AAR: The Spartan Federation - Will to Power

[lolada]

The Spartan Federation – New beginnings

Hello, welcome to my new AAR. This time we are playing as Santiago and The Spartan Federation. This game is played with Will to Power mod on v. 117. There were quite a few changes since my last AAR that was played on v. 43 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21438.0) so i expect to see quite a few new things. Gonna make this one simpler and shorter – and hopefully fun as well. I am playing mostly blind, I read some change logs, but didn't play a game in a while.

The game is on Transcend difficulty, random small map with standard vanilla AC2 factions. Spartans have morale and police bonus, both very important in WTP. The mod has units starting with very green morale and morale upgrades are generally harder to acquire. There are also more techs so free prototyping is better bonus than in vanilla.



Sparta Command

Sparta Command module successfully landed after the Unity spaceship orbital disaster. There was no time for choosing the perfect location, but navigators managed to hit the land and what looked to be nearby radioactive field.



Landing module is packed with extra colony pod and two formers that will help initial colonists. First task of the trained Spartans is to scout the surrounding of the new world. There's no telling what could be found – Earth's technology could not scan the plan and due to unfortunate circumstances there was no time to get planet scans from Unity.

Sparta has the good rainy river field nearby where colonist can gather food and start power supply. Colony pod is moved to radioactive field to establish new outpost base – Santiago immediately wanted to get the foothold there as radioactive materials meant one thing – powerful weaponry!



As soon as they left the base Scouts find mysterious artifact. It seems to be definitely artificial, almost like some kind of alien technology tightly packed in its strange case. There doesn't seem to be obvious way to open or use the thing. Santiago orders the scientist to lock the thing until they are sure its not some kind of Trojan package. Scouting continues – from now on Scouts are on high alert due to possible contacts with alien races.

First contact

And it happens soon after. Scouts found Unity pod that should have contained useful equipment of some kind, but instead they were attacked!



Some kind of alien creature launched weird projectiles from nearby slime field. Scout retaliated in killed the creature in fire fight – good that Spartans put the highest emphasis on military trainings. They are survivalist after all. Spartans also notice that earth bases and machines seem to attract alien creatures, new attacks are to be expected.

Scout rovers

Sparta Command trained new scout defender to bolster its defenses and started working on mobile Scout rover. The technology and design were preserved from Unity as a symbol of faction strength.



Formers finished the farm on nearby hill field, but it doesn't appear to significantly improve food yield. A small setback, it looks like this planet, now called Chiron, works a bit differently than earth. Not  a total surprise.. there's more to learn about new planet's climate.

Fort Survivalist base is settled on the coast in nearby radioactive field. It appears to be mostly Uranium; the area will be great energy source. Fort was established on the coast of what seems to be large ocean. It was a strategic decision as Sparta Command does not have immediate ocean access. Another factor was unknown surroundings as colony pod was unprotected and alien creatures seem to be abundant.



Technology development


In M.Y. 2106. new bases were finally settled sufficiently to be able to organize first serious science and engineering projects. Spartans focused on their strength, putting the money into science of weaponry.



Scouts uncover a new Unity colony pod – this one contained comm link to Sister Miriam of the Believers. Santiago contacts Miriam and she starts her long introduction and turns it into scripture babble at which moment Santiago interrupts her and cuts to the real deals. Believers might be misguided, but they are certainly crafty and capable people and Santiago uses the opportunity to trade for their Recreation Commons facilities. It was fitting in a kind as religious people tend to care and comfort the weak, they already found a good way to turn claustrophobic bases on alien planets into more habitable surroundings.



Santiago was not really that interested in comfort, but soldiers need to get some rest after hard trainings and there are civilians out there also – one cannot function otherwise. Miriam also wanted to trade her maps.



Believers were situated to the east on almost certainly small continent. Santiago started to believe Chiron is actually mostly ocean world, land near Sparta looks to be completely cut off by the ocean from the north side and the base located in the southern hemisphere. Another interesting feature of the maps were two large alien monolith structures.

In following years Spartans develop three important technologies. New Laser weaponry in 2109, Particle Weapons in 2113 and Biology Labs in 2119. This chain of event boosted their understanding of alien planet and creatures and created foundations for strong military faction.



Chironquake !?

