Simant FAQ
By Ed the Moogle
Final Version
Copyright 1999-2002 Ed the Moogle

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This game was written using the Windows version but should be applicable
to all versions.

This was actually the first "war sim" I played. I thought it was really
fun, except that it's possible to beat the entire game in about 15
minutes.

General information

Black Ants- The good guys. They'll help you gather food and fight off
the red ants. There are three basic varieties, listed below.

Workers- The basic ants. They are moderately skilled at fighting and
also harvest food regularly. Keep their behavior ratio somewhere in the
middle, because all of its activities are important.

Army Ant- The fighters of the group. They are stronger than workers, but
don't count on them to help harvest food. They have a higher chance of
winning a battle than a Worker ant. Create lots of these (set the ratio
to about 66% Army ants and about 33% workers) when you are ready to
strike.

Winged Ant- The breeders of the group. They are not good fighters at
all, and often won't help you in carrying food. Their only real use is
starting new colonies in the Full game. Stick to Army Ants and Workers
until you're ready to make a new nest.

Yellow Ant- This is you. The yellow ant is pretty much the commander of
the operation. You can change the Yellow ant to be any type of ant you
want. You can even be the queen, if you like (being the queen is very
boring, though). To switch between ants, simply choose "Exchange" from
the drop-down menu (or press 'X'). The yellow ant havs the ability to
'recruit' ants in groups of five or ten (press 1 or 2 respectively). You
can also release 1/2 your hired ants (press 3) or release them all
(press 4). If the yellow ant is killed, all 'hired' ants will retreat,
and you'll be reborn back at the nest.

Queen- The source of your nest's power. The queen lays eggs, which hatch
into ants- workers, army ants, or winged ants. The ants that the eggs
become depend upon on how you set the Caste ratio. The queen should be
protected at all cost- without your Queen, you can't make more ants.
Without more ants, you're pretty much screwed.

Red Ants- These are your enemies. Your objective in any scenario is to
destroy the Red Ant queen. The Red Ants also have Workers, Army Ants,
and Winged Ants.

Avenger- The red nest's version of the Yellow Ant. Like the Yellow ant,
it commands its ants to attack. If it dies, all the red ants will
retreat. It doesn't look any different from a Red ant, though- you'll
have to bring up the ant's descriptions to find out which one is the
Avenger.

Spider- Watch out for these beasties early in the game. These ugly
behemoths regularly munch on small ants. Wait until you get a large
group of ants (hire about 30 or so) before trying to take them on. It's
sort of fun to become the spider with Exchange and munch on the Red
ants, though. However, they can surround and kill you as well, and
you'll regenrate as a Black Ant.

Ant Lion- These critters burrow into the ground and savagely rip apart
any ants foolish enough to wander near their hole. Steer clear of these,
as your ants tend to wander into them foolishly. They can be killed, but
it is extremely difficult and I wouldn't reccomend doing it.

Electric Socket- Very similar to the Ant Lion (basically a death trap to
any who wander into it), except this one only appears inside the house.
Just stay clear. Unlike ant lions, these cannot be killed.

The Lawnmower- The deadliest hazard outside of the house. When it passes
over your square, it is capable of destroying huge numbers of your ants
(I went from 300 some to about 20 within seconds!) Order your ants to
follow you, then get underground before the lawnmower passes over your
section of the yard to minimize losses. When the lawnmower passes over,
it makes for a good chance to strike the Red base or start a colony in a
recently passed red-dominant square (no black ants).

The Human- Outside of the house, the human isn't too much of a threat.
There's a small chance that he may step on some of your ants, but this
has only happened to me once, and any losses I sustained were minimal.
Inside the house, though, he's about as deadly as the Lawnmower. Any
square he walks over will be sprayed with Pesticide, which will kill off
most if not all of the ants above the ground. The same strategy for
avoiding the lawnmower applies here- get underground and order all your
units to follow..

