Sid Meier's: Alien Crossfire Walkthrough :
This walkthrough for Sid Meier's: Alien Crossfire [PC] has been posted at 03 Sep 2010 by t fulton and is called "FAQ/Walkthrough". If walkthrough is usable don't forgot thumbs up t fulton and share this with your freinds. And most important we have 6 other walkthroughs for Sid Meier's: Alien Crossfire, read them all!
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Walkthrough - FAQ/Walkthrough******* ***** ** ** ** *** ** * *** ****** ***** ***** ***** ***** **** * * ** ** * * ***** ***** * *** * *** ****** ** * * * * * ** * ** *** *** * ** *** * * * * * ** *** * ** *** ** ** * * * ** **** *** *** ** ** * * * ** *** *** *** ** ** * * * ** **** *** *** ** ** * * * ** * *** ** *** ** ** * ** ********* * *** ** ** * ** * ** * ** * *** * * * * ** * ** * *** *** * **** * ** ***** ** * *** * * ********* * ***** ** * **** ** * * ***** * ***** * ** * ** ** * *** * * * ** ** ** =========================================================================== Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (SMAX) System: Windows (PC) Authors: Jim Chamberlin and Chris Hartpence (aka Velociryx) Contact: Jim Chamberlin - red_phoenix_1@hotmail.com Chris (Vel) - quazimojo1@aol.com Version: Final (12/30/04) Note: Chris Hartpence has recently had an updated and more detailed version of a Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire Guide actually published in both paperback and e-book form. If you're interested in purchasing this book, check it out at: http://www.gubookstore.com/shopgu/author.php3?accountID=GRTU00118 =========================================================================== > This Document is Copyright 2001 Jim Chamberlin. All Rights Reserved. This guide can be FREELY distributed as long as you agree to a few things: - You do not alter this guide, leaving it in the original .txt file format - You do not charge for viewing this guide. This includes, but is not limited to websites, cds, dvds, magazines, etc. - You give me credit. - Visit GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) on a regular basis and download any updates to the guide. Authors hate responding to questions that were answered in newer versions of the guide. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== Vers. - 1.0 - Released. 1.1 - Added some strategies. Actually, I added a whole new section. 1.2 - Added Cheat City to the list of sites. 1.3 - Minor changes. =========================================================================== Table of Contents =========================================================================== Introduction Changes in Alien Crossfire Key Terms The Factions Early Game - Expansion and Growth - Terraforming - Supply Crawlers - Defining your Style - Defining your Focus - Early Game Secret Projects - Comparative Turn Advantage - Getting Ready for the Bad Guys - Single Player Diplomacy - Multi- player Diplomacy - A Primer on Combat - Basic Combat (Single Player and Multi- Player notes included) Middle Game - Expansion in the Middle Game - Terraforming in the Middle Game - Supply Crawlers - Developing your Style - Developing your Focus - Creating Economy of Scale - More on Combat - Studying the Meta- Game - More Single Player and Multi- Player Notes Late Game - Locking Things Down General Tips Message Board Posts Final Notes and Odd Musings Credits ================================================================================ Introduction ================================================================================ ALIEN PLANETFALL The early human exploration of Planet found many mysterious signs pointing to a long- vanished alien race. The questions raised by these discoveries were soon answered when two alien factions arrived on Planet a few years after the crash-landing of the "Unity." Their true motives were vague, but it appeared they had returned to Planet to settle the fate of Manifold Six (their name for Planet) and the grand experiment in which they were involved. The Usurper faction has been pushing for the Progenitor race to exploit the powers of the Manifold, and essentially set themselves up as gods. The Caretakers see Planet as a sentient being, whose death would result from Usurper policies. Two scout ships arrived in the space above Manifold Six to settle the issue. Unfortunately for both sides (but perhaps fortunately for the humans on Planet), the two ships were evenly matched, and nearly destroyed each other. Survivors of the two factions managed to jettison in escape pods down to Planet's surface, where they prepare for battle, and for the day on which they can contact their respective factions and send in reinforcements. If that day ever comes, human existence on Planet will be in grave jeopardy. The human factions must choose whether to band together to fight the off-worlders, or side with the aliens as a means to ultimate victory. The picture is further complicated by the rise of new human factions preaching radical philosophies, from the Drones who seek liberation of the working masses, to the strange Cybernetic faction unleashed by amoral University researchers. [Taken from Alien Crossfire Game Manual] [A full story about Alien Crossfire may be found in my Alien Crossfire Story FAQ.] ================================================================================ Changes in Alien Crossfire ================================================================================ So, what's changed since Alpha Centauri? A lot! We've got new everything, or so it seems. New kinds of worms: Yep....three of them, to be specific. First, Sealurks. Watch out for these guys....they're rather similar to IoD's, except they don't act as transports and tend to be "lone wolf" units. I've not had much luck in catching them (none, actually), so I can't say either way whether they're any good as an addition to your naval forces. Next, Fungal Towers: I've never captured these guys either, and frankly, I doubt it's possible. They get morale upgrades depending