22-09-2000 06:25									#1
	my first game of SMACX Increase the size of your Attachments

Hi guys

Well, I'm in the last few turns of my first full game of SMACX. The first game I played didn't bode to well for me. I ignored the caretakers since they were pretty far away and refused to pact with anyone fighting them while I built my empire. Bad choice. I got in a land dispute with Yang, the caretakers ate everyone else for lunch and then came from my poorly defended rear flank while the troops were away fighting the hive. I stopped then and there, suffice it to say that I was toast.

But in the next game I tried I didn't ignore them. The Caretakers were next to Yang and had a land bridge to my continent. While fighting the Hive (Again....but that trick never works! ) I bumped into them. It was funny in a way. Yang crossed the bridge threatened me and then turned tail when I came screaming at him with armored impact rovers. Since I'd heard its not an atrocity I protyped a rover with nerve gas , upgraded the ones fighting Yang and pretty much killed all of the caretakers before they could threaten my empire.

So, even though I know this has been discussed before by now heres my take on the new factions that I came across in the game.

THE CARETAKERS: Interesting. No matter how you slice it you have to kill them. I feel bad about gassing them for some reason. Has anyone ever lost and had them call the fleet? What happens?
THE PIRATES- I'm not too sure I like Sven. He's too much like Yang in a way. He always threatens me and he's damn hard to track down and crush.
DATA ANGELS- I was fully prepared to have trouble from them, but Roze pacted with me early in my fight against the Caretakers and was a loyal ally. Granted she wasn't much help in the fight but she at least didn't call me every five minutes with "Your faction is mighty indeed! My price is your research on blah blah blah." I had to save her ass from Sven though.
CYBORGS- Aki reminds me of Deidre. We had a decent friendship going. I gave her a bunch of bases I took from the caretakers (since the caretakers had almost wiped out her faction) then she turns on me for no good reason so I have to spank her into a submissive pact. Considering that she was "feeble" and that I had been pretty good to her I think Sven paid her off. In fact I know he did since the message was she had joined the pirates to stand against me.
FREE DRONES- Domai is definitely a pain in the ass. He must have demanded tech from me every two turns. Finally he sneak attacks. Too bad for him I had plenty of choppers and rovers in Yang's bases bordering his. He attacked Yang at the same time so at the moment we're splitting his empire like a coconut.
MY OLD FRIEND YANG- One good thing about Yang is he's pretty good as a partner when you kick his behind.

Well, now i can't wait to see what Cha Dawn is like, or the Usurpers. I've only seen three of the new SP's, the Energy grid, the nethack terminus and the Cloudbase Academy. What are the others?

D4

	22-09-2000 08:09									#2
	Tired of ads?

D4, it sounds good.

This pretty much ties into my thread just below this one. I am thinking of buying SMAC-X. Since I play only single-player I was wondering if the new factions are better-handled by the AI than the SMAC factions. What do you say?

	22-09-2000 16:58									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

As another SMACX owner, I can tell you that they're not. However, the Alien factions are just plain *better* than any human ones, so that helps a bit. If you've got the point where Transcend is always a cakewalk, then you probably won't feel the difference. I'm still only at the point where Thinker is fairly easy, and Transcend is about "average"-ly hard, so I could feel that the Aliens, especially the Caretakers, were tougher. Pity, that, but there you are.



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"You're standing on my neck."