Hello everyone I just started this game recently. I've been looking for build orders for each faction but I can't find any complete one. However when I was going thru the forum I read something about supremacy relies heavily on generator, purity on farm etc. I wonder how does it work? Does it mean I should be building generator only from the start of the game as supremacy? Sorry I'm a newbie and my grammar is bad.
Need detailed guide to play each affinity
- Thread starter WolvieXII
- Start date
No you don't only build any one improvement, especially not generators at the beginning. Production is the best resource to go for at the beginning and so you should get mines, enough food to make new citizens work those mines, and whatever generators you need to keep your energy at a surplus.
A guide isn't need so much for each affinity as it's needed for the Virtue trees and Expedition type(i.e. leader, colonist type, starting building/unit etc.) that you'll be using. The latter presents a far more interesting range of choices while Affinities essentially plays out quite predictably and they are all pretty much similar to each other.
If you need a "build order", here's a one-size fits all build order:
1.Get the scanners that lets you see petroleum & titanium at the beginning. This will let you see where to build your first new cities, which is always somewhere that has 1-2 titanium tiles.
Repeat: your early game is completely centered around finding Titanium and settling near it for its OP production yields.
2.Get a worker from your expedition choices, since they offer the most value in terms of production required and head start they give you.
3. Initial build order is 2-3 explorers>worker>old earth relic>1-2 soldiers. You should start expanding.
4. Initial tech order is Pioneering, then more or less all the stem techs in the initial first ring, starting with Genetics>Genetic Mapping for the Gene Vault, then Chemistry for the labs, then others for military units.
5.Colonist micro-management: building one sets your food income to 0. This means your food tile yields are mostly wasted. I say mostly because there's some stupid hidden conversion table that turns your food yields into production but the bottom line is that it is inefficient to be working food tiles while making colonists. Play around with your tiles till you get optimum production.
Or just buy one with energy.
6.Virtues. Of the 4 trees, 2 are good to start with 90% of the time: that is Prosperity or Industry.
Prosperity mainly gives you a free early colonist, and after that you can choose to either keep going down that tree or start going down Industry to the end. Your goal in either case is for Eudaimonia in Prosperity or Magnasanti in Industry, both of which provide hefty amounts of health that gives you end game flexibility.
7.The Knowledge tree should always be the second tree you go down in. Regardless of which of the other 3 you start in. This is because this tree provides extremely good bonuses that only come into play when you have a good number of cities with high pop, so it's unsuited for early game, but is must for mid-late game.
8.Might tree is either for lategame when you plan winning a domination game OR early if you have lots and lots of aliens and nests nearby and you want to take advantage of Scavenging which gives you good science for busting aliens.
Will add more later when i have the time.
A guide isn't need so much for each affinity as it's needed for the Virtue trees and Expedition type(i.e. leader, colonist type, starting building/unit etc.) that you'll be using. The latter presents a far more interesting range of choices while Affinities essentially plays out quite predictably and they are all pretty much similar to each other.
If you need a "build order", here's a one-size fits all build order:
1.Get the scanners that lets you see petroleum & titanium at the beginning. This will let you see where to build your first new cities, which is always somewhere that has 1-2 titanium tiles.
Repeat: your early game is completely centered around finding Titanium and settling near it for its OP production yields.
2.Get a worker from your expedition choices, since they offer the most value in terms of production required and head start they give you.
3. Initial build order is 2-3 explorers>worker>old earth relic>1-2 soldiers. You should start expanding.
4. Initial tech order is Pioneering, then more or less all the stem techs in the initial first ring, starting with Genetics>Genetic Mapping for the Gene Vault, then Chemistry for the labs, then others for military units.
5.Colonist micro-management: building one sets your food income to 0. This means your food tile yields are mostly wasted. I say mostly because there's some stupid hidden conversion table that turns your food yields into production but the bottom line is that it is inefficient to be working food tiles while making colonists. Play around with your tiles till you get optimum production.
Or just buy one with energy.
6.Virtues. Of the 4 trees, 2 are good to start with 90% of the time: that is Prosperity or Industry.
