Ranking the races of Ti3 Tier 2

Tier 2: "The Usurpers"

The Arborec - I'm a big fan of the Arborec.  I have played as them twice and not only do I find them to have a very unique style of game play but I really feel that they are one of the best races in the game.  Albeit not good enough to be amongst the lofty few in the top tier.  By the way not sure why but these things remind me of the aliens in the move The Thing but they do.  Great movie by the way if that trailer doesn't convince you to check it out you have problems beyond wasting your time reading this blog ranking fictional races in a ridiculously involved and epically long board game.  The Arborec's home system is solid with three resources, two influence, and a green tech bonus.  The green tech bonus is amazingly good for this race. In fact it is possible for the Arborec to research nothing but green tech, racial tech, and XRD transporters and be in position to win games.  The Arborec's starting tech is Antimass Deflectors and Stasis Capsules.  Both of these are perfect starting tech for the Arborec. They allow them to quickly research XRD Transporters and then move along the line of green tech while also helping them during early game expansion.  As for starting units they are descent nothing to get excited over but definitely adequate for the task at hand especially as their Cruiser with Stasis Capsules can help to take control of another system during the first turn.  However its their special abilities that really make this race interesting. Their Space Docks cannot produce Ground Troops.  Instead their Ground Troops have a production capacity of one.  Two if you research their Spore Acceleration racial tech.  Which really is a must buy.  This allows them unprecedented flexibility when it comes to production.  The Arborec can take control of systems and the next turn instantly turn around and start producing on them.  It also allows them to ignore the resource value of planets when producing units as its the Ground Forces building them not Space Docks.  I would never purchase more Space Docks for the Arborec unless you need to complete a Space Dock objective or you are going Fighter heavy for your fleet.  Otherwise I would stick with Cruisers, Destroyers, and Dreadnoughts.   In this case the slow movement of the Dreadnoughts is offset by being able to be built where ever they are required.  Lastly Arborec Ground Forces can build units while in space on a Carrier...  How fucking cool is that? Finally their last racial ability is to place one Ground Force on one planet you control during your status phase.  This can be very useful as you can only build Ground Forces from Ground Forces thus insuring you can always rebuild or cover any mistakes that you might make.  Played imaginatively and properly using its racial abilities this race stacks up well against all of the other races thus rightfully earning its spot amongst the "Usurpers."  

The Naalu Collective -  Hot serpent female telepaths what's not to love?  Haha ok so they have the lockdown on sex appeal in Ti3.  But what do they bring to the gaming table?  Well lets jump in.  Quite simply they are the best Fighter race in the game.  Their Fighters receive +1 on all combat rolls.  Combine that with Cybernetics and possibly Advanced Fighters and you are looking at fighters hitting on 7s or 6s!  No wonder the Death Star was destroyed! Can anybody say "lock S foils in attack position?"  Besides amazing fighters the Naalu always go first in every round.  Their strategy card counts as having an initiative order of 0. This is a great ability.  Not only does it give you the initiative during the action phase but it also allows you to always score your objectives first.  Making it potentially a game winner during close games.  Their final ability is useful but very situational.  The Naalu are allowed to retreat before the beginning of a space battle rather than after the first round like every else. Easily summed up as its a neat ability that is potentially very useful in the right situation.  On to their starting tech and units.  They start with Antimass Deflectors and Enviro Compensator. Both of which are essential for Fighter heavy fleet builds.  Enviro gives you a better build capacity and Antimass allows the further research of additional blue techs.  From there you can get XRD Transporters then go for Sarween and Cybernetics to give you those free and harder hitting Fighters.  Naalu's racial techs can be potentially very useful.  But I feel that they are too expensive and the resources used to purchase them can be used for more efficient purposes.  The Naalu's starting units are amongst the best in the game.  They are the obligatory Space Dock, four Ground Forces, PDS, Carrier, Cruiser, Destroyer, and four Fighters!  It's a large number of units and has good variety.  The inclusion of a PDS seems odd for this race but remains very useful.  Good at both expanding early and defending or attacking as needed.  The only real weakness they have is their starting home system. Truthfully though its really not that bad. A two planet system with their planets being a 0/2 and 3/1.  It gives you the flexibility of adding another space dock there for production capacity purposes if there are no other suitable systems.  The 0/2 planet gives you a guaranteed extra command counter a turn during leadership.  While your 3/1 planet can be saved for resources and production.  Not bad at all.  In fact its damn good because of how the resources and influence are split amongst the planets.  This is one of my favorite races to play and also one of the best.  "Good hunting!"

