Personal experience playing Deadlock I / II

[MaugTheInfirm]

I'd like to describe my experience playing Deadlock 2 after many years away from it and the original. So a bit of a journal with my observations about Deadlock II. It doesn't have to be only my comments - feel free to discuss your personal experience playing races in either Deadlock I or II.

[MaugTheInfirm]

I took many years away from playing Deadlock, and played a challenging game as the Maug in Deadlock I. I misremembered my original strategy... I liked to box in one corner with two territories blocking. Unfortunately there were 3 territories - an enemy landed on the third. I also forgot if I told a colonizer to retreat at 0% damage, it would still execute "build settlement" and add 1 colonist back in my original colony. A bad start... down to one territory, and surrounded.

I might have lost... but at one point I pushed into a territory that was guarded but not colonized. Once I had two territories, things were easier. The Ch'cht had 3 territories bordering mine, so I attacked the middle to cut their two territories off from each other. I thought that would isolate them, but they still transferred food and energy, so I took another territory. I waited for Ch'Cht to waste away with a single mountain territory.

The Relu had been attacking me every few turns for the entire game, so I turned south to deal with them. I got very confused when some of my troops started to retreat, then stayed on the screen... I had forgotten Relu have mind control. Fortunately the captured forces were sent at my colony and defeated, so I didn't have to worry about overcoming them. Since missiles can't be mind controlled, I started sending waves of missiles. Either the command corp died in those attacks, or left. Later I captured Relu landing.

At some point I found this game to be hard to manage. I had half the map, and far more territory than the 3 remaining races. It become a slow game at this point, reminding me why I prefer to keep fewer territories. I eventually won that game, but decided I'd rather have some variety.

[MaugTheInfirm]

The Uva Mosk are my second favorite race, so I tried them in the first Deadlock II campaign. It felt a bit too easy - higher production was useful early on, but became silly later in the game. My mistakes had more to do with the shift to Deadlock II than anything else. When I built housing, I didn't realize that was consuming 10 wood each. Museums that I rely on for morale can no longer be bought - and cost 10 energy/turn. Lots of surprises.

I don't recall a lot of details from that first game, because I've played two scenarios since then.

[MaugTheInfirm]

On this forum, Cyth are more popular than I expected, so I decided to take that as a suggestion and tried the first mission of their campaign.

My first expansion territory got wiped by enemy AAVs, which was a surprise. I had to build laser towers to defend my main territory from them. It's annoying having 20% of my workforce doing nothing, but I guess that's the price of not otherwise dealing with morale. In this campaign, there is a series of territories between Cyth and Humans, so I slowly built up along that line. One of my expansions had two laser towers... which the enemy AAV was nowhere near, so instead my colonists charged in and got fried. The twin towers beat the enemy, but my territory needed new population. Definitely not used to the directions enemies can come in - sometimes it seems like they are above my territory, and attack from the side.

I was shocked at the power of research treaties. Ch'cht had collective tech labs before I had plain tech labs. That meant I first had to catch up to them in technology, then build up a more powerful military, and finally beat them.

Although Cyth in theory have 80% morale, Human landing would sometimes suddenly have extremely low morale. I thought lowering morale was unique to the Cyth. I also seem to recall this happening years ago when I played - I would need to wipe enemy home territories clean to avoid weird morale effects. At one point in human landing, my morale went negative!

Much to my surprise, the basic air units are pretty powerful when it comes to killing enemy colonists. I sent a few into Ch'Cht landing, and they did a lot of damage - even destroyed an anti-matter defense somehow, which made no sense at the time. Waves of attacks killed off more and more of Ch'cht population in that critical territory (one of the Cyth objectives is to occupy Ch'Cht landing for 1 turn).

Once I had weakened them enough... the Tarth attacked and took it over! Oops... and scrapped everything. Oh well. I transported my military there, and when the Tarth left I controlled the territory. I colonized it and built up rapidly. I shipped 50 wood and built 5 housing, also sending 4 more colonists so each one can finish a housing in 1 turn. Meaning on turn 2, I had a population limit of 30.

After I wiped all of Ch'Cht and Human territories... I didn't win. It turns out Ch'Cht had an ocean platform keeping them alive, so I sent my navy in to take that and end the game. The number of territories this time felt more manageable. The ocean platforms don't require much attention, so it was easy to expand those and not worry about them much.

