11L. The Robotic Imperium

1. Introduction to VGA Planets

7. Minefields Sub-Menu

11C. Early Game Strategy

11M. The Rebel Confederation

2. Race Information Sub-Menu

8. Combat Sub-Menu

11D. The Solar Federation

11N. The Missing Colonies of Man

3. Friendly Codes Sub-Menu

9. Ion Storm Sub-Menu

11E. The Lizard Alliance

4. Planet Information Sub-Menu

10. Misc. Information Sub-Menu

11F. The Empire of the Birds

5. Starbase Information Sub-Menu

11. Strategy and Strategy Guides

11G. The Fascist Empire

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12. Add-on Information

11H. The Privateer Bands

11I. The Cyborg

11J. The Crystal Confederation

THE ROBOTIC IMPERIUM (RACE 9) STRATEGY GUIDE(S):

HINTS begun by: Roger Burton-West

Continued by: Gary Grothman, Gordy Pine, and Luc Projean.

Hypertext formating by: Rodney C. Fisher Jr.

Last Modified 11/17/96 18:58:48

1.9 The Robots

I don't need to tell you about mining, do I? Use the Cat's Paw for escorts

if you need one. It's not optimal but the only thing you have - all others are

either too weak or too heavy.

Well, whoever has the Robots as one of his/her races can make ENORMOUS mine

fields, essentially for free. In case you haven't seen other posts on this,

Here's what you do:

Robot sends torpedo ship to Starbase of ally. Ally's starbase set to LOAD

TORPS. (Friendly codes must match). Robot lays mines in ally's identity,

getting 4X bonus. Ally sweeps mines, puts them back on starbase. Repeat.

Each cycle gives you 4X as many mines, leading to an enormous minefield.

In the world of VGA planets, the three 'true' fighter races helds the edge

in frontal assault, and out of the three, my personal favorite is the Robots.

Why? Because I feel that the Robots have the best offensive and DEFENSIVE mix

out of all three major fighter races. So I would like to share some strategies

with you would-be Cylon masterminds out there.

I.Ships

The robots have a limited ip selections... and out of all of them, only

four types of ships are worth building (besides the freight and alchemy

ships): Golem, Instrumentality, Cats Paw, anQ tanker. Golem is the king of

the battlefield, and not much more needs to be said about it.

Instrumentality should be your backbone because they are 'relatively' cheap

compared to other carriers of yours in term firepower and cost ratio, and

also because 2 instrumental together can annhilate almost ANY ships in the

galaxy (assuming the instrumentality are fully stocked, that is) Cats Paw is

the ONLY ship of yours that can carry torp and mine, so built LOTs of it

and mine the galaxy. Q tanker is your fuel carrier and fighter factory

rolled in one, so have a lot of it.

II. Ships you REALLY want to get... 1) Gemini class freighter... The Rebel and

the Colony e an edge on you because of it. Acquire a few of them and your

instrumentality strike group won't need 4 Q tankers anymore. 2) Cloakers

with sizable cargo and big fuel tanks... like the White Falcon, Fearless

wing, Lizard Class, MBR, Coldpain, etc. Use the cloakers to mine the hell

out of your oppoents. Nothing hurts more then having one's major resupply

routes mined to hell. 3) MBR. Someone mentioned using MBR to tow super

carriers to battle. This could especially create an element of suprise if

you have a cloaked MBR meet the carrier task force at a planet some 81+ -

162 light years away from its target. Then use the MBR to tow the carrier

throught to the strike target... You got therene turn earler then expected.

There goes his planet. But this trick usually only works the first time,

once they know you got a MBR, game's up.

