Part 33: Silicoid Preview

Silicoid Preview

We've seen the Silicoids play an important role in both games that we've won -- they weren't around for the second one which was a defeat. They have the most unique playstyle of any Master of Orion Race, with big advantages and also significant disadvantages.

** Diplomacy -- Pretty good. They start out at Relaxed with not just the humans, but also the Meklar and Klackons. Only the Darloks, as always, are mistrusted.

** Economics -- This is where things get weird. The Silicoids have only half the normal population growth, effectively treating all planet types as Hostile. Managing the population is of absolutely paramount importance when playing them. However they make up that and then some with their bonuses. They can land on any Hostile planet type from the start of the game, and also get off to a faster start industrially because they completely ignore planetary waste. These two factors allow them to do the quick land grab that we've seen. As other races get hostile environment techs, improve their waste management, and so on, these advantages decrease. In the late game, the Silicoids will actually be at a disadvantage, because they can't transform their planets to fertile/gaia for example -- those techs are simply not available to them.

** Military -- No strengths or weaknesses

** Research -- The worst there is. Good in Computers, Poor in everything else. This is mitigated a bit by the very limited Planetology options ... there simply aren't as many things that need to be researched ... but the space rocks have a society that is as stagnant as their physical form. That is reflected here.


Approach

The Silicoid have an ability and an imperative to expand as fast as possible. Gain a numerical advantage or you will lose, it's pretty much as simple as that. A Silicoid Empire is either large, or fairly easily defeated.