Orange is GOOD!

[Lucy In The Sky]

Been playing SMAC since June '99 & SMACX since it was released. Am a builder by temperament. Mostly play as Morgan or Santiago. Looking for something completely different, in SMAC mode, played as Miriam. What fun! Try it. You might like it.

[Major Guz]

Playing As miriam as a builder can be cool, the +2 support can account for some extra formers per base, at least that's how I use the extra support when playing miriam builder style.
If playing agressive, the extra support goes into new military units (of course)

[johndmuller]

One would think that the extra support should go to the poor .

Failing that, perhaps it should go to the clergy (whatever would represent them ).

[spartak]

At least playing Miriam means oyu don't have to play next to her and put up with her mean and untrusting ways...

[gwillybj]

It's also a lot of fun playing as Miriam being a total btch from the get-go and seeing how long you can survive.

[Mr. President]

The Believers are just about the only faction that can satisfy my lust for both a large treasury and a large army.

[Nubclear]

Some people on these forums scare me.....

The University shall crush you all

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Once Miriam gets Probe teams and SotHB i.e. Fundy she is a total ***** on wheels and a lotof fun to play.

Fundy
whatever
Wealth

With whatever= Planned or (Free market once Punishment spheres) are in place. Slam econ as high as you can to max out your monies and probe your way to tech parity.

Problem is she needs to be on land. Sure you can use foil probe teams but that means yet another tech and expensive foil units. Weather Paradigm is Miriam's friend in order to raise land bridges and cut down former turns required for t-forming thereby allowing her to priorotize more units towards military ones before cutting into her support rating.

[Method]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
The University shall crush you all

_{including the damn believers!}

[dworkin]

"One would think that the extra support should go to the poor "

In Miriam's society the poor all get a 'care package' and are told to 'share' it with the heathen down the mag tube. And never point out that the 'packages' tick. She just, um, likes clocks a lot.

Now about those godless weirdos with the HSA.

[Jethro83]

Indeed, I've had a good game as the Believers. However, I actually play semi-peacefully. That is, most of my warmongering is in the subtle realm of the spy.

By the time I'm finished draining Morgan's bank accounts, or stealing Zakharov's research data, well let's just say Lal did it shall we?

By framing the other factions, I can get everybody to war with each other. Since there will be bad blood between the other factions, it makes it much easier for me to gain Planetary Council votes. And if they need to be bribed, its easily affordable with Free Market and Wealth running.

The only faction I've been troubled by when playing like this is the Hive, who seem to want to try and crush me even though five other factions are pounding away at them.

If I do get caught, I can use the stolen weapons technology to hammer away at the enemy, or use my probes to turn their units and bases against them.

My social engineering choices for the Believers:

- Fundamentalist
- Free Market
- Wealth
- Thought Control (once the Cloning Vats are built)

[Alex]

Hehe, Miriam can be a lot of fun. I'm usually a builder too, but once I decided to experiment some good old warmongering fun and chose Miriam... mainly because of her +25% bonus in attack. I had then one of the most enjoyable SMAC games I ever played, being a b1tch and tormenting the others.

But I never tried playing her as a builder. Hm... I might try it sometime. Sounds interesting.

edit: spelling

[Hendrik]

Miriam is pretty fun, in the early 15+ years before you get cent ecology it is fun to stockpile scout patrols, and do a "scout patrol rush" on whatever hapless victim is nearby. Sheer numbers of scout patrols can do a lot, they cost *half* as much as the next cheapest military unit, and with miriam's fanatic attack bonus they can do some damage.

That said I try to replace them as soon as I can, but it is a rather humorous method of attack

I think Miriam does pretty darn well with demo too, once you reach the midgame and have sizeable bases the support penalty doesn't hurt as much, you are still at zero support meaning 2 units per base and free minerals for new bases. You can also spread the support burden around at conquered bases.

Miriam in fundy is a military juggernaut, its like having the HSA. Elite probe teams make taking out perim defenses and the like easy, and once those are gone it is quite easy to take out any well defended base. Throw all your energy into econ and you should be able to utilize captured bases pretty well too.

