensers (create artificial rain, increasing farm output), dig thermal borehole (super mines, give minerals and energy), or drill to an aquifer to create a new river. On the sea, they can plant kelp (food source), build tidal harnesses, build mining platforms, and remove sea fungus. These things can only be done on ocean shelf (depth <1000m) unless you're the Nautilus Pirates and have researched ecological engineering. Sea Formers can also raise and lower terrain.

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Finally, I have a total population of 34 citizens scattered over 11 bases, which in game terms is 340,000 people, but as far as I'm concerned equals 3,400,000 people. Why the extra zero? Because getting a base to a 100 citizens is rather difficult (I've never seen it), and I have a hard time believing that civilizations as technologically advanced as the factions in SMAC can get would have a hard time supporting a city of a million people.

Time to sling out the Probes dude. Can you even talk to the aliens right now?

frigidmagi wrote:Time to sling out the Probes dude. Can you even talk to the aliens right now?

I haven't contacted anyone except Lal yet, and no I can't talk to the Aliens anyway, haven't researched Progenitor Psych. I'll try to focus on Discover techs soon-ish, so I can do so.

Note: I made a mistake earlier, Nautilus Pirates can't build on deep sea squares until they get Advanced Ecological Engineering, which is a ways off, unfortunately.

Okay, so on with the game.

The summary of the situation is as follows:

-I have explored most of the Northern Sea and encountered no-one save Lal of the Peacekeers. There are, however, several resource rich areas which are perfect for future expansion.
-After a 70 year war with the Peacekeepers, the Pirates are weak and underdeveloped. It cannot, however, be safely assumed that other factions are in the same boat.
-The experience of the war showed that superior infrastructure and industry (Pirates) defeats superior military (Peacekeepers) eventually.

Based upon that, a set of priorities have been drawn.
1) Demobilize from war economy and begin using peace-time economic policies to build a strong infrastructural core that will ensure the strength of Nautilus.
2) Clean-up own backyard and keep the drones happy.
3) Resume expansion, secure resource rich areas and attain footholds on nearby land-masses.
4) Resume exploration and attempt to find the status of other factions and the mysterious aliens who arrived after we did.


In meeting the first priority, I have engaged the social engineering screen and changed my government and economical structures from Frontier and Simple to Democracy and Green. The best part is the high efficiency, which should help me capitalize on my only advantage: wealth.




To meet the second priority I have most of my bases building Recreation Domes. Also, Port Svensgaard is finishing the Virtual World, a Secret Project that makes it so that Network Nodes, which improve research, can double as Hologram Theatres, which make the populace happier. I am also abandoning (by spamming colony pods until out of population) the two western Peacekeeper bases I captured, because their positioning sucks. Terraforming efforts in the area shall, of course, continue.

I also began to construct colony pods and sea colony pods so as to expand my resource base and meet the third priority. I have already eyed several promising locations, with the Uranium Flats being topping the list since it both gives me a foothold in what appears to be the mainland, and access to vast energy resources.

Finally, for the last priority I sent my navy, no longer needed to blockade Peacekeeper ports and out of a job, out to explore the wide world. I also had Port Svensgaard begin building the Empath Guild, which uses psychics to set-up communications with every single faction (as a bonus, it also infiltrates their Datalinks). My Navy was able to get results almost immediately. As it was exploring the New Sargasso Sea just south by south-east of Port Svensgaard, one of my skimship squadrons* ran into some of the UNS Unity wreckage which contained a comm link to Sister Miriam of the Believers.

That same year, I finished building a colony pod that I intend to move to the Uranium Flats, along with a former, and two impact infantry battalions (4,2,1) to establish a base there. It will give me a foot hold in the mainland and is well positioned to be support and be supported by Cape Point, which is a ways from the rest of my holdings.



*Note: When I say "unit" or "squadron" or "brigade" I mean a single infantryman, rover, ship, or aircraft as shown in the world map. Obviously they are meant to represent large military formations, not one dude or vehicle. If I have more than one unit of any type together, I'll call it a division, corps, army, or fleet. Probes (special ops teams) are the exception to this, they're just "teams" or "probes".


I contacted Miriam immediately, and was informed of the dreadful situation with the Aliens. She pleaded for help, but being cautious I was non-committal. We did sign a trade pact and traded technology, I am glad she asked for Centauri Empathy, maybe she'll be able to beg the Usurpers to stop pillaging and burning her holdings. I was also able to get out of her, for a price, a commlink to Foreman Domai of the Free Drones.




Upon contacting Domai, I was amazed to find that he was at war with the Believers! Still fighting while facing annihilation from a merciless alien enemy! I was aghast, to say the least. He wanted me to give him technology, but would not agree to trade his in return. We did, however, agree to a trading pact. Then I asked the Free Drones and Believers to cease their pointless self-destructive conflict. Domai said that he was willing to stop if Miriam was, and after talking to Miriam she agreed to call it off and present a united front.

Having contacted all human factions, Sister Miriam called a Planetary Council meeting to elect a world leader. Captain Svensgaard easily won the election by a landslide, being the only faction leader whose population had not been ravaged by alien hordes. So as starting on 2225, the Nautilus leader is Planetary Governor. I had the Empath Guild cancelled, thinking a probe team would be able to infiltrate the aliens well enough.




On 2226, one of my scouting gunship (1,1,4) squadrons, which had I had foolishly not upgraded to laser (2,2,4) or impact (4,2,4) skimship specifications, encountered a lone Usurper artillery unit. I had happened to discover Progenitor Psych only a couple of turns earlier, so I was able to communicate.




