What Is Your Favorite Faction, And Why?

[Russia4Life]

I play Gaians about 75% of the time. I use Democracy, Green, Knowledge, Cybernetics in social engineering. +9 efficiency allows me to have a buttload of cities without the drone penalties from bureaucracy. I find having 50+ cities very fun, and on a 256x256 random map on transcend I can have 88!!! before getting the warning message. The ability to capture native life forms from the beginning of the game also makes rushing other factions and early defense easier.

I play the hive in most of the other games. If I can get the cloning vats then I can go police, planned, power, thought control with none of the negative effects. I think The Hive is by far better for military conquest then the Spartans are.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I favor the Gaians too, for most of the the same reasons.

And the designers wanted me to- Diedre is cute.

[CEO Aaron]

Morgan, obviously. He's the ultimate builder faction, which fits my playstyle very well. Many newer players don't see the big advantage in Morgan, because he's certainly constrained by lots of limitations, however the initial infusion of cash and the extra energy income make him a technological and industrial powerhouse. Later on, switching to Fundy/Green/Wealth provides excellent income while still permitting Morgan to field a huge and highly trained military, and lets you make excellent use of probe teams, which is a great military boon. Being able to steal inconveniently placed units, not say nothing of capture entire bases without a single shot fired is a huge advantage, and the probe bonus from Fundy makes that much more economical.

I also play a fair bit of Sparta, and while I'll admit that the industry penalty is a big drawback for Sparta, there's a great deal more flexibility available to Spartans, and power that's uniquely theirs. The important thing to understand about Sparta is that your morale bonus is not really your core strength, though it's very helpful when exploring and picking up pods. The big advantage of Sparta is your police rating and ease of population booming. Yang needs to get the Cloning Vats for a true pop boom, not a sure thing at all for a faction with -1 econ. By comparison, Sparta's pop boom requires only planned and democracy, and the construction of creches. That, and the extra police unit, means you can feature nutrient production early and rapidly get an unlimited number of bases to 7 population. Once you have Non-lethal methods, two 1/1/1 police stationed in each base, coupled with a rec commons, quells 6 drones. Turn your extra population into specialists for bureaucracy-immune income and your sprawling empire will become a technological, military and economic juggernaut.

[GooglyBoogly]

One of the bigger issues with morgan, is that the game doesn't document the actual bonuses of +Econ correctly above +2, making the faction appear much weaker than it actually is.

Econ 3 gives +2 energy/base as well, econ 4 gives another +2/base So Econ3,4 actually = econ 4/5

[Russia4Life]

Morgan is okay, I would compare playing them while using free market to playing civ2 and switching to a republic government early in the game, can be hard on you happiness wise (depending on difficulty). However, if you get some secret projects or add some psych to control the extra drones, all of the extra energy is very useful.

I have found with SMACX using similar strategies and social engineering as The Morganites with The Pirates You can make just as much if not more energy. Thermocline transducers + Tidal Harnesses = 4 energy. In games I play with them I will send 1 of my 2 starting colony ships to make a base in the geothermal shallows, and build the merchant exchange there, rush buying it if necessary. That's 4 +2(+1 for geothermal and +1 for Merchant) energy per square in that base plus an extra energy from economy benefit once it is high enough giving 7 and if I am lucky enough to have an energy resource in that bases radius that's +9 energy for that square. I will also relocate my HQ to that base after I make the merchant exchange to eliminate losses due to inefficiency. Even the ordinary bases produce 5 energy/square, couple that with their ability to go past size 4 whereas morgan needs hab complexes. All together this equals alot of energy and alot less time spent terraforming.

For those who like playing The Moganites, I would definitely recommend giving this strategy a try with The Pirates(That is if you have SMAX of course).

[Illuminatus]

It varies over time - I've enjoyed playing all factions except Spartans but my one true love is the University. It has little to do with game strategies.

[Saria]

I mostly play as Morgan, but I've been trying my hand with the Believers a bit more. If it wasn't for that hefty knowledge penalty, they'd be my favorite faction to play, hands down.

[CEO Aaron]

I have found with SMACX using similar strategies and social engineering as The Morganites with The Pirates You can make just as much if not more energy. Thermocline transducers + Tidal Harnesses = 4 energy. In games I play with them I will send 1 of my 2 starting colony ships to make a base in the geothermal shallows, and build the merchant exchange there, rush buying it if necessary. That's 4 +2(+1 for geothermal and +1 for Merchant) energy per square in that base plus an extra energy from economy benefit once it is high enough giving 7 and if I am lucky enough to have an energy resource in that bases radius that's +9 energy for that square. I will also relocate my HQ to that base after I make the merchant exchange to eliminate losses due to inefficiency. Even the ordinary bases produce 5 energy/square, couple that with their ability to go past size 4 whereas morgan needs hab complexes. All together this equals alot of energy and alot less time spent terraforming.

