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EARLY GAME STRATEGY:  
  Early-game Strategy   
  By Jurjen Niezink  
  When you take a look at VGA-Planets, one of the most exciting things in a game is the starting position. Where am I located?   
  Are there any clusters of planets nearby, what is the range to other empires? Of course, a lot of things are dependent on the   
  host-settings, but it is a player's choice whether or not he or she joins a game.   
  In this article, I would like to focus on the early game strategy, which will enclose the first 15-20 turns in a game. It is my   
  opinion, that there are three crucial things in the beginning of a game: economy, strategy and diplomacy. All of these   
  interesting fields overlap, so I'll try to include all of them. But let's start with the beginning, the host-configuration. Imagine   
  you are joining a game with the following, standard, settings:   
  Mining settings: Default   
  Tax settings: Default   
  Ships visible range (Starcharts): 300 LY   
  Sensor mission range: 200 LY   
  Overpopulation eats supplies: No   
  Isotope rate: 5   
  Mine detect range: 200 LY   
  Climate Death rate: 10 %   
  Planets have gravity wells: Yes   
  Climate limits population: Yes   
  Ion-Storms: No   
  Cloaked ships can attack: Yes   
  Bioscanners: Yes   
  Range to other players: Medium   
  Homeworlds: Classic, in a circle, starting point random.   
  Add-ons: Pwrap   
  Explorer  
  As you can see, these are the default settings of hconfig.exe. So, all other settings not listed here are by default as well, for   
  those of you who want to know that.The Add-ons Pwrap and Explorer make the game more interesting, since you can fly   
  around the map and end up on the other side. Explorer limits your vision to what you have scanned with your ships, so you   
  start at a position where you will only be able to see about 14 planets.   
  First of all I would like to say that the early-game strategy I'm going to describe here, is one of the many possibilities. It is   
  written from the experience I have in playing VGA-Planets and hosting the game as well. A second thing to mention is the   
  choice of which host program to use. There are differences between Phost and Host, both have their pro's, but also some   
  contra's. This article is based on a Host game, but the strategy given here is also implementable in a Phost game.   
  In the beginning.... there was void. You start with two ships, engine tech 7, and 15000 MC. You see east and south-east from   
  your homeworld two planets, range about 60 LY. There is a cluster of four planets north-west, range 180 LY to the nearest   
  planet, a cluster of four north-east of you, range 150 LY and several planets west and south of you, with a range > 80 LY.   
  What should you do? A lot of people who will be asked this question will say: "That's race dependent", and they are right   
  about it. Nevertheless it is possible to generalize. Max your factories and don't max your mines. Build a Bioscanner or a   
  Large Deep Space Freighter (LDSF) and send out your two ships.   
  And here I would like to make the first remark about strategy. Stay invisible as long as possible. What if your opponents, not   
  necessary enemies but still opponents, are located in that beautiful looking cluster north-west of your homeworld. Should   
  you be heading in it's way? I don't think so. Stay out of sight, if you need to fly at a higher warp than your engines are   
  suitable for, so be it. Just remember the gravity wells, which enable you to fly 84 LY with warp 9. As long as you stay out of   
  sight, you'll stay out of trouble. Don't be too greedy and rush for the cluster(s).   
  Then there is the point of filling your ships. A player I know, once said that if you want to colonize a planet, you'll need at   
  least 100 clans. This would give you 100 factories and 100 mines. Unfortunatly, you don't have enough cargo-room in your   
  SDSF for 100 clans and additional supplies. Therefor keep in mind that on a temperate-warm world 15 clans will reproduce,   
  while on a tropical or cool world 20 clans are needed. So I'll say fill your SDSF with 60 clans and 10 supplies, which will be   
  enough for four warm-worlds or for three tropical-cool worlds. But what if you encounter a desert or arctic world? Here I   
  would like to refer to the article written by Timo Kreike, which was published in Echoes of the Cluster issue #5, September   
  1996, called 'Push your Economy to the max'. Economy is one of the most critical parts of VGA-Planets and in this article   
  allmost everything is explained. I will give two formula's from this article, which are common knowledge for the experienced   
  players.   
  1. Max clans on a arctic world = (20100 - CDR% - 200 * (99 - temp)) / CDR%   
  example:   
  You encounter a world with a temp of 6, but it has a lot of minerals so you want as many mines as possible on that world.   
  You would be able to drop, with the settings given at the beginning of this article: (20100 - 10 - (200 * 93)) / 10 = 149 clans   
  who will stay alive, so 149 mines.  
