[geoschmo]

Possum,

No disrespect to the Honorable Yan, he may be in fact a great strategist, but I don't consider Ice/None to be a disadvantage. I would have to say it is a great advantage over any rock/any and at least on par with Gas/any.

Consider your typical neutral ai has rock, odds are the first such ai Yan came incontact with had that, and in surendering to him gave him that tech.

Now very early in the game he has the ability to colonize every moon in the quadrant. And since a domed moon only has room for one facility, chances are slim that anyone has colonized any of them.

But with his non-aptmosphere breathers being able to build more facilities, now he can have on average 3 to 5 colonies in every system that can support space yards AND produce resources to boot.

Some disadvantage!