It's not easy being Green, or "why I play Gaian."

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Author Topic:   It's not easy being Green, or "why I play Gaian."

Schoop posted 04-19-99 09:46 PM ET
This is number two in a series of posts of my analyses of all the standard factions. Please comment, but keep within the topic of the faction.
Gaia's Stepdaughters are a well-balanced faction, able to compete in nearly any arena.
First, the Gaians have a +2 Efficiency. This means that they actually GET most of the energy that they are producing. This helps with the cash flow and the research. Secondly, it means that they can expand to a lot of bases before the bureacracy penalty begins. There really is no reason NOT to have a whole load of bases. The massive population possible here makes the Gaians a strong force in the political arena.
Another bonus, somewhat overlooked, is that they get an extra nutrient from fungus. This means you don't have to spend a lot of time clearing out fungus, leaving your Formers for other, better things. The boosted Planet rating means less to worry about here.
The other bonus of the boosted Planet rating is the ability to build an army of Mind Worms by capturing them. This is great, because it means that you get units that don't need to be supported. And, if you keep the Mind Worms you build in the Fungus you didn't clear away, they don't need support either. Oh yeah, and the Planet rating boosts your Psi attacks, making your Mind Worms even more fearsome.
On the flip side, the Gaians have -1 Morale and -1 Police. Neither of these is a serious handicap, but they can hurt. The -1 Morale means that you're probably better trying to accomplish your goals through peaceful means, but it can be gotten around with creative Social Engineering or building Trained Units. The -1 Police simply means that you may have to spend time building Rec Commons and the like, and that Nerve Stapling isn't an option. Make sure your one police unit has the Police skill, and you're golden.
Travathian posted 04-19-99 10:13 PM ET
Also, they can start the game building formers, which is nice if you have a crap starting location.
Koshko posted 04-19-99 11:58 PM ET
An added bonus to the Worms is that they treat Fungus like a road. This makes the Independants great for exploring.
Schoop posted 04-20-99 04:15 PM ET
DEFINITELY BUILD THESE
THE PHOLUS MUTAGEN
Watch your Mind Worms wreak even more havoc...
THE XENOEMPATHY DOME
Since you left that fungus lying around, shouldn't you get a movement bonus for going through it?
Thank Koshko for reminding me of that one.
HeatherWst posted 04-21-99 01:29 PM ET
The Gaians are my favorite faction to play, in general for the reasons listed above. The one thing I definitely do EVERY single time is get that Hunter-Seeker Algorithm built. Then you need not worry about the problems with probe teams. Also, before I'm able to build that, I like to keep mind worms around my cities so that they can destroy approaching probe teams.
Ghost posted 04-21-99 02:24 PM ET
The Gaians were my favorite to play for a long time... I still really like them w/ Abundant Life for really high scores, but currently I am sort of enamored of Probing, so I play more with Believers (how far I have fallen). I suppose I'll switch again soon and start playing something else.
I generally play with Spoils of War on, so I use mass Green conquer tactics to beat down enemy bases with captured mindworms, while concentrating my own development towards Weather Paradigm and the resource cap max removers. I slap down a few boreholes around my sea bases in preparation, and terraform UP until I have a group of bases quite high in the air. Combine that with Solar panels/farms/condensors and hybrid farm forests, both enhanced with strategically placed rivers, and you have a very potent resource gathering operation going on which will let you produce ridiculous amounts of energy (once you get supply crawlers, I tend to use them with Rocky Road mines or Boreholes to supplement the minerals from forests). You tend to grab conquer techs via conquering, so when your opponents start to pump out lots of anti-Psi, you should have a decent chunk of conquer tech, and hopefully a subjugated neighbor to get you more good stuff. If you can't do beatdown via early isolation, you can still go all Green with Dream Twister and Neural Amplifer... with both of these and your inherent Planet bonus your Psi troops will be able to absolutely pulverize anyone without both Psi defenses, and will still have a good fight against specific psi defenders (attacker tends to win). Some people think these are overkill when combined with Gaians, but I really like the way they let you pretty much avoid the arms race all together, and you can still build demon boils in the late game for 50 creds which are capable of easily smashing the crap out of singularity droptanks, and locusts for 100 which can destroy the vaunted sing/stasis gravship which is worth 3 times as much. Be damn careful about defending the base that has them, tho... one PB slips through and you are gone, and if your opponents find out where it is you better hope they don't use orbital insertions.
--the Green Ghost
ViVicdi posted 04-22-99 01:14 AM ET
Gaians are great. Early-game Planet rating kicks big time, and if you can capture just 1 worm, it can troll 3 fungus squares per turn and fight without the "hasty attack" penalty if it can't make a capture. Once you get enough worms out there looking under rocks the law of averages kicks in and you can bring in a steady income.
Meanwhile, later on the Efficiency starts to pay a huge dividend. Even during the earlier stages "Police State" will scale a little larger without as big a hit on your economy.
Finally, Eudaimonia makes the Gaians "complete", giving them at long last the economic advantages they lacked throughout most of the game.
