STRATEGY GUIDE Alpha Centauri Britain had an empire once. And then she lost it. Andrew Wright shows you how to avoid the same fate REVIEWED PCZ #74 SCORE 92% Civilization has been the uncrowned king of turn-based strategy games for years but there's little doubt about the line of succession. Alpha Centauri has scores more units to build, dozens more winning strategies and a wicked AI that will give even the most experienced solo player a bloody hard time. What makes Alpha Centauri so fascinating is the added depth and the sheer range of strategic options on offer, none of which bog the game down or stop you getting to grips with the interface. As well as the usual path to victory by way of battering the opposition senseless with a huge array of weaponry, you can also win by building your way to complete domination of the planet or by forging solid pacts and diplomatic alliances. You can even win by researching your way to transcendence, man's ultimate goal (apart from shagging the blonde bird in Friends, of course). But before you get even close, you'll have to get that first base up and running. Touching base The planet looks quiet enough, but you've got to defend yourself from random mindworm attacks as well as the possibility of an aggressive faction landing close by. Build one unit to protect your base and another to explore the map for your next base site. To start with your number one priority is population growth, because you need people to bring in resources, carry out research and build more bases. After all, there's no use having mines if there's no one on hand to dig out the resources. A word here about the blind research rule. The default is 'on' but if you want some say in how your faction develops, switch it off. One of your first tasks is to research Centauri Ecology (E1) so you can produce terraforming units and bump up nutrient production. Look at the land around your home base and note which squares are producing. Now exit the base screen and use Shift+R to look at each base square in turn and decide which ones you can improve with forests, farms, mines and solar energy collectors. Aim for Recycling Tanks pretty quickly (you'll need D1 Biogenetics) as this adds an extra resource of each type to your base square production. If you're being left alone, the Weather Paradigm secret project speeds up terraforming and lets you build condensers. Each one gives you +1 nutrients and ups rainfall in the eight adjacent squares. Never underestimate the value of nutrient production, even later in the game when you've got bases of 10 or even 20 population. Half your base squares should always be gathering nutrients with the rest split evenly between minerals and energy. Put more bases up as fast as you can. Start building colony pods double quick and don't worry about them overlapping. Each base has 21 squares to harvest and can survive on a third of that until much later on. Build smaller 'satellite' bases of two or three population to help support your military units. Clustered bases mean a rapid response if you're attacked. There's always some blighter who wants to spoil the show and it's likely to be the Spartans, Hive or Believers. Watch your back if one of them is next to you - they'll find any excuse to attack you but if you can damage them enough, they usually settle for a pact. Useful techs to go for are B1 Industrial Base, which gives you synthmetal armour. On a big map, Doctrine: Mobility (E1) gives you two squares a turn movement. If you spot the chance to squash another faction early on, Applied Physics (C1) will give you lasers (Firepower 2). Social Psych (B1) isn't too appealing initially but it gives you a crack at some good stuff later. Whichever way you go, put some thought into it and stick to your plan as far as possible - dead end research is a waste of time and resources. If you want to get ahead, it's better to stick to one path and go farther along than spread your research too broadly. If you're determined on a military campaign - or you've got nasty neighbours - don't just stop at lasers. By the time your units mass for the attack, your opponents will have the same. Go for Information Networks (D1) and Non-linear Mathematics (C2) which give you particle impactors (Firepower 4). Get those E numbers right Hitting the 'E' key is guaranteed to cause confusion. Most players will probably be happy to find a combination that leaves no blindingly obvious weaknesses, and with most factions getting between 40 and 60 different combinations by the middle of the game, it's often a click-and-play lottery. The words are irrelevant: what you're looking for is the combination of numbers that give you good growth and research and still let you keep a few attacking units scattered about. Interestingly, the University, Gaians and Believers always have a negative modifier somewhere but the Spartans, Morganites and Hive come out on top. The UN Peacekeepers can choose fundamentalist politics and simple economics in the early stages to get positive numbers across the board, but the Spartans get the thick end of the wedge. The democratic, planned, power and eudaimonic option gives them the best all-round combination (a total of +11) but there's an awful lot of research behind it. The Hive, it appears, can support the most military units without penalty (police/green/power/eudaimonic). Essential tactics Some tactics are under-used even by experienced players. Here are the most crucial ones Floods of tears Lateral thinking works wonders: two or three sea formers can lower enemy bases into the sea by terraforming. You can also dig 'canals' to give yourself more protection. Forest for ever! Plant forests (Shift+F) in awkward squares; they produce balanced resources and often expand by themselves, eliminating fungus. In other words, a cheap way of terraforming. Waypoints Set up waypoints for moving units. When the movement arrow is over a planned waypoint, just hit the spacebar. Wait Use cheap speeders in a stack as recce units to probe enemy territory one square at a time then press 'W' for wait while you bring up the others. Primary defender Stacking isn't particularly advantageous (defence points aren't combined) but if you have a unit with high defence in among them, use Ctrl+D to make it the primary defender. Building blocks Apparently there are over 32,000 different weapon, chassis, armour and special ability combinations, so there's no excuse not to have the right units in the right place. The workshop will automatically produce the most useful units (unless you switch it off, of course) but it can't cover every eventuality. Armoured sea formers are handy if worms or enemy ships are being a nuisance. Need to expand quickly? Needlejets with colony modules are great for building quick bases in far- flung spots. One invaluable unit is the supply crawler which can exploit distant resource-rich squares outside of your base areas.