11. Strategy and Strategy Guides

11G. The Fascist Empire

6. Ship Information Sub-Menu

12. Add-on Information

11H. The Privateer Bands

11I. The Cyborg

11J. The Crystal Confederation

THE CRYSTAL CONFEDERATION (RACE 7) STRATEGY GUIDE(S):

Glittering Webs: A Guide for Playing the Crystals in VGA Planets:

This compilation was assembled by M. L. Maurer, in March, 1998.

Version 3

INTRODUCTION:

Many guides exist on the Net for the various races of VGA Planets (created by Tim Wisseman- Thanks, Tim!), but I've found

that the Crystals are often overlooked, or even worse, ignored.

This is an overview of strategies, advice, hints, and tips that I've collected from as many sources as I could find, with some

personal experiences and experiments thrown in. I'm not even trying to cover situations that you will find in the many add-

ons available for the Hosts: the points made here will have to be adapted for each new game you play.

ARE THE CRYSTALS THE RACE FOR YOU?

Who plays the Crystals? Well, for one, those players who like to use strategy instead of brute force. You will have to be

careful, and efficient. You will be the Spider, spinning your webs, and enticing flies into your proverbial parlor! If you like a

style of play which allows you to mount offensive forays early on in the game, or prefer a very aggressive strategy involving

fleets of Carriers, then the Crystals probably won't be the race for you. If, however, you enjoy carefully laying traps and

out-thinking and out-maneuvering your opponents, then you may well enjoy what the Crystals have to offer. The Crystals

are a thinking player's race: you must have twice the forethought as the other players, and the satisfaction of outwitting your

enemies is twice as sweet. There's nothing quite like sending a strike force against an enemy made up of ships that were

previously theirs!

WEB MINES:

The Crystals are justifiably famous for one thing: Web Mines. They are the blessing and curse of the Crystals, for not only

do they provide their major defensive and offensive weapons, their creation will drain from the Crystals a huge portion of

their money and resources. The key to using the Crystals is to set up a healthy economy, and the use of that economy to

create sufficient Web Mine fields. The fields must be placed and used carefully, or you will be wasting precious resources that

will be needed elsewhere. As you can see, the effective Crystal player must be a master strategist and economist at the same time!

When you place your web mines, your best tactic is to create small overlapping fields instead of one massive one. The reason

for this is straight-forward: many small fields are much more difficult to detect and sweep, and enemy ships caught in

overlapping fields will lose 25 kt of fuel for EACH field that they are in. To place overlapping mine fields, just place the ship

that is laying the web mine field close the edge of an existing web mine field. If you lay the mine field inside an existing one,

you will only make the existing one larger by adding your mines to it. If you have two ships laying web mines at the same

time, make sure that they are far enough apart that they will not be in the same mine field.

Web mines are in some ways more effective than the regular version, because they have a better chance of hitting an enemy

ship (the Host default is 5% per light year travelled). A ship hit by them only takes 10% of normal mine damage, but the ship

hitting them loses 50 kt or 1/6th of their fuel (whichever is greater), and will set the ship's speed to zero, so that they lose

another 25 kt of fuel at the beginning of the next turn for simply being in the field. Cloakers will find themselves at a distinct

disadvantage, since they run the same risk of hitting a web mine cloaked as uncloaked. The damage that they sustain from a

web mine hit will usually damage the ship enough to prevent re-cloaking anyway. As an added bonus, web mine fields will

drain the fuel from a ship even though that ship is in orbit around a planet! Enemy ships trying to sweep your web mines

must be within the web mine field, if the Host leaves the default setting.

WEB MINE PLACEMENT:

Now, where to put your web mine fields? Around planets to stop sneaky cloakers from waiting there in ambush, and to

hinder attacking forces. In main trade routes to protect your ships, or in an enemy's trade route to disrupt their shipping.

The disrupting power of a well placed web mine field plopped in the middle of an enemy's territory can be frightening

(hence the need for a good cloaking ship or two!) It is a good policy to lay them in your territory, place the web mine field,

wait a few turns, scoop them up again, and then move the field somewhere else. Keep your opponents guessing where your

web mine fields are located, especially the cloaking ones. You will need to have a couple of web-tending ships to keep your

webs in good shape and to capture fuelless ships, especially if fuelless ships are configured by the Host to be able to move.

Remember the overlapping mine field trick! If a group of enemy ships come charging through your territory while Mine

Sweeping, they will all sweep the nearest mine field. They might sweep one small field away, but they will then hit the one

directly behind it.

YOU AND YOUR SHIPS- USING THEM CORRECTLY:

The ships available to the Crystal player range from the tremendously effective to the dismally useless. The main bonus of the

Crystal ships is the comparatively massive cargo space- ideal for all of those torpedoes that you will be shuttling about. The

backbone of your fleet should be the Emerald and the Ruby, along with accompanying Opals. If these ships are your

backbone, then the Diamond Flame and the Crystal Thunder will be your fists. In a Shareware game, the Emerald is one of

the more powerful ships available, as well as being one seriously armed freighter. The Ruby can lay one heck of a mine field,

and with its two engines, can be used for tow-capturing as well (explained in greater detail later). Many careless players have

ignored the disruptive capability of a single Ruby, to their later sorrow. To be effective offensively, you will need to beg,

borrow, or steal a good cloaking ship. The Privateer's Meteor Class Blockade Runner is ideal, due to the Gravatronic

engines, followed by many of the Bird's cloaking ships (like the Resolute). The Lizard Class Carrier also makes a decent ship

for you. The threat of a cloaking web mine layer will make most players sweat! When you get cloaking ships, be careful, for

you are then susceptable to the same problems that plague the cloaking races- especially enemy mine fields!

To effectively take out enemy planets with a starbase, full fighters, and high defense points, you will need at least two non-

torpedo carrying Sky Garnets followed by a Crystal Thunder Carrier, although it will still be costly for you in Fighters. If

you can, use captured Carriers to do this job- an Instrumentality would be marvellous, especially if it was loaded with

fighters when you captured it!

When building your scout ships, consider putting X-ray lasers on your ships. You will be using the beams mainly to capture

enemy freighters. To knock out enemy fighters, X-ray lasers are just as effective as a Tech 10 beam, and a heck of a lot

cheaper! If you feel that you need more power in your scout's beams, use Disruptors. For your larger torp ships, consider

Disruptors: They are very cost effective, and will serve you well enough if you need to mine-sweep.

Opals make good scouts, especially in the early turns- use them to drop 1 clan per planet until you find a really rich planet to

colonize properly. The planets with single clans on them will additionally extend your radar range, and let you know if

anyone is sneaking through your territory. As well, Opals can drop smaller yet effective web mine fields, as long as they have

at least Mark 4 torpedo tubes (if not Mark 4, then use Mark 7). Opals will be an important part of your web mine laying

Battle Groups as well.

