MOO3 Strategy from a BT: Part 1 (Humanoids)
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posting an 8-part series on his strategy for the different species. (Though
how he's going to post the one on the Harvesters before the game ships...)
http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=261632
Also, IGMOO has been blessed with many After-Action Reports from the Beta
Testers...
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Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Cybernetiks
Species: Cybernetik
Races: Meklar, Cynoid
Hardwiring:
The key thing to note with the Cybernetik hardwiring is that they eat half
food and half minerals. This is both a blessing and a curse. Your early game
expansion will be seriously hurt when you do not have the ability to freight
excess minerals to newer worlds. You have to be very crafty with what you
do.
Cybernetiks enjoy a HUGE bonus to manufacturing, the largest manufacturing
bonus in the game. They also enjoy an accuracy and initiative bonus.
Cybernetiks are also privy to a very high oppressometer tolerance.
Cybernetiks are the second most hated race in the game. Guess who's number
one
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Customization Options:
Customizing Cybernetiks requires some thought. You have to remember that the
half and half food verses minerals hardwiring. Cybernetiks could become a
very powerful war race, a very strong research race, and a very strong
senate race, just to mention a few. Cybernetiks enjoy cheap toughness picks,
Meklar enjoy some other cheap picks, but are penalized by not being able to
select superior Bioharvesting or fantastic traders.
Here is a custom race that many of the Beta Testers have enjoyed. I first
came up with the idea of recreating a Collectivist Cyborg empire (guess
where that idea came from). My first shot at this put a strong emphasis on
ground combat, several of the Beta Testers commented on the slowness of
research, I agreed, put more of an emphasis on research while sacrificing
ground combat skills.
Base: Cynoid
Bioharvesting: Poor (+0)
Mining: Superior (+0)
Manufacturing: Superior (+0)
Research: Good (+0)
Trade: Average (-40)
Environmental: Poor (+0)
Economics: Monetarists (+0)
Accuracy: Average (-10)
Reflexes: Average (-10)
Toughness: Average (-10)
Diplomacy: Poor (+0)
Government: Collectivist (+60)
Starting Senate Member: Random (+0)
Citizenship: Loyalty (+40)
Starting Minerals: Rich (+10)
Starting Biodiversity: Heterogeneous (+0)
Cunning: Slow (-40)
Creativity: Normal (-20)
Natural Engineers (+10) (Cybernetiks get this 10 points cheaper)
Tolerant (+10)
The main idea here is to customize a race that will have the highest
manufacturing capabilities of any race in the game. I don't know how you
could create a more manufacturing savvy race. Citizen Cain claims that his
Raas custom race can out perform this race in manufacturing. I disagree, the
Hardwiring numbers show otherwise. Raas have other benefits though; we'll
get into that later. Hopefully CK will grace me with a copy of his Raas
race.
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General Disadvantages:
The ½ and ½ rule significantly slows down your expansion speed. This is a
very difficult thing to offset. You have to really stress mining, even on
worlds where mining isn't necessarily a wise thing to do.
Most races will hate you or be indifferent. You have a chance to make
friends with Ichthytosians or Geodics, to others you will be a tough sell.
To offset these issues I like to put a slight research emphasis on physical
sciences, sociology, and occasionally economics.
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Development Plans:
Development plans a crucial to the Cybernetiks. I typically do the following
for my All Planets strategy, Primary Manufacturing, Secondary Mining, and
Tertiary Military, assuming I'm going on the warpath. With Meklar, doing
something research related is quite strong. Primary Research, Secondary
Mining, Tertiary Manufacturing, makes a very effective strategy.
Other plans you'll want to fill out are mineral rich (you want to mine
there) and mineral poor. Setting Mining as primary for new planets is wise,
secondary and tertiary priorities should be assigned according to your
general strategy. For Cynoids, Trade is an excellent choice. There is
nothing wrong with money.
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Research Strategy:
Physical sciences should be the focal point of your research. Cybernetiks
need to have that mining edge so you have the hope of keeping up any sort of
expansion. How much extra you want to put in is up to you. I'll go as high
as 40%, but not any higher. And I'd only recommend that if you're very
hurting for mineral resources. The nice thing about physical sciences is
that it has a lot of cool missile technologies in it, so you won't be
hurting in the weapons category.
Realistically, you'll likely only want to slightly favor physical sciences
and keep up with a reasonable amount of research in all of the other
schools.
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Game Play Strategy:
When playing Cynoids, a good plan is to search out Itchthytosian and Geodic
races and make trade agreements. Once you've got income coming in, you'll be
able to start exploiting your natural abilities. Going it alone with no
friends is a difficult prospect when the effectiveness of your empire relies
on trade income.
