In this week’s developer blog for Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova it’s time to examine the endless hordes that make up the Mimot Brotherhood, without a doubt the Civilization with the most impressive ability to “go forth and multiply” in all of GalCiv.
When it comes to 4X games, eXpand is often one of the most important of the X’s in terms of winning a campaign: territory gained in the early game often translates directly into industrial output, and industrial output extending the reach of your military power projection, whether to take territory to win or defend yourself from the predations of others while you achieve some other, non-violent victory condition.
Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova is a somewhat more complex affair because unlike most classic 4X games, the taller style of play can be viable owing to the unique Core World and Colony dynamic, which allows players to remain competitive with less managed worlds on some maps. That said, unless you’re really hemmed in by dangerous opponents from the start of the game, achieving a strong start with plenty of Core Worlds or Colonies will usually be a better idea than staying small, and there is no other Core Civilization quite like the Mimot Brotherhood for achieving this super-wide style of play.
Why? Because the Mimot have two very powerful Civilization Abilities that work in tandem to supercharge their expansion efforts.
Fertile grows Citizens at a rapid rate and provides access to a couple of extra techs that help boost Citizen production.
With Proliferation, the Mimot can send those Citizens out to settle new worlds twice as fast as any other non-prolific Civilization, as the “buy one, get one free” ship feature also affects Colony Ships, Constructors and other non-combat vessels. The Civilization Trait Fast +1 ensures their ships get where they’re going before their rivals, while Productive +1 gives the Mimot a big boost to Manufacturing to build everything faster too.
This pairing ensures the Mimot have many more options in reaching valuable colonies and strategic resources.
Given enough space to breathe, the Mimot Brotherhood can claim new worlds, strategic resources and other map features at an alarming rate. A good player who knows how to expand well will end up with a truly huge territory if not checked by another player in some way, and this makes the Mimot an incredibly fun Civilization to play as if, like me, you really enjoy the colony management aspect of the game and love watching a large empire grow.
There is a downside to all this rapid growth: the Mimot tend to run low on Food pretty quickly, and much of your Core Worlds' real-estate will be dedicated to housing and feeding your Citizens. The Mimot themselves aren’t the best Citizens and that Food consumption doesn’t get you much: your average fuzzball is kinda cute and entertaining, but he doesn’t know much about anything and rarely lifts a finger to get anything done either.
However, once you research Genetic Architecture, they’ll start pulling their weight properly and then you’ll be pretty glad you built homes for them all, as your Citizen-based industrial bonuses shoot through the roof.
The Civilization Policy Genetic Manipulation can help, and they have access to some unique Improvements that can help their stats too.
Mimot Citizens make unattractive immigrants to alien Civilizations: their incredible Growth rate coupled with low statistics feels like a bad deal, although slow growing Civilizations might benefit from their rapid reproduction rate, just to get some more hands on deck. Just know that unless you’ve also got access to Statistic boosters, those Mimot aren’t going to be too effective for building a strong economy.
Another problem the Mimot will run into is other players: their borders can expand quickly and border friction is a major cause of war declarations. Fortunately their Civilization Trait Likeable +2 gives them a huge +3 Diplomacy boost, which is the main reason they’re not constantly at war with every other nation they bump into.
Proliferation helps out if war does break out: sure, your battleships are smaller and less durable than their rivals, but you get two for every one you pay the Military points for. What the Mimot lose in individual combat strength, ship by ship, they more than make up for with the ability to literally be in two places at once, and the strategic options that this tactical agility grants them cannot be understated. And in combat, you get twice the firepower!
One time I remember invading the Mimot Brotherhood when playing as the Yor Singularity, only to be horrified to see just how many fleets began to pour over our border a few turns later. Sure, they’re not particularly strong fleets, but they just throw so many of them at you!
So, the Mimot are a strong option if you enjoy managing a wider, more populated Civilization, with lots of Citizens on lots of Core Worlds, with lots of border friction to deal with and lots of ships to throw at your enemies when they inevitably tire of your shenanigans.
Let us know if you enjoy this faction, and share your strategies!