How do you play Voice?

[CryonicSuspension]

Voice is trapped in her headquarters, and can't build any more bases. I was trying to win the game with one base, while not knowing which resources I should be going for.

I think I totally messed up my game. I think I was supposed to transition to human engineers and build bases that way?

I assumed that the tech tree was based on the random faction map pickups, I'm not sure if that is true or not?

Another annoying thing is that I was trying to build an army of assassins but the game said "limit reached". The compendium should mention that Eli Assassin is a unique character?

I ended up scrambling, trying to build multiple faction buildings, to get access to different units. It was a complete mess.

I got face-rolled, which I was expecting. Also, my diplomacy style didn't work ( I was trying to make friends with everyone, have trade pacts with everyone, but that ended up annoying everyone because of ongoing wars ).

[Bovril Brigadier]

By Voice I assume you mean the person that is stuck in her home city?

Capture all outposts you can come across as there is a tech that gives resource bonuses to them. Later in tech tree there is also one for further bonuses for garrisoning them.
Engineers are useful for repairing but generally you want to gather as much minerals and chips as you can early on to get a stockpile that will last you till later in game as Cyber units are very handy for their playstyle and easiest to spam.
Voice isn't worth going for unless you spawn near a lot of algae.
Enforcers are pretty decent early game and survive well into mid with upgrades but once you get Snipers no reason not to spam those. The T1 Cyber transport they can get can also be upgraded to heal units it transports which is extremely useful especially with Snipers.
The artillery cannon they've got is the first weapon you should use in combat if it is in range.
The big issue they can have is if there is a Fallen player they can get insanely powerful late game and become extremely hard to deal with.

[CryonicSuspension]

I can't get "data hack" to work - I can't target any city on the map.

[dexgattaca]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

I can't get "data hack" to work - I can't target any city on the map.

Make sure you have line of sight from a unit/spell and you are not allies.

[dexgattaca]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Voice is trapped in her headquarters, and can't build any more bases. I was trying to win the game with one base, while not knowing which resources I should be going for.

I think I totally messed up my game. I think I was supposed to transition to human engineers and build bases that way?

I assumed that the tech tree was based on the random faction map pickups, I'm not sure if that is true or not?

Another annoying thing is that I was trying to build an army of assassins but the game said "limit reached". The compendium should mention that Eli Assassin is a unique character?

I ended up scrambling, trying to build multiple faction buildings, to get access to different units. It was a complete mess.

I got face-rolled, which I was expecting. Also, my diplomacy style didn't work ( I was trying to make friends with everyone, have trade pacts with everyone, but that ended up annoying everyone because of ongoing wars ).

Engineers are the unit that makes additional cities. Tech 3 Upgrade. Produced by the Construction Yard.

Furtive Tribunal are a faction with voice affinity.

You want to start by making a Midnight Chorus and producing some more Dragoons. They hit hard but are fragile. Keep them in forests and try to end your move on bleed to get healed. Use their Tame Abkluth ability. Send the Abkluth on dangerous missions to get Cashes on the map.

Get Specimen Containment for research, House on the Borderland to get Algae and Canticle of Dusk to make Dark Vasels.

Make a Fermentaion Vat to get more Algae and any other buildings you need resources for.

Use Concordant to sell Chips and extra Algae for Influence and buy Wispers of the Voice to get research.

This should get you to T2 and the Elect hero really fast. Once you have this hero it's possible to take down everything but flying unit (i usually just ignore them). Buy your hero the Trauma Kit to spend less time healing. Time to be aggressive. The more you kill the more research you get from Specimen Containment.

Grab Shoch'itris Lair on the way to T3 - this will allow your Dark Vasels to spawn a struckture that spawn 3 Deformaties. Deformaties spawn more Deformaties if they kill a biological unit. Have Dragoons and Elect soften up targets for them. Within a few turn you can have a whole army of Deformaties swarming your opponents cities.

Meanwhile get T3 Engeneers and make a 2nd city ASAP.

Hope that helps.

[Bovril Brigadier]

Originally posted by dexgattaca:

Grab Shoch'itris Lair on the way to T3 - this will allow your Dark Vasels to spawn a struckture that spawn 3 Deformaties. Deformaties spawn more Deformaties if they kill a biological unit. Have Dragoons and Elect soften up targets for them. Within a few turn you can have a whole army of Deformaties swarming your opponents cities.

To add on this there is also a tech that upgrades Deformaties to start at level 4. Very useful as a meatshield unit.

[dexgattaca]

Yup. And don't be shy to despawn Lairs and Deformities once they are not needed. It will save you resource upkeep.

You can also spawn Deformities with the T1 Voice hero.

[CryonicSuspension]

It's actually "Emulated Mind" that I'm playing, not "Furtive Tribunal".

It's simply Ishim Enforcers -> Chayot Exterminator -> Exousier Marauder -> Missile Teams -> Crusader/Vanquisher siege / weapons -> Sky Fortress.

