How to play With Arc

[Karamazov]

Hi,


I tried a lot of sponsors and i think the Arc is incredibly specific. Firstly, i am seduced to his skill.

Whereas Asian Corp have a boost for wonders construction and workers, African a boost for growth, Arc dont have a boost at early game.

His spy specialization gives it alternative play for midgame

- good in peace, they can be agressive with stealing ressources and other things.
- at war time, they can accelerate the fall of city by inside.



During the early game, The faction is defined as "normal", dont have any advantage.
In fact, compared to certain factions, Arc can have a lot of weakness (no extra growth, no military bonus..)
So the choices of bonuses at start (cargo, extra worker...) should be taken very wisely, according his spy skill and weak start.

Should Arc rush for Spy (Informatic in research science)? Or secure food and production like a standard faction?

With his capacity of stealing energy at midgame, i wonder how to use these extra energy
- trade with allies to science, or other strategic ressources
- buy more territories than you really need , just for control your boardland and dont let enemy come to strategic location
- prepare the economy translation with better science building (observatory for example, academy...)
- make an army and attack, buy soldier and production building

The problem is that these spy have a chance of success, the operation is not always successful, so this faction has a gambling skill, whereas others has standard, fix skills.
I wonder if the better way when you have some good operations is to invest quickly and wisely, dont need to go ambitious project. So i think the science way (invest to science building) is too long term for these kind of Arc gameplay

So i think military is better, maybe the best way. You have soldier more than others, you attack and conquer city.
Then, you make science.


Another point i dont understand
You need a good level of conspiracy in a city to make better operation (steal science, steal a unit...) but at the same time, the city with high conspiracy know someone is spying, so the player (or IA) will react. So when you should make high operation, or keep quiet and sleep a while, or leave the town?
Is it better each time you have stealing energy once,
- to switch town?
- to stay and keep stealing energy?
- to stay try to do better operations?


So, you have non constant result, and your operations cant be done regularly, due to timing.
Arc is very hard to play, compared to "beginners" faction (Asian, African, Polystralian)

I think Arc's potential is entirely on Midgame. If you dont take your timing advantage, lategame will be a pain when enemy cities has better counter spy.
The key is a good midgame extension

[Karamazov]

How to choose a city

Your spy is going for

Economic View
- becoming some rent, accelerate your investment short or medium term

Business intelligence View
- making a resume of city, then switch town, prepare your next move, have a big picture
- accelerating your research, steal science

Strategic View: influence the enemy reaction
- annoying enemy budget (your equal level enemy, the top one, the challenger when you are top)
- increase the conspiracy, make the player retreat one spy at his city,
- if the faction dont have informatics or spy building -> obliges him to stop his current research and go informatics, or go urgently to his spy building. This can be a lof of suffer if he cant react quickly




Which city to choose
- high or low conspiracy: low for easy operation, high for hard operation

Diplomacy view
- the faction make big trade with us, in peace, good cooperation. If the spy is detected and the faction know its you, the consequences are less important, no war should i say
- the city is neutral, you can be more agressive on spy, which will make him to declare war to us

[gdijedi7]

I play as ARC all the time. I enjoy them, but you are right in that they have no bonuses for the early game, and in the late game, their ability to really hurt people is very limited.

ARC's strength is not in the big powerful high level operations. You're not going to get those in most cases. Hack those satellites when you get the chance, because most of the time, you'll only get that one shot. There have been games where I never could get the intrigue level even that high. Also, by the time you've reached level 13 in your affinity, the enemy knows how to essentially eliminate your ability to have high intrigue levels.

ARC's power lies in stealing energy and science. Unless you have a game like the one where 3/4 of my spy operations failed (including all three of my initial attempts to establish a network. I had to deliver the dossier three times to do it successfully), then you will be able to have science way out of proportion with your number of cities. This will allow you to jump ahead of your competition in affinity levels, or quickly catch up to a beelining militaristic opponent (I'm looking at you, Slavic Federation).

[allok]

great info, much appreciated.