Faction Profile: The Morganites

[Aureustgo]

Starting Tech: Industrial Base (B1)

Advantages: +1 Energy, +1 Commerce. Morgan also starts the game with +100 Credits.

Disadvantages: -1 Support. Morgan requires hab complexes for bases to surpass population 4. He can’t even effectively pop boom via planned economics.

Natural Ally: Lal of the Peacekeepers. Morgan will also often ally with Deirdre of the Gaians and Zak(harov) of the University.

Target Techs: Flexibility (E2), Centauri Empathy (E3), Industrial Automation (B3), and (if the game goes that long) Biomachinery (B7).

Target Special Projects: Human Genome Project, The Virtual World, The Cloning Vats.

Overview:
Morgan is one of the more interesting powers to play in Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. At first blush his disadvantages are crippling, making the faction a decided challenge on Transcend. And yet his restrictions can be mitigated in some unusual ways, while his strengths can be leveraged to become almost overpowered. In experienced hands Morgan can be among the strongest of factions. More than anything, the faction is fun to play because of his distinctive penalties and rich flexibility in strategy and tactics.

[Misanthrope]

I typically play on one step down from transcend, so while still plenty challenging, lot less likely to GET Lose'd.

The way you said that was almost like an advertisement for Morganites, so now I'm curious what sort of style you play with and what your victory objective is... Economic, I'm assuming?
CURSE YOU!  It's LATE and now I wanna go fire up that game! 


Me with my OCD, I always go for ascent to transcendence and I'm a relentless builder, so for the original game, University is my weapon of choice with  Peacekeepers as a close second.  In 'Crossfire, Cybers are my OP faction.

[bvanevery]

One problem I currently have with my mod, is I think I broke Economic Victory.  You need much more stupendous quantities of cash to win that way, than I think anyone is going to bother with in the real world.  Part of it is from messing with mind control cost, I think.  The other is I readjusted the dynamic range of all the COMMERCE bonuses, so that it's not possible to get stunningly far ahead with those.  Previously I had the problem that I'd accidentally made E.V. rather trivial!  I remember being quite surprised at some point in my modding, that Morgan was threatening to win with only 1000 credits invested.  Sorry but that's way too cheap.

[Aureustgo]

Keys to Success

1. Learn to maximize Morgan’s greatest advantage - an extra 100 bucks to start the game.

The main reason this is so powerful is because Alpha Centauri is a game of compound interest: the more bases one has, the more tech one can develop, the more stuff one can have, leads to more of all of these things as the game develops. How one uses these credits depends on player style but it’s best to exhaust them as soon as possible, so that the compound interest kicks in sooner.

a. Rush purchases of colony pods.

Morgan grows (spatially) faster than any other faction. The sooner one can push these pods out the better – usually the very first turn a base’s population grows to 2. This plays to his natural desire of spamming bases due to his hab complex restriction. This has the added benefit of sealing off opponents territorial claims – sticking one’s bases as close to the border as possible can prevent their runaway development. Well played, Morgan can starve out nearby opponents.

b. Rainy day fund: scouts, attackers, or defenders.

Scouts (and guns foils) are critical for defending bases and finding unity pods, which are the easiest sources of energy credits in the game. The more uncovered, the more this money can be funneled into rush purchases and more compound interest. Early on, Morgan is also adept at raising an army very quickly. This typically happens when he needs to crush early hostiles like Santiago of the Spartans or Yang of the Hive, rushing his first laser speeder or laser squad (before they obtain Industrial Base).  In unusual cases, Morgan may need to finance defenders, depending on the neighbor.

Morgan’s extra 100 energy credits are generally worth the equivalent of one-and-a-half additional colony pods to start the game. Of course, game dynamics can suggest moving into another direction, such as with an early discovery of Biogenetics.  How well one executes early rush purchases will greatly shape Morgan’s game arc. Done right, it has the potential to limit or completely overrun his opponents.