An unusual disturbing earthquake turns out to be quite convenient to Spartans. When scouts activated unity pod in the east something triggered the earthquake and land significantly rose in short period of time. There doesn't seem to be nearby volcano on the surface, though down below its safe to assume there is huge lava pool. Its also weird that earthquake coincided with Unity pod discovery in time and location, that should be unnatural, or one in a billion chance hit. It was impossible to tell. Whatever the case, Spartans got a new patch of land and their continent was now significantly larger than what Believers had.



Sparta Command retools its production to Colony pod, there doesn't seem to be great use for scout rover at current time due to terrain configuration. Scouts can handle defense for now.



Chiarman Yang and The Hive

Santiago contacts The Hive leader Chairman Yang via new comm link found from Unity pod. Chairman is mostly unpleasant person to deal with. He was not interested in small talk as he already looked to be in conflict with Deirdre and the Gaians as he requested that we join him in the fight against them. Then he asked for Laser weaponry technology – which Santiago flatly refused.



Santiago thought of Yang as madman and there was no way that she would supply him with arms to crush the Gaians. Then Yang of course was not interested in providing Gaians comm link frequencies back; he would for weaponry, but that was out of question. A tough start with The Hive, he is certainly not a friend. Miriam proved to be much more pleasant to deal with and Santiago turns to her again.

Doctrine: Flexibility

Miriam was in good mood, she liked Spartan's weapons. Believers put the god on first place, weapons in second; Santiago respected them for that at least somewhat, even if they mixed up priorities. They were dangerous to be given weapons as well, but obsolete once were acceptable and Miriam accepted the deal.



Spartans third base, Assassin's Redoubt, proceeded to build first Spartan's gunship on Chiron. The base was settled from Chiron built colony pod in Sparta Command and settled near nutrient resources found by yet another Unity pod.



Unity pods proved to be quite helpful so far and more seem to be in surrounding oceans. They also turned out to be dangerous as they attracted aliens. Spartans had a few more alien clashes including first real casualties on one occasion. Slime terrain, named fungus now, was amplifying alien powers, something to care about in the future.

It was on location of Assassin's Redoubt where alien creatures drew the first blood, but that sacrifice helped secure the location for new settlement.

[bvanevery]

Getting a base wiped by a larva, provides security?  It's still out there.  It's gonna wander and dance around and be annoying.

Well, rock onwards.   

Unless you meant that you first fought a mindworm down there, then settled a base.  Showing the screenshots in the opposite order, gives the opposite impression.

Actually, I forgot this is WTP.  Where when a mindworm comes up next to your base, it's not a certainty that you want to attack.  In that case, my original comment stands.  You're not secure.  Perhaps that's a narrative in-character joke on your part, the Spartans choosing to see their actions as a "bold sacrifice" rather than screwing up.

Your starting land is complete garbage.  Hope it's relatively easy to get Doctrine: Flexibility.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Way to go man! Let luck turns her face to you so you don't need to reload much.
😁

I am playing mostly blind.

Does it mean blind research or without reading changelog?

There are also more techs so free prototyping is better bonus than in vanilla.

I was thinking to increase extra prototype cost from 50% to 100% to make Spartan bonus more valuable (as well as Skunkworks). I have even played with these setting some time ago until people start complaining about overall game slowness so I removed all questionable modification those may upset people in this regard. Let me know your opinion about it. Maybe after you finish the game.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Your starting land is complete garbage.  Hope it's relatively easy to get Doctrine: Flexibility.

They have already got Flexibility from Believers. However, I agree - even with foils the starting land won't support expansion early on. I'd suggest to build cheap Gun Foils and explore ocean quite soon. Then just start spamming sea colonies until others claimed all the best spots. Growing population + energy allows chance for counter-play against land factions.

[lolada]

Unless you meant that you first fought a mindworm down there, then settled a base.  Showing the screenshots in the opposite order, gives the opposite impression.

Ah yeah its screenshot order thing, that guy died there "securing" the land, colony pod came afterwards so I didn't lose any colony pods or bases. I should have maybe ordered the screenshots the other way around.

Your starting land is complete garbage.  Hope it's relatively easy to get Doctrine: Flexibility.

Not sure what to do with land its crap, i might go spam some sea bases - i think ocean tiles are workable now in the mod - they can be terraformed?! Its a small map and it seems it rolled low land percentage so other AIs won't have much land so i might be ok. If they end up spamming tons of sea bases and probe foils i am definitively try to get +3 Probe or Hunter-Seeker to get rid of that nonsense. I got Doctrine: Flexibility, Miriam was kind to provide it.

