Faction Tactics: Gaians

[Crisler]

I think it would be neat if we had threads like this for each faction to make it easy to find tactical tips. Maybe make them sticky.

Anyway I am starting to play the Gaians more and could use some tips for effective play.

Edward

[Lazerus]

http://renaissanceforums.community.everyone.net/community/scripts/topics.pl?NodeID=48436&ClientID=53163

halfway down theres a guide with details on how to play every faction as either conquer/builder/hybrid.

[Jac de Molay]

I agree, Crisler. I know there's some great minds to pick on this forum about how to play the various factions.

As for gaians, I like the challenge of roleplaying- building nothing but forest and fungus, and capturing and utilising native life as much as possible.

[Snowflake]

I know that Gaians always capture the first or second mindworm but anybody noticed that the 1st free scout that comes with the first colony always have a better chance than others (captured windworm, rover discovered in a pod) to capture mindworm even when he is very green? Or is that an illusion?

[Flubber]

I find that morale is irrelevant to the chance of capturing.

The only important thing, IIRC is movement points . .I don't believe you can capture with less than a full movement point remaining. I also believe that having multiple units in the area does not help . . . If the first unit would attack rather than capyure then every other unit would not be bale to capture THAT native on THAT turn. This idea was NOT tested but seems to fit my experience over time

[Sikander]

Gaian facts:

#1: They can't run FM
#2: They have +2 efficiency
#3: They have -1 morale
#4: They have a + to planet

Conclusions:

The Gaians need to take advantage of their efficiency rating in order to make up for the lack of FM. Raw energy strategies and more numerous bases are the best way to do this. Running wealth and putting bases into golden ages can give you +2 econ, and make forests more viable. Otherwise you can use a former heavy strategy, and go for farm / solar combos to garner some extra energy.

Military is going to be somewhat problematic with the morale penalty. Be sure to make children's creches a priority to reduce the moral penalty, make pop booming possible and further reduce energy losses to inefficiency. The Green War Machine strategy is more viable for the Gaians than most, especially early. As soon as possible you need to capture a worm and send it into the fungus to troll for more worms. This can give you a decent force over time, and cash from planet pearls. The first X number of worms will be free of support costs, after that they will attach themselves (for support purposes) to one of your bases, which can be a pain. Fortunately, they don't cost any support while they are in fungus. Send the free ones back to your base area as garrisons (perhaps after they have gained a few levels), and leave the others in the fungus to continue trolling. Worms can also be used in a pinch to make up for a military tech disadvantage, though they aren't all that cost effective in the long run. Another possiblity is to build a ship early on and try to capture an IOD. These are great for pod popping at sea.

[Flubber]

Sikander gives a good overview of Gaian possibilities.

Personally, I like that they can be in planned without taking much of an efficiency loss early . I find that staying in Planned can mean very quick growth and booming is big. NOT being able to go FM is big but is compensated somewhat by the ability to use native life to explore quickly.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Some thoughts on Gaians although rightfully said they're not my strongest suit, but they are rather easy.

Early game thoughts:

Fungus is your friend, while other factions tend to be wary of fungus your natural +1 planet and the inherent +1 nutrient in fungus make fungus a natural. Make your free scout take trips through fungus early and often to capature the first worm possible. Set first two bases looking as always to find sweet spot near a monolith or river. First base production q's are likely formers than garrisons then colony pods. (But you may want to try if you feel gutsy ultra thin expansion by forgoing the garrison and nerve stapling prior to achieving a second pop point i.e. a drone on transcend level. I would recommend this only on the first two bases cause after that you'll likely meet and greet others and may want to make some trade energy figuring that around turn 2140 ish you'll have IA and can actually have an econ rating that gives you some trade energy)

Unlike other factions since you have +2 nuts from fungus your not as hard up for Rainy squares as other factions if your near fungus. Set your early energy allocations to around 70 labs (or higher) 30 econ. You'll likely resort to cultivating energy pearls early to allow SE changes.

Once first worm is captured rock and roll looking for pods. Pod lotto with worms is an almost no risk proposition. Continue with trolling the fungus with scout unit(s) to capture worms and harest pearls. You'll want to protect these guys as they will likely be some of you early high morale folks.

I would suggest a traditional beeline to IA. Making sure to emphasize the disocver route to get Planetary nets and immeidate switch to Planned. Planned is an early Natch for Dee as efficiency balances out to 0 whilst you gain the bennys of growth and industry. Keep ICS'ing and pumping pods.