[MaugTheInfirm]

I then picked Human campaign of Deadlock II. When researching, I decided hoverway was a superpower, and I would prioritize that instead of more advanced research centers. And I was right! Hoverway means my bog territory can spend nothing to deliver energy everywhere else. The forrest territory can handle wood production, and so on. Very convenient. I also like specializing and optimizing, so I'd say I like Human over Cyth and Uva Mosk in Deadlock II.

It turns out Humans and Cyth start on the same exact map. I played a bit of a dirty trick early on. I moved my 3 AAV into the ocean that borders both Cyth landing, and the tiny territory they had expanded into. I attacked the expansion territory as the Cyth sent their AAVs to my old location. Then I attacked Cyth landing while his AAVs pursued me in their expansion territory. By the time this was over, I wiped Cyth territories clean and transferred the materials back to my territories. I was a bit surprised Cyth didn't lose immediately - but in theory they could retake a territory with 3 AAVs and continue. I moved my AAVs straight back to my expansion territory, and let them repair behind laser towers. I figured if the Cyth hunted me down, having 3 AAVs against 3 AAVs would be better with laser towers tilting the balance in my favor.

The Cyth hung out in their old territory. They either got killed off several turns later, or ran out of food and/or money. My early attack put the Cyth out of the game. And since I shared an island with the Cyth, I had the entire island to myself. I also harassed the Tarth colony, killing their colonists but retreating when my AAVs took damage.

Human landing is incredibly vulnerable to the ocean square in front of it. That square gives access to the mountain, plains, and forest territory adjacent to it. At one point, I split my 3 AAVs into one territory each. Surprisingly, my one AAV (fully repaired) got quickly destroyed by an enemy AAV. My laser tower had a long duel with his AAV, and eventually won. I think I lost most or all of my colonists in that territory. I wound up building 4 laser towers surrounding my surface mine in that mountain territory. I didn't want to defend against another AAV attack without being prepared.

Killing the Cyth had another advantage - Tarth and Cyth can't benefit from a research pact. I should probably check if Ch'Cht have a pact with the Tarth... although they seem to celebrate whenever I attack the Tarth, so I doubt it.

As Uva Mosk, I kind of gave up on morale and just let territories be limited to whatever I could sustain with 2 museums. But I noticed hospitals raise morale, so I started building those solely for the morale boost. I just completed research on endurium mining, which unlocks art complex buildings. So I'm about to scale those up, and use statues to help with handling morale. It's probably worth it to buy them from the Skinerneen, but I find myself avoiding them whenever possible. I guess I've internalized the scandals...

I have 6 ocean platforms, and plan on taking over every ocean square on the map. I hope to deprive my enemy of a navy. I've recently moved into my 8th territory - the bog next to Cyth landing. I'll probably colonize Cyth landing as well, although I don't really need it to launch missiles into Ch'Cht territory.

The Tarth had 2 AAVs near a ocean square I wanted to attack, but I worried I'd lose in a fight with only 2 of my Human AAVs. But I recently completed the upgrade to a Hydroport, which let me build two dreadnaughts. I attacked his transport with 2 AAVs, with 2 dreadnaughts using that ocean square as their starting point. Tarth didn't defend, so I wiped the transport ship. I think it was carrying a spy, who may now be in my territory - time to build a few laser squad to patrol for that spy.

My two plain factories have been upgraded to automated factories, and I build a third automated factory in between them. Although I now convert 78 iron to steel each turn, I'm not building up much of a surplus. Expanding uses up a lot of steel - especially in ocean platforms.

Ocean platforms have a side benefit - if a territory has more overpopulation than I can handle, I can send colonists to a new platform to build it up, and then earn 26/turn in trade goods there. I very rarely lower oppressive taxes (-10 morale/turn), but that's also an option until I produce enough artworks to take care of morale issues in forests, bogs, and mountains.

The goal of the scenario is 5,000 iron... but I suspect after that, I will still have to conquer my opponents. Time will tell... very much enjoying my return to Deadlock II, and especially enjoying the human ability to transfer goods at zero cost between territories (after hoverway is discovered).

[MaugTheInfirm]

So far, I enjoyed playing Humans in Deadlock II more than Cyth or Uva Mosk.