Playing Meklar is a bit of a different story. Meklar have really good spies.
With Meklar, you've got "war supplements". Spies help you damage the enemy's
infrastructure or steal Deep Extraction Mining from that slightly better
research race. Meklar have a shot of getting along with Insectoid races.
Meklar can't support many wars, but they can support multiple wars without
any allies. Effective spying makes a huge difference.
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Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Humanoids
Species: Humanoid
Races: Human, Evon, Psilon
Hardwiring:
The Humanoid population has a general dislike for oppression and war. This
is offset by a boost in research efficiency, senate effectiveness, initial
relations, and Casus Belli. Being that they are small, quick, and crafty,
they get a little bit of an initiative bonus in ground combat.
The Psilons get a further research bonus on top of the regular humanoids
that is offset by a significant population growth penalty.
Do not take this to mean that the Humans and Evon are identical, they are
not, there are slight differences in terraforming circles as well as other
presently unmentioned bonuses.
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Customization Options:
Customizing Humanoids is fun. They get that sweet Representative Government
pick for a total of zero points. The representative government series is
hands and feet above the other, non collectivist, government types. When
customizing Humanoids, I usually go for the trade/diplomacy/spy type races.
My favorite Humanoid race is one designed to get that 'X' win (I like the X
win). Try this puppy on for size:
Base: Psilon
Bioharvesting: Poor (+0)
Mining: Poor (+0)
Manufacturing: Average (+0)
Research: Superior (+0)
Trade: Average (-20)
Environmental: Good (+20)
Economics: Specie (+0)
Accuracy: Poor (-10)
Reflexes: Poor (+0)
Toughness: Poor (+0)
Diplomacy: Good (-20)
Government: Representative (+0)
Starting Senate Member: No (+10)
Citizenship: Duty (+20)
Starting Minerals: Abundant (+0)
Starting Biodiversity: Diverse (+10)
Cunning: Sharp (-20)
Creativity: Original (+0)
Anataran Background (+10)
The idea behind this races is to grab as many reasonable worlds as you can
on the fringe of the galaxy and research like mad. In the mid game, you'll
have to venture into the galactic core to stop those pesky senate victories.
The diplomacy is knocked down just a touch because if you run into others in
the fringe, you'll want to be friends and not enemies. Diverse biodiversity
(whoa, that's a mouthful) is nice so that you can deal with the inevitable
food shortages you will have while expanding quickly in the early game. On
the tenth turn you should be able to build a colony ship every four turns.
Leave no green world un-marked for colonization for the first fifty turns,
unless it's a frontier with a possible enemy.
One final note, switch your government to Republic on the first turn and
adjust your oppressometer. The Republic government has the highest
oppressometer tolerance out of all the representative government types.
Corporate also has a high oppressometer tolerance, but reduces research and
recreation.
Have fun!
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General Disadvantages:
Humanoids are incredibly sensitive to enemy spies, especially in the early
game. Picking Republic or Corporate governments is a way to combat this a
little, but may cause a disruption in your general strategy. I prefer to
deal with enemy spies by raising the oppressometer a couple notches and
offset the unrest by spending additional money in unrest reduction and
having a fair amount of Recreation and Military DEA's on most worlds.
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Development Plans:
This really depends on what you want your Humanoids to do. I like having the
following development plan "All Planets: Research Primary, Trade Secondary,
Recreation Tertiary". With this base plan, most of your worlds will have one
Recreation DEA, and most will have a plethora of Research DEA's. Having
Government as a tertiary priority on "New Planets" will put one Government
DEA on most worlds as well.
It is important to fill out "Mineral Rich", and "New Planets". I like to
define a player defined plan that focuses on Manufacturing, Infrastructure,
and Military (in that order), for worlds that I feel should be building most
of my Military (like Magnate Civilizations.)
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Research Strategy:
Research is very important for Humanoids. Typically you should be leaps an
bounds over everyone save that crafty Trilarian player. If I am away from
the senate I like to put 30% into Economics and Sociology and do an even
split across the other schools. If I start in the senate or finally reach
that other empire, I'll typically drop economics and sociology down to 20%
and split evenly amongst the rest.
The reason for doing this is the combination of economics and sociology go a
long ways towards making your research engine even stronger. Sociology also
has many advances in it to help you deal with spies. Dealing with spies in
the mid to late game is EXTREMELY important to stop those vile enemies from
stealing an Antaran X from you while you are researching it. Once you've
gotten an X, especially the second X (my favorite), beefing up research in
weapons is a good plan. People will start to declare war on you. Unless you'
re Evon, in which case you are likely already at war!
