Faction Profile: The Peacekeepers

[Aureustgo]

Starting Tech:  Biogenetics (E1)

Advantages: +1 talent for every four in base population. Base population can exceed pop limits by 2. Gains double popular votes for council meetings.

Disadvantages: -1 Efficiency.

Natural ally: Builder types, but Lal will often ally with everyone.

Target Techs: Applied Physics (C1), Secrets of the Human Brain (D2) and Centauri Empathy (E3).

Target Special Projects: None.

Overview:
Lal is the middle-of-the-road faction. No real disadvantages, and no real (immediate) advantages. The definition of flexibility. Mastering Lal lays a good blue print for all the other factions. Expect to be planetary governor for a long time…

[Aureustgo]

Keys to Success

1. Claim the throne

Lal’s primary advantage is gaining double popular votes for council meetings. This means that, when controlled by a human player, Lal should almost always be the planetary governor. Some housekeeping items:

a. Lal will want to call the meeting as soon as possible, and so gaining all the commlinks of other factions is important;

b. It should be obvious but, when you call the meeting, make sure you can win it. While this almost happens by default, because Lal’s bonus is so powerful, in some unusual cases it may be important to wait a couple turns until your population bumps up or buy some votes. Waiting a few turns is better than waiting 20;

c. Don’t worry about the Empath Guild, although it’s nice to have;

d. The primary benefit of being governor is the measly plus-one Commerce rating. The reason is that, other than Zak, the peacekeepers are the most vulnerable faction in the game to be overrun by aggressive neighbors (the others have natural immunity: Miriam and Santiago, self-explanatory; Morgan (cash); Yang (perimeter defense); Deirdre (worms)). The added energy inflow from commerce ensures a steady income and technology, helping Lal build up suitable defenses, ensuring survival in the early game. This bump in energy can also happen in the mid- early game, when research stagnates because other things (exploration) have been prioritized over network nodes and biology labs;

e. The governorship gives Lal datalink infiltrators will all the other factions, which is very powerful and should be exploited accordingly. Enemy of the Hive? Maybe he’s got a base that hasn’t upgraded to plasma (or even synthmetal!) yet, and your recon rovers can take them. Competing over special projects? Take a look and see how much added effort you’ll need to get it done in time. Miriam declaring war? Identify if she’s even a threat or her point of attack when she is. Concerned about probes? Look around and see if there’s any in production (… or lurking around). The infiltrator bonus is particularly neat since the governor can often be called long before (D2) Planetary Networks is discovered;

f. Nothing out of the ordinary needs to be done to maintain governorship. To begin with, most of the builder factions will naturally want to ally with you, and with it, usually their vote. Further, alliances and Lal’s expanded pop limits should produce a healthy population. More, double the votes is a lot. Even early growth in the Monsoon Jungle is not enough to overtake Lal’s bonus. If an AI faction has more than twice Lal’s population it is less “how do I get the governor now,” and more “how did I screw this up?”

Most games should be long over (in effect) by (C6) Mind-Machine Interface, but Lal’s bonus nevertheless helps with supreme leader votes, making this probably the easiest path to officially claiming victory.

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2. Maximize what you can

Lal has no real game play advantages, but those he has should be put to good use.

First, Lal has the best starting tech in the game and it’s not even close. Biogenetics: (i) is an important stepping stone to Secrets of the Human Brain, which Lal will want as soon as he can get it (for trance defense, Centauri Empathy, and perhaps a free tech too); (ii) offers the Human Genome Project, one of the best pound for pound special projects; and (iii) provides for Recycling tanks (regardless of whether they’re actually cost-effective in the real world), which are dynamite in SMAC.

A short digression: At +1/+1/+1, amounting to an average square’s resources, tanks effectively double a pop 1 base size. In most cases (bases of 1-3), tanks increase pop by at least 33 percent. Some argue an early former is better… but the equivalent of a farm, mine, and solar panel take 16-18 turns to build. The tank will take maybe 5 added turns to complete… or 35 extra credits if rush purchased. 35 credits for 16+ free turns is a good tradeoff. Moreover, plants aren’t prone to getting killed, have their work destroyed… and they store value too - one can even get 20 credits back in a pinch. Better yet, they can also come free…

Second, Lal should make a habit to switching to recycling tanks prior to popping unity pods. You’d be surprised how many times he’ll get a free one. Because of its impact on base production, this is a huge early game advantage. Only Miriam, Santiago and sometimes Zak are other factions that can reliably benefit early on by this play, and they don’t benefit as much.

