10-01-2001 13:41									#1
	whats your worst starting position? Increase Your PM Length

Its amazing how a starting position can determine a game. I started a new game of SMACX , playing the gaians. (I always rename them Rangers, because I'm a guy) Where did I land? On a one tile piece of land in the moddle of the ocean. I was flabbergasted. There was absolutely no way to expand and I had quite a ways to go to Flex.

Disgusted I tried again. My new start put me almost on top of the Unity Wreckage. Woohoo! Then out of nowhere a probe team ran up to Gaia's landing and probed my newly discovered Biogenetics advance. By now my scout had found the unity bridge and it was apparent I was right next to the Data Angels. DAMN! it would be some time before I got probe teams and Roze seemed determined to pick my bones of any tech I discovered. I hate that! I like to hoard my tech and use superior weaponry to defend myself. So I fired on her second probe team starting a war. I should have paid closer attention to the minimap that showed all the human landing sites. On my other side was YANG! Since I had no real defenses so to speak its not like he was going to sign a treaty. Game over. Both Yang and Roze attacked my one colony pod and base. I didn't even wait to see the defeat screen. I'm usually no good when I start right next to Yang.

So I tried AGAIN. This time I landed smack in the middle of the damn desert. Disgusted I just restarted. At last! I perfect spot. I began expanding, and trying to get my science up. I didn't know if the UoP or the Cyborgs were in the game and it would be hard to out tech them if they were. By the time i four bases I felt fairly confident until I saw an orange flagged rover. *sigh*. Miriam's early game morale advantage spelt the end for me. With nothing but mere scouts I couldn't really stand up to her and she didn't waste time in telling me that planet wasn't big enough for the both of us.

So whats your worst starting position?

D4

	10-01-2001 14:11									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

D4, you gave some very good examples of bad starting positions. Starting on a one tile island has never happend to me, luckily.

I once had a start next to Roze, and it ended similar to your game. Because I also hate to be probed, I made war and got spanked.

But what I dislike most ist starting on a peninsula, with a warmonger faction like Yang or Miriam neighboured on the other side of the isthmus. Without room to expand, you can't build a counterforce and will be easy prey.

	10-01-2001 14:17									#3
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I disagree with you on this topic , while you had to start a new game if you were on a tiny island in civ II this is not true for SMAC because you get a free foil in this case which is a huge advantage .
Starting in a dry environment is not a problem for me because you have so much opportunities to get extra recources from the unity pods , there will be almost ever a monolith or a nutrient bonus on one field .
Starting close to a fraction with military bonus like Santiago , Miriam or Yang is a problem but note that the most other fraction have a bonus too . Morgan has better armour right from the start , Zharkov is able to research the tech needed for attack 4 units quickly , and the Gaians which i like very much have these mindworms for free . The only fraction with which i have difficulties meeting a strong enenmy to early is Lal , thus i play not often as Lal.
I had to start the game new because of a bad position only in the extended version , meeting the aliens to early in the game there it is very hard to survive .

	10-01-2001 14:33									#4
	Suffering from ads?

I know how you feel, most the time I play SMAX but just once I decided to try SMAC (this is incidental), chose the UOP, start point right next to jungle, wahoo. Gotta share it with yang, Doh. On my other side Santigo... Damn I hate being a sandwich filling.

Restart, this time gaians, once again I find the good chairman next to me, then I see a orange rover coming to join the party, CRAP! And I havn't even managed to grab a worm.

One last chance, again Gaians. I mean I can't get worse neighbours can I?
I'm wrong, all THREE of them, with disbelief I give up.

Never had the pleasure of a single tile start, but once two AI factions got single tile starts in the same game.

Aside my best starting point was on a random map playing Domai, I started right next to the jungle and found no-one else wanted it, so I expand all over the jungle and find Miriam, managing to deprive her of the jungle by fast expansion. She offers a pact against Santigo, great, her bases stop santigo getting to me.

I expand away from the jungle and find the cult and gaians, both are attached to my land mass by narrow bottlenecks, which are very easily defended. Then I explore the landmass on the farside of the jungle, it is completely empty too! and covers fully 1/4 of the map, connecting via a narrow bottleneck to spartan territory. In all I secured half the land on the map peacefully, I played for a while, and the only SP I didn't get was the datalinks.