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Game Play Strategy:
Over extension is a mild problem with Humanoids. Expand at a comfortable
pace in the early game, if you manage to find a biodiverse world than it may
be safe to expand a little faster. I prefer to capitalize on research whilst
playing Humanoids, but building a strategy based on light warfare
supplemented by spying works okay also. Try not to be at war with too many
empires at once, your people will not approve.
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Craig Powers
> Lore_Weaver, one of the lucky stiffs who got to be a beta tester, has begun
> posting an 8-part series on his strategy for the different species. (Though
> how he's going to post the one on the Harvesters before the game ships...)
Well, the answer to that one is, he's not. :-)
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Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Saurians
Species: Saurian
Races: Sakkra, Raas, Grendarl
Hardwiring:
The Saurians are a fairly robust species. They are fairly militaristic in
nature, and thus enjoy some ground combat initiative and strength bonuses,
as well as a despotic/tribal society that lends itself to oppression.
Saurians enjoy an increased pollution tolerance, as well as a population
growth bonus. The Grendarl have a slightly higher growth rate than the other
Saurians. I typically favor the Grendarl for this reason, but their economic
and research suffers more than the other Saurians.
A wider range of planets is available to the lizards, and this plays well
with their hardwiring.
Saurians will almost always be at war with Ichthytosians wherever they exist
in the galaxy.
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Customization Options:
Customizing Saurians, in my opinion, isn't necessary. The stocks Saurians
are all quite formidable. However, there is nothing wrong with making the
Saurians jive well with your playing style. While I do enjoy the production
savvy races, I typically enjoy them in the form of Cybernetiks. The nice
thing about Saurians though is their wide terraforming rings allows them to
conquer Magnate civilizations easily and their stock picks are fairly
average in nature (favoring military over research though). All these things
are key when customizing your Saurian race.
To save space (and typing), I've decided to only list the modifications I
make to the custom races.
Base Race: Raas
Mining: Superior (+40)
Economics: Monetarists (+20)
Accuracy: Poor (-20)
Reflexes: Poor (-20)
Diplomacy: Average (-20)
The main idea behind this race is to have stronger mining and economics
skills to further overdrive industry. With the higher mining ability, you'll
have less of a need for Mining DEA's to run your industry. This frees up
more space on your worlds for Industry DEA's. Now that you have an increased
amount of Industry, it's time to drive that industry with your
stronger-than-average economy.
The thing that makes this race strong is the base race. Raas have the
largest terraforming circles out of the entire Saurian species. This allows
them to colonize more worlds and acquire Magnate civilizations. Magnate
civilizations are incredibly important to this race because of its
lackluster ground combat skills.
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General Disadvantages:
The base picks for all three of the Saurian races aren't anything to write
home about. They are all tweaked towards Military supremacy type games.
Their research skills are below average and it is quite expensive to
increase them. Saurian spies are also quite average. Any war that the
Saurians are a part of needs to be won by the strength of their military.
Due to the lack of economic and research skills, this military tends to be
lower in quality. Hardwiring offsets this a little. Grendarl have no problem
with troops, they have the second most powerful troops in the game. Sakkra
have less of a technology problem, Raas make up the difference with
increased numbers. All three races, however, lack the two abilities that
their brethren specialize in.
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Development Plans:
Development plans for the Saurians should revolve around military. Military
is an odd thing to add to any development plan. Military DEA's are important
to keep down unrest (for when you backstab that empire right next to you),
and to train your ground troops faster. I prefer the following development
plan for all three Saurian races, All Planets: Manufacturing primary, Mining
Secondary, Military Tertiary.
Using Player Defined category, Mineral Poor, or Low Biodiversity for Primary
Research is a good plan. I like to place Core worlds on research as well.
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Research Strategy:
For the first hundred turns, I prefer to place 30% in both the Physical
Sciences and Energy Schools. I'll typically take this away from Social
Sciences (who need society?) and Biology (The Saurians are all decent
bioharvesters). Putting Mathematics between 17-20% is a good idea too; it is
an important supplement to your weapons research.
The point behind this research strategy is that Energy and Physical Sciences
is the core of most weapon technologies. Staying competitive with your
military technologies is very crucial to your success as a Saurian player.
This research strategy allows you to quickly crush your near by neighbors
and have an empire that has a respectable presence in the galaxy.
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Game Play Strategy:
Saurian strategy is all warfare related. The three base races treat warfare
a little differently, so I'll break them up and discuss them each on their
own.
Sakkra: The Sakkra should attempt the X victory, it's a little harder than
the Orion Senate victory, but it is significantly more rewarding. Your early
game should be crushing your neighbors with your superior military and
making strong allies with any Ethereans you come across. An Antaran X
victory should take you somewhere between 300-500 turns. If you start
outside of the Senate, it is EXTREMELY important to fight your way into the
core of the galaxy and hunt down all reasonable sized empires that are
senate members. If you cannot contain the Senate members, you will lose.