The 10 turn tech penalty is really harsh in multiplayer games, especially games with any kind of an accelerated start (IE IP games). Once you get planetary networks, formers, recycing tanks, and some basic combat techs that is all you really need for a long time..

If you do manage to survive until the mid/late game, then +2 support is a pretty cool military rating. An absolutely phenomenal late game SE combo is fundy/green/power/eudaimonia. +3 probe, +4 support, +2 efficiency, +2 econ, and +1 morale! That is all any warmonger could ever desire, and the efficiency and econ bonuses mean you can allocate energy to your economy and still make a sizable amount of cash.

Some like to say that support is meaningless by midgame, but I find this isn't true. Clean reactor is a cost 2 enhancement, meaning that it adds 50% to a unit's cost. Being able to support 14 military units from your top bases means you can make units with 2 abilities at the same cost as your enemies clean units, or crank out a large number of units at a dirt cheap price.

[Major Guz]

Originally posted by Hendrik
Miriam is pretty fun, in the early 15+ years before you get cent ecology it is fun to stockpile scout patrols, and do a "scout patrol rush" on whatever hapless victim is nearby. Sheer numbers of scout patrols can do a lot, they cost *half* as much as the next cheapest military unit, and with miriam's fanatic attack bonus they can do some damage.

That's indeed a good idea I never thought of. I usually don't attack enemies when having hand weapons, because the defender sometimes has the terrain bonuses with him (forest rocky etc.), but when the enemy is in open terrain (taking morale into account) I usually take a shot. However with miriam it is actually very likely you will win such a fight (the +25% bonus accounts for +2 morale levels).
Attacking a base with scout patrolsis even more useful, except for playing against Yang (perimeter defense at all bases) and to a lesser degree against Morgan (who starts out with Industrial base meaning synthmetal armor on his defenders, but because of his support rating probably has only one defender (maybe 2) in his bases) the rest of the factions can be "scout patrol rushed" with a nice probability of success (depending on the numbers)

Good early-game strategy

[dworkin]

Gotta love them scout rushes. Last time with the Believers I had the Usurpers land nearby. Got to squash the nasty aliens before they could work out what planet they were on.

I did have this vision of my scout troopers leaping en masse onto the battle ogre and heroically sticking themselves into the gears to stop it from working.

[Frankychan]

*comes in*

Ha! Chairman Yang will destroy Miriam and her Bible-thumpers!

Seriously tho, I played the Believers a coupla times. Found out that they were not for me so I just went out and conquered everyone.....my kinda style.

[dworkin]

Frankychan

Ha! Chairman Yang will destroy Miriam and her Bible-thumpers!

Hmm. Prehaps some time in the penitence, uh punishment spheres will correct your wayward attitude.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Don't forget that in the Hive schema there is no punishment sphere reserved for Miriam.

Just a crucifix.

(Extra points for those of you who can recognize the ancient 2-year-old thread that this comes from.)

[HolyWarrior]

Glad to see other enlightened souls who appreciate how great the Believers are. The University is too busy researching to build up an army--once the Believers make the Uni their puppets, your tech worries are over.

DIE COMMIE BASTARD! DIE YANG DIE!

[DarkCloud]

But the Believers have trash units. At least the University has GOOD units!

The Believers can really fall behind unless they conquer everyone in the first 50-100 years becuase they are horrid

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by HolyWarrior
DIE COMMIE BASTARD! DIE YANG DIE!

Eloquently put. Remember that Yang's society is not primarily Communist. He's the leader of a Police State, not a Planned economy (the two are not the same thing). China's no longer a planned economy and still under police state politics. (And the Chairman himself is around five years old and living in Wuhan, if alphahq is reliable.)

Now, the Usurpers, on the other hand, are clearly communist in their Planned economics.

[DarkCloud]

China's not communist- china is
Socialist-Capitalist-PoliceStatish

edit: note to self, read before posting.

Yes, I agree about the Usurpers, but the other Alien Group is much alike, I would think that they are both Communist... I never noticed much difference between the caretakers and usurpers.