Morganites were suprising to play

[Felan]

I decided to play the Morganite faction, though I didn't really have high hopes for it as it doesn't fit my normal style of play. But I was actually pleasantly surprised at the faction. The Free Market economic model is actually very good in a specific way -- energy. The planet penalty is too high for excessive production, but it isn't crippling. Energy production creates no pollution problems and contributes to pysch, energy, and research. Plus I was building masses of supply ships and crawlers to feed additional energies (production and food as needed) into my cities. My research was progressing faster than Zhakorov's. My espionage efforts were unmatched with energy coming out of my ears. Seabases are especially useful for energy production, as they tend to produce less minerals. Poor Police is offset by budgeting Pysch and establishing a few Punishment cities to eliminate the drone penalties to military units out of your territory. Poor support is eased by clean reactors and supply ships/crawlers. A large contingency of supply ships/crawlers also allows rapid colony development like nothing else out there (especially combined with energy reserves). Anyway I look forward to new game with this faction now that I understand it a little better.

[Pythagoras]

I find there slower growth (need a hab complex at size 4) is cripling. On a seperate note, does anyone miss seeing their faction's population besdies me?

[thunder]

Yeah, I'd like to see city sizes as well. (making the lists sortable would help as well)
I hate taking other cities and the seam to get thrown into the list randomly (Iknow, it's probably by size, but I'd like to do it by name, 'happiness', or garrison too.)

[Velociryx]

You pretty well summed it up. Morgan is quite strong. The base-size thing can be somewhat annoying in the early game, but it forces you to focus on expansion. Once you get set up (and gain the ability to build Hab complexes), no one can touch you. With probe teams at critical areas, about the only things you have to worry about are The Believers (who you'll be hard pressed to subvert) and the Planet itself (which can be overcome with sturdy garrisons). You have to play Morgan a bit differently than the others, with his economic focus, but when played correctly, they can be one of the powerhouses of the game.

[Pythagoras]

Well, I've always thought that the University w/ The Hunter Seeker Algorithm was pretty unstoppable.

[Velociryx]

I absolutely agree....no denying the UoP with the Hunter-Seeker Project under their belt is a powerhouse.....if there's a drawback to that at all it's that you don't get to build toward that right away, and by mid-game, if you've been hammered by one of the gun-loving factions, it might be too little, too late. The really cool thing about Morgan is all of that faction's strengths can be brought to bear immediately, and grow exponentially as the game progresses. Of course, the same can be said of the UoP, but to a lesser extent, I think, since they are focused so heavily on the R&D side of things. Their main advantage is in keeping their initial tech. lead, which, in my book means actively searching for Morgan and wiping him out, because by mid-game, he'll be out-teching you almost every time (I don't know about the computer's AI here, but in games I've played with Morgan, I've generally passed The University in Techs by the mid-game)....and OMG....on a large or huge planet, if you don't find Morgan fairly quickly, and he gets a chance to get his economy up to full steam....find as many allies as you can (preferably to include the Believers and/or the Gaians) and hit him with so many waves that he can't possibly buy them all off...even that might not be enough 'cause Big Daddy Morgan rakes in TONS of cash....
:-)
-=Vel=-

[Aleph]

At what difficulty level did you bypass the University (or does this count using Probe teams on the UoP)? I just don't see how Morgan can outdo the Universities strong starting bonuses (+50% with built in Network Nodes and inherent research bonuses). I'm not saying he can't, I'm saying "Enlighten me". What do you run early game to maximize bonuses? Market / Democratic / Wealth during peacetime? What in War?
(I'm coming out of a Green Police Gaian model, so it you have to talk really slowly and use small words.)

--Aleph

[Velociryx]

Hehehe....the game's no fun unless there's a good chance of getting your tail kicked.....I only played two non-transcend games....after I learned the basics, I jacked it all the way up! :-) And as to passing the UoP in Techs, as a classic merchant-player, I try to make allies with as many factions as possible, but Pacts with none of them. Once I've GOT allies, I will offer to trade or buy techs almost every turn....I'm trading with almost everyone, and generally at a "profit" (getting a higher level tech than I'm giving up)....if I can't at least break even, I don't trade (unless it's just one that I REALLLLLY like). In most cases, my tech-trading will enable me to build Hab complexes a good deal sooner than I would have been able to on my own, and as soon as I've got enough anti-drone facilities up and running, I'll kick it into high gear, call the bulk of my expeditionary forces home and switch to Free Market/Dem (generally with Econ at 30%, Psych at 10%, Labs at 60%). Trade income is almost always enough to pay for all my maintenance, leaving me a bundle of cash to improve my cities and upgrade my defense forces each turn. If UoP seems reluctant to trade techs for any reason, as soon as I find him, I'll hit him with a few probe teams to play catch up, but the truth of it is, even after I switch to Free Market/Dem, UoP's got as many drone problems as I do, and less money to deal with them, so he's generally pretty willing to trade or sell.

Also, it's not critical, but it sure makes life easier if I get the Genome project....I'll take the Weather Paradigm as a sub if I have to, but as far as I'm concerned, Genome is the Holy Grail for Morgan players in the early game....makes the switch to Free Market/Dem easier to swallow.

As to keeping units in the field....a lot of Morganites like the strategy of "Punishment Cities." I dunno, I just tend to shy away from any "all your eggs in one basket" strategies. Morgan's got obscene amounts of cash coming in every turn....it's no sweat at all to build nearly every facility at every base. Having done that, it's easy to pull one or two units from each city without upsetting the apple cart, you get a boatload of units, all with good morale (command centers,airbases, bioenhancement centers at every base), and you don't have to commit any atrocities to do it.

Yikes! And I didn't realize how long-winded I was getting....::sheepish grin:: guess I'll stop now....:-)
=-Vel-=



a "builder" type player myself, I generally have almost all of the facilities up and running at every city, and as long as I'm not having any drone problems, if presented with a choice of several different facilities, I'll usually build the research-enhancing ones first. That, coupled with a few well-placed librarians generally puts my researching cababilities on par with, or better than the UoP....plus I've got more cash (probe teams, faster build-times on new facilities, defense). As far as keeping units in the field, a lot of Morgan players use a "punishment" approach, assigning all combat units to a city containing a punishment sphere