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korn469
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Poetic Justic
Apr 1999
time: 00:13
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***UpNet NewsFlash***
In a remarkable announcement Provost korn469 has convened the planetary council with hopes that Lady Tau Ceti will unite behind his leadership. Provost korn469 presented the citizens of the University with classifed transcripts of the Provost's cabinet meetings since landing on Planet. It appears that the Provost had a unifed vision of a Utopia on Planet that he has used to guide UoP policy over the years. The first priority was to gain economic supreamcy and then to leverage that into technical superiority. Using our technical superiority we would then arm and equip our military forces with the best weapons weapons on Planet, and then when the time came, to use those weapons to force the other factions into compliance. Though the Spartan Federation attacked before phase two became a reality, it was just a minor setback in the grand scheme of things. Recently at the urging of UoPAF Command Staff, Provost korn469 decided to leverage our military superiority against the Gaians, who had embarked on a military buildup. Our agents provided analysis that demonstarted the Gaians were going to put everything they had into achieving military parity with us. When they put 90% of their budget into researching Synthetic Fossil Fuels, the order was given to protect UoP interest around the world. In the past two years we have had remarkable success, and a total of three Gaian bases have fallen to our drop troops. Obviously the Gaians must see they only have one choice, join us or die.
Here is a transcript of the message Provost korn469 sent to Lady Tau Ceti.
quote:
Honorable Lady Tau Ceti,
The time has come to end all of the petty bickering on Planet forever. There is only one way we can do this, and that is to unite Planet under a common banner. To achieve those ends, I have convened the council to elect a Supreame Leader of humankind on Planet, and that Leader is me. The UoP faction has the strongest economy, the largest population, the best technology, and covers most of Planets surface. While your faction has experianced rapid population growth over the past years it is still smaller and much weaker than the University. Though you have a guild of empaths that give you more political prestige than your faction has in other areas, it is time to cast your vote for me. This will bring a new era of peace and prosperity to humankind, and will for the first time ever end warfare across Planet.
However you do have an alternative, and that is to continue resisting. This will buy you time until my military forces grinds your faction into dust. You are in no position to negociate, the UoP holds all of the cards. The past few years have been a simple demonstration of the UoP's military prowess. resistance will buy you a few years, but if you do not accept my generous offer Gaia's Landing will be nothing more than a smoking crater in a few years. For the sake of your people submit to my Leadership. Look at the prosperity of the UoP, the Gaians people will finally be able to partake of the bounty that we have experianced.
Provost korn469
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It looks grim for the Gaians, and they have a hard choice to make. For the sake of everyone hopefully they will make the right choice.
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korn469
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Poetic Justic
Apr 1999
time: 00:13
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***UpNet NewsBrief***
Provost korn469 signed general order 307 late yesterday evening. This order states that
quote:
No technology of the University shall fall into the hands of the Gaian fundamentalist. In accordance with this order the UPDM has authority to take any means neccesary to accomplish this goal.
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Early this morning the UPDM general staff issued orders to field commanders which resulted in 120,000 Gaian citizens being put to death. It appears that none of the UoP's precious technology will fall into Gaian hands, but what we ask is, was the price worth it? I'm sure all of those 120,000 Gaians would have said no.
The UPDM issued a short statement in responce
quote:
Causulties are a direct result of a war, the longer a war drags on the higher the amount of causulties. Our technological superiority will ensure a quick victory, and all steps must be taken to protect our datalinks from espionage. The actions of our troops today was an effort to bring this war to its quickest possible conclusion, and will actually save lives in the long term.
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After they raized several gaian cities the UoP soldiers activated their self destruct mechanizisms to prevent the Gaians from reverse engineering any UoP military hardware. All troops not equipped with neural implants were scattered and told to head for the shoreline to await rescue operations by the UPAF search and rescue (SRT) teams. All troops with the UPDM standard MMI interface died when the implants self destructed. All of the soldiers were volunteers and voluntairly activated the self destruct devices. Still we think this was a waste, and ask "What next Provost korn469?"
