Overview
An introductory guide to the Iconian tech tree in Gal Civ III – its contents, its strengths and weaknesses, and some suggestions as to how to best use it.
Introduction
This guide is for any players considering playing with the Iconian tech tree and looking to get the most out of it. This includes both playing as the Iconians and as a custom faction using the tech tree. I’ve included a section specifically for how one might design a faction to best use the tech tree too, but if you want to stick to the canon Iconian faction that section won’t apply.
Apologies for the length of the guide, but there was just too much information I wanted to include to make it much shorter than it is. I also realise I may have oversaturated it with large images, and if this does present itself as a problem for loading the guide quickly (please leave a comment letting me know!), I can re-upload them in a lower resolution.
As a small disclaimer, I am a UK resident, and thus I’m used to writing in British English. I’ve attempted to Americanise Americanize this guide because that is consistent with Gal Civ III’s in-game American English, but I might have made some mistakes. Apologies in advance, and I will fix them if they are pointed out to me.
And another disclaimer: This guide is by no means entirely complete despite its length, nor will it guarantee your victory. I hope it at least gives some useful information and advice that will help players new and old. If you’ve any suggestions or advice for additions or alterations I’d be happy to hear them. Thank you in advance!
Brief overview of the tech tree
Tech trees in Gal Civ III are differentiated by unique technologies and tech lines which may replace old ones or which may be additions to the base tree. In short, the Iconian tech tree grants access to unique buildings with bonuses to food, production, and research (this is why the tech tree in-game is described as being for “expansion”), and bonuses to ship hull capacity, manufacturing, and maintenance. The tree also contains unique techs which give all ships in your empire tactical repair.
The Iconian tech tree contains the Molecular Fabrication line, which includes the unique buildings Molecular Fabricators. These give bonuses to manufacturing, research, and food, which helps you grow your colonies to larger population sizes while maintaining competitive levels of manufacturing and research.
Under Engineering, there are unique technologies as part of the Precursor Traditions line, which can increase manufacturing and capacity, and reduce maintenance. Towards the end of the line is the powerful Living Ships tech which removes all maintenance costs and provides a significant boost to tactical repair to all your ships.
Finally, there is the unique Precursor Sole technology in Communications. This single technology allows the Player Unique Dream Conclave to be built, raising approval on all worlds and research and influence on its host world.
What is the Iconian tech tree good for?
The Iconian tech tree is a very flexible tech tree. None of the core buildings from the base tech tree – factories, laboratories, markets, farms, etc. – are replaced, meaning you are not necessarily shoehorned into a single strategy. I’ll be mentioning this flexibility over and over again throughout the guide simply because it really is so good.
The Molecular Fabricator line however is a very powerful techline, with its buildings encouraging colony population growth and efficient colony improvement management in order to best use Molecular Fabricators and their adjacency bonuses. While we’re on the topic of adjacency, keep in mind that while Molecular Fabricators boost and provide adjacency bonuses to manufacturing, research, and food, they can only receive adjacency bonuses from manufacturing as shown in the image below.
One thing the Iconian tech tree does well is a combination of ship capacity and military manufacturing. The Precursor Traditions line contains many capacity bonuses for ships. This combined with mass reductions for weapons and other modules allows a faction using the Iconian tech tree to build some of the most heavily-armed big ships later in the game, with all those mass reductions and capacity bonuses adding up to increase firepower. The military manufacturing bonuses additionally allow your shipyards to keep up with the greater production values associated with more heavily armed ships.
This is coupled with the extremely powerful Living Ships technology, removing all ship maintenance and giving free strategic repair to all ships. The Iconian tech tree is thus capable of producing some of the most monstrously powerful late-game ships as compared to other tech trees: you will be able to fit more guns on each of your ships than your opponents, not to mention your ships will repair themselves during battle. This makes building heavily armored defensive ships with minimal weaponry highly appealing, as you will surely win a battle of attrition with your strategic repair techs.