[Misanthrope]

Wow, you're not kidding you're working for early victory.  Are you playing transcend on micro-maps?

With a huge map, it takes longer to FIND Everyone usually, so my instinct is to dive right into spreading and building up well-connected bases because the games I play are always in for the long haul.
Am I reading this wrong?

[Aureustgo]

Wow, you're not kidding you're working for early victory.  Are you playing transcend on micro-maps?

This thread presumes standard Planet size, vanilla SMAC, blind research. Standard map is pretty big, but it's not uncommon to be wedged between two (or three) other factions turn 1. (Some mods have sought to eliminate this possibility, sadly). The game is a race from turn 1. Some of this thread will naturally apply to other factions as well. As an example, with standard settings, I would argue it's wise for every faction except possibly the Gaians to seek out Applied Physics as their first tech.

[bvanevery]

Standard map is pretty big, but it's not uncommon to be wedged between two (or three) other factions turn 1. (Some mods have sought to eliminate this possibility, sadly).

SMACX AI Growth mod assumes a Huge map as its center of design.  All gameplay and balancing are calibrated for that.  My world generator is more "continentally" than vanilla SMAC.  It's going to give you larger land masses in wider, serious oceans.  Map-wide archipelagos never happen; supercontinents that cut the oceanways in half, or convolute them in big mazes, happen fairly frequently.

I did not change the faction placement algorithm, as I don't do binary modding and don't have access to that.  All I did was adjust map conditions to eliminate problematic behaviors.  For instance, I don't think 1x1 islands ever occur.  I haven't seen a faction get stuck on one of those on Huge maps, and once upon a time I verified this up to my defined "Enormous" map size, which is the point at which such elimination can still be guaranteed.  After that, map size causes faction placement bugs.

Anyways, on a Huge map in my mod, you will usually have room to do what you like.  However it's still possible for an enemy to start right next to you, and for them to have cut off your land access, because you happened to be on the end of a peninsula and they were more on the main body of the continent.  You are unlikely to be cut off by more than 1 faction though.  Generally speaking I haven't seen that happen.

In my mod, you can also build ships immediately.  This is very important for the viability of the AI if given a subpar start.  It is also way less frustrating for human players, not having to go through some mandatory exceedingly punishing delay ritual just to get colonies founded. 

I don't think having multiple factions super crowded is a good idea, because it pretty much guarantees 2 of the AI factions are going to get "runted".  It is in effect as though you are playing against fewer opponents.  Although that might be fun for someone who enjoys gaming the hapless AIs to their advantage, from a challenge standpoint I don't think it's a good idea.

[Aureustgo]

2. Keep an eye on the money.

Morgan’s only has one social engineering bonus. Is that measly plus-one economy worth it?

First, the fact the Morgan is one of three factions with just a single bonus (or less) suggests that it is something to pay attention to.

Second, unlike all the other social engineering bonuses, economy is fungible – completely malleable to the faction’s needs at any instant (war, production, psych, research, whatever).

Because of this lone bonus, Morgan always seems to have money lying around – a lot of it. With the game being basically about money, this is kind of important.

At +1. Morgan’s flat bonus affords him to be very flexible in social engineering. Next to Zak and Deirdre? No problem, just green it up and go knowledge, with the efficiency gains offsetting some of the lost revenues and helping deal with all the drones. In fact, I almost always play green. As an added bonus, there’s no faction to object to it. Even at +1 Morgan can run out of things to buy. His energy stockpile can often raise an army in a single turn, or renovate his entire economy for research in short order, depending on the circumstance.

At +2. This is where Morgan really shines. There is a big leap from +1 to +2 Economy, with added energy generated from each square. (In addition to a massive amount of energy credits, it helps generate the psych necessary to address drones that inevitably come from his sprawling empire). Every other faction needs the crippling free market to make this happen, at least until the late game, but Morgan just needs wealth.

At +3. The free market is unpractical in many game situations, but it is a nice option for Morgan to consider if he’s stuck on his own island without trade agreements and tech exchange.