Ilya Fedorov is son of Petra Fedorov, who is chairman of the Mir Peace Party (MPP) and his views do not necessarily reflect those of UpNet. His NewsBrief was broadcasted unedited and none of his uplink was censored. UpNet is soley responsible for its content and as always invokes the Artical 21 section 3 of the UoP Charter.
[This message has been edited by korn469 (edited April 14, 2000).]
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Tau Ceti
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Kyoto, Japan
Nov 1999
time: 14:13
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*** GaiaNet Newsflash ***
Memorial services were held in the great gardens of Gaia's Landing today. Lady Tau Ceti herself attended all of them, but did not make a speech. 'Words cannot express the grief we all feel,' explained a spokesman. 'We are truly shocked at the monstrosity of the... creature that is Provost korn469. No human being could bring itself to give such heinous orders. To slaughter the entire civilian population of four cities - under the pretense of avoiding espionage! If that is his worry, he did not need to conquer those cities at all. They posed no threat to his empire.'
In case the Provost is interested, his policy even failed. Last year, Gaian computer specialists hacked into the University network and downloaded hitherto unknown research data. Unfortunately, it turned out to only be the details of Environmental Economics - not much use in the current war effort.
Although large crowds have been burning University flags and demanding retaliatory measures against captured University personnel, the official Gaian policy remains that we will not blame the ordinary soldiers and citizens of the University for these crimes against humanity. The unfortunate 'volunteers' to the University armed forces have all had machinery bolted into their skulls, and it is obvious that the Provost is using these neural implants to override the emotions and the intellect of his soldiers. All casualties will get a decent burial. In keeping with this policy, Gaian medical personnel immediately began to tend to the wounds of the civilian population of Cosmograd, a recent conquest by the Gaian armed forces. They even went so far as to use their secret knowledge of the human genomes to cure many very sick citizens.
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korn469
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Poetic Justic
Apr 1999
time: 00:13
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***UpNet Live Uplink***
We are here at the Univseristy Base Holo Briefing room awaiting the transmission from the first Sky Hydroponics Lab, Unifier. This orbital facility built by the aerospace firm Extalite Corp, and launched by UPAC will go begin transmission in 5 seconds
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
Begin Transmission
Interesting, we are seeing what appears to be the Gaian continant. That rather large city must be Gaia's Landing. This is rather odd considering that this is a UoP orbital. Perhaps this is to show some sort of dominance. Wait a minute, the hologram turned white, it appears that we have a malfunction...wait the picture is coming back online, the Unifier is not malfunctioning...I cannot believe my eyes...
Oh my god, Gaian's Landing and another Gaian base have just been vaporized...i'm not sure if the Uplink is still functioning, but if it is showing true Gaia's Landing no longer exists. All that remains is a crater. Since this transmission is going out unencrypted across Planet this could a FUD campaign by the UI.
Wait, I have word that UPAC is about to deliever a statement...UpNet is switching over to that...
quote:
Moments ago the University of Planet deployed the first SS-23 Satan ICBM against the Daughter's of Gaia. The primary target was the Gaian Headquaters and ruling Gaian Clerics at Gaia's Landing. Secondary targets included the Command Nexus, the Weather Paradigm, and the hated Empath Guild. Though we do not expect Lady Tau Ceti as a causualty, our hopes remain high that she had not evacuated Gaia's Landing. In addition the blast should have taken out a number of less important tertiary targets, including the main Gaian honor guard and much of the Gaian eastern garrison force. By now the Daughter's of Gaia are mourning their dead and looking with amazement at the crater that used to be their most vibrant city. Provost korn469 has vowed to grind the Gaians into dust which is now just a matter of time.
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[This message has been edited by korn469 (edited April 14, 2000).]