Prosperity mainly gives you a free early colonist, and after that you can choose to either keep going down that tree or start going down Industry to the end. Your goal in either case is for Eudaimonia in Prosperity or Magnasanti in Industry, both of which provide hefty amounts of health that gives you end game flexibility.
7.The Knowledge tree should always be the second tree you go down in. Regardless of which of the other 3 you start in. This is because this tree provides extremely good bonuses that only come into play when you have a good number of cities with high pop, so it's unsuited for early game, but is must for mid-late game.
8.Might tree is either for lategame when you plan winning a domination game OR early if you have lots and lots of aliens and nests nearby and you want to take advantage of Scavenging which gives you good science for busting aliens.
Will add more later when i have the time.
Wizard-Bob
Always remember to Find Your FUN!
Nice post, Idleray. Thanks for sharing!
Pseudofate
Chieftain
Excellent tips. Definitely going to incorporate this in my learning/playing.
drifter238
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2010
- Messages
- 18
I agree with many of the above comments, but that's not to say that you should ignore Affinity-specific considerations in the early game. It doesn't impact the immediate build orders much - but plays a big role in determining the right strategy for making your way through the Tech Web.
I also recommend using those early explorers (potentially even a few turns from the worker) to scout as much terrain as possible. You want to make a count of how much of the affinity-specific resources are in the radius of your core cities - especially if there are a few mother lode resources spots with 5 or more firaxite/floatstone/xenomass on a single tile. This are strategic spots on the map once you get into the mid-game. You also will get an Affinity Quest pretty early on - so you want to make an educated guess on which affinity/victory condition you plan to target. What you find via this early scouting should influence that decision.
Then, when you get to mid=game, affinities will start impacting your tech/build order a bit more directly. Each affinity usually has a couple interesting UBs you want to grab. And then there's the nontrivial requirement to get to Level 13 of an affinity to build their Planetary Wonder, which seems much harder post patch due to a big decrease in Affinity Quests, presumably a bug. Not to mention that if AI get's aggressive - taking affinity-specific paths through the tech tree is the quickest way to upgrade your military, maybe grab some UUs.
I also recommend using those early explorers (potentially even a few turns from the worker) to scout as much terrain as possible. You want to make a count of how much of the affinity-specific resources are in the radius of your core cities - especially if there are a few mother lode resources spots with 5 or more firaxite/floatstone/xenomass on a single tile. This are strategic spots on the map once you get into the mid-game. You also will get an Affinity Quest pretty early on - so you want to make an educated guess on which affinity/victory condition you plan to target. What you find via this early scouting should influence that decision.
Then, when you get to mid=game, affinities will start impacting your tech/build order a bit more directly. Each affinity usually has a couple interesting UBs you want to grab. And then there's the nontrivial requirement to get to Level 13 of an affinity to build their Planetary Wonder, which seems much harder post patch due to a big decrease in Affinity Quests, presumably a bug. Not to mention that if AI get's aggressive - taking affinity-specific paths through the tech tree is the quickest way to upgrade your military, maybe grab some UUs.
Minor Annoyance
Deity
Here's some affinity specific stuff that isn't obvious until you've played for a while. The the affinities have their strategic resource but they also have buildings that require or benefit from other resources. Purity gets extra health from resilin, and energy with geothermal. Supremacy gets health from silica. Harmony have extra food from fungus. Also it's good to have oil and chitin in range of the same city. It's inconvenient to position a city so it has an oil tile plus as many Chiron as possible though and you might not even see them together.
The availability of their signature strategic resource is still the biggest factor in what affinity you choose, but if your on the fence then these other resources could push you in one direction.
The availability of their signature strategic resource is still the biggest factor in what affinity you choose, but if your on the fence then these other resources could push you in one direction.
I also just started playing.
Things that i already learned:
- MP games are played with strategic balance resources on so i set it on to practice (i plan to play mp when i get better). This means you are guaranteed to get titanium in your capital. Titanium is best resource early game - it gives you 6 prod on hills and 2 food 5 prod on grassland you want to improve it asap and pump out settlers. So it is best idea to start with tectonic scanner and machinery (free worker). Settling your other cities near titanium, on hills and rivers preferred. It really improved my game after i started hunting for titanium and improving it asap.