Don't bother building the Topaz. They have no Torp tubes, and their crew size is far too small for the ship, allowing it to be

easily captured. The main way it might be useful would be if another race captured it, and started to clone it! Of course, if

you're up against a player that stupid, you're going to win the game anyways! :)

A ship with mixed and specific usefulness is the Sky Garnet. With 7 beams and 1 Torpedo tube, it has some uses which are

immediately apparant. It is an ideal mine sweeper if outfitted with at least Disruptors, and although it can only carry 30

Torpedoes, it can lay successful web mine fields, especially if accompanied by a loaded Ruby. As well, the 7 beams are

effective against swarms of oncoming fighters. In this capacity, it is most useful against Small Carriers, able to destroy the Q-

tanker and the Red Wind Carrier by itself. When used in groups of two, they can strip a respectable 30-40 fighters off of

larger Carriers. Two or three Sky Garnets make a good front-line of defense against Medium Carriers sent to harrass your

Starbases. If you send them against enemy planets *without* Starbases, they can destroy them if they have a defense of 84 or

below (Heavy Blasters), and can strip all of the fighters off of such a planet no matter what the defense level. Against an

enemy Planet *with* a Starbase, with a planetary and starbase defense of 101, and 12 fighters on the starbase, it will destroy

all of the fighters and survive to fire 3 or 4 torpedoes. Don't forget that two Sky Garnets will also strip 30-40 fighters off of a

starbase with maximum fighters, softening it up for your major invading ship. When being used in this way, equip the Sky

Garnet with Tech 1 beams, no Torps, and Tech 1 engines (minimum cost)- tow it to the enemy Starbase with your attacking

Captial ships, and send them into combat first by using the appropriate Friendly Codes.

On it's own, The Sky Garnet is very effective against most small Scouts, Frigates, Escorts, and Cruisers. Where they run the

risk of being captured is when they are engaged in combat against ships with a lot of X-ray beams and a high mass, such as the

Merlin Class Alchemy Ship or the Neutronic Fuel Refinery Ship. Medium sized ships with 4 to 6 X-ray beams and 1 or 2

Torpedo Tubes will similarly capture a Sky Garnet; these ships include the Banshee, Catspaw, Cobol, D7-Coldpain, Fearless

Wing, Firecloud, Iron Lady, Lady Royale, Onyx, Sage, Saurian, and the Tranquility. Avoid these ships. Ships with more

than 4 Beams and 2 Tubes will quickly destroy the Sky Garnet; it should not enter combat with these ships, as only 4 Mark

IV Torpedo hits will finish it. This is generally not a ship to send into enemy territory on its own.

(Quick Anecdote- I sent a loaded Crystal Thunder towing a Sky Garnet equipped with Lasers and tech 1 engines to attack an

enemy planet. When I hit the planet, it turned out that there was a Starbase there! The Sky Garnet took out a mess of

fighters before being destroyed. Then, the Crystal Thunder destroyed the Starbase, after receiving 95% damage! Without the

Sky Garnet, I would have lost the Crystal Thunder.)

The Ruby Class ship is useful mostly for it's transport, mine-laying, and tow-capture abilities. It is excellent as a web-tender,

maintaining existing web mine fields and capturing fuelless ships ensnared within them. It is successful against scouts and

smaller torpedo ships. They are not bad for taking out planets with 84 or fewer Defense posts. Don't bother sending them

against starbases. You should outfit them with Disruptors for mine-sweeping. When intercepting and capturing wayward

freighters, use the Friendly code NTP to avoid trashing the freighter with your torps. As for Torp tubes, outfit Rubies with

Mark 7 or Mark 8 if you are using it in a Battle Group (see below). Remember that Mark 7 Torps are almost as effective as

Mark 8's, and cost less. With their 370 cargo space, they are excellent armed freighters, and can carry a pile of torps!

The Emerald Class Cruiser is a very capable warship. It is able to destroy other Medium Torpedo ships, but does not fair

well against Medium Carriers, even when outfitted with Mark 8 Torpedoes. Outfitted with Disruptors, they make good

minesweepers. To wipe out a planet with no starbase, the Emerald is all you need, able to clear away the oncoming fighters

quickly before unleashing the torpedos. Against a planet WITH a starbase, a few fighters, and a decent defense rating, you

will find that it will quickly becomes overwhelmed by the fighters before it has a chance to fire any torpedoes. You may well

want to try sending in a sacrificial Sky Garnet first.

Don't forget or ignore the Onyx. Your race loves hot planets, the hotter the better; 100 degrees is ideal. Don't use the Onyx

singally, or it will take forever to raise the tempature of a planet. Use them in groups of at least five, with an Emerald and a

web mine field or three to guard them as they do their work. If you find useful Natives (like Bovinoids) on a planet stocked

with tons of minerals, just cook it. Not only will it be better for your own colonists, but if you lose the planets, other races

will find the planet almost useless.

The Diamond Flame is a fairly good ship, but suffers from similar limitations to the Emerald. It has limited use against the

Large Carriers. It is a relatively strong ship, but is most deadly when coupled with a loaded Crystal Thunder. In such a

combination, with the Diamond Flame attacking first, you can take out most other ships. When the Diamond Flame is

configured with X-ray beams and Mark IV Torpedoes, it is effective as the leading punch; putting Mark VIII's on the ship

doesn't seem to help all that much, nor does using beams more powerful than Blasters. The Diamond Flame will take down

the enemy ship's shields, and the following Crystal Thunder will mop it up. Be careful with your Crystal Thunders- you

don't get to make free fighters, and a full carrier is a huge investment of resources. Use the web mines as your main weapon

against the biggest carriers. If you absolutely must take on something like a Biocide, use a Diamond-Diamond-Crystal combo;

you lose the first 2 ships, but you get to keep your carrier and some valuable fighters. Don't be reluctant to try some battle

sims, using the WinPlan VCR Sim, or any of the other available sim programs. You will find that your two Big Ships are

nothing to sneeze at (although expensive in Moly). When you create your battle groups, don't forget to set the friendly codes

properly on your ships to set up the appropriate battle order.

As a general overview, you will be using your own ships for web mine laying, and for defense as necessary. For offense, you

will be using other players' ships that you have captured, especially in the middle and late turns of the game. Do not waste

your precious resources on ships to invade your neighbours. This is not a wise course of action for the prudent Crystal

Player, who will instead use those same resources to capture twice as many ships, and send them out against those same

enemies. The ships you build can repulse most Torpedo ships, but Large Carriers are your biggest threat: stopping or

capturing them is paramount to your survival. As a last resort, retreat is always preferable to annihilation! Be willing to

retreat in order to regroup and gain the time you need to set out new web mine fields.

BATTLE GROUPS:

If you follow the wise strategy of having standardized Battle Groups, a good choice is 3 or 4 Opals with a Ruby or an

Emerald. This Batle Group configuration will be used primarily for the quick and efficient laying of web mine fields. The

Opals will have a Mark 4 torpedo tube, while the Ruby or Emerald should have Mark 4, Mark 7, or Mark 8 tubes. (Mark 7

is a good choice, Mark 8 if you need LOTS of mines) The idea is this: the Emerald or Ruby will be able to carry a pile of

torpedoes, which it transfers to the Opals as needed. The Opals take short runs away from the main ship to lay their small,

overlapping web mine fields, afterwards returning to the main ship for more torpedoes and fuel. If the main ship has Mark 8

torpedoes, so much the better- it can lay a large mine field, which can be scooped up by the Opals to be laid elsewhere- the

Mark 7 or Mark 8 torpedoes will thus be converted to a much larger amount of Mark 4's. Naturally, the latter tactic is

useless for the Shareware player; another good reason to Register! When the Opals of your web-mining group drop their

mines, make sure that they are at different locations far enough away from each other to achieve the overlapping web effect.

You may want to throw the occasional normal mine field in the middle of your web fields for that extra punch.