They immediately demanded a massive tribute from me, which I flatly refused, so they declared war, citing my friendly relations with the Believers as casus belli. With war upon me, I tried to seek Brotherhood Pacts (alliances) with both Domai and Miriam. The first accepted, and graciously, shared all map data. This revealed the human situation to be dire in the extreme. A combined four bases, with a mere 800,000 inhabitants, in the face of a massive aggressive alien horde backed by 21 bases.

The most shocking thing is that about 2/3rds of the alien bases were of original human construction. Whatever happened on this continent while I was busy in the North, it was an epic failure of will, nerve, and competence on the part of the human factions. The fact that the two survivors were still nominally at war with each other when I showed-up is proof enough of that. I really have no hope of being able to save them, they are living on borrowed time. The Nautilus Pirates are obviously humanity's last hope.




Once those last four bases are taken or destroyed, and I am certain they will be, Conqueror Marr of the Usurpers shall stand unopposed on Planet's main landmass. The one power that was in the best position to challenge them turned out to be no threat, the Manifold Caretakers were themselves taken care off before I even knew of the situation.




While she rejected my proposal for alliance (God knows why), Miriam did, however, ask for financial support. Despite not expecting to ever see that money again, I did not have the heart to deny her, so I gave half of what was asked.




Due to the state of war, I tried moving my warships away from Usurper units. However, they were unable to clear artillery range and were engaged by the batteries they had met earlier. Lacking modern weaponry, the ships did not fare very well, taking moderate damage and failing to dish-out the same.




The Free Drones are done for, with the loss of Anvil of Man, their last remaining productive base and army units are gone. Likely they'll be destroyed entirely by the end of 2228. Then it's the Believer's turn, and there is nothing I can do about it.

A grim situation man. I hope you can strike back quickly!

frigidmagi wrote:A grim situation man. I hope you can strike back quickly!

I'm too busy hoping the Usurpers won't be able to build a credible navy any time soon.

I'm unfamiliar with the game how do they handle air units?

frigidmagi wrote:I'm unfamiliar with the game how do they handle air units?

Needlejets(Synthetic fossil fuel-powered aircraft) can spend a turn heading out, and by the next turn, must land in an airstrip or friendly base, or a carrier vessel. They can hit pretty nasty given the advantage of air, but sustainability is a bitch.

'Copters take a bit of 'damage' each turn not on a strip or base or carrier, as their fuel plummets. They can attack repeatedly.

'Gravtanks', which are sci-fi, soar endlessly and just beat people with sticks. Or matter disruptors. As the case may be.

I've been wondering why the map seems to be horribly dry, and have just realized that it is because I chose "sparse cloud cover", less clouds means less rain. In trying to give the enemy AIs an advantage, I may have actually disadvantaged them, since more energy from solar collectors (which they don't build that much) doesn't trump less food from farms (which they do build a lot). It might also explain, to an extent, the Usurper's early success. They started next to the Monsoon Jungle, which has +1 nutrients per square. Of course, the Believers also started next to the Monsoon jungle, so one still wonders why they got pwnt and not the other way around.


Now back to our regularly scheduled AAR:

Did I not say that the Free Drones would be gone by the end of 2228? Well, I was right. So long Domai, it was nice a friendship while it lasted.




On 2229, one of my Skimship squadrons captured an Isle of the Deep with a Spore Launcher, both of them pre-boil size. A fortuitous development, since it means more ships with which to explore the world.




I changed my mind about building a base in the Uranium Flats. The Usurpers would use their ginourmous army to overrun it before long, making any attempts to settle the area an expensive exercise in futility. Instead I will establish a base in the place I have marked with a light blue X, it has access to nutrient and energy resources, as well as nearby rocky terrain, and thus excellent potential. I did, however, deploy my two Impact Infantry brigades (4,2,1) to the Uranium Flats to get a good look at the place so that I may properly plan when I finally do settle it.




I'm using my IotD and SL to explore a small island off the Usurper's northern coast. You can see that several of the Usurper cities where originally built by humans. A few more look like normal Alien cities, but from the names you can also tell they were originally human, namely: Hallowed Ground, Judgement Seat, New Jerusalem, Lord's Truth, and The Lord's [something].




I built a new base on Peacekeeper Island (the island where the PKs where before I conquered them) in 2230. Its access to three nutrient resources should ensure that Sailor's Delight both lives up to its name and grows rapidly, which will prove vital in reaching the goal of having a strong infrastructural base, as a large population of workers is one of the key components of large industrial capacity.




Thanks to an odd time-space-warp found when investigating an UNS Unity pod, my SL has been cloned. This is great, it means twice more ground can be covered in the same amount of time.




My units have found a nutrient resource in the Uranium Flats! As if I needed more reasons to exploit them. Perhaps if I use a Sea Former to make a channel that will cut-off the area from the main continent...




My survey efforts in the island have revealed nutrient and energy resources, clearly this is a prime colonization area. Its vicinity to Usurper territory makes it a vaiable staging ground for future offences, a way to check Usurper expansion, and a big fat target for any aircraft the Aliens develop. Because of the last point, I must consider settlement very carefully.




In 2235 a new base was established and named... Penzance
Too bad it'll likely be a secondary base, with a name like that it would be awesome if it were one of my primary industrial centres.
The Sea Colony Pod to the north-east is heading to the area marked with the light blue X. There are no special resources, but the four rocky areas mean it'll likely be an okay production centre.




