RETURN TO SWITCHBOARD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11A. Dreadlord Battle Manual |
|
11K. The Evil Empire |
|
|
|
Return to Strategy Sub-Menu |
|
11B.
Colonel's Thoughts |
|
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 |
|
|
|
6. Ship Information Sub-Menu |
|
12. Add-on
Information |
|
11H. The
Privateer Bands |
|
|
11I. The
Cyborg |
|
|
11J. The
Crystal Confederation |
|
THE REBEL CONFEDERATION (RACE 10) STRATEGY GUIDE(S): |
|
|
|
THE REBEL'S HANDBOOK |
|
|
by Pavlos Chatzis |
|
|
Final Edition |
|
|
March/1/1999 |
|
|
Introduction |
|
|
Host-types |
|
|
CHAPTER 1 : The Rebels |
|
|
1.1 Advantages |
|
|
1.2 Weaponry |
|
|
CHAPTER 2 : Basic
techniques |
|
|
2.1 When the game starts |
|
|
2.1.1 The isolated
homeworld |
|
|
2.1.2 Colonizing guide
lines |
|
|
2.2 The game in progress |
|
|
2.2.1 Ship building guide
lines |
|
|
2.3 Fighterbuilding (selling) |
|
|
CHAPTER 3 : Advanced
techniques |
|
|
3.1 Combat |
|
|
3.1.1 Two combat basics |
|
|
3.1.2 DEFENSIVE WORK |
|
|
Planetary defense |
|
|
Movement |
|
|
Defensive fleets |
|
|
Mine fields |
|
|
Active areal defense |
|
|
3.1.3 OFFENSIVE MEASURES |
|
|
Rebel Ground Attack |
|
|
Patriots and the early
war |
|
|
Two fighter fighting
rules |
|
|
The Rush and heavy
battles |
|
|
Massive attack |
|
|
3.2 ESB (Engine Shield Bonus) |
|
|
3.3 The Falcon |
|
|
3.4 About |
|
|
Small ships |
|
|
Single ship attacks |
|
|
Useful ships |
|
|
The experimental game |
|
|
The aggressive game |
|
|
CHAPTER 4 : Dealing with
the others |
|
|
4.0.1 General behavior |
|
|
4.1 Federation |
|
|
4.11 Colonies |
|
|
SUMMARY |
|
|
CHAPTER 5 : Tables /
Equations |
|
|
5.1 Advantages |
|
|
5.2 Ship list |
|
|
5.3 Planets |
|
|
Credits |
|
|
|
INTRODUCTION |
|
|
Goal of this file is, to
convey basic thoughts which for the Rebel are essential, |
|
|
so that you know who you
are when your choice hits race no 10. |
|
|
HOST TYPES |
|
|
Since the portable host
system has been developed , scenarios can have ships with up to 20
beams/tubes/bays, |
|
|
so there's a great
difference in playing either with TimHost or Phost. Though basic techniques
like exploring, |
|
|
colonizing and keeping
an economy are still the same. Once you got familiar with the ships from
PList, which |
|
|
usually is in use whe
you play with the alternative host, you will have to transfer your battle
tactics to these |
|
|
more differerentiated
ship types. |
|
|
CHAPTER 1 |
|
|
The Rebels |
|
|
1.1 Advantages |
|
|
The Rebels' main
advantage is, to build fighters wherever they want. "They have many
small friendly robots |
|
|
on board all their
fighter carriers that build fighters when ever they can find 2 kt Tri, 3 kt
Mol and 5 kt Supply |
|
|
units, whatever the
ship's mission is set to". They can support up to 60 clans on desert and
90.000 clans on |
|
|
ice planets and they can
clone captured ships. Their Falcon
Class Escort has the capability of
traveling in |
|
|
hyperspace, crossing 350
lj in a single turn. The Rebels can land small groups of saboteurs on a
planet's sur- |
|
|
face to destroy facilities and reduce planetary
defenses. This mission called Rebel Ground Attack can be |
|
|
performed by any of
their ships. They are immune to
planetary friendly codes NUK and ATT,
so they can |
|
|
orbit a hostile planet
as long as they want, without being touched by planetary defense. |
|
|
1.2 Weaponry |
|
|
A first overview of the
Rebel fleet and best use of the single ships. |
|
|
SMALL DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
|
|
This small fellow is
mostly meant for the very early stage of the game, to get your first
colonists |
|
|
on another planet. The
70 kt of cargo space are not useless at all, but not of great importance. |
|
|
You could have one or
two of them in areas with a high density of planets to quickly get credits |
|
|
to a near base. |
|
|
TAURUS CLASS SCOUT |
|
|
The Taurus needs two
engines and has a huge fuel tank which allows exploration very far from home. |
|
|
But on unexplored
planets nearly always Neutronium can
be found, that you should not |
|
|
pend the 600 MCr (for Transwarp engines) or even 400 MCr (for Nova 8 drives) to
equip a |
|
|
Taurus. It has only 20 kt more cargo space than a Falcon. But, its large fuel tanks and the two |
|
|
engines make it a very
good towing ship. |
|
|
CYGNUS CLASS DESTROYER |
|
|
It has a balanced amount
of beams and torpedo tubes. Having
some of them inside your area will |
|
|
keep it clean from
hostile hyper probes and small cloakers. The Cygnus is your first escort
ship. |
|
|
FALCON CLASS ESCORT |
|
|
The Falcon is not the
strongest but it is the most useful ship in the game. It is cheap, it has |