- Best starting options are artist/scanner/worker and PAC, Africa, India, ARC preferred. Rest sponsors are only ok, Africa is probably op.
- You mainly go prosperity. Sometimes only three in prosperity (for free settler) than industry or full industry. With ARC you can go might for spies rush. Knowledge is supplementary late game, it works best only after you have a lot of big cities (kinda counterintuitive).
- Purity is best with farms cause if you fully commit you can get +3food/+1prod/+1energy powerhouse. You open with pioneering -> genetics -> genetic design -> build electrogenesis pod wonder -> gene vault wonder if still open -> chemistry -> biology -> vertical farming and you are ready to roll. Can get bioengineering -> industrial ecology any time later for +1 production.
There is a lot of affinity points to get and electrogenesis pod rush is only optional. Farms are still strong if u only go for rest of the techs.
Here is where my understanding gets shaky:
- I would assume Harmony is better played with generators. You still can go farms at the begging to maximize production. Than organics for +1 energy generators and solar collectors are Harmony affinity. There is also Xenomalleum with +2 energy and Harmony seems to have best path.
- Supermacy have easy access to +1 food satellites, +1 production satellites and academies. They have some percentage bonuses to science, fixate gives science so i thought academies may be way to go. Another good path is rushing spy academy (best with ARC) and have 2 buildings giving +1 spies. I have biggest problem playing them.
So how do you guys play Harmony and Supermacy regarding tile improvements and tech path ?
Things that i already learned:
- MP games are played with strategic balance resources on so i set it on to practice (i plan to play mp when i get better). This means you are guaranteed to get titanium in your capital. Titanium is best resource early game - it gives you 6 prod on hills and 2 food 5 prod on grassland you want to improve it asap and pump out settlers. So it is best idea to start with tectonic scanner and machinery (free worker). Settling your other cities near titanium, on hills and rivers preferred. It really improved my game after i started hunting for titanium and improving it asap.
- Best starting options are artist/scanner/worker and PAC, Africa, India, ARC preferred. Rest sponsors are only ok, Africa is probably op.
- You mainly go prosperity. Sometimes only three in prosperity (for free settler) than industry or full industry. With ARC you can go might for spies rush. Knowledge is supplementary late game, it works best only after you have a lot of big cities (kinda counterintuitive).
- Purity is best with farms cause if you fully commit you can get +3food/+1prod/+1energy powerhouse. You open with pioneering -> genetics -> genetic design -> build electrogenesis pod wonder -> gene vault wonder if still open -> chemistry -> biology -> vertical farming and you are ready to roll. Can get bioengineering -> industrial ecology any time later for +1 production.
There is a lot of affinity points to get and electrogenesis pod rush is only optional. Farms are still strong if u only go for rest of the techs.
Here is where my understanding gets shaky:
- I would assume Harmony is better played with generators. You still can go farms at the begging to maximize production. Than organics for +1 energy generators and solar collectors are Harmony affinity. There is also Xenomalleum with +2 energy and Harmony seems to have best path.
- Supermacy have easy access to +1 food satellites, +1 production satellites and academies. They have some percentage bonuses to science, fixate gives science so i thought academies may be way to go. Another good path is rushing spy academy (best with ARC) and have 2 buildings giving +1 spies. I have biggest problem playing them.
So how do you guys play Harmony and Supermacy regarding tile improvements and tech path ?
drifter238
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2010
- Messages
- 18
While yes, theoretically, you could go 2-2-2 and pursue different UBs from different affinities - you are going to need a significant amount of research spread across lots of unrelated areas in the tech tree. Unless you are settling in for a very long game, it's not optimal.
drifter238
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2010
- Messages
- 18
Agreed that getting to L13 is long, but here is the litmus test. Let's say your capital is stockpiled with Firaxite (or pick your favorite affinity resource) - so you know from the get-go that you are targeting Supremacy VC. What would actually cause you to deviate from the most optimal/shortest path through the Tech Web to get to your planetary wonder, and get 'random' affinity techs outside of Supremacy instead?
At least in my games, the answer is almost nothing - main exception being something like Vertical Farming. I used to dip into Purity for the Explorer protection one, but that got nerfed in the patch. Every research point spent chasing techs that aren't critical, are ones that make the game even longer.
