My Lack of Vision

[Hydro]

I am playing as Morgan in a SMAniaC Mod MP. That evil Maniac made changes in the factions, and I was not paying attention. Morgan gets -2 Support off the bat. ACK! No free 10 mins when founding a colony for a defender, terraformer, or whatever! This really hurts in the early game especially. Then there is the horrible fact that I can only support 1 unit for free, which absolutely cripples early and small bases (aren’t all early bases small?). THEN I don’t have my 100 Morgan energy to start, so no rush buying for me. The +1 energy is great, but I am surely being punished for my lack of vision (to quote a famous Evil Emperor). I should know better: -2 Support is tough.

My opponent took the Templars, one of Maniac’s new factions. I considered them but dismissed them since the -3 Planet and -1 Efficency would be crippling. It turns out that hasn’t slowed them down in the least. It is now 2131 and they are close to finishing their 5th colony pod while I have two.

Then there are the worms. I’m not sure whether the Evil Maniac has tweaked the game mechanics, but the worms are pouring out of the fungus. I had 4 show up over two turns. Worse, since I have -1 Planet (all factions have this) and since each -1 Planet gives you a -15% Psi I am LOSING when attacking MWs. Then the worms have their way with me. This feels worse than running FM in SMAC!

**Sigh** The worm attacks have already ravished one base, wrecking a colony pod in production and taking it from size 2 to 1. My few scouts have died like stuck pigs. I can’t afford to build and support terraformers. Evil Maniac is making me work hard. Blast him!!

Hydro

[Sarxis]

I've not played the mod, and it sounds quite difficult. But I do enjoy the feeling of 'surviving' the early game, making it into the later eras finally on top of things with the help of the later techs.

I might look into it.

[Maniac]

Well at least you can popboom... later in the game.


Only read if you don't mind knowing what your opponent perhaps has in store with the Templar:

Spoiler:

The idea behind the Templar faction is that they don't care about Planet, but nonetheless are very skilled human-centric psi talents.

So while they have -3 Planet, meaning a fungal or mind worm approach wouldn't work for them, this is more than compensated by other boni and they have in fact the best psi offense of non-native units. Try out a game with them heavily using the psi attack weapon and psi defense armour, unit components which I assume aren't often used otherwise. This faction I like very much among the new ones I added, because it adds a gameplay aspect (conventional psi attack/defense) which was completely left unused in unmodded SMAC.

^+25% Bonus when attacking enemies, from the military application of psionics.
^Empath Song ability FREE to all units upon discovery of Centauri Empathy
^+30% Psi combat strength: {The Order of the Templar develop their psionic talents for offensive use}
^-3 PLANET: {Disregard for Planet's native life - the Templar serve only their own interests}
^Robustness for PLANET penalties in social engineering
^-1 EFFICIENCY: {Large empires harder to run by a small elite}
^Impunity to ANTHROPOCENTRIC penalty: {The Templar's disregard for Planet does not entail a disregard for psionic affinity}
^Cannot choose Empath ruling elite: {Rival psionic talents form a threat to the Templar's domination}

[Hydro]

What is funny is that I read the stats on the Templar, having dug into the data files of the Mod. But I guess I didn't get it. All I saw were negatives.

Well, I suspect that MasterBuilder will clean my clock. He's already extorted tech and 120 megacredits from the AI Briens. I am deeply suspicious that I am nearby since I just found the Uranium Flats and think that MB mentioned that in one of his story posts. If I'm nearby I am so toasted - well done - crispy.

That will be the ultimate payment for my lack of vision!

Hydro