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DREADLORD BATTLE MANUAL: |
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-=DREADLORD=- |
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BATTLE MANUAL |
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Ramutis Giliauskas |
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Dec. 18, 1994 |
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edited -- Tim Vanderheok |
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March, 1996 |
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edited - for word 6.0 by
Commander Pirx |
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Introduction |
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This
is the original “Dreadlord Battlemanual“. I did not change anything, but the
format. Some topics are therefore not uptodate anymore. |
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If you have any idea
what is missing, what should be included, or what has to be modified, then
drop me a note, I would appreciate it. |
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I
asked Ramutis Giliauskas wether this would be fine with him and he told me,
as he doesn´t have time at the moment, I could even rewrite it. |
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With your help I will
published a modified version, topics that need work are: |
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Good all-purpose vessels
(for registered players) |
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Standard Battle Groups
(for all races and registered players) |
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Hyper-drive |
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Documents and utilities |
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Terminator Utility |
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This
is it folks, the „Dreadlord“ finally in a nice Word for Windows format 6.0,
good for easy printing. (Format is A4 210mm x 297 mm |
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with 25 mm of empty
space between the edge of the text and the edge of the paper, to all sides -
up, down, right, left) |
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Have fun, |
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Commander Pirx ,
<100576.1367@compuserve.com> |
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-=DREADLORD=- |
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BATTLE MANUAL |
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This was written to help
players survive, be more effective, and more innovative when playing VGA
PLANETS. |
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TARGET AUDIENCE: |
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Beginner (one game) to
Intermediate (five/six). This can also be a good reference text for
experienced players. |
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CONTENTS |
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I. |
Preamble |
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II. |
Aggressive decision
making |
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III. |
Battle and Convoy Groups |
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IV. |
Weapons |
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VI. |
Basic Strategy |
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VII. |
Individual Race Examples |
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VIII. |
Strategy for Privateer
and Crystalline |
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IX. |
Team
play |
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X. |
Fleet planning and guide
to playing for the new player |
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XI. |
Hyper-drive |
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XII. |
Documents and utilities |
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XIII. |
Credits |
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XIV. |
Terminator utility |
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XV. Tabel of Contents |
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I. Preamble |
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Contrary to popular
belief, there is only one way way to win VGA PLANETS. The strategy and
tactics were written 2500 years ago by |
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Sun Tsu in "The Art of War",
translated and rewritten by Samuel B. Griffith. Though the first part is
quite dry, the latter third |
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of
the book has all the principals of warfare that apply directly to VGA
PLANETS. During the last 12000 years, the only thing |
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that
has changed is technology. Successful strategic and tactical ideas have never
changed. They were the same in 500bc |
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China,
400bc Greece, 100bc Rome, 1200ad Mongolia and during Napoleonic times. The
rules for winning a war are simple |
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but seldom followed. |
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Victories against forces
larger and more powerful are usually due to skillful application of these two
principals |
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of war --- surprise and concentration of
forces. |
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In the history of
warfare speed and daring has always won the prize. |
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II. Aggressive decision
making |
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When to attack or not? |
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A
bold operation is one that has no more than a chance of success but which, in
case of failure, leaves one with sufficient forces in |
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hand to be able to cope
with any situation. This type of operation gives the best promise of success. |
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A gamble, on the other
hand, is an operation which can lead to victory or to the destruction of
one's own forces. |
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When
defeat is merely a question of time, when the gaining of time is pointless,
then the only chance lies in an operation of great |
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risk and a gamble can be
justified. |
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Normally
there is no ideal solution, but each possible course of action has its
advantages and disadvantages. Select the one which |
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seems the best from the
widest point of view, then pursue it, and accept the consequences. Any
compromise is bad. |
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III. BATTLE AND CONVOY GROUPS |
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by Doug Suerich |
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A. Definition |
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A BATTLE GROUP or a
CONVOY GROUP is a specific group of ships that complement each other in a
task. By keeping |
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the ships in each group standard, it is
easier to manage your forces. Keeping track of 30 ships is hard;
however, |
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if the ships are placed
into similiar groups of 3 ships, the task is much easier. |
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B. How to Create |
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1. Ships |
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When
trying to pick out ships that will work well together, first decide on
exactly what you want them to do. In the |
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example
that follows, we are trying to create a battle group that will be able to run
along the border of enemy |
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territory
and take out most ships that it meets, causing general disruption, destroying
enemy ships and resources, |
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and putting the enemy
into a defensive frame of mind. |
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After
choosing a purpose, we will try to weed out the useless ships in our arsenal
from those that can be put to good |
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use in our battle group. |
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a. Ships to Consider for
your Battle Groups |
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There are certain
criteria that will make a good general-purpose ship. |
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i. Cloaking |
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A vessel that cloaks
will allow you to go undetected in your activities, and is especially useful
for spying |
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on your enemies. A cloaking ship can sneak
into enemy territory and attack undefended freighters. |
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If
the cloaker has two engines, it can tow small capital ships or frieghters
right off of planets, into space, |
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and
then attack and defeat them. After this the ship will recloak, enter into
orbit, and grab another ship! |
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There
is, however, a way to counter this. If the enemy sets one of his capital
ships to intercept the ship |
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that
you tow, he will intercept the ship you towed, and, since you are in the same
place as the ship you |
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towed,
you will get blown up. Also, you won't be able to tow a ship that is set to
warp 9 and has a |
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waypoint that is more
than 81 light-years away. |
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ii. Large Cargo Hold |
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With a large cargo hold
you can carry enough torpedoes or fighters to last a long attack. You can
also carry s |
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upplies to repair in
space. 5 supplies will repair 1% of damage on any ship. A large cargo hold
can |
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also be used for freighting. |
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iii. Large Mass |
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A hull that has a
heavier mass will have a better resistence to beam and torpedo damage, as
well as to |
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deep space mines. |
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iv. Large Crew |
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A
large crew size will prevent you from being captured. Crew size is not a
problem on most large |
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ships,
but on the smaller ships the crew is sometimes small enough that a determined
enemy |
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can capture your ship,
and use it against you. |
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v. Firepower |
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A large number of beam
weapons can knock down fighters. When you are planning to capture planets, |
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ships that have 8 X-Rays, and 3 Mark 6 or
Mark 7 torpedo tubes will work well, for the simple |
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reason
that planets depend on fighters for defence--they can't launch enough
fighters to overwhelm |
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a ship with 8 beams. The
torpedoes will capture the planet before you have to worry about the |
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planet's beams damaging your ship. |
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Fighters can destroy
large ships. |
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Torpedoes can help in
the capture of vessels. |
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Determine what type of
weapons your ship will need in order to be effective in its planned role. |
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b. Good All-Purpose
Vessels |
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Here are some good
all-purpose vessels: |
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BEST OVERALL FREIGHTER |
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LARGE DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
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SOLAR FEDS |
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NEBULA CLASS CRUISER |
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VENDETTA CLASS FRIGATE |
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LIZARD |
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REPTILE CLASS DESTROYER:
cloaking |
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LIZARD CLASS CRUISER:
cloaking |
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BIRDMEN |
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SWIFT HEART CLASS SCOUT:
cloaking |
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FEARLESS WING CRUISER:
cloaking |
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DETH SPECULA CLASS
FRIGATE: cloaking |
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FASCIST |
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GOLDPAIN CLASS CRUISER:
cloaking |
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D7 COLDPAIN CLASS
CRUISER: cloaking |
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D3 THORN CLASS DESTROYER:
cloaking |
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DETH SPECULA CLASS
FRIGATE: cloaking |
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PRIVATEER |
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BR4 GUNSHIP: cloaking,
accelerated |
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BR5 KAYE CLASS TORPEDO
BOAT: cloaking, accelerated |
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METEOR CLASS BLOCKADE
RUNNER: cloaking, accelerated |
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DWARFSTAR CLASS
TRANSPORT: cloaking |
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CYBORG |
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B200 CLASS PROBE:
hyper-drive |
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FIRECLOUD CLASS CRUISER |
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BIOCIDE CARRIER |
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ANIALATION CLASS
BATTLESHIP |
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CRYSTALLINE |
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RUBY CLASS LIGHT CRUISER |
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EMERALD CLASS BATTLE
CRUISER |
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EVIL EMPIRE |
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PL32 PROBE: hyper-drive |
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H-ROSS CLASS LIGHT
CARRIER |
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MOSCOW CLASS STAR ESCORT |
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SUPER STAR FRIGATE |
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SUPER STAR CARRIER |
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ROBOT |
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CAT's PAW CLASS DESTROYER |
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INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS
BASESHIP |
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Q-TANKER |
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REBEL |
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FALCON CLASS ESCORT:
hyper-drive |
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GEMINI CLASS TRANSPORT |
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PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT
CARRIER |
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GUARDIAN CLASS DESTROYER |
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COST COLONIES |
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GEMINI CLASS TRANSPORT |
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TRANQUILITY CLASS CRUISER |
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PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT
CARRIER |
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Whichever
ship you select, KNOW what role you will use it for and build it with the
weapons that will be most |
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effective.
Don't mix and match. Having 7 identical ships is easier to plan with than
having 7 non standard |
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designs
of the same ship. When you start
building BATTLE GROUPS keep them standard as well. |
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A BATTLE GROUP is a collection of ships that
complement each other as a fighting force. |
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ALL
ships are designed for a specific purpose, and when used for that purpose are
very effective. The above list |
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is a general guide,
other ships may be more cost effective and better suited to your needs than
those shown above. |
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Remember,
obtaining an effective fleet may take take 21 to 28 days. Because of losses
due to battles, after 21 |
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days
your initial 7 capital ships will probably be gone, thus the need for
planning ahead. |
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2. Uniqueness |
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Next,
we will decide on exactly which ships will be in our battle group, taking
into account what we are likely to be be fighting, |
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as
well as our unique resources and circumstances. It is particularly important to be able to
put our race's special |
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advantages
to use, and to take advantage of our enemies disadvantages. In our example, we will be putting together
a |
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fairly general-use
battle group, and neither our enemy's special disadvantages or our unique
circumstances will have a large effect. |
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C. How to Use |
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If
you have several capital ships travelling together, also have a supply
ship. On this ship carry extra fuel
and supplies. By |
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carrying
supplies, repairs can be made to damaged ships far from a starbase. Five
supply units repair 1% damage. |
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Always
carry the minimun fuel and fighters/torpedoes required for battle on a
capital ship so that if the capital ship |
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is destroyed your
resources in the form of extra fighters/torpedoes and fuel aren't lost as
well. |
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D. The Colonies of Man's
Ships |
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The
COLONIES OF MAN are an often overlooked race in VGA planets; here is a short
lesson on how to use their ships |
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effectively.
For the purpose of this supplement, it will be assumed that you are using an
UNREGISTERED version. |
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First off, it is vital
to know about the better ships in the COLONY arsenal. Here are some notes about the best COLONY
ships: |
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1. PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT
CARRIER |
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6 Fighter Bays |
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2 Beam Weapons |
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30 KT Cargo Capacity |
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This
ship is a deadly killer. It can
destroy virtually any small to medium sized ship and take no damage. The secret to its |
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effectiveness lies in
its 6 fighter bays. In a battle, an
opposing ship will only be able to fire each of its beam weapons |
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twice before the first fighters arrive; in
this same period of time, usually 18 - 20 fighters will have been
launched |
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by the PATRIOT. |
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Therefore,
unless the opposing ship has 9 - 10 beam weapons (which is rare), you can be
certain of causing damage to the |
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enemy.
Against a medium size ship, if only 10 - 12 of the PATRIOT's fighters are
destroyed, the remaining fighters are |
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usually
sufficient to destroy the victim; therefore, unless the ship has an extremly
high mass, a PATRIOT CLASS |
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CARRIER
can destroy most medium sized ships with less than 7 beam weapons, and 2
PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT |
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CARRIERS
working together can destroy virtually any TECH 7 or below ship that does not
have fighters of its own. |
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Best of all, it is a
component of the COLONY BATTLE GROUP, described below. |
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CAUTION:
The PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIER is virtually useless unless it has 30
fighters. Although you may |
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be
able to get away with 25 or so, with much less you are giving up the only
advantage the PATRIOT has --- the |
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ability to put a large
number of fighters in the air very quickly. |
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NOTE:
If you need to save money, you can get away with TECH 1 beams on the PATRIOT
--- it rarely uses them, |
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and when it does, it is
to destroy enemy fighters (and for that TECH 1 is as good as TECH 9). |
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2. GEMINI CLASS CARRIER |
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1 Fighter Bay |
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4 Beam Weapons |
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400 Cargo |
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This capable little ship
is great for 2 missions: |
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a. Transport |
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With
400 cargo capacity you can load a lot of minerals onto this ship, and, with
its Fighter Bay and 4 Beams, |
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it is capable of
defending itself against smaller ships; therefore you can send it on short
journeys unescorted. |
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b. Fighter Production |
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When
it comes to building fighters, nothing beats the GEMINI. To build a lot of fighters quickly just put
a |
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GEMINI around a mineral
rich planet (preferably one with a starbase), and do the following: |
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i. Cargo |
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Load these on board: |
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120 Tritanium |
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80 Molybdenum |
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150 Supplies |
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ii. Mission |
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Set the mission of
the GEMINI to `Build Fighters' |
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iii. Result |
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Next turn you will have
40 fighters! Without paying even a single mega-credit! |
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3. TRANQUILITY CLASS
CRUISER |
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2 Torpedo Launchers |
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4 Beam Weapons |
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380 Cargo |
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The
TRANQUILITY is a hardy ship that is also a good transport; slightly more
powerful than the GEMINI, |
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it can be trusted to
move cargo to anyplace you need it to go. 'Nuff said. |
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4. LITTLE JOE CLASS
ESCORT |
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6 Beam Weapons |
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20 Cargo |
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The
LITTLE JOE is an excellent ship, but only if used properly and never when
used alone. Proper use of the |
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LITTLE JOE is described
below, in the COLONY BATTLE GROUP section. |
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5. CYGNUS CLASS
BATTLESHIP |
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4 Torpedo Launchers |
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4 Beam Weapons |
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50 Cargo |
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This
ship is the third component of the COLONY battle group described below. It is the perfect addition to |
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this battle group
because it's a cheap torpedo carrier that holds enough torpedoes to last a
long campaign. |
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E. The Colonies of Man
General-Purpose Battle-Group |
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1. Ships |
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1 x PATRIOT CLASS
CARRIER with 30 fighters and TECH 6 Beams. |
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1 x LITTLE JOE CLASS
ESCORT with DISRUPTORS. |
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1 x CYGNUS CLASS
BATTLESHIP with TECH 6 Torpedoes and Beams. |
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These
3 ships, when sent out together, combine to form one of the most powerful
battle groups available |
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to the unregistered
player, if used properly. |
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When
this battle group is about to attack an opponent, set the ships to attack in
a certain order that depends |
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upon the type of ship
being attacked. |
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2. Against a TORPEDO
carrying ship |
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Set the attack order to
the following: |
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PATRIOT 1st |
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CYGNUS 2nd |
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LITTLE JOE 3rd |
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This
is for an obvious reason; the PATRIOT can destroy most ships, but if it does
not succeed, the |
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LITTLE JOE would be
mincemeat against a TORP ship. |
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3. Against a FIGHTER
carrying ship |
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Set the attack order to
the following: |
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LITTLE JOE |
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CYGNUS |
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PATRIOT |
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The
LITTLE JOE will likely be destroyed, but it will take a lot of fighters out
with it. Then the CYGNUS |
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with it's 4 beams and 4
torps, can clean up. |
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4. Against a BEAM only
ship |
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Set the attack order to
the following: |
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CYGNUS |
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PATRIOT |
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LITTLE JOE |
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In
this situation you don't want the PATRIOT to attack first, since you could
expect to lose a lot of its |
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fighters needlessly. |
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5. Against an UNARMED
ship |
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Send
in the LITTLE JOE first. This is the reason why the LITTLE JOE should be
armed with disruptors: so |
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that it can capture
enemy freighters. Obviously against an unarmed ship, no other ships will
enter the battle. |
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If
you want to boost the number of ships in this arrangement, you should first
add an extra LITTLE JOE to the group. |
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The LITTLE JOE is likely to be destroyed
first, and it would also be helpful to have 2 LITTLE JOE's around for |
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stripping fighters off
of large enemy fighter carriers. |
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IV. Mass, Weapons, and
Planetary Defence |
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A. Ship Mass |
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Every
race has the NEUTRONIC REFINERY SHIP (mass 712) and the MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY
SHIP (mass 920). Above |
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a mass of 180 there are
only 23 other ships, all the remaining 145 ships have a mass below 180. |
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B. Fighters |
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1. Use |
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At
weights lower than 180 the beams and torpedoes are very effective, but as the
mass increases their effectiveness |
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decreases.
Fighters have the same effect on every weight of ship after destroying the
shields. Between masses |
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of 450 to 980, the
fighters are more effective at destroying ships than the beams or torpedoes. |
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2. Ordnance-How Many? |
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On
a large carrier, carry at least 80 to 90 fighters, while a smaller carrier
about 30 to 40 fighters is sufficient. However, |
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if
you are attacking several targets with a single ship (not wise) more fighters
may be prudent. |
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C. Beam Weapon Selection |
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Against
fighters the LASER is fine; however, it is wise to choose the X-RAY LASER in
case you need to capture a |
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freighter. In ships that have a mass up to 180 use 4
BLASTERS as a minimun. The BLASTER is
the best value for |
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your
money. For masses 180 to 450 a higher
tech and a larger number of beam weapons should be used. Above |
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450
never rely on beam weapons alone to destroy a ship; you will need fighters or
torpedoes to supplement |
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the beam weapons. |
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D. Torpedo Selection |
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1. Which Type? |
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As
a general rule torpedoes are more effective at destroying the shields of a
ship than causing hull damage.
