What Is Your Favorite Faction, And Why?

[Alinestra Covelia]

What is Bree's specialty? I've never played SMAniaC, but it sounds interesting. Is that the faction that gets interest paid on their energy credits?

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Bre Atta and the Bree work the heck outta the fungus for nuts, mins & energy, a "Pure Red Strategy".


-Plus, she's butt-nekkid.

[Maniac]

Is that the faction that gets interest paid on their energy credits?

IIRC no one gets that. Perhaps you're thinking of the Centauri Republic, which only has to 65% of normal hurry costs.
(I swear I hadn't seen Babylon 5 yet at that time...)

If you have Civ4:BtS, you could play Planetfall btw.

-Plus, she's butt-nekkid.

Best reason to play with her!

After that, Yang because his philosophy is deep.

It is?? Perhaps we should start a Yang philosophy thread. To me it seems kinda internally inconsistent.

[Hydro]

With Bree you keep your research on Explore, and with Explore techs you get progressively more nut-min-energy until fungus easily yields what you'd get with a Hybrid forest. You can build MWs for 2 rows, which is HUGE in early game - instant killer army (if you are so inclined). My first build at my first 2 bases is a MW, which my free IoD then takes to a landmass to get new army members, harvest PlanetPearls and Pods (and terrorize other factions, if they get uppity).

Moreover, Bree and Cult are the only factions that can capture MWs in SMAniaC due to the -1 Planet all factions suffer. You can quickly get a huge army especially after you go Green (+4 Planet, for +60% PSI). And the MWs are support free if they are in fungus.

The biggest problem with Bree is not being able to easily pop boom due to -1 growth. You also have to mix a few boreholes and tidal harnesses to bump energy since it is a while before fungus gets you +2 energy/tile. And SE energy bonuses do NOT affect fungus (e.g. – Econ to +2 gets +1 energy/tile for non-fungus), so SE games don’t help much for Bree.

The Bree play differently, to be sure. In my mind they are what the Cult should have been.

Hydro

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

The Feminine Union had interest implemented before I ever made it over- the second most ridiculous thing about the faction.

They end up having a stupid-big pile of energy pretty quickly.

[Ironwood]

It looks like most of you are bringing up SMAC factions, and I can't say I have a particular preference for any of them. It all depends on what kind of game I want to play, and what portion of my personal philosophy is active at the moment. Philosophically, I have a preference for both Morgan and Diedre (generally more Morgan, since running green/wealth with his econ bonus fits my personal preferences nicely), Santiago, and Miriam (I like to play a hybrid game with her... crazy, I know, but I use her military advantage to secure an early lead in terms of territory, population, and submissive pacts, and then use that superior footing, democracy, free market, and wealth to compensate for the research penalty). I consider Yang to be an inhuman monster, but I have to admit, he is FUN to play.

Add in SMAX factions, and I have a clear favorite: The Free Drones. Philosophically (their end-goal of Eudaimonia, their concern that the producer get a proper share of the output), they match me almost perfectly. They get an even better industrial bonus than Yang which, used properly, can compensate militarily for that early research penalty (similarly to my hybrid Miriam style), but also has a plethora of peacetime applications.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I have a clear favorite: The Free Drones. Philosophically (their end-goal of Eudaimonia, their concern that the producer get a proper share of the output), they match me almost perfectly.

Heck yeah- power to the people! I'm serious.

[JustinSane]

The planet cult... I love how they can compete militarily with empires with more industry, tech and energy through psi combat and effective use of fungus. They are great early game, and when you do unlock Locusts of Chiron and brood pits, they've got a window where they can really do a lot of damage. Just a lot of fun to play. They can also pop boom quicker than anyone else in my experience, if played with a tight focus on that goal. They work pretty well after such a start as a specialist based faction.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

...But you're being Cha Dawn. Ewww.

Does anyone not loathe him? Really- anyone?

[Russia4Life]

I have an indifference towards him, as I do with most of the characters. The only one I do not like is Lal he is such a hypocrite, speaking of peace and then he declares war on you for being a police state. The intolerance that Brother Lal displays makes me sick. (just kidding by the way) Seriously though I do go out of my way to "interrogate" Lal first, not only because I dislike him but because with him being "interogated" or weakened I am a lock for planetary governor.

[Alinestra Covelia]

There are only two things I can't stand.

People who are intolerant of others' viewpoints or politics.

And Lal.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Lal has been in the habit for the last year or so of instantly declaring vendetta every game and never surrendering. I haven't the foggiest why- he didn't used to do that...

It hasn't exactly endeared him to me, now that the two of you mention it.


Alinestra, for a split second as I started reading your post, I thought I'd annoyed Illuminatus again. I don't know what to make of that.

[Russia4Life]

If you run democracy Lal will be your best friend, usually offering you a pact right away and his hat is constantly off to you. If you don't run democracy he likes to take things real personal, declaring vendetta right away. At least that's how it goes from my experience.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I'm a hippie. I don't run anything but Democracy; seriously.

-However, it's probably something to do with using my build queue exploit (it's SP and I still enjoy the game- so what if I'm a dirty cheater- leave me alone ) so that I've got a hoverflyer out making contacts really early in the game, before I'm running anything. Once we're vendetta, well, that's it, I guess.

I've also had Santigo consistently refuse throughout the same games to make a treaty under any conditions whatsoever- beats me why.

[Ironwood]

There seems to be some kind of randomly predetermined hostility level, outside the aggressiveness setting in the game rules... that's the only way I can make any sense of it, anyway. I'll go several games where its nothing but war, all the time. Then I'll make the decision that the first faction I find is going down... only to find my first contact be along the lines of Magnanimous: "hey hey hey! Want to trade techs? Want a peace treaty? It'll be awesome!"