- Sponsor benefit: Covert operations are 25% faster and cause 25% more Intrigue.
The third largest economy in the world is the American Reclamation Corporation (ARC), Old Earth's first and most powerful megacorporation. Beginning as a geo-engineering firm specializing in environmental risk mitigation, ARC is credited with designing and carrying out the recovery plan that saved North America from dissolving after the Great Mistake. Although rumors abound about ARC's methods and corporate shenanigans, there is no doubt that it has become a power unto itself, receiving grudging respect even from those who denounce it. Now ARC is involved in almost every Colony's Seeding project and recovery plan. From crop science to tidal power generation to security contracting, ARC has a project or product for every problem. Unique among Seeding projects in that ARC's colonial ventures are entirely private, many other Seeding programs rely on ARC financing and products.
Playstyle
Suzanne Fielding is one of the most ruthless leaders in the game; she'll sell you out in a moment's notice, even if you've been friends in the past. Her capable spies add the potential for dangerous intrigue, and her amoral play means that she's a tricky neighbor to have. One of her biggest weaknesses that she has is that she doesn't keep any friends for long. She'll sometimes goad someone into joining her for a war, but just as often, she's the one getting attacked. For an easier time dealing with ARC, play nicely as long as you safely can, and join in whenever anyone else wants to pound them. With this tactic, you get closer ties with the other attacker, and ARC must fight a two-front war.
Playing as ARC is much more fun than fighting against them. This sponsor begs to be used for constant dirty tricks. Their bonuses are quite synergistic because you get to launch more covert operations and then have them cause even more Intrigue on top of that. It's easy to get money, science, techs, or units from your agents' hard work. In the later game, even Colonies that can't attack directly can be laid low by top-tier spies. Stealing a domination opportunity by launching a Coup on someone's capital: priceless.
Suzanne Marjorie Fielding
- Strengths: Science, Infrastructure, Spying
- Weaknesses: Culture, Diplomacy
Egotistical? Paranoid? Cunning? Disingenuous? Suzanne Fielding has been characterized as each by historians, and ascribed many other personality traits, as well. Whatever the fact, she is an intense, driven woman who operates in total accord with her beliefs in conservatism, material progress, and economic realism. She is well dressed and groomed in the corporate mode, with an obvious commitment to impressing with her professional appearance and demeanor. While charismatic, her affability seems calculated to gain an advantage in business and political dealings. However, when thwarted, she can quickly shift to hostility and threats. Overall, whatever the circumstances, she strives to present the appearance that all is "going according to plan"[el] hers, of course. She rarely raises her voice's volume, either in excitement or anger, and strives to appear in control at all times. If she does speak loudly or with excitement, be assured that it is calculated, used as a tool as she does all other affectations.
Suzanne Fielding was the eldest of three siblings, all daughters, born on the Texas Gulf Coast to a Mexican-born mother and an African-American father. Her father was the owner of three hardware stores in the region, and Suzanne joined her father in running the business as a teenager. Accepting a scholarship to Louisiana State University, she graduated with honors and a double major in economics and accounting. Driven by a desire to help reclaim coastal lands lost to the rising sea level in her home states, she was hired by the relatively new American Reclamation Corporation (ARC) to an entry-level position. Both meticulous and daring, and surprisingly adept at corporate politics, Fielding rose steadily through the ARC Accounting Division until, within 15 years, she was heading several operations simultaneously as Operations Manager.
When ARC CEO Michael Modersky signed the Trans-Mississippi Recovery Initiative, he personally asked Fielding to oversee the governmental resource coordination, to which she turned her considerable acumen. It was Fielding who caught the accounting chicanery that led to the FBI's Operation Riverboat and subsequent political fallout. Guiding the government to continue funding during the roiling controversy that followed, Fielding also kept the Initiative on track and on time, such that when Modersky stepped down as CEO, Fielding (who had since been elevated to CFO) was the logical choice for CEO. Sidestepping the Board of Directors, Fielding's appeal to the shareholders enabled her to hold both the CEO and CFO positions for ARC, making her the most powerful woman in the most powerful corporation in the world.
With Fielding at the helm, ARC turned from retail and manufacturing to financial and other services. Fielding used the balance sheet and financial weight of ARC as a massive lever, engineering a series of shifts on Old Wall Street to unseat banks and exchanges. As ARC's capital reserves blossomed, many wondered what Fielding would do next. Few expected that she would announce ARC pursuing its own private Seeding venture, drawing on its vast engineering and manufacturing resources and gaining a waiver from the government to conduct private space operations. The biggest surprise was when Fielding announced she would personally lead the first such expedition. With enough money to buy the world, the woman who led ARC found more meaning in starting over with a new planet.