The |
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best
torpedo for both sheild destruction and hull damage is the MARK 8. Unfortunately, though, your |
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resources
at the beginning of the game are limited, and are often best used
elsewhere. |
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Above
450 mass, a minimun of 5 torpedo tubes and high-tech torpedoes, to destroy
the shields, are needed |
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to
do any appreciable damage. It is
possible to use Mark 7 or 8s to destroy the shields of a very heavy ship |
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(ex. Fed's Super Nova),
and then to use Proton Torps, which always do at least 1% damage, to destroy
the |
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hull, but the conditions needed to make this
worthwhile are rare. Above 450 mass
carriers with fighters are |
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the
best choice. |
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There are only 5 useful torp
types. |
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a. The Gamma Bomb |
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The
only real use for the Gamma Bomb is putting it on on ships (often low-mass
cloaking ships) that will |
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be trying to steal
freighters. |
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b. The Mark 4 |
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For
destroying ships that have a hull mass up to 180 the Mark 4 gives the best
bang for the buck, but, |
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in
the long-run, the amount of minerals needed may offset this. However, at the
start of the game it |
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is
best not to be overly-worried about the long-run, or you may not be around to
see it. The money |
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saved
by using Mark 4s at the beginning of the game can go elsewhere and be better
used (than on |
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|
Mark
7 or 8s), usually. Besides, you may regret having upgraded your HW torp tech
level to 10 when |
|
|
you find a Siliconoid
planet that is perfect for a starbase the next turn. |
|
|
c. The Mark 6 |
|
|
The
Mark 6 can provide a useful amount of explosive in a package that, while not
as effecient as the |
|
|
Mark 4 or Mark 8, does
not have a large start- up cost; to upgrade from tech 7 (the Mark 6) to |
|
|
tech 8 (the Mark 7) costs 700mc or 2400mc to
upgrade to tech 10 (the Mark 8). The Mark 6 is |
|
|
the
torp to use in a one-time application that requires something with more BANG
than the |
|
|
Mark
4. If you are not planning a one-time application, consider the Mark 7. This
is also the |
|
|
minimum torp to use if
you are destroying ships with a mass of 180 or more. |
|
|
d. The Mark 7 |
|
|
The
Mark 7 offers almost as much BANG as the Mark 8, and at a much lower start-up
cost (1700mc less). This |
|
|
torpedo
can easily replace the Mark 8 in most applications. The Mark 8 itself, however, is a must if
you |
|
|
have lots of
money, few minerals, and weak ships. |
|
|
e. The Mark 8 |
|
|
Switching
from Mark 4s to Mark 8s (or Mark 7s) can make an incredible difference in
under-180 mass ships; |
|
|
however,
it is only worth the extra money if you are on a Siliconoid planet, or if you
are planning to |
|
|
produce
a lot of Mark 8s. When producing over-450 ships, the heavier torpedoes (Mark
6, 7, and 8) are almost |
|
always used in favour of
the Mark 4. |
|
|
2. How Many Launcher
Tubes? |
|
|
In
most torpedo ship combats, usually two salvoes will be fired. To get the most
damage from these salvoes the following |
|
MINIMUN combination is
recommended for targets that have a mass less than 180: |
|
|
Ships with: |
|
|
4 torpedo launchers |
|
MARK 4 PHOTON |
|
|
3 torpedo launchers |
|
MARK 6 PHOTON |
|
|
2 torpedo launchers |
|
MARK 7 PHOTON |
|
|
1 torpedo launchers |
|
MARK 8 PHOTON |
|
|
For
logistics and planning, it is best to not choose torpedo types at random but
rather to have well-designed battle-groups. |
|
Also, see the section on
defending your Home World with small capital ships. |
|
|
3. Ordnance |
|
|
For
torpedoes, 7 times the number of torpedo launchers should be adequate. So, on
a ship with 3 torpedo launchers have |
|
|
21
torpedoes. On real naval carriers, the compliment of aircraft is about 85
aircraft on a big carrier and 35 aircraft |
|
|
on
a smaller one. Submarines (ships that cloak)carry 18 to 24 torps, while a
destroyer will have 6 to 12 torps (the |
|
|
more launch tubes, the
more torpedoes). |
|
|
4. Minefields |
|
|
If
you only plan to build one small mine field surrounding your starbase the
MARK 4 PHOTON is cost effective. A radius of 50 |
|
light
years will cost 1300mc and use only 100 torpedoes. Up to a radius of 100
light years the MARK 7 PHOTON is better |
|
because
it uses fewer minerals than a MARK 4 PHOTON. Building more than one minefield
or fields larger than 100 light |
|
years
use the MARK 8 PHOTON because of the tremendous savings in minerals. The
important thing to realize is that once |
|
you
have upgraded the torp tech level on a starbase, you should use the same tech
level of torps on your all ships. If you are |
|
really
interested in winning, you can even build starbases dedicated to producing a
certain tech level of |
|
|
torps\beams\engines\hulls
which will take advantage of native races. You can use the starbase RECYCLE
command |
|
|
to spread the high-tech
parts throughout your empire. |
|
|
The following is a
mine-laying efficiency listing of the various torps. |
|
|
TORPEDO COST (NOT
LAUNCHER) TO LAY _1_ MINE UNIT: |
|
|
T |
|
C |
T |
|
M |
T |
|
|
Y |
|
O |
R |
D |
O |
E |
|
|
P |
|
S |
I |
U |
L |
C |
|
|
E |
|
T |
T |
R |
Y |
H |
|
|
|
MARK 1 |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
PROTON TORP |
|
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
MARK 2 |
|
0.6 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
3 |
|
|
GAMMA BOMB |
|
1.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
3 |
|
|
MARK 3 |
|
0.8 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
4 |
|
|
MARK 4 |
|
0.5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
|
MARK 5 |
|
0.9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
|
|
MARK 6 |
|
0.7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
|
|
MARK 7 |
|
0.6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
MARK 8 |
|
0.5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
|
|
THE FORMULA FOR NUMBER
OF MINES LAID IS: |
|
|
mines_laid=number_of_torpedoes
* tech^2 |
|
|
or |
|
|
Number of torpedoes
times the torpedo tech level squared will equal the number of mine units
layed. |
|
|
Assuming that one
torpedo was used, divide the cost for one torpedo by the number of mines laid
by that same |
|
|
torpedo to find the cost per mine. |
|
|
Note
that this is for comparison purposes only; do not try to calculate the cost
of laying a minefield with this, |
|
|
because you will likely
end up with an incorrect answer due to rounding. |
|
|
Do
not dismiss a difference of 0.02, or 0.01. When you start laying 25 or so
torpedoes every couple of days, |
|
|
it adds up FAST! |
|
|
An
important factor not included in the mine-laying efficiency stats is that if
you use the torpedoes for battle, |
|
|
it
is a great deal of help if you have a high torp tech level (although, this
does not mean that all your torps |
|
|
have to be high-tech
torps; it means that you should use high-tech torps when they are available). |
|
|
Since you will always be
using the highest tech level of torps that you can produce, the only question
is what |
|
|
tech level to upgrade
to. If you're on an Siliconoid planet (which gives your starbase automatic
tech 10 torp level) |
|
|
you will be building only Mark 8s or Gamma
Bombs (except for a few, rare scenarios where you may need to use |
|
|
a
different type of torps). If there is no starbase on a Siliconoid planet
nearby, you will have to choose a tech level |
|
|
to upgrade to. For the 5
useful torp types see the section on choosing torp types. |
|
|
E. Planetary Defence Post
Tables |
|
|
DP |
Ftr |
Bm |
Clans |
Tech |
DP |
Ftr |
Bm |
Clans |
Tech |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
1 * |
|
85 |
9 |
5 |
### |
|
7 * |
|
|
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
1 |
|
91 |
10 |
6 |
### |
|
7 |
|
|
5 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
2 * |
|
111 |
11 |
6 |
### |
|
7 |
|
|
7 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
|
2 |
|
113 |
11 |
6 |
### |
|
8 * |
|
|
13 |
4 |
2 |
13 |
|
3 * |
|
127 |
11 |
7 |
### |
|
8 |
|
|
19 |
4 |
3 |
19 |
|
3 |
|
133 |
12 |
7 |
### |
|
8 |
|
|
21 |
5 |
3 |
21 |
|
3 |
|
145 |
12 |
7 |
### |
|
9 * |
|
|
25 |
5 |
3 |
25 |
|
4 * |
|
157 |
13 |
7 |
### |
|
9 |
|
|
31 |
6 |
3 |
31 |
|
4 |
|
169 |
13 |
8 |
### |
|
9 |
|
|
37 |
6 |
4 |
37 |
|
4 |
|
181 |
13 |
8 |
### |
|
10 * |
|
|
41 |
6 |
4 |
41 |
|
5 * |
|
183 |
14 |
8 |
### |
|
10 |
|
|
43 |
7 |
4 |
43 |
|
5 |
|
211 |
15 |
8 |
### |
|
10 |
|
|
57 |
8 |
4 |
95 |
|
5 |
|
217 |
15 |
9 |
### |
|
10 |
|
|
61 |
8 |
5 |
165 |
|
6 * |
|
241 |
16 |
9 |
### |
|
10 |
|
|
73 |
9 |
5 |
567 |
|
6 |
|
271 |
16 |
10 |
### |
|
10 |
|
|
`*' denotes a beam tech
level increase. |
|
|
NOTE:
Having 181 Defence Posts means that when the planet is attacked it will use
Heavy Phasers in its defence; |
|
|
it does not mean that a
starbase over the planet will have a tech 10 beam level. In other words, just
because |
|
|
the tech level of beams used to defend a
planet against attack increases due to a high number of defence posts |
|
|
does
not mean that the tech level of beams that a starbase can produce goes
up. |
|
|
NOTE:
The tech level of beams used to defend a planet will not be lower than the
beam tech level on a starbase |
|
|
above the planet;
however, it may be lower. |
|
|
V. Basic Conservative
Strategy for the New Player |
|
|
The
following is what can be referred to as standard practice. It is not necessarily recommended; it is
just standard, conservative |
|
|
play
that you can use as base for more complex, innovative, and effective
strategies and tactics. Make sure that
you also |
|
|
read the section on
Convoy and Battle Groups. |
|
|
A. On the First Day |
|
|
1. Race Choice |
|
|
For the novice player, a
cloaking race such as the Lizards or Birdman would be a wise race choice.
Cloaking ships have |
|
|
the advantages of usually being low-tech, as
well as forcing you to become a better player. Cloakers can also get |
|
|
away with low-tech
engines easier than most other ships. |
|
|
The Robots would also be
a wise choice, especially in a short game. |
|
|
2. Home World Development |
|
|
bring your defence posts
to 101: guaranteed to not be detected by a sensor sweep. |
|
|
factories to max:
supplies can be sold for money and are needed to colonize. Free fighter races also need supplies to
build fighters. |
|
Mines to max: this will
let you get a quick start on colonizing as well as in defence/small raids. |
|
|
tax
rate to 9% : you can usually increase taxes to the first level of "They
are angry at you" without any adverse effects. |
|
|
Money is needed to get a
quick start in the game. |
|
|
3. Home World Defence |
|
|
Do
not bring your starbase defence level to 200 right away. Doing so will waste 1800mc, and 180
duranium, a precious commodity |
|
early in the game.
Neither should you bring your starbase fighters to 60. This will waste more
money than you can spare this |
|
early
in the game. If you are a free-fighter race (Robots, Rebels, and Colonies)
you should bring your fighters up to 60 with |
|
caution,
always making sure that you will have enough minerals for the ships you will
soon be producing. Later on, as |
|
minerals
become more common, colonization less important, and the threat of attack
more menacing, you will likely want to |
|
raise your Home World
defences as much as you can. |
|
|
However,
do not totally neglect defending your HW (Home World). During the first two
weeks, while building ships, increase |
|
your
planetary defence posts, starbase defense strength, and add fighters. Work
toward getting the number of fighters on |
|
your
starbase to 60 (max) and the planetary defence to max within 20 to 25 turns.
This is your last line of defence.
Always |
|
make
sure your defence posts are 100+ so that your planet's industrial activity is
guaranteed to be shielded from long range |
|
sensor sweeps.
Obviously, if your HW is closer to your enemies, defence will be more
important sooner. |
|
|
A
starbase with 30 fighters, 100 planetary defence posts, and 100 starbase
defence strength is equivalent to a carrier with a mass of 300kt, |
|
40 fighters, and 6
phasers (section 2.4 and 4.1 docs). |
|
|
a. Small Capital Ships for Defence |
|
|
i. Reason |
|
|
One
of the other tools for defending your starbases should be several low-cost
ships with beam weapons and torpedoes. |
|
When
a carrier attacks a small ship, the small ship will usually get to fire off
two salvoes of beam weapons and two |
|
salvoes
of torps before it is destroyed. So, if it has 4 beams and 2 torp launchers,
it will shoot down 8 fighters and |
|
do
a little damage to the carrier. Several of these expendable capital ships may
weaken the carrier sufficiently that the |
|
starbase to survive. |
|
|
ii. Construction |
|
|
Use TECH 1 engines with
one kt of fuel on board. Put X-RAY
LASERS on board, and use the most explosive torpedo
t |
|
4. Starbase Tech Levels |
hat you can afford but
load only 2 or 3 torps per tube. |
|
|
HULL TECH 6 |
|
|
I find that this level
gives a good complement of ships. The
ideal freighter being the LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER. |
|
ENGINES TECH 10 |
|
|
Most fuel efficient on
all ships. |
|
|
WEAPONS TECH 3 |
|
|
The blaster offers good
explosive damage for its cost, use in minerals and cost in tech level. |
|
|
TORP TECH 5 |
|
|
The MARK 4 in all weight
ranges is the best bang for the buck. On ships with only 1 or 2 tubes the
MARK 8 or |
|
|
the MARK 7 offsets the disadvantage of few
tubes and the 35% chance of a miss. |
|
|
5. Planning and
Calculating Ahead |
|
|
You
can plan for most games to last about 40 to 60 turns. The first major battles
will likely occur around turn 20 to 30 with a couple
races |
|
knocked
out. Turns 30 to 50 usually see a few more players knocked out with the game
winding down after turn 50. Prepare your |
|
strategy. Even before you begin the game, review your
race's advantages, and plan a strategy that you will use. Then, be sure |
|
to
stick to your strategy. You will likely have to wait until you know who your
neighbours are before you can get too specific |
|
about your strategy.
Also, be sure to leave room for change in your strategy. |
|
|
Do not leave it so
open-ended that you fight an undisciplined war, but do leave room for change.