Barony of Letnev - These guys are the racial expression of the military industrial complex. Barony's racial abilities can be useful however its really their home system which is their greatest advantage and racial ability.  Their home system is a two planet system with a staggering 4/0 and 2/1!  Its a monster system!  With Enviro Compensator and a space dock on both planets their home system can turn out a massive 12 units per turn.  There are no other systems in the game that can produce more units only several that can match it. Simply put Barony's home system is the best system in the game especially when comparing its resources to others that can match its unit production.  It allows them to overwhelm their enemies with massive fleets.  As for their starting tech it is adequate.  Hylar V Assault Lasers and Antimass Deflector are good building blocks but they really would have benefited from a basic yellow tech as well.  Their starting units again are adequate.  A Dreadnought, Destroyer, Carrier, a Space Dock, but only three measly Ground Forces! Fortunately you will be able to build up your forces quickly in order to compensate.  Their racial ability to expand trade goods for bonuses in combat can be good but must be used sparingly and only in decisive battles.  Their last racial ability is passive and very useful. Their fleet supply always supplies one more ship that there are command counters.  This is a nice bonus ability and is certainly useful.  Allowing them to field larger fleets then their fleet supply would indicate and not have to worry so much about command counters.  Barony also has interesting racial tech.   Disruptors make invasion combat much easier but is expensive and limited to that role.  Noneuclidian Shielding their other racial tech gives their sustained damage units the ability to take two hits before being destroyed.  This can be game breaking when combined with Duranium Armor and repair action cards.  By the way don't forget that this also applied to Mechanized Units...  Probably hadn't thought about that have you?  Of course theis racial tech is expensive to purchase and relies on the very expensive and slow Dreadnoughts and Warsuns.   Then again if there is one thing Barony is good at its producing units!  I know I'm going to get a lot of anti fighter barrage for rating Barony this high.  But seeing them in action in the hands of competent players is scary! There really is not all that much more to say about Barony.  Just remember with them to keep it simple stupid!

Sunday 7/25 Game Summary

I hosted a game of Ti3 at my house on Sunday.  We had four players myself my brother Noah, PJ Brady, and Bryan Somerville.  We each drew three races and picked one.  I picked Jol Nar Noah picked Barony PJ picked L1Z1X and Bryan picked Mentak.  The galaxy turned out to be relatively resource rich.  Everyone had a good spread of planets except for myself.  I had several dual planet systems but they were all 1/0 and 0/1 or 0/2.  But there did have a good variety of tech specialties that I took advantage of with my scientists.

I was essentially on the defensive all game.  With Bryan Mentak threatening me and PJ Lizix hammering me throughout the game.  I managed to hold off PJ with integrated economy allowing me to quickly reinforce my planets with ground forces thus avoiding him from ever really invading me and also having fully upgraded pds units with deep space graviton and magen defense grid.  When PJ attacked I would move my pds units around with a scientist so that my counterattacks enjoyed 6 PDS shots when I reactivated the system.  I was having trouble gaining victory points as I was so concentrated on defending my systems. And by turn 8 I was in last place with only 4.

Bryan Mentak was attacking and completing objectives by attacking Noah Barony for the majority of his game.  He even produced his flagship which negates sustained damage in the system that it is in and took out a large dreadnought fleet that had Barony's racial tech noneuclidean shielding.  However that was his high watermark against Barony and he was slowly forced out by combined pds and dreadnought attacks.  Bryan Mentak then took Mecatol Rex.  By turn 8 Bryan was in the lead with 7 victory points and looked poised to secure the two public objectives that he had not already claimed having already claimed his preliminary and secret objectives.

