Slitherine

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Perhaps its greatly influenced by my play-style...and preference for research-based factions in civ games....anyway, I found myself always choosing the research faction because it seemed like the strongest to me, and when I did force myself to play the other factions, I felt too crippled.

Let's go over the factions and my thoughts on them...

Divine Ascension (fanatics)
Cheaper units (-25% cost) and bonus power when attacking (+25%) seemed like really nice buffs.  The added 2 morale is just a small extra bonus.  However, they get hit with a -33% to research penalty.  So, although they seem like they would make a great faction to steamroll people with more, and superior units... it's hard to do so cause cause you gotta research them first... and it will take longer to research than any other faction, so you're basically stuck making inferior units that have a bonus when attacking which counter-act each other so you effectively have standard-powered units.  Maybe you could upgrade them later, but... that costs money and to get that you'd have to build up an economy...to get the needed buildings, you would need to research them...and... with reduced research this will take longer.  But wait, there's more.. you know that shiny 25% bonus to attack?  Well... it's not multiplicative.. it's additive... so if you already have other bonuses such as terrain bonus of +25% and adequate weapon for monster-type +25%-50% etc..... so adding 25% to a say 75% bonus means it just changes it to a 100% bonus (175% to 200% which is just a global increase of 14%).

In summary, though the unit boost seems nice, the reduced research makes it hard to make good use of this.
Personal rating: 5/10 (would be higher w/ research penalty reduced or removed).

Imperium (militaristic)
25% power boost seems nice, once again... this time when attacking or defending.  However it still suffers from the diminishing returns effect.  Resilient (+100% healing rate) seems like a nice bonus until you stop to think about it a bit.  First, you can only make use of this if the unit survives the fight.  And, if you survive the attack, you need to be able to survive any retaliatory attack, if your unit only gets slightly damaged, it may be fine to just sit and heal, but if over 50% hurt, it might be best to run just in case, however, when running you won't be getting healed (unless you use special device... but then you wouldn't be able to use other, more useful devices)  The 3 field trainings seem like a nice addition, but then there's the choice of how to use them?  A.  Use them immediately?  well.. that's highly inefficient to use them to just boost one unit and it would mean more wait time at the start as your unit heals up... or B. Quickly produce 1 or 2 more units and boost all?  well this would mean you'd need to keep units close (preferably near base) so you can group and buff them quickly... or C. wait till I have a decent stack then buff them (well by this point those 3 casting are basically just their production-cost equivalent) as by now you would easily be able to make more.  And, yet again, a counter-balance... increased upkeep.  So, although your units are stronger, they cost more to maintain, so you can't use as many. which brings the overall-unit power back down to normal.

In summary, the power boost is nice, but increased maintenance means you can't take full advantage of this since you can support fewer units.
Personal rating: 7/10 (would be higher w/ upkeep cost reduced or removed...also would be nice if it had like a build in always heal device instead of the +100 heal rate)

Noxium Corporation (economic)
Better prices (25%) and higher taxes (25%) seem like nice buffs for when you get your population up. (around the mid and late game).  However, it's extravagant -25% habitat) makes growing difficult.  On top of that, to even make use of this factions bonus you'd likely want to run a decent tax rate, however this would mean further stunting your growth.  The starting bonus credits, while nice, can't really be used for much other than a cheap unit/building or a prolonged, initial no-tax session to help initial growth.

In summary, to make use of this factions bonus you'd have to be running taxes moderately high, but doing so would lower morale, and slow city growth.  Additionally, the habitat penalty means you have less time before you need to address the housing problem.
Personal rating: 7/10

Solar Dynasty (production)
+50% production is a really nice boost.  However, with no help to crystal generation it's impossible to make full use of this.  Additionally, the 50% pollution increase practically guarantees you will have negative morale until you build the appropriate pollution-reduction buildings.  The added +25% growth seems nice, but it also means that in addition to addressing pollution, you'd have to improving housing and food or suffer a hit to your growth.  Unfortunately, even if mostly assigned to research, the pollution penalty will still have a noticeable effect.  Free former is a nice bonus.. but this only helps with early game.

In summary, the production boost is great, but hard to make good use of because of the need for minerals.  Growth is good, but also means needing to quickly develop all aspects of city.
Personal rating: 5/10 (would be higher with pollution penalty reduced or removed)

Terra Salvum (ecologic)
+1 Mineral from forests is great for early game but only if mountains are not available.  +1 Minerals from fungi is an interesting boost, but the effect is only noticeable in mid-late game when you research the techs that improve fungai output.  And.. by then, you would likely have already developed all your tiles and would need to re-plant fungai to make use of this.  Also, fungi is annoying since you can't build roads on it... would be nice if they could.  Frugal +25% to habitat lets them grow larger cities before having to address housing, but housing limitation usually seems to only hamper the early game. -50% alien aggression means they can wait longer before needing to address aliens... but it will still need to be addressed, and the 25% penalty when atking means you can't begin addressing it from the start and leveling up units.  Also, it follows you all throughout the game, forcing you to either somehow obtain a tech advantage, or play passive and defend.

In summary, added versatility in how they can obtain minerals (and increase in mineral income late-game if using fungi), reduced alien aggro, but weak fighting power.
Personal rating 5/10

The Embassadors (diplomatic)
Well, I haven't formed a strong opinion on them yet.

Togra University (scientific)
+50% bonus to research... just seems too godly to pass up.... can fight with higher-tech units, able to unlock buildings  Starts with ATV for a quicker explore time.  -50% refit cost helps make the choice to refit units worthy of consideration instead of just outrageously priced.  The only penalty is -2 morale which is effectively nullified by setting taxes a bit lower, and by the time one gets to building the morale buildings, mostly unnoticeable.

In summary, high tech output, good starting unit, able to refit units cheaper, and only a slight penalty to morale
Personal rating 10/10