Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Ranking the Races Revision
The arrival of Shards of the Throne really has me rethinking the races that I already ranked in my previous tier one and tier two posts. Going on my game experience with the Shards expansion I'm going to re rank those tiers. The Jol-Nar are going to get dropped from the top tier. It seems to me that as it stands Ti3 rewards aggressive players and races the most. Which the Jol-Nar definitely are not. In their place I haven't decided who I'm going to elevate yet. However I'm giving a hard look at Mentak for the first tier. Their new racial techs are amazing. They work perfectly with Mentaks large starting fleet its starting tech and racial abilities. Also their flagship is a Dreadnought and Warsun nightmare. Another race to consider for the second tier to replace the Naalu are the Winnu. I think that they might have taken a hit with their racial tech getting nerfed somewhat. However their starting units are strong. Their abilities while complimentary are very useful and their starting tech is great! The realization that I'm having with the Naalu and Sol for that matter is their reliance on fighters is a weakness. Auto Defense Turrets and Destroyers are a cheap and effective way to crush any fighter swarms that they might throw at you. Also anyone can do it. So you know if you are next to either of those races how to counter them. For this reason it just feels like Naalu can't really be considered tier two material anymore. However they do retain a good starting system good starting units and their racial abilities are still great. Its just now that fighters are so much easier to counter their strongest fighter race in the game status means a lot less. I'm simply going to edit and revise those posts rather than starting all over again. After that I'll move onto the third tier. I'm considering the Naalu, Sol, Hacan, and Jol-Nar. With the fourth being the the Ghosts, Nekro, Saar, and Muaat. And bringing up the rear will be the Yin, N'orr, and Xxcha.
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I think that the most "granularity", if you will, that you can get out of a tier system in TI3 is four. The leaders and the losers are relatively straightforward, but I've simply come to no good conclusions at separating out the middle of the pack beyond "relatively kinda good" and "relatively kinda bad". My conclusions are below:
ReplyDeleteTIER ONE: The Mentak, Yssaril, L1z1x, and Nekro, (in that order, actually). I know the two of us differ on the Nekro, but I feel that the high starting tech plus the lack of need to pay for it ever makes them quite the powerhouse. They do need to secure Stasis or XRD quickly, but between their neighbors also needing one or the other early and their representative's "steal tech" ability, that's relatively easy. Then they can just take their high-production starting planet and crank out the ships they need to take their objectives.
Before Shards of the Throne, I would have put the Yssaril above the Mentak. With the Mentak's kick-ass new tech (yasure, just give the pirates a 100% bonus when they spend their ill-gotten gains...) and the Yssaril's admittedly baffling lack of a bodyguard, the Mentak pull ahead. Well, so long as they secure Stasis Capsules in turn 1, but practically everyone has to get that or XRD.
The L1z1x, of course, just kick ass. (Well, takes an extra turn for the Dreadnoughts to get there, but when they do... yikes.)
TIER FOUR: Out of order, I know, but I want to get this down before moving into the hazy stuff. At the bottom of the heap we find the Xxcha, the Sardakk N'orr, and the Brotherhood of Yin.
ReplyDeleteEach has crippling problems at one point or another. The N'orr have bupkiss for starting units- why do the Great Warriors of the Galaxy not even fill up their starting fleet limit? They're also two jumps away from XRD or Stasis capsules. They're simply too slow to take advantage of their racial ability. A N'orr player is better served by building PDS units, digging in, and teching up to War Suns as fast as possible. Needless to say, this can take a while. N'orr techs don't help, pushing them towards agonizingly slow Dreadnoughts and invasion combat that they really don't need the help in.
The Yin suffer from the opposite problem- excellent starting units (two carriers is the mark of awesome, just ask the Yssaril!) but really poor racial abilities. They start out okay, though they're two jumps from the XRD they need, but kamikaze strikes lose a lot of their utility if carriers as force projectors are mostly negated by Auto Turrets already. (They even start with ADT.) Aside from their kamikaze trick, their racials are pretty sub-par- they have one turn of delay with their planet-switch ability, but that's no great shakes. It's also hard to pull off- you need to use it before critical strat cards like production or tech comes along so you can afford the resources to use them. (This can really screw over a Yin player's first turn if they're caught out with a two-production home system.)
Their last racial, and BOTH their racial techs, just add to invasion in a strictly limited way. Sure, it might swing a tough ground fight, but so can action cards or any number of other tricks.
