--Arceans--
The Arceans have a tech tree similar to the Terrans, but they don't get the standard engine techs. Instead of building bigger, stronger, and more costly engines, they use navigation centers and related technologies to travel "smarter".
Super Ability: The Arcean super ability is called Super Warriors. If the Arceans start a fight, and manage to kill ships, those destroyed ships don't get to fire back (normally they would). As such, for the Arceans, a good offense is a good defense.
Customization: The Arcean base abilities give a moderate boost to hit points and a small boost soldiering. They have a small penalty to speed. They have a starting logistics score of 8, and have 10 points to spend on customization.
Industry, research, and economics: The Arceans develop at standard progression for industry, research and economics. They start with basic factories, and labs.
Morale, Farming, and Influence: The Arceans progress normally for morale, farming, and influence. They start out with a basic morale building.
Getting Started: The Arceans have factories, research labs, and morale buildings. They also get a galactic achievement called a "Stellar Forge". When built, it increases the quality of the ships built there. There is no good reason to build at the start of a game, so its worth saving it for later.
Military Advice: Because the Arceans have a penalty to speed, you'll find that the colony rush and using their super ability becomes a challenge. You would do well to research "interstellar navigation" early on (you should find it just after hyperdrive). That tech will provide a +1 bonus to speed, and any planet that has a navigation center built on it will bestow another +1 bonus to speed to any ship it builds. With both speed bonuses, your ships will be flying around with the same speed as the Terrans and Drengin (who are the fast civs in the game). Keep an eye out of engine techs later in the game, as you can't research them, but they are very helpful for when you are using your super ability.
----
Special Stuff:
Navigation Centers: Navigation centers bestow a speed bonus to any ship built by the planet that this planet improvement is built on. This planet improvement does not have a retroactive effect (does not affect ships built before this structure) on ships, so you should try to build these things early, otherwise some of your older ships might slow down your fleets. The Advanced navigation center functions like the navigation center, but provides a larger speed bonus to all ships built. At time of writing, the build cost for both planet improvements is the same, but the maintenance cost is slightly higher for the advanced version of the navigation centers.
Weather Control Zeniths: The Arceans can improve their worlds further beyond what most civs can achieve, which helps them survive better if they fall behind in the colony rush. This planet improvement improves a planet quality by 3. However, since this structure takes up a tile itself, so you are effectively getting only 2 for purposes for adding more structures. Because your increasing the PQ of the planet, you may get a small boost to morale for becoming a high PQ world.
Planetary Defense and offense: The Arceans get Space Cannons, and Cathedrals of Valor. These planet improvements are useful for planet invasions and defense. The Cathedral of Valor provides a civ wide +2% soldiering bonus (possibly broken, otherwise it would be useful for invasion and defense), and a provides a +33% to planet invasion defense for the planet its built on. There is no build limit for these structure, and no maintaince costs either, so you have the option to build until your troops are invincible. The Space Cannon gives a larger bonus to planet defenses, and a small morale bonus (who doesn't feel safe with a big gun protecting them?).
Atlas Fleet Modules: The Arceans get a few fleet modules. The "Tulon Weapon Focus" gives the affected fleet a bonus to attack. The "Xalax Defense Coordinator" and "Zalon Defense Mainframe" gives a fleet a defensive bonus.
Atlas ZOC Modules: The "Advanced Fire Control" and the"Advanced Battle Station Module" are Arcean ZOC attack modules. These modules only work in your area of influence (Zone Of Control), so they work best when you are trying repel invaders entering your territory.
HP Boosters:
-The Arceans get a module known as "Robust Hull Construction Option". This is one of the more costly HP boosting modules, but it currently provides the best hit point to space ratio of any like module.
-If you don't like the high price, you can go get the "Hardened Hull Point". As mentioned elsewhere, this is a module common to most civs, and is found shortly after Large hulls (see "Hardened Hull Design").
----
Suggested strategies:
The Arceans don't move fast. Consider solutions to this problem such as buying engine techs. Alternatively, you might want to invest in sensor ships (I suggest cargo hull + sensor modules) so you can see far enough ahead to try to pick your targets. Try to stay just out of range so that when they try to follow, they only put themselves in striking distance of your ships. This will allow you to start fights which will activate your super ability, and kill enemy ships before they can shoot back.
Because the Arceans don't move quickly, they might become victims to invasions. The planet improvement known as the "Space Cannon" provide a very large bonus to planet defense (+50% at time of writing), and as such, should prove to be useful for repelling invaders. Inaddition, the "Cathedrals of Valor" (possibly broken) structures provides a way for all planets to defend each other and contribute to wars away from home.
The Arceans do get some strong ZOC ship attack boost modules. Consider using them to help keep your ships alive in within your territory. If you are lucky (or skilled enough) you might get the chance to punish your opponents for not paying attention.
Although the Arceans can't research standard engine techs like impulse drive, they can research "Interstellar Navigation" and "Sub-Space Drive". Researching these techs takes a little longer than working your way to impulse drive, but they provide a much larger bonus to speed. Those techs will provide a +3 ship speed bonus (2 passive, +1 planet improvement), and should keep your ships flying faster than your opponents for a little while (even those that come with an innate speed bonus).
The Arceans can get a +5 passive ship speed bonus relying on their tech tree alone (+2 from techs, +2 from advanced navigation centers, +1 from gravity accelerators). A total of +4 can be found in the engine techs part of the tech tree. The remaining +1 from gravity accelerators can be acquired by researching the morale tech "Zero G Sports Arenas", and then building the trade good "Gravity Accelerators".
The Arceans, like all civs, can build the "Hyperion Shipyard" super project. This super project makes all ships built on this world go faster than normal, much like what navigation centers do. If used along side of all navigation techs, and "Gravity Accelerators" trade good, its possible to build ships with a speed of 7 (without putting engines on your ships).
Back to main
