No, but I’ve only played on Normal, which is quite the challenge. Most games do have a familiar pattern though - AI crushes me, I start a new game. :)
Try playing with teams on, each AI and yourself on your own team - removes anyone being “friendly”.
Oh good idea, I hadn’t considered that.
How does that change to the cost of colonizers affect those that play on the largest of maps? I’d think that it really makes it hard to colonize and protect larger land masses and the map will be more forward bases than they are now. Anyone tried?
Why would anyone built forward bases? Honest question there. I think I’ve done it approximately twice to prevent a neighbor from grabbing a juicy sector before I could, but I quit once I realized that just having a single trash unit standing on the pin protects a sector as well as a forward base.
At some point in campaigns (early-mid) if I’ve bought most of what I want from the NPCs (assuming I’ve not become so annoyed with them pestering me constantly I’ve not elected instead to eradicate them) and if I’ve got spare diplomacy points to burn, I use them on this.
Not much harm in laying claim to sectors I think I’ll want at some point (energy and cosmite come immediately to mind and it’s nice not needing to send an actual unit over to annex when I want it), or because I want a bit of visibility to a section of the map and this is an easy way to get it and keep it once the unit that claimed it has moved on, or because I’ve found these make pretty good bait for the AIs.
Yep, what @easytarget said. It’s really my only use for the spare diplomacy aside from complimenting and a few operations, so dropping down forward bases in places I can’t afford to colonize (or don’t want to due to hazards) spreads my influence just that much further. And it can distract invaders and whittle them down as they approach colonies. That’s how I use them, anyway.
There are 3 hidden bonuses to forward bonuses, as in not immediately obvious.
First off all, you heal faster in friendly territory.
Secondly, if an opposing player’s units are in friendly territory, you can attack them without triggering war. This also works on the inverse, so be careful where you trespass.
Thirdly, there is a tech that massively boosts your speed within friendly territory.
Once you get point number 3, you can claim a chain or line of sectors and benefit from very fast movement where the enemy just moves normally. This suddenly makes your slow but powerful (Dvar Barons, Amazon Bombardons etc) now have the same speed, so your defence becomes much much easier.
And you can just expand this outwards, sort of a later game version of the bunker rush (because you could also deliberately box an opponent in.)
I used to build a lot of forward bases but lately I’ve been addicted to NPC units/mods, so Influence becomes a precious resource. 10-range Sirens and kitted out Medusa are friggin’ ridiculous.
Whoa! Those boosts really work in “claimed” territories that weren’t actually annexed? I had just assumed those were only for real colonies. That’s huge!
Awesome, good points and all things I hadn’t considered. I will definitely be adding forward bases to my later game strategies.
From a min-maxing perspective I have a hard time justifying forward bases, because the Influence is almost always better used buying free troops in my mind. A stack of 5 Paragon Mechs and a Techno-Prophet, kitted out with mods is really pretty horrifying.
The Plants and Scavengers don’t have as good of troops, and I flatly don’t know about the psychic fish because outside of my first game ever, they have never appeared again. I presume it’s because I am playing “Land” style maps, as my first game kind of soured me on the ocean gameplay which just felt tedious with all the embarking/debarking and virtually no incentive to build specialized ships when aircraft will do just as well and can fight on land, look at that.
But depending on your territory, it can definitely be worth building one or two forward bases in the mid game+ if you need to connect some territory for the movement bonus. Also, I guess if you are playing a version where you are hostile to all neutral factions, you really can’t use the influence for much besides some espionage. So maybe in that case you can just spam a bunch more forward bases.
I aggressively, constantly seize territory via forward bases and don’t regret it one bit. I get tons of breathing room, fast travel, easier healing, reconnaissance, and plenty of room for expansion. I also deny that ground to my neighbors, of course.
Just makes the game more interesting that there’s multiple approaches you can take with it.
Pros and cons, and it depends.
I tend to have a large racially based army, meaning not alp of energy, so I don’t often need, nor can I usually afford, NPC armies.
I do sometimes accumulate influence and then drop it on getting 5 or 6 npc units, just as the enemy shows up at my “undefended” city.
Forward bases won a game for me this morning: I won via territory domination victory, and the reason I was able to
See where the attacks were coming from before they hit and
Make us of interior lines to shuttle defensive armies at speed
was due to my huge network of forward bases. They also meant that I got to fight the invaders before they hit my cities but- crucially- while still in my territory, allowing for me to go weapons free with strategic operations before my attacks.
I’m not saying it’s the only way to play, mind, but I am very happy with how things went, and recommend anyone skeptical of FBs to give them a shot.
EDIT: Also, if you are frustrated with fighting against low strategic ops chances of success, play the Syndicate and make sure every hero gets the cheapo upgrade that makes territories they are in more vulnerable to your spells. Suddenly they are very powerful and reliable indeed!
Did you make any forward bases that weren’t even connected to your main colony, and then work your way backwards to fill it in? Or just expanded outwards from within?
Oh man in my most recent game, what a rollercoaster.
I (Syndicate) expanded, got my 2nd city, lost it to independents, got a force to take it back, then noticed other peoples’ borders were getting closer, decided to take my whole army to the nearest AI, who was at war with another AI (Amazon,) and had her capital lightly defended.
i took that, and next turn I noticed she was in a strong army, next to my strong army, so I decided to try for it, seeing as I had her HQ.
Tough fight, but I killed her.
That was good, because with her capital I now had 3 cities, and about 5 empty cities.
I bought some with influence and took some others, then got a rude awakening from the east, near my capital, when 2 AIs declared war on me, and one (Amazon) invaded with a huge army.
I blunted them at my capital, hoping that after that they’d come after my other cities (sometimes I do the same, sometimes I entrench in a captured city) which they did.
Luckily my starting armies, now fully modded and experienced, were not there when my original HQ fell, so I was able to muster a tonne of Huntresses as cannon fodder and trap the 2nd Amazon AI’s army in an open battle, where force of numbers forced the matter.
I then grouped my guys together, and reclaimed my HQ, which was lightly defended, which should have been a warning, but I hadn’t seen 2 full AI stacks leave the city and go after my main cosmite city.
They showed up and all I had was a hero and my garisson defending.
12 units against 9.
Really bloody fight, which I cheesed :P by running away (after 5 turns no damage the fight ends.)
First time I have deliberately used cheese, and don’t worry, I’ll be reporting it to Triumph!
Anyway, my hero survived with 4 hp and the enemy has 2 units, with full health.
And that is when I saved the game and went for dinner.
Goodness, Voidtech Kir’ko were so friggin’ ridiculous it wasn’t even funny. I don’t think I’ve ever stomped on the AI so hard. I know Xenoplague and Psynumbra more directly synergize, but Frenzied Echo Walkers were insane early game and later Ravenous with the Voidtech mod that gives them +2 shields and +3 shields to units adjacent to them stacking with their own hive shields made them unstoppable. I think they were running around with something like 9 Armor and 11 shields or something absolutely stupidly good like that. They’d shrug off nearly any attack, only taking 2-3 damage tops.
And how many forward bases and other things could that buy?
Just wondering if everyone is seeing this:
You get victory splash screen and a female narrator reads the text, but over top of her talking initially is music blaring over her so you can’t hear until about half way thru when it calms down a bit.