Does it mean blind research or without reading changelog?

Game is with blind research (Disc/Conq default) - although i did mean without reading changelogs . I glanced through some changes in the thread, but there's lots i don't know. I didn't know that you moved resource restrictions unlock to Centauri Ecology. I also remembered that you changed tech tree, but i have no idea whats changed. Gonna be interesting. Not sure at all how secret project are built now.

I was thinking to increase extra prototype cost from 50% to 100% to make Spartan bonus more valuable (as well as Skunkworks). I have even played with these setting some time ago until people start complaining about overall game slowness so I removed all questionable modification those may upset people in this regard. Let me know your opinion about it. Maybe after you finish the game.

I found Spartans in some prior games a bit weak economically. While some other factions have nice bonuses Spartans are not even neutral, but hampered with -Industry. Still morale is quite huge bonus, once you get going their troops are really scary so I hope to get to that point and conquer someone's nice cities. Prototype bonus is handy to have, there are quite a lot of weapons and armors in the mod so i suppose its better bonus than in vanilla.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Not sure what to do with land its crap, i might go spam some sea bases - i think ocean tiles are workable now in the mod - they can be terraformed?!

You are scaring me a little. Yes, sea bases can be terraformed. This is kinda huge SMAC thing comparing to Civ. And I didn't change anything in this mod specifically to improve them even better. They are that good in SMAX already.

I found Spartans in some prior games a bit weak economically. While some other factions have nice bonuses Spartans are not even neutral, but hampered with -Industry. Still morale is quite huge bonus, once you get going their troops are really scary so I hope to get to that point and conquer someone's nice cities. Prototype bonus is handy to have, there are quite a lot of weapons and armors in the mod so i suppose its better bonus than in vanilla.

Hmm. I don't think there are more stuff in this mod. They may come at slightly different times but the amount of prototyping you have to do is the same as in vanilla.
I agree that morale bonus is a nice thing. It buffs both attack and defense and even works against natives!

[bvanevery]

I was thinking to increase extra prototype cost from 50% to 100% to make Spartan bonus more valuable (as well as Skunkworks).

I did 200%.  I am quite happy with it.  It has survived many releases of my mod as a game mechanic.  A Skunkworks also costs as much as a Research Hospital, to build and maintain.  You have to get some Tier 3 stuff up the Discover part of the tech tree to have one.  The same tech gives the Planetary Datalinks.  You're not going to get a Skunkworks just pursuing Conquer.

However, I do give away the Synthmetal Armor prototype for free immediately with C1 High Energy Chemistry.  That's part of the policy of favoring defense vs. offense.  I want the AIs to build up Clean Synthmetal Sentinels and stop any player from rushing them with Recon Rovers.  I think this is necessary with the general incompetence of the combat AI in the stock binary.  Well it's not completely incompetent, but it definitely makes some poor decisions that we know about.  YMMV with Thinker Mod based code.  I don't know what it does better, if anything, with combat AI.

Some prototypes are given away here and there via predefined units.  When I make those available, it's 1 tech after the tech where the capability appears.    If you wait long enough, you can get some prototypes for free.  But you're still waiting, and it's not going to help you for most things.

Thinker Mod has a better AI unit designer, including Fusion units.  Some of my hacks with predefined units probably wouldn't be necessary.

[bvanevery]

Not sure what to do with land its crap,

Spartans with your lousy start can: go "pseudo Pirate", or just shift their empire onto a better chunk of nearby land, or invade someone else's nearby land.

If you go pseudo Pirate, be sure to settle on top of the Sea Mineral bonus squares.  You lose no mineral efficiency doing this, and it gives major oomph to your productivity.

A final option, only available in a game where it's easy to get the Weather Paradigm, is to raise your lousy land out of the ocean.  Until it is great land.  You never have to build a boat.  Not possible in my mod.  You're not gonna get it in a useful time frame, if you can even get it at all.  Can't remember what you can do in WTP.

i might go spam some sea bases

"Completion exploits" can get you some Sea Colony Pods completed real fast if you decide to do that.   Get a Gunship out there, or a Transport.  Set it up so that you're working on a Sea Colony Pod when you pop the supply pod nearest the base.  Size 2 of course.  You might get a Completion and that's a huge time savings.  When I play the Pirates, I exploit this all the time.  It's one of my "economic runaways" I mentioned in another thread.  I'm really scary with the Pirates, because they have such overwhelming resource advantages.