Make a decision up front - stick with it until it doesn't work, and then worse case switch affinities. Spreading points over to yet another, third affinity, just doesn't make sense. The UBs are not good enough to justify it.
At least in my games, the answer is almost nothing - main exception being something like Vertical Farming. I used to dip into Purity for the Explorer protection one, but that got nerfed in the patch. Every research point spent chasing techs that aren't critical, are ones that make the game even longer.
Make a decision up front - stick with it until it doesn't work, and then worse case switch affinities. Spreading points over to yet another, third affinity, just doesn't make sense. The UBs are not good enough to justify it.
Halbbruder
Prince
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2014
- Messages
- 387
I'll break down affinity approaches according to seeding, early game, mid-game and late-game:
Seeding:
If you want to pick a certain affinity before you land, some of the space gear might help. Lifeform sensor will help you find xenomass and nests and you could use it to rule harmony in or out. Tectonic scanner is very useful as a general approach if you are thinking of going purity, but might choose other affinities if the surrounding environment recommends it because of titanium's high production. If you happen to start with titanium near your capital, then you have a brilliant start. It kind of makes engineers redundant if you think about it.
Early game:
If there appears to be no clear choice for an affinity, whether it be limited affinity strategic resources near you, keep exploring and eventually you will find something that encourages you to pick a particular affinity. While some might prefer to roleplay and they end up picking supremacy when there is no viable firaxite near them, if you one of those people, then you would be relying solely on your basic units. It would also mean level 4 zerging would be off the table until you are level 6 or 7 at least.
On the other hand, if you are spoiled for choice, then it comes down to comparing numbers of strategic resources and figuring out which affinity your opponent(s) is going to pick. You could have a case where harmony becomes attractive due to open lands which you could spray with miasma, but if your opponent(s), namely your neighbour(s), is going to pick harmony, then try another affinity as miasma would also help them attack you if they want to.
Mid game:
At this point, you would be around turn 100-150 in quick games and turn 130-180 in standard picked games. You should have a few levels in your preferred affinity. If there are any affinity quests to do, complete them. If you happen to get a deep space telescope affinity quest, completing it would ultimately depend on your willingness to pursue a contact victory. If not, then getting the techs might not be worth it.
Keeping an eye on your opponent's affinity levels is crucial here. If you have less affinity levels than your neighbour (around 2+ level difference or more) then there is a good chance they will consider attacking you. You should prepare for the worst if they hit levels 4, 6, 8, 11 and 13 respectively. Level 4 brings the unique units, level 6 unlocks level 3 infantry and better planes, level 8 unlocks level 3 tanks, level 11 unlocks max upgraded infantry and better planes and level 13 unlocks hovertanks. If you are doing an island map, levels 5, 10, 13 and 15 will be your greatest concern.
Also keep an eye out on their strategic resources. If they have tons of their preferred strategic resource relative to their affinity, they could mass produce their unique units or provide at least several mega units, with the xenotitan being the most dangerous of them. So to conclude, mid-game is when the arms/affinity race begins and you should also aim for your preferred victory at this stage, but preferably as early as possible.
Late game:
Forget the awesome battlefields of Modern Warfare and Battlefield 3. Battles in this game combine the mythical clash of the titans, modern warfare and sci-fi warfare similar to star wars (on land of course) and other sci-fi series all in this strategic game form. You know you are in late game if you can build epic units and the turn number has passed 200 for both standard and quick games. At this point, it becomes important to know how your soldiers fight the most effectively.
As harmony, your role is to spray miasma using condensors as mainly a defence mechanism. Do not consider this approach if you have a neighbour following harmony as well until they are dealt with. Your soldiers are very stubborn and loyal only to their fellow soldiers, in that they have combat bonuses when they are alone. They are willing to fight to the death, and even suicide bomb themselves for the greater good. Combined with miasma and extensive mutations to the human body, your soldiers will heal rapidly and fight viciously in a rather spread out formation. Along with this, you have your xenotitan, the strongest melee unit in the game. Rushing down purity to turn it into a true xenotitan will provide with much needed ranged resistance. Some of your ranged units can also heal on kill and have the chance to interrupt enemy formations with the scatter effect, where you hit your enemy so hard they are either knocked back into another tile or they run for their life for 1 tile and then regain their senses.
