Yang is powerful!

[Ironwood]

I just played my first game as the Hive in a long time, at that second-highest difficulty level. I knew the war factions got more powerful as the difficulty rises, but wow!

I know why, too: early drones are crippling, and Yang's ability to exploit Police State (and Planned Economics, for that matter) w/o efficiency penalties is simply staggering. While other factions are struggling to get Rec Commons built to raise their populatioin above 3, yang is sitting there with size 5 bases on police alone (6 with the genome project), supporting a rediculous number of units per base, and once Children's Creches show up (and I'm pretty sure their effectiveness is a bug), Yang can compete with the builders at their own level, while conquering them at the same time! Only Deidre can compete, under a Green Conquest strategy.

I think I'll go and beat my first Transcend game.

[Maniac]

Yang is powerful, like most factions when played correctly.

[Chaos Theory]

As good as Yang is, he struggles early on to research crucial techs, and gets last dibs on most early secret projects. His bases are strong but far from impregnable and he cannot run democracy, the best overall political SE choice (though Police State without the penalty is pretty nice).

[Blake]

Yang is easy to use and is exceedingly powerful when played right. In particular, building lots of bases, then having the core bases pump formers & infrastructure while the outer bases pump impact rovers and conquer the neighbours.

Builder-Yang only really needs one SP - the WP. Altough the CN and AV fit very well with any Hive strategy. If your isolated and unable to enslave Zak/Morgan/Lal for research purposes then one effective research tatic for the Hive is snagging the WP (disband units if nessecary to rush build it), then terraform 2 Condensors at a base, pod-boom this base to size 5, convert 3 of the workers to libarians and put the other 2 on the condensors, use worm income or disband units to build a net node for the base. These research bases allow the Hive to compete with other factions, or atleast get to restriction lifting / crawlers, at which stage effective terraforming catapults the Hive to new levels of power.

[timotheus4]

I got 9288 points playing Uni on Librarian

[Frankychan]

This thread gets Frankychan's 5-star seal of approval!

[Blake]

Nice spam guys.

[Frankychan]

[laurentius]

Everybody wants to be king, right?

[Impaler[WrG]]

I dont belive Yang originaly had that Ineffiency imunity did he? Was giving that to him some kind of mis-guided Balance attempt that whent horribly wrong and created the Monster that is Yang? Do yall feel that taking it away would infact balance Yang as he shoud be or utterly cripple him? How about changing it to Robust instead or giving the Hive +1 efficiency?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by laurentius
Everybody wants to be king, right?

NOpe


The Hive is an excellent faction but I do not find them to be superpowered. The slower early research, inability to get to +2 Econ and inability to pop boom easily are all major hurdles to overcome. I am in no way saying the Hive is weak-- far from it . . . it is just a very different faction to play

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]
I dont belive Yang originaly had that Ineffiency imunity did he? Was giving that to him some kind of mis-guided Balance attempt that whent horribly wrong and created the Monster that is Yang? Do yall feel that taking it away would infact balance Yang as he shoud be or utterly cripple him? How about changing it to Robust instead or giving the Hive +1 efficiency?

Giving the Hive only +1 effeiciency would kill them. The result in Police/planned would be a minus 3 meaning more drones and even greater losses of energy. The Hive is a very good faction but they simply aren't THAT strong. They are limited and pretty inflexible. Police/planned is a good combo for them but pretty much any other choice is impossible or simply so bad as to make no sense. The inability to pop boom early means and high support means that a many base strategy is best. The result is a good byt pretty unidimensional faction.

[Lazerus]

The Hive is a sledge hammer as compared to the dagger that is the University. Its all how well you wield them.

[CEO Aaron]

Yang's strength is that he's simple to play, but make no mistake, you need to be aggressive to be successful with Yang. A Yang player who's turtling is going to be leapfrogged by an actual builder faction.

In terms of power and flexibility, I find Zak, Dee and Morgan to all be stronger. With each of these factions, early building and expansion is simple and effective, and your income of tech and cash give you a headstart on critical early SPs.

If you're Yang and you don't get good early energy production, either from rivers, specials or monoliths, you'll lag for years in the tech basement while your rivals snap up all available SPs. Probes can allow you to play catch up, but having no innate probe bonus means your loss rates can be high. Meanwhile your rivals are busy advancing into the midgame while you're puttering about with probes, trying to achieve parity.

Yang has a good support rating, and simple SE choices, coupled with decent industry and growth. However, being monumentally cash poor means that you'll sacrifice early turn-advantage due to your inability to rush-build units and facilities. However, if you're the sort of player who doesn't use your cash to good effect, and doesn't bother with strong strategies like pop-booming, then of course Yang will seem incredibly strong, since he is balanced with his inability to use said strategies in mind.

[Sarxis]

Originally posted by Flubber

I am in no way saying the Hive is weak-- far from it . . . it is just a very different faction to play

My sentiments. Of course, ICS is an option for Yang, and Zerg military tactics too.