on how much fungus they're surrounded by, and tend to spawn worms fairly regularly. Finally, spore launchers: Artillery for worms, and they are annoying! Oftentimes, when and IoD comes to pay you a visit, the Spore Launcher will not land on the shore, but remain on the Isle, and snipe at your terrain enhancements, forcing you to build an empath foil to deal with the IoD in order to get rid of the sniper. UGH! (Alternate plan: Build an artillery unit of your own and duel with the sniper). Seven new factions: Five human, two alien. You'll find details on the new bunch a bit later in this guide! New techs, weapons, facilities, and secret projects: 'bout half a dozen new techs, spawning a variety of new weapons and abilities. I'll not go into specifics here, as all of this is covered elsewhere in the guide, but suffice it to say for the time being that there are a LOT of new capabilities you can give your troopers, opening up whole new vistas as far as exotic and special purpose troopers go! The new facilities are great as well, giving you base-specific probe modifiers, missile defense systems, additional defensive bonuses and ways of getting better still production out of sea squares! Project-wise, it's a mixed bag, with far and away the most useful (overpowered!) project being the Cloudbase academy. One thing further, the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm has been weakened so that it's not quite the final word protection against probes that it once was. Nonetheless, it's still a crucial project to snag, but again, more on that later. Bug Fixes....LOTS of Bug Fixes: Most significantly, artillery now actually does something in the game, and on Transcend level, the maintenance cost bug has been fixed, meaning that Transcend level bases are only one third as profitable as they used to be, but that is as it should be. ================================================================================ Key Terms ================================================================================ Before we get down into the guts of the guide, let me outline a few terms you'll see cropping up repeatedly, and before I do that, let me say this: There are probably as many different approaches to the game as there are players who love the game, but these (often wildly varying) approaches can, in at least a general sense, be grouped into three basic categories or "styles" of play. Understanding what is meant by each play-style is essential to understanding the viewpoint from which the rest of the guide is written. Builder-Style: Builders don't care much for fighting, preferring to cloister themselves off on some small to mid-sized continent, terraform, build infrastructure, and research new technologies. The hallmarks of Builder style play are: 1) Long delays in prototyping new weapons and defensive systems, in favor of constructing infrastructure, 2) The preservation of as close to 100% of industrial capacity as possible in order to speed the completion of the abovementioned infrastructure (in short, this means minimizing support costs), 3) very aesthetically pleasing empires in general (let's face it, Builder-Empires just look cool!), and 4) Strict adherence to industrial caps, with regards to ecological damages (i.e. - Builders spend a LOT of time terraforming, and they don't like to see their efforts undone by sudden fungal blooms, so you will seldom find any, and certainly no significant eco-damage in a Builder Empire). For the reason of preservation of Industrial Capacity alone, "Biogenetics" is probably a Builder-Players most treasured tech, and many a Builder player will micro-manage his/her bases down to the unit level, upgrading ANY unit which is tying up support costs. Hybrid-Style: The Hybrid's main watch-word is Flexibility. He's the guy who wants to be ready for anything that might come up, and while he greatly admires the Builder's stunning efficiency and sterling industry, he also knows that somewhere out there on the map, and maybe closer than he thinks, are people who would like nothing better than to take it all away from him. To that end, the Hybrid player makes some "strategic sacrifices," developing a stout standing army as early as techs permit it, and upgrading and honing them constantly. Often, the Hybrid Player has half (or more) of his army on the prowl, looking for pods, and looking for potential enemies of the state. Yes, he's interested in developing an economy to rival his Builder counterparts, but not at the risk of being blind-sided by some fast-moving attacker. Momentum-Style: Fast and loose! The Momentum player's main goal is to expand with lightening speed, get a horde of small bases (production centers) up and running, and then use them to build a war machine that is second to none, and while he's getting his production centers geared up, his scouts are on the prowl, a sharp eye open for signs of anybody else. The moment he finds someone else, the real show begins, and the Momentum player is banking on the fact that, because he's so active, even if you have a technology edge, he'll be able to probe his way to technological parity and smash you with his relatively large standing force. Bases are seen as little more than barracks, and not much attention is given to infrastructural builds, beyond that which absolutely essential (i.e. - network nodes, to cash in artifacts found or stolen). Early Game: Generally describes the game up until the time all those annoying restrictions are lifted, and before you get the chance to start playing with the more interesting unit types. Specifically then, the techs that provide the boundary to the early game are: Resource-Wise: Gene Splicing, Ecological Engineering, and Environmental Economics. Weapon wise: Lasers (Applied Physics) and Impact (Non-linear Mathematics) will be most prevalent (with Missiles falling at the outer edge of the early game, much as Enviro. Ec, developmentally). Defensively, you've got Synthmetal (Industrial Base), and Plasma (High