This is easy to forget as you progress |
|
in playing ability. When following through
with your strategy, use aggressive tactics that are specially designed and
customized |
|
for the task at hand. As
an example: |
|
|
if you are planning to
distract the enemy and then launch an attack to his side the following tactic
could be used to distract the enemy... |
|
(example) |
|
|
Object:
To put the enemy into a defensive and frame of mind by disrupting freight
lanes and through the use of a sudden, large |
|
number of attacks
(sweeping a minefield can be considered an attack in this case). |
|
|
Requirements:
Birds as offending race, Robots as the defending race. 5-10 Swift Heart Class
Scouts with X-Rays. 4-7 Resolutes |
|
with
Disrupters (one Resolute sweeps 800 mines per turn), Heavy Disrupters (one
Resolute sweeps 1984 mines per turn), |
|
or Heavy Phasers (one
Resolute sweeps 3200 mines per turn). |
|
|
Explanation
of Requirements: The Swift Heart Class Scout is a cheap cloaking ship that
you can sacrifice for the purpose of |
|
taking
out a freighter along with you. You may want to use beams with a smaller
crew-kill factor. The number of Resolutes |
|
needed
depends on the beam weapon used. Disrupter, Heavy Disrupter, and Heavy Phaser
are the levels to consider |
|
upgrading
your starbase tech level to for the purpose of minesweeping. Disrupter is the
minimum to equip your |
|
minesweeping Resolutes
with. Remember that if you spend a large amount of money on a tech upgrade to
get full use out of it. |
|
Method:
Line up all your Resolutes as close to the border of the Robots existing
minefield as possible. On one of your
Resolutes, |
|
have
enough torpedoes so that you can drop a minefield of your own as a quick way
to remove the Robot's minefield. It is |
|
possible
that you can achieve the same quick-removal effect through regular sweeping,
but that method is limited in the area |
|
that
can be cleared of enemy mine. When all the Swift Hearts and Resolutes are as
near to the minefield as they can safely get |
|
(they're
all cloaked, of course!) you will drop a minefield from your Resolute
prepared for that purpose. This same turn
that |
|
you
dropped your own minefield move your Swift Hearts (cloaked) to, or as near to
a planet as they can get. You will also |
|
begin
the following with your Resolutes. The Resolutes are used to mine-sweep when
Robots drops mines. The main |
|
purpose
is to put the Robots into a defensive frame of mind. The Resolutes must cloak
and move a few light-years, and then |
|
uncloak
in order to mine-sweep. They then cloak and repeat. Be sure within reach of
the Robot's mines, and to always have |
|
at
least two Resolutes uncloaked and sweeping mines so that the enemy knows he
is wasting his resources laying mines, and |
|
also
so that he knows that if he stops laying mines, the Resolutes will sneak in
and attack (they would attack using a tactic |
|
similiar
to the one the Swift Hearts are currently using). |
|
|
The
Swift Hearts will attack anything they can damage, destroy, or steal every
turn until they are gone. The Resolutes can |
|
continue
sweeping mines ad infinitum, or at least until they run out of fuel. When you
feel that you have the enemy playing |
|
the most defensively,
you will launch your attack with properly designed attacking ships. |
|
|
(end of example) |
|
|
Try
to always have a 7 day plan. Be aware of the cost in mega-credits and
minerals for the fleet you are building so that you will not |
|
be
caught short. See the section `Documents and Utilities' `BUILD1_1' for more
information on fleet planning and design. |
|
Once
you own more planets, take a look at the mining surveys and calculate the
number on minerals you will have in 7 days, 14
days |
|
and
21 days. By looking ahead you can see where your weakness in minerals is, and
when you might run out. You will also see |
|
which ships you will and
will not be able to build. |
|
|
First determine what you
would like and how much it will cost. For example, to build 10 WHITE FALCON
CLASS CRUISERS consider: |
|
Cost of raising the HULL
tech levels to a minimun tech 3. |
|
|
Cost |
„ |
|
BEAM |
„ |
|
level desired. |
|
|
Cost |
„ |
|
TORP |
„ |
|
level desired |
|
|
Cost |
„ |
|
ENG |
„ |
|
maximum. |
|
|
|
Cost in mega credits and
minerals for 40 beam weapons. |
|
|
Cost |
|
„ |
|
10 torpedo launchers. |
|
|
Cost |
|
„ |
|
20 engines. |
|
|
Cost |
|
„ |
|
10 hulls. |
|
|
Cost |
|
„ |
|
100 torpedoes :10 per
ship |
|
|
Amount of fuel required
full tanks: 4300 neutronium. |
|
|
Now,
from the mining surveys you can determine if some of the minerals you are
short of can be transported from other planets. |
|
Or
maybe your ships can be just as effective with tech 1 beam weapons which are
cheaper and useless minerals than higher |
|
tech
beam weapons. Maybe tech 2 torpedoes could still perform in the role
required, but are cheaper than higher tech torpedoes. |
|
Maybe
have only 3 beam weapons instead of four, or no torpedo launchers instead of
1 on board. |
|
|
As
your resources improve you could plan a fleet replacement and purchase the
ships you truly desire. Whatever your strategy
is, |
|
plan for 7, 14 and 21
days ahead and ensure you have the resources in supplies, factories, minerals
and mega credits to fulfil it. |
|
Whatever you plan, be
innovative, cunning, and read up on tactical warfare. Strategy by B.H. Liddel
Hart and How Great Generals Win |
|
by Bevin Alexander are but two of the many
excellent books available at your local library. Field Marshal Rommel's
tactics with t |
|
he Afrika Corps in North
Africa can be used here with astounding results. |
|
|
6. Ships |
|
|
a. First Ships |
|
|
Unless
Home Worlds are close together, you should first build an LDSF (Large Deep
Space Freighter) for colonizing. After
building |
|
this, you may have to
rest a few turns to let your duranium stores build up again. In the case that
Home Worlds are close together, |
|
you may want to build a suitable capital
ship or two first. If possible, build one with a large cargo capacity (350 or
more) so that |
|
it can act as a freighter. |
|
|
When
Home Worlds are close together, you do not want to risk losing a valuable
freighter to a scout with only 2 X-Rays. If you
cannot |
|
build a capital ship
that can act as a freighter, always be sure to escort your ships. |
|
|
If
you are playing in a game where many of the planets you find will not be
worthwhile, you may want to build an MDSF (Medium |
|
Deep
Space Freighter) so that you can scout out the good planets. Once the MDSF's
job of scouting has been finished, it can |
|
be
colonized or put to use in small cargo transport. If you plan to colonize it
you may choose to build a Smallie (Small Deep
Space |
|
Freighter) instead. |
|
|
For
the first seven days you should likely build the cheapest craft with the
highest number of cargo holds. This is usually the
Large |
|
Deep
Space Freighter. Consider using the Large Deep Space Freighter for
colonization, and the Medium Deep Space Freighter |
|
for
mineral movement at this early stage in the game. Do not forget that you may
have a capital ship that will function in the |
|
role of colonization or
mineral movement more effectively than these two freighters. |
|
|
Be
sure to equip your first ships with tech 10 engines so that they can remain
out of sight of the races that have HYPerdrive
ships |
|
(Cyborg,
Empire, Rebels). These ships can be
aimed at your planets (see section on the HYPerdrive) to capture undefended |
|
freighters from you in
less time than it takes to send a capital ship to save your freighter. |
|
|
You
will also have to make sure that you produce enough capital ships to defend a
minor exploratory attack on your growing |
|
empire.
Unless you're planning a sudden surprise attack, stay away from large
expensive ships that will hinder your colonization. |
|
Large
expensive ships also have the disadvantage that they can only be in one place
at a time. An attack may strike just far |
|
enough
away from your large expensive ship that you could be wiped out, even if you
currently own the most powerful |
|
ship
in the game. |
|
|
Take note, Cyborg. |
|
|
b. More Ships |
|
|
i. Criteria |
|
|
Whatever
ship you select, KNOW what role you will use it for and build it with the
weapons that will be most effective in |
|
that
role (taking into account your resources, too, of course). Having 7 similiar ships is easier to plan
with than having |
|
7
non-standard designs of the same ship.
When you start building BATTLE GROUPS keep them standard as well. A |
|
BATTLE GROUP is a
collection of ships that complement each other in fulfilling a single role. |
|
|
ALL
ships are designed for a specific purpose, and when used for that purpose are
very effective. Do not ignore any |
|
particular
ship because it is traditionally not used, or seems to be too wimpy. Even the
most useless seeming ships can |
|
sometimes have
valuable purposes in your empire. |
|
|
Also, see the section on
BATTLE OR CONVOY GROUPS for a list of important criteria for general-use
ships. |
|
|
Also, see the section on
Battle and Convoy Groups, which contains useful criteria for selecting ships. |
|
|
From
turns 7 to 14 you should start building your main capital ships. If you
empire is running smoothly, you should be
able |
|
to
produce almost one every turn, so that by turn 14 you have a fleet of at
least 7 capital ships. Between turns 21 and
28 |
|
you should have
developed an effective fleet. |
|
|
ii. Outfitting |
|
|
x. Engines |
|
|
It is important to
remember that this is just basic strategy. If you are daring and plan to win,
you will have to be more I |
|
nnovative
than this, have enemies that play poorly, or just be very lucky. |
|
|
If
you are registered, put tech 10 engines (the TransWarp) on all of your ships.
This is the most fuel efficient, will allow |
|
you to easily chase down
enemies, and let you spend less time in space while en-route to your
destination. |
|
xx. Weapons |
|
|
There
are two primary theories to weapons. One is to use the most powerful weapon
you can (ex. Mark 8), and the |
|
other is to use the most
efficient weapon (ex. Mark 4). The best solution is a combination of both.
The reasoning |
|
behind the biggest BANG theory is that if
your ship survives because you spent more on weapons, then the e |
|
xtra
money was worth it. The DORN@Dirac.physics.jmu.edu (Dr. Dorn
Peterson)]reasoning behind the most |
|
efficient
weapon theory is that by using cheaper weapons, you can produce so many more
ships that it's worth losing |
|
a
few more battles. The best solution has to be tailored to your particular
circumstances (enemy, abundancy of |
|
minerals,
abundancy of mega-credits, race) as well as to your playing style. |
|
|
For a more detailed
discussion on weapons see the appropriate sections. |
|
|
B. Expanding your Empire
with Planets |
|
|
1. Colonizing |
|
|
You
will often want to send a small scout ahead of you so that it can find good
planets and you can plan ahead for them. |
|
|
For
example, if your scout has found a planet that can generate a lot of money is
only a bit farther on, you may want |
|
|
to hold off on
colonizing the in-between planets so that you can tax this high-revenue
planet sooner. |
|
|
You
will want to put 100 clans on most planets that you colonize. Thereason for this is that 100 clans can
sustain enough |
|
mines
for most planets as well as build 100 factories. Over 100 clans, you can not build 1 factory
for every clan. For |
|
|
most races the best
colonizing freighter is the LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER. |
|
|
Remember
to include about 25 supplies and 100mc for every 100 colonists. If resources are scarce, you can go to 10
supplies |
|
and
50mc. Planets that have natives (other than Amorphous ones) can generate
their own money, and you do not have |
|
to supply these with
mega-credits to get started. |
|
|
Try
to make the warps between planets in one turn so that you will not be seen.
This is especially important if everyone |
|
|
knows that you are a
rookie. If you are experienced, they may assume that you believe you are
strong enough to repel |
|
an attack. When you have a ship over an
unowned planet do a mineral survey. To do this, select the ship that is
over |
|
the
unowned planet. Then press F4 and the F5. You can now unload some colonists
onto the planet. If there are natives |
|
(other
than Amorphous ones) you need only to unload supplies and colonists and your
freighter can move to the next |
|
planet in the same turn. |
|
|
If
there are no natives, your ship will have to wait there until next turn when
you own the planet so that you can give it some |
|
mega-credits. The reason
it does not need mega-credits if there are natives is that you can tax the
natives and the planet |
|
will generate its own mega-credits. |
|
|
You
may have to stay in orbit, even if there are natives on the planet. Your ship
may be short on fuel, in which case, you can |
|
gamble
that there will be enough fuel on the planet's surface to get you to the next
planet. To gamble like this, set your |
|
mission
to `G'ather Neutronium and before you leave the planet's orbit, your ship
will automatically beam up all the |
|
|
neutronium
on the surface. You may be forced to wait at the planet until another ship
can refuel you or until you have |
|
mined some neutronium
from the planet. |
|
|
2. Development of Planets |
|
|
When colonizing, do not
neglect planetary defence posts on newly-owned planets. There are three
primary types of defence-- |
|
capital
ships, planetary defence, and mines, usually in that order of importance. Of
the three, planetary defence will be the |
|
most important defence
against small scouts with 2 X-Ray beams that wander into your territory
looking for unguarded planets. |
|
In
order to prevent small scouts from taking over your precious new planets and
destroying many of the factories and mines as
well |
|
as
stealing any money on the planet you need about 13 defence posts. It is
generally safe to let a planet go without 13 defence |
|
posts
for the first few turns that you own it. After that, you will want a minimum
of 13 defence posts to defend from small |
|
scouts
or small HYPerdrive ship attacks. The 13 defence posts should be increased by
a couple every turn. Don't build mines |
|
until
you have maxed out the number of factories you can build (unless you urgently
need some minerals). By the time |
|
you
have about 25-50 mines built (if you have decided that the planet is worthy
of that many) you should have your |
|
|
planetary defence to max,
or almost there. |
|
|
3. Building a New
Starbase |
|
|
a. What for? |
|
|
Do
not think that you will never have to build another STARBASE. If someone
attacks and destroys your Home World, you
will |
|
need
another base to survive in the game. A STARBASE can also be used as added
defence for a valuable planet. You may |
|
find
that your Home World starbase is overwhelmedby the need for new ships in your
empire. You may need ships to be |
|
produced
nearer to your enemy's heartland. Maybe you need a supply of torpedoes or
fighters closer to the action. Moving |
|
minerals
from far away to your Home World is also very wasteful of fuel, and a
starbase nearer to high-production planets
will |
|
save fuel and effort.
Once the 500 ship limit is reached, he with the most starbases has the best
chance to win. |
|
|
Do
not build a starbase simply for the sake of building a starbase, though.
Whenever you build a new starbase, have a specific |
|
purpose for it in mind
that is part of your over-all strategy. |
|
|
b. About Building a
Starbase |
|
|
You
may need to build a Large Deep Space Freighter, to transport any materials
and colonists required to the chosen planet.
To |
|
defend
the new starbase you will need one to three capital ships, at least until it
has full defence posts and max fighters. |
|
For building a starbase
you need the following: |
|
|
900 mega-credits |
|
|
402 tritanium |
|
|
120 duranium |
|
|
340 molybdenum |
|
|
colonists |
|
|
A
Large Deep Space Freighter or a couple of capital ships with a lot of cargo
holds can deliver these minerals. The
ships can |
|
also
be used to deliver additional colonists and minerals after the starbase is
started. You will also need supplies and more |
|
mega-credits
to build factories, mines, and defence posts. Do not leave only 100 clans on
your starbase. A cloaking race |
|
(especially
the Lizards) may find this out and beam colonists of their own down.
Suddenly, they'll have your starbase for |
|
free!
You will need at least 500 clans to be fairly safe. Before you can feel
really secure, you should have several thousand |
|
clans on your starbase. |
|
|
C. Defence of your Empire |
|
|
With hyper-drive
potentially in the hands of any race you can be attacked from a 1000 light
years away only a few days after the start of |
|
the game. Get your HW (Home World) defence
posts above 100, keep your ships hidden and don't lay a minefield until it is
absolutely |
|
necessary (minefields can be detected from a
large distance away). Every day check to see if any other ships are orbiting
any of your |
|
planets. Always be
watching for any sign that your enemy (or your ally) is planning an attack.
Always be thinking about how you would |
|
attack if you were your enemy. Prepare your
defence for this. You can second-guess yourself forever. For every tactic
there is a counter- |
|
tactic
for which there is a way around by using a different tactic. Choose the type
of attack you expect and prepare for it. Do your
best |
|
to prepare for every
possibility, though. The Parker Bros. game "Risk" was called so for
a reason. You can't play without being aggressive, |
|
taking risks, and gambling and still hope to
win. |
|
|
D. Attacking the Enemy |
|
|
Always plan out your
attacks. Avoid an all-out battle of attrition. Use your forces with daring
and stealth. See the section on HYPerdrive ships. |
|
See
the section on BATTLE GROUPS. Battle groups can make effectiveforays into
enemy territory that can put him into a defensive mood,
as well |
|
as destroy valuable
ships and resources, especially when used in an organized and thought-out
manner. |
|
|
1. Your Enemy |
|
|
See the section on
team-work. |
|
|
Avoid a two fronted war
by having one enemy at a time. Negotiate with the others for an alliance or
truce so that you can use your forces |
|
on a single enemy. In this way you can
concentrate your forces against one opponent. If possible, use your ally to
help destroy |
|
the
enemy. Two against one is always better than one on one. Working in a team is
even better. With your resources pooled |
|
you will be more effective. |
|
|
If
my race cannot build fighters cheaply (ie just use 3 TRI, 2 MOLY and 5
supply, no mega-credits) then I will build ships that carry torpedoes. |
|
Unless
I can do a quick kill on their starbase, I will avoid conflict with races
that can build fighters cheaply. Instead, I will aid another |
|
race
by providing some ships/credits to do my "dirty work" for me. This
is similar to the strategy the Byzantine (500ad) and
the |
|
British Empires (18th
century) followed. |
|
|
Be
ruthless and aggressive to effectively carry out your plans of universal
domination. An opponent who isn't
completely destroyed can |
|
rebuild. Spare no one.
The U.S. Navy in World War II had a motto--"HUNT THEM, FIND THEM, SINK
THEM!". |
|
|
Even
if your opponent has a fleet stronger and larger than yours, never
despair. All the great Generals in
human history won their battles |
|
with
forces that were greatly outnumbered and outgunned. How? They concentrated
their forces and struck at their enemy's
weakest |
|
areas.
Attacking where least expected and with more forces than your opponent has in
that area will allow you to survive, and |
|
eventually
turn the tide. Never do what your opponent expects you to and never be where
he thinks you are. |
|
|
In
any situation, determine what is most the most obvious course of action to
follow and what is LEAST obvious. In most cases,
do |
|
the
least obvious. Always mystify, mislead, and surprise your enemy. |
|
|
Never underestimate any
player. Always be sure to correctly estimate the effects of your attack on
your enemy. |
|
|
2. Targets |
|
|
It
is usually best to try and avoid head to head conflicts involving the loss of
ships. Attack the resources that supply, build, |
|
and
fuel these ships. By avoiding battles against large ships you can commit your
resources to smaller capital ships |
|
|
and have economy of
force. |
|
|
Remember
to try and do the unexpected, but at the same time be sure to keep in mind
that certain operations are simply |
|
|
more worthwhile than
others. |
|
|
In order of importance,
here are the primary targets. |
|
|
a. Home World |
|
|
Whenever
possible ALWAYS destroy your opponent's HOME WORLD. As well as being his
source for building ships, |
|
mega-credits,
supplies, and colonists a blow here can also knock him out of the game.
Psychologically the loss of the |
|
Home World can cause a
player to give up and stop playing. |
|
|
b. Control of the
Battlefield |
|
|
If
you can take control of the battlefield, you can call the shots. Bully the
enemy if you can. The safety that |
|
|
freedom of movement
generates will usually pay for itself. |
|
|
c. Planets |
|
|
By
capturing enemy planets you deny him observation posts. This can be done by
unloading colonists onto the planet |
|
for
ground war. Watch enemy movements with cloaking ships, as well as from a
distance. See if you can find his |
|
primary planets. Attack
a couple of these over a spread-out area can weaken the enemy greatly. |
|
|
Attacking
lesser planets that the enemy is using primarily for the 100 supplies per
turn it generates can also force him |
|
to
either spend a lot of money on a minefield (which you will just sweep), force
him to spread out his forces, or force |
|
him to lose these
planets. If he decides to sacrifice these lesser planets, you can use them as
FORWARD SUPPLY BASES. |
|
d. Freighters |
|
|
Destroying enemy
freighters denies the enemy the minerals needed at his starbase. |
|
|
e. Capital Ships |
|
|
Destroy
enemy capital ships ONLY when your losses are minimal and his losses are
maximum or when it gives you |
|
|
a commanding control over
the battlefield. |
|
|
3. Attacks |
|
|
Time your attacks
carefully. Timing can make the difference between success and failure. Before
you attack know what your target |
|
has for defence. If you are attacking ships
that are in space, check to see what you will be attacking by using `L' and
`V'. |
|
After
you have identified the enemy ships, use the program PROSIM.EXE (with
SIM.EXE) to see if you will be successful in |
|
a
conflict. Determine which ships and in
which order you will send your ships in to attack. Set the ship's mission to |
|
|
INTERCEPT
or KILL and input the PRIMARY ENEMY.
