New player, advice needed.

[Morgan Everett]

The Spartans can pop-boom reasonably well, yes. Their police rating helps a bit there. I would also suggest Deirdre; she's not as straightforward as Lal, but her penalties are relatively mild and manageable IMO. Morale affects both offense and defense. Plus it boosts psi combat (where Miriam is weak, because of her Planet penalty), and if you get a unit up to elite, it gets an extra movement point, so your infantry move as fast as rovers.

EDIT: If you try each of the original seven, you'll get a feel for managing pretty much every aspect of the game. Zak will teach you about handling drones, Yang will show you how to budget, etc.

It's funny I'm the only one who has a problem with playing some factions. It's probably because I'm used to role-playing games. By the way, doesn't +4 to Morale makes all units elite? So it grants an extra move to all units? That's awesome.

[Elok]

Once you've been playing a while, you realize they're all:

A. Ridiculous stereotypes, and
B. Lunatics,

so you just play as whichever monster you feel like being that day. I don't recall the SE table that well, but that sounds about right. The trick would be getting it that high. Santiago would need to run Power, which leaves her with very expensive units from the cumulative -3 Industry. Certainly she has the easiest time getting elite units, however you choose to do it.

BTW, I earlier mentioned that Planned was not a very tempting choice for Morgan. Just remembered that HE CAN'T USE PLANNED. You can tell I didn't play as Morgan that often, can't you?

[Morgan Everett]

Once you've been playing a while, you realize they're all:

A. Ridiculous stereotypes, and
B. Lunatics,

so you just play as whichever monster you feel like being that day. I don't recall the SE table that well, but that sounds about right. The trick would be getting it that high. Santiago would need to run Power, which leaves her with very expensive units from the cumulative -3 Industry. Certainly she has the easiest time getting elite units, however you choose to do it.

BTW, I earlier mentioned that Planned was not a very tempting choice for Morgan. Just remembered that HE CAN'T USE PLANNED. You can tell I didn't play as Morgan that often, can't you?

Ahah, it doesn't matter. Your answers are helpful nonetheless.

I've been following the advice I've been given, I don't have much time to play until next month but I'll try maybe an hour per faction, starting with the Free Drones today.

At first I didn't understand why I had to wait more than twenty turns to get ONE technology, I was like... WTF, THAT bad? Then I made a little bit of research and found that factions which start with a -2 penalty to RESEARCH have to stand idly for ten turns before starting to research.

So the big question was.... Huh, what should I do? I first I tried to create as much pods as possible but it's a slow process considering that I'm losing one population per pod created, so I have to wait for the base to grow in order to create another pod..

Now I'm thinking I should just create tons of scout patrols and send them across the map to try to conquer, take advantage of my INDUSTRY bonus instead of twiddling my fingers.

It's the most disturbing start I've ever had.

I haven't activated the 'easter egg hunt' i.e unity pods scattering, so I will be focused on conquering.

Do you guys usually activate the easter egg by the way? For some reason it seems like cheating to me.

[Morgan Everett]

Hey,

I played a little longer and found a very good strategy with the Free Drones, here it goes:

The major problem with the Free Drones is their inability to research anything before around twenty years, that's quite a long time and this can absolutely cripple you if you start up in a not-so-abundant spot. And even if you do manage to start in a favorable location, it'll take years before you can expand properly and get formers, recycling tanks and so on..

To make a long story short, there's absolutely no point in turtling and playing isolationism.

Even worse, I don't think it's wise to bother developing at the landing site. I should just create one base for the research time limit to start and to produce a few troops and perhaps a colony pod, that's it.

When the game starts everyone's pretty much on the same level militarily speaking, but since you start with a bonus in INDUSTRY that makes you quite a dangerous adversary, except against the Spartans.

So instead of trying desperately to grow bases alone without any of the crucial technology required in order to prosper, I figured it was much more interesting to use these twenty years of stagnant research to take two or three colony pods and a couple of scout patrols for each to the borders of my enemies, except for the Spartans which are unbeatable at this point.

Then the logical step would be to create a base with the two scout patrols near any of my enemy's base.

My first breakthrough should be planetary networks, and by the time I settle near my enemy which should appropriately take twenty years or so, I can start cranking up probe teams and get the technology I want, especially if I'm near two borders at the same time.

After planetary networks and assuming I got at least free market for the +2 in ECONOMY, I should definitely focus on military technologies to keep the pressure on my enemies. The aim is to conquer their secondary bases for my personal expansion and to get spoils of war, technology..

This way I can prevent them from becoming too powerful while letting them research so I can steal their technology with my probe teams. Meanwhile, I'm not likely to risk any attack as I'm already on the forefront.

This way I can get the necessary technology, expand as well. All in one.

