So, I bought the game today, and I was perusing the factions for their biographies, and I noticed the Horatio's main fluff motivation was supposed to be expansion. I then noticed that the Horatio have a drawback called 'Anti-Expansionists.' Is this a problem with the fluff or the bonus? I've looked at the other factions' fluff and compared it to the bonuses they receive and their bonuses all make sense, except for the Horatio. Some attention on this matter, either from the writers or the mechanics guys would help to resolve what seems like an obvious oversight.

Heh, maybe the Horatio penalty (Anti-Expansionists) should become the Sophon penalty, and the Sophon penalty (Unskilled Builders) should apply to the Horatio. That would put the Horatio focus back on expansion, and help ameliorate the Sophon problem that their fast research constantly unlocks buildings too expensive for them to build in reasonable time.

I agree with both post. I actually tried expanding past 2 systems as horatio, and It backfired, drammatically, It made sense, but it still was killer because the system doesn't fit with it's own drawback.

Honestly I feel the issue is only semantic. The penalty should be renamed to something like 'inefficient war-industry' the flavour could be something like "War and factories are unsightly, distasteful, and unsuited for the presence and grace of the Horatio."

Honestly I feel the issue is only semantic. The penalty should be renamed to something like 'inefficient war-industry' the flavour could be something like "War and factories are unsightly, distasteful, and unsuited for the presence and grace of the Horatio."

Agreed. Or Pacafistic or something of the like given that it only applies to ship construction.