See that red ship over there? That's an Usurper foil squadron with impactor weapons and plasma steel armour, giving them (4,3,4) stats. You may notice there are no friendlies within visual range, so how come I can see it? Well, there was a friendly unit nearby, the bastards sunk my ships. This is a troubling development, it means Marr is building a navy, though I don't know how big a one yet, he could have one ship or twenty. The location of the vessel does suggest it did not come from the coastal bases that are near my territory, and that, at least, is good. Due to its direction of travel, I can only assume the squadron intends to raid my territory, so I will be responding accordingly. I have warships on standby at Parrot Landing and Port Svensgaard for just such an eventuality.




A new base is built in 2238, unfortunately named Point Blood. It's a really cool name, but its completely out of the way location means the only blood it is likely to see will be from mining and industrial accidents, not combat. Maybe I shall swap names if some other base sees enough battle to earn the title. Also, after retrieving them from the Uranium Flats, I am using my infantry units to explore the vicinity of Cape Point and Penzance.




And the exploration bears fruit! I found a new Unity Transport, and as a sea-based nation I can always use more transports.




The squadron I sent to look for the invading Usurper ships has found its quarry. Unfortunately a nearby artillery unit damaged it on the way, making the fight more even than I would like, but should the assault fail there is another squadron on standby, since a 1-2 score is better than 0-2.



It is a close battle, but fortunately my forces are victorious! I have gotten revenge for my lost warships, and also gotten even. This is a rather special moment, 2239 is the year of the first Nautilus victory against the hated Alien enemy.

Unfortunately, the first unit fell far too easily for comfort. Clearly synthmetal cannot stand-up to current enemy offensive weapons, let alone future developments. High energy chemistry needs to be researched soon, so better quality armour can be developed and deployed. Our scientists will be ordered to focus their efforts in the relevant field once ecological engineering has been mastered.

Speaking of research, I have not mentioned what technological progress has been made over the past couple of decades, I will cover that in the next update.

This was done Sunday night, but I forgot to post it until just now.

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a busy lately. I wish I could get 3 or 4 updates a week, but that might require sacrificing school, work, or social life on a regular basis. I can promise at least one update a week, indeed I will promise one update every weekend (defined as between 12PM Friday and 6AM Monday), so if I update during the work week, you can expect at least one other update to come during the week end.

Anyway, our saga continues:

New city founded on 2240. I have no idea what Meergard means, but it sounds cool! You may notice something a bit odd in the power-graph, the Usurpers had a massive spike followed by a large drop. I don't think it means anything other than the calculation program having a hiccup.




I wasn't informed of it, so I don't know when it happened, but Miriam lost her smaller city. The Usurpers are still pressing the Believers hard. I'm tempted to feel bad about it but they're crazy lunatics anyway. I am more concerned about the Alien's armed forces shifting their attention to me once their continent is cleansed. At least the Believers are proving a hard nut to crack, but they'll definitely be gone soon regardless.




I have built a Colony Pod at Safe Heaven, and abandoned U.N. Great Refuge. Transports are on the way to pick-up both pods and ferry them to their destinations in the islands to the west.




My formers have finished raising terrain north of U.N. Planning Authority, eliminating the small lake and allowing me to resettle that base's population.




Exploration east of Capetown has yielded an Alien Artefact! They can be used to obtain new technologies or rush Secret Projects. I intend to hoard them for the Projects. I never mentioned it before, but I actually have an Artefact in Deadman Tavern, I think I stole it from the Peacekeepers, but maybe I just found it on Drunk Isle.




Population of U.N. Planning Authority resettled further north. The name of the new base, Pirate's Siege, is all sorts of awesome. Unfortunately, it is rather ill positioned for such awesomeness, though not completely, it's pretty close to a bunch of fungus, so maybe it'll get besieged by worms. You may notice I also went on a naming spree, I think it will be easier on my audience if the names I have given the landmarks in my territory are visible.




In the north-western part of the map a Colony Pod has landed, I used the captured IotD to ferry it, and will be using the two captured SLs to explore the island. There is a a transport with a second Colony Pod just east of the first, and a third transport with yet another Pod north of Port Svensgaard. The route of the last transport is shown by the blue line. The second transport will land on the western part of the same island as the first.




I promised a tech update, didn't I? Well, here it is. In 2247 I completed research of Industrial Automation, and the other advances I have made are visible on the lower left. I did not, however, research Field Modulation, that I bought off Miriam, who finally agreed to give it to me after years insisting. She also became my Pact Sister, not that this will help her much, or at all.




My first city on the island to the west is named Land Lock, clever, but inappropriate for a coastal city. I'm going to have to rename it eventually. My exploring SLs have found a volcano on the island I've just settled. No I didn't name it Mount Planet, that's a default landmark, the terrain just around the mouth of the volcano has +1 energy and +1 minerals. I did name the Artic Sea and the Western Great Northern Ocean, though. You may note that Land Lock already has a garrison unit, I rush built one since it's in virgin territory and thus in danger from native life.




The UNS Unity pods have yielded a Rover unit (1,1,2) and an Alien Artefact, great haul!




My intrepid Impact Skimship (4,2,4) squadron enters the only connection between the Great Northern Ocean and the the yet-unnamed southern oceans. It is possible for a land unit to move west from Garland Crater and arrive at the Manifold Nexus without once needing the aid of a transport. This 524m deep straight constitutes an important strategic chockepoint, and it is vital that I soon put a sea base on it so as to control all traffic through it. It also needs to have a cool name.




A Fungal Bloom (fugus expanding into previously non-fungal squares) occurred between Port Svensgaard and Meergard. I mobilized a couple of Impact Skimship squadrons to counter possible native life attacks. I also rush-built a Transport (0,3r,4) with prototype Resonance Armour (3r) which gives a defense bonus against native attacks, so I could upgrade my garrisons should I spot native life approaching. It proved to be a false alarm, though. On an unrelated note, you can see a Former drilling a thermal borehole in one of the islets next to Provision Point. I'm expecting it will turn into a major industrial centre. Also, Port Svensgaard is building The Citizen's Defence Force, a secret project that will provide a Perimeter Defence building for free at every one of my bases.