There's no way you spend less time terraforming with Sven than Morgan. Even if you assume you can wait for Kelp to spread, building tidal harnesses cost 6 former-turns per square. Forests, which is the bulk of what Morgan relies on for early terraforming, take 4 former-turns per square, and spread by themselves. Your lower hab limits mean you can sacrifice nutrient production for higher mineral and energy income, and forests fit the bill admirably.

The beauty of Morgan is that a 3 population base with a rec tanks working 3 forest tiles will produce 8 minerals and 10 energy or more, easily enough to keep pace a pirate base of twice its size. What's more, later on, when the resource-caps are lifted by Environmental Economics, what's to stop Morgan from founding his own Sea Bases, and enjoying the exact same advantages of sea terraforming? Not a thing.

My big problem with Sven isn't the growth or efficiency penalties, it's the huge sacrifice in early turn advantage from having to spend 50% more minerals on critical early units like scouts, formers and pods. Yes, those units can move faster, but not fast enough to recoup the lost turns you spent building them.

The big advantage Sven has is relatively uncontested access to the sea, early on, when other factions will be busy beelining to Industrial Automation or ramping up their conquest game. But if your tech trades and Unity Pod lottery doesn't turn out well, you can wind up falling behind, never to catch up.

[Russia4Life]

You will eventually build boreholes that's where my comment of teraforming came from, but now that I am thinking about it that may ballance itself out over the shear number of other smaller terrain upgrades the pirates would need. So I guess that part is invalid.

Here is something for you to think about, 2 forest tiles with hybrid and tree farm will net you 6 nutrients, 4 minerals and 6 energy with the 1/sq SE bonus from economy. 2 shelf squares, one with kelp and tidal and the other with kelp and mining will net you 7 nutrients 5 minerals and 6 energy under Free Market, provided you have the base upgrades aquafarm, subsea trunkline, and thermocline transducer. All 3 of which together cost less than a tree farm and hybrid forest at a rate of 280 to 360. This and the fact that all sea bases the pirates build essentially have a free recycling tank due to the Presure dome saving an additional 40 minerals. The total net savings on those facilities plus the cumulative effect of having that extra +1 mineral for each turn longer that it takes for a recycling tank to be built is kind of the tradeoff for having the more expensive pods and formers IMO.

If I am missing something else or got anything else wrong let me know. I am still fairly new to the these online strategies, most of what I know is from playing and strategies I came up with myself.

[CEO Aaron]

If I am missing something else or got anything else wrong let me know.

Tree Farms increase economy just like a bank and increase psych like a hologram theatre, minus the drone suppression. They also raise your clean mineral limit, if you've had a fungal pop, and also reduce eco-damage directly. That's in addition to the nutrient bonus you get.

Likewise, the Hybrid Forest have the same effects on economy and psych, and share the eco-damage reduction properties of Tree Farms.

While I'll freely concede that Aquafarms, Subsea Trunklines and Thermocline Transducers are excellent value for what they provide, Tree Farms and Hybrid forests offer enormous value to Morgan that easily compensates for their higher cost.

But the scenario you describe is most definitely in the midgame. I'm much more concerned about the pre-tree farm period, when I feel the game is really lost and won. Before resource caps are lifted, the only better resource square than a forest with +2 econ is a monolith.

Sven may be able to ample catching up once he breaks past the resource caps to get the full benefit of Sea Terraforming, but the irony is that he still needs to research tree farms to get it. All things being equal, Morgan will get Environmental Economics faster, and sweep a good share of the early SPs.

[Russia4Life]

I guess I will take your word for it, though if I compare games that I play pirates to the ones I play Morgan I always do better with Sven. Maybe I just suck who knows.

[CEO Aaron]

To be fair, Morgan has an exacting playstyle, and the beauty of this game is that each faction has strengths and weaknesses to suit the way you prefer to play. I'm certainly not suggesting you suck, it more likely that you've got a good plan for playing the Pirates and your playstyle doesn't suit Morgan as well. The reflexive of that statement is also probably true: My playstyle suits Morgan better than Sven.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Hive has the most similar strategy to my old Civ2 days, so it's easiest for me to play as them. But I like all the factions, except Morgan. I still can't play that faction well at all. >_<

[Maniac]

I like(d) Spartans and Pirates, or any of the factions considered weaker, as they pose a challenge.

I used to be solely a builder, and liking factions such as the University, but for stuff like ACDG3 where we played the Spartans, I had to expand my horizons and find ways to make momentum factions competible. Now I consider pure builder/turtling games boring.

[Hydro]

Gaians. I admit it - I'm a granola muncher. Plus, the thought of frolicking with Dee is **ahem** appealing.

After that, Yang because his philosophy is deep, if twisted.

I'm also having fun with SMAniaC's Bree. Pure Red Strategy, thank-you-very-much!

Hydro