Editing Alpha Centauri (section)

== The Factions ==
The elegan/tg/entlefolk, fa/tg/uys and ca/tg/irls will sometimes post to a thread with one of the faction leader portraits and respond in-character for that faction leader.  This should help you understand what the fuck they're on about.

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|[[Image:SMAC_Deirdre.jpg]]
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;Gaia's Stepdaughters
:Leader: Lady Deirdre Skye (Scottish)
:Pacifist, Explorers, Green agenda, hates Free Market
:Hippy-dippy freak who invented radiation resistant [[Horo|wheat and apples]] back on Earth, so she is less of a hippy and more of a freak, badass scientist. Wants to integrate with the existing biology, including the mind-raping local fauna. Still hot though. Will mostly leave you alone, so long as you've got a Green economy and don't mind her running her mind-worm boils over your lawn. Probably the canonical winner, since her name's on the game-winning tech. Not surprising, as her faction is overpowered as fuck. +2 efficiency and +1 Planet with fungus bonus from the start can make her blob if not kept in check. Stick with her as Pravin Lal to get extra worm reinforcements up the wazoo to defend your home.
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|[[Image:SMAC_Yang.jpg]]
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;Human Hive
:Leader: Chairman Sheng-ji Yang (Chinese)
:Aggressive, Conquerers/Builders, Police State agenda, hates Democracy
:Insane totalitarian fuck, to the EXTREME. Think Mao meets Stalin meets Nietzsche meets Confucius surviving THREE revolutions in China (and lived through all to join the UN), and you've got a pretty good idea what he's all about. All about everyone being equal and subservient to the whole, even if it requires brain stapling [[Tau|for the greater good]].  Everyone lives underground, meaning that digging out his blood-tick cities is a pain in the butt. He's a warmongering asshole who ''will not'' coexist with anyone who does not share his extremely narrow set of social policies, and that really sucks because anyone ''else'' attempting them is basically committing economic suicide. (Only his faction bonuses allow him to ignore the penalties, and the Hive is ''still'' usually [[Communism|pretty broke and spamming swarms of cheap ooga booga conscripts and popgun-mounted vehicles at everyone forever.]])
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|[[Image:SMAC_Miriam.jpg]]
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;Lord's Believers
:Leader: Sister Miriam Godwinson (American)
:Aggressive, Explorers/Conquerors, Fundamentalist agenda, hates Knowledge-seekers
:Totally psycho uber Baptist redhead MILF bitch who spams demands every turn then declares war the moment you decline. Usually the first faction you fight if you're playing as Zakharov. Fairly strong militarily, but get this, they can't research at all for the first ten turns and take a massive penalty from then on, so Believers are ''proper'' fucked if the early game doesn't go [[Just As Planned]]. Miriam, in her wisdom, won't accept anything less than ''complete'' submission to her every social policy, and is burdened with an AI that will be hyper-aggressive with her rocks-and-sticks little army. This means, she'll either control a gigantic empire that controls half the planet by the time you encounter her (more likely when you let technologies be taken with city conquests), or more hopefully she'll get hilariously squished out of existence by overwhelming superiority very early on. Just putting her in a game will likely involve [[Anal circumference]] going one way or another. Notably the only American representative (except for the gun-crazy Santiago, who is Puerto-Rican), a crazy Baptist bitch that wants to bomb everything for the Christian God because the only religious violence is from the Bible Belt. [[SJW|Makes you think]]. Still, the second least horrible faction to be a citizen of after Lal's, since every other civ will experiment on or enslave you. If you aren't drafted to bumrush Zakharov's particle beams with hand-to-hand weapons, that is.
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|[[Image:SMAC_Morgan.jpg|left]]
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;Morgan Industries
:Leader: CEO Nwabudike Morgan <s>Freeman</s> (Namibian)
:Pacifist, Builders, Free Market agenda, hates Planned Economies
:An African conflict mineral mogul who furnished the UN all their resorts to kiss ass, Morgan is all about the Benjamins, and making sure his peeps are living the high life. Problem is he's the kind of greedy asshole who'll happily rape the planet beyond saving to do just that, so the Gaians and the Cult tend to pick fights with him often. Doesn't matter if he succeeds though because THE FREE MARKET WILL FIX IT! He won't openly try to slap your shit as long as you're not a dirty commie.  One of the few factions that can actually reliably try for the otherwise-wonky "economic" victory, naturally, though even for him it's much easier to go for any of the other win conditions by throwing throwing money at any problems that present themselves until they go away and leave behind supremacy. Ironically, the "Green" policy can still turn him into a powerhouse, (and works in times of war, particularly combined with Wealth value for +1 energy on each square), but he declares war on all "Green" policy bearing factions to "liberate the markets".