I've also adapted this technique for land empire use.  Whatever I want to get done fast, I set up a Completion.  When you're at 10 minerals or under, you can switch back and forth without penalty.  So it's all a dance until you're finally "committed" to whatever you're producing, which is probably not the expensive stuff.  I design really expensive land units to complete, like armored Rover Formers.  I never remember to cash the things, but if I did, they'd be worth a lot of minerals.

And if I've got Morganite money behind me, or have just gotten a bit rich popping pods, I'll rush stuff the minute I've got 10 minerals into it.  That way, I can set up more Completion exploits.  In my mod, Clean Reactors are available from the beginning of the game, so there's always stuff worth rushing like that.  YMMV for WTP, but I'm sure you can come up with "needful things".

The antidote for my Completion exploits, would be playing the game without any supply pods other than at the landing sites, lol.  I've gone through periods of time playing like that, because pods make the game rather easy.  Haven't played a "lean" game like that lately though.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

FYI
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21359.msg126912#msg126912

Take this update if you experience this bug. It also incorporate v. 118 with reduced AAA bonus but this is alphax change. So you can revert it.
You can also take the update right now and enjoy reduced AAA bonus if nobody got aircrafts yet.

[lolada]

Centauri Ecology

In M.Y. 2121. Spartans have finished modeling Chiron local climate patterns. It was the knowledge that help predict climate cycles and improve overall productivity of resource extraction, but it didn't stop there. Engineering effort were made to design new Former units that could terraform planet, including the sea variants. Spartans already notices a few rich coastal resource nodes around the continent.



There was actually plenty of action to come around the continent, starting with alien attacks. Spartan gun foil was surprise attacked by unknown creature from the depths, barely surviving. Hits like this one severely slowed down the planet mapping.



It took more than ten Chiron years – that were of different, shorter, duration than earth years – for Spartans to discover new faction. Immediately north over the ocean another scout gunship met The Morganites, led by... Morgan, greedy capitalist opportunist. Santiago hated his types.



Morgan offered Pravin Lal's comm link for the sum of 10 energy credits. It was unusually small some considering who were Santiago dealing with, so she accepted the offer. That started productive technology exchange in which Spartans traded for Polymorphic Software and High Energy Chemistry technology. Former had designs for spy probe units that could infiltrate both electronic and biological systems and the latter was the key to producing hardened Plasma (3) armor and heavy artillery designs.

Pravin Lal

Pravin Lal was U.N. „Peacekeeper“ leftover sent to Chiron with the goal to reinstate fallen earth organization. It fell partly due to The Spartans actions  on Earth and the rest was due to corrupt and weak system – at least that is what The Spartans were taught.  Santiago didn't want to have anything with so-called peacekeeper missions, the least to have it forced on her faction.




Peacekeepers had the  best start on Chiron so far with lots of land available to them. They even ended up near Garland Crater, ancient meteor impact site, full of mineral resources. Not the great news. Morgan faction to the wst seemed to have some troubles with hostile native  creatures. They could be the first target for The Spartans.

Lal proved unpredictable, for some reason offering Morgan maps for technology. Looks like everyone wanted weaponry on Chiron. Santiago obliged as information could prove more deadly than weapon itself. Besides that unusual offer, two didn't have much to talk about for a moment.



Gunships continued the exploration of the seas, discovering sufficient info to reconstruct Industrial Base technology and produce Synthmetal armors (2). Then in the east cache of resources found was used to speed up Colony pod construction and later on more energy sources were found. Not everything was that positive as many pods were ruined by alien creatures and few gunships were damaged and lost in the process. Sealurks even attacked bases directly from the seas, and another type of the creatures transported land mindworms that attacked bases upon landings. The Spartans had several cases, but the bases were secured. The same couldn't be said for Morganites who even had their bases raided by alien creatures, losing several units and alien artifact in the process.





Gattling weaponry

Santiago continued her pursuit of ever sophisticated weaponry. Latest reconstructed were Gattling lasers. Not The Spartans have the edge over other faction once again, as other designs were sold earlier. The tech was important as well because it relied upon Uranium resources and was on step to rediscovering Fusion Power reactors.