On the plains, I can send 4-5 colonists from a territory every turn and they'll grow back. On ocean platforms, that takes several turns. I've slowly realized that I want to keep ocean platforms at a stable population of 15, and have stopped moving colonists out.

Tarth had developed slowly, which make their colonies further from me more vulnerable. I took half his territory with a relatively small army. Then not much happened until I noticed a build up along the border. I built defenses and sent units to the area.

I don't know if it was intended, but I eventually signed a victory pact with the Ch'cht. I massed forces and attacked his last colony... and won! And the game didn't end. I had instructed all of my infantry to use berserk mode, and my lone fusion cannon was destroyed... so I had no land units left after my victory, just my air force. So I had to get a land unit into the now vacant last territory of the Tarth to end the game.

Right after I ended my last turn... the Skinerneen reminded me of the opportunity to buy their products... followed by the victory video. Quite an odd ending.

I seem to be playing each race across all first missions before moving on. I've started on the Re'lu, and am currently hunting down an enemy laser cannon with a couple fusion cannons. The goal is 5 city centers, but for now I'm just trying to produce enough wood and iron to keep my colony growing. I've had turns where I needed to build new housing but had less than 10 wood (roughly turn 25-30). I've switched some of my food farms into producing tiny amounts of wood, figuring it will add up.

[MaugTheInfirm]

Between turns 30-35, I crashed the game twice. Both times, I tried to examine the details of my fusion cannon after a battle. I've since started saving more often, and not looking closely after a battle. I'll just assume they need to rest and heal one turn, and leave them alone.

I've reached that critical mass where I think I have a win locked up. I should be going for 5 city centers, but I'm having too much fun destroying new settlements of my opponents. The Uva Mosk and Cyth don't have 5 territories near their starting point, so they keep trying to colonize territory in front of my colony. Then I send in fusion cannon, SAM troopers, and cheap planes to wipe them out. (One time they built a flak cannon before I invaded, which was bad news for my cheap planes). The Cyth now have fusion cannon, should should also make things more interesting.

I've got 10 collective tech labs in my swamp territory, and 3 more outside it. I can research anything costing 500 or less in a single turn, and I'm still going through those technologies. I have energy deflectors, but it would be nice to have disruptor cannon.

Because the goal is 5 city centers, many of the territories are slightly trashed - junk squares that prevent any 2x2 areas in the territory. I invaded one of these semi-junk territories and built 3 laser cannon. I moved all my colonists out except for a 0.33 colonists, and then later scrapped the housing. Now it was kind of mine, but with no colonists to feed. It still burns energy, so I dropped 100 energy to use up. When I send a SAM trooper in, the turrets don't attack him, which is interesting. I'm keeping one SAM trooper there just to keep the laser turrets firing in the right direction... but I'm also tempted to colonize it again, setup energy deflectors and a flak turret, and just keep 5 people there.

I won a coin toss battle: my sea colonizer battled the Cyth's. Funny, drawn out conflict between the lamest ships at sea. And since I used "build platform", I got the square immediately after the battle.

I had thousands of credits in the bank, wondering if I should be spending more. Then I built 5 sea platforms in one turn - quite expensive! Adding 5 colonists costs 125, the wood for a farm costs 150, and steel adds another 90 (torpedo turrets and farm). I also ship food and energy into the square, about 25 each, which adds another 150 to the cost. I would up spending thousands on those five sea platforms, and built another few the next turn. My neighboring sea squares are all controlled by me now, and starting to earn cash each turn to pay back all the expenses I racked up building them.

I've had a 2x2 hole in one of my colonies that I filled with an art center. Maybe I should be building city centers instead, but for now I want to ensure I can run all colonies at maximum tax rates without taking up 3 colonists in a hospital to keep morale up.

[MaugTheInfirm]

Playing the Tarth campaign in Deadlock II wound up being the slowest for me.

I found a flaw with my use of ocean squares - a dedicated opponent bent on destroying them. Humans first sent ships, and I had to rebuild. Then an attack including a single plane destroyed all three torpedo turrets (how do colonists get killed if they're never outside?). And then a rush of both navy and air units... I eventually decided to focus on attacking Humans, doing to their territory what they did to my ocean platforms.