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|[[Image:SMAC_Pravin.jpg|right]]
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;Peacekeeping Forces
:Leader: Commissioner Pravin Lal (Indian)
:Erratic, no specialists, Democracy agenda, hates Police State
:When role-playing in a thread, Pravin will usually say something about "why don't we come to some sort of agreement" and everyone else will agree that Pravin should shut the fuck up.  He's a limp-dicked peacenik and thus usually the first to get wiped out, but he's tied with Deidere in being the overall fairest to his people, and he's one of the few leaders whose opinion can't be bought - go ahead, offer him everything you have, press an impact rifle's muzzle up against his forehead, [[Star Trek|this motherfucker "muh UN Charter" is still his top priority]]. When the worst that can be said of you is that you want to try to clone your dead wife so that the whole "death" thing won't permanently destroy your marriage, you're still the most ethical leader on Planet. Has few real strengths or weaknesses, so his faction is good for beginners to learn the ropes with, though victory with him will ultimately rely on the skill and talent of the player rather than the powers and bonuses of the faction to carry the day, such as allying with Deirdre and Zakharov, who are natural allies when Lal goes Green Economy, Knowledge Valued and Democratic. That, and a large population base to win U.N elections as well as rapid regaining of comm lines to other leaders. If you can settle a fertile valley and boom your people into high numbers, your vote at the reconvened U.N will be a Damocles' sword.
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|[[Image:SMAC_Santiago.jpg]]
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;Spartan Federation
:Leader: Colonel Corazón Santiago (Puerto Rican)
:Erratic, Discoverers/Conquerers, Power agenda, hates Wealth
:Has [[-4 Str|plus-four strength]].  All about military power and how soldiers are superior to soft lazy civvies like you.  Most often accused of assassinating the colony ship's captain, despite a complete lack of proof and claiming, for once, she didn't kill anybody.  She's a psychopathic douchenozzle and often gets herself killed when she picks a fight with too many people at once, and is completely suspicious of anyone who picks a "value" other than "power", because she assumes these values are just power dressed up in ideological bullshit. (And, to be fair, it's not like you ''aren't'' probably eyeing that cosmic-string supergun and licking your chops.) That said if you beat her up and she surrenders, she actually means it, and will loyally serve you for the rest of the game. Has a brutal early-game, since her troops have super-morale and level up quickly, but needs to get ''some'' extra tech to avoid turning into [[Imperium of Man|a has-been ex-superpower being picked off by inches]] before the game's out. More-or-less obliged to try to win by beating the shit out of everyone else too, which gives her some predictability problems, though at least she's not in quite as bad of shape as Miriam on that score.
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|[[Image:SMAC_Zakharov.jpg]]
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;University of Planet
:Leader: Academician Prokhor Zakharov (Russian)
:Erratic, Researchers, Knowledge-seeking agenda, hates Fundamentalists
:[[Adeptus Mechanicus|Techno-fetish nerd]] with all the toys (all of them), thus beloved of the denizens of /tg/ and /v/.  He and Miriam fight like cats and dogs -- if only they'd finally get a room and fuck, but she's an ugly bitch and he's a unwashed dweeb, so it'll never work out. Prone to ranting about misconceptions of SCIENCE! and the evils of brain-rotting superstition while indulging in the occasional horrifyingly-unethical live vivisection. Particularly vulnerable to backdoor probing until he gets his secret security project Hunter Seeker Algorithm, and then those pesky probe teams will <s>cry</s> need retrofitting with an expensive part to continue spying. 
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The expansion pack Alien Crossfire upped the ante by adding new factions so criminally unbalanced they made the others obsolete. Even so, the supercharged Mind Worm attacks in the expansion can eat these up just as well.

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|[[Image:Ulrik Svensgaard.jpg]]
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;Nautilus Pirates
:Leader: Ulrik Svensgaard (American)
:Agressive, Explorers, Power agenda
:Annoying drunken anarchist douche desperately trying to be Captain Nemo while cosplaying as a classical pirate. Piratical raiders who start in the ocean unchallenged. If played by the AI they will reach epidemic levels of city expansion before you can field a navy, making conquering their strung out train wreck of an empire almost as bad as ignoring it - unless you've done your research, have a decent army, or declare him a non-person to gang up on.