The neat thing about Dee is that she does well with almost every tech and if your going to run a doubel blind game seems the best suited to deal with the advantages of the tech moreso then classic builders or classic momentum factions.

For instance assume you lucked into Mobility. Great now you've got speeders to allow a second movement point to allow native capture. Better survivable scouts as they can retreat etc. Flexibility great go aquire some Isle of Deeps and scour the seas for Unity pods (i.e. Artifacts). The list goes on and on. While Miriam pretty much needs to get impact weapons to amke a concerted rush (at least most of the time) and Morgan needs to get to IA. Dee IMO is much more flexible with her only real weakness being her military. She offsets it through natives and offsets the lack of energy of being unabelto run FM by energy pearls.

If you really want to see how she can shine. Run a hihg natives (i.e. high fungus world game). Take the appropriate notes that capture is only possible with a full movement point left. This means worms are only capable of capturing another worm/spore launcher if its the first square they are moving into. Realzing this if you aquire Xenodome SP You can quadruple your chance of scaring and capturing worms by using speeders as the first 4 squares moved in fungus wil still have a full movement point left (assuming non elite). Pre xenodome move your speeders relentlessly along rivers in fungus.

Also remember unless I'm mistaken preence of bases and particularly sensors seems IMHO to dampen the cahcne of scaring up worms. Worm hunting in the hinterlands seems to be more profitable at least to me. But again remember I've already claimed Dee is not my strongest faction. I'ld claim profficiency but not uber-expertise.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Ohh another thing that skipped my mind. Dee is a natch for continous pop boom. Assuem again for a second that you are running a double blind game and it looks to be a while before you can aquire tree farms. Once you've got IA and you've gotten Democracy. You'll simply go Demo/planned creches and add pop points via crawlers into fungus for +2 nuts. Instant pop point, Instantly specialized to the specialist of your flavor (most likely a librarian for research as you'll likely rely again on planet pearls to keep the coffers semi-full). Other factions are harder pressed to either have rainy squares, or a lot of invested terraforming time to make farms and/or condensor/farms (if they have WP) in the same circumstances.

[vitamin j]

Good points. The Gaians are my favorite faction - I think even without free market they can hang with any of the factions. Just a minor quibble: you CAN capture natives with less than a full move point remaining. I've done it many times.

[zsozso]

Ogie has listed a lot of good points. Just one think I want to add: you can turn your captured pod-popping scouting units into formidable attack force would the situation require it. They are very good for long-range attacks, because

1. they can heal in the fungus,
2. keep getting "weapon upgrades" as they are fighting,
3. can use "natrual roads" (i.e. fungus) to speed up movement through unchartered territory.

[Jac de Molay]

one rookies opinion.

They are my favorite faction as well, but the utility of native life, in my experience, diminishes considerably in the midgame. Air power and trance/sensor/high morale tends to negate their inherent advantages, and I usually find myself building more specialized units for military forays, especially if I can build the Xeno dome.

The Iod is still the best naval unit, IMO. I can appreciate dee's ability to capture these early on. This is huge to me.

[Hydro]

Ogie, I've noticed I don't scare up worms or IoDs when traveling through fungus after building the Xeno Dome. Once that happens the planetpearls dry up and my only freebees are from pods, which still may be plentiful in remote areas (where my worms are scouring clean) or the sea (where my IoDs rule - woe to the faction that lets me get Neural Amplifier...heheheheh).

Anyone else notice this?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Could be.

What I've noticed (and again this is all anecdotal) is that the ability to scare up natives seems to be linked in someway to the distance from bases and sensors.

Aside from periods of perihilion wherein natives are naturally more plentiful, it seems to me I'm more likely to scare up natives when I'm far away from bases and especially sensors. IIRC it is documented somewhere either in the manual or datalinks that sensors tend to scare away the sensitive and skittish native worms. Perhaps it was coded that the presence of bases likewise causes diminshing chances for natives to be scared by merely traveling though fungus.

Again all this is pure speculation.

[Jac de Molay]

I also had some questions about worm capturing with the Gaians.

How many "free" mindworms/Iods can you capture and use? Are there some factors/formulae that dictate the amount of free native life you can have?

I seem to have temporarily misplaced my manual, and cant find anything in the datalinks about it.

thanks
jac