Third, Lal gets along with everyone. Since democracy is such a poor social engineering choice, he rarely provokes the Hive or Believers. And while that is true for all factions, most factions have a social engineering choice they’re built for, but that which comes with the tradeoff of angering others. (Spartans also benefit from this dynamic). Running a green economy, with wealth or knowledge depending, pretty much guarantees Lal lots of friend.

Fourth, that extra talent comes in real handy. For starters, leaving a base with no units/police can be done in the early game without incurring drone riots. This helps expand, expand and expand. Furthermore, base sprawl is made much easier with a built-in Human Genome Project. And speaking of which, scoring this secret project can more easily create golden ages that facilitate pop booms, if for some weird reason Lal has relatively few bases.

But Lal is quite vulnerable to getting attacked in the early game, which means Applied Physics should be his top priority. He doesn’t want to get caught with his guard down. Recon rovers are usually sufficient to keep potential aggressors honest. Lal may want to target (C2) Non-Linear Mathematics if next to one of the more aggressive nations. The Manifold Nexus and green economics are also targets for Lal to mitigate this risk.

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3. A potpourri

There are often articles stating three ways to play: Builder, Conqueror, or Hybrid (a mix of the first two). But there’s a fourth way… Explorer.

While all good play styles emphasize exploration, and creation of bases, Explorer supercharges them. This style of play sometimes goes by the term ICS ("Infinite City Sprawl"), but I think there are some important nuances worth discussing as it relates to SMAC. What follows elaborates on the points raised in other Profile articles, and generally applies to all factions.

On matters of bases:

Favor horizontal growth to vertical, especially early. The reason is that it is much easier to compete horizontally than vertically.

Why? The superficial reason is because it is almost always better to have six pop 1 bases, than one pop 6 base – 12 squares of production, vs. 7. But the more important reason is that more bases take more territory. The AI (and to a lesser extent, a human player) is not well equipped to create and manage a few, very large bases. They stall, and then hibernate when they need sea pods to bust out of regions of control. By contrast, the AI can leverage its power much more efficiently from having a large nexus of bases.

(In a good game, without any conquest, I'll have 20-22 bases by MY2190 or so (about 1 new base every 4 turns), encapsulating as much as half the map. Most games are a bit less, but that's the objective).

So take their territory away from them:

a. Early game resources should be spent on exploration and expansion – scouts, gun foils (when wet), pods. Don’t waste time with crèches, nodes, (many) military units, command centers. Mix in secret projects that can help sustain your explorer-centric empire - the Human Genome Project being particularly useful;

b. Contrary to the other styles of play, as Explorer, bases don’t need mutual defense... because you generally won’t be fighting. The first 100 turns usually mark the length of the game, for all intents and purposes. I call this the “land grab” phase. Stick bases 5, 6… 8 spaces apart, where possible. (My last game with Lal I planted my 2nd base ten squares away from headquarters). To do this, one will often want to plant bases right on the border of other factions, and race to critical points to hem them in. Also, by casting a wide net there’s a beneficial side-effect: suitable areas for crawler parks (even if one won’t really need them);

c. Deprive the AI of important technologies. Don’t foolishly give up Flexibility, and to a lesser extent, Secrets of the Human Brain, and (E1) Centauri Ecology. Without them, factions may have to expand very slowly;

d. Curiously, as Explorer, one wants to ensure peace on Planet. Having factions at war with one another can be helpful (as they drain each other’s resources), but if it’s the Hive, Spartans or Believers, these can overtake other factions like a Christmas Tree on fire, giving them a sprawling empire - the thing one is trying to prevent. Equally, with a bit of experience, your own faction can avoid conflict all game (or until it is academic);

e. Don’t waste time and energy on social engineering choices that slow exploration (democracy, planned and free market are particularly crippling). This is why pop booming is overall a bad strategy. By the time pop booming doesn't come at high cost (i.e., result in sacrificing the land grab), one should already be the runaway leader.

This works well for all factions (and interestingly, for different reasons), but some are slightly better at it. As a human player, one should look out for these and take steps to ensure they don't get in your way. The Gaians, for example, are particularly crafty in taking prized territory.

[Aureustgo]

3. A potpourri

More general rules:

On matters of energy use:

(i) Have very little energy credits on hand after each turn – like close to zero. This is especially true early in the early game, where every turn counts. After all, energy in reserve doesn’t collect interest. Instead, putting this money towards tanks, commons, and pods speeds up the growth and compound interest. One should always have something worthwhile to buy out, even if they are just colony pods (although base size and population growth may be a limiting factor). As you play more you’ll get a better sense of when holding onto 50, 100, or 200 credits makes sense;

(ii) Rush purchase… a lot. As Explorer, those free 10 minerals (50 energy credits) are the entire game. They greatly lower the cost of important purchases – 60 for tanks or impact rovers, 25 for formers and recon rovers. It’s cheaper to rush purchase incrementally (first to 10, and then to the finish) than all at once, which is one reason the Spartans are so weak. Likewise, democracy is a particularly poor social engineering choice as its negative Support penalty eliminates this bonus for all but the Believers.