I then focused on research, but finished it. At the bottom of the first campaign map for the Tarth (and Cyth/Human/Ch'cht - same map), there's a long line of territories with water on either side. So I placed a laser trooper right beside a Cyth territory, knowing he had fusion cannon and could easily win a battle there. Two territories away, my disruptor cannon and battle troopers waited to join any fight. I later upgraded to holocaust cannon and assault troopers, but nothing happened. I guess my army is visible on orbital surveillance, so he didn't attack.

He wiped 3 of 4 Ch'Cht home territories, and then I walked in and planted a new territory. Still nothing - he started a territory next to mine. The last technology allows me to build up a new territory quickly, so I decided to build up right next to Cyth where my laser trooper had stood.

Finally, I built weather control stations and vortex generators on my ocean platforms. Finally, the Cyth lost ships, missiles and planes owing to my actions. They finally switched to war... but still haven't attacked. I guess I'll have to leave a vulnerable unit somewhere, and as soon as that unit is attacked, I'll unleash everything (10 holocaust cannon and 10 assault troopers are waiting next to his territory, and 7 supernova spyjets are in strking range, along with 12 missiles).

A bit silly to be at turn 110 and waiting for Cyth to attack, but I'm much closer now.

[MaugTheInfirm]

I gave up on waiting for the Cyth, and began wiping their territories. Every step of the way, the Cyth told me of my doom and how they predicted everything... right up until the last attack on their last territory in the ocean. For any given military technology, Tarth have stronger units. So late game should go to the Tarth if they maintain a big enough military. I didn't especially enjoy playing Tarth, but acknowledge the military and food bonuses are nice.

Quite surprisingly, I have played all but two races, including the Maug! So I'm playing the Maug now, but on a scenario that is very different from all the others. The Maug start on a circular island with zero population growth. None, zero. Which means I have no choice but to use cloning if I don't want to end the game being destroyed with my starting 25 colonists (the enemy Cyth do not have this zero population growth problem, just the sickly Maug. One more thing for the sickly Maug to complain about).

For a long time, Maug Landing was the only place with cloning, which meant keeping 4 colonists free each turn to send to other territories. Now I have two cloning machines, and my new bottleneck is wood. A newly built and upgraded farm is taking care of that, but limits the other valuable things I could be doing there.

Early on, I sent 4 SAM troopers, 2 fusion cannon, and 2 planes to take a territory from the Cyth. That allows me to defend one territory instead of two. He later built up 6+ laser cannon and about as many laser troops, and seemed to think he could get past 5 energy defense backed by fusion cannon and SAM troopers. Right before the battle started, I finished researching power cells, which boosted the strength of my troops.

Cyth has parked two ships with siege ability next to one of my territories, but hasn't fired yet. I already have one flak cannon there, which should be able to shoot down two missiles. But I installed an energy defense near that corner just in case. I also began work on an art complex, which should make morale problems easier to manage.

I took two planes and wiped his ocean platform. Because it wasn't adjacent to any of my territory, I couldn't actually see the battle! But my planes had zero damage, so the torpedo turret was likely the only defense. I plan to invade again but with 4 dreadnaughts and 2 planes at the same time, which will hopefully let me take over that platform. That will help me see what the Cyth are doing (orbital surveillance is still a ways away).

I have a mountain territory with a mantle drill, and a factory being upgraded. My hope is that this territory can take over making steel, so I don't have to provide it exclusively from Maug Landing. I've built up a bog for the same reason - I want research performed where energy is cheaper, and I want to free up Maug Landing for other tasks. I have a few colonies that are kind of just sitting there unable to grow, waiting for the resources to build a culture center. Each turn I'll produce enough wood for one culture center, which should help ease the bottleneck.

So far, I'm spending all of my cash every turn. The first 200 credits goes to moving 8 cloned settlers to new territories. With zero population growth in this scenario, I have to rely on cloning. New buildings take up most of the rest, and sometimes military units. I have to deal with attacks from water (on either side) and land (also on either side).

The Cyth started with a far larger colony, and growth without cloning. I started far behind on population, and notice Cyth had collective tech labs before I did. I need to build up my territories and technology, while trying for some cheap military wins on underdefended territories.

[MaugTheInfirm]

The first scenario in the Maug campaign was more difficult because of the zero growth rule, and requirement to use cloning. I wound up taking the five water squares in the middle of a ring of land. I attacked both sides of the Cyth colony at about the same time, and in the end he had one ocean platform off the other side of the island.

