Gaians

[Solver]

Gaians are the best faction, for me. Their MindWorm bonus really is fantastic. Yes, I know you can always create a new faction which will be much mor powerful, but I’m speaking about the built-in factions. If you have tons of mindowrms, nothing can stop this army. Then let some ships go into the ocean and enter fungus squares, as it’s possible to spot Isle of the Deep and capture it then. Isels can trapsort MindWorms, eliminating the need for transport foils. But remeber the best thing about it – mindworms are independent. You don’t need to pay these terrible costs to support them. Enemy might have the best amror available, but that won’t help against the MindWorms, because of the PSI attack. You just basically don’t need any other units. Of course, it’s good to have some back up, but you don’t need to create a big army. And all your bases can create good facilities, instead of spending times for miltray units. When you get the necessary technologies, make most of your bases produce MindWorms, later the Locusts of the Chiron. Thus you’ll be unbeatable. And, of course, remember to have your economy set to Green. This is unbeatable, whatever your enemies do. You can, of course, try this with other factions, but Gaians can do that the best. In my opinion, there’s no suitable counterstrategy for this, when properly used. Oh, and when you create other units, let them have Psi weapon, Psi defense, but the best avialable reactor, so that they have more hitpoints. Don’t just create many non-psi units, and you win.
This was my vote on the best faction issue and favorite army type issue. Any thoughts?


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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[stuntman19]

Well, the Gaians do have the native strengths you've mentioned, especially in SP. When you get into the MP realm though almost all human players will have trance and empath units, so unless you take advantage in early
game the strengths are somewhat nullified.

[Solver]

You see, I don't play SMAC so often, as basically I'm a civ player. And when I play, I mostly play SP, but the game is quite easy, though the AI isn't too bad.

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[WhiteElephants]

The crossfires expansion pack adds a spore launcher (which is psi artillery) and a sea lurker (a submarine type isle of the deep), but it also adds resonance weapons and armor that increase psi offense and defense making a completely native life a bit tougher to do.

I tend to disagree with you with or without the expansion anyways as mindworms do cost support unless they were captured closer to an enemies base (or it's the first few you capture) or you station them in fungus which is sometimes tough to find and not always in a good defensive position.

Consider that a infantry scout with trance is going to defend just as well against your mindworms (if not better) as the enemy's top notch armor and weapon combo. And, you have to admit that, I can crank out infantry trance scouts far faster than you can crank out or capture new mindworms.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use natives at all what I'm saying is that with a completely native army an empath chopper would rain on your parade any time and twice on Sunday.

[RedFred]

I've always been a big Gaian fan. It seems that most of us who enjoy the Gaians also play well with the Cult. Is this the case for you, Solver?

[Solver]

Hey, RedFred, I haven't played SMAC for about two months now, but I am big Gaian fan, for sure. However, I've seen the MindWorm faction designed, and it's devastating. It's simply impossible to win them. I took them, I easily won. I gave it AI, I lost very fast. Amazing faction.

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[DilithiumDad]

The Gaians biggest advantage is not the puny +1 planet, but the +2 efficiency, which allows you to go Planned right away (try that as Peacekeepers before Democracy!), stay in premanent pop boom later on, then build a huge empire before buracracy troubles.

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Creator of the Ultimate Builder Map, based on the Huge Map of Planet