As purity, your role is to focus on defence until you can get to level 13. At that point, you choose between domination or the other peaceful victories available to you (exodus and contact). Your soldiers develop incredible improvements to converting energy from movement to combat and they are most effective when they have spare moves. If you wish to go on the offensive, you will need your level 4 hovertanks which have the option of being upgraded with city attack bonuses. If you wish to turtle, which is mainly what purity is about, your wardens and aeges (plural for aegis) can have combat bonuses with garrisoned in a city. Your navy also operates strongly on movement-to-strength combat bonuses as well as bonus range. Just make sure your skies are clear from satellites as you turtle to victory or spam hovertanks for domination victory.
As supremacy, you do not call yourself a human individual, you call yourself an autonomous member of a great society. Your soldiers operate effectively when together and can become irresistible in this way. You also have nodes giving you impressive healing bonuses when defending. Your planes and rovers can also gain a strong combat bonus against wounded units, making them very efficient in finishing off enemies. The rovers, moreover, can get stronger flanking bonuses (NB: don't get ignore ZoCs, they already have that). Your frigates can also hold planes or can hit and run like sea-keshiks. Your obrital range becomes drastically expanded at level 8 and once you get phasal transporters, you can teleport units from halfway across the world.
With either affinity, don't forget to use satellites when you can. If you are low or have no titanium or oil resources, consider getting tacnet nubs to defend or attack.
I hope this guide helps.
Seeding:
If you want to pick a certain affinity before you land, some of the space gear might help. Lifeform sensor will help you find xenomass and nests and you could use it to rule harmony in or out. Tectonic scanner is very useful as a general approach if you are thinking of going purity, but might choose other affinities if the surrounding environment recommends it because of titanium's high production. If you happen to start with titanium near your capital, then you have a brilliant start. It kind of makes engineers redundant if you think about it.
Early game:
If there appears to be no clear choice for an affinity, whether it be limited affinity strategic resources near you, keep exploring and eventually you will find something that encourages you to pick a particular affinity. While some might prefer to roleplay and they end up picking supremacy when there is no viable firaxite near them, if you one of those people, then you would be relying solely on your basic units. It would also mean level 4 zerging would be off the table until you are level 6 or 7 at least.
On the other hand, if you are spoiled for choice, then it comes down to comparing numbers of strategic resources and figuring out which affinity your opponent(s) is going to pick. You could have a case where harmony becomes attractive due to open lands which you could spray with miasma, but if your opponent(s), namely your neighbour(s), is going to pick harmony, then try another affinity as miasma would also help them attack you if they want to.
Mid game:
At this point, you would be around turn 100-150 in quick games and turn 130-180 in standard picked games. You should have a few levels in your preferred affinity. If there are any affinity quests to do, complete them. If you happen to get a deep space telescope affinity quest, completing it would ultimately depend on your willingness to pursue a contact victory. If not, then getting the techs might not be worth it.
Keeping an eye on your opponent's affinity levels is crucial here. If you have less affinity levels than your neighbour (around 2+ level difference or more) then there is a good chance they will consider attacking you. You should prepare for the worst if they hit levels 4, 6, 8, 11 and 13 respectively. Level 4 brings the unique units, level 6 unlocks level 3 infantry and better planes, level 8 unlocks level 3 tanks, level 11 unlocks max upgraded infantry and better planes and level 13 unlocks hovertanks. If you are doing an island map, levels 5, 10, 13 and 15 will be your greatest concern.
Also keep an eye out on their strategic resources. If they have tons of their preferred strategic resource relative to their affinity, they could mass produce their unique units or provide at least several mega units, with the xenotitan being the most dangerous of them. So to conclude, mid-game is when the arms/affinity race begins and you should also aim for your preferred victory at this stage, but preferably as early as possible.
