Which is the best faction in Final Frontier?

Which is the strongest Faction in Final Frontier?

  • Astrocorp

    Votes: 3 4.5%
  • Brotherhood

    Votes: 3 4.5%
  • Halis

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • New Earth

    Votes: 8 12.1%
  • Paradise

    Votes: 4 6.1%
  • Red Syndicate

    Votes: 36 54.5%
  • The Forge

    Votes: 5 7.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 5 7.6%

  • Total voters
    66
Joined
Oct 29, 2001
Messages
739
Location
Burlington, VT
After playing Final Frontier for the past few days, I've decided that the factions arn't very well balanced at all. That is, some are much better than others.

Personally, I think The Red Syndicate and Forge are the strongest and New Earth is probably the weakest. Which faction do you think is the strongest and why? Also, assume that Red Syndicate gets +1 trade routes instead of +2, the creator of the mod already said they were overpowered with their initial bonuses.
 
Oh yeah, the 'Other' category of the Poll was for the Anowers of knowledge, I just couldn't remember their names at the time.

And playing the mod some more, aside from the really painful process of growing from size 1 to size 2 with The Forge, they appear to be the strongest faction overall after the Red Syndicate bonus is reduced from +2 trade routes to +1
 
Hey DarkSchneider, strange that you didn't get any replies on your thread. I voted for The Forge but I think that Paradise also has its advantages. You don't have to build those +1 commerce improvements on every single planet any more. That saves a lot of time. In normal Civ games, you have workers to do the tile improvement part (so it's independent). In FF you have to choose whether to build units or to boost your planet's productivity. I think time really matters here.
 
I'm still a bit new at the game, but that -1 food for the Forge seems like a killer. I found a beautiful 7 planet star system next to my homeworld, settled there and found I had STAGNANT growth. On marathon with no tech trading, I decided to retire.

Red Syndicate just seems sick. Why would they do that? And New Earth? Do they need that much of a penalty?
 
Red Syndicate, even reduced, still has substantial advantages. The AI does very well with them, and unless someone knocks them back in a war, they tend to run away with tech.

I think Paradise is next, it can make money faster and expand earlier as a result, which makes a big difference. The Forge, while it has a big bonus, makes up for it with a serious penalty. The Avowers are decent and with good scouting luck can amass a serious tech lead.

New Earth isn't bad if you can force colony expansion early and grab resources, but the AI tends to struggle with them. Halis is harder to expand with too, but tends to make up for it over time.

The two militaristic leaders, Brotherhood and Astrocorp, don't have an advantage unless they go to war and conquer, so while they can be fun to fight with they are also harder to build up.

One thing I'm not sure about is which benefits/penalties don't apply for conquered systems. I know that Paradise doesn't get free Maglevs in conquered systems, whereas if you conquer one of their systems you get to keep them.
 
I find Aerotech the most conducive to a quick low tech rush and a domination win. A couple of cruisers and a huge stack of invasion ships and 3 or 4 civs are out of the game.

The key to the Forge is not to waste research / civics on anything that causes sickness, since they're already optimized for hammers. I was able to pull some mid-game conquests followed by an Ascension win.

Paradise is very slick with the money which plays well for a diplomatic-style builder game, but I found them vulnerable to losing to Ascension by a better researcher (e.g. Avowers).
 
Red Syndicate, Hands down
 
Halis. I always play as them and have never lost. For some reason, they build up faster than some of the other factions.

Next I would pick Astrotech. You can assemble a huge and powerful military and crush anyone else.

As for the others, I have never played as them, so I would not know.
 
Funny how the Forge gets beaten down. Potential-wise, their bonus ends up pulling a lot more weight in a developed star system, even midway. The trick is to start well. An earth type planet close to the center and everything about that -1:food: is completely forgotten. Besides, having their production bonus means they build nutrition facility faster than any other civ.
 
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