The Unity Rover unit accidentally triggers a fungal bloom. No native life appears, however, so it is not in immediate danger, but the nearby Fungal Tower will be attacked and destroyed anyway. My transports are also close to arriving at their destinations and unloading their colonizing cargo. Also, notice that the economic status summary at the bottom shows +17 yearly energy income. It's been like that for 21 years now, despite increasing costs. This means Nautilus' physical growth is not outstripping its economic growth, definitely a good thing.




I end today with a bit of combat. I sent an Elite (highest training/morale level) Impact Squad brigade to assault a large Fungal Tower near Capetown and Penzance so as to curb fungal growth in the area. You can see here the combat modifiers being applied to both sides, and how the odds benefit me slightly.



It was a very fierce, close, and bloody battle, my unit suffered heavy casualties, amounting to 90% of its strength. While victorious, it is incapable of further combat operations, and will surely be destroyed if attacked.

The Unity Rover at Mount Planet also engaged in combat against a Fungal Tower. The enemy was less formidable, but so was the unit I tasked to attack it. The battle was also very close, but my Rover wasn't damaged as severely. Unfortunately I did not take a screenshot.

Gotta upgrade those troops man. No doubt about it.

Side note, while you don't like Miram would it be a good idea to slide her some resources and such if you can spare them to drag out the war she's fighting? If nothing else it would buy you time if it worked.

frigidmagi wrote:Gotta upgrade those troops man. No doubt about it.

For battles with native life, it's all about the unit's training/experience level, its weapons don't matter, except for a couple of exceptions. These battles are mostly psychic, the native life forms are actually not that dangerous physically, a guy with a flame thrower can kill hundreds or thousands of worms. The problem is that mind worm psychic attacks tend to turn people into gibbering idiots, and you need a highly disciplined mind to stand up to them. That tree I had my infantry unit fight was Demon Boil size, which is the largest it gets, and it won despite being a very low tech unit because it was an Elite unit, which is the highest level.

Side note, while you don't like Miram would it be a good idea to slide her some resources and such if you can spare them to drag out the war she's fighting? If nothing else it would buy you time if it worked.

I think I can put those resources to better use than she can. By this point, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if she lives or dies. Her existence ties up probably only a handful of Usurper brigades, and provides me with 2 energy/turn from trade. Not enough for me to be heavily invested in her survival. I even hesitate to give her tech because if the Usurpers don't have it it'll fall to them when they capture her last city.

Fair enough. Can you hold them when she falls?

frigidmagi wrote:Fair enough. Can you hold them when she falls?

My holding the Usurpers back depends entirely on whether I can sink their navy faster than they can build it. A difficult proposition given their industrial advantage. The survival of the Believers is quite irrelevant to this, they amount of units they tie-up is minuscule, and all of them are ground-pounders.

Yes, but the aliens are unlikely to unleash their navy until after she dies.

The year is 2254, the place is Planet (Manifold Six) in the Alpha Centauri System, and the event is the shit starting to fly.


But before that, look at me settling Mount Planet and the island to the south-west. I'm thinking Shanty Town might not be an appropriate name given that I hope this city will be fairly productive, yet more places that need renaming, ah well.




OH SHIT! MARR HAS AN AIRFORCE, AND HE'S NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!
On the plus side, Meergard appears to be just outside his engagement range, so he can't bomb me just yet. And would you look at that gorgeous explosion? I feel so proud that I captured it.




The Believers have finally been defeated and Sister Miriam captured, so much for "tough nut to crack", they died several turns sooner than I was expecting. In the two images below you can see the Fundies drop off the power-graph, and the Aliens experience a bump.





Crossbone Way, I like it, the Pirates totally have all the awesome names. You may notice Mount Planet island looks a bit different. One of the UNS Unity pods accidentally triggered an earthquake, raising a bunch of land. It has slightly improved the terrain around Shanty Town, and made the terrain north of a bit less hospitable. It has also given me more land to exploit. I think it was a lucky break overall. Also, despite losing trade with the Believers, my economy grew.




The Usurpers followed-up their air attack with a Skimship squadron which had better weapons and was better protected than my own vessels. Being at a defensive disadvantage, I pressed the attack, and was rewarded with sweet victory, only 50% damage to my ships.




I also assaulted a fungal tree, though not a large one. That fight was really close, my infantry unit suffered 90% damage, but the threat was eliminated.




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EDUCATIONAL SPOT: I felt like talking about morale levels. They provide combat bonuses in normal combat and artillery duels, and are the chief determining factor in psychic and probe (spec-ops) combat. There are six levels for non-native units: Very Green, Green, Disciplined, Hardened, Veteran, Commando, and Elite. Each level provides a 12.5% combat bonus over the previous level: Very Green is -25%, Disciplined 0%, and Elite 50%. The baseline level is Green, social engineering and specialized buildings can bring this up or down. Native units have life cycles instead of morale levels, each life cycle corresponds to a morale level and has the same bonus, it also has its own sprite: a larger version of the previous life cycle.
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Here you can see my exploratory naval squadron and all the parts of the southern seas it has explored. I actually intended to explore further south along the western part, but a Unity pod triggered a tidal wave that swept it east. I upgraded it earlier with Resonance 3* armour, the (trained) doesn't do anything when upgrading a unit, but any new versions I build will have an extra experience level. The name I gave it was an attempt at descriptive naming, but it looks so stupid that I will stick to more generic names from now on.

