by Limitless333
Xenos can get a tech tile R1. You start with 7 ore and 2 QIC. We need 4 more ore for the Academy open and 2 more QIC to take a 3rd tech. We can easily get 1 more ore from the round bonus tile. This leaves us 3 more ore to acquire. I find that I an almost always acquire 2 more ore through either the power action using 6 power to convert to 2 ore or by acquiring the Ore+QIC tile. this means that we have to use 1 QIC as an Ore. Therefore, to open with a 3rd tech tile we need to convert 1 of our starting QIC to an ore and than get 3 more QIC. This means we need to take 2 steps in QIC or 1 step in QIC and the Ore + QIC tech tile. This nets us 4 tech advances in round 1. This is twice what RL openers accomplish and 1 more than other Academy openers accomplish. Also 6 QIC will generate about 1.5 additional tech tiles with the tech tile action or some additional science with the science federation tile, which I think is generally the best federation tile, probably a discussion topic for another thread. Because the Xenos already have an easier time acquiring QIC and because the QIC for a tech tile is a higher payoff than sets of 4 science, the Xenos can move up the QIC track consistently and continue to accumulate tech tiles in the early rounds to snowball their economy. In summary, I think 2.5 tech steps is on average worse than 1.5 additional tech tiles which also provide tech steps.↧