Raas: Raas should go for a sole survivor victory. Your manufacturing
capabilities allow you to build a large fleet, and in the mid game you
should have a large enough empire to support a large number of ships
economically. Again, if you are outside of the senate you must kill the
stronger senate members. Raas empires can go for the X win, but you'll
probably be able to win by sole survivor much sooner (depending on Galaxy
size).
Grendarl: There is a lot to be said for diplomacy by force. Grendarl enjoy
the highest growth of any Saurian species, thus the Senate victory is a good
option for them. They key is that you MUST hunt down and DESTROY COMPLETELY
all Insectoid members of the senate. They have a higher population growth
rate than you do. Grendarl are the second best ground troops in the game.
Policing the senate should not be an issue for them. Once you've nailed the
Insectoids, with the help of your trusty Etherean friends, a Senate victory
should be in the bag by turn 120-200. If you don't start in the Senate, one
of the other two victory conditions will have to suffice (unless you can
worm your way into the senate). The non-senate victories are fairly
difficult for the Grendarl to achieve. That being said, Grendarl are my
third favorite race in the game to play. I have a soft spot for beefy ground
troops
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Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Itcthytosians
Species: Itcthytosian
Races: Trilarian, Nommo
Hardwiring:
The highlight of Itcthytosian hardwiring is their oppressometer tolerance.
They have the highest oppression tolerance of any species in the game,
including the Magnate civilizations. Their watery heritage gives the
Itcthytosians keen senses, thus giving them a respectable bonus to ground
combat Initiative and Evade skills.
Itcthytosians have a reasonable amount of choice when it comes to planets.
They like the thicker atmosphere worlds that have cooler temperatures.
Cooler and denser worlds are preferred over their Saurian descendants
predilection.
Itcthytosians are guaranteed to be at war with Saurians, they almost have
more distaste for Saurians than they do for Harvesters. As an Itcthytosian
player, you'll be fairly good buds with any other species. Trilarian and
Nommo have Good and Superior diplomacy respectively, thus making your stay
in the galaxy reasonably pleasant.
Itcthytosians cannot select superior toughness. Nommo cannot select slow
cunning. Nommo get Citizenship picks for half price.
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Customization Options:
The biggest choice you have to make for your custom Itcthytosian is the base
race. If you plan on customizing something with strong citizenship, Nommo
are an excellent starting block, they only have to pay 30 points for
loyalty. Trilarians start with loyalty, but because they didn't pay half
price for their Citizenship picks, they gain 20 points per level of
Citizenship they drop. Here is a custom race for you Itcthytosian fans to
try out. It's designed to get that Antaran X win, my favorite sort of win .
Base Race: Trilarian
Trade: Good (+20)
Starting Member of Orion Senate: Yes (+10)
Citizenship: Association (-40)
Antaran Background (+10)
This isn't much of a change from the standard Trilarian Empire; the extra
trade is nice to overdrive your industry with. You will not be short of
money with this race. Antaran Background is like having free research labs
on all your ships (kinda sorta), this will come in handy when you're sending
out Antaran eXpeditions. Starting in the senate will be a load off your
chest. Fighting your way into the senate with the weaker Itcthytosian
military is not fun. So this way, you can win by senate, or vote for the New
Orions to stop the Insectoids from winning (accursed bugs). You'll want to
sign trade agreements with everyone you meet, save those evil Saurians. Be
careful whom you ally with, you don't want to be dragged into some psycho
war with your allies. Humanoids and Ethereans make good friends though.
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General Disadvantages:
Itcthytosians have some of the worst ground troops in the game. They get a
spiffy hardwiring bonus to their ground troops, but it's not enough, they
start with poor toughness, and the Nommo have poor accuracy and reflexes.
Nommo are easily the worst ground troops in the game. Nommo also have the
liberty pick to start with, this makes them very vulnerable to Social spies
that can sneak past their boarders. Other than their strong research
abilities and beefy oppressometer, they really have nothing going for them.
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Development Plans:
Your development plans should be focused on research. Itcthytosians have a
strong oppressometer and that will save your research engine from any
mishaps. ANY game where you play Itcthytosians you should have research with
a primary emphasis. If you are playing Nommo, recreation should make it in
as a tertiary, or even secondary, plan. If recreation is secondary, make
trade your tertiary, Spaceport DEA's and Recreation DEA's get along quite
well. When your playing Trilarians you don't have to worry about moral, so
Recreation can be omitted from your general strategy.