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korn469
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Poetic Justic
Apr 1999
time: 00:13
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Tau Ceti and Pagan[CyC]
i would like to say good game...i loved the commentary best of all, and i think everybody played the game in character...
now i'd love to hear our comments on the game and the strategies you used, what you were going for ect.
Basically here is what i did...
- with my free tech i picked industrial economics because i wanted to run free market and i wanted to get wealth as soon as possible
- i wanted to sign Pacts with both of you to keep an eye on what you were up to and to get commerce from you since i would have a better commerce rating and my bases would be producing more energy per turn
- after industrial economics i went for secrets of the human brain and with the next free tech i picked planetary networks still on th way to indutrial automation
- i got lucky because by the time i had industrial automation i had found three alien artifacts...
- with those arifacts i manged to get the Planetary Transit System and then my population went through the roof
- after getting industrial automation and the PTS (which really increased my production, research, economy, and voting power) i got on a bee line for doctrine: air power...not really because i was thinking that the map was so small but because i know that air power is one of the keys to any game of SMAC
- i was building my bases close together and i didn't switch to democracy until i was finished seeding my island
- everything was going along as planned, then Pagan[CyC] attacked me a few turns before i was prepared to defend against him...however i did have probe teams and used them well
- it went back and forth until i discovered airpower and then started pounding Pagan[CyC] with needlejets
- shortly after i got airpower i got MMI, and then i knew that Pagan[CyC] was in big trouble
- at this point i know it was too early to see that the game was getting out of hand but a double team attack against me would have finished me, however Tau Ceti set back
- i used copters and drop troops to take Pagan out then i went on to build my economy and a punishment sphere once i got the tech
- during this time Tau Ceti was growing rapidly and had me worried, and i decided that as soon as Tau Ceti started researching Synthetic Fossil Fuels that i would attack him before he could get air power
- at the end of the war i demanded cash from Tau Ceti mainly as a means to justify a war and i was worried about Tau Ceti's big bank account...then with some threats the remains of the Spartans money went to me, at that point i knew the Gaians would have an uphill battle
- Once i got my punishment sphere i based all of my troops there and i had been going for fusion power as my next goal
- i positioned my troops within striking range of Tau Ceti's bases...with my infiltration because i was govenor i was very concered about the jungle bases...and general Gaian expansion
- once the war broke out i had a good infrastructure and i had lots of drop troops copters, needlejets, and drop probe teams
- things were going ok until Tau Ceti started using mindworms for base defense...if you had of though of this earlier you could have built biology labs in all of your bases and this would have helped out your strategy...the mindworms on defense was compounded by the fact that Tau Ceti had the Manifold, was the gaians, and i was running free market
- except in places where Tau Ceti had mind worms my troops which came out with high morale from the cyborg factory had an easy time with conventional gaian troops
- i don't know how you stole my technology because i thought i had your probe teams covered but in general i think the probe garrisons slowed down any probe threat you could muster
- also i don't know how you managed to land a mindworm army close to cosmograd but that was pretty good
- i didn't wanna oblitorate your bases but i didn't want you to probe me twice and get something good like fusion power or MMI
- if my base had of revolted earlier and you had of gotten a fusion powered copter then you might have had a chance later on but i got out to a goos start and both of you had trouble catching up
thats just a quick review...anything you wanna know? so what as your general run down of the game?
i'd love to hear both of your sides...
btw has anybody been reading our little story? personally i really enjoyed writing them
korn469
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Tau Ceti
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Kyoto, Japan
Nov 1999
time: 14:13
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Well, congratulations, korn! A well executed campaign led to the conquest of the entire Gaian empire in 16 turns.
What went wrong? Well, I played against the University  , but there were other things as well.
This game was one of the first to be set up, so I started playing without knowing the quirks of the map and scenario too well. And I have played nearly all my single player games on Transcend, so Librarian gave a few unpleasant surprises - it changes things far more than I thought.
