Are the biological weapons good?

[Anskiy]

I know that most Master of Orion 1 players shun them and consider them bad. After all, they harm the targeted planet, making it worse to conquer. Nobody likes destroying their future prizes, which is part of why Chaos and especially Death are looked down upon in Master of Magic, too. But, on top of that, they also make everyone else upset and can be countered easily with the right techs.

But I wonder if we all have been overlooking them? After all, in some games the AI demonstrates how powerful they can be in wiping out planets, especially since they don't care about shielding and defenses at all. And they do have a nifty side effect; any colony affected by them still keeps its factories, making them potentially more profitable than conventional bombing runs. Still, I have to admit using them effectively seems challenging, considering their downsides.

[haphazard1]

If you search far enough back in the archives here at Realms Beyond, there was a sucession game exploring use of bio weapons. Can't remember which one it was, but it was a fairly long time ago and looked into these issues in detail.

From my experience, bio weapons are very effective as long as the target does not have the appropriate level of antidote tech. So you need to have a tech lead to really get the best use from them. And you have to be willing to anger the rest of the galaxy, who will hate you for using them. So you generally need to have a sizable chunk of the galaxy under your control, so you have enough pop to block a loss by council vote.

Of course, if you have those things you can probably win the game by conventional means. So bio weapons are kind of a "win more" option for when you are already in a very strong position. If you are weak or behind in tech, using them will provoke a pile on and cause you to lose.