*Resonance armour provides a defensive bonus against native life.




Due to recent Usurper attacks, I decided to use my Alien Artefacts to close the technology gap. They don't advance Secret Project construction by all that much anyway. I plugged two of them into my Network Nodes and uncovered High Energy Chemistry and Synthetic Fossil Fuels. I'll be moving the third one to a node equipped base soon.




My warships encountered an Isle of the Deep, it attacked me and was sunk without causing serious damage. Unfortunately any damage presents a potentially crippling disadvantage in enemy territory, I will be retreating the squadron soon.




I'm sending a transport with my one Spec-Ops team to infiltrate the Usurper Datalinks at the outskirt outpost Risks of Flowering. It should be poorly defended and thus open to infiltration. An Usurper squadron seems to be moving to block my exploration squadron's escape route, extracting them successfully is looking unlikely.




Oh look, they sunk my ships, with contemptuous ease I might add, the attacking unit wasn't damaged at all.




I had sent my Isle of the Deep, two Spore Launcher battalions (artillery units are battalions), and an Impact Squad brigade pod-popping near the Manifold Nexus. I decided to leave the infantry on-board the ship, which proved to be a bad move when an Usurper naval unit showed-up and sunk my IotD. With the other loss, my attack capable naval forces have now been cut in half. My Isle did put up a tough fight, though, so the enemy warships are heavily damaged.




I retaliate with one of my Spore Launchers, and sink the enemy squadron. Revenge is sweet, but unfortunately the wider Usurper industrial base means they can afford losses more than I can. If I keep breaking even, I will be defeated, and I didn't really in this case.




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EDUCATIONAL SPOT: Artillery combat is conducted with units capable of bombardment. This would be land units with the Heavy Artillery special ability, or any attack-capable naval unit. Land based artillery is incapable of normal combat, while naval artillery (ie, any warship squadron) can bombard or attack normally. Bombardment makes it possible to attack units one or two squares away with impunity. It cannot cause more than 50% damage to land units or grounded air units, but sustained bombardment will keep them from effecting repairs.

If the square being bombarded contains another bombardment-capable unit, the bombardment will be cancelled and the two units will instead engage in an artillery duel. This type of combat ignores armour values, and there are no limits to how much damage can be inflicted. Artillery duels can destroy naval or artillery units.
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My Special-Ops team successfully infiltrates the Usurper Datalinks, but is captured in the process. They will probably die horrible deaths, but no matter, I am finally able to gather intelligence on the Usurpers.
In other news, my economy stopped growing but my infrastructure did not, which means that maintenance costs are now murdering my budget. Not good, not good at all, the only way to make-up for it is to reduce research spending to boost the economy, but Nautilus is still behind in the techonology race.




I will discuss the at length the intelligence that has been gained from infiltrating the enemy's Datalinks, how that affects my appraisal of the strategic situation, and just how fucked I am, in the next update. For now, I will just address my dire economic situation.

Six years prior, on 2260 Nautilus scientists completed research into Adaptive Economics, this gave the Pirates access to the Planetary Energy Grid Secret Project. It gives a free Energy Bank at every base, with no building or upkeep costs. Energy Banks, in turn, improve a base's economic output by 50%. Thus, the Planetary Energy Grid is vital for the economic stability of Nautilus, and by extension its continued existence. I cannot afford to lose this project, so imagine my reaction when I found this while examining Usurper build queues:



Mother. Fucker. This is bad.

Fortunately, the Citizen's Defence Force Secret Project costs the same amount of minerals, the one being built at Port Svensgaard only has four years to go before it's finished, and there is no penalty for switching construction between one SP and another. I ordered the base to make the change. There is really no other option, Perimeter Defence buildings are cheaper than Energy Banks and require no upkeep costs, so not having them in every base for free is not a great loss. Furthermore, a strong infrastructure is a better defense than any fortification, so the Energy Grid is now priority number one.




BTW - Those two last screenshots show humanity's most productive base, and the alien's most productive base. I'm not doing too bad in that respect.

The odds they don't look so good.

An addendum about artillery: units in bases or bunkers will not sustain more than 50% damage from bombardment, land units in the open are capped at 99%, and sea units are not capped.

frigidmagi wrote:The odds they don't look so good.

Hah! I haven't even gotten to the strategic analysis.

Strategic Analysis of Balance of Power as of M.Y. 2267

The Pirate nation of Nautilus is behind the Alien Manifold Usurpers in technological advancement, but not by much. The key technological breakthrough permitting the construction of Needlejets was made by Humanity in 2267, so we are capable of defending ourselves should the enemy establish a base within range of our holdings. Nautilus's research rate is apparently 50% larger than the Usurpers, so the technological gap should close eventually.






Nautilus's energy reserves are larger than the Usurper's, but the Usurpers have greater energy income. Therefore our economic situation is inferior, since should our reserves be depleted, and infrastructural costs are, in fact, depleting it, we have a lesser ability to replenish it. This neatly illustrates the vital importance of establishing a Planetary Energy Grid before the Usurpers do.

Interestingly, the similar maintenance burden on both factions suggests equal total infrastructure. They have more bases, but the level of development in each is less than the level in our less numerous bases.






These images show the oldest 10 bases belonging to each faction, as well as the best bases in several categories on the lower left. Not shown for the Pirates is "Infrastructure: Port Svensgaard", and not shown for the Usurpers is "Minerals: Liberty Plant". Interesting to note that Humanity focuses on infrastructural projects, and the Aliens build engines of war and expansion. History shows that top-heavy States tend to succumb before States with more sophisticated economies, so while the Usurper armed forces are scary, resources will likely be better spent on in continued infrastructural and economic enhancement rather than in trying to match them.