(iii) Keep an eye on efficiency. In some cases, one can run 100% research with little to no penalty, which is often worth it because (when) energy credit can be readily found from other sources (pods, worms, conquest, etc.) while research cannot.

On matters of secret projects:

(i) Favor secret projects that give you a special benefit that can’t be easily replicated. Even better if they help as Explorer. Weather Paradigm, Human Genome Project, and Planetary Transit System are better than Command Nexus (you won’t be fighting), Citizens’ Defense Force (ditto), Virtual World (except Zak) in most cases;

(ii) Favor secret projects that actually help you, not just those that ought to help you. 200 and 300 mineral projects take a lot of time and resources, and so it's usually not worth wasting them on projects that provide little benefit unless you're going for score or trying to get all of them. Sometimes it can be useful to build a sub-optimal one just to deprive them from another faction, but that's rarely effective (taking the Command Nexus before the Hive or Believers is a notable exception, however). Some special projects that can be overrated: the Merchant Exchange simply doesn’t do enough unless you are playing sub-optimally (have a large base) - it's usually better to wait for a better project to come along than squander built-up resources on it; the Neural Amplifier is certainly neat, but most worm-focused tactics will favor attack not defense – designating cheap defenders is a less expensive fix; the Maritime Control Center can be a big deal, but it has little impact on a large land mass. And so on;

(iii) Have one or two special projects ongoing at all times, even when there’s nothing to build. It is often worth timing the new construction of a secret project the same turn it is built by another one of your bases. This helps have a leg up on a special project important to Explorer by switching over production as the suitable technology is discovered or acquired.

[Aureustgo]

3. A potpourri

More general rules:

On matters of social engineering:

(i) SMAC has an overarching bias in favor of environmentalism, manifested in skeptical views of markets (free market), religion (fundamentalism), and wealth (wealth). This tilts the game play very strongly in favor of green economics as the key social engineering choice. So goes this new religion, the incentive is to meld with Planet and fighting it just makes the game harder.

Implications:

a. All the Centauri techs are targets for play in the Explorer style, particularly [E3] Centauri Empathy which is a literal game changer. Green can be undertaken by every faction, and this should be done right away. It has literally no downside, especially if bigger bases are giving you drone problems;
b. Gaians are ridiculously overpowered, but getting the Manifold Nexus can be equally (fun, but) unbalancing;
c. (Vertical) growth is expensive: ecological damage, pop limits and expensive buildings to break them, costly social engineering choices (if pop boom), and a small territorial footprint. Strangely, small bases all over Planet aren’t deemed anti-environmental.

(ii) Maximize whatever positive Planet rating you’ve got. Getting to plus-three or beyond is quite nice, as it maximizes capture probability. This gives a great mixture of new musters and a steady flow of income. A favorite tactic is to find Sargasso with two gun foils and just churn out legions of isle of the deep. (I like to rotate the isles around my foils, for mutual defense). There is no way for the AI to counter, which is why most games should be over with Centauri Empathy.

On matters of military:

(i) Favor rovers over infantry. But consider this: forest, mines, or fungus outside your base can look great until there’s somebody in it that you don’t want. Plan ahead: develop areas on your inner flank and flatten rocky areas, clear out forest and fungus out on your outer flank. Not only do defenders get +50% on defense in such terrain, but rovers lose their attack bonus. On the outer, rely on farms and solar panels;

(ii) Build enough military to get unity pods and deter aggressive neighbors. And sure, crush Miriam or Yang very early if you can arrange for it. Otherwise, it’s much easier to win peaceably;

(iii) Gun foils are great for popping sea pods, but those isle of the deep can wipe out your investment. Try to: a) wait until you have 4 movement points, so you can flee an isle that gets revealed; and b) avoid unity pods that are in fungus squares unless you’re really desperate;

(iv) This could be a style of play difference, but I almost never build defensive units. My base unit is 1-1-trance, which one can get relatively early (if you're lucky) for the base 10 minerals. As mentioned earlier, a) you won't be fighting as Explorer (in general) so don't waste the minerals nor on the prototypes. Related to this point, you won't be building perimeter defenses and so added defensive prowess is rarely beneficial without this base facility. Armor can be added to cruisers and shock troops if the game goes long for some reason; b) the unit is catered well for whatever defense you do need, namely vs. native fauna; c) most of the time you'll want your bases to be geared for decisive counters anyways, whether that's with a worm or suitable rover.