home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Inside Mac Games Volume 6 #3
/
IMG 54 Vol 6-3.iso
/
IMG Volume 6, Issue 3
/
IMG Volume 6, Issue 3.rsrc
/
TEXT_158.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1998-06-12
|
24KB
|
300 lines
  
 
 
 
 
 
by Bill Jahnel
Welcome, Maug Chief! Our glorious colony is headed to Gallius IV to settle,
but we hear the Tarth forces have already sent a scout ship ahead! There-
fore, we have prepared this mission briefing for you to deal with some of
your most deadly enemies: The Re'Lu, the Uva Mosk, and most deadly of all,
the humans. . . especially the humans at the other end of a TCP/IP connection.
Setting Goals: Strategic Settings
When facing an opponent in an online game of Deadlock, you should start
planning your strategy from the moment you and the other player start
discussing settings for the game. a favorable choice of world settings will do
wonders to aid you; a bad match between settings and strategy can kill you.
The following are considerations to make for each parameter:
Fast Build, standard race abilities, random events: Leave all these on,
always, especially the fast build. Deadlock can occasionally get hung up on an
alien AI turn and be deadly slow, and you would do well to leave them all on.
Number of Cities: One of the key strategy points is in choosing among these
options. Many players prefer all-out conquering rather than city building,
and so prefer city settings to be at 7 or 10. Lower city settings can be
pretty hairy, particularly on large maps; on a large map you may be able to
isolate yourself out of harm's way and quick build your way to a win before
your opponent can reach you to stop you. However, be aware alien AIs
(especially the Cyth and the Re'Lu) often like winning this way, and if you
have AIs in the game as well you could find your attention divided. . .
Size of the world: Small map worlds are more advantageous to Humans,
ChCht, and Tarth. All three can so rushes (even though the ChCht have weak
military units their ability to take over a huge number of territories early
and generate a LOT of units can lead to an opponent being overwhelmed or
boxed in). The classic and most child-like strategy is to try and play Tarth
on a small world. I have found a lot of ex-Warcraft players like to rush in
like this, but the dangers of rushing in Deadlock can be profound. . . .
On small world, aim for technologies that will give you strength in military
units and iron. You may need to divert your attention to defense pretty fast,
and energy deflectors are a good early-mid game investment to keep out
trouble. If you plan to rush, make sure to do so overwhelmingly, in such a
way that you cut out important supply lines.
One mistake on small worlds is to specialize resource extraction in
territories. For example, say you have 3 territories and one is a swamp and
you are drawing 90% of your energy form that swamp. Not only are you
paying more for the transfer of energy, therefore tying up your money, you
are also in tremendous danger of having a sudden raid swoop in and cut out all
of one type of resource. This sort of strike could cripple you, so make sure
you have diversity of resource gathering in at least 2 territories.
Large worlds are better suited for strategies of city building and
technological superiority games. On large worlds, races like the ChCht and
Uva Mosk and Humans should spend their time setting up tons of territories;
Maug and ReLu need to isolate themselves and work on climbing the
technology tree so fast they make your head spin. On huge worlds, the Re'Lu
ability to see everything becomes a profound advantage, as they can monitor
most accurately the way the world is moving along. This also means they can
aim scatterpack missiles and other missiles with deadly accuracy long before
they get orbital surveillance. Cyth do very well on huge worlds to go for the
city win. On large worlds, make sure to get the hoverway technology early,
since expanding will be a key to victory and the hoverway will make life
happier.
Choosing your Race
Two Issues Ago I gave an extensive rundown on the different races available
to play in Deadlock. Even with a few more months of experience under my
belt, I must admit my general assessments of the races remain the same. I
personally go for Maug first, since their ability to run up the tech tree fast
is very appealing to me. Depending on the world choices and my opponents,
Re'Lu or Humans are my second choice. Re'Lu can be very tempting to want
to play because of their ability to monitor turn by turn your building
choices and worker assignments. When facing an unknown opponent, or if
someone grabs the Maug from me, I'll grab the Re'Lu to learn their playing
style.
Though the ChCht have a weaker military unit there are thousands of them.
Their fast reproductive cycle can work to your advantage if you move in
close to someone. Though other races can do this as well, the ChCht excel at a
surround and starve strategy - if you colonize a LOT of territories in a
semicircle or circle around your opponent, they will be unable to expand.