Expansion

Blocked by limited space Spartans also built their first sea base, Fleet Anchorage. It was the first step towards securing naval supremacy. Fleet Anchorage was placed in a vital channel controlling the northern pass.



Several more colony pods were in order to populate the continent, after which it was planned to grow and secure the bases. Drones were already appearing and incidents became more common over the faction. Many didn't like the expansion over extension and deemed the direction Spartans developed as wrong and dangerous. Santiago was aware of the situation and she pushed as far as she could to control the territory before consolidations. There were no direct threats of conflict in this time.

Prometheus virus strikes

But there were other threats, one such was new unknown type of alien virus. Luckily it hit The Morganites. Deadly virus likely originated because of their meddling near the fungus fields. Those were unpredictable and dangers, often inhabited by alien life. Greedy Morgan likely tried to extract resources from them and paid the price. Morganites were already doing poorly in their first years on the planet, unable to cope well with worm threats.



Santiago's scientist had another idea. During the development of missile technology they figured out that the fuel could be used to creat Fungicide tanks designs and pack it on Former units. These were capable of exterminating complete fungus fields with double speed, reducing complete work to 3 Chiron years. The upgrade was practically free and every Spartan Former was equipped with this technology.



The Hive

One of the Gunships sent to the north managed to navigate many alien attacks and find The Hive faction and several Unity pods. One of the pods revealed significant scans of the area. Chairman Yang was doing well and had several sea bases already settled. He also found radioactive fields to syphon energy from, which is quite a big deal for his faction.



That could also turn out to be good for The Spartans: The Hive is no friend of Democratic society by Peacekeepers. Pravin Lal could find himself in the war on two fronts.

Secret Projects

Military action could prove to be necessary in the future if threat grows. Peacekeepers announced the completion of first major infrastructure project on Chiron in 2152. The Merchant Exchange would make him even richer in the future.



His power grew even more in 2158 with completion of two another major projects.



The Weather Paradigm marked a significant improvement in terraforming effort and Universal Translator was succesfull effort in unlocking alien technology secrets netting The Peacekeepers technology edge. Meanwhile The Spartans were in no position to even start any projects. Their intel reported that some other factions are also trying to complete different projects. As The Spartans had no good production bases yet, Santiago turned to planning of somehow getting some. The plannign would probably have to involve some military effort, but that is where The Spartans were the strongest.

[lolada]

Played a bit more built up infrastructure and grew bases, this is gonna be interesting game. Also built sea bases - apparently you can build improvement at ocean shelf squares <1000, depth, but not in deep ocean - never really looked at that carefully. So I can't even expand around much - its mostly deep ocean. I could try to raise sea floor but need the tech for that. I might lose this one later eventually to Lal air spam ^^, still not near air tech.

Yup, also upgrade to v1.21 (specialists are buffed a bit and AAA has +50% bonus (instead of 100%).

Gonna write next part a bit later.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Also built sea bases - apparently you can build improvement at ocean shelf squares <1000, depth, but not in deep ocean - never really looked at that carefully.

Yes. Known vanilla rule. I never understood its strategical value. It is just unusable territory like mountains in Civ 5. Seems to be a "lore" defined. Like you cannot work deep ocean tiles. Yet they still confer 1 nutrient - fishing? In my opinion it hurts game in two ways.
1) Ocean expansion is restricted for both AI and human, which limits small land mass factions ability to escape to the ocean. Overall lowering ocean bases attractiveness.
2) AI tends to place their bases next to the shore. Specifically, next to my shore, which is very annoying. Maybe without this restriction it won't. Or maybe we also need to adjust their placing priorities those may be hard-coded and not directly linked to ocean tile usability.


On the second though it would be an extremely tedious work to fix all these hard-coded places in the code. So maybe tune word builder to generate more shelf tiles? Like if 50-70% of ocean times are shelves that should be pretty enough to cope with this problem. Anybody knows how to tune word builder in alphax.txt for that?

[bvanevery]

I think an ocean discussion should be its own thread, rather than polluting this AAR.  I'll start one in Modding.

[lolada]

M.Y. 2169. Probe team action

One of the spy Foil Probe Team units was completed and ready for action in M.Y.2169. Its target, Morgan Construction base, was under alien take in last decade, losing in the process one of its defenders, one defensive probe team and even an alien artifact. This made it logical target and Morganites were as well nearby and weak – Santiago might have plans to invade the base in the future.