A Player Defined category is a wise thing to set up for worlds that you
think should be manufacturing worlds. I typically prefer larger worlds with
poor minerals, and Magnate civilizations to do manufacturing for my
Itcthytosians. Even Gnolams fight better than Itcthytosians. However, you'd
want to emphasize trade on any Gnolam world.
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Research Strategy:
Research strategy for Itcthytosians is fairly simple. This will be familiar
to you MoO2 veterans, get research techs, and go nuts! To do this, I put 20%
on both Economics and Sociology, then an even 15% amongst the remaining four
schools. This gives the Itcthytosians a massive research boost while keeping
them on the cutting edge of military technology.
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Game Play Strategy:
Itcthytosians have a hard time fighting their way into the galactic core to
stop possible Senate victories. If you want a challenge, play on Hard or
Impossible and keep re-starting until you aren't in the Senate, and good
luck. If you do start in the Senate, you have a reasonable shot at a Senate
victory. It depends what other races are in the senate at the start of the
game. I strongly recommend going for the Antaran X victory every time you
play Itcthytosians. Sole Survivor is possible with Trilarians and Nommo, but
very long and difficult, especially when you run across more militarily
savvy races.
Research is the key for both Itcthytosian races. Your success or failure as
an empire is based entirely on your research ability when you are an
Itcthytosian.
If you are an Itcthytosian fan, and it's your first time playing the game,
if you don't start in the senate, don't expect to win .
Another important thing for your Itcthytosian Empire is acquiring ANY other
race to do your ground combat for you. Itcthytosian troops are terrible.
Because both Itcthytosian races are very diplo-savvy you may be able to
trade some high technology for a world. Your best chance would be with an
Evon empire, Itcthytosians have a good relationship with Humanoids, and Evon
are quite respectable ground troops. Magnates are nice if you can find them
as well.
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Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Ethereans
Species: Etherean
Races: Imsaeis, Eoladi
Hardwiring:
The most important thing to remember with Etherean hardwiring is the planets
they prefer. Not just the fact that they prefer gaseous worlds, but the fact
that they prefer gas GIANTS. You can fit a heck of a lot of people on a gas
giant. Those very rich, size twelve, extreme gravity planets that have a
classification of "Red 2" for most races can very well be "Green 1" for our
Etherean pals, not to mention that these planets can hold a good 130+ pop
points worth of people, and Ethereans like extreme gravity.
The Ethereans sport a mediocre oppressometer tolerance, so switching from a
Corporate Monarchy over to Despotism will take you several turns to adjust
too. If you start in the Senate, it's a worthwhile switch.
The Ethereans airborne nature confers a respectable Ground Combat Initiative
bonus, the Ethereans also sport many tentacles, thus providing them with an
extra Ground Combat Attack. The difference between Etherean hardwiring and
Ichthytosian hardwiring, with respect to ground combat, is Ethereans get an
extra attack, while Ichthytosians get a sizeable evade bonus. In my opinion,
the ability to shoot twice is better than the ability to dodge half the time
(pseudo example, in game mechanics are -WAY- more complex).
Ethereans cannot select superior toughness or mining. Eoladi cannot select
poor Bioharvesting. Imsaeis get cunning picks for half price.
Ethereans don't get along with Cybernetiks or (*gasp*) Harvesters. Everyone
else is your friend.
(And none of you guys complained about me spelling Ichthytosians wrong in my
last instalment :-P)
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Customization Options:
Ethereans lend them selves well to expansion. Imsaeis and Eoladi both have
superior bioharvesting, thus allowing them to more easily feed their
ever-growing population. When customizing Ethereans, it's best to stick with
a peaceful approach, you may have better troops than the Ichthytosians, but
that doesn't mean you're the king of town (see the Ichthytosian guide). I
prefer to base my customizations off of Imsaeis because I'm 'very very
sneaky'. Stock Eoladi start with original creativity, so if your looking for
a lax research race, start with Eoladi and get your 60 points for knocking
that down to imitative.
Base Race: Imsaeis
Starting Member of Orion Senate: Yes (+10)
Citizenship: Duty (-20)
Cunning: Dangerous (+30)
Creativity: Normal (-20)
There's a long story behind this seemingly simple race. I first tried it in
an MP game against Kebzero. The idea here is to win by Senate. Ethereans can
expand like mad because of their bioharvesting skills. Imsaeis superior
diplomacy keeps the AI from interfering with your plans, and keeps the New
Orions happier with you. The spies are meant to fight wars for you, and
steal tech that you cannot research.
This custom race can win the game, in the larger galaxies, as early as turn
120. My quickest victory was a Senate victory on turn 125 (depends when the
Senate convenes). If you don't find many magnate races, your victory won't
be as quick as that, but it's defiantly possible to win by turn 200 without
Magnates.