As stated previously, if you need to tackle planets with high-defense Starbases, use a battle group consisting of a couple of Sky

Garnets leading a Crystal Thunder carrier. Against Large Torpdedo ships, use the Diamond Flame followed by the Crystal

Thunder. Thus, as an offensive Battle Group, send out 2 or 3 Sky Garnets with a Diamond Flame and a Crystal Thunder,

plus another ship for extra fuel (like a LDSF or a Neutronic Fuel Carrier). As an added bonus, you can use the Sky Garnets

to lay small web mine fields similar to the Opal/Ruby Battle Group as described above, and if you are towing them, they can

carry more extra fuel for you.

For excellent specific info about weapons, hulls, and engines, check out the Infoloist at:

http://server.berkeley.edu/~edentan/infolistv3.1.html

CAPTURING SHIPS:

The Crystals (as well as the Privateers) have the wonderful ability to board a fuelless ship by towing it (note that you will

probably need a ship with two engines to do this, depending on the Host configuration). This will allow you to take

immediate possession of any ship caught fuelless (in your web mine fields or not), so that you do not have to tow it back to

the nearest Starbase to force a capture. If your web mines take the last of a ship's fuel, you will receive a message that the ship

is now harmless and out of fuel. If you tow-capture repeatedly with the same ship, watch your crew numbers. When you

tow-capture, the crew of your towing ship will be divided to provide the crew for the new ship. Some races will have a

percentage of their crew turn traitor and join you: 100% of Privateers, 90% of Feds, 70% of Colonials, and 40% of Empire

crew members will stay on the captured ship. If you let your crew numbers of your ships drop too low, you run the risk of

being easily captured in the event of a battle. Replenish your crews at starbases, using the Fix Ship function. As the game hits

the ship limit, being able to capture enemy ships gives you a distinct advantage!

If an enemy ship runs out of fuel within the 3 lightyear Warpwell of a planet, remember that you must intercept it at Warp

1, or you will be dragged to the planet.

When you are travelling towards a captured enemy warship sitting helpless in your web mines, you must consider setting

your mission to Mine Sweep as you approach. When an enemy sees that they have no chance of getting out of the webs, they

will frequently drop their torpedoes into a protective mine field, hoping to slow down or destroy any of your capturing

ships. You may have to drop an opposing mine field to destroy theirs if you are in a hurry to capture the enemy ship.

HINTS TO THE WISE:

One flawed tactic that will lose you the game quickly is to be too aggressive early on in the game. The Crystals need to be

patient and careful, in order to develop their economy before tackling other races. Don't reveal the location of your

homeworld or location for as long as you can- hop from planet to planet in one turn jumps, avoiding being caught in open

space. When your location becomes general knowledge, the weaker cloaking races will generally tend to steer clear of your

territory, as they will have much easier prey elsewhere. Your general strategy will be: build up your economy to lay your

web mines and establish trustworthy allies. Use your web mines to capture non-allied players' ships. Use those ships to

conquer the Echo cluster and bring the other races to their knees. Easy, huh?

Don't forget to raise the defense on your planets to 26 wherever possible. This will shield your planet from detection (except

the Evil Empire's Dark Sense), as well as provide some small safety against lightly-armed scouts. Raising them more than that

is not really cost effective- if a lowly Sky Garnet can take out a planet with a defense of 84, the extra supplies and

MegaCredits spent for the defense are wasted. Your money is far better being spent on web mines as your primary means of

defense. You probably won't have to place more than 25 mines on your planets either. They should produce minerals at a

quick enough rate, and more mines may cause unhappiness with theplanet's inhabitants.

There's a quick way to find out if there's an enemy ship waiting for you on an enemy planet- pop a web mine field around it,

and see next turn if there's a message saying that there's a ship in it. Remember that any ship around the planet will still lose

fuel in your web mines field. If there is an enemy ship there, be sure to check to surprise enemy mine fields popping up!

Placing a web mine field around an enemy Homeworld is seldom as dramatic as is hoped for- most enemies will quickly

produce a multi-beamed ship with the Starbase set to refuel, and they will sweep them away. If they have lots of freighters

sitting in, or trying to go through the field, you may cause them to lose several hundred Kt of fuel as well as interrupting

their freighter lanes for a turn or two. If you are playing with the Starbase+ Add-on, you will find that this tactic is next to

useless, since the Starbase itself will be able to sweep your mine field away. If, however, you pop a web mine field or two

around a Starbase low on Fuel, the effects can be devastating. For example, I have done this to a Robot Starbase, and ended

up with 2 free fully loaded Instrumentality carriers!

When the time comes for you to expand, I personally use the following strategies: Load up your battle group with the

appropriate torps, along with a few freighters full of clans and some supplies, and perhaps a Neutronic Fuel Carrier. Be sure

to bring along some money as well, so that you can beam up minerals and make new Torps away from your Starbase with

the "mkt" friendly code (registered only). If you think that there's an enemy ship waiting for you at the planet, then use the

aforementioned ploy of throwing a web mine field around it and waiting for a message the next turn. You especially want to

find planets with high temps. If you find one, drop a pile of your colonists, and throw up a few web mine fields. Make more

torps with the "mkt" code, and keep expanding that way- drop web mine fields to secure the area, then move in. You will

also be keeping an eye open for advanced Bovinoid planets.

Bovinoid planets are critical for you- you need those supplies! If you find one such planet, build a starbase around it. Tow a

Merlin there, or build one there if you have to, and start converting those supplies into minerals. If you need one, get a

Neutronic Refinery ship there too. As well, tax those bovinoids to get the money you will need to build your new ships.

Studies have shown that the best way to tax is to keep the rate at 0% for three turns, then at 25% for one turn- it will allow

maximum growth and money. Use this tax strategy on the bovinoids. If you need to, heat up the planet with your Onyx

class ships- not only will your own colonists thrive, but other races will find the planet much less useful if they happen to

take it.

If you are running your slow or damaged ship away from a large enemy carrier, and you have reinforcements on the way,

you should consider playing cat-and-mouse in the Warpwells that extend 3 lightyears around the planets. Any ship with a

waypoint in a Warpwell must have a speed of Warp 1, or the ship will be dragged down to the planet right after the

movement phase. If you get into the Warpwell before the enemy ship, you can travel indefinitely around in the Warpwell at

Warp 1 in the area a little less than 3 light years away from the planet. As long as your ship is more than 1 light year away

from the pursuing ship, a single pursuing ship will not be able to successfully intercept your ship without being dragged to

the planet. They will be forced to either chase you around the planet indefinately until your re-inforcements arrive, or send

in more of their own enemy reinforcements. Naturally, if there's a web mine field around the planet, they may decide not to

chance running out of fuel as well. You should consider hiding in Warpwells if your ship has low tech engines, is damaged,

or is low on fuel, and not able to escape. This is a good trick to keep in the back of your mind- it probably won't win the

game for you, but it may get you out of a jam or two!

You will probably not want to play the Crystals in games where regular mines are able to destroy web mines, if players can

mine-sweep your fields at a distance, where your homeworld does not start at 100 degrees, or in games where the Colonies

are allowed to fighter-sweep them away. Playing the Crystals effectively is challenging enough without these handicaps.

Timo Krieke sent me this little gem:

You'll have to agree that the fact that the Crystals (and the Privateers)

can't clone captured ship is a disadvantage.

Under Host.exe, it is possible for you to make this disadvantage smaller.

You can do this by filling the 500 ship slots as fast as you can: as you

know, no race can clone ships when the 500 ship limit has been reached.