And, of course, if you can get Dream Twister, you've still got some use for a Planet rating over +2.
So, let's see, Gaians are good at:
1. Early game
2. Mid game
3. Late game
4. Attacking
5. Expanding
6. Making money (worm farming)
And for that they aren't allowed to use "Free Market". I can live with that. It seems a little ironic that one of the three "scientist" factions would take what in essence is a research hit, but I'm not complaining ...
gauthijm posted 04-22-99 04:32 PM ET
How do you protect against PB if I cannot built orbital defense satellites yet ?
I play Gaian as my favorite BTW, but am now very scared by the opposition, that got the UN charter revoked. HELP !
take care
Jean
Lo_11 posted 07-29-99 11:19 AM ET
Back to the top...
Lo_11 posted 07-29-99 12:02 PM ET
I am currently playing the Gaian's with alot of bases. After about 35 land bases the names of the bases became:
Alpha Sector, Beta Sector, Gamma Sector, etc.
What are your favorite GAIAN STYLE basenames (especially ones you thought of yourself)?
Lo
Ronin_54 posted 08-03-99 03:10 PM ET
A lot of possible names...
Birth of Gaia
Gaia's Forest
Etc. Etc.
(I know about 60 more, but I cant decide wich one is best... YOu should look for web-sites on this topic)
Schoop posted 08-04-99 09:23 PM ET
I couldn't resist adding these to the list of Gaian base names...
Hidden Valley
Thousand Islands (for a water base)
Vorlin posted 08-30-99 08:40 PM ET
Gains are probably the best pod-popping faction in the game. Mind worms make great pod popping units (the wild mind worms won't attack them, you can try to convert wild worms or attack them for money, and you can move over fungus with them easily), and as they travel to the next pod they tend to convert another mind worm or two on the way which keeps the process going. Visit any monoliths you find, keep popping pods and converting wild worms, then when you are feeling frisky send your worm army to your nearest rival and raise some hell. Two birds for the price of one, and none of it interfered with your base building at all.
NotLikeTea posted 08-31-99 09:56 AM ET
I find that the +1 nutrient per fungus square is a real bonus, and possibly their best in the game...
Once you get to the mid to late game, and have collected enough of the Centauri type techs, fungus can give resources (3 2 2, I think) as good, or better, than a forest with a Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest, and for a lot cheaper, too.
Combine about 50% Forest with 50% Fungus, and a base is a joy to run.
SMAniaC posted 09-03-99 06:01 PM ET
A name I always use for the Gaians is
Fungus Lake City
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Author	Topic: It's not easy being Green, or "why I play Gaian."
Schoop	posted 04-19-99 09:46 PM ET This is number two in a series of posts of my analyses of all the standard factions. Please comment, but keep within the topic of the faction. Gaia's Stepdaughters are a well-balanced faction, able to compete in nearly any arena. First, the Gaians have a +2 Efficiency. This means that they actually GET most of the energy that they are producing. This helps with the cash flow and the research. Secondly, it means that they can expand to a lot of bases before the bureacracy penalty begins. There really is no reason NOT to have a whole load of bases. The massive population possible here makes the Gaians a strong force in the political arena. Another bonus, somewhat overlooked, is that they get an extra nutrient from fungus. This means you don't have to spend a lot of time clearing out fungus, leaving your Formers for other, better things. The boosted Planet rating means less to worry about here. The other bonus of the boosted Planet rating is the ability to build an army of Mind Worms by capturing them. This is great, because it means that you get units that don't need to be supported. And, if you keep the Mind Worms you build in the Fungus you didn't clear away, they don't need support either. Oh yeah, and the Planet rating boosts your Psi attacks, making your Mind Worms even more fearsome. On the flip side, the Gaians have -1 Morale and -1 Police. Neither of these is a serious handicap, but they can hurt. The -1 Morale means that you're probably better trying to accomplish your goals through peaceful means, but it can be gotten around with creative Social Engineering or building Trained Units. The -1 Police simply means that you may have to spend time building Rec Commons and the like, and that Nerve Stapling isn't an option. Make sure your one police unit has the Police skill, and you're golden.
Travathian	posted 04-19-99 10:13 PM ET Also, they can start the game building formers, which is nice if you have a crap starting location.
Koshko	posted 04-19-99 11:58 PM ET An added bonus to the Worms is that they treat Fungus like a road. This makes the Independants great for exploring.
Schoop	posted 04-20-99 04:15 PM ET DEFINITELY BUILD THESE THE PHOLUS MUTAGEN Watch your Mind Worms wreak even more havoc... THE XENOEMPATHY DOME Since you left that fungus lying around, shouldn't you get a movement bonus for going through it? Thank Koshko for reminding me of that one.
HeatherWst	posted 04-21-99 01:29 PM ET The Gaians are my favorite faction to play, in general for the reasons listed above. The one thing I definitely do EVERY single time is get that Hunter-Seeker Algorithm built. Then you need not worry about the problems with probe teams. Also, before I'm able to build that, I like to keep mind worms around my cities so that they can destroy approaching probe teams.