Tips

At the beginning, when you assume the role of the soon-to-be-queen ant,
find a location that's near some food and build your nest there. Just
watch out for the spider. It usually hangs out near the food. Change to
the spider and lure it away if you need to- just don't lose sight of
your queen.

If the square on the grid is red, that means that there are only red
ants there. If it is gray, that means there are both black and reds
there. If it is black, the blacks have completely dominated. If it is
green, it means there are no ants at all on that square. First, conquer
as many green squares as you can (to get rid of that pesky human
faster), then concentrate on exterminating the reds in the gray and red
squares.

The human will evacuate the house once 70% of the tiles are filled with
ants of either color. Fill them up as quickly as possible to get rid of
your two greatest threats- the Pesticide and the Lawnmower.

Order as many worker ants as you can to follow you to a big patch of
food, then release all of them. They'll all grab a piece of and carry it
back to the nest.

If the red nest manages to destroy your queen, gather up all your
remaining troops and go for a last-ditch strike on their nest. There is
a chance you may be able to take out their nest, too.

If a red colony is struck by the lawn mower, send in a flying ant ASAP.
You may be able to build up a small colony before the reds detect your
presence and attack.

Build walls with rocks to force the red ants into narrow entrances where
they will be easily picked off. That way, if your nest falls under
attack, you'll have a little more time to get over there and fight off
the reds.

When you're going for the final siege on the red nest, plug up all their
nests' holes with rocks. This will prevent counterstrikes on your nest
while you infiltrate their base.

Try to keep the red ants away from the food. If you keep it up long
enough, their queen will die or their numbers will be significantly
reduced.

Your actions take up valuable stamina. Set the warning level to about
1/2 of your bar, and go get some food when your stamina runs low. If you
have some other ants with you, they will also give you food if your
stamina runs low.

If you get complaints like "Not enough room", just expand your nest
(double-click into the dirt to dig to that location). Don't dig too
deep, though, because the rising water may drown your ants when it
rains. It's better to dig side to side than too far down.

When your queen starts to produce Army Ants, make the yellow ant an Army
Ant. You'll have a better chance of winning if you're attacked, and
you'll still be able to do anything that you could as a Worker.

Try to keep the Yellow ant out of major battles whenever possible- all
of your ants will retreat if your ant is killed.

If a single ant is about to attack the yellow ant, double-click on it so
that your ant gets the first strike. You'll have a significantly higher
chance of winning the battle.

Set the Yellow ant's health warning line at a little above half empty.
This will ensure that your ants will constantly supply you with food to
keep your health high in case you get ambushed by an enemy ant.

In experiment mode, you can set pesticide, make the nest deeper, add
more ants, more food, etc. Then when you're done, you'll become the
yellow ant. This lets you create your own challenges, such as starting
with very little food, tons of pesticide, and hundreds of red ants.

Windows version cheats (I think the Mac ones are the same)

Type these in at any time during the game exactly as they are spelled.

erad- Your yellow ant's health drops significantly. This code is pretty
useless, unless you're feeling brave.

fred- Shows the ending.

hole- A lot of holes appear that lead into your nest. This makes it
easier to gather food, but also makes it easier for the reds to strike.

jeff- A colony starts in every patch. Ideal for getting rid of that
pesky human.

jenn- The entire black colony has unlimited health.

joke- Tells you a joke (Maxis seems to have a fetish for llamas).

just- You gain 10 queen ants. Crush the red rebel scum!

mick- The spider walks backwards. Pretty useless, but funny nonetheless.

rand- Yellow ant's health is fully restored.

Qeen- The Red ants get another queen. Think you're really good? Try
taking on 3 or 4 at a time! Trust me, it is not easy!

qeen- The black ants get another queen. If you're queen is destroyed,
just send in another one.

susi- Yellow ant's health is always at 100%.

will- The black ants will almost never lose a fight with a red ant. They
can still be killed by other things, though (ant lions, spiders, etc.).

FUND- You get $10000! But since money is useless in this game, you're
out of luck (this is a joke off of a Simcity cheat).