III.Great things to do as the Robot:

Go exterminate the privateers... The Robots are dangerous opponets to the

privateers, almost as bad as the crystals. So hire out to exterminate the

space scums. The way to elminate the privateers as the Robots is 1) Use

cloaker to mine if possible. 2) Mine alot. 3) Use shitty ships scarifices

to find out where are the privateer starbases 4) Mine somemore 5) send in

STRIKE GROUPS of instrumentality with fuel carriers who are pepturally

transfering fuel to destroy privateer starbase. 6) Mine somemore. With

the Robots, mine your way to victory. I found small fields with diameter

of 50 ly is about optimal.

Oh, one last thing... Find a cloaking race to be your friend, you need

those cloakingne layers.

Thanx....I play the robots...hehehe How about a planet with 100 DP and a

starbase with 60 fighters?

In one of my games I play the Robots. Few months ago I destroyed the

home planet of the Bird Men. One Instrumentality was quite enough. 100

defence posts is a piece of cake. This planet had about 200 defence

posts and 200 at the base. My ship took 70 % damage.

Here is some strategy tow the Instrumentality (I usually do since it needs

four engines) with a Cat's Paw Destroyer. If you run into a mine field use the

Cat's Paw to lay a bigger one remember that x4 mining advantage. Towed ships

can't be hit and the cat'w paw has enough cargo space to repair itself in

space with supplies.

=============================================================================

<???, MLANDSEA@NETUSA1.NET>

In article <43agq1$rnp@ixnews6.ix.netcom.com>,

shimes@ix.netcom.com (Scott Himes ) wrote:

I'm playing in a game as the robots, for my first time. Can some one

give me some help on playing as the robots (ex. ships to build,

actions, allies to make, and other stuff) Oh also we're in about turn 6

Okay, here's what U want to do. First off, depending on how the host is

setup, U might have a Cat's Paw (your ONLY torp ship) with 300 torps already

on it. Send your Cat's Paw to a nearby planet, peferably CLOSE to your

homeworld, and set the mission to lay mines. There's your advantage. The

robots lay 4 times the amount of mines per torp than the other races.

In turns down the road a little ways, have all your Cat's Paws go to some

planet and have their friendly code on "mkt" and have the minerals and $$$ on

board that will produce torps (same ratio as for SB's...). Then have the

ships lay mines as the mission. This strategy is currently working wonders

for me in a game I'm playing currently. You'll have massive mine fields all

over the place. Otherwise, Cat's Paws really aren't very good for much else.

The next thing U want to do after that first Cat's Paw is taken care of is

colonizing. LG Deep Space Freighters and Super Freighters. Just get them out

as fast as possible and try to conquer as many unknown planets as possible.

Do the normal strategy of trying to be neighborly of course. Setup borders,

and be careful to not dump a huge mine field on top of your ally....it upsets

them....

Once U get a few Large Freighters heading off in different directions, begin

building Q tankers... put Warp 1 engines on it, because U want them right

there around your SB's... Once built, put 1 fuel on them, change their

Friendly code to "lfm" and their mission to build fighters. From then on, the

only thing U do with your Q tankers is every turn remove as many fighters off

each as possible and place them on your fighter carriers, and any extra, try

to store on the SB....until that overflows. It is not uncommon for me to have

5 or more Q tankers in orbit around each of my SB's...but then I make over 160

fighters every turn from them.

After U get the first 1 or 2 Q tankers produced, build your best ship -

Instrumentality class. It's relatively cheap for how strong it is. This is

an excellent ship! U want a whole fleet of them, with only occassional Golem

Carriers too. Until U produce 80 fighters from your Q tankers, keep that

Instrumentality in orbit with lfm and build fighters. Once U hit 80 fighters,

fill up the Instrumentality class, change its Fcode and Mission and send it

off. BTW, the Instrumentality's should have lasers on them. They recharge

faster than the bigger weapons...that way when U fight another fighter

carrier, U can blast more fighters faster.

Even though my strategy sounds like it'll leave U kinda undefended for the

first several turns, you're not. Your mine field(s) will be a considerable

defensive power if another race decides to come after you. You'll enjoy

reading the many Distress calls from enemy ships that have hit your mines.

