After having played all the races multiple times, I was wondering the above when starting the next run and for me the answer was clearly Gremak

The reason is simple: They have access to the most interesting toys (tech and mechanics) from the get-go:
- Slaves
- Cloaking
- Energy Torpedo
- Cruisers
Plus they boost the coolest ship designs, and especially their capital ships are available in numerous designs and they are all very sleek and intimidating

If I had to list the others and why they fell shorter then the mighty Gremak:
2. Ashdar Colonials: I just love fighters + they can really crank up production right ffrom the start
3. Orthin: Cool design, unique ship class with the sniper and they realy break through the physics research tree making for an interesting tech oriented gameplay
4. Humans: They feel closest to home, and their smaller ship designs really hit the ball home. Not that fond for the Marine art (too clean for me) and the unique starting position quickly disappears after the first colony. I always felt there would be more to them living on ships. Boarding mechanic is fun but is just as viable with other races (usually produce a dedicated boarding light cruiser with Gremak
5. Ashdar Imperials: Same as Colonials, but slower production. Stargate is a cool mechnaic though to get for their homeworld
6. Yoral: Lots of cool ship designs but nothing particularly else. I am also very much used to mostly battling these guys and thus their image is worn off a bit. Wish the others would put up a fight like them to balance things out
7. Phidi: Nice ship designs, but the others have more variety. They should have an interesting game mechanic concentrating on trade, diplomacy and mercs but the later two need to be extended for this race to be truly viable

Favorite race, for me, would be the Ashdar Teros, with the Phidi as a close second, followed by Tarrib and Orthin. That ranking, however, is based on appearance, design aesthetic, and game lore, rather than game mechanics. (Though I'll admit that the Gremak do have some very pretty hulls.)

In terms of what race I find easiest to play as, I'd have to rank them differently - and vary that rank based on map settings.

For small, dense maps: Gremak or Yoral; they both have early advantages in the form of high quality small ship hulls. Gremak is probably slightly better, thanks primarily to the reputation bonus with Gremak raider groups - being on friendly terms with those can be a huge advantage.

For larger or sparse maps, the Ashdar Imperials or the Orthin. The Ashdar are very strong thanks to their early star gates & ability to segregate their colonists: Teros on production worlds, Haduir on mining/research/trade worlds. And the Orthin, well, I tend to prefer research-based progression, so their bonuses fit nicely with my preferred playstyle.

My overall favorite to play are probably the Yoral, they are production focused and the horrifying destroyer wave can be fun to play. Depending how the galaxy generation treats me I find their climate preferences are often helpful too. After that probably the Ashdar Colonials, solid production and research bonuses almost always puts you in a good position. I also still find the Ashdar ships the most visually appealing.

-Will

That's a pretty nice cross-section

I like the Humans (for RP reasons and for their ship loadouts) with the Ashdar Colonials being a close 2nd (I like fighters too ).

I haven't played enough to know which would be the 'best' but I definitely struggle early on with the Humans because I'm not a big fan of boarding mechanics in games. I only tried it once and it seemed a bit too easy to take down ships I otherwise wouldn't have a chance against. I haven't tried since the patch if anything has changed.

It's nice to see that people like playing the Colonials even though they are often ranked last on the OP-meter. I hope you're enjoying the Colonial fighter buff in the recent patch.

Yoral have the nicest looking ships. Also strong production + large habitability range = win.

But I also really like Imperials because I played Hivers is SotS and the gate network really does make managing stuff late-game much easier.

The thing I found weird about playing the Ashdar Colonials is that they've got all this lore about having a fleet base... and then they don't start with a fleet base. I mean, I kinda get why - scrapping such a thing would give an overly-large boost to early-game metal stockpiles - but surely there's some way around that...

I like playing the Phidi Combine, both for lore and for my usual strategy game preference of 'focus on peaceful development, with little or no war'. They're well-suited for my usual strategy game playstyle, which is... well... not aggressive.

Wyvern wrote:The thing I found weird about playing the Ashdar Colonials is that they've got all this lore about having a fleet base... and then they don't start with a fleet base. I mean, I kinda get why - scrapping such a thing would give an overly-large boost to early-game metal stockpiles - but surely there's some way around that...

That's a good idea.

Arioch wrote:

Wyvern wrote:The thing I found weird about playing the Ashdar Colonials is that they've got all this lore about having a fleet base... and then they don't start with a fleet base. I mean, I kinda get why - scrapping such a thing would give an overly-large boost to early-game metal stockpiles - but surely there's some way around that...

That's a good idea.

So...Unique Base for Colonials planet?

SmaugTheDragon wrote:Yoral have the nicest looking ships. Also strong production + large habitability range = win.

That is probably why they kick poor Orthin af Phidi in the back-fins when played by the AI...

Uncle_Joe wrote:That's a pretty nice cross-section
I haven't tried since the patch if anything has changed.

Yeah the buff like mentioned above
The more fighters the merrier

There have been some interestig arguments against having fighters in space, but I can defend the little critters any day + their meme is so anchored in sci-fi culture, that it is almost impossible to imagine it withouth them. Star Trek tried valiantly (mostly due to budget reasons) untill they have surrendered in Voyager

My favorite incarnation of them has to be from Freespace 1+2. They realy got a realistic place designated for them there which SiS alligns well with (not blowing up the Death-Star much but still a critical element of fleet operations)

Arioch wrote:It's nice to see that people like playing the Colonials even though they are often ranked last on the OP-meter. I hope you're enjoying the Colonial fighter buff in the recent patch.

I've actually been forcing myself to play the Gremak since I almost never play them but I think a game as the Colonials will be up next.

I agree be interesting if the Colonials got some sort of different starting base, either a unique one they can't replicate or just something different from the standard space station.

-Will

O Hai! Thanks for meeting with me. That gives me a new mercenary contact. Fun! Let me just buy a fleet twice as big and powerful as yours. Now you won't attack me. Goody!

And I have all these spare diplomacy points lying around. What a bother. Oh, I know! I can use them to make you agree to trade with me! But it's for your own good. Think of all the lovely opil you'll be getting! Lovely lovely opil.

I'm making all this spare money and because the only ships I'm building myself are transports (lots and LOTS of transports - oh, dear, I can't even catch up with my trade route expansion. Such troubles I have), so I can always respond "yes" when you ask for money or minerals. Oh, Yes. Now you love me so much.

All the while, I can actually expand faster than you because my mercenary fleet is powerful enough to take on Death's Hand and Harpies and let me expand to systems you're too weak to enter. And because I'm the only one clever enough to actually offer peace to brigands, I can also expand to all those systems they keep cleaning you out of.

Oh, looky, I have hundreds of diplomacy points and you're so very friendly with me. Well there's only thing for that, we simply MUST be allies. Thanks! That puts me in contact with more races, so I can make more mercenary friends so I can be too intimidating to attack while I save up enough points to make them love me, too.

Now everyone loves me and I'm allied with everyone and I ... what? Allying with everyone is a victory condition? Oops! I hope you enjoy your new friendly capitalist overlords!

And I didn't even bother to research any military technology or make any war ships. Maybe next time? Eh, probably not.

Peaceful victories are pretty easy at the moment with the Phidi (or, with anyone, really), but as we add more detail to the diplomacy system, it should get a little more complicated. But hopefully no less fun.