So, as a conclusion to this section: the Iconian tech tree is very flexible, encouraging population growth and late-game military. If there is any particular weakness of the tech tree, its that it struggles to specialise in any one area and can be subject to a slower start compared to other tech trees, as the power of Molecular Fabricators and Living Ships come towards the end game.
Designing a faction to use the tech tree
The canon Iconian faction are designed relatively well to use their tech tree anyway, so do not feel obliged to create your own civilization in order to use the Iconian tech tree. If you are playing as the canon Iconians, feel free to skip this section of the guide. If you do want to eek out all the potential you can get from the tech tree though, read on.
I already mentioned that the canon Iconians make good use of their tech tree, and that is because they posess two of the most effective traits for it, namely Fertile and Farmers. Molecular Fabricators encourage population growth on your colonies, so it’s good to play to that strength. Furthermore, population affects base levels of resources such as production, research, and income, so a higher population will be good all round for your civilization.
Dense is the next trait that the Iconian tech tree has synergy with, as the tech tree has a handful of opportunities to improve hull capacity. Stacking all those together along with the Dense trait is an effective way to produce powerful ships – both support and combat – that other civs could only dream of. Refunding points by taking Craven is something I’d recommend for any competitively-designed civilization, as by the time your planets are being invaded, you’ve probably already lost.
Beyond those three traits, there’s very little that is necessary. The Iconian tech tree is pretty flexible, so choose traits that reflect victory conditions and playstyles that you prefer. I like to put a single point into Content – the above image shows what this looks like – because it synergises well with the high population colonies that Farmers and Molecular Fabricators encourage.
If you’re a militaristic player, Militant is very good. Scientists will probably want to take Clever, diplomats might like Likeable, Handy reduces maintenance for a stronger economy across a large empire – really, any other modifications are your choice. You don’t need Fertile and Farmers both with two points, so you could also refund some points there. Just be careful not to cripple yourself too much by refunding points in other areas that might hurt you.
Again the flexiblity of the Iconian tech tree is its greatest strength here, as any ability aside from Synthetic is viable (Synthetic absolutely requires the Yor tech tree, and it would waste the food bonus from your Molecular Fabricators anyway). Abilities that encourage expansion are always welcome. I like Starfaring because I’m a big fan of Starbases, and Prolific allows your colonies to start with higher population, making them effective faster.
You can realistically take whatever suits you here. Prolific is arguably mediocre as your low population colonies will grow quickly with the Fertile trait. Ancient is extremely powerful for research-based empires. Patriotic’s usefulness increases with the size of map you play on, but any morale boost is good for a civilization intent on population growth. The new Snathi ability Scavengers is an interesting choice for a militaristic civilization, and Intuitive can give you an incredibly strong start to a game.
Ideology choice
For an ideological choice of civilizations using the Iconian tech tree, I once again find myself recommending whichever best suits your civilization. Each of the three ideological trees has tenets which are potentially beneficial, but it depends on what you are building your civilization for. Of course, you could always adopt tenets from multiple ideologies if that’s your thing, and indeed that can be very effective if there are plenty of worlds to colonize and develop with the various idelology point generating buildings.
The benevolent ideology favours cultural and scientific civilizations the most with the Prominence and Enlightenment lines. Affinity is also a potential contender, as its morale boosts could potentially free up tiles that would have otherwise held approval buildings. Regardless, it is recommended that you open the Benevolent ideology with Eminence as you can generate a lot of ideology points by spamming the Missionary Center, as it is colony unique rather than the Elevation Foundation which is player unique.
Pragmatic is the best ideology for civilizations wanting diplomatic power, with both Traders and Negotiator encouraging diplomatic play. Consider also the Builder line if you are a big fan of starbase spam, as it is a very powerful line to improve that. Again, open with the tenent that gives you an ideology point generating building, which in this case is Prepared. An exception to this is a clever little trick you can do to rapidly colonize multiple worlds: Open the Pragmatic with Builder, and then upgrade the constructors to colonizers. This will hit your treasury hard, but will give you a very fast start.