The ship with the lowest ID # will attack first. To change the |
|
order
of attack change the friendly code. For example ship A is to attack second
and ship B first. Set ship A code to 2xx and |
|
B to 1xx. Read the Doc
"HOSTxx.ZIP" for more info. |
|
|
When
attacking or defending, do not waste your forces piecemeal. If you want a
target, then commit enough ships to be successful. |
|
It
is a waste of resources to send 3 ships and lose them, even if the target is
destroyed. Send 6. That way, although
you still |
|
lose
three ships, you have 3 left to control the area. Remember, you must have
sufficient ships to win, as well as to repel any |
|
counter
attack. Know what your target defences are, and then use the best combination
of weapons against it. You will lose |
|
ships in an attack,
anticipate this. |
|
|
Carriers are the most
efficient way of attacking a starbase, but only when used as part of a BATTLE
GROUP. |
|
|
E. Freight Movement |
|
|
Bringing
minerals to a starbase can be done with capital ships that have large cargo
holds or freighters. Using a capital ship that cloaks |
|
is ideal, because no one
can see what your route of travel is. |
|
|
F. Movement |
|
|
If
you are using a ship that doesn't cloak, try to travel from planet to planet
in one turn. When in orbit around a planet your enemies |
|
cannot
see you. When you cannot make a move in one turn, be sure to avoid
telegraphing your moves. Don't move in a straight |
|
line from one planet to
another. Zig zag so your opponents are not sure of your destination. |
|
|
1. Convoy |
|
|
To
protect your ships have them travel in a convoy. Set the to travel at the
same speed, moving to EXACTLY the same location |
|
each
turn. This is accomplished by having all the ships intercept the lead ship in
the convoy. To travel to a distant cluster of |
|
planets
have several freighters travel in a convoy with an escort. Their path should
closely resemble a firecracker on the 1st of |
|
July. All the ships travel together for as long
as possible and then suddenly the convoy breaks up with each ship travelling a |
|
very short distance to
its assigned planet. Using several freighters, a large number of planets can
be checked out quickly. |
|
If
the distance between planets is too great to be done economically because of
fuel concerns, have some escorts standing on |
|
station
at certain locations. Sitting on station at warp 0, the escorts will not use
valuable fuel. The convoys can then move to |
|
these stations for extra
protection. |
|
|
If
your resources are low, you can tow a ship and put StarDrive 1 engines on
it. For example, a LARGE DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
|
with high tech engines
could tow a capital ship that has only tech 1 engines. The cost of the
capital ship then is minimized. |
|
2. Or the Lack There-Of:
When NOT moving |
|
|
Unless
your capital ships are on convoy duty they should be in one of two
locations. |
|
|
At
the starbase to maximize the defences or somewhere else standing by to face
any enemy action. |
|
|
In a strong, single
strike force moving to attack the enemy. |
|
|
3. Fuel Burn |
|
|
The
heavier the ship, the more fuel it will burn. When selecting beam weapons,
engines, torpedoes, torpedo launchers and fighters |
|
check
the weight. A positron beam weighs 3 KT
and a blaster 4 KT. Carrying 60 fighters will burn less fuel than 80
fighters. |
|
Having 150kt of fuel
weighs less than 200kt fuel, therefore the ship will burn less. |
|
|
The
biggest advantage to registering is that you will be able to build tech 10
engines, and move further and faster than before. |
|
A
tech 7 engine is the minimun size engine that should be used on most ships.
Lesser tech engines can be used on ships |
|
that are just staying
and protecting the starbase. |
|
|
G. Scouts, Observation
Posts, and Forward Supply Bases |
|
|
A
SMALL SCOUT with high-tech engines can move rapidly and economically around
the universe looking for enemy ships and planets. |
|
By
leaving one colonist clan at each planet, this planet becomes an OBSERVATION
POST on enemy activity. By leaving
several |
|
colonists with supplies
and mega-credits, some factories and eventually some mines can be built to
provide fuel and supplies to |
|
ships operating far from your own territory.
This planet is a FORWARD SUPPLY BASE. |
|
|
With
colonists on the planet you can use `v' to look at other ships that come
close. Also use `l' to list the ships
if they are travelling in |
|
a
convoy; then cycle through using `v' to see which ships are there. Depending
on which version of PLANETS.EXE you have, |
|
you may have to use the
small-case of `l' and `v'! |
|
|
H. Native Races |
|
|
A number of planets with
good native races can win the game for you. |
|
|
NATIVE RACES to look for: |
|
|
Bovinoid |
|
1 supply for every
10,000 Bovinoids, 1 supply per clan |
|
|
Reptillian |
|
Double the mineing rate
if there are more than 100 |
|
|
Avian |
|
Can be overtaxed |
|
|
Amorphous |
|
Will eat 5 clans per
turn, can't be taxed or assimilated |
|
|
Insectoid |
|
Double taxes |
|
|
Amphibian |
|
Tech 10 Beam weapons |
|
|
Ghipsodal |
|
Tech 10 Engines |
|
|
Siliconoid |
|
Tech 10 Torpedoes |
|
|
Humanoid |
|
Tech 10 Hulls |
|
|
A
TECH 10 advantage race can save you 4500mc and is the only way that
unregistered players can achieve anything beyond tech 6. |
|
Note
that natives, just like you, grow (on planets with the right temperature!).
Taxes have the same effects on them. A good |
|
government,
though, can greatly increase the taxes you will earn. |
|
|
Also,
note that on some planets it is not wise to build too many mines or
factories, since that will decrease the maximum tax rate, |
|
which
will in turn, decrease the amount you will earn. Remember, you can only mine a planet once,
but the taxation factor is |
|
forever. For example, on an INSECTOID planet with 10
million natives that is earning 300mc a turn, building 100 factories and |
|
only
25 mines will likely lower the maximum tax rate by 1%. 1% will cost you 300mc
a turn, or 900mc in 3 turns, or, the cost of |
|
60 fighters in 20 turns.
Serious business. Make sure you are
certain that further development on a planet is what you want. |
|
VI. Specific Strategies |
|
|
A. Lizards |
|
|
DAY 1 |
|
|
Engine TECH LEVEL to 10
ðtranswarp drive |
|
|
Weapon TECH LEVEL to 3
ðblasters |
|
|
Torpedo TECH LEVEL to 5 ðmark
4's |
|
|
Hull TECH LEVEL to 4 |
|
|
Tax
: about 18% |
|
|
10 levels above the
green, which is usually around 8%. The 18% requires one ship on HISSS
mission. |
|
|
1. Strategy |
|
|
The
small freighter I will colonize on my home planet and the Serpent Class
Escort will go on HISSS mission above my |
|
|
home
world. I will usually build 6 to 8 LIZARD CRUISERS. For the first 10 days I
will send the LIZARD CRUISERS |
|
|
out
to planets solo, always cloaked. After that they only go in pairs. If a planet is close enough to be reached
in one |
|
turn,
then by about day 6, I will increase my hull tech level to 6 and build 2
large deep space freighters to haul colonists |
|
and
minerals. Around day 10 I will keep 4 to 6 LIZARD CRUISERS and the serpent
escort above my home planet on |
|
|
hiss
mission...tax rate for 7 ships on HISSS is 7 x 5 = 35 + 13 = 48%. I will now
increase my HULL TECH LEVEL to |
|
|
10 and build at least 2
T-REX's. |
|
|
I
use BLASTERS on both the LIZARD CRUISERS and the T-REX's and keep 21 torps on
the LIZARDS, 60 torps on the T-REX's. |
|
To
destroy a fully defended starbase will require 7 LIZARD CRUISERS as long as
there are no other ships present. 2 T-REX's |
|
and
6 LIZARD CRUISERS should be able to destroy any ships, the starbase and still
have some surviving ships. |
|
|
If I discover an enemy's
newly built starbase, I will drop colonists onto the planet, so that I can
capture the planet and starbase. |
|
At combat odds of 20X it doesn't take too
many colonists to take the planet and starbase. |
|
|
The
Feds are ideal allies. The Thor Class Frigate and Diplomacy Cruiser as Lizard
ships are very deadly with 150% damage |
|
capability.
If the Fed player is 500+ light years away, I will try to buy or steal some
hyperdrive or accelerated ships from |
|
nearby
enemies. These ships can sent to the Feds and back, so that we can build
starbases near to each other in |
|
|
order to produce fleets
with ships that work well together. |
|
|
B. Birds |
|
|
Consider
a fleet of 6 cloaking SWIFT HEART CLASS SCOUTS, moving through enemy shipping
lanes, observing enemy ship |
|
movement,
and orbiting enemy planets & starbases.
They could be used for SUPER SPY MISSION and to guide in your |
|
|
offensive
force of 5 or 6 FEARLESS WING CRUISERS and BRIGHT HEART CLASS DESTROYERS for
capturing and |
|
|
destroying
enemy planets, weakly defended starbases and ships. Captured minerals, mc, and ships can be
sent home to |
|
|
increase your own
resources. As the battle escalates, you may find that you have to increase
your firepower and go to the : |
|
DEATH SPECULA CLASS FRIGATE |
|
|
RESOLUTE CLASS
BATTLESHIP. |
|
|
If
you are registered, the DARKWING CLASS BATTLESHIP and REDWING CLASS CARRIER
would make a good combination |
|
for
destroying STARBASES's. By using a fleet of cloaking ships you can prey on
shipping lanes by staying right over top of |
|
enemy
planets undetected. Dropping colonists onto enemy planets while in a cloaked
SWIFT CLASS SCOUT can force an |
|
enemy
to commit more ships to defence, while you have your main force
elsewhere. |
|
|
C. Fascists |
|
|
The
Fascists' biggest advantage is pillaging against yourself. (The idea of
SELF-PILLAGING is from Chris Smith, FAQ0313). When |
|
I
arrive at a planet, I check for natives. Beam down one clan, and in the same
turn, pillage the planet. The one clan will be gone, |
|
but for every 1,000,000
natives the planet will now have 100 supplies and 100 Credits. |
|
|
If
at all possible, I will ally myself with the Evil Empire, Rebel or Cyborg to
have access to a steady source of hyperdrive ships. By |
|
using
a hyperdrive ship in the same manner as the REBEL player, I can launch into a
planets orbit unseen. With the mission |
|
preset
to PILLAGE and no enemy specified I can kill off 20% of the natives and
colonists. This is very useful against the |
|
|
CYBORG.
If I ally myself to the Privateer, I will use his accelerated ships to tow my
BATTLE GROUPS to the enemy faster. |
|
You
can also use the tactic of SELF-PILLAGING with HYPerdrive ships in order to
easily develop starbases on very distant planets. |
|
Use
enough HYPerdrive ships to send about 115 colonists, find a planet with lotsa
natives and some minerals, self-pillage, and |
|
then you can quickly
build mines and factories. |
|
|
Four
Deth Speculas and 2 D7 Coldpain cruisers make up a BATTLE GROUP. The Deth
Specs are armed with 24 MK 4's torps, 11 |
|
colonists
and a mix of blasters and x-rays beams.
Both D7's carry 70 MK 8 torps and 30 colonists. The colonists are
for |
|
|
establishing
damage repair and refuelling bases in enemy territory. I also rely on
captured freighters to help build a starbase |
|
near the enemy and
provide me with captured colonists.
The D7 is ideal for carrying extra fuel and by laying a minefield with |
|
the 100 mk 8's I can destroy most enemy
minefields that would normally cause my cloakers grief. I will then re-scoop
the minefield |
|
with
my D7 or to rearm the Deths. If I find a starbase I will try to identify
which ships, if any, are defending and then tow them |
|
away
from the planet. My towing ships will have no enemy race specified as the
enemy, UNLESS I know I can defeat the ship |
|
being
towed. One ship will be left above the planet to PILLAGE, while a D7 will lay
a minefield. The towing, laying of mines, |
|
and
PILLAGING will be planned to happen all during the same turn for maximum
effectiveness. The next turn I will cloak all |
|
ships and watch which
ships are destroyed in myminefield. Then, I will re-scoop the minefield. |
|
|
D. Cyborg |
|
|
1. HYPerdrive Ships |
|
|
*see section on
Hyper-drive for more info.* |
|
|
One
of the first ships I build is the B200 CLASS PROBE which is then loaded with
12 colonists and 3 supplies and used to colonize. |
|
If
I plan to use it for scouting, I will instead load 10 colonists, 5 supplies,
and 70 mega- credits. When colonizing, the only |
|
planets
you will be able to colonize with such a small cargo capacity are the ones
that have natives that you can assimilate. A |
|
few supplies will build
the first factory and mega-credits can be generated from taxation. |
|
|
For
scouting, you will be wanting to establish small repair and resupply bases.
You may want to do this on a planet that does |
|
not have natives to
assimilate. If you do, you should use all ten colonists, 5 supplies, and 70
mega-credits on this planet. |
|
2. Strategy |
|
|
In a long game NOTHING
can overwhelm the Cyborg.... |
|
|
Finding
natives races to assimilate overcomes the limitations of a small cargo hold
for carrying colonists. From DAY 1 build lots |
|
of
these probes and hyper-drive them out to planets within 350ly to find
natives. By assimilating natives the colonists grow |
|
quickly
and new starbases can be started very easily. Money can be transported very
easily on the PROBE. With this money |
|
it
is possible to build starbases on planets with natives close to enemy Home
Worlds, and upgrade the TECH levels in ONE |
|
day
to produce the BIOCIDE or ANIALATION cube ships. In a very short time it is
easy to have a LOT of planets and a |
|
lot of starbases. |
|
|
The short range of the
PROBE (one jump and then only 30 units of fuel left) can be overcome by
having planets set up as fuelling |
|
stations.
Then by jumping 350ly from planet to planet the probe can still move quickly
and be unseen. PWI350LY has "JUMP |
|
ROUTES"
for planets that are 350ly apart. Without using the hyper-drive this race is
a real dog. But...all its limitations are |
|
overcome through the use
of this tiny ship. By colonising planets with natives ALL OVER THE
UNIVERSE..… |
|
|
this race becomes
unstoppable. |
|
|
As
the starbases are being built the ideal ship to build is torp carrying Cube.
My fleet usually constitutes of a mess of probes, |
|
some
torp carry Cubes, and some Fireclouds for towing or generally purpose
transport. With the ability to make free |
|
|
fighters the Colonies
makes a good ally. |
|
|
E. Empire |
|
|
1. HYPerdrive Ships |
|
|
*see section on
Hyper-drive for more info on using DARK SENSE* |
|
|
CARGO |
|
FUEL |
|
CREW |
|
|
PL32 PROBE |
|
20 |
|
180 |
|
1 |
|
|
Cargo configuration |
|
|
Scouting |
|
Colonizing |
|
|
10 colonists |
|
20 colonists |
|
|
10 supplies |
|
|
|
|
70 megacredits |
|
|
With
three jumps totalling 1050ly and 30 units of fuel left over, the PL32 PROBE
has an excellent operational range. Turns 1 |
|
to
10 build 10 probes and position 4 around the starbase on DARK SENSE. Send 2
PROBES to an ally and the remaining |
|
4 to the edge of the
universe to build a couple of starbases there for PROBE production. |
|
|
Turns
10 to 20 send out the probes in groups of 5 to clusters of planets near the
centre of the universe near enemy races to |
|
find planets with
natives. Ideally build a starbase that can have TECH 10 ENGINES
automatically. |
|
|
By
upgrading the HULL TECH to tech 2 the H-ROSS carrier can be built. With the
free fighters small offensive operations |
|
can
be launched from here. With DARK SENSE the Empire can be selective in his
planet targets, thus offsetting the |
|
|
disadvantage of only
having 1 beam on the PROBE. Any starbase locations can be passed onto Rebel.
