Factions/Eni Et Engineers

Eni Et Engineers are resource poor but can make any economy more efficient. They benefit from multi-turn deals. Recommended for observant players who can search the table looking for ideal uses for their services.

## Background

The aliens tell us that bringing ships to our home world is difficult, as our world is large and heavy, and there is no dirt above the waves to land on. The Faderan gifted us a fabricator to build ships, but never enough. We had to choose whom to send, so the sociologists and psychologists went first. To learn how the aliens solve problems and think, and to help them do so better.

We are not sociologists. We are what the aliens would call "engineers," although "knappers" and "bonecrafters" were once more apt. Our world is poor, we know that now. But we've always known that resources are finite, that one should make do with as little as possible.

## The Confluence

While the sociologists learned the nature of the aliens, we learned their technology. While, the artists focused on the aesthetics of the Faderan-gifted ships, we saw the inefficiency of the fabricator as it ate through the voidrocks. Wasteful.

And so we did what we have always done: refined, improved, reused, repurposed. The fabricator now builds twice as many ships, and we can afford to send more than our sociologists. The aliens casually wield the power of gods when they should be doing so with care and precision. It is time that we return their favors and teach them how to craft.

## Gameplay Information

Services

* Halve economic converter input costs.
* Cost rounds up.

### Services

The Eni Et Engineers produce service tokens. These are freely tradeable. Any player with a 1/2 service token may permanently attach it to any white-arrow converter in their play area to reduce that converter's input cost by half. rounded up. An input cost of 3 resources becomes 2, a cost of 5 becomes 3. For these purposes, ships count as resources, although colonies and victory points do not.

If a card with a service token is flipped, the token attaches to the closest matching white arrow converter on the other side. If there is none, it stays on the card and will benefit the original converter if the card is ever flipped back.

### Mixed Inputs

If a service token is attached to a converter with mixed input (for example, most Yengii starting converters), it still reduces the number of resources needed by half, rounding the cost up. The attaching player chooses which resources to remove from the cost. That choice cannot be changed later. The size of a cube or Ultratech does not matter when choosing which half of them to remove each resource is one resource, regardless of type.

### Retrocontinuity

A service token reduces the input cost of a converter by half, even if it later becomes a violet-arrow (Trade Phase) converter via a Kt'Zr'Kt'Rtl Technophile Retrocontinuity token.

## Advice

Look for converters that are expensive to run and offer their owner a service token. If a service token would reduce another player's input cost by 1 large per turn, they should pay you 1 small each turn, starting immediately. A reduction of 2 small should cost 1 large per turn. A reduction of an Ultratech should cost 2 small per turn.

Service tokens are most valuable at the beginning of the game when the other players are least able to afford to pay you. The value of a service token decreases over time, as there will be less turns remaining to profit from them.

While in the early game, try to sell them, as your starting converters gain very little from services. Towards the late game, think about keeping your service tokens for yourself to improve your own technology cards

Focus on upgrading your starting cards using colonies in games with few players or where technologies are being invented slowly.