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Below is a copy/paste from Vel's 3rd guide on Gaians, except for his general notes section which I re-worked for purposed of reference. It seems we've used advantages 2 & 3 fairly well but we've neglected advantage 1, probably the most important advantage. Food for thought from here on out...
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Gaian’s get +1 Nutrient in fungus, +1 Planet, +2 Efficiency, -1 Police, and -1 Morale
You can’t run Free Market so you lack raw energy. You start with Centauri Ecology.
Three important advantages:
(1) +2 efficiency lets you to channel what energy you do get. Either Dem or Green gives you a paradigm economy.
· Play style: Builder/Hybrid (Dem)=100% labs, and Momentum (Green)=100% cash.
(2) +1 Nutrient in fungus lets you spend comparatively less time terraforming.
(3) +1 Planet lets you catch mind worms, the perfect pod-popping scout, and IoD transports as well.
Deirdre, the Builder: Forget the money. Beeline for Dem, and make the switch as soon as you can, netting you a paradigm economy, and +4 growth (when you build crèches). At this point, you can slam your labs to 100% and keep pace with the best researchers in the game. True, your income suffers, but you can ease back from 100% periodically to save up more cash, and once you arrive at restriction lifting techs, you can reverse that for a time, effectively turning labs off to help you rush through infrastructure builds. Also, when you’re ready to boom, you merely add Planned to what you’ve already got and giant bases are yours! Again, your research efforts are helped, if pod-scattering is on, by the presence of your mindworms, and, since you cannot run Market, you will be spending the whole game actively exploring, so if you find others who are running Builder or Hybrid styles (and making regular use of Market), a few probes into their territory with your mindworm force just might be sufficient to scare them away from Market (to avoid fighting a losing battle with your worms). Of course, this is an early game advantage, rendered much less effective once Secrets of the Human Brain are discovered, but the implications are that, if you spend a bit of time focused on catching 3-4 worms, you can keep your builder stance and put together enough of a force to effectively worm rush someone. Your troops aren’t great, but Children’s Crèches are an excellent build for you, as it helps with both troop morale and further enhances your Empire’s efficiency.
Deirdre, the Hybrid: As with the Builder Game, capturing worms is important, and even more so for the Hybrid game. You will definitely want to make early use of the worm rush if at all possible. Essentially, this is a denial strategy, added to the usual Hybrid mix. The goal is not so much to succeed in taking out an empire (though by all means, do so if you can), but to force them away from a Market Stance and slow them down, enabling your 100% lab focus to blow past them, tech wise (Note: The reason it is important to force your opponents away from Market is simply that, Dem/Market at 70%, despite the inefficiency, can out-tech Dem/Green at 100%). You’ll probably be stuck using your probes defensively, unless you pull back from your lab focus in advance to horde cash, and again, with the Gaians, it is almost always more productive to run either 100% labs or 100% economy. To keep a 50/50 stance with this faction undoes one of your chief advantages. The real trick to playing this faction is in knowing when to run which setting, and that is determined by prevailing game conditions. Hybrids will probably want to run both Dem and Green unless game conditions turn nasty, in which case, the Hybrid player will likely drop Dem to go on more of a war footing, again, relying heavily on Native life forms to offset your otherwise less-than-remarkable troops.
Deirdre, the Conqueror: Go Native! Forget Dem. Beeline for Flex and Planetary networks (Probes and boats), then to Green, catch as many worms as you can, run Econ at 100% and build lots of probes. The probes will make up for your lack of research, infiltrate enemy datalinks, and augment your native attack force with captured enemy troops caught alone and in the open. Plus, the worms don’t care what techs your opponents have and you’re the best Psi-fighter in the game, especially if you zero in on Market-loving Builders (who probably also have a lot of nice techs you want). Again, the worm rush is vital to your success, so do not delay in building up your native attack force and constantly be scouting for opponents! And, once your attack force is on its way, focus on spreading your empire, growing lots of small bases to offset Green’s growth penalty (you hardly feel it from size 1-2 bases)
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Gaian’s get +1 Nutrient in fungus, +1 Planet, +2 Efficiency, -1 Police, and -1 Morale
You can’t run Free Market so you lack raw energy. You start with Centauri Ecology.
