Vernius Suck

[Hubbard]

Their economy is absolutely wrecked by the fact that they can only get good production from a tiny subset of their provinces. I feel like they should get full production from all of their provinces, and tethered ones should be BUFFED.

Their military is terrible compared to other factions, they have to pay extortionate amounts for their units and they suck compared to other factions' units. I feel like the Solari cost needs to be slashed drastically, everything needs a health buff, and railguns need a SIGNIFICANT damage buff (as it seems mechs are tanks and rails are damage, but mechs have tiny health pools and rails deal tiny damage).

Their technology doesn't even really have that serious additional benefits over other factions. Corrino, being able to build multiple copies of the research lab, as well as having an extra building slot, and full production in all provinces, easily outpaces Vernius. I don't even know what you'd do about this. Give them a unique research building that is similar to the research lab? Kind of like ceremonial caves.

The fact that neural relays and intelligence drones cost standing means that as you expand, you slowly knock yourself out of the diplomatic race. I feel like this would be okay if they actually had any chance of competing in the other victory conditions.

Vernius is a weird faction. They're the only faction whose gimmicks are nerfs instead of buffs, and couple that with their terrible military, they're the only faction where I have to play on normal difficulty instead of 'insane' like every other faction. Ecaz is the only faction that is similar, where their gimmick eats up building slots and relies on not capturing villages, but at least sanctuaries can offer some hefty advantages and their military is actually quite good.

[madpraxis]

...Their military units suck?
I mean, I *delete* opposing units with a handful of rail guns usually. Fights go pretty quick when you erase the targets one after another. Plus, Meks are great for holding down other units, then throw in the Suboids boost on top of all the other boosts you can pile on?

Pew pew, to the max.

Technology? Well, all the factions are balanced. You just said it... 'Doesn't even really have...' Of course they don't. None of the factions do. Which is awesome, because there is no 'I win' tech. Just like every other faction, you get things to play to the strengths, *minorly*.

Solari cost works out great, since you can easily glomp onto every spice field you find without having to waste time capturing it. Plus, you get a 'bonus' to every unit (Ok, their spice harvester's tethered is meh.). Add in the fact that you can just draw lines across the sand, literally, and make life difficult for the other factions is nice. Some even half-way decent planning makes things rather easy, especially since one of the techs gives you a nice -50% off airfields... And that tethered village bonus works out great, if you plan ahead.

My only complaint about them is it just makes the games longer, having to work their strengths.
Which is kind of nice, in a way, since they play so differently from the others. You actually have to plan ahead.

[Slappy White]

The rail guns are nasty, I don't think the military is crap at all

[Nibelungen Finest]

The thing I really hate is when you got EMP spammed, it sucks, and it may not even from the opponent you’re fighting at moment

[FDR'sThinkTank]

Vernius is the "Silk Road" faction. You build a snake territory instead of a robust one: what would be vulnerability for others,becomes strength for you.

[Kōizumi Seishiro]

I play this house on Insane both in Conquest and Skirmish. I believe part of the enjoyment this game provides is finding out all the intricacies and strong points of a certain faction. Ix are definitely science / tech powerhouse. Just like how they should be. Now they are not pure military might faction, but it is ok. They are not supposed to be. With proper development, their units can stand the ground against peer armies.

[Katitoff]

Are you sure you can actually play them?
Their military is not the best, but it is very strong.
The knowledge buffs it even further.
Their eco is fine, but if you're grabbing every single territory just because you can, instead of spreading in a line, as they're intended to, you're not playing them correctly.

They also have no problems with standing, because they're political faction, they are not going to win by military conquest, but by assassination primarily, hegemony or choam secondary, but they're very strong with just getting governor as well given how they can have increased max influence depending on their knowledge and can get extra influence for other factions breaking truce with you.

Something tells me you play Vernius like you would play Harkonnen or Atreides and that's why you struggle.

[BenShinobi]

Originally posted by Katitoff:

Are you sure you can actually play them?
Their military is not the best, but it is very strong.
The knowledge buffs it even further.
Their eco is fine, but if you're grabbing every single territory just because you can, instead of spreading in a line, as they're intended to, you're not playing them correctly.

This. Vernius is actually one of the easiest factions to learn to play because their strengths & weaknesses are so heavily telegraphed.

Get only 50% production in any non-tethered territory? Don't take territory that you can't tether. Just wait a minute at game start to explore your surrounding areas before planning your expansion, especially cause you can send out a harvester immediately. Sometimes map generation can make initial expansion a painful choice, but your options then open up as you get into early-mid game.

Anything else would just be repeating people's points further, but Vernius is fine as a faction.

[Zaulot]

I would agree that they are kind of weak. Economy is bad because -1 building slot. You always need to build internet tower. Yeah it gives bonuses but it gives -1 building slot too and eats your landstrat every time. Bots eat your landstrat too. Vernius is soo landstrat hungry.
Military is extremely weak at start. Pray that enemies don't invade. Cause machines build very slow and are very expensive to rebuild. Suboids go down like flies. Even if you get stronger later that emp blast just ruins the whole army. Army is somewhat ok only late game when you have a lot of knowledge to increase it's atack speed.
Expansion is very bad. You don't know if you chose a good line to expand or not. Later you might reveal map more and see that your line now can't anex fuel cells or some other important land.

[Kōizumi Seishiro]

That is why you should do recon

[Zaulot]

That's only possible in skirmish. Before i start i save and always build many ornicopters to reveal what resources are on map. Then i load and know where to expand but you can't do that in multiplayer. You need to start expanding as soon as possible. You can only reveal fog of war fast but not what resources are inside. Meanwhile huge chunk of map is revealed when Corrino has the resources for second base.

[FDR'sThinkTank]

Your first Armory Upgrade with Suboids can totally eliminate Upkeep on them. Everyone else is paying 6 or more Solari every tick to keep their troops happy. You can just run things like a Black Tech Company: Whenever you have Manpower, buy Suboid Stonks!

Early Game, this is busted, you can make an army of Suboids who all boost each others strength to lock down enemies in melee... and pick them off with focus fire from Railgun Drones.

But this definitely requires you understanding how to upgrade the unit. You have OPTIONS and you have to play around with it to really nail down your best path.