  2. Max clans on a desert world = (20100 - CDR% - 200 * temp) / CDR %   
  example:   
  A world with a temp of 98 could have: (20090 - 19600) / 10 = 49 clans  
  Now the game continues, it is turn two, you have found the two planets mentioned above and your LDSF is ready for   
  takeoff. Where should it be heading too? There was this cluster northwest and one northeast, but to fly there would make   
  you visible to other players. As mentioned before, avoid that as long as possible, so send it out planet hopping to the onces   
  west and south. I usually fill my LDSF's with 1080 clans and 120 supplies and 100 MC. This enables me to drop 90 clans and   
  10 supplies on every planet I find, assuming that the climate is good enough to support 90 clans. The 100 MC is for the planet   
  which has a lot of natives, so I'll be able to build up an economy fast. However, if this is such a great planet, I would like to   
  defend it against enemy sensor-sweeps or Bioscans. 15 defense posts will block a sensor-sweep while 20 block a Bioscan. A side   
  effect of this is that my opponents might think that there is no habitation if they scan the planet. If they'll visit the planet, I'll   
  be able to destroy the freighter, of even a light ship when I build more defense posts. In general: stay out of sight as long as   
  possible, build 14 factories on your new planets, then build 15 or 20 defense posts and then max your factories and build as   
  many mines as you like.   
  Imagine that this colonizing continues for a few more turns and it is now turn 6. You have build two transwarp LDSF's and   
  some destroyers. Should you be heading towards the clusters by now and probably show yourself to other players? If you   
  have planets within hopping range, no, but if you can't expand further without traveling in open space you'll have to, since it   
  is necessary to enlarge your empire as soon as possible. A good tactic is to fly to one of the planets next to your homeworld   
  and depart from there to the cluster. If you are spotted, most players will assume that that's your homeworld.   
  A whole different thing is diplomacy at this moment. Mostly, in this stage of the game, diplomacy is just writing universal   
  messages that you will assimilate others, or wish them good luck (in that order :-). I enjoy this part of the early-game as much   
  as the other parts in the game. It gives you an impression of what your opponents are alike. But when you have set course   
  towards that cluster, 2 months away, diplomacy gains potential. What if you sensor-sweep other worlds and find colonist on   
  them? Or even better, what if you see a Romulan LDSF pass by? Should you build an attack-force and head towards his   
  empire? Should you drop minefields and waste precious money and minerals? Or should you try to negotiate a border and   
  perhaps cooperate? The latter would be my choice, since you can both benifit from cooperation. In the long run you could   
  exchange ships, minerals, money, colonist or whatever. I would try to get a non-aggresion agreement between myself and the   
  spotted opponent. Later in the game this could evolve to a alliance, but I think it's too early to form one now.   
  In the meantime, your colonists grow and you are starting to get real low on minerals on your homeworld. I would set up   
  transporter-routes, to supply my starbase. A transporter-route is nothing more then a fixed schedule of waypoints for one or   
  more of your freighters. It is also wise to determine where the best suitable place is for a second starbase. Often the best   
  choice is the planet which will give you the most money and which has a reasonable amount of minerals, but the choice could   
  also be a strategic point in your empire. Just make sure that you can support it with enough minerals and money. A bovinoid   
  world is also a good choice, since this world will be able to supply itself if a Merlin is stationed above it. The problem is that   
  a Merlin costs a lot of minerals, and one shouldn't build a Merlin this early in the game.   
  The game continues and you are transporting more and more clans to your rich worlds and bringing back the minerals to   
  your starbase and now the time has come to build up your forces. You have probably build some medium-ships, but now,   
  about turn 12-15, your first heavy baseship should be rolling out of your base. Depending on the situation with your   
  neighbours, its task should be defensive or, if you are being attacked, even offensive. It will have major influence in the   
  balance of power in your region of the starmap. If you are forced in a defensive frame of mind, try to build up battlegroups   
  and start attacking yourself, since it is true that the best defense is offense. For a good description of a battlegroup for a   
  certain race, read the 'Dreadlord Battle Manual'.   
  Then there is the issue of minefields. Mostly players cannot afford minefields early in the games, but if you are being   
  harrased by a cloaking race, you will need to drop them. A good tactic for dropping minefields is to create lots of   
  overlapping, medium, minefields. A medium minefield has a range of about 50 lightyears, which is about 70 mark 4's (910   
  mc). Remember that the mark 4 is the best torp for the buck (read the h-files or the infolist for more info). If you drop three   
  of these fields around your crucial worlds, you'll have a decent defense. Andrew Sterian wrote an excellent article about   
  mine-hit probabilities in Echoes of the Cluster issue 2 and 3.   
  I would like to end with the remark that there is no one right way to play VGA-Planets, and that is what makes it such an   
  exciting game. All of the above is written from my experience as a player and as a host. Mostly it worked out well, at least I   
  never got beaten in the first 20 turns of a game.