PJ Lizix in my opinion played somewhat erratically.  At times he made all the right moves and then at others had me wondering what he was thinking.  Examples of his good moves would be attacking me early and continuing to attack me throughout the game while also sniping at Barony when the opportunity presented itself for victory points or simply to deny him resources.  Another example was his excellent build order with both technology and units that allowed him to be reasonably efficient throughout the entire game.  However these good moves were tempered by several bad ones.  First he never followed up his attacks on me with a serious invasion.  He destroyed several of my large cruiser fleets including my flagship twice!  However he never brought enough ground forces along to hold onto the planets that he did take or didn't bring any ground forces at all and instead simply settled for destroying my fleets.  In my opinion this was a major mistake as I was relatively resource poor compared to everyone else.  In fact I had been relying on taking trade coupled with micro tech for the majority of my resources.  I'm not sure if I deterred any invasions by reinforcing my planets with ground forces with integrated economy or if he simply choose not to invade.  I never had more than 4 ground forces on any one planet so I'm thinking it was the latter.  Regardless by turn 8 PJ was in a strong position to win by achieving his secret objective and already possessing 6 victory points.

Noah Barony had several good starting systems.  However he was attacked early by Bryan Mentak and spent the entire game fighting him off.  I feel like he could have done a better job of resource management and technology purchases.  However he is still learning the game and planning ahead and recognizing what is truly important when it comes to your limited resources is something you learn from experience.  Aside from that I also feel like he made a mistake by not attacking PJ Lizix.  Their border was ill defined and with PJ concentrating on me I felt like there was opportunity for some raids and resource denial.  But with Mentak knocking on his front door I can understand his urgency with dealing with that.  All in all Noah Barnoy still managed to score victory points and had 6 by turn 8

I keep referencing turn 8 so let me tell you what happened.  The start of turn 8 saw PJ Lizix again attacking my 4 cruiser and flagship fleet that I had build up adjacent to Mecatol Rex and destroying it.  I then scored 1 victory point by attacking PJ Lizix.  A law had been voted into affect that the first person to attack PJ Lizix scored a victory point.  PJ then counterattacked and killed my offending fleet.  Barony committed itself by reconquering all of the systems it had previously lost to Byran Mentak and then rebuilding a large fleet.  Bryan Mentak committed to building two wars suns and retreating from Barony's sphere of influence forming a natural border along a line of empty systems.  After PJ Lizix hammering of my main fleet and attacking fleet he then followed up by taking Mecatol from Bryan Mentak and producing units in his home system.

Up until this point I hadn't yet played bureaucracy.  And still had a cruiser fleet I built using the production secondary in my home system and several scattered carriers above planets with lots of ground forces.  I started off by attacking Bryan Mentak.  I attacked and took control of two two planet systems one adjacent to his home system.  I then played bureaucracy and claimed the I control 10 planets outside of my home system public objective for 2 victory points.  Giving me 7 victory points tying myself with Bryan Mentak for the lead.  I then choose the last stage 1 objective that had been passed over.  It was I now have more influence to the players to the left and right of me which I could now qualify for courtesy of my newly acquired planets.  At this point I had to gamble.  My secret objective was threatening which means controlling two systems adjacent to two separate enemies home systems.  I already possessed one and I don't think I could have survived next turn.  PJ Lizix had a one planet system with one ground force on it adjacent to his home system.  I had one carrier with one ground force in range.  I took the opportunity.  PJ Lizix missed with his one pds and missed with his hitting on 7s ground force.  I hit with my hitting on 9s ground force and took the planet and thus completing my secret objective.  During the status phase I scored the influence objective for 1 victory point and my secret objective for 2 victory points wining the game with 10 victory points.

That turn depended on a lot of things happening and going my way.  Most importantly my opponents committing themselves to producing massive fleets for the upcoming what they thought to be decisive turn.  However I had bureaucracy at the perfect time and took advantage of being the weakest player by distracting them with action cards that appeared to show my strategy and stalling before making my move after everyone else had committed and thought that I couldn't do anything of importance.  

All in all I thought it was a great game.  I thought Bryan really played Mentak perfectly. Being very aggressive but also being aware of using that aggressiveness to both score victory points and weaken his most threatening neighbor Noah Barony.  PJ Lizix also played well but I feel that he should have followed up his attacks on me and not wasted so many resources on some of his technology advances.

Ranking the races of Ti3 Tier 1

I have decided to rank the races in terms of tiers.  The reason for this is two fold:  1.)  There are 17 races in the game which is an odd number to rank.  2.)  Ranking each race precisely with a numbered ranking is almost impossible.   This is because there are just to many different situations and circumstances that can arise in any given game and thus make a precise measurement numerically very difficult.  Also please keep in mind that as they are tiered the order in which I present the races within each tier is not a form of ranking.

