16-06-2001 23:22									#1
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I am trying to decide whether I should attack the University or the Gaians next in my current SP game. Do you think it is better to kill Zak, who has the tech lead, or Dee, who has the military and population lead? The Believers were already eliminated by Yang, and I just eradicated him. Morgan is my immediate neighbor, a loyal pactmate. Lal is over on the other side of the planet and hasnt annoyed me yet, though he has taken his hat off to me a few times.

Is it better to eliminate the Gaian military threat first, or to go get Zak and his techs before crushing the tree huggers? Both factions are within range of the Spartan Marines, but I am undecided as to which faction is strategically the next target.

	16-06-2001 23:58									#2
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IMHO, go after the Gaians. Eliminate your military rival, and while you are assimilating your newly captured prizes, go probe the good Doctor to death! Once you have wrung everthing you can from Zak, then turn his tech against him.

Better yet, if you are able to do so, probe Zak while you are prosecuting your war against Dee. That way you may be able to use that newly accquired tech in your current campaign. Then, when you turn on Zak, you will have a core of battle hardned veterans that can go to work immediately, rather than having to wait for the tech to arrive and wait longer yet while you retrofit.

	17-06-2001 00:00									#3
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Great military powers prove to be my greatest annoyance, so I'd recommend invading Dee. Before you do though, just take a transport with a boatload of probes up to one of Zak's bases and procure any tech he has that you don't. Viola, tech gap problem solved, and with it, his potential threat.

	17-06-2001 01:27									#4
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And why go to war with anyone? Get some decent Elite probe teams, and keep framing Dee for stealing Zak's technology! Your two greatest enemies fight each other, and then you can pick over the leavings at your leisure!

	17-06-2001 01:53									#5
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My marines have indeed just taken a nice fat juicy coastal base from Dee, and are busily skirmishing with whatever troops Dee sends near my new base.

Meanwhile, when I sailed a transport with probes over to Zak, he offers to trade his chaos weapon tech for some minor tech that I had, and when I accepted the trade, he offered to pact with me.

Since I will need the money to finance my invasion of the Gaian empire, I accepted the pact. Zak immediately insulted me though, something about my mad ravings about power and so forth. I dont think that pact will last very long somehow....

So I have just ordered up 16 shiny new Elite Chaos rovers, and when I get them all ferried over to Dee's territory, I will upgrade my existing force to Chaos as well, and the fun will begin!

Thanks for the sound advice. I expect Zak will renounce he pact in a few turns, and then I will probe him for the rest of his techs before I turn them on him when I am done with Dee.


Why go to war, Smac Fanatic? Because it makes no sense to build Elite troops, and then not use them. They are only valuable to me when they are out expanding the borders of the Spartan Empire. He who controls the real estate, controls the game.

	17-06-2001 04:27									#6
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It looks like my advice is coming too late, but...

Consider any SE conflict you may have with the AI. If your SE stance isn't liked by the AI they will likely be at war with you before too long anyway. A conquest game is easiest if you have only one enemy at a time. So attack the faction most likely to attack you soon and try and keep things peaceful with the other faction until after you mop up your first enemy.

One proviso: if you are number one or two on the might chart you are more likely to conflict with the top AI faction regardless of SE stance. Plan accordingly.

	17-06-2001 08:41									#7
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I am happy to report that I have broken the back of the Gaian resistance, and will soon eliminate them altogether. I am attacking them from two directions, and am about to launch a third strike into the heart of their rapidly crumbling Empire that should finish them off.

I have achieved the top position on the power chart in all categories except tech, which is now held by Lal. Annoyingly, Lal built the supercollider and Hunter Seeker, so I will have to send in the marines against him sooner than I had planned. I dont want to let him get too far ahead in techs, that would be dangerous.

I am running planned /demo /power, so Zak and Dee are upset with me, but Zak hasnt attacked me yet.

I have fusion laser weapons now, and am researching shard weapons. I have a large fleet of needlejets, and my conquered former Hive bases have been re outfitted with the needed infrastructure to rapidly mass produce elite fusion copters. All is well in the empire.

	18-06-2001 20:48									#8
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Drago

Every time I read one of these threads I get more and more nervous about our challenge match. I expect any day now to see 16 shiny elite chaos troops marching onto my lands. (Wait! he can't have chaos weapons yet . . . . or can he?)

In their respectives games the Gaians, University and the Hive are anxiously awaiting you and hope to have a proper reception prepared for our meeting. I can see I am going to have to hone my military skills since you certainly seem to be sharpening yours.

	18-06-2001 21:07									#9
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cbn:

The peaceloving Spartans have no intention of starting a war. You need pay little or no attention to defenses, just keep building all those neat Special Projects and such. Yum.