Energy Chemistry) with some interesting variance provided by 3-res and 3-pulse armor, and of course, all units will be powered with the old-style Fission generators (weakest, and most expensive). Implications of the early game: 1) Stuff is expensive to build. The old generators are not cheap, to put it mildly, and that's bad news for you, because you're mineral production is wretched, and while there are ways to improve that, none of them will happen quickly, or without a fair amount of planning on your part. 2) Terrain squares are not very productive. Pre-restriction lifting, you're faced with a limit of 2r (r being whatever resource you're harvesting) in each category, for an absolute maximum of six resources per square (i.e. - Monolith, 2r for each of the three resource-types). Taken together, that's a pretty punishing two-edged sword. Not only are you having to pay more for your early game units in terms of time to build, but you're also faced with terrain squares that have limited value. There is some good news though, in the form of special resource squares. These squares are not limited by the early game restrictions, and as such, they should receive your immediate attention. If you find one that's located in an unattractive base-building spot, that's no problem....the moment you get industrial automation, send a supply crawler out that direction and start taking advantage of the resource! (and more about this in particular on the section on Terraforming!) The Middle Game: The Middle Game is bounded on one side by the lifting of energy restrictions, the acquisition of Missile techs (with Air Power coming soon thereafter), and the discovery of Fusion Power and runs all the way to the acquisition of Hab-Domes and is where the bulk of your game will be played out. Terrain squares get more productive as more terraforming options become available, your formers get a ton of new things to do, and your units (both offensively and defensively) become vastly more dangerous. The Late Game: From Hab-Domes on. Generally, single player games don't last very long once you get here, and few multi-player games ever make it this far, so don't expect to see much of the late game, unless you really enjoy playing single player mode, and really like to take your time. Notes on stylistic approaches: So, you've thought it over a while and settled on a style that's "you." Good, because you'll need a well-organized, well-considered plan to proceed from, and that's the first step. Whatever your style, your next step will be to select specific technologies from the Tech-Tree that "play into" whatever style you're going for. For Builders, this means a straight shot to Industrial Automation for the acquisition of Supply Crawlers, and from there, moving right on into the liftin of those previously mentioned restrictions. Builders then, live and die by the following five techs: Centauri Ecology, Industrial Automation, Gene Splicing, Ecological Engineering, and Environmental Economics. The goal of the Builder Game is to reach Environmental Economics as quickly as possible and create such a vast economy in terms of total outputs, relative to the opposition, that when the combat techs arrive (and wise Builders will begin pursuing them the moment they get Environmental Economics), their superior economic sub-structure will enable them to out-produce and out-tech everyone else in the game. For Hybrids, again, with flexibility being the watch-word, the key technologies in the early game are: Centauri Ecology, Industrial Automation, Doctrine Flexibility, Gene Splicing, and Ecological Engineering. This gives you several of the key advantages of the Builder Player, but also gives you more options in terms of exploration and response to incoming threats. Momentum players will want the biggest bang for their buck, and they'll want that as quickly as possible, so for them, the key technologies are: Centauri Ecology, Industrial Automation, Doctrine Flexibility, Non-linear Math, and Ecological Engineering.. They're willing to work around the mineral restrictions to get a decent army in the field, and many of the factions this group favors come with support bonuses, giving them a relatively large number of "free" troops anyway. A perfect example of this would be Miriam Goodwinson's "Believing" faction. With their +2 Support rating, each of their bases gets four free units. Figure one former and one garrison, that still leaves her two attackers per base that can go out hunting. Multiplied out over ten or twelve bases, and it's no wonder she's so feared by the Builder crowd! As you can see, while there are key differences between the various styles of play, there are also some similarities between the three styles, and two techs in particular popped up all three times. These are quite possible the most critical techs in the entire game. Centauri Ecology, and Industrial Automation. If you have them, and your opponent does not, you are in a VASTLY superior position. One final stylistic note to point out is this: Do not make the mistake of believing that Builders never fight and Momentum players never build infrastructure! All players of note will shift and change their strategies based on prevailing game conditions, and because of that, these "styles" mentioned are more archetypes than anything. They point to the tendencies and pre-dispositions of players toward one end of the spectrum or the other. The implication is not that Builders can only build, and Momentum players can only crank out an endless supply of troops. I don't know of anyone who plays that way, and even against an average player, such a strategy would come apart rather quickly. Essentially then, the stylistic approaches speak more to the timing than anything else. For Builders, the key to the game is the rapid development of infrastructure. They figure that the faster they can develop vast efficiencies, the better off they will be, and those greater efficiencies will enable them to quickly catch up militarily