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|[[Image:Cha Dawn.jpg]]
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;Cult of Planet
:Leader: Cha Dawn (Unknown)
:Erratic, Discoverers/Conquerers, Green agenda, hates Wealth
:Batshit loopy super hippies led by a psychic child of the corn who makes Deirdre look like Morgan. Basically what would happen if PETA managed to take control of a country. Takes over for Lal as the first person to get hilariously rolled out in the expansion unless he finds some mind worms double quick. If foolishly allowed to live unmolested they will turn the game into a [[/d/|tentacle rape]] simulator for any player foolish enough to have an economy. Of course mind worms become easy-peasy late game, so laugh as he funnels free experience points into your troops.
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|[[Image:Sinder Roze.jpg]]
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;Data Angels
:Leader: Datajack Sinder Roze (Trinidadian)
:Erratic, Democracy agenda, hates Power
:Basically 4chan in charge of a civilization. Tend to oppose the Believers on principle, because the information wants to be free, baby. Hence the other favourite faction besides Zakharov. Make good allies if you can put up with their practical jokes (read: "anything the probe team can get away with").  Otherwise not all that annoying and they're easily ground into the dirt by a half competent military if they get uppity.  
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|[[Image:Aki Zeta-5.jpg]]
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;Cybernetic Consciousness
:Leader: Prime Function Aki Zeta 5 (Norwegian)
:Erratic, Discoverers, Cybernetic agenda, hates Fundamentalism
: Asexual cyborg whose half-robot populace has trouble getting themselves to make babies, but will be teching on towards victory while you're still trying to bang rocks together. Will cheerfully befriend you early on and trade tech to you at very reasonable prices for most of the game, until you turn down the perfectly reasonable late game option of subsuming your entire civilization into a cybernetic collective.  Tends to skimp on her military, deal with her by [[Imperial Guard|drowning her in corpses, the manly way.]]  If playing as her, her tech-looting powers ironically make military expansion one of your more-viable strategies.
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|[[Image:Foreman Domai.jpg]]
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;Free Drones
:Leader: Foreman Domai (Australian)
:Erratic, Builder, Eudaimonic agenda
:A badass Australian ex-Drone who lead a slave-revolt out from under Yang to build a less crazy, more bullshit overpowered version of the Hive. Can crap out an entire continent's worth of infrastructure before you build your third city. Oh, and after you meet him you BETTER treat your people right because you start getting full-scale communist revolutions instead of drone riots.  Fun.  He'll probably still be swinging around lasers while you're blasting things with cosmic strings though, assuming you don't give him the time to build enough Labs to make that penalty meaningless.  He and Aki Zeta-5 hate each other late game ''almost'' as much as they want to bone each other for the rest of the game, and from their murderous hatefuck of an alliance you will know pain, as their problems are basically mirror-images of one another. The probable canon winner of the expansion story, given his name's (paradoxically) on the all-powerful cosmic-string-resonance supergun, and the highest Bro-Tier ruler considering only he supports the left-libertarian Eudaimonia civic, the society corresponding to "The Culture" series.
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|[[Image:Lular Hminee.jpg]]
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;Manifold Caretakers
:Leader: Guardian Lular H'minee
:Aggressive, prevent transcendence agenda, hates Manifold Usurpers
:Planet's absentee landlords, who have come back after a teensy weensy problem with the other manifold reaching sentience and killing everything within three systems. She'll drop ''everything'' to try to murder the everliving shit out of anybody who tries to go for the Transcendence victory, because she has firsthand experience in exactly what that kinda shit will lead up to. Ridiculously overpowered in most regards, they are balanced by the fact that they aren't UN members and are automatically hostile to the Manifold Usurpers. Pray they crash next to each other so you can clean up the survivors and move on.
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|[[Image:Judaa Marr.jpg]]
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;Manifold Usurpers
:Leader: Usurper Judaa Marr
:Aggressive, transcendence agenda, hates Manifold Caretakers
:The second alien race. Wants to hijack Planet's evolution and use it to turn his faction (and yours too, Earthman, if you jump on this alliance for the low-low price of your total submission!) into a a single hive-minded psionic god. Even though the last attempt ended up with the gestalt intellect going absolutely insane and nearly collapsing their civilisation. Hence his position as the game's resident [[That Guy]] (Seriously, he is by word of devs the only truly evil leader in the game). Plays as more of a [[rip and tear]] marauding-barbarian type to H'minee's turtling builder, sharing their "weaknesses." Once he allies with Domai and starts feeding him tech, it's fucking over.  Enjoy your web-mouthed alien overlords or break out the nerve gas since they aren't UN members. Yes, a lot of players don't realize that fighting the both Alien [[Imperium of Man|the proper way and exterminating them with WMD's]] actually works pretty well: sadly, same goes for them. Alien tech coupled with their OWN version of nerve gas means kill or be killed.  
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