That said, the Usurper military is simply huge. They have, between infantry brigades, armoured brigades, and artillery battalions, 86 land combat units built, and a further 15 in the pipeline. Their air arm consists of 34 operational air wings, with 6 more in the works. The only area where Nautilus matches them is the naval arm, a measly 2 flotillas*. All of this is backed-up by 31 civilian units, most of them (27) engineering brigades (Formers). By comparison, the entirety of the Pirates field less than 50 units civilian and military.

*Note about terminology, I've been calling skimship/foil units "squadrons", this is incorrect, that term is reserved for larger ships, they are properly "flotillas".




Conclusion:
Nautilus posses a clear and expanding infrastructural advantage, and a comfortable lead in research rate. It's economy is floundering, yes, but the impending completion of the Planetary Energy Grid should not only reverse that, but put it in a stronger economic position overall. Pirate military is, however, hopelessly wanting by a wide degree, which means all Usurper positions are unassailable, and any expansion into the main continent simply impossible while a state of war persists. Fortunately, the lack of Usurper naval presence means Nautilus is itself unassailable, and while its own Navy is no larger, the greater number of naval capable bases means it can be expanded far faster.


At the end of 2267, the third Alien Artefact was plugged into the Network Node at Parrot Landing, allowing scientists to make progress in the field of Environmental Economics. This removes previous limits on energy harvesting, stabilizing the economic situation even without the Energy Grid. It also makes it possible to build Tree Farms: they make forests more productive and reduce environmental pollution, which has become a slight problem lately. Finally, this advancement helps close the overall technological gap between us and the Usurpers, not the least because this technology is one they do not have.




New base established in 2269, Ulrik's Hidaway, as in Ulrik Svensgaard, he reportedly enjoys skiing down the volcano's slopes in winter. This is the third and final base established on skirts of Mount Planet itself; however, two other bases are planned for the western side of the island.




On 2270, Port Svensgaard finished the Planetary Energy Grid. The subsequent results are readily visible on the economic status summary screen, adding an Energy Bank (+50% to base economy) to every single base has caused net energy income to go up by 467%.

The Hab Complex that Port Svensgaard builds afterward is an expansion of the base which doubles its population capacity: from 700,000 to 1,400,000. Several other bases are building or have built Hab Complexes.

The Usurpers, unable to finish their Energy Grid, switch to the Empath Guild, which is finished the next year. Unfortunately this allows them to automatically infiltrate our Datalinks.




Most of the 2270s are peaceful and uneventful. In 2279, an Usurper Missile Skimship ([6],3r,4)* flotilla appeared on Crossbone Way, headed toward the Western Great Northern Ocean. The Pirate Navy was mobilized in response, deploying its three Missile Skimship ([6],3r,4)* flotillas from their stations at Parrot Landing, Port Svensgaard, and Meergard. The light blue line shows the projected path of the Meergard flotilla, it will be used to intercept any Usurper units that make it past the the first two.

*Brackets indicate bombardment capability, forgot to include it in previous entries.




Land Lock came under bombardment from the interloping Usurper flotilla, but fortunately the Pirate's best flotilla had been stationed there previously and was able to reply in kind.

INTERLUDE wrote: "BATTLE STATIONS! BATTLE STATIONS! ALL PERSONNEL TO BATTLE STATIONS!"

Alarms blared throughout the many ships of the Pirate Navy's 1st Attack Flotilla, anchored at the misnamed port of Land Lock. In the flagship, Commodore Karen Grimshaw briskly entered the command bridge, "Report!"

"On going multiple missile launches, 200 km south of us, still tracking... coming straight at us, ETA four minutes!"

The Commodore did not bother ordering the point-defense systems to track the inbound ordnance, nor did she ask for a fix on the attacking enemy. The Pirates had been on alert, so their warships responded rapidly and without further orders. She could see, in the screens before her, point-defense and targetting computers already establishing tracks on the inbound missiles and solutions on the launching warships, while well-drilled crews tasked counter-fire batteries and warmed-up the missile launchers.

"Sally the Flotilla and move away from the port. Start counter-battery fire as soon as all targeting solutions are in, first wave only, point-defense may engage at will."

Three and change minutes later, they did. Chattering cannon sent up flurries of ammunition, and lasers ionized bright paths through air as they lanced up to intercept the inbound missiles. Ephemeral flashes filled the skies for a few moments, then great gouts of water rose from the sea and ships vanished in fierce fireballs as surviving ordnance found its mark.

Unfazed by death raining around her, Commodore Grimshaw, arms crossed, eyes fixed upon the tactical displays, calmly ordered her flotilla to scatter, "all ships, adopt formation pattern Xi, and prepare to launch third wave." The second had already been fired, just before the PD engaged.

On the screens the Pirate's own first wave entered the Alien's point-defense range and missiles started to vanish. She gave herself a moment to look at the ships of the Flotilla slowly becoming more distant, then looked back down in time to see the Usurper warships blinking off and hesitantly copying her scattering manoeuvre, causing a tiny sneer to decorate her lip. A glance at another screen showed the Usurper's second wave was almost on top of the 1st Flotilla, and their own point-defences lit-off again, "Launch third wave," the Commodore ordered.

Scattering a flotilla like she had was a generally bad idea, each ship's PDS would have difficulty supporting or being supported by the other ones. That the incoming ordnance had been fired while the First was still stationary, and that a scattered formation offered more room for evasive manoeuvres, helped offset this somewhat, but not entirely, and that was not the point anyway.

