The Lizards
They're green, they're big, they're nasty

This race of lizard creatures developed on a warm and marshy planet thousands of years ago. Many millennia ago these creatures were little more than just amphibious frog like creatures. As time passed and they evolved, they moved from the swampy areas of their planets to the more rugged and warmer mountainous areas. As they were moving into these warmer, rocky, areas they very closely resembled the iguanas of Earth. Several thousand years ago a meteor struck the planet. This meteor apparently contained many unstable radioactive elements that were released into the atmosphere of the Lizard's homeworld.

These radioactive elements caused and amazing mutation in the genetic code of the Lizards. The mutation caused this race to grow and change. Their cranial capacity enlarged and their brains grew. They started to stand upright and developed an opposable thumb. After several hundred years of unstable genetic code their DNA finally stabilized once again and they now appear very humanoid. Though they had become very humanoid in manner and appearance they still retained much of their amphibian and reptilian ancestry. Although they walk upright like a human their bodies are covered with a tough scaly hide. They average a height of seven feet. They are also enormously strong and durable. Even as their bodies grew faster and larger, their intelligence grew at a proportional rate. They became very intelligent and developed all the facets of government and science that they needed to form a strong and advanced society. They even developed the technology they needed to explore space and to protect their worlds. The one problem that this race has yet to overcome is a horrible lisp that seems to plague all of their kind.

Race advantages
The Lizards are a very tough and hardy race. Because of this, any starship manned by a Lizard crew is able to take 150% damage before being destroyed. This ability is not really based on any special talent or skill the Lizard's possess but more the fact that they are so tough that they can literally hold the starship together. When they are really in trouble they can just shove a few crew members into the holes in the hull and plug the leaks and the crew apparently suffers no ill effects from this maneuver.

The Lizards have a very powerful ground attack ability. When Lizard clans are downloaded onto the planet (pg. 25, Table 2.3 ) they destroy thirty (30) enemy clans to every Lizard clan. This 30:1 ratio is the HCONFIG.EXE default setting. It is recommended that this remain at default because it is within game balance. The Lizards are able to very easily take over enemy planets this way, and it seems to save on the wear and tear on the starships. Be wary, as the number of defense outposts increase on an enemy planet, the 30:1 ratio decreases.

The massive strength and power of the Lizards makes them exceptional miners. The Lizards are able to extract minerals at 200% of the normal rate.

Race disadvantages
The lizards, like many other races, lack a really big warship which will hold it's own in battle. When it comes to fighting large carriers, the Lizards are forced to often sacrifice two of their ships in order to kill a large enemy ship, or resort to clever tactics.

Special mission
The Lizards have a special "HISSSSSSSSSS" mission. Lizard ships on this mission will hover over planets, transmitting threatening radio and video messages to planetary populations. The fear of big Lizards stomping on their planet tends to keep both native and colonist populations "happy". Whether or not they are really happy or just pretending to be happy has yet to be determined, but either way nobody seems to grow angry while being hissed, even when taxed very heavily.

Battleships
The Lizards have a formidable and versatile fleet, ranging from small ships that have cloaking devices to large battleships. Their most useful ships are the Lizard Class Cruiser, used to transport Lizard groundtroops to enemy planets, the T-Rex, the Lizard's biggest torpedo ship, and the Madonzilla - the Lizards' only carrier.

Special ships
The Lizards have stolen the plans to two special Federation ships, and can build them too. The Eros Class Research Vessel will make a planet cooler until climate type 50 is reached, which is a perfect temperature for the Lizards. The Loki Class Destroyer that can decloak enemy ships within 10 lightyears.

Gameplay in short
With their 200% mining rate and HISS mission the Lizards are able to get a quicker start than any other race. It is best to exploit this strength to the fullest, by being aggressive early on. The strong Lizard groundtroops can take out most enemy planets, and if push comes to shove the Lizard Class Cruiser can carry enough weaponry to take out most enemy planets and smaller ships. The Lizards are likely to be able to build some T-Rexes and Madonzillas before their neighbors get around to building their big battleships, which allows the Lizards to threaten enemy homeworlds pretty early. Later on in the game the Lizard will have to make sure he has sufficient ships to trade 2 to 1 against large enemy carriers.