I know it’s not the best strategy, but turtling is just too much fun. What’s everyones favorite off meta builds?
I managed to win via the new Thermogenesis Crisis path by like 2380 as a devouring swarm. It helped that there were 3 other genocidal empires and 2 driven assimilators in a small galaxy, so even when I was about to flash cook the entire galaxy, there were too many cat fights going on to stop me.
I prefer gestalts in general. Less finicky with consumer goods and ethics drift
I remeber the first time i played machine empire years ago i kept getting made fun of by a mushroom hive mind. Never fully recovered after that.
Cybernetics. I like the theme too much to care about the meta. Besides, nothing beats Overtuned + MegaCorp + Xenophile + Meterialist + Egalitarian + Augmentation Bazaars + Worker Coop. Overtuned gives automod at day 1, ascend ASAP for the second, rush Ecumenopoli and biology for the third automod trait. I liked Psionics much more before Shadows of the Shroud.