"First Attack, adopt Eta formation at flank speed and begin continuous missile fire now!"

Heedless of the rolling explosions amidst them, the skimships rapidly came together, all their launchers flew open, and hundreds of silver arrows rose upon pillars of fire, rapidly shooting toward the southern horizon across the boiling sky. Then hundreds more followed suit, then more and more, not bothering to correct fire at all, the 1st Attack Flotilla emptied its magazines in one continuous barrage.

This was the moment of truth, if the Usurper commander two hundred kilometres away reacted like she expected him to... there! The poor inexperienced fool panicked and rapidly brought his fleet back together, just as she had, but lacking her veteran Captains and crews, the abrupt manoeuvre created extensive confusion, and a few collisions, just as her own missile wave was arriving.

Commodore Karen Grimshaw smirked, tangled-up like that, the enemy flotilla was about as challenging a target as a kelp farm, and the Pirate's missiles were exacting a heavy toll on them for that mistake. It would not matter whether they sorted themselves out or not when the massed barrage arrived in less than four minutes, they would be more or less in the same place and lacking the PDS to stop all of it. It was all over but the fireworks, so the Commodore sat back on her chair, and, keeping an attentive eye on the tactical displays, allowed herself a deep breath.

After a fierce long range battle, the Usurper attack was defeated and their ships sent to Davy Jones' Locker. Only moderate damage was sustained by Pirate forces.




The other two Pirate flotillas arrive in the vicinity just in time to challenge the Usurper's follow-up assault.




Surprisingly, instead of waging war Conqueror Marr instead offers to negotiate peace. His price is steep, he asks for Environmental Economics, a vital technology, since it makes it possible to fully exploit Planet's energy resources. After some deliberation, the deal is made, as it is concluded that Nautilus is inherently stronger at peace-time building. Then Marr asks for Adaptive Doctrine as well, perhaps realizing his technological lead is ebbing. Adaptive Doctrine allows for Marine Detachments to be posted on naval units, they can board and take over enemy ships during combat. The Pirates get the Marines for free on every naval vessel they own just by having the technology, the Usurpers have no such advantage, so despite the outrage at this betrayal, it is handed over as well, and Blood Truce declared.




After negotiations are concluded, Marr makes his displeasure with our Green economic policy known to us.




Six years after the last look at the Usurper's forces, their Army and Air Force have had significant increases, and they have consequently lowered the rate of new unit production. The Nautilus forces remain about the same, but the Navy is being expanded bit.






In 2287 Cyberethics is developed. Other developments over the previous dozen years include: Bioadaptive Resonance, which makes it possible to build Resonance Lasers and equip units with Soporific Gas Pods; and Doctrine: Initiative, an important naval technology which will be discussed more in a bit. Suffice for now to say that it gives Nautilus a free Naval Yard in every sea and coastal base, and other factions the ability to build Naval Yards (+2 naval unit morale and one turn naval unit repair)




Cyberethics opens up the possibility of adopting Knowledge as a social value. This has obvious research and economic benefits, at the expense of making the society a bit more vulnerable to espionage due to freer flow of information.




Here are the other two advancements that come with Doctrine: Initiative. First is the Maritime Control Centre Secret Project, being built in Deadman Tavern. It gives a free Naval Yard at every sea and coastal base and +2 movement points to all naval units. While the Pirates stand to gain only the latter advantage from building it, the Usurpers stand to lose much from it being denied to them. With the Maritime Control Centre, Nautilus' mastery of the seas is virtually guaranteed. The second advancement is the ability to give land units Amphibious Pods, which allow them to attack directly from Transports. Here, the selected Transport contains a brigade of Elite Invaders equipped with Resonance Lasers and protected by 3 Resonance Armour, and it is being sent to destroy that Fungal Tree so the area can be settled.




Before and after shots of the assault. It was no contest, this same brigade destroyed another Demon Boil Fungal Tree without the benefit of resonance weapons, with R-Lasers the operation was a walk in the park. The UNS Unity pod on the islet did not have anything special in it, just 50 energy credits.

Keep it coming.

I cleaned-up the Interlude, reworded some things and made it flow better.

Cynical Cat wrote:Keep it coming.

Yay, another reader!


You can all feel free to make more in-depth comments, critique my writing, dispute my strategic choices, suggest courses of action, or ask questions. I like the attention.

Looks like the tide is turning, what kind of victory are you going for anyways?

frigidmagi wrote:Looks like the tide is turning, what kind of victory are you going for anyways?

I usually don't "go" for any particular victory. The options are:

Bribe your way to happyness: If you have enough energy to mind control every base on Planet, you can try to corner the energy market and victory is yours if your capital is not taken within the next 20 years.

Sleaze your way into power (human only): If there are no alien factions, and you can get 75% of the Planetary Council votes (determined by population) to go to you, then you win. Unless the guys holding the other 25% decide to be sore losers, in which case they must be wiped out or forced to surrender, but everyone who voted for you is now your ally.

Dance upon the remains of your enemies: Be the last faction standing (not counting Pact Brothers/Sisters).

Usurp God: Build the Ascent to Transcendence secret project and merge your mind with Planet's. It is unlocked for everyone by anyone building the Voice of Planet secret project, which is in turn a very late game tech. (Exception: Manifold Caretakers)

Call for /b/lackup (alien only): Build six Subspace Generators at six different size 10 or larger bases, they become a Resonance Transmitter, which whines to your home fleet about you getting your ass kicked.

Homies: Your Pact Brother/Sister achieves achieves a victory that doesn't involve /b/tards.


