The Factions of Infinite Space, Part 2

The Factions of Infinite Space, Part 2: Terrans and Garthans

Do humans have an advantage over reptilian warrior hordes? Time to find out...

The Terrans and Garthans are the best-known factions in the Infinite Space trilogy, with the former being comprised of justice-seeking humans and the latter consisting of terroristic, warlike reptilians. Supplementary material, such as the board game Eat Electric Death!, also stated that they were arch-rivals, with the Garthans going as far as to enslave any Terrans they cannot kill outright. Generally, these races have the most primitive technology in the sector, but as time passes during a normal game, the Terrans will develop increasingly advanced technology, and also release a larger selection of capital ships. However, Garthan vessels often tend to be more affordable than their Terran counterparts.

The Terran lineup, focused primarily on all-around ability.

The Terran interstellar fleet is mostly balanced, with few (if any) major weaknesses or strengths compared to equivalent vessels from other races. Their capital ships have fairly wide fields of fire, though not as wide as those of Muktian and Calatian ships, allowing a Terran commander to fire broadsides at hostile forces. In addition, Terran stations have good defenses and can spawn up to 4 fighters at once, and a Terran capital ship can be upgraded to an "Advanced" variant (which carries a rear-mounted turret) for a small fee - a unique feature.

The Garthan fleet looks menacing on paper, but...

Garthan ships are designed with offensive operations in mind; they sacrifice maneuverability and sideways "vision" for high sublight speed and heavy armor. As such, Garthan commanders almost always attack their targets head-on. However, there are no Garthan stations in Sector Prime (as yet) and the absence of rear-facing turrets makes them vulnerable to ambushes from behind.

A typical Terran-Garthan battle scene showing the slight advantage Terrans have over their reptilian foes in the early game, and the difference between the "fields of vision" their vessels have.

In terms of technology, the Terrans are slightly further ahead than the Garthans early on; their neptunium railguns can intercept incoming missiles with ease and their fission missiles pack a decent punch. However, this technological disparity increases as the game progresses; the Terrans will develop such advanced equipment as proton shields and fusion drives much sooner than the Garthans, which only ever arm their ships with weak chainguns and impaler missiles. Moreover, the Terrans will also begin using basic ship systems of various kinds, and even deploy the highly accurate Eidetic Matrix Bubble later in the game. Finally, as if the sheer variety of Terran weaponry wasn't intimidating enough, much of it is very potent; plasma blasters and micrometeorite guns are brutally effective in short-range combat, while proton blasters are basically neptunium railguns on steroids, and Multi-Missile Launchers can deliver plenty of damage from afar, particularly if more than one of them is mounted on the same ship.

Some examples of late-game Terran-Garthan battles, showing the massive technological disparity between these factions late in the game.

Garthan and Terran mercenaries, however, are all equally beneficial to your fleet's strength, but Ripcord O'Reilly is not one of them - his fighter is instead added to your flotilla for free, and can mount any interstellar drive, including the Hyperdrive. Upgrading the Bloodfang and Moon Maruader (and/or trading them in for larger vessels) can be useful later on as well. While the Bloodfang is cheaper to upgrade and can move faster, the Moon Marauder can be upgraded to a Destroyer, generally turns more quickly, and has a wider field of fire, particularly when upsized to a Terran Corvette or larger and converted to Advanced specs, which includes a rear-facing turret. Having either or both of these capital ships as allies is thus always a good thing!

In short, while the Garthans are often a legitimate threat to your flotilla early on in the game, their lack of advanced technology eventually causes them to fall behind in the end. The Terrans, on the other hand, will have become much more powerful and technologically advanced by then. Do not hesitate to recruit mercenaries (or other allies) from either faction, though. It might just save your flotilla from utter annihilation!