Well, I know this one entomologist...

First off, they are Insectoid, not actually insects. They have more in common with spiders than ants, if I remember correctly (at least that's what I gather from their appearance).

Second, they are capable of farming. Every race is, from the beginning. The Initial Colony produces 6 food, after all. However, I do agree they should get a farming line. Ones that also produce Morale would be just dandy.


Meh. They are nothing like the bugs in Starship Troopers.


Where did you get that idea? The only reason the Thalan AI builds so many Embassies is because they are the earliest available planetary improvement after their three Galactic Achievements.

The Thalans could be incredibly strong in a Conquest Strategy, given the huge +Weapons bonus they can accumulate from their tech tree. Their Soldiering ability really isn't that weak, by the way. They have one tech that gives +30 Soldiering that isn't Tradeable, after all. Its just that their low population numbers and growth inhibits their ability to make soldiers. However, I typically keep the homeworld (since it has 24 billion max pop...) cranking out Transports and never really ran out of them at any point in the games I played the Thalans.


A lot. However, it was directed towards their role as "Time Travelers" rather than their "Insectoid" nature. What was done with the "Time Travelers" bit was very well done, though.

Just echoing what thehandofzarquon said above... don't get hung up on the idea that they're an "insectoid" race. That's almost incidental now, in TA. The devs (or I guess just Frogboy, since it's his backstory?) are focusing on them being a small outpost of a very advanced civilization, thrown back in time to avert a catastrophe... something about the Terrans destroying the universe.

They have snippets of very advanced tech, but it's hard to get up to speed, compared to most of the other races. Their slow population growth makes no sense at all, if you think of them as insects, but it's a little more logical as a small group of time travelers. Maybe as advanced insectoids, they've had to figure out population control in the future, and now it handicaps them when they actually have plenty of room to expand. Something like that.

Also, I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from the way they're set up now. AFAIK, we're still waiting for the first round of major AI and economy balancing in an upcoming beta. I doubt the Thalans will be unplayable when the expansion goes gold. They still might not the be the first race you'd choose for a conquest strategy, due to the low pop for invasion troops, but that whole idea of TA is that each race will have different strengths and weaknesses. It will be interesting to see where the Thalans end up in that mix.

BTW, here's their backstory and tech info, from the re-introduction post:
WWW Link

Their soldier ability is by far the weakest for any race in the game. Mechanized soldiers is the only tech in the planetary invasion branch for the Thalans that gives any soldiering bonuses at all. That means that not only are they lacking all the normal soldiering bonuses that other races have from the planetary invasion tech branch and from the planetary defense tech branch, but also most of the invasion tactics from those branches as well. Furthermore, they can't build a Tir-Quan Training center or any of the defensive structures from the planetary defense tech line either. And yes, I know about the other conditional tech in xeno ethics line that gives you another soldiering bonus for being good or evil but not for neutral, but even adding that in still leaves the Thalans with a soldiering penalty.

Plus, soldiering isn't just about soldiering bonuses, it's also about having enough people to invade or to defend a planet. Thalans get doubly penalized in this area due to their lack of farms and population growth penalties.

That doesn't mean you can't invade with the Thalans and do well or even defend yourself from invasion, only that you will have a harder time invading and protecting your planets from invasion with the Thalans than with any other race. Ironically their lack of population makes them relatively bad at projecting cultural influence as well, but I guess when most of your options are sup-par, you do what you can.

The weapon bonuses are nice, but that by the time you get them all you might as well just finish the entire branch to get a tech victory. I guess it's probably the closest thing they have to a tech strength, though it would be more significant if they get resource extration techs to help them out here. With their slow start though, it seems like they will always be playing catchup in research to other races, which means by the time you get all the weapon techs, the other races probably already have researched a tech victory.

I personally love the Thalans, most games by midgame I am running my tax rate at about 20% or lower, my economy at 100%, and I research every tech before going for the tech victory.

Real simple strategy... research through the economy tech line first, then the ethics, after that I change around what I research generally going for counter espionage for that nice 20% morale bonus. I just fill my planets up with econ buildings. Never have seen the need for farms. With morale at 100% on each planet, even my 6B pop can be producing transports faster then I can build them, and with 20+ planets producing transports (each transport holding 2B), I have plenty of soldiers to invade a planet with.

Aye, the Thalans are 'beings from the future/alternate dimension". They don't get the farming tech line as they were meant to be a low-pop race. Look at the -30 pop growth they have as an indication. Not many came back from the future (how many bugs can you fit into a De Lorean anyway?).

FYI, if you go evil there is another +20 soldiering available to the Thalans.

The Thalans can easily dominate tiny and small maps because of the Hyperion Matrix. It allows them to jump to an early game lead by giving them two low cost uber-planets right from the start. The Hyperion Matrix also allows them to dominate medium maps if they manage to put it on a 300% bonus research or production tile fairly early, and the same for large maps if it is built on a 700% tile. Beyond large, a well placed Hyperion Matrix still allows the Thalan's to keep pace with anyone else, which is good enough for me to win.

Also, if you throw the political capital on the same planet as your Hyperion Matrix, and one Zero-G amusement on every planet, including your homeworld and the Hyperion world, and get the Harmony Crystals, you can run fairly high tax rates, combine that with a few stock markets on every planet, and you won't have any real money problems.

Nope, but that might be a plan for my next game.



It worked well on tough when I tried it. I was serious about it, reseached the tech required to get the next structure and ended up with a planet that dominated influence in a 2 sector radius. I won an influence victory shortly afterwards.



They are better off than the Yor.

The Yor have very limited amount of economic and morale structures per planet. This greatly limits their economic ability. They heavily rely on their charging stalks for a taxable population. With the exception of the Yor, all the civs get an unlimited supply of economic structures.

In my current game, the Thalan built the Hyperion Matrix on a 100% food bonus tile, giving Thala a max population of 32 billion!
I found the Thalan very useful in this game (Immense, uncommon planets), as my Terrans abused massive diplomacy and economy bonuses to stalk the Thalan around the galaxy, buying their better-quality worlds and encircling their influence-heavy core until they realised their mission was futile and they unexpectedly surrendered to me without a shot fired. With my empire suddenly doubled in size, I was so busy turning embassies into something more useful that for a few turns I failed to notice that badly overpopulated Thala was actually having a noticeable negative effect on my otherwise high morale. I now can't build transports fast enough - since I took over those bugs have been breeding rather enthusiastically...
This isn't directly relevant, I just found it very amusing.