Really is one of the best games ever, and the first ever game of it's genre that I managed to get into. Up until playing it I'd never cared for them, but I think I got the game given to me in a bundle when I got a new PC like however many god damn years ago. I figured I may as well give it a try and see what the deal was, and even my 14 year old self ended up getting totally blagged and played it for like 8 hours straight. I can still remember being a little nubby nub and choosing Santiago and her spartans just because they were the military team which in my mind made them the best team. I think I persisted with them for a while, too. And then there was the fateful day I decided to be Zakharov for a laugh, and saw research just fly by...never looked back. Zak <3 Is there anything more amusing than Lal/Miriam calling you up all "Heh, better bow down punk, we just got all our infantry units upgraded to the 1-2-1 laser infantry " while you look on in bemusement as you send a squadron of Silksteel Chaos Needlejets on a bombing run into their territories about half an hour into the game? I don't think so!

I love Alien Crossfire as well. Svensgaard is probably my favourite guy to play as, the sheer power of having a large planet and controlling the oceans and the ease with which you can build about 60 massively populated and incredibly well resourced bases all at full population and just oh man, the pirates are a total wrecking machine. Would love to be able to play an online multiplayer game where I take Svensgaard and whoever i'm playing with is like Zak or whatever and we team up, just to see how royally smurfed the remaining factions would be by Zaks motherland continent devoted entirely to research, with pirate bases surrounding the entire continent. get paid in research for the protection services of the pirates, everybody becomes unstoppable, oh christ, nursing a semi just imagining the power

yeah it's fair to say I love SMAC.