Favourite Faction

[Bornon]

Originally posted by aaglo

it is like a lesson in humility Everybody could make use of it

Good point. Well, if anyone is interested in a lesson in humidity, please drop by in Holland.

[aaglo]

Originally posted by Bornon


Good point. Well, if anyone is interested in a lesson in humidity, please drop by in Holland.

Heehee

I guess it's raining there... well, same here.

[Tizzy]

My favourite is the University. I love racing up the tech tree, and win concistently with UoP.
I can play reasonably well with a few other factions (CyCon, Angels, Gaians), but I've never got to grips with the Pirates or Morgan.
And I've yet to play as the Hive, Believers or Drones

[MorganFreak]

I think the name says it all. But the University is a close second. I'm a builder, because conquest games are boring to me.

[DarkCloud]

University... I have never played as them, but they are my favorite faction.

I mostly play Data Angel/Peacekeepers/Morganites and some custom factions mixing Morgan with Zakharov.

[Master Marcus]

The Pirates ( I talked a bit about them over a year ago, just before my very long and unexpected sabbatical ): you expand alone for a 150 turns, but as soon as you want to set foot on land, some challenges await you in a different order than any other faction. I have even witnessed the AI making a level-up near my first base, then becoming a poorer land city... NO major drag here of course, I easily won the game like the others, but still very unusual...

Sealubbers are closely followed by ...the Believers. Miriam is highly playable and enjoyable with some practice, for every hybrid builder- NOT only warmongers- you can make many pacts (surprising). And I like the University only as an opponent; choosing him in a single-player often resulted in a timid expansion, thus the +2 research almost negated ( not to mention the difficulty of making pacts ).

[Qualicide]

Pfft.

Drones all the way.(the fact that they ARE, don't argue with me, the most powerful faction helps too...)

[bobyk464]

I find playing the University pretty difficult if I don't manage to build the Virtual World. I'm sure there are others that can play him better and manage without the VW, but for me, it's pivotal: TWO free (and important) base facilities from the start is a pretty hefty advantage. The Hunter-Seeker is pretty important, too (doesn't matter which faction I'm playing, or whether or not I've got the HSA, it's still a good idea to keep at least one probe team in every base anyway).

I've had better success as Aki-Zeta 5. Tell me why Zak is so far ahead of her in this poll? Is it that the majority don't run the Alien Crossfire expansion? Or does getting the free Network Node outweigh the University's inherent drone handicap by that much? And for the hard-core University minions out there: how do you deal with the situation if you don't get the VW?

[knowhow2]

HOLOGRAM THEATRE!!!!

Build them!

or...... Police State and COPS (police)

[Natan]

I like the Hive and the Drones for their industrial output, although the Cult is also pretty cool. I think the Morganites and the Believers are also pretty neat, but I'm very bad at playing them right.

[monkeyman]

The Pirates! ARG ye skurvy dogs! I like to be left alone and just build. And when someone sends their navy after me, I just take it from them! I'm no good at giving away techs so I don't play well with others. Also, since I play with non-directed research (the only way to get any variability in SP), they are still very viable.

--mm

[Ned]

Monkeyman, I find the Pirates the single most difficult faction to play. They have low efficiency and cannot easily pop boom. To get enough energy, they have to FM. But this just kills their naval advantages. A real problem. Not enjoyable at all. Ned

[Master Marcus]

Ned, the low pop boom can easily be thwarted by the sea nutrients ( much richier with kelp farms , next to early land bases where growth is often slow in the first tier of the game ).

As for the energy, it can be a problem if it takes too long for trade ( huge map ) and getting Env.Econ. ( energy lifted ); thereafter your tidal harnesses are more than sufficient.

Other tips in Vel's guide.

[monkeyman]

Originally posted by Ned
Monkeyman, I find the Pirates the single most difficult faction to play. They have low efficiency and cannot easily pop boom. To get enough energy, they have to FM. But this just kills their naval advantages. A real problem. Not enjoyable at all. Ned

Yeah, I suppose that's true, but I'm coming at this from the angle that after 5 SP games, one at easiest(Win), next at middle(W), next at transcend (Loss) and transcend (L), and transcend (W), I stumbled upon Vel's strat guide. Up to this point I never used crawlers or even heard of pop booming. I shouldn't have read it. Anyway, I've played the rest of my games without real fear of losing unless I take some things out of the game. So pop booms, crawlers, chop & drop are all no-no's if I want a challenge. I am trying to exercise the discipline to play a Gandhi game (no attacking), but the temptation to send a fleet of deathspheres at Yang is just too much

So, for my quarter(25c, that is...), its "Rum, sodomy and the lash"...

-mm

[Method]

Originally posted by Ned
Monkeyman, I find the Pirates the single most difficult faction to play. They have low efficiency and cannot easily pop boom. To get enough energy, they have to FM. But this just kills their naval advantages. A real problem. Not enjoyable at all. Ned

the energy and pop boom problem can both be solved by going demo planned wealth 40/20/40. the 20% psych gets you into GA (most of the time) and that combined with wealth gets you +1 energy per square. if done right you do get a big advantage. except in my latest game i ended up fighting the spartans and thus had to change to knowledge and didn't get enviro econ till 2300! (oh well thats my horrible playing. can't transcend now too late in the game.)

hovever! i did get my highest score ever as pirates. i got up to the 4th last holobook the 27 habits of highly effective talents.