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The Planet Cult strategy thread got me thinking about early pop-booming and/or ICSing with various factions. I hadn't played the Believers in awhile so I tried with them and was really impressed!
Before you go on about "But the Believers are uniquely suited for Momentum play!", understand that I do get that point. Their research penalty is a particular handicap and playing the Believers as builders adds challenge to the game, which is what this is about. After all, the same player playing Gaians/Uni/Morgans should be able to outperform the Believers in building.......right? Well, maybe not!
All things being equal: No Wars, No Easy Probings, extremely lucky terrain, etc.., the Believers are quite unattractive for a builder faction. No industry or economics bonuses, and a seriously crippling Research penalty to boot.
I think the most serious case of play-shock difference comes when switching from the Morgans to the Believers or Hive. From crippling support to countless millions of units. From cash flowing in by the truckload to non-trivial cash/labs problems.
But how does one turn zillions of units into a builder game? Terraformers of course! Sure, Morgan can field fleets of clean formers as well as anyone, but consider turn leveraging. Each time a terraform operation is finished and producing for the empire, this effect has a cumulative effect on the future strength of said empire. IE, 200 crawled minerals now beats 500 crawled minerals 20 turns down the road.
So in a slow game, say with a huge map and tech stagnation as an option, there will be quite a large window of terraforming opportunity before a Morgan/Uni player can field clean units with impunity. They'll be closely getting every last hour of work from their limited workers while Miriam can easily treble her efforts over this period of the game (as can Yang, of course, but we know about him already).
Are there other things Miriam can do with her high support rating other than terraform or make war? Well, she can run Democracy with fewer penalties. Thus, she can pop-boom while supporting some units and found bases without the penalty to free minerals. That is hugely significant come the mid-early game. But I think we (as far as I can see in discussions at 'Poly over the years) have been missing something here when playing Miriam as a Builder: Trying to maximize efficiency (Democracy) or pop-boom with Democracy/Planned to 'make up for' a lack of non-specialist lab points; These are ways to put a band-aid on Miriam's 'problem', not a way to play to her real strengths. IE, most Believer-as-Builder strategies I've seen try to turn Miriam into a Builder too strictly: "We need Efficiency and Econ as soon as possible, and look, we can get the benefits of Democracy without the penalties!".
But if you look again, there is another opportunity there: Terraforming with true GUSTO! And nothing makes terraforming leverage early like the Weather Paradigm, a project I often shrug at with other factions. But who wouldn't rather have the HGP or VW? While its hard to argue against taking those over the WP, if you really mean to leverage the Believer's support rating in a slow game, you NEED the WP. Without it you'll be 50 years sans condensor/boreholes and you might as well either ICS with small bases and take the Democracy compromise, trying to become a crippled builder by spreading far and wide without vertical growth at the same time.
Again, this window of pre-clean pre-airpower opportunity is best on long and slow games. Small maps require small tactics, even if you are trying to handicap yourself by building with Miriam.
/rant
data/
The following is largely from the ICS thread recently, so its a bit of a jump-right-in argument. Basically I'm arguing that it's possible to grow both vertically and horizontally, and that the Believers are pretty damn good at that. My arguments tend to be along SP lines. IE, there's every chance that a player won't get any early SP with any faction if the opposition is stiff. But note that its quite possible to get ALL early SPs with the Believers, even on slow-to-research games on huge maps. And a few of these SPs will further magnify the Believer tactics here described. Still, it makes for a fun game if one only takes the WP (to let the AI's have a chance) and tries to maximize that to best advantage.
-------------
Believers and ICS-->Boom!