Just don't fight any wars. Your spies should be able to keep everyone's
economy at bay.
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General Disadvantages:
Etherean troops are not that great. You'll beat the sushi out of
Ichthytosians, but that's about it. In every other case, you'll want some
extra numbers to make up the difference. If you can take another races world
through diplomacy, or a magnate civilization, you'll be fine for ground
troops for the rest of the game.
Ethereans don't have much oppressometer tolerance.
If you expand like crazy with the Ethereans, as you should, you will have
trouble defending many of your worlds from possible enemies. Signing
defensive alliances with many computer opponents is a wise plan.
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Development Plans:
As an Etherean player, you have to carefully plan your overall strategy.
Whether you're going to capitalize on research, or manufacturing. I myself
prefer playing Imsaeis, who don't have strong research skills, but are
endowed with good mining. A manufacture based strategy that is designed for
insane early game expansion is a very good idea.
If you're playing Eoladi, a research heavy set of development plans is a
very good idea.
All Etherean players should be defining mining as primary on mineral rich
worlds.
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Research Strategy:
A general research strategy is effective for Ethereans, favoring no school
over any other. Let the viceroys handle it. In the case of the custom race
supplied, putting an emphasis on sociology is a wise plan, to make your
spies quicker to build and more effective. Eoladi are very fast researchers,
and can typically stay only a few steps behind Ichthytosian or Humanoid
players. Imsaeis don't research near as well, and have to rely on their
slightly better diplomacy skills to net them their technological advantage.
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Game Play Strategy:
Kebzero and Deb Durham play Eoladi almost exclusively. When switching to
other races, the first thing they notice is that they run out of food.
Etherean empires can build quite a large and effective empire out of only a
handful of good systems. In a recent game, I found three size eleven and
twelve gas giant worlds that were all green class in one system. That is a
little on the lucky side, but you'll find that most solar systems have a gas
giant in it that is worth colonizing. Colonizing yellow class planets is
wise if they have rich minerals and extreme gravity.
Etherean players should avoid war whenever possible. Armed with enough
allies, or superior technology, you should be able to trounce an empire or
two at a time. You won't likely have the ability to defend your empire from
multiple opponents, Ethereans don't work that way. You'll have to make
friends. Keep diplomatic channels open whenever possible. Ask for trade
agreements, if no more non-intelligence agreements are available, trade for
technology. Be sure to put the right emphasis on your diplomatic
communications, this is more crucial for Ethereans than any other race.
Sakkra respond well to demands from larger empires, Grendarl like to be
treated honorably. Make sure you pay attention to the foreign matrix.
Breaking a non-aggression pact with someone who is at war with an ally of
yours is better than cheesing your ally off. Chances are that you'll still
have a friendly relationship with the empire you had the non-aggression pact
with.
If you do not start in the senate, you should try and peacefully get a
foothold in the Galactic core in hopes that you will be given Senate
membership. It doesn't hurt to butter up the New Orions either. Give them a
world that doesn't matter, or something. Anything to get positive relations
with them so they are more likely to support your senate membership that one
of your allies likely proposed.
Winning by Antaran X's or sole survivor is tougher with the Ethereans
because both options require more of a militaristic approach. If you start
in the senate, you should go for the Senate win, thus Antaran X's and Sole
Survivor should be your strategy ONLY if a senate win is unavailable to you
(can't get into the senate, or senate victory turned off). An Antaran X's
win will be easier and quicker than a Sole Survivor win.
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Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Geodic
Species: Geodic
Races: Silicoid
Hardwiring:
Geodic are, again, a very unique race in the Master of Orion universe. The
previous games in the genre had Silicoids thriving on any world, hindered
only by population maximums. In Master of Orion III, Silicoids received a
very similar treatment, except they get a further population growth penalty
on worlds they dislike.
Geodics have a mediocre oppressometer tolerance, much like the Ethereans.
Starting off with an Oligarchy or Monarchy is usually the standard way to go
with Silicoids, switching to Despotism can be a touch rough.
Geodics are hindered by a substantial population growth penalty. This is
offset by an HUGE mining efficiency bonus, a ground combat armour bonus
(rocks are really hard), a couple extra hit points in ground combat, and the
fact that they use minerals for food instead of bioharvest units. This does
not mean Bioharvesting is unimportant though; we'll get to that later.
Silicoids cannot select superior bioharvesting, poor mining (don't know why
you'd -want- to), or superior reflexes. Silicoids pay 50% more for Research,
Trade, Diplomacy, and Creativity picks. Natural Engineers is free, Tolerant
costs an extra ten points.
Most races are indifferent towards Geodics, except for Cybernetiks and
Harvesters, both of whom dislike Geodics.
