Mobile Assault Colony

A Mobile Assault Colony, more commonly known as a MAC, is a colony created to quickly attack a target.

Description

When a commander colonizes a MAC, he or she will usually send a large attack fleet along with their Gaia. They also take little note of the fields on the planet, usually only needing enough to build a fodder-producing Shipyard and possibly a Missile Silo. A MAC is used to quickly attack targets in a particular system and move on to a new system with new targets, similar to the Hephaestus Class Attack Platform.

Evaluation

Advantages

• A Mobile Assault Colony can be used to hit targets who feel safe in their current universe position due to the lack of enemies.
• A MAC is superior to a Hephaestus in that it can build new ships, defenses, mines, and Interplanetary Ballistic Missiles.
• A player can have multiple MACs.
• A Gaia is almost 30 times faster than a Heph, and even a Zeus is slightly faster than a Heph. MACs can be deployed faster than a Hephaestus to the same area.
• A player has to have very high levels of research before unlocking the Hephaestus class attack platform. A MAC can be deployed as soon as the player has unlocked the gaia class colony ship.
• A MAC costs fewer resources to build than a hephaestus class attack platform.
• A Hephaestus may be destroyed, along with all ships aboard and all ships in transit from it and returning to it. The MAC can not be destroyed. Ships on it may be vulnerable, but only the commander can abandon it.
• Since the MAC cannot be destroyed, long-running missions can be deployed from the MAC without fear, unlike the Heph, which risks attack if it sends out a slow fleet.

Disadvantages

• With sufficient hydrogen a Heph can go anywhere. MACs are immobile once established. They can only "Move" by moving the fleets to another colony, and abandoning the MAC, along with anything you built on it.
• You must keep one planet slot empty for each MAC you use. Those planet slots could instead have productive worlds with high levels of mines, defenses, a large shipyard, a foundry a moon with an oracle, etc. Some of these could be built on an MAC, but you must abandon them when you relocate the MAC.
• an MAC has no hull or shield score. Any defensive potential comes from ships parked there, or defenses built there (Which will be abandoned when you relocate.)
• Ships sent with a Gaia to colonize an MAC are all part of a fleet. They do not ride for free as they would with a hephaestus, so fuel costs can be much higher.
• an MAC does not have cargo capacity like a Heph does.
• Ships stationed at the MAC will probably have to be fleetsaved when you are gone, which also costs hydrogen.