Ghost	posted 04-21-99 02:24 PM ET The Gaians were my favorite to play for a long time... I still really like them w/ Abundant Life for really high scores, but currently I am sort of enamored of Probing, so I play more with Believers (how far I have fallen). I suppose I'll switch again soon and start playing something else. I generally play with Spoils of War on, so I use mass Green conquer tactics to beat down enemy bases with captured mindworms, while concentrating my own development towards Weather Paradigm and the resource cap max removers. I slap down a few boreholes around my sea bases in preparation, and terraform UP until I have a group of bases quite high in the air. Combine that with Solar panels/farms/condensors and hybrid farm forests, both enhanced with strategically placed rivers, and you have a very potent resource gathering operation going on which will let you produce ridiculous amounts of energy (once you get supply crawlers, I tend to use them with Rocky Road mines or Boreholes to supplement the minerals from forests). You tend to grab conquer techs via conquering, so when your opponents start to pump out lots of anti-Psi, you should have a decent chunk of conquer tech, and hopefully a subjugated neighbor to get you more good stuff. If you can't do beatdown via early isolation, you can still go all Green with Dream Twister and Neural Amplifer... with both of these and your inherent Planet bonus your Psi troops will be able to absolutely pulverize anyone without both Psi defenses, and will still have a good fight against specific psi defenders (attacker tends to win). Some people think these are overkill when combined with Gaians, but I really like the way they let you pretty much avoid the arms race all together, and you can still build demon boils in the late game for 50 creds which are capable of easily smashing the crap out of singularity droptanks, and locusts for 100 which can destroy the vaunted sing/stasis gravship which is worth 3 times as much. Be damn careful about defending the base that has them, tho... one PB slips through and you are gone, and if your opponents find out where it is you better hope they don't use orbital insertions. --the Green Ghost
ViVicdi	posted 04-22-99 01:14 AM ET Gaians are great. Early-game Planet rating kicks big time, and if you can capture just 1 worm, it can troll 3 fungus squares per turn and fight without the "hasty attack" penalty if it can't make a capture. Once you get enough worms out there looking under rocks the law of averages kicks in and you can bring in a steady income. Meanwhile, later on the Efficiency starts to pay a huge dividend. Even during the earlier stages "Police State" will scale a little larger without as big a hit on your economy. Finally, Eudaimonia makes the Gaians "complete", giving them at long last the economic advantages they lacked throughout most of the game. And, of course, if you can get Dream Twister, you've still got some use for a Planet rating over +2. So, let's see, Gaians are good at: 1. Early game 2. Mid game 3. Late game 4. Attacking 5. Expanding 6. Making money (worm farming) And for that they aren't allowed to use "Free Market". I can live with that. It seems a little ironic that one of the three "scientist" factions would take what in essence is a research hit, but I'm not complaining ...
gauthijm	posted 04-22-99 04:32 PM ET How do you protect against PB if I cannot built orbital defense satellites yet ? I play Gaian as my favorite BTW, but am now very scared by the opposition, that got the UN charter revoked. HELP ! take care Jean
Lo_11	posted 07-29-99 11:19 AM ET Back to the top...
Lo_11	posted 07-29-99 12:02 PM ET I am currently playing the Gaian's with alot of bases. After about 35 land bases the names of the bases became: Alpha Sector, Beta Sector, Gamma Sector, etc. What are your favorite GAIAN STYLE basenames (especially ones you thought of yourself)? Lo
Ronin_54	posted 08-03-99 03:10 PM ET A lot of possible names... Birth of Gaia Gaia's Forest Etc. Etc. (I know about 60 more, but I cant decide wich one is best... YOu should look for web-sites on this topic)
Schoop	posted 08-04-99 09:23 PM ET I couldn't resist adding these to the list of Gaian base names... Hidden Valley Thousand Islands (for a water base)
Vorlin	posted 08-30-99 08:40 PM ET Gains are probably the best pod-popping faction in the game. Mind worms make great pod popping units (the wild mind worms won't attack them, you can try to convert wild worms or attack them for money, and you can move over fungus with them easily), and as they travel to the next pod they tend to convert another mind worm or two on the way which keeps the process going. Visit any monoliths you find, keep popping pods and converting wild worms, then when you are feeling frisky send your worm army to your nearest rival and raise some hell. Two birds for the price of one, and none of it interfered with your base building at all.
NotLikeTea	posted 08-31-99 09:56 AM ET I find that the +1 nutrient per fungus square is a real bonus, and possibly their best in the game... Once you get to the mid to late game, and have collected enough of the Centauri type techs, fungus can give resources (3 2 2, I think) as good, or better, than a forest with a Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest, and for a lot cheaper, too. Combine about 50% Forest with 50% Fungus, and a base is a joy to run.
SMAniaC	posted 09-03-99 06:01 PM ET A name I always use for the Gaians is Fungus Lake City