With his Falcons |
|
on RGA, it is possible to knock a player out
of the game within the first week if he doesn't check what is in orbit
around |
|
his Home World. |
|
|
Best
ally ðFascists for the PILLAGE mission; by building PROBES for the FASCISTS,
he can hyper-drive directly into a planet's |
|
orbit
with mission preset to PILLAGE. Since
the Host is normally configured to NOT ALLOW planets to attack REBELS |
|
and FASCISTS on their
special missions .....BINGO..... a planet in trouble! Unless the enemy has ships set to KILL or |
|
the enemy set to fascists, the PROBE will
not be attacked. |
|
|
2. Strategy |
|
|
Don't
be afraid of building too many bases; each of your bases will pay for itself
in the free fighters it produces. The Gorbie |
|
is the most powerful
ship in the game. It makes for great intimidation, especially against less
experienced players. Be sure |
|
to use it wisely, making sure that when you
use it, the correct ships are used along with it so that you get the most
out |
|
of your investment. |
|
|
F. Robots |
|
|
DAY 1 |
|
|
Engine TECH LEVEL to 10
ðtranswarp drive |
|
|
Weapon TECH LEVEL to 3
ðblasters |
|
|
Torpedo TECH LEVEL to 10
ðmark 8's |
|
|
Hull TECH LEVEL to 6
ðLDSF and Instru |
|
|
Tax about 13% ð 5 levels
above the green. |
|
|
1. Strategy |
|
|
I will mine the area
surrounding my planet with the 300 mark 5 torps and at the same time
mine-scoop with a Cat with MK 8'S. I |
|
f
the Cat that is mine-scooping has a low ID, then this will avoid giving away
your position to anyone else who is minesweeping. |
|
I
colonize the SMALL DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER and recycle the CAT's PAW CLASS
DESTROYER that come at the |
|
start of the game. |
|
|
The ships I build during
the first 10 days are: |
|
|
2 CAT's PAW DESTROYERS
with blasters and MARK 8 TORPS (turns 1 & 2) |
|
|
2 Q-TANKERS with TECH 1
(one) engines (turns 3 & 4) |
|
|
1 INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS
BASESHIP (turn 5) |
|
|
2 CAT's PAW DESTROYERS
(turns 6 & 7) |
|
|
2 LARGE DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTERS (turns 8 & 9) |
|
|
1 INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS
BASESHIP (turn 10) |
|
|
By
not spending money to build fighters or torpedoes or upgrading above HULL
TECH 6 till much later in the game (if at all) |
|
I
have a formidable force. Depending on the game configuration (if there are a
lot of minerals, but little mc) I may choose to |
|
use
Mark 4s until the minerals in the game have been depleted. Again, depending
on game configuration, I may choose to |
|
make
the 2 LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTERS before turns 8 & 9. The INSTRUS each
get 80 fighters that I build from |
|
the
Q-TANKERS. When invading I mine the area with 100 MK 8 mines. This destroys
any enemy mines and makes the area |
|
hazardous
for enemy shipping movement. The Robots make minefields 4X other races, so at
a reasonable cost I have control |
|
of
the battlefield while invading. Best ally is the Privateer. With the
accelerated ships for towing the Instrumentality Baseship |
|
and
the Cat's Paw (for mining) I have a strong and fast moving strike force. The
accelerated ships can also be loaded with |
|
Mark
8s and sent deep into enemy territory to make for a nasty surprise when
someone gets up in the morning, and, lo and |
|
behold, half of their
ships that they thought safe from mines (because they were so far from the
front lines) have just hit mines! |
|
One of your convoy
groups could consist of the following: |
|
|
LARGE DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
|
|
CAT's PAW CLASS DESTROYER |
|
|
INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS
BASESHIP |
|
|
G. Rebels |
|
|
Starbase Tech Levels: |
|
|
DAY 1. |
|
|
Engine TECH LEVEL to 10
ðtranswarp drive |
|
|
Weapon TECH LEVEL to 3
ðblasters |
|
|
Torpedo TECH LEVEL to 10
ðmark 8's |
|
|
Hull TECH LEVEL to 6 |
|
|
Tax About 13% ðabout 5
levels above the green. |
|
|
1.HYPerdrive Ships |
|
|
*see section on
Hyper-drive for more info* |
|
|
CARGO |
|
FUEL |
|
CREW |
|
|
FALCON CLASS ESCORT |
|
120 |
|
150 |
|
27 |
|
|
Cargo configuration |
|
|
Scouting |
|
Colonizing |
|
Rebel Ground Attack |
|
|
110 colonists |
|
120 colonists |
|
50 colonists |
|
|
10 supplies |
|
|
|
|
70 megacredits |
|
|
This is the best of all
the PROBES. With an operational range (hyperdrive) of 700ly, and a 120 cargo
holds it is useful for colonising |
|
and bringing rare minerals to starbases as
well as the same tasks as the other probes. |
|
|
BUT!!!! It is its
deadliest when set to REBEL GROUND ATTACK (RGA). Launched from less than
700ly away, this guided missile |
|
comes into a planet's orbit unseen. Planets
cannot attack REBEL ships on RGA, so unless there is an enemy capital ship set to |
|
KILL or has REBEL as its primary enemy, that
planet will be in trouble. |
|
|
This
can be a double edged sword....if you attack from 350ly away, you enter orbit
with FC set to HYP. If the starbase is set to |
|
FORCE
SURRENDER and the planet FC is HYP.....you are captured! For a surprise
attack launch a lot (5 to 10) of these |
|
probes
at the same time at planets in the same area. Why? As soon as your victim
realizes what you are doing and who you |
|
are,
he will set his ships to KILL. When attacking 5 planets, send 10 ships, two
to each planet. By having one ship on RGA |
|
and
one to KILL, you may capture a ship at the planet as well as doing the RGA
with the other. You will not get a second |
|
chance
to capture ships in this area as the planet will probably destroy your ship
that is set to KILL.....as well as the
captured |
|
ship.
That's ok....your loss was small. Use captured ships for RGA, strip them of
most of their fuel and hyper-drive to |
|
another target. |
|
|
As
players catch on to your tactics you will have to upgrade your weapons. I had
several FALCONS with heavy phasers knock |
|
out small capital ships
that were hunting my FALCONs. For hunting and capturing freighters I arm the
FALCONs with x- |
|
ray beams. These
freighters can then be used for colonising or RGA. |
|
|
2. Strategy |
|
|
I
try to be on diplomatic terms with Empire (Dark Sense) to find the location
of enemy starbases early in the game. Then I fire off |
|
Falcons
with hyperdrive to land on the planets with starbases to RGA AS EARLY AS
POSSIBLE. To reach a starbase 1050ly |
|
away
in 3 days I will send out 2 Falcons and transfer fuel after the first jump.
For PROBE production, I will build a couple of |
|
starbases at the edge of
the universe. |
|
|
The
GUARDIAN CLASS DESTROYER with 3 blasters, 6 mark 4 tubes and 20 torpedoes
used with the PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT |
|
CARRIER
armed with 2 blasters, 6 fighter bays and 30 fighters are a very deadly
battle group. This is ideal for use on the |
|
RGA
mission. I will build a Rush and stock it with fighters from the Gemini for
Home World defence. When attacking an |
|
enemy
starbase I find setting the Rush to RGA mission for a few days before the
attack to weaken the defences enables me to |
|
suffer
less damage. Crystalline makes a good ally. By providing Falcons to this ally
to build starbases near enemy starbases, |
|
Opal
and Ruby Cruisers can be build to disrupt shipping with web mines, while I
use Falcons on RGA. The cost for both is |
|
minimal while causing a
lot of grief and havoc to our selected enemy. |
|
|
H. Colonies |
|
|
1. HYPerdrive Ships |
|
|
The COLONIES OF MAN have
a cheap but useful capital ship in the CYGNUS CLASS BATTLESHIP. If the
COLONIES have some |
|
friendly neighbours that can produce HYP
ships (Rebel: FALCONS, Empire: PL21 PROBES, and Cyborg: B200), the COLONIES |
|
can purchase some in a trade deal and send
them, along with colonists, supplies, and a few Mega-Credits to a planet near
the |
|
edge
of the universe. If they can find a planet with SILICONOID natives, they can
build a starbase there and produce a |
|
number of the CYGNUS
CLASS BATTLESHIPS cheaply to launch a small offensive from where the enemy
expects it the least. |
|
2. Enemy Mines |
|
|
One
more thing you should know about the COLONIES OF MAN; do not be afraid to enter an enemy minefield if it
is in your way. |
|
If
you have a fighter carrying ship, you can sweep the mines using the fighters
on that ship, and I have yet to encounter a |
|
mine
field that cannot be completely destroyed by a pair of fully loaded PATRIOTS
in 2 turns. Sweeping mines with fighters |
|
is performed by setting
the mission of the ships to: SWEEP MINES. |
|
|
VII. STRATEGY FOR
PRIVATEER AND CRYSTALLINE |
|
|
This
is from FAQ0313 and was so good I included the information here. |
|
|
A. Privateers |
|
|
Meteors
are for towing, and attacking far off planets. BR4's explore, and BR5's steal
ships in the early stages, Meteors steal them |
|
later,
until both are redundant. Build little
pests to wear down carriers, and use one with tech 5 engines to tow another
with |
|
tech 1 engines into
battle. These take out 10 or so fighters, and provided you follow up in the
same turn with a solid capital s |
|
hip
you can expect to trash most other newbies. (like me!) A meteor can tow a
large deep space freighter at warp 9, whilst a |
|
BR4
can't as the fuel tank is too small. [moselecw@elec.Canterbury.ac.nz
(moz)] |
|
|
1. Limitations |
|
|
A.
A ship can perform only one mission at a time. This means that you can choose
to cloak, rob, tow, or intercept; but, for |
|
example,
you can't intercept a ship and arrive there cloaked. |
|
|
B. The 3 cloakable and
accelerated ships are low mass. This means that they should not fight
anything but scouts and freighters. |
|
C. Even your
"big" carrier is useless against anything with 8 or 10 beams and 2
tubes. |
|
|
2. Advantages |
|
|
Cloaking and the grav.
accel. are obvious advantages. |
|
|
The low mass of the
accelerated ships, the extra speed itself, and the fact that you use only
half as much fuel/LY when you are |
|
towing with an accelerated ship make these
ships perfect for towing. |
|
|
An MBR equipped with
just x-rays is capable of doing everything except planet raiding. This means
that new SBs only have to |
|
be tech 10 in engines (and even tech 7 is
useful) and tech 5 in hulls. This means that productive starbases are much cheaper |
|
for Privateers than for
anybody else. |
|
|
3. General strategy |
|
|
a. Stay out of sight |
|
|
If
the rest of the empires find out where you are early they might just decide
to eliminate a pest. A 100 LY radius mine field |
|
dropped near you home
world can put a crimp in your expansion. |
|
|
b. Don't ignore the
necessity to expand. |
|
|
Your
first 3 ships should probably be MBRs with x-rays and either 0 or 1 mark 4
torp. For these exploration ships warp 7 |
|
engines
are probably good enough. After that you will mostly want to build MBRs with
warp 9 engines. After the first 3 |
|
MBRs
you should build ships in pairs of an MBR with good engines and a large
freighter with poor engines. Use these to |
|
develop
other SBs as quickly as possible. You may not be the first empire to get 2
SBs but you should be the first to 3 and |
|
should have 5 or 6
before anybody else has 3. |
|
|
4. Tactics |
|
|
A.
Don't fight - ROB. We will see occasions when a ship will be used as a
Sacrificial Lamb (SL) but other than that you should |
|
never
fight anything even close to your size. A cloaked, undamaged MBR is much more
useful than the benefit from |
|
eliminating an enemy's
medium size capital ship. |
|
|
B.
Play the fuel game. You will always need less fuel than they do. Strip
unowned planets of fuel with "gather" and whenever |
|
you can't steal a ship at
least steal its fuel. |
|
|
C. Steal ships. (Now we
get down to the meat of the problem.) The following tactics are all based on
the problem that in order |
|
to steal a ship's fuel, so that we can tow
it to a SB, we MUST be at exactly the same coordinates as the enemy ship. We |
|
can't
use intercept to get there because the turn order is steal - move - combat.
If the enemy capital ship has enemy set to |
|
Privateer
(if he doesn't have it set to Privateer the first time he will from then on),
you will die at the end of movement and |
|
before
you get a chance to steal. You have to be cloaked when you arrive at the same
place as the enemy ship. |
|
|
1)
Wait at a planet (yours or unowned) from which you have removed the fuel. If
you are sure that you have more fuel |
|
capacity
than he has fuel then just set ROB SHIP and wait until the next turn to begin
towing him back to your SB. |
|
You
can't do this at his planet because he might transfer fuel up from the planet
and that happens AFTER you rob. Lo |
|
and
behold, you end up with a very angry capital ship on your hands, he has fuel,
you are not cloaked, and you get |
|
blown away. |
|
|
2)
Use a sacrificial lamb (SL) at one of his planets to capture capital ships.
Get a cloaked ship to one of his planets where |
|
you
know ships to be. Pick the ship you want and tow it out to a waypoint where
you have one or more MBRs waiting. |
|
Make
sure you pick a waypoint position so that if one of his other ships is set to
intercept the one you are stealing, the |
|
other
one won't be able to make it that far (also see tactic #5. This is called the
SL gambit because the ship doing the |
|
towing
gets pasted at the end of movement (you haven't stolen the enemy's fuel yet,
that's what the other, cloaked MBRs |
|
are
there to do.) You can try to set it up so that your ship just runs out of
fuel at the end of the tow but this is a little |
|
dangerous. What happens
if the ship takes on cargo and is heavier than you thought? |
|
|
3) Projecting a ship's
course. (Your opponent has to be very inexperienced for this to work.) If you
see a ship moving |
|
toward a planet that is more than 1 jump
away, you can try to project where he will be on his next jump if he continues |
|
to move at the same
speed. If you try to do this a lot, you will start to appreciate the
Pythagorean Theorem. |
|
4)
Bait and switch. Send a nice target, a full large freighter or uncloaked
captured capital ship, toward enemy space. |
|
Unfortunately, for the
enemy, it is accompanied by a couple of cloaked MBRs. Make sure that the
freighter is out of |
|
fuel at the end of each jump. That way you
don't loose it when some capital ship arrives with weapons cocked. |
|
5)
The intercepted freighter gambit. If your enemy is "protecting" his
freighter by having a capital ship continually intercept |
|
it,
you can easily get both. Have a cloaked ship waiting at a planet when they
arrive. Tow the freighter with your ship |
|
but
tow it in a known direction and tow it further than the jump range of the
enemy capital ship. Have a second |
|
MBR
waiting at the position where the capital ship will end up. Example: Both
freighter and capital ship have been |
|
moving at warp 9. Tow
the freighter 90 LY north. Have the 2nd MBR waiting, cloaked, 81 LY north.
The capital ship |
|
will try to follow the freighter but won't
keep up. You capture the freighter with guns (You DO put only x-rays or |
|
disruptors on your MBRs,
don't you? After all, MBRs are NEVER supposed to fight anything but
freighters.) The |
|
enemy capital ship is in deep space, at a
known position, where it is easy to ROB and then TOW. |
|
|
6)
The pirates nest. Privateers have real trouble defending a specific planet
against a large fleet. The best
defense is that |
|
they
shouldn't know were the SB or rich planet is. Second, you can spread cheap
ships (they don't have to cloak) |
|
around your empire that
always have ROB set. These will rob
enemy cloakers that are exploring your empire (this |
|
can be disabled by the host in ver. 3.1).
But assume the worst. Your enemy knows where to do you damage and has |
|
a fleet on the way. Don't
fight back. |
|
|
Set
up a pirates nest at a planet they are likely to pass through. This is a
collection of cheap BR4s with warp 5 engines
and |
|
some
MBRS. The BR4s wait at the planet
until the fleet arrives. Each one then tows a ship out to waiting MBRs, to deep |
|
space,
and maybe one to the SB (if the SB is capable of handling that one.) This
breaks up the fleet and gives you a chance to |
|
handle the ships one at
a time. [DORN@Dirac.physics.jmu.edu (Dr. Dorn Peterson)] |
|
|
P's
can use 'packs' of MBRs more effectively than described above, for example,
to rob fuel before towing ships in the same
turn, |
|
very
often preventing counterattack. Nevertheless, it is good to tow to a remote
point where other MBRs can ROB, if only |
|
to prevent a towing
P-ship from being captured in a counterattack. |
|
|
Note
that P-ships can also drag alien ships to be destroyed by more powerful
allied ships. This is a good way to
dismantle |
|
massive opposition in
parts with little risk. |
|
|
Note that Robbing
proceeds from low ID to higher and act accordingly. |
|
|
As
noted by D.P. above, you can tow ships to known locations, where you will end
up without fuel. But you should be careful |
|
about this, and use
simulations or an exact formula for fuel consumption (because there are
program bugs). |
|
|
P's
can 'intercept' alien ships which move predictably, shuttling to the same
location between worlds, or to locations which |
|
can
be predicted exactly by simulation. (In the first case, a cloaked P ship
simply waits in deep space to ambush.) -
MBR's |
|
can
tow massive allied super-carriers with devastating effects. This combination
is virtually unstoppable if played correctly |
|
even
if there are large minefields (if there are several cheap MBRs as there
usually are). The super-ships should have
their |
|
own
Transwarp engines, though; and sometimes they should tow the MBR's (for their
'air-lift' capabilities). |
|
[harwood@umiacs.umd.edu
(David Harwood)] |
|
|
B. Crystals |
|
|
Your
problem is money. I use a Ruby for colonizing, Opals at 1 colonist per planet
for scouting. Get an Avian or Bovinoid planet |
|
as
a first step, and a couple Opals for scouting then capture. All effort goes
into the ruby with tech 10 torps that is laying a |
|
web
mine or four around your homeworld. The idea is that by turn 4 or 5 it is
100LY across, and everyone in the game has |
|
seen
one of your ships. Use cloaking (captured) ships to lay-and-run webs around
nearby home worlds, but concentrate on |
|
mining'
your web minefield. Let them come to
you mostly. Ideally you want to have your minefield(s) totally enclosing
all |
|
your
planets, so that it is tricky to attack you, and harder still to hold on to a
captured planet. (oh, tech 2 torps are most |
|
economical
if you have minerals but no money (1/2MC per mine), tech 10 are cheapest if
minerals are included as supplies per |
|
mine).
[moselecw@elec.Canterbury.ac.nz (moz)] |
|
|
Key strategic points
(some obvious, others not so): |
|
|
Lay numerous small
fields as opposed to Huge ones. This helps deter mine detection. |
|
|
Make use of the Opals
defensively. 19 torps of tech 4 or above can produce an effective web. |
|
|
You can only sweep the
lowest ID mine field, so multiple mine fields of differing types can be
helpful. |
|
|
Emerald Class is best
armed freighter in game. Build these in force. |
|
|
Crystal Thunder Carrier
is actually a strong ship. Ftr capacity is it's drawback. |
|
|
All
of this is for version 3.0. Version 3.1 will make BIG changes and make most
of this obsolete since mine sweeping changed |
|
to allow sweeping outside
of the field. |
|
|
The
Ruby and Emerald Class ships are great armed cargo/invasion ships. Sounds
strange, but with 370/510 cargo with weapons
you |
|
can
do a lot of damage on the borders before the enemy races can set up defences.
Especially by putting up web fields after |
|
you
move in. In unregistered games, the Emerald Class is one of the most powerful
capital ships in the game (some fighter |
|
ships
with large mass can still take this out since you don't have the tech 10
torps). I am currently waging war with the |
|
Rebels.
The Emerald with 8 beams and 3 Photon 8 torpedoes can't be beat. The beams can hold off any fighter ship
(except |
|
the
big one) while the torps do their damage. None of the other Crystal ships can
survive the Rebel Patriot Carrier |
|
|
(excluding
the Diamond Flame of course). Don't
send any Topez ships after fighter ships as cannonfodder. The crew is too |
|
small
and the fighters will capture the ship! You will have to destroy it later. A
good use for the Topez is as a mine sweeper. |
|
Put
small engines and tech 10 beams on it and tow it with your Emerald carrier
killer with 8 low tech beams. If the enemy |
|
puts up minefields to
slow your progress, the 400 mines destroyed by the Topez make up for the fuel
cost to tow it. |
|
|
Web
mines are the best defense against cloaked enemies. I have acquired a few
cloaked ships coming up unsuspecting on web
mine |
|
fields.