In general, in a mineral-rich game, you'll build your second starbase at

turn 10 - 15. The ship limit will hit at turn 30 - 40. Between turn 15 and

30, use every starbase you've got to build a ship. If you can't build a

decent ship, build a SDSF with tech 1 engines. Such a freighter will cost

you almost nothing.

Your stack of these useless, harmless freighters are protected by your web

mines, and can't be destroyed by marauding enemy cloakers.

When you notify the Privateer player in your game about this plan at the

beginning of the game and he/she agrees joining you, the ship limit will be

reached even sooner! (This can also be a base for a good relationship,

remote cooperation or even straightforward alliance!)

When the ship limit has been reached, recycle the SDSF again to receive

Priority Build Points. Use the regular recycling techniques.

[The use of building large numbers of SDSF before the ship limit is

questionable for all other races, but for the Crystals (and Privateers)

this specific angle of speeding up the ship limit is only a good thing.]

OTHER RACES:

What will help your game immensely is your choice of allies. Yes, you need allies: a game in which you have 11 enemies will

be a very short one. Your major drawbacks can be offset with a good ally, whether they can provide you with cloaking ships,

free fighters, cloning ships for you, etc. You can offer your ally the service of having web-mine fields laid for them. Web

mines laid in another race's ID will not drain 25 kt of fuel per turn, but they will take fuel if someone else blunders into their

mine field. Best of all, should an alliance go sour, you cannot be hurt by web mines that you have put down for someone

else- you are always immune to them and their effects! If an ally turns on you, remember this little trick: if you lay web

mines inside a field that you laid for another race, it will turn into one big mine filed that belongs to you! Since it will usually

be in their territory, they will have a huge problem on their hands! Because of this, don't be afraid to lay web mines in an

ally's territory- you can always take control of the field later.

When possible, try to diplomatically arrange for the downfall of neutral and enemy Carrier races. Not only is it a good

excuse for you to capture some much-needed carriers, but having fewer freely roaming carriers out there can only benefit you.

Cloaking races are not bad allies, if you can convince them to go against the Carrier races. The cloaking races will primarily

want to ally with you to avoid having your web mines used against them. If an alliance goes sour, you can defend against

cloaking races better than any other type.

Torpedo Races are generally on a more even footing with the Crystals. Their ships will not be as beneficial to you as a good

carrier or a decent cloaker. Still, don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

Now, on to Individual Races:

The FEDS make a good ally for you, as they can clone your ships, and take those ships, Super-refit them, and then return

them to you. The Feds are also usually grateful for web-mine protection against cloaked ships, especially Lizard ships, which

are immune to the effects of their anti-cloaking Loki ship. They will generally be interested in trading Medium ships for Web

mine fields.

The LIZARDS can make good allies, as they can provide you with cloaking ships, can back up your offensive efforts with

their high ground-attack ratio, and can use their Hiss mission to help you squeeze the last few tax credits out of your

colonies.

The BIRDS can offer you cloaking ships, as well as providing the much-needed stealthy Information you sorely lack. The

Crystals can always use a few good cloaking battleships, whether they trade for them, or capture them. The Birds will prefer

to trade them for protection against more powerful races. They can clone for you as well.

The FASCISTS have cloaking ships to offer you, as well as the famed Glory Device ships, which may come in handy in case

any enemy cloakers get past your webs. They can clone for you, and get rid of some pesky Amorphous natives for you. All

in all, not a stellar ally.

The PRIVATEERS have good reason to respect you- next to the Lizards, you are probably their most feared enemy. A few

of your web mines can put a serious wrench into their plans- heck, most races that you ally with will be looking at your web

mines to protect them from the Privateers! They can't hover long around planets in a web mine field, and they run a good

chance of hitting a mine field every time they enter one. However, as allies, they are very useful. Best of all, their Meteor

Class Blockade Runner is second to none in the covert mine-laying department. Together, the two of you could strip every

other race of any ship you want! Cloaked Privateer ships can tow enemies into your mine fields for robbing- if there's some

fuel left over after being robbed, the mine fields may be enough to finish draining the fuel away!

The CYBORGS have their HYPerdrive ship, which can zip right past your mines to whatever planet they have in their

range. Note that this is one more good reason to have those rotating small web mine fields around your planets. The

Cyborgs can offer you cloning, and that's about it, unless you can talk him out of a chunneling Firecloud or two (fat chance).

Not a great ally for you.

The EVIL EMPIRE can help you. Yes, they can clone, but better still, they can provide you with free fighters for those

Crystal Thunder carriers. As well, their Dark Sense can give you vital information, as well as having HYPerdrive ships,

should you need to expand your empire more quickly. Beware of having the Empire as an enemy, especially in the early

game- their carriers can quickly cause you a lot of grief if you aren't careful. With their tendancy to build lots of starbases,

they can be a tough nut for you to crack.

The ROBOTS make very good allies, and fearsome enemies. As an ally, building fighters in space has obvious benefits for

you, and they can clone ships for you. Best of all are their Mine-laying abilities. Picture this- they lay mines for you, you

scoop them up, and lay web mines for them. Lots of free mines floating around out there... cloakers, beware! Together you

can make the Echo cluster a very, very hazardous place. If the host is configured allowing regular mines to destroy web

mines, this is an added incentive for you to stay on the Robot's good side. Since you are weakest against Carrier racers,

allying with the Robots is also a wise move for you for obvious reasons.

The REBELS are a good ally as well, thanks to their ability to build fighters cheaply. They can clone for you, as well as using

their Rebel Ground Attack to soften up enemies for you. They have a HYPerdrive ship too.

The COLONIES are good allies with their fighter-building capability, as well as their cloning ability. If your host is

configured to let them fighter-sweep web mines, being on their good side is an obvious plus. They are also your best ally

against the Robots, should they not wish to co-operate with you.

SUMMARY:

As a summary, remember these important points: Stay hidden as long as possible at the beginning of the game. Establish an

excellent economy. Build effective battle groups, laying small, overlapping web mine fields. Don't be too aggressive too early

on. Get a good ally or two, preferably with cloaking or carrier races. Be sure to read the guides for the other races to know

your enemies; forewarned is forearmed. The DreadLord Battle Manual is a good place to start.

Most of all, have fun playing the thinking man's race, and be sure to thank your gracious and generous opponents for all of those free ships!!

Many thanks to Timo Krieke and Donovan for feedback and information that went into this revision of The Guide!

This compilation was assembled by M. L. Maurer, in March, 1998. For comments, suggestions, questions, or outright

flattery please email me at: mmaurer@usa.net

Please feel free to distribute freely, but do not make any changes to the text. Thank-you.

Glistening Gems: Autarch's Guide to the Crystals

Contents:

1.) Intro.

1a.) Guide description

1b.) Race description

1c.) Players

2.) Setup

3.) Ships

3a.) Ship Designs

3b.) Arming your ships

4.) Advantages

4a.) Web mines

4b.) Regular Mines

4c.) Boarding party

4d.)Terraforming

4e.) Population

5.) Disadvantages

5a.) Web mines

5b.) Ship size

5c.) No cloning

6.) Offensive capabilities

6a.) Cloakers

6b.) Battle Groups

6c.) How to Attack with the Crystal Race

7.) Defensive capabilities

7a.) Web fields

7b.) Ship Jobs

7c.) How to Defend the Crystal Race

8.) Planet Management

9.) Analysis of the other Races

9a.) Feds

9b.) Lizards

9c.) Bird Men

9d.) Fascists

9e.) Privateers (Privs)

9f.) Cyborg

9g.) Empire

9h.) Robots

9i.) Rebels

9j.) Colonies

10.) General Tips and Summary

11.) Thanks and info

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

1.) Introduction:

1a.) Guide Description

This guide was written due to the frustrating lack of Crystal guides on the Net. The Crystals are an often over-looked race,

brushed off as weak and not much of a threat. That is, until one either plays them, or one runs into someone who KNOWS

how to play them...

