by chrisib
I just played my first 7-player game (myself and one other player had played before; the other 5 players were being introduced to the game for the first time), and I found the Conifold field + morph shield combo VERY effective.I found the Morph Shield fairly late in the game (turn 6 or 7), and equipped it on my Dreadnought. I'd never seen the Morph Shield used in a game before, so I wanted to try it out. My (Terran) Dreadnought was set up like this:
Tachyon Source x1
Conifold Field x2
Morph Shield x1
Ion Cannon x1
Nuclear Drive x1
Flux Missile x1
Gluon Computer x1
Yes, the ship is moving VERY slowly (nuclear drives do that), but the initiative bump from the computer, missiles, and shield made up for the low-initiative drive. And the ship is VERY under-gunned. After the missiles it's doing at most 1 damage per hit. (I would have equipped a plasma cannon, but the energy just wasn't there.)
However, despite the very low firepower, the ship was able to tank a LOT of hits. 7HP base plus a regen of 1 meant that I was able to chip away at enemy ships, even ones sporting antimatter cannons.
I don't know if I would bother taking the Conifold Field on a regular basis. But if you've got the Morph Shield and can afford the energy the two put together make for a very, very tanky ship.
The Conifold Field may also be a decent choice for Orion if they can get a decent energy source; a single Conifold Field will consume their ships' bonus energy, leaving them on-par energy-wise with other races, but with an additional HP over anyone with the standard IH. Anyone who finds the Muon Source might also be in a similar position.
The Conifold Field strikes me as a very situational tech. If you've got an ancient discovery or a racial ability that combos well with it (or if it will simply get you to +5VP for a completed tech row) it's probably worth it. But it's not one of those technologies that everyone is going to be jumping all over each other to get (unlike Advanced Robotics or Quantum Grid).