in the midgame. At the other end of the spectrum, the Momentum gamers recognize how much damage a few early game attackers can do, and seek to maximize that damage against their opponents, forcing their rivals to divert resources to deal with threats to hearth and home, while the Momentum player is free to build infrastructure without such threats. In the center are the Hybrids, who will strike opportunistically (and divert some portion of their early game resources to be ready to do that), but are unwilling to go full bore in that direction, lest they fall behind in infrastructural development. ================================================================================ The Factions ================================================================================ It is possible to play any of the 14 factions in any of the three broad styles outlined (Builder, Hybrid, Momentum), but some are clearly more ideally suited to one style than another. Below, you will find an outline of each of the factions (strengths and weaknesses in game terms), along with play notes and tested, workable strategy tips for playing each faction in any of the styles mentioned above: The Original Seven: Morganites: At a Glance: Extra Commerce income, +1 Economy, -1 Support, smaller bases, more cash at start General Notes: Probably the most underrated faction of the original seven, Morgan is terrific if played correctly, but a novice will probably have to work a bit to get the faction humming. This is mainly due to the fact that Morgan's playstyle is somewhat different from the others. If you're playing Morgan, then you've got to make the most of your one big advantage, and that's money. Morgan is the only faction in the early game that can go to war and still rake in the big bucks. Just run wealth, live with the Morale hit, and you make +1 energy per square, and get an industry bonus to boot! Many people regard Morgan is incredibly weak because of the smaller base size thing, but nothing could be further from the truth. Wealth is an integral part of almost any Morganite strategy, and Wealth comes with Industrial Automation, which also gives you Supply Crawlers, a terrific Morganite Secret Project, and Hab-complexes, which allows Morgan's bases to grow to size 11 without stopping. More pervasive a problem for the faction is the support hit, which tends to reduce the total size of the army you can raise (at least until clean reactors), but again, this is largely offset by the acquisition of supply crawlers via Industrial Automation. Need more troops? Just build a new base and some more crawlers! Viola! Support issue rendered moot. Now I grant you, most Morganite players will tend to keep expanding a bit longer than the other factions to keep pace with overall population numbers, but in truth, another 1-2 bases will generally put you at parity, population wise. It's just not that big a deal, and remember, if you get the Ascetic Virtues, you're small base problem all but disappears anyway, and the Living Refinery undoes your support problem once and for all (though at the point you get it, you've usually had clean reactors for quite some time). Morgan, the Builder: This approach to the Morgan game takes his mercantile nature to heart. You don't profit by killing off your customers, and Morganite- Builders can make utterly obscene amounts of cash. The commerce bonus gives you the kind of windfall normally reserved for the Planetary Governor (magnified further still if you ARE the Planetary Governor), and by running Free-Market, Wealth, and "doping" your citizens into a golden age, you not only achieve pop- boom status (if you're running Dem too), but also get +5 Econ, which does amazing things to the energy you get from your base squares! A Builder game, Morgan style revolves around defending all your bases with trance scouts until you get clean reactors, and catching up on all your prototyping/building a defense force at that point. In the meantime, all the money you're making each turn, combined with the industry bonus from wealth, enables you to rush-build your infrastructure with a speed that will make the other factions green with envy. It's all too easy to beat out even Domai's vaunted industrial capacity with Morgan's cash. As much as possible, the Morganite Builder will want to run Dem/Market/and either Wealth (while building and enjoying the benefits of many pacts or treaties) or Knowledge if an extra bit of research boost and efficienc is needed. If you need to go on the offensive, your SE settings of choice will be Wealth/Green, with or without Democracy (mostly depending on if you have clean reactors or not yet), and if you want to push your labs up to 100%, run Dem, Green, Wealth (+4 efficiency), make your +1 energy per square, and dump it all into your labs. In this manner, you can out-tech even Zak, despite his research bonus! Even if you've got your heart set on playing the Builder game, you need to be prepared for war, but the good news is that you start with Synthmetal armor, and will find yourself only a few steps from Silksteel once all the early game resource restrictions are lifted (though in most case, getting to Biogenetics first, for clean reactors, will serve you better). Still, Morganite defenses revolve first and foremost around covert ops. If an opponent builds a base too close to you for comfort, either buy it and burn it down, or stack so many clean defenders in it that, regardless of your almost guaranteed lower morale, your enemies will have a hard time taking it back, and when fighting a defensive campaign, the presence of Children's Creche's everywhere will offset Wealth's only minus, putting you in reasonably good shape. Morgan, the Hybrid: Industrial Automation is all the more crucial for this style of play, as some portion of your industrial capacity will be tied up in the maintenance of a standing force, and if you have to make use of that force to launch an attack, simply drop out of Market in preference for