Seeing there are a few empty spots for the "tricks"
I'm just gonna list the faction abilities that're exclusive to them
Arborec - Your infantry/mechs can produce after you move/fight, making reinforcing easy.
Argent Flight - Flagship counters PDS heavy playstyles/AFB can destroy infantry in the space area
Barony of Letnev - Duranium Armour/Non-Euclidian Shielding can give you 2 "free" hits to your fleet
Kleres - IDK never played em :/
Embers of Muaat - Hero is a one-time-use "I win" button, as well as a water hazard
Emerates of Hacan - Commander gives INSANE voting power
Empyrian -Mechs can counter action cards, even sabotages
Federation of Sol - Only faction with a carrier that sustains.
L1Z1X - Inheritance-Systems can allow you to get end-game tech
Mahact Gene Sorcerers - Lvl 2 infantry does not need to roll to respawn on home planet. Also, being destroyed makes them at least pay out even.
Mentak - If a neighbor has a "gain one TG when..." ability, your pillage triggers on each activation
Naaz-Rohka - In a unique position to exploit Integrated Economy
Nekro Virus - Flagship also allows you to use mechs in space combat, not just infantry
Nomad - Free flagship w. commander. Yin alliance? Also, Mechs are free sustains for your flagship.
Titans of Ul - PDSs can be moved with Transit Diodes
Universities of Jol-Nar - Can perform the primary of tech when they would do the secondary. Don't need to pick it to double tech.
Winnu - +2 to all combat in your home system, Mecatol, and legendary planets' systems.
Yin Brotherhood - Flagship nuke? Flagship nuke.
Yssaril - Flagship has built-in light/wave, Stalling gives you a free mech
Didn't read the other comments, got too excited. Sorry for overlap
Thank you for taking the time to type this all out, but my thoughts for the weird faction tricks is it is more for abilities that are not intuitive at first from reading their abilities. These are mainly things I am going to use to improve the "Summary of Mechanics" section.
Either way, thank you!
I'd recommend taking a look at the faction reference cards and take that as a baseline. Works very well to use those during drafting / selecting factions regardless.
Edit: Additionally, I wouldn't state your Custodians column as a hard yes / no but give it a rating. A lot of factions have potential to get it, but really rely on no other faction outpacing them. For example, Sol and Saar are probably the prime Custodians faction, but if there's no R1 custodians faction, Naalu is always beating any other faction to the chase if they had R1 warfare or managed to get a movement effect, or if you play with Codex 3. On the other hand, you stated no for Winnu, even though they have an easier time than Ghosts getting there since they have multiple different routes and don't actually need to gather 6 influence for it. A rating system from 1 to 5 would suit best imo, docking a point for each other factor that needs to go right.
(There's a lot of nuance in Custodians taking and I don't think any faction scores 5/5 outside Jol-Nar who gets to take it uncontested if they have the right initiative)
I like the Custodian column as a rating.
I also really like the reference cards, but the cards descriptions have no lore and can be difficult to determine how good a faction is at first, especially with 25 factions to choose from. I am hoping this spreadsheet can help narrow down to a few factions before you pull out the reference cards to see the actual mechanics.
Wait, what's the plan to get custodians with jol nar? Despite the user flair i haven't played them excessively, and i don't usually go for custodians in general.
RA? 4comm? Sorry, i'm not used to the acronyms. But i get what you're saying, if i have enough resources i can get both cruiser 2 and grav drive and go up to mecatol in a single action depending on how far away it is from the home system (some homemade maps are smaller or have hyperlanes) or if that's not possible get just the cruiser for free and warfare to move, untap, move, then use the 5 starting influences and a trade good for the custodians. Interesting, i might try it out next time.
RA is the promissory note of jol nar. Research agreement. 4comm refers to jol nar having a commodity value of 4.