If that weren’t enough, more than any other faction, Morgan:

1.   develops effective probe teams (quickly assembled, and loaded for bear);
2.   has the ability to bribe (delay) hostile neighbors (from interfering in his building endeavors, of course);
3.   can frequently rush purchase secret projects, particularly the one he’ll want the most (well, second most): the Human Genome Project.

In sum, Morgan’s plus-one makes him extremely wealthy, but also adaptable and flexible to game developments.

[Aureustgo]

3. Know your limitations.

Morgan has two restrictions – he can’t use planned social engineering choice and his cities require a hab complex to grow beyond 4. As it happens, these are basically the same restriction and trivial, in most cases. In the right hands, they are just interesting “features” of a Morgan game.

1. No planning – let freedom ring!

Since Morgan can’t practically pop boom, there’s no point in aiming for large base populations (in the early- to mid- game) and instead focus on base sprawl. And with forests such a valued terrain type (and one should be planting lots of them), there’s usually not enough nutrients for most factions to worry about pop booming early anyways. Besides, planned’s efficiency penalty would dampen Morgan’s ability to sprawl, which every faction would want to do if they had a choice. (Do restrictions that point the player to a winning formula really count as “restrictions”?)

Through mid- game, Morgan cares more about territory, technology and potential, than population. If his faction power bar is half that of the leader (or better), Morgan is in charge. If he targets Bioengineering he’ll reliably churn out the Cloning Vats before anybody else. To begin with, everyone else doesn’t really need it and will prioritize other things. And even if someone did want it, few will have the productive juice to outdo Morgan’s wallet to rush purchase.

By late- mid-game, with tree farms and hab complexes standard to his bases, expect a meteoric surge through the leaders (to victory).

2. A habit over hab complexes

This is really just an analog to the restriction on planned and is side-stepped in the same way- Morgan should emphasize having many small bases.

As a plus, knowing that a base is tapped out at 4 makes it effective to transition away from nutrients to mines or forest squares, helping boost short term output. (It also conserves land for crawler parks). In addition, in late- early game or early- mid game, Morgan doesn’t have to waste time building hab complexes and dedicate those precious resources to network nodes and the military instead - doing so helps secure a large amount of territory, and then keep his web of bases secure and up-to-date.

All told, Morgan’s restrictions don’t limit his game, they just change the way it looks and its growth timing. Given all of his many advantages, a good Morgan player should consistently be a powerful force.

[bvanevery]

Since Morgan can’t practically pop boom,

Democratic = +2 GROWTH
Children's Creche = +2 GROWTH
Golden Age = +2 GROWTH
+6 GROWTH = Pop boom

With all of Morgan's money, he should be able to get Golden Ages going with the right happiness infrastructure.

[Aureustgo]

4. Going Green.

Morgan’s one social engineering penalty – minus-one Support - is a little more tedious to avoid. Clean reactors aren’t a practical solution. At first blush, this means Morgan should be focused on upgrading or disbanding obsolete units. The quality, rather than quantity, of his army is central. Bear in mind that probe teams do not require support, which plays well into Morgan’s hands as being the best prober in the business. On top of these tactics, I recommend a more indirect long-run strategy. While what follows can be said about other factions too, it is especially true for Morgan: find the Nexus Manifold.

The Nexus Manifold

Morgan should do whatever it takes to claim this landmark, which nets a plus-one Planet rating, permitting the capture of mind worms. If Morgan gets the manifold it is literally game over and he should never lose (or, at the very least, not to the AI). The manifold’s bonus helps Morgan more than anybody because it addresses all of his limitations and synergizes with all of his strengths:

1.   All factions should be building scouts to target fungus squares early to raise energy from mind worms, and Morgan’s early cash bonus enables him to do it quickly;

2.   Capturing mind worms allows Morgan to raise an entire army that is independent, and doesn’t need base support, obviating his -1 penalty. (It has the added benefit of keeping the AI off his back to build away, since they’ll view Morgan as a powerful foe). Mind worms also overcome deficiencies in power reactors in combat;

