Tonight's late late game is a test of the Iconians. In theory, the Iconians should be quite impressive to play as. They have access to Precursor technology which no one else in the game does. However, they can't trade that tech so that hurts them diplomatically. They also are relatively weak on weapons technology.
On the other hand, Iconian ships can be a lot tougher than other ships and they have access to self-healing armor. This game is a brief game I played this evening/morning to see how well they worked out and what tweaks need to be played.
It begins...
To start with I choose Precursor studies. This is the key branch for the Iconians as it houses their industrial and research technologies. It instantly gives me access to the Precursor library -- the Iconians can build their own Precursor libraries.
Within a couple of turns, I've constructed the Precursor archive (which provides this Iconian world with a copy of the Precursor database) and a Precursor library which enables me to research technology even faster.
Where the Iconians are quite weak, however, is their initial manufacturing capacity. The basic replicator is the weakest manufacturing building in the game. However, they do get quick access to the Interstellar refinery which produces 16 IUs (but you can only build 1 per planet and it has 8 maint).
Another area the Iconians are relatively weak early on is economically. They don't start with a decent economic building. On the other hand, they do start out with the Dream Conclave, which is the best morale improvement any player starts out with (25%).
The main challenge for the Iconian player early on is going to be money. Players will likely make good use of the cheap food and cheap morale improvements to make more money via population as opposed to using readily available economic buildings.
My first weaponized ships start coming out. That's when I find a show-stopper:
My organic hull modules aren't showing up which is absolutely crucial to my strategy. D'oh! Back to the drawing board...
But first let's see how we compare:
Thanks to my population, my economy is keeping up. Research is okay. Manufacturing is okay. Approval is the best despite high tax rate thanks to cheap, powerful morale buildings.
Home Planets
My home planet
AI: Terran Alliance
AI: Yor
More soon...