Upon attack a surprise! Tricky Morgan secured another probe team defender and Spartan probe foil finds itself against the odds, completely destroyed in the end. New one was not going to be ready for the while as Spartan bases were working on facilities and Sea Colony pods. A setback for sure, but invasion would not yet come anyway.

Going tall

Sparta Command was working on first Spartan Recycling tanks facility. It was groundbreaking innovation, quite expensive at 60 minerals, but upon completion it will be able to recycle material to improve base mineral production by 50%. Even if its only 3-4 raw minerals in the start, while the base is relatively small, these extra resources would speed up any future production by several turns. It was one way the faction could amass resource advantage over competitors who had better land like Pravin Lal. One downside of such facility is energy cost maintenance of 2 energy per year. Santiago planned to build solar collectors on the coast to gather energy as that was one of the best source of it.



Other bases were working on Recreation Commons in order to prepare for population growth. These facilities were rushed with energy credits when possible.

Gene Splicing techniques

Santiago still had the best trade relations with Morgan of all leaders. He was kind enough once again and traded multiple technologies to Spartans, including Gene Splicing. It was especially important technology that opened op the options of building Living Refinery and Genejack Factories.



The Living Factory would come as great Support boosting project that could lead to creation of large standing Spartan army. But it was expensive and Sparta Command was not yet ready to start building it. But still there was a possibility as Hologram Theater was already completed in the base and one extra police unit could be added to handle drone issues. With Recycling Tanks complete the base could complete The Living Refinery in reasonable time.
Gene factory was second mineral capacity boosting facility that would be great to have. Unfortunately, it has some serious drawbacks compared to Recycling tanks. Its more than 50% more expensive in minerals, double the cost in maintenance and comes with a drone inducing revolt. Quite a downside for undeveloped faction – but Spartans would really like to have these Genejack factories once they sort out Drone control and energy issues. For now the bases had to first build up basic infrastructure

Factions assembled

In another trade deal Santiago secured comm links with other two players on the Chiron.



Provost Zakharov was characteristically arrogant in his pursuit of knowledge and science, while Deirdre looked on guard. Her troops are on the weak side, naturally afraid of Spartans. Santiago now had the option of assembling the leaders and establishing the institution of Planetary Council. She decided against it, better the keep the fools in the dark. That snake Pravin would likely take all the power to himself with his sweet talk and empty promises. His lucky starting position would secure him most votes and he is all about the diplomacy anyway. The Spartans were not ready yet to compete.

Fusion Power

In M.Y. 2172. Spartans break the secrets of Fusion Power and create portable Fusion reactors. Their units could be produced now more efficiently, quite a boost for a factor with industry penalty. Santiago gives instruction to deploy all future units with these reactors.



It was not all happy faces in M.Y. 2172 – at the end of the year intel reports that Pravin Lal is near the completion of The Living Refinery secret project. Sparta Command didn't even manage to start the project.



Santiago in turns decides to try to speed up faction growth. There was no space to expand territory, but growing population would be a step in the right direction. Adjustments are made to implement Planned economy in the faction.



The goal would be to improve infrastructure and the work force at the cost of some economic efficiency. The faction could deal with inefficiency due to its small size, but Planned also caused support penalty that was quite unwelcome. Still Santiago decided it was the way to go – Spartans had very few units trained at a time.

Sea bases

By M.Y. 2184. Spartans established two new sea bases and quite a lot of infrastructure was built. Sparta Command grew to size 6, but still lots of bases were behind at only size 2. One of the new bases, Admiralty Rock was well placed near sea nutrient resource that was taken from Lal in border dispute. Peacekeepers even improved it with Kelp farm.



The other base, Hydrodock, was unfortunately ill-placed in deep ocean environment to the west. Terraforming efforts there failed and the base could not be developed at all. Apparently Chiron ocean can be terraformed at ocean shelf depths, that is up to 1000m depth. Santiago was looking at the options of relocating of the base, but so far scouts failed to find good nearby relocation site. The best one seems to be far to the west near the Believers and could lead to potential conflict. That side was tempting to Santiago as it had Mineral resources available and could be used as a strategic staging point in potential wars.

[lolada]

Alien technology

Near the end of 22nd century Sparta Command finished its Network Node infrastructure and could start to truly study strange alien artifact found in the first years on the Chiron. To everyone's surprise, what was presumed to be maybe years long project, was solved in a matter of weeks.