Oh boy, Malevolent. Contrary to appearances, this ideology tree need not be used exclusively by “evil” factions or races. Probably the biggest reason to take Malevolent is the Motivation line, which includes massive bonuses to production, and is conveniently opened with the ideology point generator of Malevolent, namely the Intimidation Center. It’s also the only ideology point producing building that can by itself improve the morale of multiple colonies. There’s also the Greed line which is very effective for economic civilizations.
How to play with the Iconian tech tree
The following sections of this guide are for specific advice regarding what you should research as the game goes on. It’s a bit lengthy in total, but I’ve split it into relevant sections that you can refer to as you go. Just keep in mind that, generally, you should do as many early game techs as you can that are relevant to your civilization before moving on to mid game techs, and the same for transitioning into the late game. For the purposes of this guide, early game refers to the Age of Expansion, mid game the Age of War, and late game the Age of Ascension and onwards.
Again dear reader do keep in mind that the specific needs of your civilization and your game might come before the recommendations of this guide. This is just a very general guideline as to which technologies you might want to research in a general order of importance – I can’t know the specifics of every game in enough detail to say that any one move is absolutely always best.
Please also remember not to over or underinvest in any one tech tree! All four are important to the development of a well-balanced civilization. The exception to this is Warfare, which can be neglected in the very early stages of the game while you build up your infrastructure and economy. That doesn’t mean your shipyard should necessarily be shutdown though – remember to build colonizers, constructors, and trade vessels as necessary.
Early game: Colonization
Xeno Industrialisation will be one of if not the first technology you research in order to quickly improve your production and research. After Xeno Industrialisation, Planetary Improvement into Planetary Specialization is a strong move particularly if you specialize in Enhanced Production as the +1 raw production is very good early game to get your colonies rolling.
Once you have Molecular Fabricators online, you may want to focus on growing your colonies a little, which will probably require dipping into Communications for Entertainment Centres to keep your morale high. Specialize in Manufacturing or Research for Industrial Specialisation, and then whatever you prefer from Molecular Specialization.
Following that, take whatever upgrades to your infrastructure you need once your colonies are ready to upgrade their buildings. Specialize in whatever way is relevant to your plans, with a caution to not take more food bonuses than you need, and remember to keep your morale high as your population grows. You want your population to constantly grow provided it does not compromise your approval.
Early game: Engineering
Interstellar Travel is a highly recommended early game tech as it improves the speed of all your ships, allowing you to scout and secure resources and habitable planets faster. For Interstellar Specialization, I highly recommend Transportation Specialization – most of the time mass reductions will be recommended over other specialization choices – in order to stack with Dense, which can later lead to being able to do things like stack more Construction modules on constructors than would otherwise be possible.
Take Precursor Traditions when you want to design ships for mass-production – probably constructors with as many Constructor modules as you can reasonably squeeze on – and then I’d recommend specializing in Healing Hulls at some point. This will further emphasize the unique tactical repair aspect of Iconian tech ships once you start fighting. As you transition into the mid game, tech into the Xeno Archeology line if you are researching Precursor relics.
Finally, don’t forget to research larger hull sizes as the game goes on in order to keep your military up to date. There are a few opportunities to specialize in increasing hull capacity at the bottom of the tree too which I’d recommend over the alternatives most of the time.
Early game: Communication
Xeno Commerce will be the first technology you’ll want from the Communications tree for both wealth and morale. It is a good idea to pick it up early for acces to Commerce Specialization where you should specialize in Supportive Population to synergize with the high population cap encouraged by Molecular Fabricators.
Universal Translator will become a desirable tech as soon as you start meeting other races, and you should progress down that tree as much as you require for your diplomacy, whether that be minimal for trading purposes or all the way for a diplomatic victory. Specializations where you can directly increase your diplomacy score are recommended as you might not have room for embassies on all your planets.
Finally, keep your civilization’s economy running in whatever way you find most appropriate. The Xeno Economics line is recommended if you have a very large empire as you can easily dedicate one of your worlds to building mostly economic buildings. Tourism is recommended only for highly influential civilizations, and Trade for those seeking good diplomatic relations.
