[jimbob]

Addicts: A la Deep Space 9. The race fights really well as long as their addiction is available, but if the chemical/TV/X-box is destroyed, all units and ships (and planets?) suffer horrible minuses to their functions. This'll give them a moderate edge in combat, a definite defence against ship capture, but a really significant weak spot which can be exploited by other races.

I've tried to do this without hardcoding, but the problem is that other races could capture the addictant (facility or otherwise) and recieve all the benefits but would suffer none of the limitations.