Quite entertaining. And then when U begin to mass produce those

Instrumentality Classes....you've got a fleet that isn't going to be ignored.

With your Q tankers making at least 80 fighters a turn on the SB that U

eventually decide has enough resources to produce several

Instrumentalitys...U've got yourself a production line. Good luck, hope I

helped!!!

mlandsea@netusa1.net (SWAMi)

=============================================================================

This is all very good advice to the beginning Robot Player.

I would add however, that back on Turn 1 you should build a Pawn

Class.

This is not a particularly good ship, but it does have native lifeform

scanners which can be of invaluable assistance when colonizing. Build

it - set it on sensor sweep and identify native worlds for your LDSF's

to colonize.

.Robert

rtrifts@idirect.com

=============================================================================

Make large ships ans let them build fighters till they are full and these

ships are one of the strongest! See below for more information:

DAY 1 Engine TECH LEVEL to 10........transwarp drive

Weapon .. .. .. 3........blasters

Torpedo.. .. .. 10........mark 8's

Hull .. .. .. 6........LDSF and Instru

Tax.......about 13%.....5 levels above the green.

1. Strategy

I will mine the area surrounding my planet with the 300 mark 5 torps

and at the same time mine-scoop with a Cat with MK 8'S. If the Cat that is

mine-scooping has a low ID, then this will avoid giving away your position

to anyone else who is minesweeping. I colonize the SMALL DEEP SPACE

FREIGHTER and recycle the CAT's PAW CLASS DESTROYER that come at the start

of the game.

The ships I build during the first 10 days are:

2 CAT's PAW DESTROYERS with blasters and MARK 8 TORPS (turns 1 & 2)

2 Q-TANKERS with TECH 1 (one) engines (turns 3 & 4)

1 INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS BASESHIP (turn 5)

2 CAT's PAW DESTROYERS (turns 6 & 7)

2 LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTERS (turns 8 & 9)

1 INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS BASESHIP (turn 10)

By not spending money to build fighters or torpedoes or upgrading

above HULL TECH 6 till much later in the game (if at all) I have a

formidable force. Depending on the game configuration (if there are a lot

of minerals, but little mc) I may choose to use Mark 4s until the minerals

in the game have been depleted. Again, depending on game configuration, I

may choose to make the 2 LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTERS before turns 8 & 9.

The INSTRUS each get 80 fighters that I build from the Q-TANKERS.

When invading I mine the area with 100 MK 8 mines. This destroys any

enemy mines and makes the area hazardous for enemy shipping movement. The

Robots make minefields 4X other races, so at a reasonable cost I have

control of the battlefield while invading.

Best ally is the Privateer. With the accelerated ships for towing the

Instrumentality Baseship and the Cat's Paw (for mining) I have a strong and

fast moving strike force. The accelerated ships can also be loaded with

Mark 8s and sent deep into enemy territory to make for a nasty surprise when

someone gets up in the morning, and, lo and behold, half of their ships that

they thought safe from mines (because they were so far from the front lines)

have just hit mines!

One of your convoy groups could consist of the following:

LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER

CAT's PAW CLASS DESTROYER

INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS BASESHIP

Joost Walraven

joost@twofence.xs4all.nl

=============================================================================

At> I read this newsgroup every now and again, and notice tips for almost

At> every race except for the Robots. Well, I'm asking. Anybody got and

At> tips for the Robots? Duranium I find to be a major problem, and the

At> fact that the Intrumentalitys use up grevious amounts of fuel.

At> I am also (unfortunately) playing the unregistered game, so a

At> slight bias towards uniregistered version would be nice.

At> Cheers.