Green, keep wealth unless you just really need the extra morale percentages, and use Wealth's industry bonus and your inherent cash to replace lost troops at a faster clip than your opponents can kill them. Morgan excels at the art of attrition warfare. It does not matter if your first unit makes a kill, because one of the four of five coming right behind surely will, and you'll wind up with a core force of elites (survivors of the many battles) in the end! Remember, it applies to all the factions to a degree, but even moreso with Morgan: You should never actually build the kind of unit you want! Build laser scouts or rovers, and selectively upgrade your way to the kind of force you need, and don't worry about ignoring the weapons techs in the early game. If you're behind, militarily, just make it a point to capture an enemy unit with whatever weapon you're looking for, and you can start building them as well, even if you don't yet have the tech for it! All the basic fighting strategies for the Morgan-Momentum game work just as well for the Hybrid game, and unlike most other factions playing a Hybrid scheme, you're cash position will be so good, that you can almost always make offensive use of your probes. Do so! Morgan, the Conqueror: Again, put your eyes, mind and heart firmly on the goal of acquiring Industrial Automation. Crawlers, coupled with the building of new bases, will quickly put you in a position where you will be able to crank out as many, if not more troops than your opponents! Two basic ways you can go about this are: Beeline for the Command Nexus to offset Wealth's Morale hit, and rake in the cash while beating your opponents with average to slightly above average troops, or, forget the money, run Green (still beelining for the Doctrine: Loyalty) and beat on them with better than average troops. Either way works, but running Wealth opens up more options for you with Morgan, enabling you to offset your average troops with regular and very active offensive probe teams, subverting a base or two to establish a foothold, and then pouring your troops into it (and, if you really want to get mean, run Fundy Wealth, to make it harder for your opponents to run probe actions against you). The Support problem is offset by an early emphasis on crawler production at all bases to spike up mineral outputs, and troops can be easily reinforced by rushing selective defensive structures in captured bases and by upgrading scouts produced to best/best configurations. Remember, as Morgan, you have a far easier time at paying for a war effort as you go, because you can get that magical +1 energy per square and still fight before Punishment Spheres. Everybody else has to either wait till higher up on the tech tree, or save for the invasion in advance. Use that to your advantage and attack earlier, rather than later. Also, make active use of your probe teams to subvert enemy troops, adding them to your available force pool. Best of all, you can compare morale levels, and make suicide attacks with the worst of the lot, keeping the best for "sure kills" and consistently raise the morale of an elite core of you army, which will soon have you fighting on "Morale Parity" with whatever enemy you are attacking, even if they began with an advantage in that department. About the only person you'll be hampered against in the early game is Miriam running Fundy, as that will shut down your probe actions, but even then, with your better research rates, you should be at a higher tech level when you begin your attacks, and a series of swift, hard, unexpected blows (and who the heck expects Morgan to come out fighting?!) will give you all the edge you need. University of Planet: At a Glance: More Drones, +2 Research, -2 Probe, Extra Starting Tech General Notes: Zak is plagued by drone problems, making the acquisition of either the HGP or the Virtual World of Paramount importance. Fortunately, since you start with the pre-requisite to Planetary Networks, it is often quite easy to grab the Virtual World. Probe actions are expensive for you, and it's relatively cheap for your enemies to launch probe actions your way, so guard against that, and make the Hunter-Seeker project a high priority, but in the meantime, bulk up on defensive probes. You'll need them. Your main advantage is your labs, and whichever way you decide to run your game, your inherent research advantages will put you ahead of the pack quickly. Persistence and good planning will keep you there. Remember, you're getting the benefits of a no-maintenance- cost Network Node from the first turn you found a base. Everybody else has to build their Net-Nodes, and pay maintenance costs for them, so build bases like crazy! Not only does this keep your bases smaller (to a point, offsetting the drone issue), but it also makes your colony pods VERY good investments for the minerals spent! Zak, the Builder: This approach plays to your native facility. You're already a step ahead of the game, and if you get the Virtual World, then you're two big steps ahead of the game, as it totally negates your factional drone problems for bases size 4-7 and gives you two free facilities at each base you build. That's two less items on your infrastructural list, which makes building the rest that much easier for you. If you're playing the builder game, your main goal after restriction lifting should be to secure the Planetary Energy Grid to get yet another free, and maintenance free facility. Then, each time you build a base, about all you need to do is toss up a Tree Farm and a Creche, and you're ready to boom! (Building the Research Hospital as the base grows each turn). Nobody can build peacetime infrastructure faster than Zak, because the others don't start with a free peacetime facility. Morgan comes close, but even his vaunted money can't touch that. If you speed-build selected bases, you can turn those over to the production of battle-capable prototypes far more quickly than other builder factions, and be in a