Early-mid game: Warfare
The Iconian tech tree doesn’t do early game aggression all too well, but regardless you should maintain a defensive military should you have aggressive opponents in your game. Miniturization Specialization is recommended, and while you’ll ultimately research all weapon types, missiles and beams are most effective early on.
While it is tempting to miniaturize all of your weapons, I would NOT always recommend that. In fact, reducing the cooldown of missiles and increasing kinetic range are far more important than mass reductions, so specialize according to that mantra where relevant.
Research and build defenses as necessary. Look out for combat ships of other players and take peeks at what they’ve specialized in by trading with them in order to determine what you need to defend against most. Specialize in the strength of your defenses or in mass reduction depending on whether you want to put fewer or greater numbers of defense modules on your ships.
Mid-late game: Colonization
There’s nothing in particular in Colonization that you’ll need as the game goes on, aside from perhaps upgrading your Molecular Fabricators to Industrial Replicators.
Other than that, tech for upgrades to your infrastructure as required – once your colonies have nothing to produce, research something new so that they can upgrade – and try to manage your food and population to allow for constant growth.
Mid-late game: Engineering
Engineering starts to get more exciting for Iconians as the game goes on. Take minimal tech in Drives, Sensors, and Life Support so that you can focus on increasing hull sizes available. Again if you are researching Precursor artifacts, take the relevant techs to upgrade your starbases.
Don’t forget to take capacity upgrades where possible, and aim to complete Living Ships soon after you enter the Age of Ascension so that your fleets all get healing and are maintenance-free. Speaking of fleets, take logistical techs as you build bigger and bigger ships in order to further increase your late military advantage.
Mid-late game: Communication
Keeping your diplomacy high throughout the mid game is good for maintaining healthy relationships with the not overly aggressive races such as the Altarians and the Terrans that might otherwise threaten you militarily. The Politics line at the top of the tree is something to consider in order to keep the production of your planets competitive.
However, probably the most important part of Communication as the game progresses – particularly for a race with Fertile and Farmers – is access to approval buildings. Always try to keep your population and morale in balance, as excess of either is wasteful. One of the best ways to improve civilization-wide morale is the Dream Conclave from the Precursor Sole tech. Put it on one of your research-focused planets for best effects.
Late game: Warfare
Here’s where the fun starts for all you destructomaniacs. Iconian late game Warfare is truly devestating. Provided you’ve kept up in production, research, and economy – which should be entirely reasonable given your superb population – the ships you will unleash on your enemies at this stage of the game will be tremendously more powerful than those that other factions will have access to. You might not have been building up a military all game like the Drengins or the Snathi, but any military you build now ought to vastly exceed that of your competitors.
Tech into all three weapon kinds. It’s an easy mistake to make – taking only your favourite kind of weapon and just spamming it – but all three kinds are important. Missiles are best at taking out smaller ships, beams hit effectively against even defensive ships, and kinetics have pound-for-pound the best DPS. Also, do not forget to research and build augments for your weapons if you have the resources – they’re very powerful.
Research and build defenses as are relevant. As the game goes on and you face more enemies who are diversifying their weapons, you will probably find that you want all of them anyway. You can abuse the Living Ships tech by building super tanky ships with just enough firepower to break your opponents’ defenses, as your ships can heal damage that they take over time. If you are aiming for domination, or just wiping out a race that’s irritating you, Militarize, amass your fleets, and pummel your opponents with your better-equipped ships.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Iconian tech tree rewards good management and patient players in it for the long haul – but then again, turn-based strategy in general rewards those traits. Whether you use it to ascend to the next plane of existence by discovering the ultimate technological breakthrough, to build the largest most weapons-packed ships possible, or for whatever else you might want, is up you!
Thank you for reading, and I wish you and your empire all the best. I am by no means a Gal Civ veteran, so it’s likely this guide is in some ways inadequate. Feedback of all kinds is appreciated.