Question: would the 7 colony pods start in the same region, or get scattered? Seems like if they were together, there would be less of a disgusting expansion advantage, as the first $n$ turns mostly get spent making more colony pods quickly anyway. If they did get scattered, then, okay, damn.

The social engineering thing doesn't mean a great deal, in my mind. So they're like the Peacekeepers without the psych or council-vote bonuses.