So. That duranium problem could easily be avoided if you just were playing

in a registered game... All that I can now think of is to establish good

freighter routes to feed your bases with dur. (Or maybe get a humanoid

planet, build a base - and Merlin and tow it to a bovinoid planet)

To other tactics: mine. Mine a lot (4x). Build Cat's Pawns and fill the echo

cluster with your mines. It's really quite fun, actually [;] Build Q-tankers,

too. They are good to move with your Instru strike groups (fuel) and are

excellent fighter builders. You could build couple of them with low tech

engines and leave them on top of your star base as stationary builders.

There's no point in building (IMHO) another capital ships than Cat's,

Q-tankers or Instrus. As a Robot, you have the very best tech 6 capital ship

in the whole game -in fact, two Instrus are able to kick almost any ships

butt (if they are filled with fighters, that is, an empty Instru is no good).

When you are attacking, use your miners to make enormous fields, it's the

fastest way to remove your foes minefields. It makes travelling much more

comfortable to your ships, and hazardous for his/her ships. (If you want to

get really mean, trade/steal/buy a cloaking miner and use it to mine your

enemys freighter routes into a hell. It hurts, believe me!)

mika.ahvonen@sharenet.com (Mika Ahvonen)

=============================================================================

SHANNON LYNDS wrote:

Opinions wanted: Which is the best Robotic ship to "mass produce"?

Personally, I never buy the pawn or Cybernaught: Pathetic and costly

The instramentally, Automa, and Golom are the ones I buy. WHICH is the

best all round ship?

At this moment in time I think the best "spear head" ship is the Automa,

due to its hull mass and CARGO room (to build lost fighters). The

instrumentallys, although awesome, would need local fuel tankers to produce

fighters for them. I think The Instrumentallies are best for patrolling the

parimeters of the Robotic empire for defence, or for expendable losses when

fighting a huge ship like the Gorbie.(enough fighters for one battle:-) An

instrumentally followed by a Golom will stop single ship.

So.....go with the Automas???

Thanks for your time,

Shannon

The Instrumentality is generally known as the best all-purpose

Robotic ship. For extra fighters, you can either build a stripped

down low-tech Golem or you can probably trade or steal a Gemini

Class from the Rebels or Colonies.

Regards,

Victor

=============================================================================

duranium,not much tri and mol. also buiding fighter is taking tri and mol

and supply not duranium. that is reason that robot is given an advantage

then other carrier race. tip is simple, take a notice to duranium and make

a trans route by duranium.

constantly consider 'at next turn, how many duranium will remind?'

futhermore it is stupid to make all robot ship with trans warp (not if

there is many many Credit and material).just make ins,atoma,golem with

level 1 or 2 engines. and tow them with Q-tanker or cat's claw. but to

assault to enermy defence line, it is needed for few ins,atoma, golem with

trans warp. and it's not necessary to equip robotship with hitech

beamweapon. because robot's 4Xmine can replace of mine sweep(not if your

enemy is Crystal)

building robot ship is limited as follow

pawn baseship:for bio scanner, build this one in early.

cat's claw destroyer :use to lay mine

Instrumentality baseship:top battleship in share!

atoma baseship :take a few Credit than Ins.and continually fight without

fighter supply.

golem baseship :ranked best ship with virgo,gorby,biocide.(if your

enermy is a Heavy carrier race, make this)

try best to abtain cloak ship :use them a suprise 4Xmine lay.

try best to abtain gemini :good fighter maker and tranporter

(if your enermy is colony or rebel.

surely get this ship by trading or capturing

or you are short for fighter supply)

as my experiences..fuel is the biggest weak point of robot.

so my advice to robot player about attacking, keep in mind this word

'concentrate your attack'

do not careless attack,concentrate your baseship at boader and collect

fuel, and then use cat's claw lay mine(using cloaker is better).

then let your all baseship charge to your enermy at the same time.

enermy ship is isolated by mine,then you can defeat one by one.

not ACT as your enermy expect' sorry for my TERRIBLE english :)

=============================================================================

First thing to remember about the Bots is that although they can build

free fighters, they can't build many at once, the Q tanker makes only

12 per turn, verses 30-40 for the rebel and colonial factories, so you

will need 3-4 over your homeworld, and a couple tagging along with

your fleet using the 'lfm' friendly code to keep up the supply.

