Here's an overview as the calendar turns to year 2200, as we enter the final stages. The faction dominance graph clearly shows where the Cloning Vats kicked in, and when the population boom maxed and leveled out.

The energy satellites at Advanced Spaceflight are the last component that I'd characterize as midgame, and then the endgame kicks off with a beeline to Digital Sentience to enable the Cybernetic Future Society SE choice.

I love this stretch of time in SMAC, when all the multiplicative factors blow up together into immensely satisfying productivity. I wrote about all this more lyrically in the Hive game. Here I'll sum up the data of the economic explosion.

Year	Effects	Economy	Labs
2180	Green SE, 80% labs slider	80	500
2181	100% economy slider	550	0
2182	Cloning Vats begins pop boom	600	0
2183	Free Market, 70% labs	150	650
2184		150	800
2185		150	950
2186	60% labs	250	1050
2187		250	1150
2188	Green SE, 100% labs	-60	1400
2189	Fusion engineers, first food satellites	500	1500
2190	Ascetic Virtues raises hab limit	600	1750
2191		850	2000
2192		1100	2200
2193	Most bases boomed to max	1300	2400
2194		1350	2500
2195	First energy satellites	1400	2850
2196	More energy satellites	1400	3300
2197	More energy satellites	1500	3800
2198	Max energy satellites, Trade Pact	1500	4450
2199	Cybernetic + Knowledge + Free Market SE	1500	7800
2200		1550	8050
2201	Transcend specialists	1200	11200
2202		1300	11600
2203	Theory of Everything	1300	12600
2204		1300	12800

As in the Hive game, Cybernetic accounted for the biggest labs jump -- which was even more this time, because of how it allowed me to overhaul the rest of my SE.

Now Green economics was unnecessary. Now I didn't need its efficiency, since Cybernetic plus Democratic was enough for the paradigm-economy +4 rating. That meant I could go back to Free Market, which in turn meant I didn't need Wealth to get +2 Economy, which in turn meant I could also take on the Knowledge research bonus. Yes, I spent 320 credits to switch three SE choices in one turn -- but that really was the most efficient money:labs conversion, it would have lost out on more to wait an extra turn to adopt Knowledge. And I had plenty to spend with 1500/turn from the engineers.

Two turns later, Secrets of Alpha Centauri to enable Transcend specialists followed, which accounted for the last huge jump in labs productivity. Conveniently, I reached this just as the second round of nerve stapling expired, so the psych from the transcends was enough to handle happiness now.

Along the way, I did most of the usual secret projects, all with upgraded crawlers: Neural Amplifier, Ascetic Virtues, Nano Factory, Universal Translator, Supercollider, Theory of Everything, Living Refinery (helped noticeably against the support penalty), Self-Aware Colony (I somehow entirely overlooked that one in the Hive game.) And thanks to getting the tech early (Centauri Meditation when I needed to fill one missing-tech hole before Advanced Spaceflight), I also made pretty good use of the Xenoempathy Dome to speed up traversing and improving fungus. I skipped as unnecessary the Dream Twister, Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, Cyborg Factory, Longevity Vaccine (never needed drone control with the stapling), Network Backbone (in Free Market, my police rating was already bottomed, so didn't matter to cancel Cybernetic's negative.) I did build a few mineral satellites, though they were in play for only about five turns and didn't make any noticeable difference.

Compared to the Hive game, Morgan's double the bases didn't mean double the productivity. I had twice the bases but they were each half as developed. They never built creches, genejacks, tree farms, aerospace complexes, and mostly didn't have boreholes. The build order in each base was hab complex - network node - fusion lab, and that's about all they completed before the end, and most of the fusion labs got bought with cash after the satellites were finished. The low mineral output also caused some minor headaches in building the assorted stuff like worm-duty rovers, crawlers for project upgrading, prototypes for higher armors and the hovertank chassis; I compensated for that with substantial cash as well.

But all along I was surprised at how despite the differences in approach, Morgan's progression closely matched the Hive anyway. Morgan grew via the PTS as fast as the Hive did by pop-booming sooner. Morgan reached the early milestones like Industrial Automation 20 turns ahead of the Hive, and that number just about held up through the entire process: 16 turns sooner to the Cloning Vats and 17 turns faster to transcendence. The labs numbers tracked closely within about 10% at each technological step once the Hive got past its early game economic drags. Morgan's productivity topped out slightly higher in the very end, reaching 3 and 4 techs per turn slightly sooner and faster, but on the whole these games played out quite similarly.

I won by transcendence in 2205, seventeen turns faster than did the Hive game. (I missed the last tech by about 1600 labs on the penultimate turn; almost certainly could have shaved off that turn with more careful rushing of science facilities earlier, but it doesn't matter.)

So that's my demonstration of how to play Morgan. He's not about building up riches; the faction mechanics are all about ICSing for a fast start and then compensating for the handicaps. For comments, see this forum thread at Realms Beyond. Thanks for reading, and this space may yet see another adventure to come.