Late game:
Forget the awesome battlefields of Modern Warfare and Battlefield 3. Battles in this game combine the mythical clash of the titans, modern warfare and sci-fi warfare similar to star wars (on land of course) and other sci-fi series all in this strategic game form. You know you are in late game if you can build epic units and the turn number has passed 200 for both standard and quick games. At this point, it becomes important to know how your soldiers fight the most effectively.
As harmony, your role is to spray miasma using condensors as mainly a defence mechanism. Do not consider this approach if you have a neighbour following harmony as well until they are dealt with. Your soldiers are very stubborn and loyal only to their fellow soldiers, in that they have combat bonuses when they are alone. They are willing to fight to the death, and even suicide bomb themselves for the greater good. Combined with miasma and extensive mutations to the human body, your soldiers will heal rapidly and fight viciously in a rather spread out formation. Along with this, you have your xenotitan, the strongest melee unit in the game. Rushing down purity to turn it into a true xenotitan will provide with much needed ranged resistance. Some of your ranged units can also heal on kill and have the chance to interrupt enemy formations with the scatter effect, where you hit your enemy so hard they are either knocked back into another tile or they run for their life for 1 tile and then regain their senses.
As purity, your role is to focus on defence until you can get to level 13. At that point, you choose between domination or the other peaceful victories available to you (exodus and contact). Your soldiers develop incredible improvements to converting energy from movement to combat and they are most effective when they have spare moves. If you wish to go on the offensive, you will need your level 4 hovertanks which have the option of being upgraded with city attack bonuses. If you wish to turtle, which is mainly what purity is about, your wardens and aeges (plural for aegis) can have combat bonuses with garrisoned in a city. Your navy also operates strongly on movement-to-strength combat bonuses as well as bonus range. Just make sure your skies are clear from satellites as you turtle to victory or spam hovertanks for domination victory.
As supremacy, you do not call yourself a human individual, you call yourself an autonomous member of a great society. Your soldiers operate effectively when together and can become irresistible in this way. You also have nodes giving you impressive healing bonuses when defending. Your planes and rovers can also gain a strong combat bonus against wounded units, making them very efficient in finishing off enemies. The rovers, moreover, can get stronger flanking bonuses (NB: don't get ignore ZoCs, they already have that). Your frigates can also hold planes or can hit and run like sea-keshiks. Your obrital range becomes drastically expanded at level 8 and once you get phasal transporters, you can teleport units from halfway across the world.
With either affinity, don't forget to use satellites when you can. If you are low or have no titanium or oil resources, consider getting tacnet nubs to defend or attack.
I hope this guide helps.
I agree with Idleray start. It is solid enough to allow you to decide where to go from there, instead of just going one way. Artists for example is really good with might tree for a quick military start.
I like to play agressive fast paced games, while i mix it up sometimes, this is my common start
Virtue:
Adaptive tactics
Survivalism
Scavenging
Martial Meditations
With artists, scouting (3 scouts if i think it's a continental kind of map) you will get this pretty fast. Afterwards i continue on the might tree, or go the production one, depending on how it's workign out. If i want to pump out more military units, i go might for sure since less upkeep allows you to have even more units outside.
My decission on first technology depends on what map i get on, if it's high sea/island kind of map, i would go first for Planetary Survey, if not, ecology. I don't get pioneering right away because if i am starting agressively i want my production to be flowing towards units instead of new colonies and not to stop my city from growing. With the heavy scouting you are likely to get enough energy to buy the colonist a bit later on anyways.
Technology
Ecology/Planetary Survey (ecology is a must anyways, so if you get first planetary, get ecology anyway)
Alien biology
Pioneering
Physics
Alien sciences
Alien ecology
The reasons why i prefer harmony above the others for agressive starts it's because how fast you can get your first affinity unit with useful early game techs, so it's effectively the faster to get them efficiently, since the others affinities techs that you get are better for city/tech growth than kill kill kill:
- You can get biowells reliabily by killing aliens.
- Scout's worst nightmare at keeping pace is miasma, being inmune is for me the most time efficient with 3 scouts, since you can cycle them back to base and never worry about miasma.
- It makes your workers inmune to miasma, allowing to work on upgrades nonstop, fast paced.
- It gives you flexibility, if plan to bunker up, you can just use the biomass to produce miasma condensers to annoy the crap out of your opponents.