Pop booming and ICS are not discrete, and neither are they exclusive. Ideally one would ICS and pop boom for 27 (9+9+9 b-drone third limit on huge map) size 14 bases with any faction, not just the Believers. But the Believers are especially well suited to approach this nearly impossible goal:
1. You mention facilities as a reason to boom rather than ICS: Phooey! Early facilities are not nearly as important for them as others, but SPs are with this strategy. Ordinarily Believers are either played as a momentum faction, or, if attempting to build with a research-crippled faction, they are played somewhat like Yang, a faction which we have more community knowledge b/c he's such a damn popular guy. Anyways, if you compare with other factions, facilities do less for believers than many. They can easily use police, research bonuses are not yet important in the early game, and with a condensor-heavy strategy (WP) even Rec Tanks can be put off, especially under Planned where building is fast. Thus, there is very little temptation to facility-focus as there is with builder factions.
2. Believers can field 3 formers per base, early game. That is just incredible in terms of turn advantage for former heavy strategies. And both pop-booming and ICS are former-heavy. In fact, in most of my tech-stag huge-map games with Believers, I almost run out of terraforming to do in the core by 2160 or so. That is, a 3x3 (base-space-space-base) grid is entirely filled with condensor-borehole-forests and the occasional mine even before I get IA! Additionally, all new bases are built on sensors easily in a strict grid because I can for once pre-form in the early game. Formers are crucial to ICSing, second only to crawlers in importance, if one is not merely going to make 50 size 1 bases in the fungus. ICSing is so profitable (research/econ/psych wise) when the bases can grow to specialist size, not when they are twiddling around with a former and garrison and 3 minerals production (7 turns to go for that condensor!).
3. As you mention, Believers can run Democracy with some impunity, making pop-booming very attractive far before clean reactors/hybrid forests/engineers, etc.. I would hazard a guess that Believers with the Weather Paradigm are the most suited to pop-booming of all the factions, but I have not considered a few other factors yet...
The hardest part about getting the right SP's for the Believers is of course the tech. To challenge myself I play with some house rules:
A. No offensive probe actions until HSA (infiltration is fine)
B. No offensive combat other than border patrol until Gravships. The exception being those factions unfortunate enough to want to share a continent with me. Just no off-the-rock warfare, and no extending land to merge with other faction lands either! Er, that also bears explaining a bit more. If factions share your landmass, even if connected by a fungus ridden single-tile landbridge, they will attempt to make land-based war with you eventually, which weakens them and is otherwise annoying. Keeping separate keeps their pathfinding ambitions a little more sane, though they will instead land units 2 by 2 in foils, which is no more threat but costs them less.
C. Huge tech-stagnation game with random faction leader personalities and agendas.
D. House-rules Ironman: No reload except upon screwing up movement or rush-build orders (easy to mis-click sometimes).
Believe This, Heathens!: Reading with Miriam
There some pitfalls to be wary of in the tech b-line to IA for the Believers, and its quite easy to screw up with popped tech, but still, its a challenge but not impossible to strict-build the Believers and snag every early project in an SP game (IE, no probe actions or tech trading at all!). It is easy to screw up b/c any tech gotten off-b-line will push IA many many turns back unless you happen to be researching the tech that gets discovered/traded right before IA (making it available on the switch). Here it is:
CentEco (WP and Formers)
Biogen (HGP and RecTanks)
InfoNets (on the way to PlaNets)
IndBase (ME)
IndEco
PlaNets
IndAuto
Industrial Base (yeah, that's weird, but it works later. This line gets you IndEco and FM early if you prefer)
Centauri Ecology
Infonets
IndEco
Biogenetics
PlaNets
IndAuto
BioGen
CentEco
InfoNets
IndBase
IndEco
PlaNets
IndAuto
Both of these lines can be direcly followed with:
EthiCalc
GeneSplicing
EcoEngin
EnviroEco
The key concept is to take IndBase or IndEco rather than PlaNets whenever offered both, otherwise you will be 1 or 2 techs longer getting to IA.
Some lines that don't work (well, eventually, but that is not a concept you want to think about as the head of Believer research):
CentEco
InfNets
PlaNets
Biogen
(!!!!!!)
CentEco
InfNets
PlaNets
IndBase
Biogen
(!!!!!!)
CentEco
Biogen
InfoNets
IndBase
PlaNets
(!!!!!!)