I place 30 ly radius webs around some of my populated planets on the border
with a web tender ship near by. As soon |
|
as
a ship is caught, I will keep increasing the size of the web to prevent their
leaving. Best tactic is to lay a small field away |
|
from
the planet with a large field around the planet. Their mine sweeps will
detect the closer field (version 3.0) and not the |
|
bigger. They either
bypass the first or get lucky and pass thru to be caught by the second. |
|
|
Cloaked torpedo ships
allow you to put web mines in enemy territory, especially over their planets.
With fuel usually in shortage, |
|
it can significantly reduce their offense
capabilities. Great method for catching enemy ships that the player allocates
just |
|
enough
fuel to reach ist destination, only to find out it runs out of fuel before
reaching its target and is now in deep space |
|
defenceless.
Placed over their base planets this is a real pain in their a*&. All
ships coming, going and in orbit lose the 25 tons |
|
of fuel. So they sweep
it, but I figure sometimes I am causing him over 100 tons of fuel or more a
turn. |
|
|
Best advantage of web
fields is to break up attack fleets. When an enemy is sending a fleet stacked
together in space, webs can cause |
|
the ships to be caught in different spots in
space and if the gap is big enough, it makes for easy picking. Even small
fields may |
|
prevent all of the
attackers from arriving at their destination, making the attack fleet not as
dangerous. |
|
|
Nice
tactic for advancing visible ships is to not increase the size of your web
mine field, but to suddenly put an explosive mine |
|
field
in the same place (or vice versa). In version 3.0, the enemy can only sweep
the lower mine id field. The other
field is |
|
invisible and
un-sweepable. |
|
|
As you probably know,
the strength of the crystals is there ability to lay web mine fields. This
strength appears to be completely negated |
|
in the most recent versions of the host by
the Colonies' ability to sweep 40 mines per fighter and the Robots' ability
to lay |
|
4x anti-mines. While
this is, in part, true, the crystals are still formidable. |
|
|
Did you know that: |
|
|
web mine fields drain
fuel even from ships that aren't moving? |
|
|
web mine fields can be
overlapped to produce even greater fuel draining? |
|
|
the Crystal Thunder
carrier is roughly on par with the Colonies' Virgo battlestar? |
|
|
Here is the general
procedure I follow when starting a game with the crystals. |
|
|
Up the engine tech to 10. |
|
|
If
there are planets within 40ly send the default ships there to begin
colonization. If not, recycle the
default ships or overdrive |
|
them to the nearest
planet with the mission set to COLONIZE. |
|
|
Depending
on the starting funds, build either a Large Freighteror Medium Freighter with
transwarp engines. |
|
|
Alternately
build opals and freighters while colonizing planets as fast as possible. When
you find either a bovinoid or |
|
insectoid planet, divert
significant resources there to capitalize on the money making capabilities of
the natives. |
|
|
Build
opals with tech 5 [Mark IV] torps since they are the best [short of tech 10 torps] in the mines/mc
ratio. Mark 2's are |
|
the
very best but are very expensive mineral wise and not effective at all in
battles. If you have the $$ for Mark VIII torps, |
|
go for it. |
|
|
The first time you catch
sight of a potentially hostile race in the area, start mining planets on the
perimeter along with direct f |
|
light
paths between perimeter planets and core planets. The opals work *great* for
this. An opal with 16 mark IV torps lays a |
|
beautiful
20 ly mine field that will catch a cloaker 90% of the time. Once you snag a
cloaker, you're set. The one weakness of |
|
the crystals is their
lack of information gathering capability. |
|
|
When
hostilities begin in earnest, create squadrons of 4 Opals w/Mark IV photons
and 1 Ruby Light Cruiser w/Mark IV or Mark
VIII. |
|
This
configuration will allow you to quickly build complex minefields without
continual trips to a base. The Ruby has great |
|
fuel capacity and torp
carrying capabilities. |
|
|
The
Opals are cheap and sip fuel lightly and can be refuelled by the Ruby many
times. Also, the best method I've found is to |
|
station
the Ruby in a central location and, if there's no danger of it being swept,
drop its entire load of torps as mines. The |
|
Opals
then can re-arm without approaching closer than the perimeter of the large
mine field. When the mines are all laid, the |
|
Ruby
can sweep the remaining mines up. Note : mines are turned into whatever torp
the sweeper has. That is, if the Ruby |
|
has tech 10 torps, and
lays a large field, the Opals w/Mark IV's will sweep up Mark IV torps from
that field. |
|
|
Emeralds with Heavy
Blasters and Mark VIII torps make *great* planettakers. |
|
|
When
confronted with large, fighter toting ships try this approach. A Diamond
Flame with x-ray lasers and Mark VIII torps. |
|
Even
the nastiest ship will shudder when met with 24 high energy fish headed its
way. Also, don't underestimate the power |
|
of
the Crystal Thunder carrier. It's hampered by its low cargo capacity but does
well against even the toughest opponents. |
|
It's also relatively
cheap to build and should never have beams of > x-ray lasers if it's going
up against the large capital ships. |
|
A Diamond / Thunder team
will destroy a robotic golem 80% of the time and critically wound it the rest
of the time. |
|
|
Try to beg, borrow or
steal a cloaking, mine layer from one of the cloaking races. In order of
preference : |
|
|
Meteor Class Blockade
runner |
|
|
BR4 Kaye Class Torpedo
Boat [at least Mark IV torps] |
|
|
Fearless Wing Cruiser |
|
|
Lizard Class Cruiser |
|
|
Deth Specula Class
Frigate |
|
|
Any
torp ship with cloaking capabilities will do but the Privateers' ships really
fit the bill due to their speed. The Meteor is |
|
fantastic since it can
effectively cloak *and* lay mines since it can always warp to a nearby planet
the same turn it lays the mines. |
|
Alliances
(as we ALL know) are very key to the CP as well. I'm currently allied with
the Robots, which make a GREAT |
|
combo.
With an Emerald and a Cat's Paw working in conjunction, we can mass produce
mines quickly. He lays them in my |
|
code,
I scoop them up with the Emerald, unload half the load at my starbase (1 turn
away), send the ship to his base to be |
|
captured,
and he unloads the other half. Making use of their ftr production is also
nice. One thing that I've noted (not |
|
positive
on this) is that once a web field is laid in another race's ID, it doesn't
seem to be able to be scooped up. |
|
Cloak
ships are necessary if you want to be offensive with the CP. Sending one with
high-tech torps into the area you plan |
|
on
attacking, and laying a web before would be quite effective. Just be sure to
come in with a second wave quickly to lay
that |
|
alternate
mine field as well. [submitted by "paulen@microsoft.com" (Paul
Enfield), including contributions from Brad |
|
Andrews
<rba26@cas.org>, Paul J. Hinker <hinker@acl.lanl.gov>, & Dave
Kluch <dkluch@uh01.Colorado.EDU>] |
|
C. Subject: Dealing with
cloakers |
|
|
1. General problems |
|
|
Your
main strategy against cloaking intruders is therefore mining. By that I don't
mean one huge minefield covering your whole |
|
territory,
but several small to medium minefields placed strategically. Your territory
is not simply a place but is defined by |
|
supply points and
transport ways. Therefore mine important planets and waypoints. |
|
|
Your
second strategy is to secure transports. You effectively have to make it that
expensive for your enemy to conquer or |
|
destroy
your transports that you win more than he does. The usual way of doing this
is Freighter Escorts. The necessary |
|
strength
of escorting ships there depends on your enemy - Birdmen cloakers are
slightly more dangerous than those of other |
|
races.
Good escorts are light and very offensive. They should at least have Mark 4
(TL5) Torps, later I would use Mark 7 or |
|
8.
An alternative can, in rare cases, be heavy armed freighters. Examples are
the Nebula, Tranquillity, Firecloud, Emerald, |
|
Cat's Paw and, perhaps,
the Gemini. |
|
|
Your
third strategy is selective territory protection. Find out the important
stars in your empire and place ships and mines there. |
|
Never
try panickly to protect everything you own. Said empire for example tried to
hunt a tiny Serpent escort which broke |
|
into
his domain by a Super Star Destroyer. He burnt enormous amounts of fuel and
bound a major ship he needed elsewhere |
|
urgently in order to
hunt down a ship that couldn't cause much real damage. |
|
|
D. Subject:
Anti-Privateers |
|
|
Mine.
Lots of little mine fields are better than one or two big ones. It really
slows Privateers down to have to be continually looking |
|
for
mine fields. And he HAS to look because even one hit destroys his most useful
ships. He is much more likely to go look |
|
for an unmined empire
and that is just what you want him to do. |
|
|
Use
cloaked ships if you have or can buy them. In addition to using cloaked ships
as freighters you can use them to accompany |
|
freighters or capital
ships you think Privateers might want to steal. |
|
|
Mine Fields. Lots of
little ones. |
|
|
Don't move in a straight
line and don't go to the obvious destination. |
|
|
Mine Fields. Lots of
little ones. |
|
|
Use ships with more than
285 fuel and keep them topped up. Obviously this gets very expensive in
neutronium. |
|
|
Mine Fields. Lots of
little ones. |
|
|
Having
an escort for your freighters keeps him from using INTERCEPT to catch your
freighter. But don't think that it will |
|
|
keep him from stealing it
at a planet. |
|
|
Mine Fields. Lots of ...
well, maybe you get the idea. |
|
|
You
might try your own bait and switch trap if you know that there are Privateer
ships in the area. Send a freighter on a path |
|
with
an obvious destination 2 or 3 jumps away. Have a capital ship intercept on
the 2nd or 3rd jump. Maybe you will catch |
|
an
MBR trying to take the freighter. Mainly just concentrate on counter tactics
A, C, E, G, and I. :) It may help you
against |
|
other
empires too. [DORN@Dirac.physics.jmu.edu (Dr. Dorn Peterson)] |
|
|
Ally the Crystal People,
and supply them with cloaking mine-laying ships with large fuel and cargo
capacities. |
|
|
Have cloaking
mine-layers lead convoys - lay mines and scoop them as the convoy 'puddle
hops'. |
|
|
Use overlapping
minefields to increase hit rates. |
|
|
Do
not allow non-cloaking ships to 'touch down' at planets -constantly move them
(if only a few LY's) unpredictably in deep |
|
space, and refuel and
resupply them with cloaking ships in deep space wherever possible. |
|
|
If
ships 'touch down' at planets, they should unload their fuel (except possibly
for one unit for operations). And they should, |
|
as appropriate, be set
to be transferred fuel (or grab it) every turn. This shuffling of fuel every
turn will make it risky for a P- |
|
ship to try to rob and
tow ships in orbit. [harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood)] |
|
|
1. A Privateer Captain´s
nightmare |
|
|
I
played the Privateers in an extended game earlier in the year, and while I
was able to overrun some empires very easily, the |
|
tactics
of others pretty well rendered the Privateer advantages ineffective (or
nearly so). Here are some of the counter-tactics |
|
which made life
difficult: |
|
|
Escort
your freighters with capital ships (or tow capital ships with your
freighters). This makes it impossible for cloaked |
|
Privateers to intercept
your freighters in deep space and blast them. |
|
|
Vary
your courses slightly from turn to turn.
This keeps cloaked ships from being able to project your course and perform |
|
a
"manual" intercept--which is the only way a Rob Ship mission in
deep space is possible. This means the only place
you have |
|
to worry about being
robbed is around planets. |
|
|
If
you are orbiting a planet, beam up one kt of fuel from the surface every
turn. This means "Rob Ship"
missions carried out |
|
in
orbit will not render your weapons useless--and the robbing ship will have to
move out of orbit (uncloaked) on the same |
|
turn or get toasted. |
|
|
Keep
capital ships scattered around your empire and follow two rules: Whenever you
see a Privateer ship, have the nearest |
|
capital
ship lay down a small minefield. Whenever you see a Privateer ship, set a
nearby capital ship to intercept it. The |
|
combined effect here is
to make movement extremely dangerous, and to shut down his ability to sweep
mines. |
|
If
he does manage to steal one of your ships, make a note of the location of the
starbase where it surrenders and go after it. |
|
The
Privateers do not have the ability to stop a large assault in a head-to-head
encounter with their "native" ships. If
you |
|
locate his choke
points--starbases and important planets--you can neutralize him early. |
|
|
[machteme@acpub.duke.edu
(Mark Achtemeier)] |
|
|
If
your ship has a high ID number, set it on enemy Privateer and Gather fuel at
your planet, with 1 KT of fuel. If he robs |
|
you
with a lower ID # ship, you'll gather fuel afterwards and if towed, you have
a BR at your mercy - and all he got was 1 |
|
KT of fuel for his
trouble (and your mines got a crack at him). |
|
|
Hire
the Crystals to lay web mines in your name. Since webs are just as good
against cloaked as uncloaked ships, it works |
|
very well -you might
even capture a Privateer. ship or 2. |
|
|
When laying minefields
in 3.x, be careful about merging; and in 3.11, try to overlap on important
planets. |
|
|
If
you can't have enough gas to stay unrobbed (maybe an option for B- wagons
stopped at gas planets, where you're not |
|
using
the fuel to move fuel), load up with junk - minerals you have too much of, or
supply points. He may think you have a |
|
lot
of gas on board; then when he robs you, he gets junk and no fuel - if his
waypoint is far enough away, the extra ship
mass |
|
and
low fuel might leave him stranded. He's unlikely to do so if you have
minefields, however, as he won't want to run |
|
through them uncloaked
for any great distance. |
|
|
Keep
your big ships in space, and moving at least a few LY per turn; use
freighters and fuel tankers to visit planets -
planetary |
|
defense and minefields
may be enough to discourage planet busting by the Pirates. |
|
|
If he's trying to tow a
ship out of the heart of your empire, he might be catchable by a fast ship on
the periphery, "ahead" of him. |
|
Theft
is most likely for this reason near the frontier. Don't leave him options like amorphous
worlds to hide at - either |
|
colonize
them or plant a small DSF with warp 1's there to see if he shows up uncloaked
(to gather fuel). In fact, keep the |
|
freighter
on gather fuel, in case he's tried to establish a secret base (by dumping gas
and supplies from cloaked ships, to be |
|
gathered by empty and/or
damaged ships later). |
|
|
Move minefields from the
far rear by scooping them, up to the front. |
|
|
Planets don't move, and
they don't cloak! Hit his worlds, with a battle fleet that stays in space as
much as possible. |
|
[Andrew Jones
(lrpr@unb.ca)] |
|
|
VIII. Blitzkrieg |
|
|
A. Theory |
|
|
It
is important to strike and destroy another player's starbase while they are
still weak and not expecting an attack.
During |
|
|
the
first 10 days of the game, you can build a strike force with this capability
by having a partner and sharing his mega |
|
|
credits,
minerals and ship building capabilities. So that your opponents do not have
time to build, you must find and attack |
|
their starbase as early
as possible. Within 10 days of the game starting is the goal. Ask Empire to provide some starbase locations. |
|
In
using the tactics suggested here, your weakness will be the defence of your
starbase. By not building up the starbase |
|
|
defence and not using
fighters for starbase defence you can use these resources for your strike
force. |
|
|
NOTE: as the game
progresses it will be necessary to protect your starbase. |
|
|
B. Teams |
|
|
In the use of any
strategy CAPITALIZE upon the unique characteristics of the two races so that
they compliment each other. |
|
|
A
two man team is adequate to devastate any opposition if planned properly. For
this strategy one player is designated as the |
|
GUERRILLA FORCE and the
other is the STRIKE FORCE. |
|
|
C. Tech Levels |
|
|
During
the first several weeks of the game TECH 3 BEAM WEAPONS (blasters) and TECH 5
TORPEDOES (mark 4's) are |
|
|
able
to handle any enemy ships. For most battles the MARK 4 and the BLASTER are
deadly enough to be effective for the |
|
whole game. Generally any torpedo other than a MARK 4,
7, or 8 are useless. |
|
|
Use
small minefields as your primary defence.
These can be "scooped- up" when your team-mate sends you
ships, etc, or |
|
|
when
you start to run low on torpedoes. Do
not spend money or materials on fighters for starbase defence, or adding
more |
|
defences to your
starbase, as this can be done later. |
|
|
Tech
10 engines are ideal, but with money being tight use TECH 7 engines. As long as your partner has established
forward |
|
|
bases that have fuel
available it is possible to travel at warp 9 with the lower tech engines; the
only penalty is a higher fuel consumption. |
|
D. Guerrilla Force |
|
|
This
individual is to use cloaking ships (about 4 to 6), build forward supply
bases, continually spy, harass, set traps to entice |
|
|
enemy
ships, attack lone freighters, and in any way possible tie up enemy ships and
force the enemy to develop a defensive |
|
role. Only attack capital ships when you are
POSITIVE that you will win the battle. |
|
|
Use the following codes
to be effective in mine-laying: |
|
|
mdh |
mine drop half your
torpedoes |
|
|
mdq |
mine drop one of your
torpedoes |
|
|
md5 |
mine drop 50 torpedoes
worth of mines |
|
|
msc |
|
mine scoop up a field
that you own and convert the mines back to torpedoes. |
|
|
By
converting torpedoes to mines and back again, it is possible for one ship to
bring a lot of torpedoes to the forward areas |
|
|
so
that the other ships do not have to return to starbase to get torpedoes when
they run out. |
|
|
You
can do this to move torpedoes if fuel is scarce--produce the torpedoes at
your starbase, lay them in a minefield, and the |
|
|
same
turn scoop them by a ship at the edge of the minefield. Obviously, don't do
this if the enemy will mine-sweep a chunk |
|
of
the mines before you scoop them (always use the lowest possible ID # ship for
scooping mines to avoid letting the enemy |
|
sweep the minefield
too). The mine-field decay-rate will not cost you any mines when you do this. |
|
|
In
every instance ships are to operate in pairs and NEVER solo. It may be
necessary to sacrifice a ship in order to destroy an |
|
|
enemy vessel so that you
can obtain an advantage. |
|
|
Usually 2 ships are
enough to harass a single player around his starbase. |
|
|
With
ships that cloak the registered player will find that the TECH 7 engine is
sufficient and for the unregistered player use |
|
|
the
TECH 6. DO NOT go above these levels....the money is better spent on the
building of ships and weapons for the |
|
|
player that has the
STRIKE FORCE. When your resources improve then upgrade the engine to TECH 10
levels. |
|
|
When scouting look for
planets that contain these natives and set them up as forward bases: |
|
|
BOVINOID: cheap source
of supply units... |
|
|
REPTILIAN: doubles
mining rate & good for fuel |
|
|
Later, when you wish to
start another starbase, these planets will save you 4,500 mega credits: |
|
|
GHIPSOLDAL: TECH 10
engines |
|
|
SILICONOID: TECH 10
torpedoes |
|
|
The
primary advantage here is to upgrade your ship engines or torpedo launchers
CHEAPLY by recycling your ship. On |
|
|
your
home starbase use a small minefield and have a single ship with torpedoes for
defence. Bringing your defences up to |
|
maximum
can be done later. It is more important to get STRIKE FORCE up to a strength
that can attack another starbase as |
|
soon as possible. |
|
|
ALL
your resources and extra ships are to be made available to your team-mate.
