Children's Creche (SMAC)

Children's Creche
Requires	Ethical Calculus
Cost	5 rows
Maintenance cost	1
Effects	This facility provides +2 GROWTH and +1 EFFIC. Any units defending the base ignore negative Morale penalties and take +1 Morale instead. Units that already have +1 Morale or better do not benefit. Reduces base vulnerability to mind control.

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"Proper care and education for our children remains a cornerstone of our entire colonization effort. Children not only shape our future; they determine in many ways our present. Men and women work harder knowing their children are safe and close at hand, and never forget that, with children present, parents will defend their home to the death!"
– Col. Corazon Santiago, "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"

Children's Creche is a base facility in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. This facility provides +2 Growth and +1 Efficiency. Any units defending the base ignore negative Morale penalties and take +1 Morale instead. Units that already have +1 Morale or better do not benefit.

Strategy

Everyone knows the importance of looking after the children. For a mere 50 minerals (Roughly = 100 ec) plus 1 ec/turn (Which the +1 Effic often gives back to you from reduced inefficiency losses) you have given yourself (with most factions) the ability to pop-boom. Even without the other bonuses, the +2 Growth is easily worth twice the current cost of the facility. Say, for example, that we build the Creche in one of our little size 4-5 bases in turn 30, expecting to end the game around turn 130 (conservative estimates indeed) so we have to pay the equivalent of 200ec all together over those 100 turns, which is about 2 ec/turn. Here comes the good news. Even without pop-booming, the extra +2 Growth will (assuming there's always enough food) make the base grow so much faster, that often in the long run the extra income from a getting a larger base x turns earlier than otherwise more than pays for the production and maintenance with the profit gained over a base growing without a Creche.

Assume the Creche makes the base grow to each size 1 turn faster. Assume also that each extra poppoint is worth a 2-2-2 tile (nothing special) which has an estimated ec-value of 6. Now with a 50/50 Labs/Economy split, that's 3 extra ecs each time the base grows one turn earlier (ignoring the other benefits). So, the first growth comes 1 turn earlier, the second comes 2 turns earlier... until the tenth comes 10 turns earlier. That's a total of (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10) x 3 = 165 extra ecs gained in the growth of the base compared to one without a creche. OK, then we have to pay for the creche, and that costs an estimated 200ecs over our 100 turns or so, so we only make a loss of 35 ecs. However... what if the base grows more than only one turn faster? Depending on the base set-up, its possible to rake huge profits here by growing 2 turns faster each time (130 ec/base = 1.3 per turn) or 3 turns faster to the next size (295 ec/base = 2.95 ec/turn)

And that's without figuring in the other advantages of more population, namely council votes and score.

Not to mention how much you can gain by going from size 5 to size 14 in only 9-10 turns, in which case you are Popbooming, and the maths becomes irrelevant. If you're going to pop-boom, time your construction so that all your bases are finishing the Creches about the same time, then flick over to Democratic/Planned and enjoy the glory of +6 Growth.