I won't cover popping techs and keeping the b-line here, as I don't recall the easy-formula and memorizing what to choose is a little too nitpicky for me
[Note on the following: One does not need restrictions lifted to make use of condensors, but DO for boreholes beyond 0-2-2. This is something to be considered.]
I have to conclude with mention of the Planet Cult strategy thread again. The idea of pop-booming extremely early in the game comes from that thread, and while it's possible to make use of specialists early, the other advantages to 18+ size 5+ bases should be obvious, especially when the workers are working boreholes. Yes, you have to work condensors in the really early part of this strategy but compare (not counting the base square except for Rec Tanks where applicable):
1: 1 forest: 1-2-1 (inital base placement without WP)
2: 2 forests: 2-4-2
3: 3 forests + Rec Tanks: 4-7-4
3: with treefarms/tanks: 7-7-7
versus early boom with WP enabled condensor farms:
1: 1 forest: 1-2-1
2: 1 forest + 1 condensor: 5-2-1
3: 2 forests + 1 condensor: 6-4-2
4: 3 forests + 1 condensor: 7-6-3
5: 2 forests + 2 condensors + 1 specialist: 10-4-2
6: 3 forests + 2 condensors + 1 specialist: 11-6-3
with a Rec Tanks: 12-7-4
7: 4 forest + 2 condensors + 1 doctor: 12-8-4 / 13-9-5
7: with treefarms: 15-7-7 for booming or..
7: 6 forest + Doctor: 13-13-13.
Quite a respectable starting position as crawlers come online to take up the condensor work and switch workers to boreholes. Of course, getting ICS'd bases to size 7 with only one doctor/thinker takes either great SPs, psych allocation, or magic. I leave it to the reader to find the best solution there!
Leveraging this early is fun, which is the whole point of this thread. At the point crawlers come online, the Believers can then consider switching to more builderly combinations and they will be true powerhouses.
-Smack
Before you go on about "But the Believers are uniquely suited for Momentum play!", understand that I do get that point. Their research penalty is a particular handicap and playing the Believers as builders adds challenge to the game, which is what this is about. After all, the same player playing Gaians/Uni/Morgans should be able to outperform the Believers in building.......right? Well, maybe not!
All things being equal: No Wars, No Easy Probings, extremely lucky terrain, etc.., the Believers are quite unattractive for a builder faction. No industry or economics bonuses, and a seriously crippling Research penalty to boot.
I think the most serious case of play-shock difference comes when switching from the Morgans to the Believers or Hive. From crippling support to countless millions of units. From cash flowing in by the truckload to non-trivial cash/labs problems.
But how does one turn zillions of units into a builder game? Terraformers of course! Sure, Morgan can field fleets of clean formers as well as anyone, but consider turn leveraging. Each time a terraform operation is finished and producing for the empire, this effect has a cumulative effect on the future strength of said empire. IE, 200 crawled minerals now beats 500 crawled minerals 20 turns down the road.
So in a slow game, say with a huge map and tech stagnation as an option, there will be quite a large window of terraforming opportunity before a Morgan/Uni player can field clean units with impunity. They'll be closely getting every last hour of work from their limited workers while Miriam can easily treble her efforts over this period of the game (as can Yang, of course, but we know about him already).
Are there other things Miriam can do with her high support rating other than terraform or make war? Well, she can run Democracy with fewer penalties. Thus, she can pop-boom while supporting some units and found bases without the penalty to free minerals. That is hugely significant come the mid-early game. But I think we (as far as I can see in discussions at 'Poly over the years) have been missing something here when playing Miriam as a Builder: Trying to maximize efficiency (Democracy) or pop-boom with Democracy/Planned to 'make up for' a lack of non-specialist lab points; These are ways to put a band-aid on Miriam's 'problem', not a way to play to her real strengths. IE, most Believer-as-Builder strategies I've seen try to turn Miriam into a Builder too strictly: "We need Efficiency and Econ as soon as possible, and look, we can get the benefits of Democracy without the penalties!".
