Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

[Scipio]

What a great game. I pulled it out again the other day, and it still holds up. The great thing about it is that it isn't bound by reality. I'll tell you what I mean. Civ 2/3 are both great games, but are structured around the real world. The real world isn't a balanced place that makes an easy transition to a game with historical accuracy. In that sense, SMAC has an inherent advantage. (As you might have guessed, I think it's better than those two games)

Not that it needs it. The balance is great, the gameplay is great, and the setting is complex and realistic. It's not perfect, and it's time consuming to play, but there's a reason that PC Gamer gave it the highest score any game has ever received (last I checked; it got a 98%, and nothing was higher).

Anybody else play?

My favorite faction right now is Morgan, though I'm going to start a game as someone else here in about 20 mins.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Yeah morgan is definitely my favorite as well

i always kill off those damn enviromentalist bastards first

i just love this game... so much

I'm addicted to Civ 3 right now though

[Scipio]

The great thing about morgan is that you can get +2 economy with wealth alone, giving +1 energy per square. That's a huge advantage.

I think I'm going to go hive on my next game, and build a lot of bases close together. That way, the sheer number of bases give an advantage with orbital facilities. I'll use police to keep the drones down, and see how it goes.

I got the expansion working, but I don't like the factions as much. They're not as balanced.

[Kadath]

I like to play as the University, and make sure I get the hunter-seeker secret project.
I like the game and played it obsessively when I first got it, but it sucks that you can't really play online with friends, as a game takes hours and hours.

[nanofever]

I play unversity a lot, and I find the game is really shines in the custom unit creation, diplomacy and significant factional differences. If you try to play university like the believers or hive, you will lose the game in the first hour on higher difficulties.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Yeah, i really dig the custom units in this game

i always give them funny names

[Scipio]

I used to play the university a lot, but the other factions are well positioned to counter them. Hunter Seeker is THE must get secret project for them. The biggest weakness of the University is their weak military, and their tendency to focus on ideas at the expense of things. It's nice to get chaos guns first, but it does you little good when the enemy is kicking your door down with missile infantry, and you still have to prototype. They're a good builder faction, but then again so are the morganites, and so is the UN.

Some tricks I like to use:

In chess, it's often possible to win by sacrificing your pieces one by one, but making sure you come out ahead at the end. In SMAC, you can create nerve gas needlejets, en masse, and go for broke. Their defenses won't withstand the attack, and their cities will be decimated. The cost? Sanctions forever, and a bad reputation. The benefit? You can cripple eveyone else with extreme prejudice, and follow up with a conquest win.

The easiest military strategy is air power and drop troops. Period.

In my last game, I terraformed almost entirely forests and mines. The upkeep on hybrid forests and tree farms is high, but worth it for large bases. You get solid production, and growth (with tree farms anyway). I put supply crawlers on the mines for extra minerals.

Always have a secret project or two near completion. You might get the tech for a new one, and you can switch over and pick it up quickly.

Jets make good defenders. I tend to have a couple of high production cities crank out clean reactor needlejets. When the enemy attacks, you swoop in with jets and wipe out his units in a preemptive strike.

Use jets to block enemy reinforcements. Most units can't attack them, as they aren't AA.

By the same token, AA rovers are a fun and cheap way to deal with enemy jets.

Virtual world is a great wonder. You're always going to have drone problems on higher difficulties, and hologram theaters have an upkeep of 3. Network nodes have an upkeep of 1. Go figure.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Scipio's Post

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My Head

[Kadath]

Scipio, excellent analysis. The only thing you left out (and, more properly, simply didn't specifically mention) is that the chopper/copter is a ridiculously powerful unit for base assault. One or two copters along with a ground unit can take a base without effort, thanks to the fact that a copter can attack as many times as it has fuel remaining. Myself, I tend to stay away from atrocities, but I certainly concede that nerve gas needlejets swooping in to the strains of "Ride of the Valkyries" would be terror-inducing.

[shakran]

Am I the only one that plays the Gaians? If you're patient enough the mindworms are incredibly powerful once you get them into a big enough boil. And the fact that you can capture and start training them much earlier than the other factions can start manufacturing them means you can have a hugeassed army of demonboils and locusts of chiron before they have their first larval mass. Ass kickin' time.

[Lotronex]

the University rules you all. As long as you play on a larger map, you have the ability to stock up on tech. You just have to delay any real production for a while so that you build ~8 bases early on, and work up to 20 as soon as possible. Once you have the manpower, research takes no time, and units flow from your factories.
My favorite tech:Monopole Magnets
Nothin' says fun like sending a unit fresh from your factory to the enemies doorstep in one turn with no penalties. I always try to preceed an invasion with some formers building a highway. Much harder strategy in the higher levels, but for the lower ones its a quick way to earn bases late in the game.

/wishes there was a way to play with pepole in a reasonable timespan

[Scipio]

Originally posted by Kadath
The only thing you left out (and, more properly, simply didn't specifically mention) is that the chopper/copter is a ridiculously powerful unit for base assault. One or two copters along with a ground unit can take a base without effort, thanks to the fact that a copter can attack as many times as it has fuel remaining. Myself, I tend to stay away from atrocities, but I certainly concede that nerve gas needlejets swooping in to the strains of "Ride of the Valkyries" would be terror-inducing.

Choppers are great until the enemy develops AAA units. They still win an attack or two with a strong weapon, but they lose the ability to kill 4-10 enemies in one turn. Plus, they have less range. Not saying they aren't awesome, but you can't forget about the jets.

I'm about to attempt the game on the highest difficulty (been playing at the second highest), so I'll see if they learn any new tricks.

Originally posted by Lotronex the University rules you all. As long as you play on a larger map, you have the ability to stock up on tech. You just have to delay any real production for a while so that you build ~8 bases early on, and work up to 20 as soon as possible. Once you have the manpower, research takes no time, and units flow from your factories.

Yeah, it works. If you're on a big map, and if you start out away from other groups, and if you don't get attacked. On lower difficulties vs the computer, it works great, but then again, so does pretty much anything coherent .

I'd counter it with seaborne probe teams (probe hovercraft, probe cruisers). You can swoop in literally undetected, and steal critical tech. Even minor harrassment tactics can cause the university player to slow research and expend resources in defense, especially since they have no good way to protect against probe teams besides hunter seeker.

I still think the Morganites are a better builder civilization. Energy = science.