GameSpot's Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Game Guide

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part 1

Chapter 1: Exploration
    First City
    Scout Patrol
    Exploration Insight
Chapter 2: Infrastructure
Chapter 3: Research and Development
Chapter 4: Military Fundamentals

Chapter 1: Exploration
All great adventures begin with exploration. Safely away from the mutiny on the U.N. Starship Unity, your faction arrives on Planet with little more than a colony pod and only a few squares of landscape visible to you. What lurks beyond your initial borders will remain a mystery until you venture forth like a modern-day Christopher Columbus and examine the world around you. Are you secluded on a small island? Did you happen to land on a large continent rich with resources? Are you surrounded by competing factions? You must answer many questions if you intend to be the supreme leader of Planet, and the act of exploration is your gateway to answering them.

First City
When Alpha Centauri begins, your colony pod will land on Planet in a random location, in turn creating your first city. It is from this initial starting point that your empire in the making will begin to branch out into unexplored territory. This initial location will have a tremendous impact in the early stages of the game.

Since your first city is founded in a random location, you may be at an advantage or disadvantage, depending on your immediate surroundings. For instance, if you see no water around you, you may be placed in the middle of a large continent somewhere, or the ocean could simply be just a few tiles away. Of primary importance are the abundance of resources within reach of your initial base; the more resources you have, the quicker your city will grow, the more research you can conduct, and the more units you can build, and so on. Lacking abundant resources at the outset of the game means your development will be stunted. What to do? Explore!

Next: Scout Patrol