more classically "Hybrid" stance than most running this type of game. The two things you need to be ever-watchful for though, are covert attacks made to attempt to catch up to you, technologically, and, if you do plan an invasion, you will need to save cash for it in advance, because when you drop out of Market, most of your money dries up too (if you want to keep a decent research rate while warring). Zak, the Hybrid: This approach plays to your ability to rip through the early game tech tree much more quickly than anybody else. You can be running Planned/Wealth by the early twenties if you set your mind to it, and specialize your bases out, with the fringe ones doing early war-tech prototyping, and your inner core working on infrastructure. Best of all, you can get to Industrial Automation that quickly, and still go back and pick up Mobility and Flexibility, generally ahead of those who beeline straight for them (exception: The Spartans, who are only one tech from Flex at game start). This means that you can get probe foils in the water plenty early enough to send them out exploring, and infiltrate most of your opponents' datalinks before they can even mount a good probe defense, which a crucial play. Combat wise, again, thanks to your free facility, you can pay comparatively less attention to your infrastructure and focus more on the warring techs, again thanks to your free facility. You can also let current game circumstances dictate exactly how your research edge is used, magnifying your advantage depending on the prevailing climate of the game. If you're isolated, fine. Drop to peace-time expansion till something develops, but if you've got neighbors close at hand, you can carry the fight to them rather quickly. Zak, the Conqueror: Simply put, while everybody else is spending time and energy to get where you start from (i.e. - the building of Network Nodes), you can be building fast attackers to take their bases! About the only group that can do this as or more quickly than you are the Spartans, and that's only because of where they begin on the tech tree. Theirs is a short term advantage in the sense that, research-wise, there's no way they can keep up with you. Even a heavy builder focus won't do it. This is a huge advantage, and if you put your mind to researching nothing but combat techs, you can have enough impact rovers for a good early game rush by the early to mid 30's! Except for the previously mentioned exception, nobody can top that, and that kind of raw speed plays well for a momentum game. If you find somebody on the continent with you, this is the kind of speed that will win you the game, and, once you make a couple of early kills to put you in a position of dominance, your faction is better suited than most to rapidly shifting gears. Spartan Federation: At a Glance: +2 Morale, +1 Police, Free Prototyping, -1 Industry General Notes: You've got the all around best, most balanced fighting force in the game. True, Miriam has an edge when attacking, but your bonus helps both attack and defense, and the free rover at game start really helps you if pod scattering is on, enabling you to pick up a larger than normal share of Unity Pods, and more intangibly, enabling you to build your bases with a better understanding of the map you're playing on (meaning simply that your bases will tend to be better arranged on the map, thanks to a more complete understanding of the continent as a whole....most people have to build their first few new bases somewhat blindly if they want to expand quickly, but this is not the case for you). Also, the Police bonus mitigates the effect of running Market, and enables you to forestall (or, depending on SE choices) do away almost entirely with drone control facilities, saving you time on infrastructure. The free prototyping is not a huge advantage until later on in the game, as all early protos can be completed with a single cashed in supply crawler anyway, but it's still a marginal advantage, and should be exploited whenever the opportunity presents itself. The industry hit hurts, but no more so than Morgan's support drain, and you can get back to "normal" Industrial capacity by simply switching to Planned. True, you take an efficiency hit, but that in turn can be undone by building Children's Creche's, rendering your negatives easily dealt with and gotten around. The Command Nexus is a very attractive project for you, and you're pretty well suited to getting it, as it is only one tech away from you, and grabbing it will give you hands down, the best troops in the game until the advent of bio-enhancement centers, which will bring the rest up reasonably close to your troopers. The Spartan's main strength though, lies in the fact that they need not necessarily make use of their army to instill fear. Just the simple knowledge that the Spartans are out there is oftentimes enough to give others pause. Santiago, the Builder: It takes you slightly longer to get your infrastructure in place than the rest, but the police rating helps in that, again, you can delay the building of drone control facilities, and once you DO get the infrastructure built, it serves you just as well. In the meantime, you have seasoned troops to defend your holdings with, a thing that cannot often be said of other Builder factions. Because of this, and because it's common knowledge that the Spartans can more than hold their own in a fight, you are uniquely positioned to build in relative safety. Think of it as classic isolationism, and most Momentum folk are looking for soft targets, something the Spartans have never been accused of. Add to that the fact that most of your opponents will not be expecting you to play the Builder's game, and that alone can often buy you the time you need to get the bulk of your infrastructure in place. Once it is, it's a simple enough proposition to take a look around the map and reassess your current situation, and again, if somebody decides to play rough and tumble with you, then they're