The Xxcha, as can be expected, suffer from a serious focus problem- pretty much everything is diplomacy. Delay, delay, and more delay. This can help tremendously if you've already parked yourself on Rex or some other objective, but getting there can be really annoying. Plus, you either have to take the Diplo strat card (not the best choice, often) or worry about it not being chosen at all. The Jol-nar can be assured of /someone/ taking tech for at least the first few turns, but the Xxcha have to pray or bribe someone... and getting that Diplo card to go off when you need it to is sometimes a real pain. And, of course, someone can just take Leadership and hit you first thing.
The Xxcha are only one hop from XRD or Stasis, which helps, but two starting ground troops make their early game a real drag. The need to grab production, or finagle the timing on the secondary, to get more GF first turn... or lose out on the planet grab.
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ReplyDeleteFormatting problems, trying again...
ReplyDeleteTIER THREE: Things start getting complicated here. Most of this and Tier Two can be basically conflated into one big mass, with individual play style and preference often trumping race power. IMNSHO, though, tier three consists of the Muaat, the Arborec, the Naalu, the Creuss, and the Saar.
The Muaat are one-trick ponies... but man, what a trick! They're the only race that can bypass /both/ XRD and Stasis on the way up the tech tree. They just get their war suns up to top speed and away they go! Their racials aren't anything to write home about otherwise- the fighter/destroyer spawn ability is an excellent one, but it makes them counter-dependant. They need a good high-infuence world or two to get every last token out of Leadership that they can, or be forced taking Leadership every time. Their other racial is practically impossible to use, too- more of a goal ("Let's see if I can pull this off!") than a boost towards winning the game.
The Arborec are likewise. Admittedly, starting with Stasis helps a lot, but their expensive GF and finicky production limits make them bizarre to play. Aside from that one trick, they're just like everyone else, with kind of a shoddy homeworld and lackluster racials. (The two-production for GF racial tech doesn't help you get the GF out in the first place, and the homeworld's tech discount doesn't help its piddling production).
TIER THREE, continued.
ReplyDeleteThe Naalu. My, how the mighty have fallen. From a solid Tier One in original TI3 to to this... and it's all the fault of Automated Defense Turrets. ADT, being universally accessible due to its place on the tech tree and ultracheap destroyers, has effectively shut out the fighter game that the Naalu depend on to fight the enemy. Other races that went fighter-heavy- the Sol, the Hacan, even the poor N'orr- have compensating features or racial abilities. The Naalu just have to suck it up and go hunting for that Mercenary that disables one enemy tech in a battle. Aside from that, the Naalu specials are neat tricks but situational. Always going first can be a blessing if you want to get at the enemy, but horrible if you want him to come to you, or if you want to stall (which is often). Retreats cost command counters and lock the retreating fleet down hard for your trouble. Finally, the racial techs are almost traps- one shoves you even harder towards Advanced Fighters and ADT oblivion. The other, Telepathic Mind Weapon, looks great but only seems to encourage some people. All they need to do is plan ahead, use the late-game abundance of command counters to boost their fleet supply, and grin as they toss the counter away and roll dozens of ADT dice.
The Creuss. Where to start? Another one-trick pony, really. A somewhat slow start (despite having XRD, they're an extra space away from the galaxy, remember) and a very slow tech-up. They need grav drive, their racials, and their flagship to really get moving... and when they get where they're going, they're perfectly and completely average when they get there. Their other racial offers promise if the board is criss-crossed by wormholes to use as damage dealers, but only then, and in the late game there are so many things with extra hits running around that they'd be hard-pressed to do damage before a cruiser swarm or dreadnought flotilla hammers them under. Their starting tech shoves them towards fighters, too, with predicable results (see the Naalu, above).
The Saar only barely made the middle-tiers cut, and I may yet bust them down to Tier Four after I see them in action a few more times. They have the oddest special ability in the game (yes, odder than the Arborec's). Their home system sucks, but they're effectively free of it anyway... and taking planets hands them trade goods. Very odd, very strange to play. On top of that, they're a blazingly quick start, with two carriers and XRD. They're more than a little tech-dependant- they need red tech to fight well, yellow to get their production limit up out of the gutter, and their Shattered Empire racial is both expensive and required. (Their other racial is very map-dependant, and may be either amazingly good or an epic trap- I'm going to have to do it or at least see it done before passing judgement.)
TIER TWO: These fellows pull ahead of the pack, slightly, but don't take that to heart /too/ much. Playstyle, perception, and plain old luck count far more than their relatively modest advantages over their Tier Three counterparts.
ReplyDeleteTier two consists of the Hacan, the Sol, the Barony, the Winnu, and the Jol-Nar.
