What Is Your Favorite Faction, And Why?

[vyeh]

Now I all that's left to do is to hope for someone to post an amazing strategy for the university like the one for Morgan.

Tim Train, who was the lead designer on SMAX, wrote University of Planet Strategies.

[CEO Aaron]

I would not describe any of the strategies mentioned in that article as 'Amazing'.

[vyeh]

harbringer

Could you explain further?

[Norolia]

Of the original seven, Gaians hands down followed by University. I tend to favor a hybrid style that leads me to an easy transcendence victory by halfway through the game. Of course, I still need to challenge myself with the highest difficulty but at the moment I'm trying to learn everything I can about the original factions before I move onto the expansion again.

Adding in the new factions I'd have to say it's about the same but again, each have their own strengths and weaknesses and that's what really adds to the game. You can play any faction as you will but there will always be different challenges to overcome simply with your infrastructure not to mention your six opponents. What a great game.

[vyeh]

Welcome to the SMAC forum.

A Builder’s Primer (the early game) might help you with some of the original factions, including University, as well as your infrastructure.

[CEO Aaron]

I would not describe Gaian as a hybrid faction at all, personally. Without the ability to run Free Market, they cannot truly be described as a builder, thus they're really required to play a Momentum playstyle in order to keep up with the true Builder factions: University, Morgan, and to a lesser extent, Peacekeepers.

[vyeh]

That is an interesting perspective. (I am not saying it is wrong.) Can't the Gaians compensate for the lack of energy from FM by worm farming?

[CEO Aaron]

Well, the worm farm will provide cash, but not tech, but in any case it can't really be relied upon. Besides, what's to prevent the Hive or Spartans from doing the same trick? Sure, they have a slightly lower planet rating, but the Hive's industry rating makes the cash go further, and Sparta's high morale makes native combat easier, so they're just as well-suited to the worm farm as Dee. Better, since a lower planet rating means they'll encounter more worms in the fungus, and therefore have more opportunities to collect pearls.

And you're still going to have to probe your enemies to maintain tech parity, even if you're able to build up facilities matching theirs.

This is not to say you can't pursue a builder playstyle with the Gaians, but I don't think it plays to their strengths.

[Norolia]

I dunno. I tend to shy away from free market. The economy bonus just isn't worth the massive negatives to me. Most of the time I become planetary governor and with paradigm efficiency and many bases I have plenty of cash, more than I know what to do with really. I tend to play rather pacifist since I'm going for the tech win and anyone who decides they wanna brawl I take out and am even further ahead. Pop popping early on nets me plenty of alien artifacts and when used at the right time and making some good trades it's not long before I'm way ahead of everyone.

I can't imagine wanting to run FM with any faction other than Morgan but then I think I must be missing something which is probably why out of all the factions I can't seem to do well as a Morganite. When I run FM I get bludgeoned by native life (esp during Hercules perihelion) even with trance garrisons. All that extra energy is no good if I can't defend myself. I hear the advanced players favor that route but I can't seem to make it fit my play style. I'm determined to figure it out even though all the guides and strategy I've read about it don't seem to work well for me but I love the challenge and the lust to squeeze every drop of goodness from the game.

I'm sure my strategies will change once I make the jump to transcend difficulty. I've played every Sid Meier game but AC is the one I need to conquer on the highest level.

[vyeh]

See [long] Strategies for Morgan?.

[CEO Aaron]

I dunno. I tend to shy away from free market. The economy bonus just isn't worth the massive negatives to me. Most of the time I become planetary governor and with paradigm efficiency and many bases I have plenty of cash, more than I know what to do with really. I tend to play rather pacifist since I'm going for the tech win and anyone who decides they wanna brawl I take out and am even further ahead. Pop popping early on nets me plenty of alien artifacts and when used at the right time and making some good trades it's not long before I'm way ahead of everyone.

If you have more cash than you know what to do with, it's not because there aren't things worth buying, it's because you don't know how efficient and powerful rush buying and upgrading units with cash can be.

If you're playing Pacifist, then Market doesn't have any drawbacks worth mentioning. The police penalty is meaningless, easily countered with facilities and a touch of psych, and the planet penalty is completely irrelevant once you get trance, since planet only gives penalties to attacking native units, not defending them. In exchange, you basically get 50-100% more energy from your bases, which translates to that much more tech and money.

Don't be put off by the big numbers next to Free Market's penalties. They're not as bad as they seem, and +2 economy is HUGE, especially when you stack it with the effects of wealth and Morgan's innate +1 eco.

I can't imagine wanting to run FM with any faction other than Morgan but then I think I must be missing something which is probably why out of all the factions I can't seem to do well as a Morganite. When I run FM I get bludgeoned by native life (esp during Hercules perihelion) even with trance garrisons. All that extra energy is no good if I can't defend myself. I hear the advanced players favor that route but I can't seem to make it fit my play style. I'm determined to figure it out even though all the guides and strategy I've read about it don't seem to work well for me but I love the challenge and the lust to squeeze every drop of goodness from the game.

As I mentioned, trance has nothing to do with defending against native units, only attacking them. But there's other ways to handle worms other than putting trance units in their way, regardless of your planet rating. First of all, any stack of worms without a spore launcher on it will pretty much be all but destroyed by a single artillery attack. Artillery battles vs. natives resolve using normal stats, not morale, and mindworms have a defense value of zero.
Also, if you're going for defense, don't forget to build sensors to cover your base, that 25% boost to defense goes a long way.

One of the benefits of going FM is your tech rate balloons, so you're able to snag the psi defense Secret Project, which, when combind with the techniques above, relegates natives to a mere nuisance.

Edit: Yes, that's a mistake up there. I should have written that 'Trance has nothing to do with attacking native units, only defending against them'. My bad.

[Norolia]

Hrm, very interesting. I never thought of all that. I guess I have a lot more to learn. I'll have to try some of that out and see how it works.

[Norolia]

Doesn't trance give you 50% to psi defense while empath song gives you 50% to psi offense? Is this incorrect or does it not work as intended?

[vyeh]

Trance = Defense; Empath Song = Offense.

[the_rest]

Hi all, i played most of the factions and each has strong points and weak points.

drones - really cool faction but research is way too slow for me to like them
university - best faction i think, you build Virtual World and your set for win
cybernetics - this is a really cool faction to play, best base look, you can put planned free market wealth and then you rock. unlike university, is easier to fight with them, and still decent research
yang - industry and growth real cool, but if i build Citizens Defence Force i get the free defence too
morgan - the 4 limit base is bad, the -suport is worse. but +economy is it worth it ? you only need 3economy max, so unless you dont like the -moral from wealth, another faction is better
peacekeepers - really easy to get to Golden Age, but not a very special faction
believers - just as drones, too bad research for me to like them
gaians - now here is something that is really interesting and different. The first mind worms you attack you automatically capture them, and if you make yourself green, you can build an awsome army of captured mind worms! also you get tons of money from planet pearls!
data angels - i get more money for mind control with other factions
alien factions - they rock but i am human not alien, so i must not betray my race