Who's the worst at ICS

[binTravkin]

Hey, this poll is made for people to express their thoughts on weakest of ICS-able factions (means Sparta, Pirates and Cult have been left out as ICS is not as good for them).

You are welcome to post about whom you voted and express why you think that the particular faction is the weakest.

Preferably people who have good practical expierence in ICSing, others can have fun on XenoBanana..

And - please do not discuss here, start a new thread if you wish.

[binTravkin]

Whomever voted for CyCon - was it a joke?
Then a good one I guess.
CyCon is one of the best ICSers..

[binTravkin]

I myself vote for Angels - they don't have any 'special' properties which would make ICS good for them.

Breakdown of ICS bonuses of other factions:

Gaia: +1 nut in fungus, +2 effic

Hive: inability to popboom, high support, per def (Rover Rush resistant), high industry and growth early

Uni: Node per base alone makes up for it, add VW it's even more powerful, add PTS it's superb

Morgan: Cash per base is the key here.

Believers: Support.

PKs: additional Talent helps to get up to 2nd b-drones without prob.

Drones: Industry and to lesser extent - nodrone, 1 (which actually works only until 1st b-drones)

CyCon: Effic + inability to popboom

[Chaunk]

Voted CyCon. I understand your arguement about the Angels, and yeah, they may be weaker, but I'd rather see an ICSing CyCon against me than an Angel faction. See the angels can pop boom, meaning that their bases can be expanding up as well as out. The CyCon OTOH, can't, and they take longer to produce a CP than the Angels due to -1 growth.

Personally, I'd place Sparta above the CyCon in the list of ICSing factions. -1 industry is easily overcome with credits. -1 growth can't be bought.

[binTravkin]

Well, I once tried ICSing as Sparta near Hive ICSer guy.

After 40 years our empires were like 2:1, later even poorer..

[Chaunk]

Well yeah, it's kind of a no brainer. Sparta really aren't meant for ICS, whereas the hive just scream ICS to you. A better test would be sparta vs cycon I think.

[binTravkin]

I think they'd lose on SPs

Cycon would quickly get up and running to IA, then build PTS.

Sparta can't do that fast..

[Chaunk]

But then the PTS is a 300min investment. Thats equivilent to 9 bases extra for the spartans by ignoring the PTS.

[binTravkin]

Nah Chaunk. While you build PTS you're building crawlers, once you have 10 you cash them.

Thing is that while you build those crawlers, they repay a big part of that money and once the PTS is built base production effectively doubles, thus as soon as 10 turns after building the project an ICSing Cycon with PTS will catch up with ICSing Sparta without it.

[Chaunk]

I understand that crawlers are cashed in for the PTS. But then minerals wise, one crawler = one CP.

I'm not sure if 10 size three bases are better than 20 size 1 bases is all. I'd need to do some more testing.

To be honest, I'd rather have the WP than the PTS in a lot of circumstances. Those early 4 min squares are almost certainly worth the extra pop, much of which will be doctors anyway to offset the drones.

[Blake]

Angels start with planetary networks. In the game of racing to Ind.Auto I think that counts for something...

[Maniac]

Sparta's +1 Police is good for ICSing.
Unfortunately you can't run FM-Wealth which is the best combination for ICSing, but once you start hitting the bureaucracy limits, other factions have to start building expensive rec commons to continue expanding without riots while Sparta just has to build an extra scout patrol.

[binTravkin]

I understand that crawlers are cashed in for the PTS. But then minerals wise, one crawler = one CP.

I'm not sure if 10 size three bases are better than 20 size 1 bases is all. I'd need to do some more testing.

To be honest, I'd rather have the WP than the PTS in a lot of circumstances. Those early 4 min squares are almost certainly worth the extra pop, much of which will be doctors anyway to offset the drones.

1. And I repeat again:
- one crawler repays itself in 15 turns
- it takes ~10 turns to build 10 crawlers in early game
- count that crawlers repay 10/2 (because some start earlier, some later) = 5*2(forest) = 10 minerals per one, which means crawler is pract 20mineral 'waste'.
- you will have 100minerals (2 AAs or 2 Battle Ogres or 2 armored rover former instabuilds or a mix of them) per avg free per game.
- that's a total 20 * 10 - 100 = 100 mineral waste which is merely 3-4 surplus CPs

2.One size 3 base builds a colony pod in 3-4 turns whereas size 1 base does it in 6-8 turns. I am not even talking about the energy benefit and the fact that it's the most practical way for a non-boomer to rapidly raise population.

3.What '4 min squares'? The only thing that you can have from WP pre-restrictions is condensers which raise restriction for nutrients, not minerals.

Angels start with planetary networks. In the game of racing to Ind.Auto I think that counts for something...

Not that much as some would think. Although CyCpn starts with 2 techs aswell, it has better research speed anyway and thus gets to first most needed tech - Centauri Ecology sooner.

[binTravkin]

Sparta's +1 Police is good for ICSing.
Unfortunately you can't run FM-Wealth which is the best combination for ICSing, but once you start hitting the bureaucracy limits, other factions have to start building expensive rec commons to continue expanding without riots while Sparta just has to build an extra scout patrol.

It is good, but only up to the point you're starting to shrink your minerals with support - you effectively have less minerals to spend on formers.
There are factions who can ICS without rec commons Uni (+VW) and Hive and HGP will help greatly too.

[Maniac]

All true. I'm not claiming Sparta is the best at ICSing - not at all. Just not the worst.