Strengths and Weaknesses - a search for opinions

[Black_Knyght]

What exactly are the specific strength and weaknesses of each of the following, in the opinions of the good folks around here. What I'm looking for here is the hands on, "been there and done that and barely lived to tell the tale" stuff, if you get what I mean.

1) Standard Races

2) Psychic Races

3) Organic Races

4) Crystalline Races

5) Temporal Races

6) Religious Races

[Fyron]

One place to start is:

http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/FAQ_1.1_(SEIV)

In fact, this really needs more information.

[Atrocities]

A good question would also be what are the best combination of said races? For example if you combined Religious with Crystalline or Crystalline with Temporal.

[NullAshton]

Crystalline Organic?

[Alneyan]

I'd pick Crystalline and Religious any day. Religious is the most cost efficient of the traits (lessening the effect of dropping Aggressiveness, and giving a resource boost in the early game), with by far the lowest amount of research required. Crystalline takes a longer while to get up and running, but the results are well worth it.

Of course, this sort of setup takes a good deal of research to be truly useful, but the Shrines might be able to give a boost in the early game (until more galaxy-shattering techs can be researched). This specific combination has the unfortunate side-effect of making your neighbours uneasy, though, so you'd better have a golden tongue or a very strong early game.

[Fyron]

Some of the items in the wiki are given weird names that do not correspond to in-game names. When adding info, make sure to edit them if they do not match.

[Ed Kolis]

I happen to like Crystalline/Temporal, perhaps because of the Shield Accelerator / Shard Cannon combo, not to mention Crystalline Armor and Temporal SPaceyards

[rdouglass]

IMO also one of the strongest is Temporal 'cause of the ShipYards. Once you get a few levels of those, they take a little longer to build initially but when you start pumping out BC's twice as fast as your opponents, that can be very effective. More so sometimes than the technology on those BC's.

Organic has good armor when used properly.

And as stated, Religious has an 'unofficial political penalty' when played against humans. The Talisman is a very formidable component and most folks don't want to face Religious players in late game conflicts.

[Baron Munchausen]

Atrocities said:
A good question would also be what are the best combination of said races? For example if you combined Religious with Crystalline or Crystalline with Temporal.

Crystalline and Temporal is probably the best or near best combination, actually. Temporal has incredibly deadly offensive weapons, like the Time Distortion Burst and Temporal Shifter, but no defensive advantages. Crystalline has huge defensive advantages, like the special Crystalline armor and the Energy Dampener 'delay fire' weapon, but it's a bit weak on offense. The Shard Cannon has relatively low damage and doesn't get its special advantage against armor until shields are worn down.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Religious and Crystalline appears to be the most widely used combination out there, because of the immense offensive advantage of the Talisman and the defensive Crystal Armor. If you're in a 5k points game, and don't mind taking low characteristics or if you don't mind lowering some characteristics to improve others, I'd say go with Religious, Crystalline and Temporal, and prepare for a tough game as everyone is going to gang up against you because of your immensely powerful combination.

Once you get going though (roughly mid-game, if you've survived that is), you're going to be a powerhouse. Like Munchausen said, Temporal has good offense (and production infrastructure) and Crystalline has good defense, and combine that with Religious' Shrine boosts and the Talisman, well, your enemies are going to be hard-pressed keeping you in line in single combat. If you use the Temporal SYs to build heaps and heaps of tiny throwaway ships with a Talisman, and make sure the enemy doesn't see them, you can knock your opponents' fleets on their @$$3$, buying you the time you need to build the really big ships (BB, DN, BS) equipped with a most deadly combination of Talismans, Crystal Armor, Shard Cannons, Temporal Weapons, and a few Null-Space Projectors thrown in for good measure. When (if) you manage that, just "cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war".....