Faction Profile: The Spartans

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Faction Profile: The Spartans

Starting Tech: Mobility (E1)

Advantages: +2 Morale, +1 Police. Prototypes at normal cost.

Disadvantages: -1 Industry.

Natural ally: Anyone who’s okay with Green, and to a lesser extent, Knowledge. So Lal, Deirdre, Zak, etc.

Target Techs: Standard targets in an Explore strategy (c.f.): Secrets of the Human Brain (D2), Centauri Empathy (E3).

Target Special Projects: None. If you have to hunt, it's more about stealing those that other factions want. And maybe HGP and other standard SPs for an Explore strategy.

Overview:
Santiago is an intimidating leader/faction. With her mobility and morale advantage you can steam roll just about anybody that you run in to (if you want, that is). What is impressive is the breathtaking speed at which you can do this. You don’t really care about certain techs (other than standard targets) because the simple fact is no one is going to want to mess with you. If they do, they will be crushed. Like the Gaians, you don't even need Applied Physics to eliminate an early rival. The faction is fun to play with early on because of the easy access to rovers and elite pod popping potential. One of the strongest, if not the strongest, Explore strategy factions (at least against AI competition, the default).

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Keys to Success

1. Use your rover(s).

Santiago’s keys to success are similar to Deirdre in that she can be dominant in exploring Planet. Thanks to her initial rover, she'll literally explores the map twice as quickly as anybody else (though Deirdre catches up a bit after her first capture). This means 1) tons of pod popping (usually lots of credits, tech, and more rovers) and 2) finding pressure points to seal in your AI competition, and building new bases with those locations in mind. That you can build another rover in a couple turns (or have one magically completed for you turn 2), is a big advantage on the other factions.

If that were not enough, her morale bonus really helps in taking out (and surviving) early mind worms. That extra percentage goes a long way, helping to sustain strong pod popping potential. With that in mind:

A good tip is to hit flat pod hexes at the start of your turn, so that you can strike an unwelcome mindworm with your second move, rather than have your rover injured by its attack. While it may seem like you're slowing your expansion down, it doesn't usually work out this way. Not only will this get you more credits by being patient, in the long run your exploration potential goes up because you're not losing crucial early rovers. It also gets them to Elite more quickly. Hexes that aren't flat are often (though not always) worth working around in favor of finding/claiming new territory safely, awaiting your 2nd and 3rd rovers to support those pods, if necessary.

As suggested above, forget the scout - makes 2 or 3 more rovers with Sparta Command to get your expansion really cooking. If it's large landmass, you'll be so dominant/game over within 20-30 turns you may want to quickly restart. On islands, you can cut rover emphasis back a little. Bear in mind you can often leave your home base unguarded in the early going (though be aware of fungus...). So after you've done that, get the scout, then shift to colony bases, armed with all the credits and tech your rovers have uncovered...

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2. Explore, explore, explore.

I find that, given their fairly straightforward advantages and disadvantages, Spartans are relatively simple in their strategy (Explore). One can read up on the related article here: https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21753.0

So I thought I'd round out their keys to success with more thoughts on exploring and tactics, particularly given the Spartans start with a rover. The discussion applies to other factions too, however.

i. If you play "look first," it is rarely worth changing the location of Sparta Command. The exceptions I see for this is either to put your colony base: 1) onto a special resource (which can conveniently exceed resource limits); or 2) on the coast, so that you can produce gun foils. In either case, it's probably not worth moving more than a space or two to secure the privilege. Delaying your first base just ends up delaying your ability to explore, as you will want your rover or scout to join your initial rover.

ii. It's probably obvious, but you'll want to see your relative position on the map before you decide how to move your starting units. Being on the top or bottom edge of Planet is nice for the Explore strategy, as you'll end up with an ungodly amount of territory most of the time, which is the key to victory. On the other hand, being more in the middle encourages more faction contact and with it, more trade and technology. For this kind of situation, the following points are more relevant.

iii. I strongly recommend moving towards your neighbor if you know where they are. One can sometimes see this by noticing Sparta Command's (or any other later base) sphere of influence extends less than 7 squares in any one direction. I like to move into neighboring areas as far as I can - before I'll reasonably draw contact with one of their units - and then plant my base, nabbing more territory in the process. Obviously, if you get too greedy, you'll make contact and you'll need to reverse course, which wastes time.

iv. When planting new bases next to an established neighbor, make sure to position them right on their border. Usually there is a critical border point that will penetrate your neighbors border the most. You can then creep in further with future bases. Actual resource availability in this situation is of secondary importance. As discussed in the Explore primer above, the AI does not know how to play when its borders are hemmed in tight, and you'll gain area (and game) dominance very quickly.

v. With Mobility [E1] as your starting tech, you'll get Flexibility [E2] before any other faction - a big plus. As stated before, this is a target tech for any faction and you should not give it out unless you get Biogenetics [D1], which is another target tech that helps give you one of the best secret projects in the game, the Human Genome Project. Usually its wise to keep Flexibility to yourself because gaining access to sea unity pods is the fastest way to new tech and large war chest, and it also enables you to grab more continents for yourself. Of course, if it's a large land mass game, sure, give it away.

vi. A related point is, if you know there is active ("abundant") fauna (from experience earlier in the game), be very careful in popping sea pods. In many case they will be isles of the deep, and take you out, setting back your game in a big way. The Sargasso Sea is usually worth exploring as soon as possible. But this counsel is exactly backwards in active fauna games, where you'll likely just reveal 4-5 isle of the deep and waste your time. Come back later when you have some green bonus or multiple foils.

vii. Since you'll be hitting the most unity pods, more than any other faction, you'll want to manipulate your production so that when you discover resupply pods it'll complete things of actual value. So switch over to network node rather than former. Recycling tanks rather than scout. Etc. If there's no resupply pod, switch back. It's usually worth wasting a few minerals to allow for this benefit, which can happen a lot more than you think. At the same time, if for some reason you want to force a different result (or just not have your scout be completed), put your production on a secret project instead. Spartans, like a few other factions, are well equipped for these in the early going, as you can score early unity rovers and command centers with very little sacrifice.