From base TI3 clear through to Shards of the Throne with every single optional rule, the Hacan have had one advantage: money. They've simply got it coming out their furry little ears, making it child's play to grab TG, resource, or influence based objectives. That's entirely aside from bribing other players. They're one jump from Stasis capsules, and Sarween gives them even more free money from turn zero. Then, of course, their home system's mind-boggling production limit and three-PDS potential makes it easy to defend. Why are they not in Tier One? For all their money, they depend on others being willing to be bought. If the other guy takes the hit and starts stomping your planets instead of bargaining, you've got no combat or tech advantages aside from sheer numbers. (Really, a 12-production home system only comes into play if you're churning out fighters. And all the tier ones have easy access to ADT and the willingness to use them.)
The Sol... are only barely Tier Two. As a fighter-inclined race, they took a real hit with ADT, leaving them struggling for power projection options. On the other hand, unlike the totally fighter-dependant Naalu, the Sol have a host of other tricks. For one, they're the best on the ground- not the L1z1z, not the N'orr, not the fanatic Yin, but the Sol. The "rabbit" ability is both a boon and a stall ability, and as a carrier-heavy race, they can haul those guys wherever they're needed. The extra CC a turn means they're even better at using it to stall then the Muaat. That, plus a two-carrier start with five GFs (even if they are kind of vunerable early on, watch out for raiding cruisers!) gives them a leg up. A decent-production home system also helps. Finally, their racial tech provides an expensive solution to ADT- if the enemy kills your fighters, bring more fighters to the party than he can kill. Then takes some hits on your fancy armored carriers while your fighters and cruisers and what-have-you shoot him up.
TIER TWO, continued:
ReplyDeleteThe Barony gets the nod for sheer industry. A six-production starting system just takes the prize for churning out the metal you need. Sure, the Hacan can eventually roll up to a 12-production home system, but it's still only worth three resources a turn. Starting forces are nothing to write home about (okay, the Dreadnought is nice), but you can grab XRD right-quick and go from there. The 'combat boost' racial ability is freaking /expensive/ for a guy with such shoddy contracts, and it's surprisingly hard to intimidate someone into giving you a good one. The Fleet Supply one, though, is very nice- allows for more room to build ships, which you will be doing in incredible abundance. As for racial techs, the disruptors are okay if expensive for what they do (the introduction of Armored Units has cut GF utility down some)... but the Sustain Damage shielding is heart-stoppingly awesome. It takes a while to build up and use a proper dreadnought fleet, but when you do, it'll hurt like nothing else. (Just watch out for the Mentak flagship, that thing's pretty much your Kryptonite. One of the reasons the Mentak are tier one and the Letnev aren't.)
The Winnu: Interesting folks. For all they seem like the peaceful sorts, their starting fleet and tech indicates nothing of the sort. Stasis capsules from the get-go let them land-grab better than anyone but the Yssaril, and they're essentially saving a CC every turn from the tech boost. Their early yellow tech grab can also be lucrative, while always using their home planet for votes means they can dominate the early council votes. This all lends itself to fast expansion and aggressive early play, despite their more conciliatory appearance. They do need a consistent flow of extra resources to make up for their lackluster home, though, and some place good to plop their later star-docks. Their racial tech has one bad, one good- the gate folding is pretty pointless (you want Rex, you have to invade, or someone's going to take it away from your one trooper almost immediately). The recyclers, on the other hand, rock- how many times have you had a practically pointless action card in your hand? How about a CC and two trade goods instead, plus a turn of stall? Yes, please. A bargain even after the FAQ toned it down to once a round.
Finally, we have the Jol-Nar. Once a very solid Tier One, they've slipped slowly over the last few expansions. Other races have gotten any number of new tricks, but the Jol-Nar just have more of the same- tech. Tech, tech, and more tech. They inevitably end up with half or more of the tech deck spread out in front of them, meaning they grab tech objectives pretty much immediately and without trouble. The downside is that such objectives have steadily become less and less of the deck, as more martial and planetary objectives have squeezed them out. That leaves the Jol-Nar with pretty much all the tech in the game... and losing anyway. Application of all those gizmos is the key- they have to pick up Nanotech fast, fort up, grab /some/ advantage from War Suns or Advanced Fighters or Dreadnoughts or whatever, then leverage that to seize their objectives. Just watch out for either early-game raiders that hit you before your solution comes together, or late-game conquerors that may not have as much tech as you do, but has enough upgrades in a specific area to beat you in open combat.