For the beginner and intermediate, this is the guide for you. If you're an expert, and I am not, you don't need this. The

Guide is a conglomeration of stuff I have read, learned, and played. This guide is based on Host 3.22.16, but I don't think

real significant changes have occurred in the newer host programs. I use VPA (Vga Planets Assistant), and I have been playing

for almost a year now. Many thanks are in order, and I'll get to them in the end.

1b.) Race Description

So, who are these Crystals, anyway? Well, the docs say this: "Crystal People are a silicon based life forms about 3 foot tall,

with no limbs and a metallic color. They have two large glowing eyes in the middle of their polyhedron form. Larger

Crystalline ships are very powerful and tend to favor beam type weapons. They have several small ship types that are useful

in exploring planets and capturing freighters. Their main weapon of choice is the dreaded web minefield. They use these

fields to trap enemy vessels, drain them of fuel and then tow the victim home after it is out of fuel to force it to surrender

using a tow capture.

They own a ship that will turn all planets into deserts. Onyx Class Frigate: Will make any planet turn into a hot boiling pool

of rock and desert (temp 100). The Crystal People can lay WEB MINES in space that cause starships to come to a dead stop

for one month. Any ship that is in a web minefield loses 25 KT of fuel per turn trying to keep the shields up."

This pretty much sums it up, and gives you an idea of some advantages, which I'll explain in a minute. But be forewarned:

you are a wanted race. The Borg, Privs, and Crystals, in that order, are what people want exterminated quickly. You're #3

on the most wanted list, so watch your back.

1c.) Players

Before I go any farther, I want you to know what kind of a person should play the Crystals. Don't get me wrong- anyone

can do it. But in order to be successful, it helps if you have a certain mindset. If you like coordinating large fleets of huge,

impressive carriers, this race is not for you. If you like using cloakers to sneak around into enemy territory, hitting and

running all the time, this is not for you. If, however, you like to wait, watch, lay traps, out-think and out-maneuver your

opponents, then you found the race for you. The Crystals are often called the "thinking man's race." This is true- you're the

one who lays the webs like a spider, catching all those flies, and then using them to destroy your foe...

2.) Setup:

The Crystals are a fun and flexible race to play, but there are certain settings which will help you along in playing.

A.) Web mines:

Make sure that they are on. Plain and simple, they help you survive and win.

B.) Crystal/Privateer Boarding Party= YES

You can board ships after they are drained by your webs and take control. You want this, as you can use the ship right away.

C.) Crystals like Desert Worlds= YES Your race thrives on these planets, and make sure your host gives you a homeworld

that's desert, too. You don't need this handicap.

D.) Web Sweep Range= 0 Light-years

You want your enemy to be INSIDE your Webs, which is what, most of the time, the case will be anyway.

E.) Normal Mines Destroy Web mines= NO

The Bots will come, drop their 4X minefields on yours, and come steaming right in. Any race could pull this stunt, not

necessarily the 'Bots. You don't want this.

F.) Chances of hitting a Web Mine per lightyear= 5%

Default for normal mines is one percent, the higher for webs the better. Don't play if this is lower than 5%. This is for

cloakers as well. Regular mines cloaked is 0.5%, while 5% with webs.

G.) Web minefield Decay= 5%

Both normal and web minefields decay at the same rate. The lower, the better especially for you.

H.) Colonies can sweep Webs= NO

This would allow the Colonies to come in with their scores of fighters and sweep your mines away. Default web mines per

fighter is 3, meaning each fighter destroys three mines. Multiply that by 120 fighters, and you have 360 mines gone, that

might not have been. Kiss your small fields good-bye.

I.) Science Vessels= Yes

Can't use your terraformer with out it. No terraformers will work, and you need these to.

J.) Ship with one engine can tow= YES

Very handy, allowing your Opals and Topaz to tow, and your smaller freighter versions. Also, with your tow/capture, use

the freighter with 1 engine to run out an grab 'em.

K.) Ships without fuel can move= NO

This really doesn't bother you all that much, because if they have no fuel, they aren't going to get out of your web fast. And

you'll have captured them soon anyway.

3.) Ships

I am going to use the default ship designs, as I know that there are slightly different versions of ships out there.

Opal Class Torpedo Boat (Beams: 1 Torps: 1)

Uses: Use it as a scout in the beginning. But, once the game is going, and you get those planets up and running, use this to be

a pain in the butt. Make sure that it has high-tech torpedo launchers, and you can make a nice little web. Hopefully snagging

that nasty ship chasing you.

Topez Class Gunboat (Beams: 4)

Uses: Practically useless. No tubes, use the Opals instead. Don't even waste the shipslot for it.

Ruby Class Cruiser: (Beams: 4 Torps: 2)

Uses: Use this as my main intermediate warship. It's cheap, light, and has a *huge* cargobay- 370 kilotons! Put Mark 8

torpedoes on it, and a 192 light-year minefield pops up, nailing ships all over. If you are low on stuff, and need to build a

good ship, build one of these.

Sky Garnet Class Destroyer: (Beams: 7 Torps: 1)

Uses: You can use this as the tow/capture ship. It could be used as a minesweeper as well, with it's 7 beams. I prefer the

former use. Don't build too many, you have better ships than this.

Emerald Class Battlecruiser: (Beams: 8 Torps: 3)

Uses: Nice compact ship. One of the best for all you unregistered players (but it's more fun to register!). Cargoroom is 510

kilotons- better than two MDSF combined. Almost half the cargo room of a large deep space freighter (LDSF), but with

weapons on it. Use these to fix up those deteriorating web mines. Diamond Flame is much better for conflicts though. So use

this in beginning battles, and lightly defended planets.

Diamond Flame Class Battleship: (Beams: 10 Torps: 6)

Uses: This is your tech 9 ship, and you can't sneeze at it. The major problem is the mineral cost- 390 kts of Moly! Ouch. This

is the ship you send into battle. The cargobay of only 90 kts can put a damper on it's effectiveness though.

Crystal Thunder Class Carrier: (Beams: 6 Torps:0 Fighter Bays:8)

Uses: Even though this is a tech 10 ship, it's only slightly better than an Instrumentality. It can be more. The Dreadlord

Battlemanual says that you'll lose 8480 mc and 393 Molybdenum if she goes down. (That's 80 fighters, and the hull cost.) Not

cheap- but if you pair it with a Diamond Flame, you can kick serious butt. How serious? Try Golems, Biocides, and the like.

Will you be damaged? Sure. You might lose now and then too. But your ships are cheaper than most other's.

Freighters:

Uses: The Small (SDSF) one is no good. Too small. Use it in the beginning, then colonize it. The Medium (MDSF) one I use

alot. The cargo is okay, and it helps to shuttle stuff around to your homeworld or nearby bases.

The Large (LDSF) one is the best for your money, with a decent cargo hold.

The Super Transport- forget it. Waste of time, money, minerals, and a shipslot.

The Neutronic Fuel Carrier: The Feds, Borg, and Robots don't have 'em. Trade them, and use them, since you need the fuel

to fuel those captured ships.