Tier 1:  "The Chosen Ones"

Yassaril - Ok I lied.  I said I wasn't going to give you any numerical ranking.  You have to excuse me on this one.  I just can't help myself.  Yassaril is unequivocally the best race in the game.  They are number 1!  So why are they the best race in the game?  They literally have it all.  Their starting technology and units are precisely what I would take for an early game rapid expansion.  Antimass Deflector and XRD Transports allow them to ignore asteroid fields movement restrictions and give their carriers a healthy two movement range.  When you couple this with their starting units which includes two carriers five ground forces two fighters and a cruiser they have the ultimate recipe for early game expansion!  Oh and lets not forget their racial abilities.  No other single racial ability of any other race has ever been called broken except for?  Yep your right Yssaril's skip ability.  Its insanely powerful you can literally out stall every other race in the game.  I have played games where everyone has passed and I'm literally playing two or three rounds of a turn without any one else able to react in any meaningful way!  The funny thing is I could probably stop right here and they would still be the best race in the game.  However I'm not finished yet.  They also receive one additional action card during the status phase and may look at one opponents action cards per turn.  Now action cards run the gambit from complete crap to game breaking.  With this is mind you obviously want as many actions cards as you can get in order to increase the chances of getting better ones.  Which in the case of the Yssaril is not a problem and is somewhat compounded by knowing what cards your opponent has and thus being able to plan for their actions cards.  Or steal them?  Yes the Yssaril have a racial technology Mageon Implants which allows them to take an action card from an opponent who's action cards they are looking at.  So now not only are you getting three action cards a turn but you are denying your opponents their best action cards.  This is the best race in the game if you think otherwise you must be descended from a Tribble.  For those of the less William Shatner inclined I introduce the Tribble!

Jol Nar - Every 4X game has them and more than likely they are one of the best races in the game.   In Ti3 this holds true.  I'm talking about the technology race.  As befits a tech race the Jol Nar start with an excellent technology base that allows them to research in any direction that they choose. This technology base coupled with their racial ability to execute both the primary and secondary abilities of the tech strategy card guarantee a unprecedented advance in technology. This essentially ensures that they have will always have the most tech advances in the game and more than likely the most powerful harder to research tech as well.  This tech advantage can take several turns to develop but when it does it more than compensates for their racial disadvantage in combat and can really dominate other facets of the game as well.  In addition to their racial ability the Jol Nar have two scientists!  If played correctly the Jol Nar can pay almost nothing for tech with the use of these scientists.  This reduction or outright elimination of costs for technology then allows them to focus their resources on victory point producing endeavors and larger fleets further helping to reduce their racial combat disadvantage.  Just to drive home the point of how good this race is with its tech racial ability consider this almost standard first turn play.  Take the trade or assembly strategy card and stall until technology is played.  When technology is played using your racial ability to execute both the primary and secondary of technology take micro tech with your first free purchase and then using your planets and either three trade goods or three political cards as resources purchase nano technology.  With those techs you may then move your units and take planets with the added benefit that they will come into play unexhausted and thus allowing you to still build in your home system.  This might literally be the best opening move in this game for any race.

L1Z1X - They are the best all round race of the game.  They are good at everything bad at nothing.  Their starting tech rivals Jol Nar who has the best tech in the game.  Their home system rivals the Barony of Letnev who has the best starting home system in the game.  While their starting units are considered their greatest weakness that is only because it is their only weakness!  In reality their starting units when coupled with their starting tech and racial abilities are very good.  Their racial abilities are focused on making the intimidating but somewhat resource inefficient dreadnought more powerful and cheaper.  They also enjoy having their ground forces hitting hard and a very random lets have them start with an extra strategy token thrown in for good measure.  The result is a race that is the most flexible of them all.  Let us count the ways.... 1.) It can go tech heavy 2.) It can go dreadnought and war sun heavy 2.) It can turtle on its home planet and surrounding systems.  3.)  It can go cruiser destroy and fighter heavy.  In fact it can do all of those strategies in one game!  But you get the idea.  They can do whatever they what and do whatever they want relatively well.  Ok I know you were waiting for it... "Resistance is Futile!"