just asking to get pasted. Santiago, the Hybrid: Your starting tech makes you a natural at this. You're only a single tech away from Doctrine: Flex, and only two away from running Planned and getting probes. Taken together, that alone puts you in a strong Hybrid stance (and if you get the Virtual World project, you will almost never have a drone problem). Others need to build command centers just to get to where your troops start, and because of that, most factions will think twice about attacking you, and with even a single Monolith someplace in your territory, and building a Command Center of your own, it's easy for you to put together a core force of elite whatevers to attack or defend with. You have normal cash and research rates, which means, thanks to a slightly lagging industry, that you might be a bit behind the curve, tech wise, but a bit of luck with pods (which, as mentioned, you have an advantage in getting) will easily balance that out, and oftentimes, those pods render your industrial lag moot, as they "autofinish" whatever you were building at the closest base to the pod you just popped. All in all then, a Hybrid approach is very easy to play with Santiago. Santiago, the Conqueror: This is probably the easiest way to run the Spartans, and it is a no-brainer. You've already got rovers. It's a short hop to Impact weapons, and a short hop from there to global conquest. All of the speed work I have ever done on early transcendent victories has been with the Spartans, and with good reason. Quite simply, nobody can put together a crack attack force of high-morale impact rovers faster than Santiago. Zak might be able to get them about as quickly, but they still won't be as well trained, and in battle, that will be the telling difference, and in the early game, four rovers is about all you need to utterly lay waste to an enemy empire (Yang not withstanding.... thanks to his perimeter defense network, but even then, a probe action against the base in question can render his key defensive advantage useless). If you want a fast and furious game, build four Impact rovers and send them hunting while you build up your Empire. When they find someone, you'll be amazed at how much damage and terror they can spread, and at nominal cost to you. An important footnote here is that with Santiago, you can do reasonably well at fighting sans Punishment Spheres under Market conditions, thanks to your police rating. Gaians: At a Glance: +1 Planet, +2 Efficiency, -1 Police, -1 Morale, auto-capture first worm, +1 Nutrient (fungus) General Notes: The efficiency boon is terrific, and if you had a good way to rake in the energy (Free Market), your faction would be almost unbeatable. As it stands, about the only way you can do it is via Golden Ages, which, while workable, is far from being as good, since the money invested in Psych detracts from the total cash earned. Still, you've other important advantages that make up for your lack of raw energy. Specifically, you are good at "channeling" what energy you do get. Run either Dem or Green and you have a paradigm economy, allowing you to run either 100% cash or labs and rake in a respectable amount. Again, the drawback is that you can either have good income or good labs, but only average both if you keep your allocation at 50/50. The trick then, is knowing when to do which, and the approaches will vary (see below). Regardless of your playstyle though, you have two other important advantages which will serve you well. The first is the ability to draw resources from fungus squares. This helps your early game immensely, and means you have to spend comparatively less time terraforming (and you get Centauri Ecology at game start), to get your bases productive. The second is the ability to catch mind worms, with the added bonus that your first worm capture attempt is always successful. Goal number one then, is to send your scout patrol out trolling for worms! When you find one and catch it, you have the perfect pod-popping unit (assuming pod scattering is on), because even if the pod in question unleashes more worms, they will ignore your native life form, leaving it to you to either try to catch them and add them to your force, or move on to the next pod. Repeat this process when you get Doctrine: Flex and gun skimships, and you're pretty much set for the whole game, as IoD's (Isles of the Deep) make tremendously good pod-poppers, scouts, and transports....very versatile units! Deirdre, the Builder: Forget the money. Beeline for Dem, and make the switch as soon as you can, netting you a paradigm economy, and +4 growth (when you build creches). At this point, you can slam your labs to 100% and keep pace with the best researchers in the game. True, your income suffers, but you can ease back from 100% periodically to save up more cash, and once you arrive at restriction lifting techs, you can reverse that for a time, effectively turning labs off to help you rush through infrastructure builds. Also, when you're ready to boom, you merely add Planned to what you've already got and giant bases are yours! Again, your research efforts are helped, if pod-scattering is on, by the presence of your mindworms, and, since you cannot run Market, you will be spending the whole game actively exploring, so if you find others who are running Builder or Hybrid styles (and making regular use of Market), a few probes into their territory with your mindworm force just might be sufficient to scare them away for Market (to avoid fighting a losing battle with your worms). Of course, this is an early game advantage, rendered much less effective once Secrets of the Human Brain are discovered, but the implications are that, if you spend a bit of time focused on catching 3-4 worms, you can keep your builder stance and put together enough of a force to effectively worm rush someone. Your troops aren't great, but Children's Creches are an excellent build for you, as it helps with both troop morale and further enhances your Empire's