You are only to use ships for guerrilla |
|
|
activities outlined
above. |
|
|
When
you find a starbase that is weakly defended, advise your partner, BUT DO NOT
attack or in any way let the enemy |
|
|
know
you spying. Have your partner attack as soon as possible. Save your forces
until ready to strike or for tying down |
|
|
another player's forces.
Surprise and concentration of forces will ensure success. |
|
|
E. Strike Force |
|
|
Building
a strong, fast offensive striking force that can overwhelm a STARBASE and its
defending ships AND still be able to |
|
|
repel
a counter attack, is the prime and only purpose in this player's un-glamorous
life. When moving to strike at another |
|
|
player's
starbase send a cloaking ship ahead to the forward supply bases that your
partner has started. |
|
|
"Capture"
the planets by dropping colonists onto the planet while staying cloaked (or
have a common friendly code). This |
|
|
way
your main force does not have to attack these planets to get the fuel, etc
off the planet in one turn as it moves towards its |
|
objective.
If it is important that the planets remain in the hands of your partner, you
can match the friendly codes of your |
|
|
strike force and the
planet in order to BEAM UP FUEL. Use the `G'ather mission on ships to do
this. |
|
|
In
all cases a BATTLE GROUP containing ships with a lot of beam weapons,
carriers, and ships with torpedoes is essential. |
|
|
No
single type of ship can be effective in attacking a starbase that is defended
by different types of ships. The primary ship |
|
for
the attack should be a carrier. When your resources allow it, start another
starbase as close to the enemy as possible. |
|
|
Another
starbase will allow you to build twice as many ships as a player with one
starbase. By having the starbase close to |
|
your enemies, you can
use a lower tech engine to engage your enemies in combat faster. |
|
|
F. Conclusion |
|
|
Always
be prepared to use every ship to obtain a decisive result. Most of the time
your starbase will have minimal defences; |
|
|
this
is a risk that the other players will assume (hopefully) you will not have
taken. The shock value here is the
rapidness of |
|
your
attacks. The other players should be surprised (and stunned) into inaction or
a defensive frame of mind. "A battle lost is |
|
a
battle which one thinks one has lost." Always attack your enemy whenever
and wherever possible so that he develops a |
|
defensive frame of mind.
Even when he is on the offensive, it is still possible for you toretreat
offensively. |
|
|
When
one or two starbases have been knocked out, some of the other players will
probably become more defensive and keep |
|
|
there ships closer to
home. This will enable you to still fund most of your resources to the strike
force. |
|
|
If
your enemy builds another starbase, try to take it over by dropping colonists
onto the planet from a cloaked ship as soon |
|
|
as possible. The
colonists on this starbase may be few in numbers. |
|
|
By combining rapid
mobility, firepower, concentration and surprise these tactics can be very
effective. |
|
|
However the use of these
aggressive tactics is not for the faint of heart. |
|
|
IX. TEAM PLAY |
|
|
Before
deciding to fight any enemy always see if you can align any support behind
you. Twist any arms you have to. Two |
|
|
against one is always
better than one on one. Working in a team is even better. With your resources
pooled you will be more effective. |
|
Having
a trustworthy ally has a lot of advantages. It enables you to minimize your
race's disadvantages and utilize the |
|
|
strengths
of another race to become a far more powerful force. By sharing in the work of defence, you can
afford the risk of |
|
|
holding
back far fewer ships when attacking. By carefully selecting ships from each
race's portfolio you can create a strong |
|
|
fleet for a lower cost
in minerals and credits. By attacking the same enemies, you can overwhelm
most single opponents. |
|
|
Here are some examples
of races that will work well together. |
|
|
Feds & Lizards: -2X
mining rate |
|
|
several ships on HISSS
mission above a Fed planet can make a
lot of money |
|
|
access to cloakers |
|
|
as Lizard ships the Thor
Frigate and Diplomacy Cruiser are cheap and pack quite a punch |
|
|
Lizards & Rebels: |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
Free fighters for
Madonzilla |
|
|
Lizard Guardian,
Destroyer, Patriot Carrier and Rush carrier are more formidable with 150%
damage |
|
|
..
& Cyborg: |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
hyperdrive to drop
colonists for ground attack almost anywhere |
|
|
endless supply of
colonists for invasions |
|
|
-cubes that can take 150%
damage |
|
|
..
& Empire |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
dark sense |
|
|
Lizard Gorbie |
|
|
.. & Birds -Lizard |
|
|
Darkwing Battleship at
150% |
|
|
..
& Fascists |
|
|
Plunder over enemy
starbases and then take over by ground attack using Lizard colonists from
overhead cloaked ships |
|
|
Birds
& Rebels: |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
free fighters |
|
|
..
& Privateers |
|
|
accelerated ships |
|
|
Fascists & Empire |
|
|
dark sense and hyperdrive
for pillaging |
|
|
gorbie for pillaging
heavily defended enemy starbases |
|
|
..
& Rebels |
|
|
hyperdrive for pillaging |
|
|
..
& Cyborg |
|
|
hyperdrive for pillaging |
|
|
Cubes for pillaging
heavily defended enemy starbases |
|
|
..
& Privateer |
|
|
three ships with
accelerators for pillaging |
|
|
..
& Birds |
|
|
access to a greater
variety of cloakers for pillaging |
|
|
Privateers & Robots |
|
|
MBR's to cloak an lay
distant minefields where they are unexpected |
|
|
..
& Fascist |
|
|
to plunder planet with
natives |
|
|
..
& Empire |
|
|
Dark Sense |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
..
& Rebels |
|
|
hyperdrive to be able to
strike anywhere in the universe (beams 3X) |
|
|
free fighters |
|
|
Cyborg & Robots -free
fighters |
|
|
minefields to make up
for lack of medium-size ships |
|
|
Instrumentality and
Cat's Paw to make up for lack of medium-sized ships |
|
|
..
& Colonies |
|
|
free fighters |
|
|
Crystals & Privateers |
|
|
accelerated ships for
faster towing |
|
|
accelerated ships for
web minefields in unexpected places |
|
|
..
& Rebels |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
free fighters for
Crystal Thunder and captured enemy fighter ships |
|
|
Empire & Fascists |
|
|
pillage mission |
|
|
cloakers for Dark Sensing |
|
|
..
& Robots |
|
|
free fighters for Gorbie |
|
|
..
& Colonies |
|
|
free fighters for Gorbie |
|
|
Robots
& Birds |
|
|
cloakers for laying
mines in unexpected areas |
|
|
..
& Lizards |
|
|
cloakers for laying
mines in unexpected areas |
|
|
..
& Empire |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
..
& Cyborg |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
Rebels & Crystals |
|
|
web mines |
|
|
..
& Empire |
|
|
Dark Sense |
|
|
Gorbie for REBEL GROUND
ATTACK mission (RGA) against heavily defended enemy starbases with few
colonists |
|
|
Colonies
& Empire |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
Gorbie |
|
|
..
& Cyborg |
|
|
hyperdrive |
|
|
Biocide Cube |
|
|
X. PROVERBS AND OTHER
MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS |
|
|
Some of these are from
the FAQ0313. These ones have been noted. |
|
|
Reread the section on
Basic Strategy!!!!!! |
|
|
Scan
each planet everyday by using `L' and `V'--you may have some unwanted
visitors. An enemy ship who cloaks
will not |
|
|
be seen, unless his
cloaking device fails. |
|
|
The
Russian Navy has some ships based on the "one shot principal". These are a large number of small ships
with powerful |
|
|
weapons,
but that can be destroyed very easily.
The advantage: no need for ship
repairs due to battle damage; ships cheap |
|
|
and
easy to replace; greater coverage of tactical areas; for the enemy it is a
lot harder and more expensive (fuel) to hunt down |
|
|
lots of smaller targets
than several larger ones. |
|
|
Always
make a universal announcement each day. Games where all the players are quiet
are very boring. Never be afraid to |
|
|
say what you please. |
|
|
Suckholing
will never save you.....so be aggressive, speak up! If the other players are
more competent, they will still have to |
|
|
beat your forces to shut
you up........and if you plan effectively, they may not be able to do it. |
|
|
Flee to fight another
day!! |
|
|
Which is more
psychologically damaging--losing a couple ships every day, or losing a major
battle? |
|
|
ALWAYS be on the
offensive!! Even when retreating!! |
|
|
NEVER get pushed around.
Apparently minor things could be a major part of the enemy's master plan! |
|
|
Learn from your enemy's
mistakes, your enemy, and his losing. |
|
|
Getting
even is -=NOT=- worth losing! Follow the Golden Rule--Do unto your allies as
you would have them to unto |
|
|
you.......at least,
follow the Golden Rule until you need them dead! |
|
|
TRADE!! EXCHANGE!! All
great empires throughout history existed because of TRADING!! |
|
|
"A bribe is a charm
to the one who gives it; wherever he turns, he succeeds" Proverbs 17:8
(Solomon). |
|
|
Can't be hit by a mine
when you're being towed!! |
|
|
"Don't just watch
your neighbours, watch your neighbour's neighbours" |
|
|
FAQ0313
(kv076EDU.IASTATE). |
|
|
"Two good ships
won't do; 5 intermediate and one good will" FAQ0313 (Svein Gunnar
Tienndal <sveint@colargol.edb.tih.no>). |
|
|
XI. Documents and
Utilities |
|
|
Print
ALL documents out and read them. Have a copy of the ships available to each
race as a handy reference. Same goes for |
|
|
other text files (such as
this one). |
|
|
VPSIM.ZIP--contains
the simulator sim.exe. This is excellent for seeing how ships with various
weapon configurations battle |
|
|
against each other. It
gives you an idea how your ship will handle itself against another ship. |
|
|
SHEET30x.ZIP--allows you
to print out messages received. |
|
|
BUILD1_1.ZIP--is
an excellent utility for determining the cost in minerals and credits for
building specific ships. |
|
|
VGAPTRAK.ZIP--shows
sensor ranges, minefields, meteor strikes, location of distress calls, JUMP
routes, chronological |
|
|
map of past turns, Jump
and Build utilities, lots more. |
|
|
JUMP.ZIP, PWI350LY,
FINDONE--unassorted HYPerdrive utilities. |
|
|
HOSTxx.ZIP--has info on
what is available in the game, eg hyperspace, attack codes, planetary codes,
etc. |
|
|
FLEET.ZIP--For
determining which order your ships should do battle and have a better chance
of success against a known |
|
|
enemy battle-group. |
|
|
I
use VGAPTRAK to help keep track of enemy movement, planets, minefields,
location of where a ship was destroyed |
|
|
(distress
call). I run a mine-sweep and sensor sweep missions to find the location of
the enemy. This utility is the same as |
|
|
keeping notes...only a
lot easier. |
|
|
VSIM
or PROSIM is the combat simulator. I normally use the LIZARD CLASS CRUISER,
T-REX, ANIALATION |
|
|
CLASS BATTLESHIP and the
GORBIE CLASS BATTLECARRIER as the standard ships and compare other ships with
them. |
|
|
But
the most useful utility is BUILD1_1.ZIP by Gary Hogarth. This gem allows me
to calculate many days ahead what I will |
|
|
need in minerals and
credits to build the ideal fleet. |
|
|
All these utilities are
constantly being improved upon. |
|
|
Fleet
Designer (BUILD1 under a different name) should succeed BUILD1_1 early 1995.
At the time of writing VGAPtrak |
|
|
ver
1.2 is current. PWI350ly should be updated soon. FINDONE was recently
improved a little. To get the latest versions of |
|
|
these and other
utilities continue reading after the next section! |
|
|
XII. HYPER-DRIVE |
|
|
Throughout
history rapid movement, surprise and innovative tactics have always beaten
opponents many times larger who |
|
|
use conventional methods
of warfare. |
|
|
VGA PLANETS... |
|
|
Why is HYPER-DRIVE so
important? |
|
|
The
universe is 2000ly across, a ship travelling at warp 9 will take about 25
days to cross it. The Privateer can
cross this |
|
|
distance in 13 days. A
ship with HYPER-DRIVE and Tech 1 engines can cross it in less than 6 days! |
|
|
The
use of these ships has shrunk the universe and allows a far more offensive
game. Combining the use of these ships and |
|
aggressive
team tactics, games will be more fun and more decisive in a much shorter
time. |
|
|
Through the use of
surprise and speed we have the ability to wage a Blitzkrieg.....a Lightning
war. |
|
|
A. Launch and Guidance |
|
|
There are 3 ships with
hyperdrive. Currently the method of launch and guidance is very inaccurate. |
|
|
By
using YAPT1V7 it is possible to get the accuracy for targeting to within 10
to 20ly of a target. It involves setting the X,Y |
|
co-ordinates
in PLANETS...exiting to YAPT1V7 to see where the ship will end up at the end
of 350ly jump....re-entering |
|
PLANETS....resetting the
x,y co-ordinates.....etc. |
|
|
By
using PLANTOOL, printing a map with coordinates and using a ruler and
protractor, it is possible to be accurate to |
|
|
within 5 to 10ly of the
intended target. |
|
|
Ryan Langs (with Gary
Hogarth providing the math formulas) has built a program called JUMP that
will give the X,Y co- |
|
|
ordinates to within
0.3ly. |
|
|
Present Theory |
|
|
CURRENT |
|
|
POSITION |
WAYPOINT |
|
TARGET |
|
|
-------- |
-------- |
|
------ |
|
|
X1,Y1 |
|
X2,Y2 |
|
X3,Y3 |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
<-----20LY-----> |
| |
|
|
<------------------------350LY
JUMP----------------------------> |
|
|
Your
HYPerdrive ship is at X1,Y1. You set
the friendly code (f/c) to `HYP' and the waypoint to X2,Y2, and the warp
to |
|
|
1. You will then end up at X3,Y3. |
|
|
By
inputting our CURRENT POSITION (X1,Y1) and our TARGET (X3,Y3), JUMP2.EXE will
come up with several |
|
|
WAYPOINTS
(X2,Y2). These will lie on the line between A and B between 20+ and 160ly
from our CURRENT |
|
|
POSITION. That is the
position that the ship using HYP will aim at, to reach the TARGET that is
350ly away. |
|
|
The
TARGET can be further than 350ly. For example, if the distance is 400ly away
the ship will still jump 350ly, but will be |
|
|
short 50ly. The
remaining distance will have be travelled using normal warp. |
|
|
New Theory using
JUMP1.EXE |
|
|
By
making 2 jumps of 350ly we can PINPOINT and hit any position less than 700ly
away, or with 3 jumps we can hit a |
|
position 1050ly, etc. |
|
|
|
CURRENT |
|
POSITION C1 |
|
|
POSITION |
<-----------------less
than 700ly-------------------> |
TARGET |
|
|
X1,Y |
|
X2,Y2 |
|
|
POSITION C2 |
|
|
To get to the TARGET we
must travel 350ly to position C1 or C2 and then 350ly to the TARGET. |
|
|
We
will give JUMP2.EXE our CURRENT POSITION and our TARGET. It will return a
number of WAYPOINTS to |
|
|
C1
and C2. We will then jump to C1 or C2 using the WAYPOINTS. Next turn, we will
use JUMP2.EXE to jump from C1 |
|
or C2 to the TARGET. |
|
|
B. Use |
|
|
Hyper Drive is available
to 3 ships: |
|
|
CARGO |
|
FUEL |
|
CREW |
|
|
Cyborg |
200 CLASS PROBE |
|
5 |
|
80 |
|
6 |
|
|
Empire |
PL32 PROBE |
|
20 |
|
180 |
|
1 |
|
|
Rebel |
FALCON CLASS ESCORT |
120 |
|
150 |
|
27 |
|
|
By
setting the friendly code to "HYP" and the ship's waypoint to a
position 20+ly away, setting the warp to other than 0 |
|
|
(warp 1 is best) the
ship will jump 350ly, burn 50kt fuel and avoid all minefields. |
|
|
So, how do we use this
fast ship? |
|
|
1. General |
|
|
By
building starbases that are no more than TECH 6 technology, costs can be kept
to a minimun while still having effective |
|
ships.