My initial strategy was one that tends to work well for the Gaians on Transcend - use their superior efficiency to expand in all directions, preferably under Planned economics. I started closest to the Jungle, so I intended to get ships quickly and grab as much of it as I could, and then go into population boom and build up all my bases, most likely getting by far the greatest population, and through that gaining the lead. Strength through numbers.
The main flaw with this was that I seriously underestimated the University's research capability and the strength of Free Market economics on Librarian. This was of course compounded by the fact that korn got the PTS (and very early too), giving him the largest population by far. I simply had not set up for early game warfare, at least not offensively (being the Gaians, with -1 morale, I more expected to be the target of an attack, if anything). I did not even have Nonlinear Mathematics until korn gave it to me in 2125. About that time, the Spartans asked for my assistance, but I had absolutely nothing to offer. So it was not that I so much decided it would be best not to attack, it was a lack of capability. I had started building a strike force, but needing transports and impact rovers, I could have hit korn no sooner than 2135. Already around 2130, korn had jets in the air, and it was obvious that an attack would be futile. Choppers and drop troops followed around 2135, and once that happened, the Spartans were quickly defeated and the game was effectively over. According to my original game plan, we should still only have been in the starting phase.
I expected korn to attack me immediately afterwards, but for some reason which I still do not understand, he did not. (He had missile choppers against my Synthmetal Sentinels, and knew it!) Of course, I pretty much gave in to his cash demands, but since he could have taken me out in five turns at the time (or so I thought, anyway), I did not see that I had much choice. In the peaceful years afterwards, I felt it did not really matter what I did, so I just continued my original plan and colonised the entire jungle, while building up Plasma Sentinels and Mind Worms as defenders on my home island. Of course I wanted to get Air Power as quickly as possible, but that dream was crushed when I did not get to choose Fossil Fuels three times in a row. When I finally got it, korn started attacking my jungle colonies, who had only one defender each at best.
From then on it was only guerilla warfare, sneaking units around in the fungus in case some choppers landed nearby, and building Mind Worms (the only thing I had that was mildly capable of stopping Missile air units) as defenders. Again, it is not that I did not think about it, but Mind Worms are expensive at 50 minerals, therefore building them in the many size 1 and 2 bases would have taken too long. BioLabs are nice, but again, expensive, and only give +1 Lifecycle, which is not enough. They would still lose to Empath choppers, so I would prefer to have an extra worm rather than the lifecycle bonus. Anyway, I expected you to switch to Green economics when you got serious with the attacks. From my point of view, I was doomed anyway. It certainly looks like you perceived me as a much bigger threat to you than I did myself...
My campaign was not massively successful, but that could hardly be expected either. I killed two or three choppers and a needlejet; I only managed to steal one tech from the bases he captured, and that was Environmental Economics. Not that any tech could have saved me at that point, mind. Korn did manage to stop nearly all probe opportunities, but I think he overlooked the fact that one of my Probe Teams had become Elite when I switched to Fundy, giving it 3 moves. Thus I managed to sneak it into the large base on my west coast (I have forgotten its name) just after he had captured it, but before he obliterated it. That was the only time in the entire game that I managed to get a probe team into his bases. I still had infiltration because of the Empath Guild and the Governorship in the late game.
The Mind Worms near Cosmograd were all captured in the area by the Unity Rover I had out there scouting for pods. It is very easy to catch worms with +4 Planet... Getting a fusion chopper that late would not have been able to save me. I could at most have built two of my own in the time I had left; anyway, you cannot win a war with a smaller population, less production, less morale and only equal tech. So it would not have mattered.
With hindsight, what should I have done? Probably allied with Pagan[CyC] immediately and made a joint attack on the University early, but letting him do more than me, while still building up my bases back home. Then, with korn out of the picture, my superior population, tech and production should have been enough to wear down the Spartans.
But I enjoyed the game anyway. It was fun to see how long I could last... I would like to know why you did not attack me earlier. If there is anything else you want to know, just ask.
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29-03-2000 03:27
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