Posted 17 October 2013 - 01:14 PM
Ok, so now having played an entire game as Rho Indi, I would definitely give them another try in the future. I think I could play them a lot better. Realizing now how much there is to be gained from aggressive combat in multiple locations, (11 money in one round...wow!), you need to have them in battles constantly to make up the deficit from the ship construction being so expensive.
I think their success is also highly dependent on finding material and money planets. Almost anything else is a waste of time, to the point where in a do-over scenario for this particular game (where I found almost no material and money early on) I'd explore ONLY as far as I needed to make connections with neighbours, save as much money as possible in the early rounds then start fighting them tooth and nail. If I'd been more lucky with explores and picked up better Tier 2 and Tier 1 systems I think things would have been very different.
Also, they need to invest in weapon technology to the exclusion of everything else. I invested early in advanced robotics, thinking it would net me more cash in the long run. That was dumb. It would have been far better to invest in aggression right off the bat and I wouldn't have needed the extra influence disc due to making up deficits by pillage bonuses. I think the only thing that saved me really was getting the conformal drive for free, and somehow being lucky enough to pick up cloaking device. Without those two I would have been in the low teens for points, or out of the game entirely.
Of course, this means that the entire board hates you, and is working to stop you, but you can't play friendly as the pirates I'm afraid. Have one staunch ally at most and everybody else is fair game. I'd be very interested to see how they play out in a proper alliance. I feel like they'd be an excellent support race, providing some shelter early on for one of the heavier late-game hitters like Terrans or Hydrani or Magellan, at which point they'd transition to a quick strike force role.
........oOOOOOo
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