But if you look again, there is another opportunity there: Terraforming with true GUSTO! And nothing makes terraforming leverage early like the Weather Paradigm, a project I often shrug at with other factions. But who wouldn't rather have the HGP or VW? While its hard to argue against taking those over the WP, if you really mean to leverage the Believer's support rating in a slow game, you NEED the WP. Without it you'll be 50 years sans condensor/boreholes and you might as well either ICS with small bases and take the Democracy compromise, trying to become a crippled builder by spreading far and wide without vertical growth at the same time.
Again, this window of pre-clean pre-airpower opportunity is best on long and slow games. Small maps require small tactics, even if you are trying to handicap yourself by building with Miriam.
/rant
data/
The following is largely from the ICS thread recently, so its a bit of a jump-right-in argument. Basically I'm arguing that it's possible to grow both vertically and horizontally, and that the Believers are pretty damn good at that. My arguments tend to be along SP lines. IE, there's every chance that a player won't get any early SP with any faction if the opposition is stiff. But note that its quite possible to get ALL early SPs with the Believers, even on slow-to-research games on huge maps. And a few of these SPs will further magnify the Believer tactics here described. Still, it makes for a fun game if one only takes the WP (to let the AI's have a chance) and tries to maximize that to best advantage.
-------------
Believers and ICS-->Boom!
Pop booming and ICS are not discrete, and neither are they exclusive. Ideally one would ICS and pop boom for 27 (9+9+9 b-drone third limit on huge map) size 14 bases with any faction, not just the Believers. But the Believers are especially well suited to approach this nearly impossible goal:
1. You mention facilities as a reason to boom rather than ICS: Phooey! Early facilities are not nearly as important for them as others, but SPs are with this strategy. Ordinarily Believers are either played as a momentum faction, or, if attempting to build with a research-crippled faction, they are played somewhat like Yang, a faction which we have more community knowledge b/c he's such a damn popular guy. Anyways, if you compare with other factions, facilities do less for believers than many. They can easily use police, research bonuses are not yet important in the early game, and with a condensor-heavy strategy (WP) even Rec Tanks can be put off, especially under Planned where building is fast. Thus, there is very little temptation to facility-focus as there is with builder factions.
2. Believers can field 3 formers per base, early game. That is just incredible in terms of turn advantage for former heavy strategies. And both pop-booming and ICS are former-heavy. In fact, in most of my tech-stag huge-map games with Believers, I almost run out of terraforming to do in the core by 2160 or so. That is, a 3x3 (base-space-space-base) grid is entirely filled with condensor-borehole-forests and the occasional mine even before I get IA! Additionally, all new bases are built on sensors easily in a strict grid because I can for once pre-form in the early game. Formers are crucial to ICSing, second only to crawlers in importance, if one is not merely going to make 50 size 1 bases in the fungus. ICSing is so profitable (research/econ/psych wise) when the bases can grow to specialist size, not when they are twiddling around with a former and garrison and 3 minerals production (7 turns to go for that condensor!).
3. As you mention, Believers can run Democracy with some impunity, making pop-booming very attractive far before clean reactors/hybrid forests/engineers, etc.. I would hazard a guess that Believers with the Weather Paradigm are the most suited to pop-booming of all the factions, but I have not considered a few other factors yet...
The hardest part about getting the right SP's for the Believers is of course the tech. To challenge myself I play with some house rules:
A. No offensive probe actions until HSA (infiltration is fine)
B. No offensive combat other than border patrol until Gravships. The exception being those factions unfortunate enough to want to share a continent with me. Just no off-the-rock warfare, and no extending land to merge with other faction lands either! Er, that also bears explaining a bit more. If factions share your landmass, even if connected by a fungus ridden single-tile landbridge, they will attempt to make land-based war with you eventually, which weakens them and is otherwise annoying. Keeping separate keeps their pathfinding ambitions a little more sane, though they will instead land units 2 by 2 in foils, which is no more threat but costs them less.