The ChCht's fast growth of colonists means there will always be huge militia
numbers on hand, making those territories pretty well defended in the early
game as long as you provide the housing necessary. Boxing in a Re'Lu or
Maug opponent can cut them off at the knees and cancel most of their
advantages.
Choosing your Landing Site
Since you never know what you are going to land on, the absolute best choice
of landing is a plains surrounded by a forest, mountain, and swamp tile. Do
not choose a plot of land near the water if you can help it; sometimes these
territories are half flooded and you will end up with less room to build. In a
huge world, if your opponent has already chosen, you often get a good deal by
choosing a plot on the far side with multiple resource lands near you and
open areas to grow. On smaller lands, choose a territory that is easily
defended. One of the quickest ways to thwart an advance is to choose a
territory that is just near a narrow stretch of a land bridge over water. If
you can get such a placement, you can hold military units at the land bridge
and force your opponent to have to build boats or attack with minimal forces.
Also, since no opponent can land in a square directly touching next to you, if
you choose first, you may be able to force your opponent far away from you
or into a less favorable landing space, if the territory is small enough.
Your first Few Turns
The first moves in Deadlock are pretty important, and there are a few basic
approaches. The approach I prefer is one that holds an element of risk, and
requires pretty solid timing to get right, but can get you a sharp lead in the
early game.
One of my first rules in Deadlock has been to try and build level two
technology buildings right off the bat. In my first move I scout all the
territories around me and look for a tech shrine; if I have one, my colonizer
goes there first to settle. not only do you get the tech edge, but sometimes
you also get a free technology for digging up an artifact there.
If there are no tech shrines, my next step is usually to expand to a swamp or
a forest. Your early resource crunches get in tight at wood and energy;
forests and swamps usually mean I can get both there from what's not
available from my landing point. A mountain is a good third territory to take
over some turns later, as mining is always rich there. However, once you
switch over to endurium mining, you may find the forests more productive
for ore anyway.
At my landing, my first four guys immediately go out and build these things:
two tackle a university; one puts up a nuclear reactor on the best or second-
best energy spot; at least two luxury housings drop down to start building;
and my fourth guy usually stays at the city center where I adjust the sliders
to go all trade.
Most players may be horrified to hear this, since I am lacking a basic supply
here: No farms. However, I have it as a goal by turn three to have always
learned synthetic fertilizer, and then get a hydroponic farm on turn 4.
Doing so allows me to concentrate on getting a technology a turn for the first
turns, and building level two facilities.
Your second landing site probably won't do much for the first turn or two but
just sit there. However, by turn four, they should be either making a
normal farm or a hydroponic farm. You'll need food and wood, and lots of it.
After that, even though colonists will come slow to your second territory,
look to add adjunct wood, mining, and energy resources there. Although in
my early strategies I used to expand to three territories immediately, unless
you are Uva Mosk, Ch'Cht. or Tarth, I no longer recommend this, since your
growth rate will be lower and you will have to power the other colonies by
expensive transportation costs to ship energy, making it harder for you to
build the basics in your home territories. The reason that the Ch'Cht can
especially get away with this is that they can afford to build all basic
buildings and upgrade them, since they rarely get tight on labour.
In general, as you build, try and make a second item (especially a mine,
energy collector, or factory) the turn after you build the first one. The
reason is that after a while, you will want to upgrade at least one facility,
and you will need a second facility online to provide that resource while the
first upgrades.
 
Technologies
By mid-game you should have at least 3 research facilities running. My
general pattern of technology grabs are the following (though as a Maug
sometimes I get higher ones first since they can circumvent some of the
prerequisites):
Synthetic Fertilizer
Nuclear Fusion (you'll need energy fast after you get the hydroponic farms)
Molecular Bonding (mantle drills are a necessity as you get tight on ore fast)
Electronics (to get scouts and chaos computers)
Chaos Computers (and once I get it I start upgrading one university)
Metallurgy (entirely because its the prerequisite for automation Automation
Though perhaps surprising, I rarely find choosing a military technology
early is all that helpful, because you will quickly grow so tight on resources
and money that you can't afford to build too many fusion cannons or SAM
troopers anyway. . .