I choose might obviously because technology first tiers are a breeze to get with the scavenging.
Of course, this kind of strat is very suited for small maps, but i haven't tried to in big maps yet (i plan to).
I like to play agressive fast paced games, while i mix it up sometimes, this is my common start
Virtue:
Adaptive tactics
Survivalism
Scavenging
Martial Meditations
With artists, scouting (3 scouts if i think it's a continental kind of map) you will get this pretty fast. Afterwards i continue on the might tree, or go the production one, depending on how it's workign out. If i want to pump out more military units, i go might for sure since less upkeep allows you to have even more units outside.
My decission on first technology depends on what map i get on, if it's high sea/island kind of map, i would go first for Planetary Survey, if not, ecology. I don't get pioneering right away because if i am starting agressively i want my production to be flowing towards units instead of new colonies and not to stop my city from growing. With the heavy scouting you are likely to get enough energy to buy the colonist a bit later on anyways.
Technology
Ecology/Planetary Survey (ecology is a must anyways, so if you get first planetary, get ecology anyway)
Alien biology
Pioneering
Physics
Alien sciences
Alien ecology
The reasons why i prefer harmony above the others for agressive starts it's because how fast you can get your first affinity unit with useful early game techs, so it's effectively the faster to get them efficiently, since the others affinities techs that you get are better for city/tech growth than kill kill kill:
- You can get biowells reliabily by killing aliens.
- Scout's worst nightmare at keeping pace is miasma, being inmune is for me the most time efficient with 3 scouts, since you can cycle them back to base and never worry about miasma.
- It makes your workers inmune to miasma, allowing to work on upgrades nonstop, fast paced.
- It gives you flexibility, if plan to bunker up, you can just use the biomass to produce miasma condensers to annoy the crap out of your opponents.
I choose might obviously because technology first tiers are a breeze to get with the scavenging.
Of course, this kind of strat is very suited for small maps, but i haven't tried to in big maps yet (i plan to).
I'm a newbie as well, so don't take everything I say as gospel truth, but:
I like having lvl 3 Harmony and lvl 3 Supremecy whenever I can. Lvl 3 harmony for the immunity to Miasma (plus the tech that gives worker immunity) and the reduced damage from Miasma for military units out in the wild. Supremecy lvl 3 gives free upkeep for roads/magrails. Once you start having multiple cities, being able to connect them for quick movement plus city connection bonuses can really save you time and money allowing you to build more improvements and more units. Also having that 2nd exploration module on explorers is kind of handy just from a quality of life standpoint.
From there, its all a matter of what the map gives you and what you want to do. Focus on your Virtures and try to get those bonuses. Look for as many trade routes as possible to increase production/food/science whenever possible. Those outposts can provide good culture/science bonuses too, so trade as much as you can with those guys if possible.
Thats all I got. I usually play on medium difficulty and not at all on the harder ones. Good luck. and most importantly HAVE FUN
I like having lvl 3 Harmony and lvl 3 Supremecy whenever I can. Lvl 3 harmony for the immunity to Miasma (plus the tech that gives worker immunity) and the reduced damage from Miasma for military units out in the wild. Supremecy lvl 3 gives free upkeep for roads/magrails. Once you start having multiple cities, being able to connect them for quick movement plus city connection bonuses can really save you time and money allowing you to build more improvements and more units. Also having that 2nd exploration module on explorers is kind of handy just from a quality of life standpoint.
From there, its all a matter of what the map gives you and what you want to do. Focus on your Virtures and try to get those bonuses. Look for as many trade routes as possible to increase production/food/science whenever possible. Those outposts can provide good culture/science bonuses too, so trade as much as you can with those guys if possible.
Thats all I got. I usually play on medium difficulty and not at all on the harder ones. Good luck. and most importantly HAVE FUN
This is a great thread, but are there any more polished guides? I am only now starting with this game.
In particular, I am looking for ranking of the opening choices.
I have not figured out Apollo level play, but Soyuz is interesting enough so far.
In particular, I am looking for ranking of the opening choices.
I have not figured out Apollo level play, but Soyuz is interesting enough so far.
