Do you use Sneaky Tactics?

Gibsie · December 28, 2002, 12:48

There must be a ton of ways in this game that can give you an unfair advantage- most famously I would suppose are the supply crawlers.

Another I just used inadvertently in my current game as the Caretakers was giving a city that I was about to lose to my alien brethren to my Gaian allies- when the Usurpers took the city, it got reduced back to size one and my allies gained a few (possibly doomed) colony pods. Even though, of course, the composition of the city would be mostly alien...

So what sneaky tricks are known, and which do you use?

Petek · December 28, 2002, 13:18

Here's one that's always good for a few laughs: Create useless units and give them away. For example, build a needlejet transport and "donate" it to your neighbor. You can do this even if the faction hasn't discovered DAP because the AI won't reverse engineer the flying transport into anything useful. It will, however, build more copies, tying up its production and reducing its minerals.

Another sneaky tactic is to trade bases with pact mates. The AI will trade any base (even bases with SPs, but not its headquarters) for one of yours. Not a very challenging way to play, but can be amusing once in a while.

Disclaimer: These tactics are for single-player games only! Don't use in multi-player games unless agreed on beforehand.

Gibsie · December 28, 2002, 14:45

Well I don't think either of those would work against human players

Petek · December 28, 2002, 18:04

True, but I don't think that humans would appreciate someone using these tactics against any AI in the game!

Flubber · December 28, 2002, 18:46

Trading bases with an AI is forbidden in every MP game I have ever been in but there is no prohibition on donating bases or units to the AI for nothing and in fact I do so. Donating bases to the AI :

1. gives enemies fewer probe targets
2. improves the Ai's opinion of you or increases trade

Darsnan · December 28, 2002, 22:06

in an H2H I was Pacted with Yang and was supporting him by placing units in his cities against the other human/ other AI's aggression. When I opened the next turn, the base was in the hands of an enemy AI, even though my units were still in the base!?! The explanation given by the other human player was that he had demanded the base as compensation from Yang for Peace, and then the Human player gifted it to his ally (my enemy). Really wrecked my strategy, as it was a key base in my defensive grid!
Another good trick I've learned is to tie up human players with Treaties that specify no tech trading. The Catch-22 is that you don't then specify no trading of units, which then can be reverse-engineered (ergo in essence you promise you won't trade the MMI tech to a faction in exchange for a specific advantage, however you then gift a helicopter to that same tech-restricted faction,which they can then reverse-engineer in exchange for whatever it is the initiating human demands!). Really a Win/Win Scenario for the human pulling this off!
Another is paying of an AI to Vendetta against another human: works extremely well in an H2H, as while the other human fights your proxy AI (which you bolster with techs and money), you muster your forces at a weak point and then attack!
Finally, giving other humans techs that will direct them down desired research paths. Example: you want to beat another human to MMI. You then trade the other human a tech(s) which, when accepted, will typically then give the other human research choices other than the desired path to MMI (i.e. they will then have to research one or more additional techs in order to research the desired tech of MMI).
Diplomatic "persuasion" is also an extremely usefull technique for accomplishing desired results: by whatever suasion (i.e. carrot or the stick) the Diplomat chooses, he can worm his way into the psyche of his opponent and accomplish his goals. My favorite tactic in this environ is to launch several successful military attacks in a row, then launch an E-Mail campaign claiming that I am about to overwhelm several key enemy areas, but will hold back if the enemy human gives me (X) in return for sparing his bases (regardless of whether I can muster the necessary strength in order to accomplish this).
There are many other traps humans can lay for other humans, but from my experience its easier to experience them first hand, and discover your own solutions, than to try to explain them here.

D