Three important advantages:
(1) +2 efficiency lets you to channel what energy you do get. Either Dem or Green gives you a paradigm economy.
· Play style: Builder/Hybrid (Dem)=100% labs, and Momentum (Green)=100% cash.
(2) +1 Nutrient in fungus lets you spend comparatively less time terraforming.
(3) +1 Planet lets you catch mind worms, the perfect pod-popping scout, and IoD transports as well.
Deirdre, the Builder: Forget the money. Beeline for Dem, and make the switch as soon as you can, netting you a paradigm economy, and +4 growth (when you build crèches). At this point, you can slam your labs to 100% and keep pace with the best researchers in the game. True, your income suffers, but you can ease back from 100% periodically to save up more cash, and once you arrive at restriction lifting techs, you can reverse that for a time, effectively turning labs off to help you rush through infrastructure builds. Also, when you’re ready to boom, you merely add Planned to what you’ve already got and giant bases are yours! Again, your research efforts are helped, if pod-scattering is on, by the presence of your mindworms, and, since you cannot run Market, you will be spending the whole game actively exploring, so if you find others who are running Builder or Hybrid styles (and making regular use of Market), a few probes into their territory with your mindworm force just might be sufficient to scare them away from Market (to avoid fighting a losing battle with your worms). Of course, this is an early game advantage, rendered much less effective once Secrets of the Human Brain are discovered, but the implications are that, if you spend a bit of time focused on catching 3-4 worms, you can keep your builder stance and put together enough of a force to effectively worm rush someone. Your troops aren’t great, but Children’s Crèches are an excellent build for you, as it helps with both troop morale and further enhances your Empire’s efficiency.
Deirdre, the Hybrid: As with the Builder Game, capturing worms is important, and even more so for the Hybrid game. You will definitely want to make early use of the worm rush if at all possible. Essentially, this is a denial strategy, added to the usual Hybrid mix. The goal is not so much to succeed in taking out an empire (though by all means, do so if you can), but to force them away from a Market Stance and slow them down, enabling your 100% lab focus to blow past them, tech wise (Note: The reason it is important to force your opponents away from Market is simply that, Dem/Market at 70%, despite the inefficiency, can out-tech Dem/Green at 100%). You’ll probably be stuck using your probes defensively, unless you pull back from your lab focus in advance to horde cash, and again, with the Gaians, it is almost always more productive to run either 100% labs or 100% economy. To keep a 50/50 stance with this faction undoes one of your chief advantages. The real trick to playing this faction is in knowing when to run which setting, and that is determined by prevailing game conditions. Hybrids will probably want to run both Dem and Green unless game conditions turn nasty, in which case, the Hybrid player will likely drop Dem to go on more of a war footing, again, relying heavily on Native life forms to offset your otherwise less-than-remarkable troops.
Deirdre, the Conqueror: Go Native! Forget Dem. Beeline for Flex and Planetary networks (Probes and boats), then to Green, catch as many worms as you can, run Econ at 100% and build lots of probes. The probes will make up for your lack of research, infiltrate enemy datalinks, and augment your native attack force with captured enemy troops caught alone and in the open. Plus, the worms don’t care what techs your opponents have and you’re the best Psi-fighter in the game, especially if you zero in on Market-loving Builders (who probably also have a lot of nice techs you want). Again, the worm rush is vital to your success, so do not delay in building up your native attack force and constantly be scouting for opponents! And, once your attack force is on its way, focus on spreading your empire, growing lots of small bases to offset Green’s growth penalty (you hardly feel it from size 1-2 bases)
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