After those basics, I usually diverge depending on my opponent: Hoverway,
Endurium, and Antimatter are usually my next three, though the order may
vary depending on what I am tight on. If someone is rushing me I'll grab
energy defense at this point, since 1 or 2 energy defenses will hold off most
early game attacks and considerably shield you from early rocket builders.
Wars, hot and cold
One of the misnomers about Deadlock is that since you just move pieces into a
square and then the computer takes over the fighting resolution that there is
not much tactically involved in attacks. In truth, there are a number of
ways you can profoundly affect the outcomes of battles, and knowing how to
do so is crucial to your survival.
Before attacking an enemy, good information is crucial. Make sure to send a
scout or trooper and just park them close to an enemy city to spy on them. If
you have a scout with a special ability, don't be afraid to use it; ChCht
stealing supplies or Maug destroying buildings can be terrifying. It almost
never hurts to try and steal technology; scouts are replaceable, but getting
tech from your opponent gives you something that is extremely hard to
regain in Deadlock: A time advantage.
Missile Support is crucial in an attack, and getting rocketry and knowing to
bombard your enemy can be very powerful. Once you have your economy up
and running, circular queues of 2-4 missiles a turn will keep your opponent
very unhappy and busy rebuilding rather than cranking out military units.
You may also nail an important facility like a museum and cause the opponent
to slip into unhappiness.
Now, missile attacks have a number of interesting things about them. You
can target empty squares with missile attacks. This includes ocean
bombardment; a carefully planned attack may take out a transport along with
its crew, but make sure to target where the boat will BE, not where it WAS
last turn. The same is true for approaching troops: you can bombard them as
they take a long march to attack you. However, this information can also
backfire: A most interesting side effect is that if you survive an attack by a
missile, a ground troop can become a veteran. If that happens, the new
veteran troop should consider advancing towards the source of the missile
attack and neutralizing it with its newfound accuracy.
Deadlock also has weird rules about attacking. Most squares can only hold 2
of your artillery pieces and 4 infantry. However, if your opponent occupies
a square, you can pile on as many pieces as can travel there in one turn to
attack. Therefore, surrounding a territory before attacking can give you an
overwhelming advantage. Do note though: At the end of the attack, DEADLOCK
WILL FORCE YOU DOWN TO TWO ARTILLERY AND FOUR INFANTRY UNITS, so
even if the other units "survived" the battle you will be sacrificing them in
the attack.
If you can build them in time, always use command corps. Their accuracy
increase gives an important edge in battle, especially for weak troop races
like the Re'Lu. In fact, the Re'Lu command corps is the single deadliest
weapon against other attacks, especially holocaust cannons, since they can
mind control them out from under an opponent and onto the Re'Lu's side.
Two settings rarely used by any but veteran players when attacking are the
BATTLE ORDERS (attack x) and retreat when commands. Both of these have
some very specific utility in the game, and when used appropriately can lead
to increased victories.
Most important is to learn the ATTACK UNITS ONLY command on your ground
forces. Let your missiles do most of the dirty work to get rid of their
defensive structures. If you have colonists shooting at you, who cares about
their museum if victory can be in your grasp? Also, knocking out colonists
means it is harder for them to keep the colony supplied with the vitals
(energy, happiness, etc) almost as much as attacking any single building.
Sometimes, setting one or two units to ATTACK FORTS to nail the gun towers
while everyone else mops up militia / colonists is the best option for a
heavily-defended encampment of the enemy.
As for the Retreat damage command, sometimes a guerilla attack is the best
route of all to soften up the enemy while maintaining a supply line. For
example, say that you have two fusion cannons on the edge of the enemy's
encampment, and your disruptor cannons are two squares away. You could
wait until next turn to attack, but harming the defense they are building this
turn might be beneficial. Sometimes aiming for a single crucial support
building, such as knocking out their power supply to help make their
defenses run at less than peak efficiency or their museum to make their
colonists rebel can be just as deadly or effective. By setting your tanks to
retreat when they receive 50-75% of their damage, they can come in, make
a light attack skirmish, and disappear before they are too wounded. In
addition, since they return to the place where they started, that territory
next to the opponent's area is still "yours", which means travel time through
it is still decreased for those disruptors closing in for next turn's attack.
Make sure to let units repair after an attack. No unit can repair any damage
if it makes any moves after an attack, though all units will automatically
turn themselves on to repair mode after an attack in which they were
damaged.
Continues next chapter...
 
