Affinity 4 rush = First Order Optimal Strategy?

[The Naug]

It seems to me that rushing the Affinity 4 units is something that you can do without thought or analysis of your current situation and pretty much always get a huge payoff. The powerspike just seems way too big compared to the upgrades you get for leveling affinity from 0-3.

Correct me if Im wrong,
Aff 1 - Soldiers get to Strength 14
Aff 2 - Rangers get to Ranged Strength ~14
Aff 3 - Cavalry gets to Strength ~ 16
Aff 4 - Affinity 4 units have a baseline strength of 34.

Other than just being way too strong for their tier they are also mechanically identical. The only difference is the resource they cost to build. Otherwise they have 2 move, are melee and have the same strength.

Better would be if you brought them down quite a bit, to maybe 20-25, and gave them a special ability that communicated the flavor of the affinity. It is after all the first affinity unit, it really should set the tone for the affinity going forward. Some examples of the top of my head.

Xenoswarms - Pathfinder, ignores movement penalty
CNDR - Lockstep Formation, gains strength from adjacent friendly units(this ability could very well be introduced earlier than it is)
Battle suit - Inspiring Presence, adjacent friendly units(including the battle suit) gain XX% strength while defending. Good while sieging or defending your own territory.

 

[Autoclave]

the idea is, that these units cost valuable resources to build. You basically need the tech to build the improvement, the tech to build the unit and the corresponding affinity. I am going to assume that you have that resource within your borders, or otherwise you would not go in that direction.

It's the affinity 7 units (or when do you get SABR?) that are really bringing something intersting to the table. Range 4 attacks are really powerful outside of your aerial coverage.

Although wait, doesn't battlesuit require titan? That's quite an affordable resource compapred to CNDR's firaxite.

 

[Bandersnatching]

I think you're right about rushing Affinity 4 units as the optimal early-game strategy - at least for warmongering.
They are too powerful and too bland right now; giving the unique units unique abilities at start while balancing their combat strength is something I really hope Firaxis does in the next patch for this game (which they must be working on right now if they care at all about game balance).
Trade Route spam is the other 'optimal' strategy that I can see for the early game. Get Pioneering, Ecology for the fence quest, and build cities+trade routes for them as fast as possible while ignoring health. Boosts your economy and science by insane amounts if you go for international routes, or a massively unbalanced bonus to food+production if you go for internal ones.

And yes Autoclave, Battlesuits require titanium. The only 'balancing' factor that I can see there is that it creates competition between your UU and orbitals - but I've never run into that problem before, Titanium is common enough to be used for both (or I just don't have petroleum and so can't build the advanced orbitals).

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I just played my first military game as Brazil - holy smokes! Even with a suboptimal tech order I just facerolled half the map with my Battlesuits, just to have them upgraded to True Battlesuits to finish of the last the 3 guys. Poor Arc attacked one of them with 12 TacJets, dealing 1 damage each...

So, yeah, I think these units should be pushed back quite a bit.

 

[Promethian]

I think a better solution would be to make the affinity 4 version weaker and give them another upgrade tier. I think the same should be done for all the affinity units. Some are very limited use until they get their upgrade (SABR and Rocktopus) but are great afterwards. Spread out the upgrades so they get progressively better over time and get access to those perks that expand their use sooner.

 

[The Naug]

These resources are not so rare. Titanium might actually be the toughest one to get. When I go warmongerer I play with life form scanners and can see where all the big xenomass on the map from turn 1. Had 20 xenomass when I hit affi 4 on Soyuz diff, haven't tried it on Apollo yet. But you don't need 20. You need like 5 to roll over a neighbour. And 5 is a very modest amount.