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While most other factions can be just as powerful than the University, doing so requires alot of skill in my opinion. University is the faction that requires the very straight forward tactics to run well. I noticed there's not as much balancing priorties when playing the Univeristy. Hence, I would agree with Blake on University being the faction most suitable for newbies.
To play most other factions you'll need to set priorities and have situational awareness. There's the whole issue of balancing what you need for better growth of your faction and dealing with penalties of your faction.
Balancing isn't as hard when you have so many options open due to advanced tech. With the university you can have what you build lag your most recent techs. This means that university can gain a tech and think about how to use it after he's gained it. While a player from another faction will usually have to plan what he's going to do with that tech beforehand. The balancing issues get more complicated with a tech disadvantage as you have fewer and more limited options open. The tech advantage nets you new units, new facilities, and new SE bonuses giving you greater flexibility in how you run your faction. The tech advantage also makes it very likely for you to gain SPs first, especially if the other players aren't cooperating or haven't met. IA's is basically special project haven, and if factions are considered solo, university will always get there most easily.
The two penalities of the university are increase drones and -2 probe aren't very great at all. Increased drones has very little effect on Transcend games. I would say it only makes golden ages above size 4 a little harder. However, university can boom normally without golden age. -2 probe only affects you much later in the game when you actually start thinking of war. Reduced probe isn't such a great penalty as you've already gathered a fair amount of turn advantage from not having the negatives of other factions.
To play most other factions you'll need to set priorities and have situational awareness. There's the whole issue of balancing what you need for better growth of your faction and dealing with penalties of your faction.
Balancing isn't as hard when you have so many options open due to advanced tech. With the university you can have what you build lag your most recent techs. This means that university can gain a tech and think about how to use it after he's gained it. While a player from another faction will usually have to plan what he's going to do with that tech beforehand. The balancing issues get more complicated with a tech disadvantage as you have fewer and more limited options open. The tech advantage nets you new units, new facilities, and new SE bonuses giving you greater flexibility in how you run your faction. The tech advantage also makes it very likely for you to gain SPs first, especially if the other players aren't cooperating or haven't met. IA's is basically special project haven, and if factions are considered solo, university will always get there most easily.
The two penalities of the university are increase drones and -2 probe aren't very great at all. Increased drones has very little effect on Transcend games. I would say it only makes golden ages above size 4 a little harder. However, university can boom normally without golden age. -2 probe only affects you much later in the game when you actually start thinking of war. Reduced probe isn't such a great penalty as you've already gathered a fair amount of turn advantage from not having the negatives of other factions.
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