The big surprise for me was in the next race I played, the Ch'cht. I never liked their research penalty, and didn't realize their bonuses are much more powerful than I expected. Their building, for example, holds twice as many colonists - all housing does, for the Ch'cht (but ocean platforms only get 1/3rd extra capacity, 20 instead of 15).

In the first Ch'cht scenario, I start in plains with max 49 population. I focused on hitting max capacity both because it was easy, and from other calculations on this forum where capacity influences growth. I delayed research and mining, preferring to get dedicated swamp and mountain squares going with those, instead. Once I hit 49 population, I could move 8 population away each turn, and they regrow instantly.

The first unforeseen benefit from high population was higher income. I quickly had enough money to do what I wanted, which is unusual.

I could also make use of territories earlier, since I had more population. I fortunately had a forest territory which supplied wood - and I don't recall getting bottlenecked on wood supply. I built three farms and had them fully staffed quickly.

On ocean platforms, humans earn 260 credits for a max 10 colonists trading. The Ch'cht, sadly, don't get a higher limit, so they have the same max 10 population earning 200 trade income. But Ch'cht have 5 extra colonists, which makes it easy to push tax revenues up. I normally run taxes at 0 morale penalty, but with 3 Ch'Cht working on culture, I can push that up to -10 morale. I could push it even higher - with some territories having 5 colonists giving +20 morale - but when I conquer new territory I like to have the option of +0 morale impact. So laziness preventing me from exploiting ocean platforms even more. Either way, Ch'Cht rank second on ocean platform revenue (200 from trade, +30 from higher taxes).

I should mention I conquered every ocean square around my territory before any other race had a navy. The growth head start of the Ch'Cht is really impressive in that regard. One territory up in the corner is far from enemies, and they can't really target it until they've seen it. That let me build something special: 2 kelp farms and 1 ocean power plant. That territory generated 100 food per turn, plus extra energy. In another square opponents can't reach, I built 1 ocean power plant and 2 tech centers. At 108 energy output, it can power two of the highest research facilities (which for some reason, I'm blanking on the name right now... collective tech lab).

By turn 40 of this game, I had already wiped Cyth Landing and was waiting for ground troops to claim it. Shortly after that, I attacked and destroyed both of his other territories (one with a swarm of 8 planes, the other with fusion cannon). This is the earliest I can recall taking an opponent out of the game (technically he had an ocean square with 5 population and 100 food, which I just ignored until I built up nearby).

Because of rapid growth, I can turn an empty territory into a max pop limit within a few turns. I usually pause for culture centers to upgrade into museams, or I'd go even faster. Where other races take 3 turns to regrow their ocean platform population (14 to 15), Ch'Cht take only two (19 to 20). And often, the Ch'Cht have extra colonists they don't need - so I could have used even more without impacting anything.

I waited for quite some time for the Tarth to take over a human colony with 0-3 population and no defenses. I finally got tired of waiting, and signed a military alliance with the humans (which is also a required victory condition). That allowed me to move troops into their territory (2 squares north of Tarth Landing), and then attack a small Tarth settlement on the next turn with 6 battle troopers. After a missile salvo, I sent in my newly arrived main force of 6 fusion cannon, 8 battle troopers and I think 5 surviving planes (2 were elsewhere, helping defeat the last Cyth ocean territory - I attacked the same turn that the Humans did! With a military alliance, we both attacked and didn't harm each other. Nice)

After wiping both of Tarth's last remaining land territories, I realized I forgot about his little 5 population ocean platform. I hit it with missiles, then planes ... and finally the game was over, much faster than when I played any other race.

It's weird that I haven't been interested in the Ch'Cht, but I probably play them better than any other race. I had more income than usual, more resources, expanded faster, staffed important buildings sooner ... it adds up to a much quicker development and victory. As for research... I had 10 collective tech labs in my swamp, and another 4 in a forest square. Plus 2 floating on an ocean platform. I had neglected "cloning", and while upgrading my tech labs, I had so many that their combined research completed cloning in one turn - while using 3 of 4 colonists for upgrading. I overcame the research deficit with greater numbers, so it worked out for me.

I've finished all of the first scenarios in Deadlock II, so its on to the second scenario of each race... and it looks like I'll give Ch'Cht another go to see where this leads. I think I've overlooked their potential for ... decades.