Also, although the Bots have decent ships, they are quite heavy (need

lots of fuel) and are quite expensive, so don't through them away in

rabid assaults just because you're one of the 'heavy' races. Never

fight a single battle unless you're surrounded by your own mines. You

make 4 times the mine units per torp, which translates into minefields

with 2 times the radius for the same money, use this advantage without

mercy, and blanket your traget cluster/planet with mines before you

move in, even before the enemy knows you are there. Lay mines with

precision, always getting the maximum overlap, and always without any

warning.

Remember that minefields, cool though they are, do not last long

against someone who is prepared for them (ie: has heavy beam ships in

the area) but they slow down the enemy immensely, preventing the

reinforcement of that critical enemy starbase for the 2-3 turns it will

take to reduce it to slag. Minefields will also stop freighters and

small cloakers from making a run for it, enabling you to pound them at

will while the enemy's capital ships look on uselessly from the outside

of the minefield.

You need money, lots of it, especially in the fight against cloakers.

To effectively deal with the cloaking races, you will have to 'walk' a

series of minefields all the way to them, to protect your capital ships

from being intercepted. (the Q tankers are especially vulnerable to a

cloaked intercept, and without them, your instrumentality's cargo hold

just doesn't have enough to launch a serious attack.

Be careful with your Cats Paws, they are basically worthless in a stand

up fight against most ships (especially an MBR, a good Priv could take

out your empires minelaying ability in one turn my intercepting all

of your Cats).

In fact, be _especially_ careful of the Privateers, you might have a

massive minefield ability, but if you don't use it, and an MBR or four

gets to your starbases, you are FINISHED. An MBR will destroy any of

your ships except the fighter carrier, and you won't be able to arm a

fighter carrier because your fleet of Q-tankers went the same way as

your Cats!

=============================================================================

Hello,

First of all, the Robots may have some heavy ships but they are quite

weak if they are not being played right. Everybody thinks that the four

times mine-laying is kewl.. but you need to know how to use it properly.

When you are registered, make sure you start with little mine-fields.

Depending on the host-settings that is. Because if you are allowed to

create overlapping mine-fields, you can expand those little minefields

later on, so that the change of a mine-hit increases. Just drop about

10 Mark 4's every time and let it grow later on in the game if you have

found that 10.000.000 unity Insectoid planet, because you will need the

money!

I prefer to have Mark 4 launchers on my ship. That way i can make

torpedo's in space, for just a little money. This increases the flexibility

of your fleet.

When you are playing shareware, just return to your starbase to drop

the right amount of torpedo's each time.

=============================================================================

As the Robot player, you have many huge, offensive ships at your

disposal. However, most of them are not worth very much.. thus, you

really shouldn't build more than one of any ship not on this list of

decent ships (excl. frieghters):

Cat's Paw Class Destroyer

Q Tanker

Instrumentality Class Baseship

Golem Class Baseship

Not much of a selection, huh? The Cat's Paw is invaluable, as it's

minelaying value is great, and that is about all you have to protect

against cloakers (considering as the Robot player, you don't have any

patrol vessels). The Q Tanker is your most efficient fighter-builder,

and doubles as your fleet supply vessel. Your Instrumentality is a

fearful vessel; it can crush a Super Star Cruiser without breaking a

sweat. The Golem is not too useful, due to it's very high cost; however,

some situations are best handled by this behemoth.

The Robots are one of the races that most needs traded ships; they

possess, as aforementioned, no patrol vessels, and no support vessels

(trade for a Gemini).

HINTS begun by: Roger Burton-West

Continued by: Gary Grothman, Gordy Pine, and Luc Projean.

Hypertext formating by: Rodney C. Fisher Jr.

Last Modified 11/17/96 18:58:48