Loyality ?

[Pitchslayer]

Is it me or the Factions i played so far, Fallen Soldier & Rogue Operative, that i can't get past the 3 city mark on a large map vs 6/9 factions, everything standard settings ?
Loyality cripples me so hard i barely won my last first independent game going at Acrin and Zephon alone.
Stomping grounds, but i couldn't expand beyond 3 cities, the penalty of -6 loyality for every city extra adds up hard with population and size and to keep the warmachine running.
Can't see how i can run 4 cities ?

[Nathanael]

loyalty is the most important ressource in the game, just focus on it a bit more. try to run a surplus of +10 loyalty, that alone is a good bonus to all other ressources, including influence, research and unit production.

When you prepare to build your 4th or 5th city, every city should go for a bonus round of holo theater construction, which at that point in the game usually only takes 1 or 2 turns. If you find yourself pressed by the AI at that point, just do a turn of full retreat to better positions.

there is no shame in running 3 or even 2 cities only though. you can perfectly fine hold the AI with just that on nightmare difficulty. I just finished a huge map with all AI factions fighting with only 1 ally against 5 remaining factions. just give your allies orders. they swam your marked locations like locusts, no matter what

[Pitchslayer]

seems like once u enter negative loyality the debt just adds up ? i think i never reached positive loyality the whole game despite the start.
i got battered hard by Zephon after i beat Acrin and was in full retreat, lost most of my army and only the use of wormhole, 2 archangles and 3 ophanim i squezzed out somehow killed the last remaining zephon titans.
luckily the A.I. isn't too smart about the use of unit interactions, abilities and hero units, otherwise u wouldn't stand a chance.
but oh boy they love to snipe your most precious units out of the game !

[Seppl]

Negative loyalty is very bad. Every -1 point reduces production and resource income by 2%.
(Every +1 point increases it by 1%).
It can be interesting in the short term to accept a small loss for the founding of a city, but otherwise it should be avoided.

It is better to have fewer cities with a bonus than many with a penalty.

[Pitchslayer]

okay, that explains a lot ! i was crippled at -10 to -15 loyality at certain points with 3 cities, allthou huge ones but impossible to somehow even get back to a positive rating.

[Nathanael]

every population unit (pop?) decreases loyalty, so yeah, you have keep building more holo theaters every couple buildings. If you don't play the aristocrat, get a second contruction building in your cities, so you can keep up with population growth and actually boost it to grow your economy faster.

never let your population cap out, get more living space and loyalty. additional cities provide troops closer to your frontlines and help with upkeep costs. but they don't exactly win you the game after the 3rd city