SoulBlazer
Posts: 839
Joined: 10/27/2002
From: Providence RI
Status: offline
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Hello all!
I had wanted to do a AAR, but lacked the time to do so. However, I've played several games both with past versions
and the current version and did learn a few things, which I wanted to pass on. My advise on playing this game well
as it stands in the current version (understanding some of this may change with later ones):
1) You're on a very tight time deadline. In the campaign, you have to do the moon landing by the end of 1973. Money is
too tight and prestige gained on missions too high to allow you to 'jerk around' with un needed programs. The critical ones
that you need for the moon landing are:
-- Space Plane (X-15)
-- Satalite (Sputnick or Explorer)
-- Moon Probes (flyby, orbit, landing, and soil return)
-- One Man Capsule
-- Two Man Capsule
-- 3 or 4 rockets to launch all this (including the Saturn V)
-- (OPTIONAL) Three Man Capsule
DO NOT mess around with anything else (the other Earth Satalies, planet flybys, Mars probes,
etc.) UNLESS you need the Prestige to meet budget goals and have money/time/scientists available.
Right now, in the current campaign version, time and money is too short and prestige given for
the other stuff too high to distract you.
2) Try to resist the temptation to grow the base too fast. Go ahead at game start and build
both a flight control and spacemen center, and hire all you can at that level. Hire the one extra
R&D person you have room for also. After your first budget increase in 59, expand both the R&D
center and flight control by one. You don't need to max out all 3 of these buildings. All you need
for the game are:
R&D: Max this one out at 25 after your second budget increase in 63.
Spacemen: No need to go beyond 7.
Flight Control: For 95 percent of the game, you're fine with 15 for this. There's a couple
things (like the historical Apollo lunar landing) that require more, but you can easily upgrade
this at the end if need be. 15 is enough to send up one or two missions per season.
Likewise, do the assembly building right away, but don't bother upgrading it for lunar missions
until you are ready to start doing lunar probes.
3) Be careful with your budget! It's too small and money is too tight to waste. At the start
of the game make sure not to go negative. It's okay to dip into the red (negative cash flow)
toward the end of 58, when you only have a season or two left before a budget increase. But
keep as much cash flowing in each turn as you can. If you scrub a mission you get the cash
back, also, so don't worry about that.
4) Look at your short term goals each quarter and do your best to take care of them. Plan
your budget so you can make the expensive purchases (like the two man capsule or the Saturn V)
and you can start R&D'ing them in time.
5) Rockets take the longest to R&D, followed by probes, followed by capsules and everything
else. Plan accordingly. Open rocket programs first and get your best people R&D'ing those
right away.
6) I usually R&D things to at least 85 percent and stop at 89-90 percent, unless my folks have
nothing else better to R&D that season. The rate of returns once you hit 85 is very small.
And with the new events working for your ground crew having a chance to fix problems, I have
rushed things into space with them as low 75-80 percent and they have been able to fix problems.
So gamble if you need to.
7) Having said that, TRAIN your people every chance you get, if you don't need them for the
next 2-4 turns for anything. You probably won't have a chance to train R&D people, cause they
stay busy all game. But your flight controlers and spacemen, this is critical. Max each
person out in at least one skill. It only takes $10 for each person, so go ahead and spend freely.
The time spent on your flight controlers getting their skills up will save you when something
goes wrong in a flight. Likewise, you want your spacemen being as good as they can be at
one skill. Bottom line, if you don't need to hold your people for something coming up,
train them!
8) Fitness for your spacemen is VERY important. It's used for SO much when they are doing
their missions. Get this for each of your guys up to AT LEAST 90, if not higher.
9) Be careful in closing programs. You want to do it once you've done everything you can
in it and to free up the spot for something else (I suggest most of the game you're fine
with being able to open 7 programs, expanded to 10 for the last quarter). But, as it stands
right now, if you have a rocket associated with a program and close that program, you lose
all the R&D progress you made on that rocket also. So make sure you don't need that rocket
for something else!
10) Good USA rockets to use for most of the game are the Atlas-Agena, Saturn 1, and the Titan.
These will be able to send up most of your stuff, until you need the power of the Saturn V
for the lunar landing testing and actually doing it.
11) Don't skip requirements lightly. If you try to rush a program (do a orbital before a
sub-orbital, for example) you take a -10 percent hit in quality. It's just not worth the risk.
12) Here's some ROUGH goals on where you should be at as you go through the game in order to be
able to make a lunar landing by the end of 1973. Don't be afraid to take risks if you fall
too far behind, but don't push your luck either!
-- Quarter 55-58: Space plane and satalite
-- Quarter 59-62: One Man Capsule and Lunar Flyby
-- Quarter 63-66: Two Man Capsule and Lunar Orbital
-- Quarter 67-70: More Two Man Capsule (things like EVA and Docking), Saturn V, and Lunar Probe Landing
-- Quarter 71-73: Three Man Capsule (Optional), Lunar Sample Return, and Lunar Landing
_____________________________
The US Navy could probaly win a war without coffee, but would prefer not to try -- Samuel Morison
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