[551262]

To get elite units as a Spartan player in the middle game, I just run Fundamentalist - Planned - Knowledge, only a -1 Industry, the same as when I started on Chiron. Add a command center every production base (usually I gun hard for the Command Nexus SP), and send over troops on a monolith rite of passage, and they're elite. Once I get the Cyborg Factory then I can skip the monolith visits.

In the early game, when impact weapons are tossed around like drumsticks, I can get elite with just a command center and a monolith visit, with a first prototype unit. And I probably will get an elite impact rover and elite impact infantry unit out the door just as fast as everybody else will assuming I get the tech at the same time and bases are equal, because I don't pay prototype minerals (+50%).

Later game, I can run Democratic - Planned - Power (with that SP that nixes the Industry hit of Power) and Eudamonia. Looks like this:



(Have the Ascetic Virtues SP, Living Refinery and that SP I'm talking about) I could switch to Fundamentalist and get +4 Support, which is awesome in the later game (don't need clean reactors) but then I take a hit with Efficiency, which causes more drone riots, but that is fixed easily.

Re: The early game research penalty -- yes. I've actually started a Free Drones game, Huge Map of Planet, near the Freshwater Sea and have Roze that I'm kicking the stuffing out of near the Pholus Ridge. She beat me to the Unity wreckage but that didn't make that much difference. The research penalty is obvious, and getting probe teams takes awhile to get back up to par with everybody else. If a Drone landed near me you'd be I'd make sure not one of his probes got within base range. Likewise I would send probes of my own to make his life miserable and there will be a very good chance I will beat him to impact weapons and then get impact rovers out the door. Good luck.

Re: Scout patrols warring: This is a bad idea. Very bad idea. Better to expand and build more bases than send scout patrols which are easily handled by a trifle of recon rovers and become worthless with impact weapons.

Each base you set up helps bring in more energy. The more energy, the faster your research will come along.

The theme of Industry advantage is a recurring one in this thread, but it is only so important in the first 100 turns of the game. Zak can probably get to Fusion Power by then, and along the way he'll have some nice kit which can easily plaster every troop you build, so Industry won't help you much there except help him get better units through morale upgrades kicking the stuffing out of hoards of worthless Synthmetal Sentinels.

The easter egg hunt is critical. Everybody should be hunting around for them.

[Elok]

Okay, you guys lured me back to playing again. It's taking a while to relearn the ropes, but I have high hopes--my game as Deirdre had me make planetfall about two squares from the borehole cluster. I'll take it.

[Morgan Everett]

Okay, you guys lured me back to playing again. It's taking a while to relearn the ropes, but I have high hopes--my game as Deirdre had me make planetfall about two squares from the borehole cluster. I'll take it.

I'm glad you were pulled back in.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

[Aeson]

I've merged FrenchDrone and Morgan Everett accounts. Let me know if you notice any strange issues popping up, it's the first time I've tried that option

[Morgan Everett]

I've merged FrenchDrone and Morgan Everett accounts. Let me know if you notice any strange issues popping up, it's the first time I've tried that option

Thanks a lot, dude!

I'll keep you posted if anything comes up.

[Morgan Everett]

Btw, are you guys sure it's better to research biogenetics first for Morgan? I've tried Free market first and there are a couple of nice extra credits to get, not to mention faster research.

How do you calculate which path is better?

[Lord Avalon]

I think it is. You need to expand at the start of the game. Recycling Tanks give you an extra nutrient to help your base grow and an extra mineral to help you build colony pods (or whatever). There's also an extra energy.

Now Free Market for Morgan also gives an extra energy per base, but you don't get that extra energy per square till your base grows to 2. The extra income doesn't help with initial production - it's really expensive to rush a build before you've put in 10 minerals. You grow and get to 10 minerals faster with Recycling Tanks.

[Morgan Everett]

I think it is. You need to expand at the start of the game. Recycling Tanks give you an extra nutrient to help your base grow and an extra mineral to help you build colony pods (or whatever). There's also an extra energy.

Now Free Market for Morgan also gives an extra energy per base, but you don't get that extra energy per square till your base grows to 2. The extra income doesn't help with initial production - it's really expensive to rush a build before you've put in 10 minerals. You grow and get to 10 minerals faster with Recycling Tanks.

Really? I didn't know all of that.

Now I see why you swear by Biogenetics.

I'll start a new game in a few weeks starting with Biogenetics then Free Market.

[Elok]

Question: does Miriam's attack bonus apply to psi units too, or just the regular kind?

[BlackCat]

Maybe it's me that are weird, but besides the recycling tanks, I really love that I can get one less drone in all my bases. With a forest that is a nut, two mins and one energy extra at all bases with three citizens.