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Customization Options:
Geodics are very fun to customize. One thing you must keep in mind at all
times is the fact that your people eat minerals. If you have any hope of
expanding at any speed, you need very good mining skills. Geodics are my
personal favorite species in Master of Orion III. This custom race was
designed with the movie "Galaxy Quest" in mind.
Base Race: Silicoid
Bioharvesting: Poor (-20)
Manufacturing: Good (+20)
Environment: Good (-20)
Economics: Specie (-20)
Accuracy: Average (+10)
Reflexes: Average (+10)
Government: Collectivist (+60)
Citizenship: Association (-20)
Starting Planet Mineral Richness: Rich (+10)
Starting Planet Biodiversity: Similar (-10)
Creativity: Normal (-20)
The idea behind this race is to give it a sizeable mining bonus so expansion
isn't slowed down by the Silicoids need for minerals. Either collectivist
government supplies a very nice bonus to both mining and bioharvesting. The
slight bump in combat values is for flavor, "It doesn't have any weak spots,
it's a ROCK!"
This race is most effective when it takes over other races. This is true for
most Geodic games, but even more so for this race. You need the research
abilities that other species have to offer.
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General Disadvantages:
Geodics have many major problems they have to solve every game. You have to
make up for your bad research, your terrible diplomacy, and your slow
population growth.
Luckily for us, Geodics start with a fairly high Creativity pick, thus
saving their research engine a bit. Diplomacy though will always be a
problem, people will be very indifferent towards you and you will not be
able to count on diplomacy as a strategy. As a Geodic player, you will never
be able to overcome your population growth issues. You must conquer another
race, or find a magnate race to conquer.
Thankfully you have some very competitive ground troops, and are able to
manufacture a fleet very early in the game.
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Development Plans:
Geodics can do amazing things with manufacturing, so it's a good idea to
design a development plan that will yield a large military. I prefer the
following for the "All Planets" plan, Primary Manufacturing, Secondary
Research, Tertiary Military. You don't want military any higher than
tertiary because you don't want more than one (maybe two) military DEA's on
any given planet. Research is important to keep your empires equipment up to
par.
Mining is very important to Geodics; in the early game you will likely have
mineral problems. I suggest setting Mineral rich worlds to, Mining Primary,
Mining Secondary, and Mining Tertiary. You want those rich worlds to mine
like there was no tomorrow. Also setting up mining as primary on new worlds
is nice.
As always, having Government as Tertiary on new planets is a good as it
encourages viceroys to build a government DEA on each new world.
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Research Strategy:
Physical sciences are very important to Geodics. Much of your game you will
be waiting for Deep Extraction Mining, Full Crust Mining, or their ilk.
Sometimes these techs get pushed back the tree a bit. There is nothing like
striking up a conversation with some local Ethereans to get that Mining DEA
enhancement.
I'd recommend pushing your Physical Sciences school as high as 40% and then
spread the remaining 60% equally amongst the remaining five schools.
Realistically, you'll likely only feel comfortable with 30% in physical
sciences.
This emphasis on Physical Sciences will yield missile technologies, mining
DEA enhancements, and new ship hull technologies.
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Game Play Strategy:
Over expansion rears its ugly head when playing Geodics. In the early game,
you can typically only support one or two additional worlds without fear of
starvation. I'll typically let some of my Geodics starve so I can expand at
a much more reasonable pace. It is very critical to take over another race
early in the game. This is for two reasons, you want population that doesn't
eat minerals, you want to slaves. Slaves work hard and generally do good
things for your empire. Crank that FLU meter as high as it'll go every game
you play with Silicoids, milk those softies for all they're worth. If you
decide to follow that strategy, building a single Bioharvest DEA on your
homeworld (or first colony) is a very wise idea, so you can freight food to
a newly found Magnate civilization, or that race you just conquered.
Due to the toughness of Silicoid ground troops, a single troop transport
containing three units (infantry or marines) can easily be enough to take a
world of respectable population. If you have fewer troops than the enemy,
using bio or chemical weapons is an option worth thinking about.
Silicoids, because of their growth issue, will have a tough time winning the
game by the Orion Senate. Silicoids should not have any problems with the
other two victory conditions though.
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to his posts, so if you want the up-to-date stuff, please visit this thread:
http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=261632
Last post from Lore_Weaver's series, at least until the game ships (he'll do
the Harvesters and short ones on the Magnates after it's in our hot little
hands):
Lore Weaver's Strategy Guide: Insecta
Species: Insecta
Races: Klackon, Tachidi
Hardwiring:
The best thing about the Insecta species is they get the best government
series for free. Collectivist governments give you a lot of good bonuses,
with very few, or negligible, minuses. Hive governments have an aversion to
recreation, other than that; there aren't any notable pitfalls.