Advanced AI algorithms solved the mystery and unlocked the alien artifact. It didn't take took long to decipher alien alphabet as well. The effort led in the end to wondrous discovery.



Aliens deemed it worthy to preserve Applied relativity theory and The Supercollider design in tightly secured artifact. It was the pinnacle of 20th century earth technology, still very valuable to Chiron colonists as they had no access to much of earth knowledge. Whole Unity fiasco project was hurried and much was lost in the process.

The Pact

The discoveries soon led to unlocking Fusion Power secrets – The Spartans were planning now to start building first Fusion Labs in the bases. Facilities were expensive and hard to build, but would boost both science and economic output of the bases significantly. Morgan was in awe of new discovery and offered tech exchange as well as yet another alliance offer.



Santiago had talks earlier to this one with several other leaders with the hope of economic and technology exchange. It all ended up in disappointing manner, they all were arrogant and uncooperative, busy with their scheming and selfish interests. Even if Morgan was selfish and greedy corporationist, he understood the need for economic progress too well. In that Santiago could find an ally in this troubling time. There was no strong military presence without strong economic background, as many history lessons teach us.

Morgan has already developed strong defensive Silksteel Armor (6) in attempt to secure himself from growing power of Peacekeepers. Santigao's military experts soon after developed Chaos Guns (6). The pair guaranteed strong military presence to Spartans, now they just needed stronger economic and production support to fill military ranks.



Planetary Council

Chairman Yang first summoned planetary council in M.Y. 2190s to gloat about his conflicts with Dreidre. Nothing could be done about that yet, as nobody wanted to have world police on Chiron, but crafty Pravin Lal used the opportunity to propel himself to position of first President of Planetary Council. The position granted him the leading role in proposing new projects and lions share of future trade profits.



Not a good sign as he continued to grow his population to largest on Chiron, while at the same time building large secret projects. He was number one threat on Santiago's list.

War breaks out

Surprisingly, Miriam of the Believers was first to pronounce Vendetta on The Spartans. Once trade partner, now the enemy, Miriam first insisted on involving Spartans into Conflict with The Hive, and when Santiago refused, she wanted advanced technologies for free. And she would not accept a no for answer leading to escalations.



Luckily her Chaos Gunship did not find that Hydrodome was unprotected at a time, but it did force Santiago to change plans for the base. Hydro Dome had access to two ocean shelf tiles in the east and with better technology some more ocean tiles could be risen to acceptable depth for Kelp farms. The base was ordered to build garrison and probe team protection.
A few years later Deirdre came with ultimatum as well, join her war efforts against The Hive or else. Santiago chose „else“ and The Spartans were now in  war with Believers and Gaians.

Sparta Command has just completed first Spartan Genejack factory, which in tandem with Recycling tanks, double the base mineral production to respectable 20 minerals. Genejack factory produced an extra drone in the base, but it was possible to specialize one citizen into Technician role, producing 4 economy points nicely paying off some maintenance, when the workers would not work a tile instead. Lots of production in Sparta Command was lost on supporting units as Planned economy allowed for support of only 1 unit for free, but Sparta had to carry the burden to allow other bases to grow faster.  The base proceeded to build Command Center and first Chaos Rover prototype. Its purpose was to quickly reinforce defense in case Believers land with attacking units.



Free Market economy

In further effort to boost economy, Santiago shifted away from Planned approach to Free Market economy. New economy had the advantage of producing much more trade income and the energy could be used to hurry productions and help the growth or defense.  Free Market also scales better with larger work force, which planned nicely boosted, so in  a sense it was natural transition.



Change came with one downside, liberties that disallowed military control of the population and Santiago had to divert 20% of the energy to psych allocation. Still Planned economy had similar issue, it had to produce and support police units to do so, and that support was so underwhelming that often even industry bonus would not compensate it. Morgan saluted timely economy shift and the relations between factions rose to new level.

M.Y. 2200. Map of The Spartan Federation

The Spartans managed to grow most of its bases to respectable size of 3  and 4, with Sparta being the example in development. Free market economy was in place and lots of infrastructure already developed. Terraforming efforts covered continent completely and the formers were running of priority tasks, shifting to drilling aquifers. Coast was also very developed boosting food and energy production to new levels. It was the start of good foundation for incoming wars. Still despite all economic progress defense was still not in place and The Spartans needed some extra time to be in full power.