Yet Another Favorite Faction Poll

[Jac de Molay]

Hmm, good stuff. But you better pray (no pun intended) that neighbors are near and bountiful or you can pick up Doc: Flex. I would probably play them like the spartans, going for Nonlinear Math., and building or capturing Command Nexus. I'm still relatively new to the game, and haven't played them yet, but I'll keep these ideas in mind. Dave

[Straybow]

I like PKs because the extra votes makes such a big difference. Being Chairman of the council is powerful in that you can gather so much info about everybody else. On top of that, the raised pop limits allow significant advantage mid-game growing to size 9 without Hab. The -1 efficiency stings, but it isn't too steep.

Morgan is cool, but the pop limit in the early game before Hab is a tough challenge. The AI stinks as Morgan, but with some help from the human player he can do well… fattened up for the harvest, as someone else mentioned.

The current game I'm playing as PK on a huge random world, blind research. A largish continent to myself, and my only neighbor is Yang. Ugh. Contacted others by encountering their ships or finding their freqs. It was forever before my exploring ships reached their territories.

Morgan fell first. For a long time Dee and Yang were ahead in many categories. Santiago was on the other side of Yang, on a small continent, somewhat contained. U of P withered in Gaian shadows, while Believers hung around quite a while until Dee took care of business. Meanwhile I filled up my continent and a couple islands, plus a sea colony in the GeoShallows.

I didn't start to dominate until 2300s. Yang's jets kept picking off my transports, so all I could do was seize several sea colonies. That put me in range of the Spartans. My jets and cruisers took out everything that moved, at some cost, but now Santiago is neutralized.

I kept pressing research until I got drop troops. Yang's continent was just in range. Soon the Hive capital fell, and four other large bases and sea colonies. I'm rush building Pods to eliminate them profitably. Now he is a nuke-lobbing thorn in my side, but not so much of a threat. I just have to leave those bases in range empty with a net of defenders to keep his ships at bay.

I've had a Green/Knowledge social structure since I got the tech to allow it, which kept the Gaians happy until I got strong enough to be a major threat. It also netted me quite a few mind worms by capture while keeping ecodamage minimal despite complete eradication of fungus anywhere near my bases. Dee is still too far away to inspire dread.

If I hadn't the edge on the Council given the PK, Yang and Dee would've lifted the attrocity ban and I'd be toast. Yang had a PB and would've used it before I invaded his continent. Dee certainly would've built one had they succeeded in lifting the ban. Allowing 9 pop without Hab makes good use of the land in secondary bases while sparing the expense of building and maintaining the extra structures.

[Athene Miranda]

Deirdre rocks! Several reasons;
tree-hugging democrat
big mind worms
all the bonuses
and the minor fact that if you DON'T play as her she is GUARANTEED to stab you in the back. Geez, last time it was pact sister to vendetta in two turns...

Only she's supposed to be Scottish. Why isn't she Scottish? Scottish accents are cool!

[Jethro83]

Getting back into SMAC, I've found a new favourite faction...

The SPARTANS!!!

Whether you go Police State or Democracy, there is still a way to make your social engineering model powerful. Currently, in the most recent game I'm playing, I have them on Police State political model, Green economic model and Knowledge. Only Growth and Industry have suffered from this, but it hardly hurts at all.

Not only that, but a lot of their ideology, I agree with. I agree with them more than I agree with the Hive, Gaians or University.

[Clear Skies]

Damnit! Are the Spartans allowed to run Knowledge? Cos every time I try it, Santiago calls me up and accuses me of developing secret weapons! Can you say 'hypocrisy', Corazon?

[Jethro83]

Originally posted by SMAC Fanatic
Damnit! Are the Spartans allowed to run Knowledge? Cos every time I try it, Santiago calls me up and accuses me of developing secret weapons! Can you say 'hypocrisy', Corazon?

They CAN use Knowledge. The one they can't do is Wealth. Just like other factions with their hypocritical political stances.

[Clear Skies]

I've never played as the Spartans and my usually-encyclopaedic knowledge of the factions has been somewhat compromised by AS level revision - thanx for jogging the old memory

[Blake]

You just need to realise the enemy gets annoyed when you DONT run their ideology, they don't give a hoot if you run their anti-ideology.

Hence, Miriam doesn't give a dam if you run Knowledge, but she'll snap if you run Demo or Police. Likewise Zak wont care if you run Fundie, but run wealth or power and, well you know.

The thing is many factions (Hive, PK, Gaians, Morgan, Spartan - the vast majority, IOW) have their ideology and anti-ideology in the same SE field, meaning it's hard to actually notice this rather odd effect. However it does mean that Dee is just as pissed if you run Planned or Free Market.

[Kataphraktoi]

However it does mean that Dee is just as pissed if you run Planned or Free Market

hmm,dee seems to attack the minute i switch to FM while using planned i can go for along time maybe its just me,as i almost never use FM...

[Marid Audran]

Originally posted by Blake
The thing is many factions (Hive, PK, Gaians, Morgan, Spartan - the vast majority, IOW) have their ideology and anti-ideology in the same SE field, meaning it's hard to actually notice this rather odd effect. However it does mean that Dee is just as pissed if you run Planned or Free Market.

Exactly, though there are more examples of this with the SMAX factions: Domai's aversion is Green, but he only cares about Future Society choices, Roze's aversion is Power, but like Lal, only whines if you don't run Demo.

As for the poll at hand I'm also going with the Data Angels. They're definitely the hippest faction around, and a great refuge for all the brilliant malcontents and computer geeks out there, probably a lot like the Apolyton community. When Roze tells me that signing a treaty with her faction would be "suitably chic" it just cracks me up.

From a gameplaying standpoint, they just rule. They are even more versitile, IMO, than Lal. Their penalty, -1 police, is really a non-issue (so they can't nerve staple; does anyone? Unless you're a sabre-rattling despot who doesn't care about commerce, I guess). Beyond that they are just kings at the Probe Game, vital and lucrative, as any human player knows. And the roll-over issue: I just edit their faction template to +1 Probe instead of +2, so the free Covert Ops Centers will grant them the (proper) maximum possible benefit in-game, including subversion immunity.

The University's popularity is understandable; I still remember way back when Gamespot released their SMAC Strategy Guide on their site and were trumpeting the University horn all the way. However, for all their ivory tower pursuit of knowledge and technology, I see University society like one huge technical college; very clinical, regimented, cold and humorless. Also, their stance on individual human rights and privaledges is in question due to "unethical" drone problems.

[Mr. President]

I agree with your analysis of the University. But the Data Angels aren't really to my taste. I like order and the rule of established governments. The Data Angels seem to run counter to that for me.