THE
FASCISTS!!
By Steel Rat
OK,
I guess it's about time the University Staff starts talking
a little more about the new things that VGAP 3.50 brings
up (since our "students" seem to want only study
in that subject) rather than the generic stuff of the game.
But hey, give us ol' codger professors a break, we're set
in our ways (and besides, who knows how things will change
if and when the upgrades ever stop. VGAP 3.51x keeps coming
out with more new versions than the Congress has new budgets).
Anyway, let's talk about the race most improved by Winplan..
THE FASCISTS!!
Now
I'd bet just about everyone would agree the Fascists are
one of the weakest races, if not the weakest race, in the
old 3.15 version. The only thing they really had going for
them was the couple cloaking ships they could build. But
even these wern't all that hot, since they lack sufficient
weaponry and/or cargo capacity to do much. Their battleship
is pretty cheap to build, but it's also one of the weakest
BB's out there. The Pillage Mission was nice, but really
didn't do the Fascist all that much good because the supplies
& MCs generated were left behind for their enemies to
use. But now, things have definitely changed!
First,
those cloaking ships, especially the Coldpain, are much
more useful because the Fascists now have a ground attack
& ground defense ability similar to the Lizards. In
VGAP 3.50, the Fascists receive a 15 to 1 ground attack
advantage over most the other races. This allows the Coldpain
to carry an effective attack force of 1500 clans which it's
cloaking ability & large fuel capacity makes very difficult
to interdict. As anyone who has played or faced the Lizards
knows, this is a huge advantage. Having that ratio over
their enemies allows the Fascist player a good chance to
capture planets without having to destroy the defense posts
or a starbase that may be in orbit. Nothing is quite so
satisfying as capturing a starbase that someone else has
so kindly built for your use!
Second,
the Pillage Mission has been upgraded so all the supplies
and MCs generated don't get left behind for your enemy to
use. The Pillage Mission continues as before by allowing
the Fascist to kill off 20% of the planet's colonist &
native populations. Now however, the supplies generated
are immediately beamed up to any orbitting Fascist ships
until their cargo capacity is reached. Any remaining supplies
are converted to MCs and, along with the MCs generated by
the Pillage, are also immediately beamed up to the ships.
And since the Fascist retain their immunity to the "ATT"
& "NUK" planetary codes, the only way the
victim of this slaughter can stop it is by sending ships
over to destroy the pillagers.
Third,
and probably most important, is the Fascists now have two
ships that contain the Glory Device. The Glory Device is
built into the hulls of the D19 Nefarious and the Saber
class ships & when detonated can cause several things
to happen. Naturally the resulting explosion destroys the
Glory Device ship, but the possible gains far outweigh the
loss of the ship. The Glory Device will cause 1 mine hit
worth of damage to any enemy ship located at the same point
in space. Any ships belonging to the same race as the onwer
of the Glory Device ship will take a lesser amount of damage,
only 20% if it was the Nefarious and only 10% if it was
the Saber.
Since
Glory Device explosions occur after movement but BEFORE
combat, they can be used as way to soften up enemy fleets
before combat begins. It also means your enemy has to try
to intercept the Glory Device ship before it gets to any
of his planets because...... The Glory Device will also
cause serious damage to any planet over which it is in orbit.
If detonated over a planet, the Glory Device will destroy
25% of all planetary structures present and kill off 40%
of any colonists and natives as well.
Siliconoids,
Reptians & Bovinoids are immune to the effects of the
Glory Device, however Amorphs will be completey killed off
and converted into supplies. For every 1,000 Amorphs on
the planet, 1 supply unit will be generated. So an Amorph
population of say 5 million will produce a 5,000 supply
stockpile! This gives the Fascist a really convenient way
to generate a large quantity of supplies that can be used
to build structures or be sold for MCs. It's also a handy
way to get rid of those colonist eating worms off the planets
you want to colonize.
Two
new Friendly Codes are now available & are required
for the Glory Device to be activated. The FC "pop"
will order the ship to detonate after the movement phase.
The FC "trg" will order the ship to detonate after
movement AND if a cloaked enemy ship is present at the same
point in space. This comes in real handy to counter those
pesky robbing Privateers or those aggravating Lizards trying
to sneak in for a ground assault.
That's
about it, except the Fascists are also now able to withstand
the rigors of hot planets better than most other races.
So they can maintain a larger colony than otherwise normal
on the really hot desert planets. Not a big advantage, but
handy under certain situations.
Next
column I'll talk about the other most improved race in VGAP
3.50, the COLONIES.
Professor
S. Rat