3.   After securing an army of mind worms, Morgan can turn free market if need be and go to war without incurring drone problems because the worms are independent. Even better, Morgan can readily use green and enjoy the efficiency gain needed for his sprawl, raising a bunch of money just through mind worms (sometimes, it gets to be a problem where his capture is so good that you’d prefer the energy instead). In effect, gaining the benefit of free market with none of its shortcomings. Again, this sets Centauri Empathy (E3) as a major target tech for Morgan;

4.   The speed at which mind worms are captured is close to geometric – it doesn’t matter that Morgan has small bases; the “fungal production” taking place allows Morgan’s bases to focus on something else, effectively mimicking the production power of a larger base. More, since Morgan’s bases are generally small, the relative production benefit of worm capture is greatest for him.

The landmark is so important because in most games Morgan can get the 'fold a lot sooner than Centauri Empathy . Owning the landmark can’t be guaranteed, but the first thing Morgan should do is emphasize exploration.

1.   Morgan’s top research objective is Doctrine: Flexibility (E2). After Applied Physics (which is an optional, but common safety play in the case of unruly neighbors), Morgan should just switch to “Explore” on blind and leave it there. It can often be acquired as his third tech. (As an added bonus, Morgan’s extra energy makes him a pretty good early researcher);

2.   Gun skimships are important for most factions, but especially so with Morgan. Rush purchase these to get the unity pods (for compound interest), but also the manifold’s location. Between speeders and foils, Morgan should have a good shot at landing the landmark. If necessary, it is worth abandoning Morgan Industries for a new order in the ‘fold;

3.   Don’t trade Doctrine: Flexibility unless circumstances force it or it’s a massively large land mass. The last thing Morgan wants is competition over unity pods and getting in his way of colonizing the manifold;

4.   Don’t get fancy. Plant a base right next to another faction to “peaceably” backdoor into the territory necessary to secure it. Park a base right next to the manifold when there is even a hint of competition, ignoring other negative factors (poor terrain, no water access, etc.). It may even be worth buying a rival’s base if it gets the manifold with it (haven’t tried this). A short war is also advisable if the ‘fold can fall into your hands.

In short, the Manifold Nexus is a race and Morgan is probably the best equipped to go after it.

[bvanevery]

I don't think you play on Huge maps routinely.  Capturing the Manifold Nexus isn't an automatic slam dunk for any player.  It could be 3 continents away with a twisting maze of sea-land-sea-land in between.  With canal choke points that someone 'fun' like the Nautilus Pirates blocks off with a sea base.  Or you could just have a supercontinent which spans the entire equator.  No sea access between halves of the world, and the Nexus is in the other half.

You take the Nexus if it's feasible.  You don't just take it because you want it and think it's "important".  Lots of things can be "important".  Like Mt. Planet, the Garland Crater, or the Borehole Cluster.

Beating the fungus for mindworms can make you money, particularly if you're stuck on a small island, and need to scrape up enough dough to make a social engineering change.  I've done that with Chairman Yang enough times.  But killing mindworms should never be compared to popping supply pods.  The latter are insanely more profitable, and the real basis of an Exploration economy.  It's fairly easy to drain the entire map, even a Huge map, of supply pods before the stock AI ever gets around to it.  It's so profitable that it's pretty routine for me, no matter what faction I'm playing.

Mindworm armies "far afield" are brittle.  They tend to get cut apart by counterattacks, typically from a Recon Rover you didn't see.  Mindworms are most effective when marching with conventional forces, who can shield the badly wounded mindworms from counterattack.  Of course, conventional forces are going to make a stock game Free Market unhappy.

The best kind of warfare for a Free Market is adjacency warfare.  For that you need someone adjacent to you to stomp.  If you can take a base next to your empire in 1 turn, you don't have an unhappiness problem.  Wet, lather, rinse, repeat.  No Independent troops required.