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#67 BRIAN REYNOLDS' CivII.V? (Part II) 2nd Part of Yin's crazy(?) thoughts... #68 TO KILL A BIRD Sir David reviews the Off-Topic forum situation on Apolyton #69 STARTING FROM SCRATCH "Or how game designers can avoid failure", says Gregor #70 THE CIV3 DEMO: LOOKING AHEAD Here's a certain someone who is unquestionably anti-demo. #71 FIRST DAY PRE-PLAYING REPORT Imran reports his first impressions before playing SMAC-X COLUMN ARCHIVE

Last night, Mongoose, Genaciv and I entered into the first multiplayer game of SMAC-X that I have heard of. It felt vastly different, even creepy. I had some experience with the pirates from the demo so I chose them, while Genaciv picked the drones and Mongoose became the data angels.

My first sea base, Safe Haven was right beside an island. So, I built a transport and landed on the island. Two of the usurpers colony pods were right in front of me. So I did the best diplomatic move my salt-addled brain could think of, I killed them.

I have never seen a computer-controlled faction mobilize so quickly.

I ran away.

I ran some more.

That Ogre Mk1 is terrifying on turn 6.

All my nightmares aside, I find the game vastly improved with better AI and the mix of factions means you really don't know who you are playing against until you run into them.
There are more of every single faction type(build, explore, discover and Conquer) and should you run afoul of the usurpers and the caretakers at the same time. Your game will be brief. In SMAC-X the new factions are so aggressive that if you do not build a decent garrison army, there is a real possibility of getting overrun early on. I would recommend researching the defensive technologies all way up to High Energy Chemistry as soon as possible. In SMAC you can afford to be slow in your build up of your armies, but in SMAC-X the appearance of an instant army changes the game dramatically.

It is alot of fun and a real challenge to adapt to. I recommend that everyone get this expansion.

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About the author: Self-proclaimed resident of ACHQ.

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