efficiency. Deirdre, the Hybrid: As with the Builder Game, capturing worms is important, and even moreso for the Hybrid game. You will definitely want to make early use of the worm rush if at all possible. Essentially, this is a denial strategy, added to the usual Hybrid mix. The goal is not so much to succeed in taking out an empire (though by all means, do so if you can), but to force them away from a Market Stance and slow them down, enabling your 100% lab focus to blow past them, tech wise (Note: The reason it is important to force your opponents away from Market is simply that, Dem/Market at 70%, despite the inefficiency, can out-tech Dem/Green at 100%). You'll probably be stuck using your probes defensively, unless you pull back from your lab focus in advance to horde cash, and again, with the Gaians, it is almost always more productive to run either 100% labs or 100% economy. To keep a 50/50 stance with this faction undoes one of your chief advantages. The real trick to playing this faction is in knowing when to run which setting, and that is determined by prevailing game conditions. Hybrids will probably want to run both Dem and Green unless game conditions turn nasty, in which case, the Hybrid player will likely drop Dem to go on more of a war footing, again, relying heavily on Native life forms to offset your otherwise less-than-remarkable troops. Deirdre, the Conqueror: Go Native! Forget Dem. Beeline for Flex and Planetary networks (Probes and boats), then to Green, catch as many worms as you can, run Econ. at 100% and build lots of probes. The probes will make up for your lack of research, infiltrate enemy datalinks, and augment your native attack force with captured enemy troops caught alone and in the open. Plus, the worms don't care what techs your opponents have and you're the best Psi-fighter in the game, especially if you zero in on Market-loving Builders (who probably also have a lot of nice techs you want). Again, the worm rush is vital to your success, so do not delay in building up your native attack force and constantly be scouting for opponents! And, once your attack force is on its way, focus on spreading your empire, growing lots of small bases to offset Green's growth penalty (you hardly feel it from size 1-2 bases) The Lord's Believers: At a Glance: +2 Support, +1 Probe, -2 Research, -1 Planet; 25% Attack Bonus General Notes: A superb faction, helped greatly by the Support bonus. The Believers get off to a slow start, but this need not be a crippling disadvantage. One good thing about it is that your bases will be laid out bette on your continent, as you will generally have more time to explore before you can start expanding. The planet negative puts you at a slight disadvantage when fighting the natives, unless you attack first, which more than negates your -10% penalty, and the Support boon lets you field more units per base in any event. Also, your attack bonus allows you to work your way to "Trans-elite" troopers, giving you an extra point of movement, and a 25% attack bonus above and beyond what everybody else gets too. Also, the ability to switch to Fundy and render your bases and units immune to subversion is a HUGE advantage! Oh, and remember, Miriam is the only faction in the game that can run Dem and still build a new base with free minerals! (The key advantage here being that you can have comparatively more bases before you start getting drone warnings due to size). A word of warning with this faction: If you are attacked by a psi-force, get as far away from Market as you can. In fact, it would be far and away in your best interest to run green when faced with such an attack, cos if you ARE caught by the worms while running Market, even with trance or empath-assisted troopers, there's almost no way you can win, especially if those worms are being controlled by Cha'Dawn or Deirdre. Miriam, the Builder: This might seem like a contradiction in terms, considering the slow start with research and the twenty percent higher tech costs, but in truth, you can offset both of these things with relative ease. Once you get Centauri Ecology, the boost in support enables you to crank out an obscene number of formers, very quickly moving to terraform the entire continent, and making all your bases that much more productive. Not to mention the fact that, as with the Spartans, most people will be content to leave you be if you play a Builder game, and odds are, they're just breathing a sigh of relief that you're not attacking them! If you ARE attacked however, your best chance at defending is with an active stance, using pre-emptive strikes to take advantage of your native 25% attack bonus and running Fundy to prevent subversion. Research wise, even when you're running Fundy, Network Nodes everywhere gives you a net gain of +10% to your research rates. Not nearly the boost it gives others, but then, you'll only be running Fundy if there's trouble brewing, otherwise, you're better served by some other SE choice (Dem springs immediately to mind here). You're cash is good (ability to run Market), your troops are good, and you can offset the research hit by a program of steady builds and active probe teams to keep up until your infrastructure is in place. The Miriam Builder game is by far the most active of the lot, as she must make early and regular use of probes to keep pace until the infrastructure is in place, but it's quite easily pulled off. Also note here, that when you play the Builder's game with Miriam, you will want to be very careful and specific about when you run Fundy. True, it gives you almost total immunity to enemy probe actions, but it utterly kills your research, regardless of your infrastructure, so use it only when pressed, or when pressing an attack against someone else. Miriam, the Hybrid: Miriam's Builder game is so active that there really aren't many differences between it and the Hybrid game, except that, where the Builder |
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