Refinery Ships:

Uses: The Neutronic Refinery ship makes gas out of a mineral and supplies. Nice to have around.

The Merlin Class Alchemy Ship makes any mineral except

neutronium out of supplies. Put it around a Bovonoid planet. Build them if you need them.

3b.) How to arm your ships

You aren't seeking combat. Therefore, you don't need to arm your ships heavily. X-Rays are fine for your ships. The highest

you need to go is Blasters (tech level 3), if you need punch. Let your enemy send you those nice high-tech beamed ships. They

are going to need them to sweep your webs. So then you get them to use against their minefields. As for torps, I upgrade to

Mark 7s (Tech level 8). I use Mark 4 (MK4s) in the beginning, as they costs 13 megacredits per torpedo. The MK7s I use for

my Diamond Flame, since it will need them to take down enemy shields.

This way, you save a whole lot of money, since other races are going to upgrade their stuff, and be low on cash for a while.

You need the cash to get going, and this way you have some.

4.) Advantages:

4a.) Web Mines

These are your race specialty, and are the things that let you win. Web mines suck gas out of the ships that are in the field. 25

kts per turn of fuel, per turn, per ship. What if a ship strikes a web mine? Then the ship loses 1/6 of it's fuel, or 50 kts,

which ever is greater. They are also stuck, and have stopped moving. This means that next turn they lose *another* 25 kts of

fuel for starting out in the web field.

4b.) Regular Mines

You can make these, like every other race. I usually don't, web mines are more effective, and cost the same. But you can

throw these in a minefield for extra explosions. Nothing is worse than running into a web mine, and then next turn running

into a regular one. Or vice versa. Then the ship is as good as yours, that is, if it isn't toast...

4c.) Boarding Party

This is a feature that the Privateers (Privs) have as well. What it means is this: any ship without fuel you waltz up to, but a

tow lock on, and next turn, it's all yours. You take the crew of the ship and stuff them out the nearest airlock, and take over.

Some races have cowardly soldiers, and they'll defect to your side. These are the four races, and the percentage of the crew

who will go traitor:

Race %traitor

Feds 90 %

Privateer 100 %

Empire 40 %

Colonial 70 %

When you board the ship, unless they are Privs, you are going to have to have someone over there to run the captured ship.

So you divide the crew complement of the first ship. Example: Let's say you get lucky, and a Bird Man Resolute gets caught

in a web. The Resolute has about 380 crew members. You chug out there with an Opal, with a crew of 25. You put a tow

lock on the ship. What happens? You take all the Bird Men, tell them to go fly in the vacuum, and 12 Crystals stay to take

control of the Resolute. Why twelve? Because 12 is roughly half of 25.

The tow/capture can be disabled with the friendly code: "nbr".

4d.) Terraforming

You have in your possession the Onyx Class Terraformer. What's it do? Cook planets. Your race likes it *hot*, and that's

what these little guys are for. Suppose you find that Humanoid Unity planet, but it is Arctic 3? Bummer, huh? (It happened

to me.) What do you do? Send a few Onyx ships over. NEVER use one by itself- it'll take forever. Besides, it's not very

strong. Send about five, being towed by LDSFs, or by better teched Onyxes. Protect this guy with web mines over those

important planets.

4e.) Population

Your race has a cool ability that is not well known. I had to try this for myself, upon reading it. Your race can have 1000

clans per degree of temperature! Remember that Arctic 3 Humanoid Unity planet I mentioned just a second ago? I dumped

colonists on it, until I had 3000 clans. Then I brought a LDSF with another 1200 clans. I put them on the surface, and next

turn, all 1200 clans had froze to death. Good thing you have that terraformer.

The formula is like this: 1000 clans x temperature on planet.

Type 50 planet: 5,000,000 Crystals max.

Figure it out: 100 colonists per clan x 1000 clans x 50 (the temp)= 5 million Crystals!

5.) Disadvantages:

5a.) Web mines

You're probably wondering why I put this in here as a DISadvantage. My reasoning is simple- webs cost a lot of cash to

upkeep, and lay in the first place. You say, "They cost the same as regular mines." Exactly. Regular mines are expensive too,

and the Crystals main problem is money. Or the lack of it. Get your economy going FAST.

5b.) Ship size

Let's face it- your ships stink. They are great armed transports, but aside from the Thunder, Diamond Flame, and maybe the

Emerald, your ships are not big. You see a fleet of high-teched- beamed Biocides coming, and all you have are Emeralds and

Rubies, well, you're dead. Armed transports aren't worth a spit in the wind against most other ships.

5c.) No Cloning

And on top of all this, you can't clone! When you finally get that Dark Wing, and you really want it cloned, go find

someone you can trust besides the Privs. (They can't clone either.) Otherwise, start using the captured ship.

6.) Offensive Capabilities:

6a.) Cloakers

Many guides say that you need cloakers to be offensive in the game. This is partly true. Having a cloaker in Crystal hands

will make other races bite their nails. Why? Because you could drop a big web minefield right in their shipping lanes. See a

ship you want? Drop a web. See a planet you want? Drop a web, and have a fleet take it. If the cloaking races are smart, and

are attacking, they'll throw high beamed, no torp tube cloakers at you. No matter what they are, cloakers are a great help to

you, but torped ones are prefered.

6b.) Battle Groups

One ship will not win the war for you. A fleet will. As stated earlier, don't plan on coordinating huge carriers if you're

playing the Crystals. (Unless you capture them...) A good battle group is an Emerald or a Ruby, paired with some Opals.

Opals don't suck gas, and they can go far. What you are aiming for in this battle group is to make overlapping minefields.

The more fields, the higher chance you enemy gets stuck, and the more fuel gets taken. You Emerald/Ruby should be fueled

up, and loaded with torps. It then lays a big minefield, which the Opals scoop up the torps, carry them away a bit, and lays

more fields for an overlapping effect. Viola!

Another battle group, essential for your survival, is the Diamond Flame/Crystal Thunder combo. The Diamond Flame

either tows around your Thunder, or is at least with it. You send your Diamond Flame in first, loaded with some torps. It

brings down the shields, of, let's say a Golem. The Crystal Thunder comes in, shields up, launches the fighters, and wastes it.

You might be scratching your head at this. But think- the Crystal Thunder/Diamond Flame combo is cheaper to use and

maintain than a fleet of Golems/Rushes/Gorbies, or whatever. The Diamond Flame gets eaten, but you will use the Crystal

Thunder more. Make sure that you have supplies onboard or nearby, to fix the Crystal Thunder. You don't want to lose

one, if possible.

6c.) How to Attack with the Crystal Race

First off, please, don't attack until you are set up. If you attack, and don't have a place to scurry back to, you'll wind up as

jewelry for the other races. Not a noble end for a great spacefaring race. Once you are setup, attack. When I mean setup, I

mean all shipping lanes covered with webs, all major planets, and several starbase up and running. Get your self up and able

to withstand a long siege. Then, attack your neighbors. Don't fight a two front war. Get a truce with one, and go for

another. The races are explained in better detail later, but here is some general attack policies.

Move slowly. See a cluster of planets you'd like? Send a convoy. Diamond Flames make a good impression, just make sure

you have enough for your combo battle groups. Take the planets, and then web mine the whole place. You see, your web

mines are like moats. You effectively cut off anyone attacking, like a castle surrounded by a moat. You take the cluster of

planets, it's gonna be hard to get them back. Use your webs as moats. Storm a planet, drop several web fields, and make it a fortress.

