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Zoetrope
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Sep 1999
time: 05:23
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Miriam, My Friend.
In practice, I find Miriam to be very reasonable. She's never planet busted me (as Yang does), nor rained missiles down on my innocent bases (as Deirdre has done), nor betrayed her pact partner (as many factions are wont to do).
In one of my favorite games I was playing a builder faction (maybe PK) and there developed a three-way contest between the Believers, the Hive and my faction. Deirdre to the East was being a real pain, going to vendetta without cause and smac-king my people, territory and troops constantly without provocation. She was allied with Miriam.
Meanwhile, Yang landed troops on Miriam's large continent to the West, took a few bases, and entrenched himself. Miriam called me for assistance by way of a pact, to which I gladly agreed. It was a long, round-about, land-hopping journey for my choppers and drop troops to eventually reach the contested bases, but when they made it, they wrenched a couple of bases from Yang.
Miriam was grateful for my intercession, but the  masterstroke was donating the two bases to Deirdre. Naturally, Miriam wanted the bases back, but Deirdre didn't budge. So their alliance fractured and rapidly devolved into a declaration of war.  This distracted the vexatious Gaians sufficiently that i was able quickly to beat them down.
Yang remained in his South-Eastern continent, always a belligerent contender, but far from my bases and no threat to me.
Vote-wise, there was hardly anything between Miriam, Yang and me, but Miriam remained loyal to our pact to the very end, when I called a vote for Supreme Leader and she happily voted for me. I expected Yang to be tempted to hold out, but he capitulated, so it ended happily for all our peoples.
A very different outcome unfolded in another game. Yang got PB happy (as he so often does) and destroyed some Projects, but I had a large arsenal prepared against that eventuality, so he got it good.  Since thus I proved more effective at evil than he, and had PBs to spare, I decided to give everyone a few doses of the same medicine. A major transformation of the landscape, and very satisfying.
Planet doesn't like wholesale atrocities (unless one votes in Council to reclassify them  ) and PBs are bad enough for attracting worm and locust stacks, but one time Lal was being a stubborn nuisance  so i heavily Nerve-Gassed his troops. This was very effective at quelling his aggression, but the eco-damage was astronomical, the sea rapidly rose repeatedly, and the attacks by stacks of twenty or thirty worms and/or locusts wiped out numerous heavily defended bases. Exciting certainly  but was it fun? 
I ceased to overlook the escalation of eco-damage after that.  Until I was playing as Morgan and  I realised that in the late game when huge eco-damage can happen, one can easily plant fungus everywhere, and where fungus already is, it cannot pop up.
So if the game lasts until fungus rivals farms/condensors, mines and solar collectors/echelon mirrors, then all my bases are surrounded by at least three squares of fungus in all directions, and all squares in any base's radius are covered by home-grown locusts.
In Alien Crossfire, land-worms can appear under the radar, as it were, on fungus squares within my locust-protected base radii, but then i shift my units out of that square, give the wild worm stack what-for (ahh! money!  ) then shift units back in to cover.
Last edited by Zoetrope on 02-03-2005 at 08:40
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dacole
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I have to say I have never met anyone who plays miriam in pbem the tech stag is just so difficult to deal with. Hope you don't believe like her in real life however. I'm not particularly interested in living in the christian united states (though if bush has his way I may have to move)
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mart7x5
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I play in one game (pbem) as Spartan and have a human Believing opponent. I seriously consider also to play them in the future.
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dacole
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Miriam allied with Zach, hey would never happen IRL but that would make an impressive team.
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Zoetrope
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Sep 1999
time: 05:23
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The Fifth Element was an entertaining film, but as for originality I think the concept writers must have played Zork Nemesis.
Back to the game: holding to one's prejudices does SMAC an injustice. Some players refuse to see the merits of a faction for no better reason that it reminds them of some economic, social, political or religious outlook that they despise in the real world. Cast off your bitterness and your bigotry! Don't roleplay the same character you do on Earth. This is Chiron. Freely pretend. Play every faction without prejudice!
If you're Karl Marx in Real Life, play to Morgan's strengths in SMAC! If you can't stand what Yang stands for and how the Hive tosses PBs like nuclear litter bugs, then vigorously emulate him once in a while. If you're a major shareholder in and spokesperson for a Brazilian mining company, play Deirdre as competitively as can be. If you love science for science's sake, then _learn_ how to be Miriam, and also discover how to negotiate satisfactorily with the Believers. If you lay aside the attitudes that impede, you _will_ be pleasantly surprised. I was.
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Flubber
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With a view of the Rockies
Aug 2000
time: 22:23
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quote:
Originally posted by dacole
Miriam allied with Zach, hey would never happen IRL but that would make an impressive team. |
Yup
Miriam is quite playable in a team game with a good researcher. That attack bonus comes in quite handy as does +3 Probe.
Personally though I would prefer to be playing the HIVE or DRONES and use industry to create the attack force.
I also think that Miriam could do ok in multiplayer on smaller maps. One early victim could be enough to get her started perhaps-- (Personally though .. . if I had to take a perceived weak faction on a smaller map, it would be the cult-- Pray for a decent worm rush -- if you succeed great)
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02-03-2005 07:10
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