C. Huge tech-stagnation game with random faction leader personalities and agendas.
D. House-rules Ironman: No reload except upon screwing up movement or rush-build orders (easy to mis-click sometimes).
Believe This, Heathens!: Reading with Miriam
There some pitfalls to be wary of in the tech b-line to IA for the Believers, and its quite easy to screw up with popped tech, but still, its a challenge but not impossible to strict-build the Believers and snag every early project in an SP game (IE, no probe actions or tech trading at all!). It is easy to screw up b/c any tech gotten off-b-line will push IA many many turns back unless you happen to be researching the tech that gets discovered/traded right before IA (making it available on the switch). Here it is:
CentEco (WP and Formers)
Biogen (HGP and RecTanks)
InfoNets (on the way to PlaNets)
IndBase (ME)
IndEco
PlaNets
IndAuto
Industrial Base (yeah, that's weird, but it works later. This line gets you IndEco and FM early if you prefer)
Centauri Ecology
Infonets
IndEco
Biogenetics
PlaNets
IndAuto
BioGen
CentEco
InfoNets
IndBase
IndEco
PlaNets
IndAuto
Both of these lines can be direcly followed with:
EthiCalc
GeneSplicing
EcoEngin
EnviroEco
The key concept is to take IndBase or IndEco rather than PlaNets whenever offered both, otherwise you will be 1 or 2 techs longer getting to IA.
Some lines that don't work (well, eventually, but that is not a concept you want to think about as the head of Believer research):
CentEco
InfNets
PlaNets
Biogen
(!!!!!!)
CentEco
InfNets
PlaNets
IndBase
Biogen
(!!!!!!)
CentEco
Biogen
InfoNets
IndBase
PlaNets
(!!!!!!)
I won't cover popping techs and keeping the b-line here, as I don't recall the easy-formula and memorizing what to choose is a little too nitpicky for me
[Note on the following: One does not need restrictions lifted to make use of condensors, but DO for boreholes beyond 0-2-2. This is something to be considered.]
I have to conclude with mention of the Planet Cult strategy thread again. The idea of pop-booming extremely early in the game comes from that thread, and while it's possible to make use of specialists early, the other advantages to 18+ size 5+ bases should be obvious, especially when the workers are working boreholes. Yes, you have to work condensors in the really early part of this strategy but compare (not counting the base square except for Rec Tanks where applicable):
1: 1 forest: 1-2-1 (inital base placement without WP)
2: 2 forests: 2-4-2
3: 3 forests + Rec Tanks: 4-7-4
3: with treefarms/tanks: 7-7-7
versus early boom with WP enabled condensor farms:
1: 1 forest: 1-2-1
2: 1 forest + 1 condensor: 5-2-1
3: 2 forests + 1 condensor: 6-4-2
4: 3 forests + 1 condensor: 7-6-3
5: 2 forests + 2 condensors + 1 specialist: 10-4-2
6: 3 forests + 2 condensors + 1 specialist: 11-6-3
with a Rec Tanks: 12-7-4
7: 4 forest + 2 condensors + 1 doctor: 12-8-4 / 13-9-5
7: with treefarms: 15-7-7 for booming or..
7: 6 forest + Doctor: 13-13-13.
Quite a respectable starting position as crawlers come online to take up the condensor work and switch workers to boreholes. Of course, getting ICS'd bases to size 7 with only one doctor/thinker takes either great SPs, psych allocation, or magic. I leave it to the reader to find the best solution there!
Leveraging this early is fun, which is the whole point of this thread. At the point crawlers come online, the Believers can then consider switching to more builderly combinations and they will be true powerhouses.
-Smack
@smacksim for making such an idiotic claim that Mim can make all SP's and lure me into trying it 
nice to get some steam out.
- if I'm not wrong, it's actually the first time I try a SMAC faction on this and Miriam may not be the best to start with - nah - every other faction (C/X) would suck because I try to stick to strictly ballroom considering base placement - should maybe more flexible but then i break the rules
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