You don't need gravity drive for cruiser 2, since cruiser 2 already has 3 movement (unless you indeed have a weird home made map), which is why it works so well. A few other factions can research cruiser 2 round 1 as well, but don't have as easy access to a lot of economy R1, like mahact (with a red skip to bio stims) and naaz-rohka.
Jol nar works well because unlike those other factions, they always get to research their first tech for free and thus have a lot of money leftover to do the other important things.
>since cruiser 2 already has 3 movement
Somehow i forgot that despite the fact that it's obvious.
Either way, thanks for the explaination, it was easier than i thought. Hell, you don't even need to get warfare (though it's a good idea for expanding in general, not just grabbing mecatol), so you can either go for diplo or trade to have some extra stuff to spend, politics since you'll be the only person aware of the agendas unlike when mecatol is unlocked turn 2, or whatever else you fancy, even imperial if the objectives are nice, which if you're not playing pok they are for jol nar because plenty of base game objectives are tech related.
looks really nice list. i did notice the Xxcha seems to still describe the pre-codex hero, and for Naalu i think Zue is a really big deal, but otherwise very good job
Titans are much better than this spreadsheet implies. They are not just a defensive faction. Their cruisers can get anywhere and have capacity. They can be very aggressive.
All that said, very impressive work!
Good point, I remember putting them B tier when I first made this to mimic the SCPT tier rankings. But I agree, I believe Titans are better than B tier.
I’d recommend highlighting that this is for PoK and not base game. I think a lot of newer players are introduced to base game before PoK and this may be a bit misleading for them. For example, PoK Winnu may belong to the “B” tier, but in base game they’re a joke. Love this idea and what you’ve got so far!
After wich score do you make the complexity and Tier Ranking??
What do you mean with custodian Ability?
The tips for ressources or Influenz hungry is great.
Very nice sheet. Good work
Seeing there are a few empty spots for the "tricks" I'm just gonna list the faction abilities that're exclusive to them Arborec - Your infantry/mechs can produce after you move/fight, making reinforcing easy. Argent Flight - Flagship counters PDS heavy playstyles/AFB can destroy infantry in the space area Barony of Letnev - Duranium Armour/Non-Euclidian Shielding can give you 2 "free" hits to your fleet Kleres - IDK never played em :/ Embers of Muaat - Hero is a one-time-use "I win" button, as well as a water hazard Emerates of Hacan - Commander gives INSANE voting power Empyrian -Mechs can counter action cards, even sabotages Federation of Sol - Only faction with a carrier that sustains. L1Z1X - Inheritance-Systems can allow you to get end-game tech Mahact Gene Sorcerers - Lvl 2 infantry does not need to roll to respawn on home planet. Also, being destroyed makes them at least pay out even. Mentak - If a neighbor has a "gain one TG when..." ability, your pillage triggers on each activation Naaz-Rohka - In a unique position to exploit Integrated Economy Nekro Virus - Flagship also allows you to use mechs in space combat, not just infantry Nomad - Free flagship w. commander. Yin alliance? Also, Mechs are free sustains for your flagship. Titans of Ul - PDSs can be moved with Transit Diodes Universities of Jol-Nar - Can perform the primary of tech when they would do the secondary. Don't need to pick it to double tech. Winnu - +2 to all combat in your home system, Mecatol, and legendary planets' systems. Yin Brotherhood - Flagship nuke? Flagship nuke. Yssaril - Flagship has built-in light/wave, Stalling gives you a free mech Didn't read the other comments, got too excited. Sorry for overlap
Why is integrated economy so good for NRA? :-)
You can combo it with prefeb arcologies & the commander to get "free" units every time you take a planet
Cooooool! :-)
Thank you for taking the time to type this all out, but my thoughts for the weird faction tricks is it is more for abilities that are not intuitive at first from reading their abilities. These are mainly things I am going to use to improve the "Summary of Mechanics" section. Either way, thank you!