Trench warfare- remember World War I? Trenches stretched for hundreds of miles, and men died for several yards of

ground. I'm an avid WWI fan, but that's a different story. How does this apply to VGAP? Simple- like your webs are moats,

they are also trenches. You don't advance fast- that is not the style for your race. You grow slowly, and you want your

enemy to feel the pinch. Find a good planet- let him burn his resources fighting you over it. You have plenty in reserve, and

your webs make an exacting toll. What if he doesn't buy it and attack you? Taunt him. You *are* impregnable by this time,

and start teasing him. You will eventually overwhelm him by just slowly eating his resources. Eventually, he'll get tired of

retreating, and then attack you. He has to- otherwise he loses. Then you lay your traps, outthink him, and capture fleets of

ships. Then, storm him and kill him. But do it wisely. Don't lose ships foolheartedly.

Cloakers- use your cloakers to disrupt enemy shipping lanes. See major traffic? Get right in the middle, and drop a ton of

mines. Freighters slam into them, as do war ships. The your enemy has 2 choices- let it decay, or sweep it. And either way,

it'll take a while to get rid of it.

7.) Defensive Capabilities:

7a.) Web Mines

You have the ability to withstand an attack, if you are entrenched. Don't go gung ho, and get clobbered, only to have the

Biocides come knocking at your door. You *don't* need every single planet covered by web mines. This is a waste if you do.

What do you cover then? Major planets, starbases, terraformers, battle group stations, and mutual borders with hostile races.

Especially the last one. I played the Fascists once, and I was invaded by the Robots. I held him off, remarkably, but his

minefields were all over. Then the Borg came up from underneath him, and attacked him. His minefields started decaying,

and I say a *3* light-year gap between two of them, leading to the heart of his space. I took one cloaker (I didn't have many

left), and slipped through, saying my prayers as I went. I made it through, and caused some havoc, blasted Qtankers and

such. Never let kinks develop in your armor. These develop into holes, where enemy arrows can find a weak spot. As long as

you have them covered, they have to go into a web field, and sweep, not slip by you.

7b.) Ship Jobs

There are certain jobs that your ships should do for defense. Tow/capture ships. You capture something nice, and you're not

going to let it sit out there and collect dust are you? No. Send out your Sky Garnet, and tow it away, or board it. Or an

Opal (if "one engine can tow" settings is on). Your Rubies and Emerald should be used as transports, and light attackers.

Opals/Topaz as scouts, early colonizers, and battle group members. Crystal Thunder/Diamond Flame as defense with

starbases, or offensive weapons. Use your ships wisely to kick someone out, if they get in.

7c.) How to Defend with the Crystals

First off, this shouldn't happen. There shouldn't be anyone smashing your core planets. Lay your webs here to stop them.

The rule your enemies are going to follow is: high-tech beams. Lots of them. Which is where you have to figure out some

things. You have a fleet knocking on your door, sweping your webs. Who's the biggest threat? The Brynhild with 6 Heavy

Phasers? Or the Nocturne with 4 Blasters and 4 torp tubes? The Brynhild. Take it out. And remember- they have to be *in*

your web to sweep them.

Use your smaller ships (Rubies/Emeralds) to attack medium ships. For the bigger ones, attack with the Diamond

Flame/Crystal Thunder combo.

Surprise your enemies, move your webs. Scoop them up, lay them a couple of lys in a different spot. Keep the moving, make

your enemy unsure, and he'll slow down. Got cloakers? Sneak up, and lay a couple of overlapping web fields for more fuel

drain. You have the power to stuff and capture any fleet coming at you. There is no safer feeling in all of VGAP, then having

an empire surrounded by web mines, making you impregnable.

8.) Planet Management

Money is your problem. Find those Unity planets, or Insectoid/Bovonoid planets fast. If it's cold, cook it with an Onyx.

Get your defense posts up to 16 fast. 15 is the minimum to avoid scans, I prefer 16 better. Build 20 if you have the Feds,

Robots, or Colonies nearby. It takes 20 dfs (defense posts) to block a bioscanner, which those races have. Tax your natives.

More colonists = more money. More money = more web mines. Easy, eh? Build Starbases (SBs). You can't survive with one

starbase alone. Find those Ghipsodial planets, and build those good engine warships. Your ships are rather inexpensive to

build and arm, just see (3b.)

Use Amorphous planets. "What? How?" you might ask. "They'll eat my people, and I can't collect taxes from them." But

supposed that a nearby Amorph planet got hit by a big meteor? Tons of Moly in the core.... This is what you do: Take a

MDSF, fill it with 150 clans, some supplies, and some cash. Go over, and drop everything at once. Keep your tax rate at zero,

but build those defense posts, mines and factories. *Your people will out breed the Amorphous eating machines.* Sure, you

can't collect taxes, and people get eaten, but most people bypass these planets. You get into the endgame, where minerals start t

o get scarce to haul, and you have at least 50-75 Amorph planets in the Cluster. Untouched. Unblemished. Perfect. If you

don't want to settle with the worms, ask your Fascist buddy to "pop" a Glory Device over the the planet, turning all

Amorphs into supplies. This allows new natives to appear too (if option is on).

9.) Analysis of the Other Races

Here is where I am going to outline the races, what you get from allying with them, what they get, and how to deal with

them if they are hostile. To save space, the 10 other races get from you: Web mine protection, a terraformer, decent

transports/torp ships (Ruby,etc.), fuel carrier (Feds, Borg, Robots) and if they lack a half-way decent carrier (i.e Birds, Privs)

you can give them one.

9a.) Feds

The Feds are a nice ally for you. They can clone no problem. They have cash with their 2x tax rate, something you need.

Their ships are good, with a decent amount of beams. They can super-refit your stuff as well, if you feel the need to upgrade

cheaply. The Feds are not a hard enemy. They are weak in the beginning, and their strength is in the empty hulls that they

have, upgrading as they go. Use you webs, and snag their ships. They don't have a fuel carrier, so they have to haul gas to

their front lines with LDSFs. Watch for their Lokis, you don't want your only cloakers blasted.

9b.) Lizards

The Lizards are nice to ally with. They provide you with cloakers, minerals galore (2x mining), and can HISS your planets

for more cash. They have a very strong economy, and you can get a great deal from them. They can clone too. As enemies,

they can be tough. The Lizards have a ground attack ratio, and their LCCs have a nice cargo space. Keep your planets stocked

with people, and especially your secondary Starbases. You don't want to lose one because you didn't have enough people on

the surface. Use your webs, and avoid combat directly. Their tech 10 ships (T-Rex and Madonzilla) are not that strong, and

come into pairs or groups, like your Diamond Flame and Crystal Thunder. Lay traps for them, break up the fleets. Try to

keep them out, and play in their yard. Watch for Lokis, if you get a cloaker, since the Lizards can build one like the Feds.

Use the Thunder/Flame Combo wisely, as the Lizards take 150% damage.

9c.) Bird Men

The Bird Man fleet is almost entirely made of cloakers. You'd like a couple, and he doesn't want to fight you. His economy

is worse off than yours, believe it or not. Ask for a Resolute (Advanced Cloak) or White Falcon (Huge gas tank - 430kts)

You can get info from their superspy mission, and they'll clone the ships you capture. Don't tick these guys off, until you

are entrenched. They'll come and rip all your money off, with their "bum" friendly code. You need the cash. Get your webs

set, and if you catch a cloaker, increase the webbing. Especially if it is a Resolute. Dark Wings eat too much gas. If you can

catch their lower tech ships out of cloak, nail them with a Diamond Flame, or teched up Emerald.