Three of these are impossible, I'm human, have no allies, and can't destroy the aliens without winning by conquest. So my options are bribes, conquest, and Godhood. I think that cornering the global energy market would be rather anti-climatic, sort of like the end of the Cold War, and Godhood woudln't really be all that thematically appropiate since I haven't been posting the interludes involving Captain Svensgaard's interaction with Planet. I guess that leaves pounding the Usurpers into the ground and then grinding them to dust.

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!

You're pirates, for crying out loud! What other option could there be?!

On top of being late, this update may be a bit thin I'm afraid, it's mid-terms week and Calc II is somewhat higher priority. Still, the saga continues:

In 2298 Safe Heaven finishes the Citizen's Defence Force, every single base in Nautilus now has the Perimeter Defence building, obviating any need to spend time building it. You can also see all of the improvements that have been built in this base, darker lettering indicates the improvement exists because of a Secret Project. Note that I have Naval Yards simply from being the Pirates and having researched Doctrine: Initiative.



After exploring some bits of the main continent, I moved my two Spore Launcher boils close to the Usurper border, destroyed a couple of sensor arrays, and then released them into the wild to troll Marr. They probably got destroyed by air strikes in short order, but I didn't feel I had anything better to do with them.




Marr, for his part, trolled me, and more effectively too. He wanted Cyberethics, which I handed over after contemplating just how much I would love to tell him where to get off, then the bastard added insult to injury and asked for Planetary Economics too. Damn him, only the knowledge that I do the peace build-up thing better than him keeps me from declaring war and sinking every one of his pitiful ships.






At least the Blood Truce was renewed, which gives me 10 or 20 (forget which) years of him not bothering me. Stinky Alien or not, I am reasonably certain that Marr is good on his word.
A look at the power graph may suggest, contrary to my claims, the Usurpers are building better than I am, since they are getting more powerful at a faster rate than the Pirates. I stand by my analysis, while a superficial look at the situation may not seem favourable, the fundamentals are, in fact, on my side.




The end of M.Y. 2300 marks two centuries since we arrived on Planet. Consequently, to mark the beginning of the third century, we well see how far we've come from our humble beginnings.

Nautilus has expanded to 18 bases, housing a population of 13 million inhabitants. Since they are in the image, I note that the Usurpers have at least 30 bases, a significant portion of which where captured from various human factions, and a population of 19.7 million.




Considerable scientific and technological advances have been made in the past two centuries.




The economy has become strong and bountiful. (Note, the energy reserve figure is for before I spent about 3/4 of it to upgrade my garrison units.)




Our bases, arranged here in descending mineral production order, build infrastructural, scientific, and social improvements for the betterment of the citizenry and society.




Of the eight Secret Projects constructed on Planet, four of them belong to Nautilus. The Weather Paradigm doubles terraforming speed and unlocks all terraforming abilities, The Virtual World makes Network Nodes count as Hologram Theatres (+50% base psych, less drones), The Citizen's Defence Force adds a Perimeter Defence in every building, and The Planetary Energy Grid adds an Energy Bank (+50% base econ) at every base and makes mineral-to-energy conversion 50% more efficient. The Usurpers have the other four Projects. The Genome Project adds an extra Talent at every base, The Empath Guild gives an infiltrator at at every faction and +50% more votes in Planetary Governor and Supreme Leader elections, The Command Nexus adds a Command Centre (+2 morale to land units) at every base, and The Merchant Exchange gives +1 energy in every square of the base the built it.




This is a slice of the Pirate's active units, the 3-Res Sentinels (1,3r,1) are my newest garrisons, all Synthmetal Sentinels were upgraded to the new standard.




Finally, a comparison of the Pirate and Usurper scores.






Increased industrial activity and pollution triggered a significant fungal bloom; containing boils of Mindworms, Spore Launchers, and a new flying threat; south of Crow's Next and U.N. Headquarters. The brave men and women of the latter's garrison sallied out to assault the incoming worms before they attacked the city, and successfully wiped out the infestation.




Meanwhile, in Crow's Nest a wing of Needlejets armed with Resonance Lasers is rush built to deal with the swarm of flying Mindworms dubbed the Locusts of Chiron*. The devastation they could wreak should they wander into a population centre would be fearsome indeed, so they must be destroyed as soon as possible. Even if it means having to swallow the 25% prototype costs for the aircraft chassis.

*Chiron the Planet's official name




The construction of Nautilus' first air wing is a landmark event, and is commemorated accordingly. It says Svensgaard is behind the construction of "the first air unit on planet", I suppose this means the Aliens don't count.




The gallant First Attack Wing flies out from Crows Nest and valiantly assaults the new threat.
It didn't go quite as well as expected.




In lighter news, a base called Drunktown was established on Mount Planet Island. It is no coincidence that Drunktown is on the Arctic Sea and near Ulrik's Hideaway, strong drink keeps men warm during the long hard winter, and like all Pirates our dear Captain loves his rum.




Technological breakthrough in 2306, Advanced Military Algorithms are developed. It is now possible to outfit land and naval units with Triple-A Tracking, which renders them able to better defend against air attacks. This technology also allows for Power as a social value, and the construction of Bunkers. That last bit will set plans in motion among the more hawkish members of the Nautilus Parliament.




A follow-up attack on the cloud of Locusts went much better and successfully eliminated the threat with only moderate losses.




An Usurper missile flotilla has been continuously bombarding a Fungal Tree in Mount Planet Island for some time, presumably to train their gunners and for want of anything better to do. Seizing the moment, a rover unit was sent to destroy it while it was week. The battered tree proved to be no match, it was easily annihilated.