What Faction for a Beginner???

[Control Freak]

Here's my situation...got the game...love it...played some specialist level games with the Gaians and rolled over the AI.

I moved up to Talent level and am having some early problems with the Gaians (their forces are so weak!) - so i'm basically mind worm food!

What faction would you recomend for a new player (one who doesn't understand the ins and outs of the game yet) but who hates the cake walk of the easier levels???

I do understand that the style of play of the player matters quite a bit when choosing but is there one faction that is a little easier to get a handle on than others?

[wheathin]

Gotta be Lal.

He has the fewest Social Engineering penalties to start with: just -1 Efficiency, and that's minor. He can't run Police State, but who does (other than Yang)? He also has the +2 hab limits and the extra talents to allow larger happier bases. Plus he gets Goverships in his sleep, so you get the added commerce and the Infiltrator info.

Other factions way be more powerful, but their strategies are more complex. Lal is straightforward and very forgiving.

[MattyBoy]

If you have Alien Crossfire, I would try Aki Zeta, as she is pretty easy (no offense intended, Aki). The Aliens are too easy to be enjoyable.

If you have Alpha Centauri, you could try Zakharov to quickly get a feel for the tech tree, but you will have to focus a lot on avoiding drone riots. Or Lal is pretty good as he gives you a great chance of winning an early election and he allows you to grow bigger cities more easily than other factions.

[RedFred]

Expect about 14 different answers to this question depending on style of play. It is worthwhile playing each faction in turn. You will quickly find one or two that are easier or more fun. I remember way back when I started that the Gaians and the Hive were the two factions that seemed easiest to me.

If you were playing Gaians before, no reason you shouldn't keep playing them. You have to use your positive Planet rating to your advantage and catch a few worms early on. For the first fifty years your crack troops are likely to be worms.

Always try to attack worms and not defend against them. If they catch you by surprise you can still counterattack if you have the foresight to have another unit handy. And build the CN. That will get rid of all those very green conventional forces.

Get Vel's strat guide. The only downside of it is you will quickly become so good that single player games will cease to challenge you. But hey, we always could use a few more new recruits to multiplayer.

[Alex]

If you are a "conqueror" kind of player, go for the Spartans. They are the most balanced of the "momentum" factions, plus you won't have trouble with prototypes.

[mrdynamic]

My 1st transcend win was with the cyborgs ... once you are able to show Aki how much fun reproducing really is , they make for a good play with their outstanding research and tech steal capability.

[Flubber]

For a beginner any of

Uni
Gaians
Peackeepers
Angels

would be good as they are all relatively vanilla and give a good sense of the play. For a beginner I am thhinking that you want the ability to experiment with a variety of SE settings.

I would totally avoid

Believers (research is stifled)
Morgan (support problems and low hab limits),
Cult ( econ and industry penalties mean they MUST be played differently)
aliens (too strong)


That leaves

Hive
Cyborgs
Pirates
Drones
Spartans

which are not that difficult but which require a little more specialized ( faction specific) play than the first grouping.

Note that most of my favorite factions are in the second and third groups specifically BECAUSE they are played a little differently and certain play options are foreclosed or more difficult

[k.k.fly]

I use Police state most of the time in my factions....

[Kassiopeia]

I started off with the University and did fine all the way to the highest difficulty levels. I'm the culture-style player in Civ3, and never liked waging war beyond complete necessity, so the Uni fit my playstyle perfectly.

I use Police state most of the time in my factions....

Well, your only reasonable choice'll be the Hive then. The Hive could also be a relatively good starter faction, if they would not require a ruthless application of their production abilities and the ability to dodge the problems brought by staggering inefficiency.

[Adalbertus]

One of the advantages of the game is that with every new faction I tried, I felt like a beginner. And I did not yet play Miriam and Santiago .. I'm too much a builder, and there is still a lot to learn with the other five. As for Yang, I think it is extremely important to get Centauri Ecology ASAP, because without formers, you are doomed. Having them, it seems almost a cakewalk, because you can produce like hell and support it. And of course, you have little energy, but you can steal tech, and in the time you need to loose a probe team, you have produced another three.
Basically, I think the factions are so different, that you can start with the one you like best from the description. Normally, it matches your style of game best and therefore it is the easiest.
Meanwhile, I start even to like the Morganic limit to 4 population without Hab complex, because on Transcend, growth stops exactly when I would run into serious drone problems.

[Mr. President]

I haven't tried this yet, but Police State / Planned / Wealth / Cybernetic seems (superficially at least) like it would work for Yang. You'd want to race for the Command Nexus to counter the -2 Morale; at the same time, your Industry is booming and Economy is pulled back to a manageable -1. No Efficiency worries, of course, and the Police effects almost cancel out (but you could also build or steal the Network Backbone). But I'm a diehard builder, and I hate being poor. This arrangement might not suit others.

I personally like the Morganites best now, though I'm starting to warm to the University. I just finished an alien victory as the Usurpers in a builder sort of style (Fundamentalist / Free Market / Wealth / Cybernetic).

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Mr. Prez,

Yang - Police/Planned/Wealth/anything is a good situation for Yang. The key is the first three SE choices. Police/Planned is of course run without any penalty to Yang. This leaves you the next set of SE choices:

Wealth - Getting down to -1 econ is huge. But OTOH is not the end all be all. If you make your bases primarily specialist driven the econ rating is not as critical and then you can look at the other SE choices as well.

Power - Hit to Industry is a bit of a prob but it definitely has its use especially if you do not have command nexxus (altho there really is no reason why you shouldn't have it)

Knowledge - An all around good choice for any faction but again unless you are a specialsit driven Yanger then you're probably correct in looking to wealth. Efficiecny is useless of course as you need overcome the -4 from Police and planned before and positive eff. rating is yours.

This then leads to the next level of SE choices:

Cyber- Eff is wasted again. Planet rating is nice but unless your a green warrior is kinna wasted. Leaving the benny of labs (always nice for the same reason as Knowledge)

Eudi - Econ gains you at best upto +1 so no real help there unless you golden age not likely with the Yanger. Extra Industry OTOH is always a good thing.

Thought Control - To my mind a high level Power SE choice.

All things being said really any of these late game choices of SE have benefit but the core of the choice to my mind is already decided at the Police/planned and then most likely wealth level. Besides by the time you get one of the advanced SE chocies available the game should already be pretty much decided.

Jus my thoughts

Og