The first half focuses on Cybernetic-silicon minerals. Exterminators are flying defence. Marauders to hold resource outposts + cheap map exploration. Switch to farms / minerals for Missile Teams hidden in forests, for ambushes. Switch to heavy minerals for Crusader tank / Vanquisher artillery.

Algae is a waste of time.

Even if you make Engineers, you can't found a new city because you are locked to 1 city + perimeter extensions, so your city placement is very important. Make it difficult for the enemy to walk into your base ( volcano fire / arc discharge ). Consider seeding the base perimeter with bleed ( it can be a bad idea because Anchorite is bleed-immune and even heals in bleed ). Engineers are important since you can heal mech and all of these units are mech.

Your economy has to be on point, min-maxed ( habitat modules + growth ).

[dexgattaca]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

It's actually "Emulated Mind" that I'm playing, not "Furtive Tribunal".

I thought so. Just went by your title. Oh well.

Emulated Mind's trait is Trapped which prevents her from building more cities. You only get one city.

You start with a giant cannon in your city. This is very effective. It allows you to quickly kill nearby neutrals and even attack cities once you get the +6 range. As such you should to place your city aggressively, away from the map edges and corners. Specimen Containment has synergy because you can kill nearby enemies quickly to boost research.

Enforcer are great because of their healing. Make an Synthetic Printer to make more. Antigrav Assembler to make a few Maurauders can really boost the speed of your exploration.

While Specimen Containment is good I find it's not quite enough research output. As such I usually get Research Labs as well. If I start on a good research tile I usually skip Specimen Containment and settle for a Lab.

The reason I find research so important is because you need to grow quickly to keep up with other factions. This is accomplished with additional Construction Yards. Population growth is important because it needs to keep up with construction. This make the Flesh Tree your most important outpost to capture.

The Assassin is a fine hero and worth getting. The Commander has great synergy with Enforcers, Stalkers and Annihilators. Krypt Achai has great healing for your vehicles.

I find Destroyers to be a decent unit while you push for Exterminators, Stalkers and Combat Drones.

Perfect Logistics should not be over looked. It's +.5 resource per outpost.
Routine Tasks is even better at +4 resource per outpost (minus upkeep of unit on outpost).
Data Hack is very good as well. The great thing about this spell is that it scales with difficulty settings. You can get crazy amounts of Research from casting this on an Insane difficulty AI primary city. Use Satellite Scan to get line of sight.

In the End game Annihilators buffed by a Commander are insane. Hashmallim Host buffs stack wtih Commander buffs.

[CryonicSuspension]

Well... the first time I tried to play Lonely Girl ( Emulated Mind ) I tried to be super picky about base placement ( analysis paralysis ), waited too long to place the city. I ended up surrounded by 6 neutrals, while my troops were exploring far west and at half-health ( pinned down and blockaded ). I lost my troops, I lost my base.

The second time, knowing that it was time critical, I placed it in the bottom left corner of a 4 player size map ( me + 3 AIs was the configuration but the game added a couple more people on top of that - I have no idea why ).

I'm looking at this volcano and placing it so as to get as much of a 3 radius as I can... I start walking south, blue squid guy is 10-15 steps away from me, I'm like oh f*. I try and make friends with him - we set up trade, I give him a bribe. He has two influence outposts near to his base. We do map trades ( I can see he already has two bases ). His other base, in the middle of the map, ends up being right next to the hot Russian girl ( the one who is like a seductress Siren - she represents the three stages of life or something ).

We are in a 3-way kind of alliance but I mess it up by trying to be friends with someone that Tribunal is at war with. I was trying to cheese the game, like I would with the Darloks in Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares. Everything collapses, I lose all the alliances, all the trade pacts ( that I spent a lot of money trying to buy ). I'm broke and feel so far behind. I have to dig really deep because Blue Squid guy and Yellow Voice girl are in a tight alliance. I'm fighting a war 1 v 2 and so close to losing but I dig deep. I noticed that the AI walked through a clear path, to avoid the lightning storms and avoided the forest, so I set up an ambush in the forest, with the assassin as the finisher. Blue squid guy lost most of his army. I was really close to going out. Yellow voice girl periodically tries to make peace with me and tries to get me to make peace with blue squid guy but I'm like, "No! f* that guy".

I had to dig really deep to pull out a win. I got roped into joining an alliance with the Hanwa ( Edit: Actually called The Heartless Artificer ) who was allied with the Zephon of all people! I couldn't afford to fight a war on 3 fronts, I made friends with Logan ( fallen soldier ), that caused a rift with Hanwa because she was at war with Logan. Then Logan got annoyed.

Game was a mess in terms of diplomacy, but I built an army so big that I cleared the entire map. I extincted blue squid guy as a high priority ( his troop-stealing is annoying ), then I extincted the Hanwa, to fracture all existing alliances ( and because Hanwa flip flops more than a politician ). Yellow voice was huge at this point, I killed her. I think that Yellow voice aligned herself with the Zephon because I saw that Logan was getting massacred by Yellow voice and Red Zephon. Logan was stuck on the far East of the map ( I was bottom left corner, with Squid guy ).