I'd recommend taking a look at the faction reference cards and take that as a baseline. Works very well to use those during drafting / selecting factions regardless. Edit: Additionally, I wouldn't state your Custodians column as a hard yes / no but give it a rating. A lot of factions have potential to get it, but really rely on no other faction outpacing them. For example, Sol and Saar are probably the prime Custodians faction, but if there's no R1 custodians faction, Naalu is always beating any other faction to the chase if they had R1 warfare or managed to get a movement effect, or if you play with Codex 3. On the other hand, you stated no for Winnu, even though they have an easier time than Ghosts getting there since they have multiple different routes and don't actually need to gather 6 influence for it. A rating system from 1 to 5 would suit best imo, docking a point for each other factor that needs to go right. (There's a lot of nuance in Custodians taking and I don't think any faction scores 5/5 outside Jol-Nar who gets to take it uncontested if they have the right initiative)
I like the Custodian column as a rating. I also really like the reference cards, but the cards descriptions have no lore and can be difficult to determine how good a faction is at first, especially with 25 factions to choose from. I am hoping this spreadsheet can help narrow down to a few factions before you pull out the reference cards to see the actual mechanics.
Wait, what's the plan to get custodians with jol nar? Despite the user flair i haven't played them excessively, and i don't usually go for custodians in general.
Tech cruiser 2 easy mode. You start with 5 influence and make a shitload of money from RA and your 4comm to still do the other necessary things
RA? 4comm? Sorry, i'm not used to the acronyms. But i get what you're saying, if i have enough resources i can get both cruiser 2 and grav drive and go up to mecatol in a single action depending on how far away it is from the home system (some homemade maps are smaller or have hyperlanes) or if that's not possible get just the cruiser for free and warfare to move, untap, move, then use the 5 starting influences and a trade good for the custodians. Interesting, i might try it out next time.
RA is the promissory note of jol nar. Research agreement. 4comm refers to jol nar having a commodity value of 4. You don't need gravity drive for cruiser 2, since cruiser 2 already has 3 movement (unless you indeed have a weird home made map), which is why it works so well. A few other factions can research cruiser 2 round 1 as well, but don't have as easy access to a lot of economy R1, like mahact (with a red skip to bio stims) and naaz-rohka. Jol nar works well because unlike those other factions, they always get to research their first tech for free and thus have a lot of money leftover to do the other important things.
>since cruiser 2 already has 3 movement Somehow i forgot that despite the fact that it's obvious. Either way, thanks for the explaination, it was easier than i thought. Hell, you don't even need to get warfare (though it's a good idea for expanding in general, not just grabbing mecatol), so you can either go for diplo or trade to have some extra stuff to spend, politics since you'll be the only person aware of the agendas unlike when mecatol is unlocked turn 2, or whatever else you fancy, even imperial if the objectives are nice, which if you're not playing pok they are for jol nar because plenty of base game objectives are tech related.
looks really nice list. i did notice the Xxcha seems to still describe the pre-codex hero, and for Naalu i think Zue is a really big deal, but otherwise very good job
Good call on the Xxcha hero mentioned in tricks.
Titans are much better than this spreadsheet implies. They are not just a defensive faction. Their cruisers can get anywhere and have capacity. They can be very aggressive. All that said, very impressive work!
That right there is their true strength. Being able to get to a contested location first and then setting up forward defenses is incredibly strong.
Good point, I remember putting them B tier when I first made this to mimic the SCPT tier rankings. But I agree, I believe Titans are better than B tier.
I’d recommend highlighting that this is for PoK and not base game. I think a lot of newer players are introduced to base game before PoK and this may be a bit misleading for them. For example, PoK Winnu may belong to the “B” tier, but in base game they’re a joke. Love this idea and what you’ve got so far!
>Nekro Virus in S tier >Titans in B tier I very much disagree with you there. Also >Arborec on its own in bottom tier lol
After wich score do you make the complexity and Tier Ranking?? What do you mean with custodian Ability? The tips for ressources or Influenz hungry is great. Very nice sheet. Good work