Insecta have a mediocre oppressometer tolerance, the largest growth rates in
the game, the Tachidi have a slightly higher growth rate than the Klackons.
The Insecta enjoy a slight bonus to ground combat initiative.
The Insecta species cannot select citizenship: liberty. Tachidi get superior
manufacturing for half price (Klackons start with superior manufacturing).
Tachidi are the "everyone's bugs", basically they specialize in no specific
area and are quite average across the board. Insecta species can downgrade
their government, but they don't get many points back for doing so.
Klackons, on the other hand, are extremely specialized. Klackons get
superior bioharvesting for half price, pay 50% more for Research picks, pay
50% more for Creativity picks, and get environmental picks for half price.
Insecta species don't get along with Geodics and Harvesters.
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Customization Options:
Insecta are one of the most fun species to customize. Tachidi are fun
because they start quite average, therefore you can go in several directions
with them. Klackons can be specialized towards environmental options, or
towards farming, or towards combat. The tough decision is what to take away
from them when specializing them. Lets give it a crack though. I call these
babies the "Army Ants".
Base Race: Klackon
Bioharvesting: Superior (+10)
Environmental: Superior (+20)
Toughness: Average(+10)
Diplomacy: Poor (-20)
Citizenship: Duty (-20)
This race beefs up the Klackons combat ability from average to almost
competitive. The key with these Klackons is their environmental bonus and
the bioharvesting bonus. Both Collectivist governments grant a sizeable
bonus to bioharvesting, so food won't be a problem for these bugs. What
these guys won't be doing is researching. You have to expand, and then
expand some more, and when you're done expanding, do some more expanding.
These Klackons want to conquer using their vast fleets (from their insane
manufacturing). Citizenship: Duty is a huge hit. Not having to worry about
unrest is really nice, but there isn't much else to take a hit on.
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General Disadvantages:
Insecta ground troops chime in as average. They are better than Psilons,
Ethereans, and Ichthytosians. Tachidi are slightly better than Klackons
(slower but tougher). Insecta can use their good manufacturing to overcome
this penalty. It doesn't take long for Insecta planets to be in full
operational mode either.
Klackons chime in as the worst researchers in the game. Tachidi are slightly
better, but still pretty bad. Spying to make up the difference is also not
an option, Insecta sport the worst spies in the game also. The Insecta also
don't have good diplomacy skills. You're going to have trouble with
technology all game. One way to offset this is to have many research
colonies.
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Development Plans:
Insecta have a lot of disadvantages that they need to make up for with their
development plans. What you have to decide, first and foremost, is what kind
of worlds you want to do research on. I like to research on mineral poor
worlds, but that's just my preference. Other players like to do industry on
poor worlds. One thing you can do is setup a player defined plan that has
research, research, and more research. Once this plan is defined you can
apply it to specific worlds right after you colonize it. I'd recommend
applying it as the secondary plan though, so if the planet falls prey to
unrest or starvation you can have a development plan automatically deal with
it for you. The nice thing about this approach is you can have planets with
rare plants, petrochemicals, animals, or metals defined as research worlds.
Another thing you want to do with development plans is emphasis
manufacturing so you can expand. Stock Klackons are capable of building a
colony ship every other turn in the early game (turn 30ish). You should
always strive to achieve that goal. Insecta don't just make a footprint on
the galaxy, they ARE the galaxy.
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Research Strategy:
Talking about research in an Insecta guide is an oxymoron. Regardless, you
want to slightly favor biological sciences so you have technology that
supports your expansion. Physical sciences are nice to favor also, to
support your manufacturing. All other technologies are just nice to have.
When you enter some system with ten times more ships than the enemy, it
doesn't matter that you have light armour on all your ships and everything
shoots fusion beams.
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Game Play Strategy:
The stock Insecta are some of the best races in the game. If you start in
the senate, you should have no trouble winning. Your fast expansion and
quick growth rates mean victory. You may have to compete with the Ethereans
for that senate victory, but you can squash them like .. . bugs.
If you don't start in the Senate, your race to the center should not be that
challenging. Don't expect to get into the senate, but you can remove
possible senate victors with no trouble.
Going for a sole survivor victory is likely much quicker in small to large
galaxies than an X victory. In larger and huge galaxies, X victories are
much more viable.
I strongly recommend that you play an Insecta race for your first Master of
Orion III game. It's a great way to ease into the game, if you start in the
Senate, you may even win your first game, if you're playing on easy.
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the Print-Friendly version. Not only is it easier to save to your hard
drive (which I do), but you can print a cleaner version.