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THE FASCISTS!!
By Steel Rat


OK, I guess it's about time the University Staff starts talking a little more about the new things that VGAP 3.50 brings up (since our "students" seem to want only study in that subject) rather than the generic stuff of the game. But hey, give us ol' codger professors a break, we're set in our ways (and besides, who knows how things will change if and when the upgrades ever stop. VGAP 3.51x keeps coming out with more new versions than the Congress has new budgets). Anyway, let's talk about the race most improved by Winplan.. THE FASCISTS!!

Now I'd bet just about everyone would agree the Fascists are one of the weakest races, if not the weakest race, in the old 3.15 version. The only thing they really had going for them was the couple cloaking ships they could build. But even these wern't all that hot, since they lack sufficient weaponry and/or cargo capacity to do much. Their battleship is pretty cheap to build, but it's also one of the weakest BB's out there. The Pillage Mission was nice, but really didn't do the Fascist all that much good because the supplies & MCs generated were left behind for their enemies to use. But now, things have definitely changed!

First, those cloaking ships, especially the Coldpain, are much more useful because the Fascists now have a ground attack & ground defense ability similar to the Lizards. In VGAP 3.50, the Fascists receive a 15 to 1 ground attack advantage over most the other races. This allows the Coldpain to carry an effective attack force of 1500 clans which it's cloaking ability & large fuel capacity makes very difficult to interdict. As anyone who has played or faced the Lizards knows, this is a huge advantage. Having that ratio over their enemies allows the Fascist player a good chance to capture planets without having to destroy the defense posts or a starbase that may be in orbit. Nothing is quite so satisfying as capturing a starbase that someone else has so kindly built for your use!

Second, the Pillage Mission has been upgraded so all the supplies and MCs generated don't get left behind for your enemy to use. The Pillage Mission continues as before by allowing the Fascist to kill off 20% of the planet's colonist & native populations. Now however, the supplies generated are immediately beamed up to any orbitting Fascist ships until their cargo capacity is reached. Any remaining supplies are converted to MCs and, along with the MCs generated by the Pillage, are also immediately beamed up to the ships. And since the Fascist retain their immunity to the "ATT" & "NUK" planetary codes, the only way the victim of this slaughter can stop it is by sending ships over to destroy the pillagers.

Third, and probably most important, is the Fascists now have two ships that contain the Glory Device. The Glory Device is built into the hulls of the D19 Nefarious and the Saber class ships & when detonated can cause several things to happen. Naturally the resulting explosion destroys the Glory Device ship, but the possible gains far outweigh the loss of the ship. The Glory Device will cause 1 mine hit worth of damage to any enemy ship located at the same point in space. Any ships belonging to the same race as the onwer of the Glory Device ship will take a lesser amount of damage, only 20% if it was the Nefarious and only 10% if it was the Saber.

Since Glory Device explosions occur after movement but BEFORE combat, they can be used as way to soften up enemy fleets before combat begins. It also means your enemy has to try to intercept the Glory Device ship before it gets to any of his planets because...... The Glory Device will also cause serious damage to any planet over which it is in orbit. If detonated over a planet, the Glory Device will destroy 25% of all planetary structures present and kill off 40% of any colonists and natives as well.

Siliconoids, Reptians & Bovinoids are immune to the effects of the Glory Device, however Amorphs will be completey killed off and converted into supplies. For every 1,000 Amorphs on the planet, 1 supply unit will be generated. So an Amorph population of say 5 million will produce a 5,000 supply stockpile! This gives the Fascist a really convenient way to generate a large quantity of supplies that can be used to build structures or be sold for MCs. It's also a handy way to get rid of those colonist eating worms off the planets you want to colonize.

Two new Friendly Codes are now available & are required for the Glory Device to be activated. The FC "pop" will order the ship to detonate after the movement phase. The FC "trg" will order the ship to detonate after movement AND if a cloaked enemy ship is present at the same point in space. This comes in real handy to counter those pesky robbing Privateers or those aggravating Lizards trying to sneak in for a ground assault.

That's about it, except the Fascists are also now able to withstand the rigors of hot planets better than most other races. So they can maintain a larger colony than otherwise normal on the really hot desert planets. Not a big advantage, but handy under certain situations.


Next column I'll talk about the other most improved race in VGAP 3.50, the COLONIES.

Professor S. Rat


File originally hosted at Spacenet, posted at Donovan's with permission.


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