9d.) Fascists

Nice race, I like them. They clone, and have cloakers. They have their nasty pillage mission, which can generate a ton of cash.

They also have Glory Devices (GDs), which explode when they detect a cloaker other than theirs. This is a ship advantage,

and GDs would be nice for those snotty cloakers that get past your webs. Watch out if they attack. They can attack you, and

your planets can not fight back. They are immune to ATT/NUK codes. Spring a Web mine surprise for them, since they

cannot cloak and pillage at the same time. They also have a Ground Attack advantage, like the Lizards, a bit weaker though.

Still, populate your planets. These guys can survive with 60 clans on desert planets. So even if you cook a planet, they can still

live on it.

9e.) Privateers (Privs)

These guys have relatively weak ships. They have the tow/capture you do, and also have gravitronic cloaking ships. The one

you want is their Meteor Blockade Runner (MBR). Their power relies on stolen ships, and they can't clone. Not a great ally.

As enemies, they can be dangerous. They are the last of the cloaking races, but they can travel 162 lys in one turn. You don't

see the attack coming, since it is far away, and probably cloaked. Keep your webs up, and if necessary, escort your ships.

Make sure if you are in Priv territory, you set your fuel down on the planet, and set the mission to beam up fuel. They Privs

will rob you, you beam up fuel, and toast them all.

9f.) Cyborg

Either ally with them, or destroy them, if they are close. That simple. As allies, they can clone, provide you with Cubes,

chunnelers, and HYP ships. As enemies, they aren't that dangerous to a strong Crystal. If you see a Firecloud, destroy it. See

the Firecloud, kill the Firecloud. See Firecloud, kill Firecloud. Simple. Their cubes are gas guzzlers, and they lack decent

medium warships. Their HYP ship can be a pain, so beef up your defenses on your planets to prevent them from taking over

and assimilating. Once they get a foothold on your native-occupied planets, it's gonna be a pain and time consuming to kick

him out again. Web mines, Diamond Flame/Crystal Thunder combos, moving minefields, and the Borg will beat their

cybernetic heads in frustration.

9g.) Evil Empire

They can provide you with free fighters for your Crystal Thunder. Their Dark Sense mission will let you know where to hit

your enemy. They clone, and have the most powerful ship in the game, the Gorbie. Their Super Star Destroyer is immune to

ATT/NUK codes, and all you have to do is drop ten clans on the surface of *any* planet, and it's yours. Even Homeworlds.

This is a ship ability, not a race one. As enemies, they can be a pain. They can HYP to your planets, or Dark Sense any

planets you own. He'll know right where to hit you. As such, think like him. Where would you go, if you knew what was

vital? And go guard that spot. Keep his SSDs from your planet, and damage it, so it can't perform it's Imperial Assault.

Avoid direct combat, unless necessary. Bait him, trap him, don't fight. He's got the greatest ship in the game, the Gorbie.

The Empire has a tendency to spread out too thin, so look to break him.

9h.) Robots

These guys are *great* allies. They require excessive amounts of Duranium, but their ships are some of the best around.

Heavy, tough, packed with fighters, and have huge gas tanks. Now, about that 4X mines per torp bonus. Everyway I have

tried it, it doesn't work that well for you. If he lays the torps in your name, he lays them regularly, like you do.If he lays

them, and scoops them, he doesn't scoop at one-quarter of what he laid. (Follow me?) So either I missed something, or I am

right and it doesn't help you out that much. They can build fighters in space, so they can give you some. They can clone, and

they'd like your Rubies, since the Cat's Paw is the only torp ship they have. As enemies, they can be scary. If "normal mines

destroy webs" is on, they'll clean your clock for 1/4 of the price. Avoid direct combat with them, becasue you won't win. A

Diamond Flame loses *every time* to an Instrumentality packed with fighters. Even if the Diamond Flame has Blasters and

MK7s. Use your Flame/Thunder combo to take out their Automas, Golems, and Instrumentalities. Use overlapping web

mines, otherwise the fuel drain won't stop them. Destroy their Cat's Paws, since then they can't make minefields. Watch out,

since he'll probably be upgraded to MK8 torps. Find their Qtankers, and destroy them, limiting their free fighter ability.

They, like the Fascists, can survive on desert planets with 60 clans.

9i.) Rebels

The Rebels are not the most stellar ally for you. They have a HYP ship, but they have no need for your terraformer. They

survive nicely on Arctic planets. They are immune to ATT/NUK codes, can clone, and make free fighters for you. Their

Rebel Ground Attack is very nasty. Two to three turns of RGAing, and you people are plunging into a civil war. Hence, get

small web fields over your planets, to drain fuel quicker. Their ships are crappy, and you can beat them hands down, if you

get them quickly. Otherwise they'll HYP away, or counter attack. Destroy their fighter factories, the Gemini Fighter

Transport. One Ruby with MK4s will beat this thing easily. Diamond Flame/Crystal Thunder combo will toast their Rush.

9j.) Colonies

The can clone, have free fighters, and their Cobol. The Cobol is a bioscanner, and collects fuel from nowhere. Very handy to

have around. They also have the Aires Class Transport, a much cheaper ship than the Neut. Refinery ship. It makes fuel out

of minerals and supplies, but the hull is dirt cheap. Patriots are nasty, and will often be used in groups. Watch for them, and

the Rebels have them too. If "Colonies can sweep webs" is on, get on their good side. Use your webs, and your Diamond

Flame/Thunder combo to destroy his Virgo. They will probably be towed by Cobols, so count that into your combat

simulations. (You do run sims, don't you?) They also have the Gemini, so destroy those. They are a very strong race when

played right.

10.) General Tips and Summary

A.) Stay out of sight. You're a wanted race.

B.) Don't get a cloaking race mad early on.

C.) Be patient. Don't be aggressive, if you want to live.

D.) Get your economy going quickly.

E.) Use your Web fields. Overlap them, and scoop 'em. Keep them moving.

F.) Make an ally- 10 races against you will be a short game.

G.) Check your settings, and don't play if you're getting cheated.

H.) With HYP probes, set your Bases to "force a surrender", and the planet code HYP. That way, they HYP in, and they

are yours. Otherwise, change your planet codes constantly.

I.) Have fun! It's a game!

11.) Thanks and Info

All in all, the Crystals are a very fun race to play. I enjoy them very much, and hope you learn some stuff from this guide. If

not, well, it's not my fault. <G> If you want my advice, or want to offer your opinions, you are welcome to do so. I'd like

to hear from you. I'd like to thank my friend Derek, who's a great host. If anyone like to play against me (I'm Crystals, of

course), contact him. You have to like a "plain vanilla game." No add-ons, just you, your enemies, and your wits. His address

is: dkalweit@eznet.net.

If you'd like to get in contact with me, the address is:

ewesta@juno.com.

If you can't reach me, talk to Derek, as he's a good friend, and he'll know where I am. I'd like to thank my friend Fred, as

well, for getting me guides. Also my friend Dan, for being there. Before I go, if you are an avid Federation lover, check out

the League Of Admirals, started by yours truly. The head Admiral now is Donovan, at donovan@xs4all.nl. He'll fill you in.

If you can't reach him, get me, and I'll help you.

See you in my web!