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THE LIZARD ALLIANCE (RACE 2) STRATEGY GUIDE(S): |
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It Ain't Easy Being Green |
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(reflections on life as a
Lizard) |
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by Conrad Lesnewski |
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clesnew@tribeca.ios.com |
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While
the Lizards and Feds share many racial characteristics, I greatly prefer to
play the Lizards. They can produce almost as |
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much
cash as the Feds, they mine at 200% (almost 3 times the Fed rate), they cloak
themselves, they decloak others, they |
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terraform,
they have an awe-inspiring ground attack, they have an unassailable ground
defense, they take 150% damage in |
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battle,
and their ships are dirt cheap in terms of both cash and minerals. That's the
good news. The bad news is that they have |
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the
weakest fleet in the game (even with the 150% bonus) so to succeed in
bringing about the reign of the dinosaurs in the |
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Echo
Cluster, you're going to need all the previously mentioned advantages and
know how to use them well. |
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First
and foremost, the hatchling Lizard ruler must realize that his is an economic
race. The Lizards should be the first race |
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to
build a 2nd StarBase and the first to build a battleship. The Lizards not
only can outproduce any other race in the game, |
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they
must outproduce them to have any chance of winning. Much as the Feds, if the
game hits the 500 ship limit, the Lizards |
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should
have around 150-200 of those ships. Unlike the Feds, who will reach the queue
with the bulk of their fleet being |
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empty
hulls, all of the Lizard ships will be fully operational and should already
be dispersed doing what they were built to |
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do. |
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The
second doctrine of the Lizards is speed. Time is not kind to our scaly
friends, so they must strike first and they must |
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strike
hard. The Lizards are quite capable of destroying their two closest neighbors
by turn 20. They should almost always |
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do
so. A peaceful Lizard race, or one playing a defensive strategy, usually ends
the game as footwear and ladies' accessories for |
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their
neighbors. Your T-Rexes should be mopping up your neighbor's homeworld before
they've built their 1st or, worst |
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case,
2nd Battleship or Heavy Carrier. Let them get 5 or 6 Rushes or Golems out and
you've got some serious problems. |
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Getting
into a position to destroy your enemies before they can get to you requires
you to get your economy cranking right |
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away.
Fortunately, the Lizards are the race best suited to do this. |
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The
Lizards' money comes from the judicious use of the Hiss mission. Each hissing
ship will raise the happiness of the planet |
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by
the number of points stated in the Hconfig (default is 5). This allows you to
overtax your planets without suffering from |
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unhappy
populations. So while the Robots can't tax that 5 million Ghipsodal Monarchy
more than 5% ($300) without |
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annoying
them, the Lizards can place a Serpent Escort in orbit and tax them at 11%
($660) or put two of them there and tax |
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at
17% ($1,020) without any ill effects. At a certain point (I believe it's 75%
taxes) the natives will start dying from overwork |
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if
they're being hissed. I'm not sure what the cutoff is because I never tax
that high. I prefer to spread my hissers around |
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putting
3 to 4 on each producing planet rather than concentrating them on the best
planets in my realm. It should be noted |
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that
Hissing occurs before both movement and production. Your planets should NOT
be at 100 happiness. If they are, |
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you're
wasting the hiss ships because hiss can't raise happiness higher than 100. If
the planet is capable of growth, I'll leave the |
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happiness
at around 70 and tax enough to keep it there (e.g. you have 6 ships in orbit
and you tax at 40% - The hiss will raise |
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the
happiness 30 points to 100, then the taxing will drop the happiness 30 points
back to 70, you will never see the happiness |
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change
from 70). By putting a hiss ship or two in orbit, the Lizards can match the
Feds income; by putting 3 or 4 in orbit, |
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they
can double it. The Feds, nor anybody else for that matter, can never match
the Lizards mineral production. |
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Quite
simply, the Lizards can produce more minerals than they know what to do with.
They have the option to either |
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double
the rate at which they extract minerals (by putting 200 mines on a planet and
mining twice as fast as anybody else) or |
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they
can get the minerals at half the investment (by putting 100 mines on the
planet and mining at the same rate as everybody |
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else's
200 mines). The only race that can come close to the Lizard's mining is the
Borg, and that's only when they assimilate |
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enough
natives to support 400 mines. Lizard planets with reptilian natives mine at
400%. I use 200 mines as the cutoff because |
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above
that requires exponential amount of colonists (e.g. 200 mines = 200 clans,
250 mines = 2700 clans, 300 mines = 10,200 |
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clans).
Because of the high volume of minerals produced by Lizard mining, Medium Deep
Space Freighters rapidly outlive |
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their
usefulness. The Lizards should concentrate on Large Deep Space Freighters
with a few Super Transports thrown in for |
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hauling
home minerals from those treasure trove planets. A planet with over 50%
density in all 3 minerals can produce 1200 |
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kts of cargo in 2 turns for
the Lizards. |
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While
building those mines, don't neglect the Defense posts. The bonus for defenses
(20 defenses = +1 defense factor) gets |
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multiplied
by the Lizards' default Ground Defense Factor (10). This means putting just
20 defense posts on a planet makes |
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even
the Fascists fight you at a disadvantage (3:4). When you put the 62 defenses
on a rock with 200 clans, an enemy who |
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drops
a 2600 clans from a Super Transport will find that he's only killed about 65
of your clans. Needless to say, your |
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enemies
will quickly grow tired of this tactic. On the other hand, you'll never grow
tired of dropping in on your enemies. |
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Unless
you have the Birds superspying for you, always assume maximum defense posts
for the planet and plan your clan |
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drops
accordingly. Rule of thumb is that a full Lizard Cruiser (290 clans) can take
out an enemy planet with up to 1740 clans |
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while
a Reptile with 50 Lizard commandos will take a planet with up to 375 clans.
