Returning after Alpha Centauri hiatus (first win on Talent ever)

[Jarek Noschese]

Found the grit to return to Alpha Centauri after getting increasingly bored with other crap. Still needed several tries to generate the "ideal" map but I finally did it with the result you see here.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

Final Result

As always, I refined, reworked and reexamined my old strategies and adopted new ones where and when necessary.

What I (nigh) perfected...

1. All default rules (except for Iron Man)

2. No super quick win attempt (Patience, restraint, discipline, self-control, study, respect for reality and practicing techniques are key.)

3. Use Tiny, Standard or Huge map size! (This is a big one. I don't count official wins on strange map sizes. Play them if you'd like, but optimizing your gameplay overall is nigh synonyms with optimizing it in the way the developers intended.)

3. Learn of which choices to make ASAP. (At higher levels, you can't just be an immediate and permanent Police State as the Human Hive the way you could on Citizen and Specialist. You must actually weigh the dis/advantages of every selection you'd pick and adapt to the wildlife's and other nations' responses. One minor mistake can greatly set you back [and I made plenty, but nothing too costly], and one major mistake can turn the odds utterly against you.)

4. Know when to declare war and make peace, and how to wage war. (As I said, you can no longer blast the crap out of everyone indiscriminately. Nor can you just go it with weak gear before the AI can strengthen theirs [the human's Tech Paradigm is just too high]. You literally must wait and watch for what does/n't happen before striking. Know where and when your best chance will [generally] come.)

5. Maintain your Integrity for as long as possible. (Starting at Specialist Level, all factions have Blood Truces with each other by default. This means you also can't cheaply declare war the way you can with Citizen. You must instead itch your closest and weakest enemy factions to declare war on you to avoid the worst diplomatic fallout. Starting on Talent, this becomes progressively easier as you eliminate each opposing faction, one by one, since the other nations trust stronger human-led empires less. Having to share more living room as the techs progress makes this easier still.)

6. Don't underestimate the Free Market economy. (Planet's wildlife will occasionally harass and bully you regardless. The only thing you can do is prepare for when and where it strikes. You'll also need the extra Energy to boost your research.)

7. Use satellites! (Later on, it becomes incredibly difficult to grow or protect your empire with Planet's resources alone.)

What I could've done better: the only big thing I could've improved on was using Supply Crawlers, but eh. What ya gonna do?

As for sending me your finished games, the usual rules (also) apply.

1. NO Scenario Editor! NO excuses, NO exceptions!

2. No Faction Editor/Firaxians Faction. Use the original factions, please!

3. No Progenitors if you can help it (they'll likely make it too easy regardless).

4. Legal game copies ONLY!

5. High score strategies MUST use Iron Man (otherwise, I can't accept them).

6. No changing the "rules" files for your game either. Strange things could happen.

7. (Optional) One City Challenge [if you can find a {legitimate} way of doing it]

Also, here's my finished save file as the final proof I accomplished a legitimate score.

 

[Jarek Noschese]

Of the original factions...

Recommended: University, Morgans and Peacekeepers

Challenging: Believers, Hive and Gaia's Stepdaughters

Masochistic: Spartans

Reasoning...

University: there's no way to win without gaining new techs somehow, and this faction is best for research in the early game. When controlled by a good human player, they'll eventually be so far ahead that obsolete equipment, societal forms and tactics won't be an issue.

Morgans: what's the point of a good economy with a low raw energy output? In turn, a good economy is required for your wallet, research and quality of life. Low early population growth (-3 HAB and no Planned Economy) isn't much of a loss, particularly at the highest difficulty levels. Later on, there are ways to offset the low initial population growth and cap. Pop. boom is possible with Eudaemonia, Democracy and Children's Creche once Nutrients and Hab Facilities are adequate (Cloning Vats or not).

Peacekeepers: early on, you don't have enough people or cities for the initial bureaucracy hit to be serious. No Police State is a lower (net) loss than no Planned Economy, since higher difficulties' bureaucracy makes extra "cops" ineffective (not to mention the EFFICIENCY hit!).

Gaia's Stepdaughters: no Free Market Economy in exchange for higher EFFICIENCY (not as good a tradeoff as it initially sounds)

Hive: no negative EFFICIENCY and better for research than the Believers at the exchange of a severe ECONOMY hit and no Democracy

Believers: after rethinking this with advice from Iranon, getting Centauri Ecology quickly seems herculean, but if you and Zak are on the same continent (in this case, you ideally are), then use your superior Probe Teams to buy his low security bases and units directly (if Spoils of War is turned on, then getting enough weapons will just let you switch to Fundamentalism anyway, and steamroll him further with the Morale boost along with the "stolen" weapons and "strength of convictions" [+25% on offense] bonus), making direct battles nigh impossible to lose.

Spartans: better researchers than the Believers, but terrible manufacturers until Fusion or later Reactors (and worse, they're a long way off!).

 

[Jarek Noschese]

For Alien Crossfire, I suggest a human faction for the best experience. Even the Cult of Planet can have a chance on maps with more native wildlife and the Pirates are good with arid, oceanic and rocky worlds. If you find the Progenitor Victory fun, the aliens are good too. Remember however they have the advantage at the start (in other words, destroying the last of mankind will almost certainly be too easy).

 

[Iranon]

Believers can play a fairly normal game, without heavy focus on tech stealing.
They're the only ones who can run Democratic without tanking their Support rating, and don't need to choose between free minerals in new bases and easy population booming.
Other choices include Free Market/Democratic and free minerals for quick profitability of new bases, or simply more formers and better land development.

Our economy will be only slightly substandard, which is fine given our Probe and offensive bonuses. At least we have more to work with than Sparta.

 

[Jarek Noschese]

Believers can play a fairly normal game, without heavy focus on tech stealing.
They're the only ones who can run Democratic without tanking their Support rating, and don't need to choose between free minerals in new bases and easy population booming.
Other choices include Free Market/Democratic and free minerals for quick profitability of new bases, or simply more formers and better land development.

Our economy will be only slightly substandard, which is fine given our Probe and offensive bonuses. At least we have more to work with than Sparta.

Once you'd have enough Minerals to build them, Clean Reactors make Support a non-issue. The real problem is getting the techs for Democratic and Free Market before the more progress heavy factions like the University, Peacekeepers, Hive and Morgans can overwhelm you.

 

[Iranon]

"Once you have enough minerals..." reads like "It's a good purchase if you ignore the purchasing price".
Clean Reactors are dubious unless you are getting them for free or are doing something fancy like rehoming all units to a throwaway base to play around pacifism drones. For just one additional row of minerals, clean reactors don't have a compelling payback horizon compared to spending the minerals on staples like formers/crawlers/colony pods.

Miriam's advantage in Support is at its most relevant when you go for hard horizontal expansion in the early midgame, channeling most of your output into colony pods and formers. Others can't easily have population booms where you have headroom or crank out colony pods, while still getting free minerals in multiple new bases per turn. It's a sizable advantage for something that can put us in a dominant position, even taking into account her slow and often awkward start. Another bonus is that we don't have to deal with Miriam.

Yes, other factions can play a similar game. If the University can secure the Virtual World and Planetary Transit System, they excel at horizontal expansion from then on with fully pacified size-3 bases even on Transcend. But from my experience, Believers are at a sweet spot in the risk/reward balance. They have a clear path with higher rewards than most alternatives, without being overambitious to the point of being unreliable.