The hyper drive ships are ideal for transporting colonists long distances and
building a starbase close to an enemy in a |
|
very short time. |
|
|
a. Scan the Universe |
|
|
Generally,
all races are placed with their back to an edge of the universe. That is,
they are usually 400ly from the edge of the |
|
universe with no other
race in between. |
|
|
To
scan and control roughly 20% of the universe in 6 turns: With a sensor scan
range of 200ly, place 4 ships in the following |
|
locations...preferably
over a planet.... |
|
|
--------------------------TOWARDS----------------------------- |
|
|
EDGE OF UNIVERSE |
|
|
PROBE |
STARBASE
<------------->PROBE<------> |
|
|
400ly |
200ly |
|
|
PROBE PROBE |
|
|
TOWARDS |
|
|
MIDDLE OF UNIVERSE |
|
|
The
distance between the starbase and the PROBE being 400ly, with each scanning
200ly the total range of scan from the |
|
starbase to the scan
range of the PROBE is 600ly. (about 1/5 of the universe.) For EMPIRE set the
mission to DARK SENSE. |
|
By
using VGAPTRAK and displaying sensor range you can find any blind spots. With
VGAPTRAK you can keep track of |
|
the location and headings
of enemy ships. |
|
|
Now anything that moves
you should be able to see: |
|
|
If
it is a freighter, just warp a ship from the starbase to the planet the
freighter is headed to. It will take 2 turns and the |
|
HYPERDRIVE
ship has a range of 700ly in those 2 turns. With mission set to KILL or the
enemy race specified....bingo a |
|
ship
captured. The enemy freighter will not even see you coming and if you capture
one with colonists you can start a base |
|
for refuelling/repairs
nearby. |
|
|
b. Testing Defences |
|
|
Want
to find out what a ship's or planet's defences are?.....launch a probe with
tech one engines and beams and have it set to |
|
KILL....your loss is
minimal. How alert is the enemy?
Launch a couple probes into his territory and see what happens. |
|
c. Starbases |
|
|
To
pump out a fleet of these Hyperdrive ships, locate a cluster of planets near
the edge of the universe and build the base |
|
with
no defences and no fighters. Since
they are TECH 1 (or 2) hulls the cost for setting up the base is minimal and
the |
|
chance
of an attack is quite remote. After
all, when was the last time you went to a group of planets near the edge of the |
|
universe? |
|
|
More
powerful starbases from which offensive operations can be launched are better
located near an enemy Home World. |
|
Kill his Home World and
usually he is out of the game. |
|
|
See
the Basic Strategy section for native race advantages. By the judicious use
of minerals, credits and placement of allied |
|
starbases on planets
with natives it is possible to get a lot of bang for the buck. |
|
|
2. Allies |
|
|
If
your ally is unable to build these ships, send a HYP ship to his STARBASE,
let him force a surrender on it and fill it with |
|
colonists.
He will then warp back to the cluster planets where you are building HYP
ships and build a starbase there to force |
|
surrender of more HYPers. |
|
|
a. Fascists |
|
|
Fascists
set for the PILLAGE mission....the FASCISTS can hyper-drive directly into a
planet's orbit with mission preset to |
|
PILLAGE
from 350 light years away. Since the Host is normally configured to NOT ALLOW
planets to attack REBELS |
|
and
FASCISTS on their special missions .....BINGO.... a planet in trouble! Unless the enemy has ships set to KILL or the |
|
enemy set to fascists,
the PROBE will not be attacked. |
|
|
b. Lizards |
|
|
Another
good ally is the Lizards. By building ships for Lizzie the player is
increasing his strength by 50%. For example, any |
|
of
the smaller EMPIRE ships being owned by LIZZIE can now sustain 150% damage.
The Lizards can send these HYP ships |
|
into
orbit above enemy planets where their cloakers cannot reach (because of mines
or fuel) and make a ground attack which |
|
will put the enemy into
a defensive frame of mind, as well as being a royal pain. |
|
|
c. Robots or Crystals |
|
|
If
your ally is the Robot Race or Crystal Race, they can build a starbase near
any of the cloaking races (especially Birds and |
|
Privateer) where they
severly disrupt enemy operations with minefields. |
|
|
3. Other Ideas |
|
|
Here are some strengths
and weakness of these tiny, light scouting ships... |
|
|
STRENGTH |
|
|
very cheap to build,
left as "bait" it is possible to see who is in the area and with a
cloaker nearby you could get an easy kill |
|
great for scouting new
planets, enemy territories |
|
|
ability to disrupt enemy
shipping, freighter movement, several HYP ships can force an enemy into a
defensive state of mind. |
|
hard to intercept or
capture |
|
|
attack a larger ship to
see how many torps or fighters are on board |
|
|
can start a starbase
close to the enemy quickly and possibly without his knowledge |
|
|
leave false trails as to
your real location |
|
|
can be very effective in
an area when working in groups of 4 to 6 |
|
|
WEAKNESS |
|
|
destroyed very easily |
|
|
fuelling bases required |
|
|
no good against a planet
or ship that has weapons |
|
|
no good as a fighting
ship |
|
|
small cargo holds |
|
|
So.....these are just a
few ideas.....please let me know of improvements or any ideas you have. |
|
|
C. Assorted HYPerdrive
Utilities |
|
|
a. FINDONE.EXE |
|
|
Find One is a small
utility which will find all planets within 350ly of a ship's position. For
example....you see a Cyborg Probe at location
X,Y...input it into FINDONE. Find One will then return some planets that the
probe may have jumped from. Or you may have only 50 units of fuel and want to
find a planet to orbit. Just give Find One your current position and see if
any planets are within 350ly of you. |
|
Probe
at location X,Y...input it into FINDONE. Find One will then return some
planets that the probe may have jumped |
|
from.
Or you may have only 50 units of fuel and want to find a planet to orbit.
Just give Find One your current position |
|
and see if any planets
are within 350ly of you. |
|
|
Conversely,
if it is a REBEL, LIZARD, or FASCIST ship, you may be able to find out which
planet the enemy is planning |
|
|
to attack. |
|
|
b. Jump Routes ----
PWI350ly |
|
|
Hyper-driving
across the universe is fine....however other players can see you and find
where you are JUMPing from. By |
|
|
using
PWI350ly it is possible to JUMP between planets that are 350ly apart and be
unseen. This is especially important for |
|
the CYBORG...or if you
just want to sneak up on your enemy unseen. |
|
|
c. JUMP1 and JUMP2.EXE |
|
|
These
can be used to find JUMP co-ordinates to almost any planet you want to jump
to. Their use is explained in
general |
|
under
section 1--Launch and Guidance. For a more detailed explanation see their
documentation, or the latest version of |
|
HYPDRV.TXT. |
|
|
D. Impulse or No-fuel
Drift |
|
|
By
using the advantage of no-fuel drift it is possible to still play
aggressively. To move the distances listed below with no fuel, |
|
set
the waypoint NO FURTHER than the distance the ship can travel in one turn.
The word NEVER will tell you when |
|
|
the distance is too far. |
|
|
I use |
|
|
MASS |
|
Distance travelled with
no fuel and tech 10 engines |
|
|
75 -> |
118 |
|
12 -> 8 light years |
|
|
66 - |
74 |
|
14 |
|
|
55 - |
65 |
|
16 |
|
|
46 - |
54 |
|
19 |
|
|
35 - |
45 |
|
25 |
|
|
26 - |
34 |
|
33 |
|
|
24 - |
25 |
|
50 |
( Empire PL32 Probe plus
1 X-Ray laser ) |
|
|
10 |
|
81 |
( Neutronic fuel carrier
) |
|
|
XIII. The -=DREADLORD=-
Battle Manual ver. 8 |
|
|
This
was written by Ramutis Giliauskas. There were unassorted contributions from
various other individuals. I am also |
|
|
indebted to all the
other users of the VGAPBBS series of BBSes. |
|
|
A. Credits for the
-=DREADLORD=- Battle Manual |
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Doug Carmichael |
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Gary Hogarth |
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Larry McCarthy |
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Doug Suerich |
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Tim Vanderhoek |
GAP I BBS sysop |
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Richard Zimmerman |
VGAP ][ BBS sysop |
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Ryan Langs |
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VGAP ]I[ BBS sysop |
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905-648-9288 ancaster |
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905-648-8141 ancaster |
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183 Fallingbrook Drive, |
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Ancaster, Ontario Canada
L9G 1E7 |
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Internet:
rlangs@wchat.on.ca |
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Ramutis Giliauskas. |
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2030
Foster Ct, |
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Burlington, Ontario
Canada L7P 4P4 |
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Local bbs's I can be
reached at: |
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VGAP ]I[ BBS |
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Internet:
ramutisg@wchat.on.ca |
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2. You want more? |
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If
you thought that this text was useful, and would like to see other texts and
utilities that have been written by the |
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VGAPBBS
users, would like to download some of the utilities listed under the
Documents and Utilities section, or would |
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like
to download the latest version of this text, call the VGAP ]I[ BBS! The
numbers for the BBS are listed in the above |
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credits
section under Ryan Langs. You can also reach most of the other people in the
credits list through the VGAP ]I[ BBS! |
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We have over 10
home-grown, useful utilities! |
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XIV. TERMINATOR UTILITY |
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On
the games that I have played it seems by turn 50 the game is pretty well
done. One of the major reason for winding down |
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seems
to be the amount of time required to play each turn when the planets, ships,
and starbases become too numerous. On |
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average
I have found that it takes about a minute to check each planet/starbase/ship.
So with 120 ships that is about 2 hours |
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just
for the ships, not including planets and starbases. Tim has 2 utilities
available, AUTOBUILD and CPLAYER. While |
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AUTOBUILD
is helpful with adjusting the factories, mines, DP, and taxes, there is no
control over the parameters. A utility |
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that
will enable user input into a broader menu of AUTOBUILD would substantially
cut down on the "maintainance" of |
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planets while still
having control of the various parameters. |
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The PLANET AUTOBUILDER: |
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TIM'S program has some
limitations.... |
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... doesn't convert
supplies to credits. |
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... doesn't allow player to control number of
mines/factories/defence posts to build. |
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... doesn't allow taxes
to be set as player would like. |
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... doesn't allow ALL FC
to be changed by a single input. |
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... doesn't enable
building of starbase when certain parameters are |
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met...eg... when I have 1500 credits, 500 tri, 500 dur, 600 moly |
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What I think is required
is a menu for each item eg: |
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∫ TERMINATOR ∫∞ |
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_ PLANET AUTOBUILDER ∫∞ |
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∫ VGA PLANETS ∫∞ |
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_
∫ A: Priority
∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ B: Factories ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ C: Mines ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ D: Defence Posts ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ E: Taxes ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ F: Friendly Code ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ G: Build Starbase ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ H: Instructions ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ X: Execute ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ Q: QUIT ∫∞ |
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∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞ |
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∫ |
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∫ |
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∫ A: PRIORITY ∫∞ |
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∫ 1: Factories ∫∞ |
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∫ 2: Mines ∫∞ |
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∫ 3: Defence Posts
∫∞ |
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∫ 4: Build
Starbase∫∞ |
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∫ X: Exit ∫∞ |
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∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞ |
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A. PRIORITY.......when program is executed,
user specifies order eg. Make factories, then Defence Posts, then etc. |
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B: FACTORIES......build specific
number/percent/MAX factories convert supplies to credits as required. |
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C: MINES..........build specific
number/percent/MAX on planets that have more than X kt of any one of the 4
types of |
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minerals convert
supplies to credits as required. |
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D: DEFENCE POSTS..build specific
number/percent/MAX DP convert supplies to credits as required. Fighters on |
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planets
tend to be shot down quite easily, unless they have a lot. However, the TECH and number of beams seems
to be a |
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better
thing to have as goal than # of fighters.
eg 41 DP have 4 disruptors.......the next best purchase is 61 DP which
has 5 |
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heavy blasters. |
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E: TAXES........... |
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I think making this
relative to the like/hate factor would work the best. Have one for colonists and another for
natives. |
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F: FRIENDLY CODE XXX (this changes the FC on all planets) |
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G: STARBASE......When minimun items for
starbase building acquired have starbase built automatically..... |
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.........or prompt user BUILD Y/N? |
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OR....have a minimun user
specified List |
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eg... When TRI = X |
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DUR = X |
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MOLY= X |
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Supplies and credits = X |
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then autobuild starbase |
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convert supplies to
credits as required. |
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H: INSTRUCTIONS |
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X: EXECUTE |
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Q: QUIT |
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------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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THE STARBASE AUTOBUILDER |
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With
less than 10 starbases there is no real need for an AUTOBUILDER. But as the
numbers go in excess of 10 it can start to |
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consume more time to
build ships, raise Tech levels, etc. A
utility similar to the planet autobuilder would prove useful. |
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∫ TERMINATOR ∫∞ |
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∫ STARBASE AUTOBUILDER ∫∞ |
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∫ VGA PLANETS ∫∞ |
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∫ _ A: Priority ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ B: Build Ship ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ C: Upgrade Tech Levels ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ D: Starbase Defence ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ E: Build Fighters ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ F: Friendly Code ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ G: Primary Base Orders ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ H: Instructions ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ X: Execute ∫∞ |
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∫ ∫ Q: QUIT ∫∞ |
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∫
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞ |
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∫ |
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∫ |
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∫ A: PRIORITY ∫∞ |
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∫ 1: Defence ∫∞ |
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∫ 2: Fighters ∫∞ |
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∫ 3: Tech
Levels ∫∞ |
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∫ 4: Build Ship ∫∞ |
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∫ X: Exit ∫∞ |
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∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞ |
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CPLAYER....THE
TERMINATOR: |
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Once
AUTOBUILD is functional the next phase will be making the menu/whatever for
CPLAYER -- The |
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TERMINATOR. It would be possible to have the utilities
as standalone at first...then combining once the snags are worked |
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out.
The purpose for this idea is not have the computer play your turns, but more
to relieve the tedium of controlling 100+ |
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ships. This will "free" the player to
play a STARWARS type of scenario, where the player with the larger force can
track |
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and
hunt down other players with the same ease as playing with only a few ships
and planets. The advantage will be the
time |
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saving
and maintaining playablilty in a long term game. By having ships designated
to specific roles/groups the CPLAYER |
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would
only have to handle a few battle-groups/convoy-groups/mine-sweeping patrols/
or organize ships into specific |
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groups/assemble
ships at various locations. In this way the planning and fighting would NOT
be left to the computer, |
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eliminating the fear of
several players "that I would be playing against ten other computers and
not real players". |
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The
"CPLAYER/TERMINATOR" utility would enable ships to carry out
limited roles with user input. |
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If you make up any of
these utilities please send me a version.beta, crippled or otherwise....or if
you have any ideas, drop me a note.. |
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Gil |
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XV. Table of Contents |
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I. PREAMBLE |
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II. AGGRESSIVE DECISION
MAKING |
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III. BATTLE AND CONVOY
GROUPS |
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A. Definition |
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B. How to Create |
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1. Ships |
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2. Uniqueness |
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C. How to Use |
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D. The Colonies of Man's
Ships |
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1. PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT
CARRIER |
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2. GEMINI CLASS CARRIER |
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3. TRANQUILITY CLASS
CRUISER |
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4. LITTLE JOE CLASS
ESCORT |
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5. CYGNUS CLASS
BATTLESHIP |
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E. The Colonies of Man
General-Purpose Battle-Group |
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1. Ships |
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2. Against a TORPEDO
carrying ship |
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3. Against a FIGHTER
carrying ship |
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4. Against a BEAM only
ship |
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5. Against an UNARMED
ship |
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IV. MASS, WEAPONS, AND
PLANETARY DEFENCE |
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A. Ship Mass |
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B. Fighters |
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1. Use |
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2. Ordnance-How Many? |
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C. Beam Weapon Selection |
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D. Torpedo Selection |
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1. Which Type? |
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2. How Many Launcher
Tubes? |
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3. Ordnance |
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4. Minefields |
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E. Planetary Defence Post
Tables |
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V. BASIC CONSERVATIVE
STRATEGY FOR THE NEW PLAYER |
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A. On the First Day |
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1. Race Choice |
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2. Home World Development |
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3. Home World Defence |
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4. Starbase Tech Levels |
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5. Planning and
Calculating Ahead |
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6. Ships |
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B. Expanding your Empire
with Planets |
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1. Colonizing |
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2. Development of Planets |
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3. Building a New
Starbase |
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C. Defence of your Empire |
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D. Attacking the Enemy |
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1. Your Enemy |
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2. Targets |
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3. Attacks |
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E. Freight Movement |
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F. Movement |
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1. Convoy |
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2. Or the Lack There-Of:
When NOT moving |
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3. Fuel Burn |
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G. Scouts, Observation
Posts, and Forward Supply Bases |
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H. Native Races |
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VI. SPECIFIC STRATEGIES |
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A. Lizards |
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1. Strategy |
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B. Birds |
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C. Fascists |
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D. Cyborg |
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1. HYPerdrive Ships |
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2. Strategy |
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E. Empire |
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1. HYPerdrive Ships |
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2. Strategy |
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F. Robots |
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1. Strategy |
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G. Rebels |
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1.HYPerdrive Ships |
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2. Strategy |
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H. Colonies |
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1. HYPerdrive Ships |
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2. Enemy Mines |
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VII. STRATEGY FOR
PRIVATEER AND CRYSTALLINE |
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A. Privateers |
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1. Limitations |
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2. Advantages |
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3. General strategy |
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4. Tactics |
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B. Crystals |
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C. Subject: Dealing with
cloakers |
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1. General problems |
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D. Subject:
Anti-Privateers |
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1. A Privateer Captain´s
nightmare |
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VIII. BLITZKRIEG |
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A. Theory |
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B. Teams |
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C. Tech Levels |
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D. Guerrilla Force |
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E. Strike Force |
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F. Conclusion |
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IX. TEAM PLAY |
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X. PROVERBS AND OTHER
MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS |
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XI. DOCUMENTS AND
UTILITIES |
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XII. HYPER-DRIVE |
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A. Launch and Guidance |
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B. Use |
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1. General |
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2. Allies |
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3. Other Ideas |
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C. Assorted HYPerdrive
Utilities |
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D. Impulse or No-fuel
Drift |
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XIII. The -=DREADLORD=-
Battle Manual ver. 8 |
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A. Credits for the
-=DREADLORD=- Battle Manual |
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XIV. TERMINATOR UTILITY |
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The PLANET AUTOBUILDER: |
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THE STARBASE AUTOBUILDER |
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CPLAYER....THE
TERMINATOR: |
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XV. TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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