Obviously, this assumes your enemy is not |
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the
Fascists. They're a bit tougher (Cruiser = 435 clans, Reptile = 131 clans).
Clan drops should be used to disrupt your |
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enemies'
economies and capture their StarBases intact. It doesn't matter if you can
hold the base, you'll make him use his |
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ships
to attack his own base. Either he destroys his ships or he destroys his base,
in either case, you come out ahead at the cost |
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of
a handful of clans. It's even more fun to tow your enemies freighters off his
planets with cloakers, capture them, transfer |
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any
clans that may be aboard to your ships, then ground attack him with his own
people. Speaking of cloakers, make sure |
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you
have a Loki protecting your important planets from those meddling Birds,
Fascists, and Privateers. For maximum return |
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on
your dollar, have the Loki Hiss while it's waiting around for a cloaker to
call. |
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As
mentioned before, the Lizard fleet is pretty pathetic. Most mid size ships
can splatter a Cruiser and the T-Rex is the |
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weakest
Battleship in the game. The trick to overcoming this deficit is to have a LOT
of them. The Lizard fleet should be |
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comprised
of hissers (Serpent Escorts will do, but I usually have Eroses and or Lokis
performing double duty); Reptile |
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Destroyers
for transporting cash and attacking enemy freighters (If you attack capital
ships with a Reptile you will invariably |
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be
donating it to your enemy as Reptiles tend to be captured rather than
destroyed); Lizard Cruisers for ground attacking, |
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mine
laying, and taking out small capital ships;, T-Rexes for taking out
Homeworlds and enemy battleships (fly them in fleets |
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of
3 or 4); and a handful of Madonnzilas for use against Heavy Carriers (Hit a
Gorbie with 3 T-Rexes followed by a |
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Madonnzila
- you'll lose the T-Rexes and he'll lose the Gorbie). You don't need very
many Madonnzilas in your fleet |
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because, if you order
your battles correctly, you should rarely lose one. The bulk of your fleet
should be Cruisers and T- |
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Rexes.
The Lizards should build a ship at every base, every turn. If you can't
afford anything else or it's a brand-new base |
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without
Tech Levels, you can always build a Serpent Escort with a StarDrive One
engine to be towed somewhere for hissing. |
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Another
way to overcome the deficit is to use other races' ships. Get them through
trade or capture (harder to do, but |
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possible
- e.g. capturing a StarBase with an unfueled ship in orbit). The Lizards'
economic production makes cloning less of a |
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burden
for them than other races and there's nothing like enforcing your will with
Instrumentalities or Biocides that can take |
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150%
damage. Good ships to trade to other races are Eroses, Lokis (since they
can't decloak you), and occasionally cloakers |
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(since
you can decloak them after you've traded them). If your allies are
particularly trusting, you can offer to hiss their |
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planets
for them. Hiss will work on any owned planet, you cannot hiss an unowned
planet. You will also be in a position to |
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buy
ships outright with freighters full of minerals and cash. |
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The
Lizards have no real natural enemies in the early part of the game. No one
can match their rate of development or |
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expansion.
This make the Lizards ideally suited to playing Invasion games. They stand an
excellent chance of taking out one |
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and
possibly two enemy Homeworlds before anyone else can get moving. If your
neighbors are fellow torpedo races, you |
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can
often destroy their Homeworlds with 3 or 4 Lizard Cruisers because they'll
rarely buy the 40 fighters to fill their |
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StarBases
early. If it's a fighter race that shares your border, use T-Rexes to nail
his Homeworld before they can get a heavy |
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carrier
out. If RacePlus is in the game, don't underestimate the usefulness of the
chameleon device. I know of one Rebel |
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leader
that was awfully surprised to lose his Homeworld to two Large DSFs being
escorted by an uncloaked Lizard Cruiser |
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(named
appropriately enough Colonial Escort). The three disguised T-Rexes toasted
his Homeworld before he had built his |
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first
Rush. The Lizards can also defend their Homeworld from early enemy
attacks. |
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Unfortunately,
it's all downhill from there. As the game progresses and your opponents can
start producing their big ships, |
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life
becomes increasingly difficult for the Lizards. It will take a minimum of 3
T-Rexes to destroy each enemy Heavy Carrier. |
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Once
the queue is reached, this can be a difficult ratio to keep up. Another major
problem for the Lizards is Ion Storms. |
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Hissing
ships get no ion experience for hissing, so one mid level storm can destroy
your entire hissing fleet in one shot. |
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So,
to recap, the keys to being a successful Lizard are the three "E"s:
Economic Production - of both minerals and cash; |
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Expansion
- of both number of planets and number of ships; and Elimination - of both of
your neighbors and anyone else |
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you
can reach quickly (e.g. through Sphere, wormholes, etc.). Creating a booming
economy and hitting your opponents fast |
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and
hard is good advice for any race, but the Lizards are the race best suited to
doing so as well as the race that has the most |
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to lose if they fail to
do so early. |
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