|
|
the capability of Hyper
Jumping and it is able to carry 120 kt of cargo. The Falcon can scout |
|
|
your opponent's
empire, colonize planets very far from
your base, and is the best money
courrier |
|
|
if your territory grows
over your head (see CHAPTER 3) Do not use it in combat at all, except for |
|
|
hunting enemy probes or
cargoes, because it gets easily caught and do not waste its abilities by |
|
|
escorting freighters with
a Falcon. |
|
|
NEUTRONIC FUEL CARRIER |
|
|
You will need the fuel
carrier when your area expands and you
start building heavy battleships. These |
|
|
consume a lot of fuel
when armed with fighters, and often it is a very long way from a
starbase to the |
|
|
borders. The fuel
carrier is also important for supplying your freighter routes with
Neutronium, |
|
|
once the colonized
planets report depletion. |
|
|
MEDIUM DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
|
|
Good for colonizing and
shipping minerals in the early game
and in mineral poor games (which you |
|
|
only should play as
Rebel when you want a real challenge). Do not build it anymore, once your
economy |
|
|
works fine. You will
need a lot minerals to produce
fighters and the 200 kt just are not enough. |
|
|
DEEP SPACE SCOUT |
|
|
A mass of 30 kt and crew
size of 10 does not make it very effective even with 4 beams. Spend the |
|
|
necessary 29 kt Mol to
build fighters. Perhaps you could use it as armored cargo ship near a base, |
|
|
or as explorer in safe
areas. |
|
|
GUARDIAN CLASS DESTROYER |
|
|
This is your
response to the shields of large enemy battleships. Armed with Mark 7
Torpedoes it |
|
|
removes the shields of
any capital ship and can even cause some points of damagers - before |
|
|
getting destroyed. The
Guardian often is the ship you sacrifice to succeed in a special task. |
|
|
ARMORED TRANSPORT |
|
|
Two engines, one beam,
200 kt of cargo pace. If you need an armored medium sized freighter, |
|
|
build the Deep space
scout instead. |
|
|
SAGE CLASS FRIGATE |
|
|
As interceptor : Build the Cygnus instead. More tubes,
crew members and only one engine. |
|
|
As minelayer : Build the Tranquility instead. |
|
|
As towing ship : Build again the Tranquility instead |
|
|
As anything else : You should not. |
|
|
SAGITTARIUS CLASS
TRANSPORT |
|
|
The Gemini is you better
choise. |
|
|
LARGE DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
|
|
This is your preferred
freighter size. Create a good network of cargoes to supply your
fighter factories |
|
|
with minerals. For
longer distances, a Cygnus or Patriot escorts, to keep small cloakers and
probes away. |
|
|
TRANQUILITY CLASS CRUISER |
|
|
The Tranquility, having
380 kt cargo space, is your mine laying, and towing ship. Two torpedo tubes |
|
|
are not very effective,
so avoid medium sized and large enemies. The Tranquility is a very part of
your |
|
|
attacking fleet. |
|
|
PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIER |
|
|
The allround
soldier. Whenever you don't know what to build, build a Patriot, arm it with fighters and |
|
|
launch. Having a Patriot cruising is better than
having none. But do not build too many, because when the |
|
|
game comes near the 500
ship limit, you are lost, if 3/4 of your ships are Patriots. This is your
second |
|
|
escort ship. |
|
|
GEMINI CLASS TRANSPORT |
|
|
Your glamorous fighter
factory. Outstanding in capacity it produces 40(!) fighters per turn. |
|
|
Don't use it for
anything else. When you think of an armored freighter, better think of the |
|
|
Tranquility. With only
20 kt less cargo it is a much better
armed and so better choice. |
|
|
The Gemini is no fighting
ship. |
|
|
IRON LADY CLASS FRIGATE |
|
|
The Iron lady has 8
beams, that means she is your mine sweeper, your fighter killer and your planet taker. |
|
|
Equipped with mark 7
torps it is capable of taking a planet with up to 150 defense ports and more,
getting |
|
|
only slightly damaged.
The Iron Lady does not fight against ships, for the simple reason, that 99
crew |
|
|
are easily killed and so
she gets captured. |
|
|
NEUTRONIC REFINERY SHIP |
|
|
You will need at least
one in the advanced stage of the game. Your Rushes consume much fuel until
they move |
|
|
into position. The best place for your Refinery is a Bovinoid planet, and it is much more effective |
|
|
when it works together
with a Merlin. Don't waste money and
supplies in mounting something better
that |
|
|
Stardrive engines, and only arm it with better beams when it
is placed near your borders. |
|
|
SUPER DEEP SPACE
FREIGHTER |
|
|
When you need more cargo. |
|
|
RUSH CLASS HEAVY CARRIER |
|
|
This is one of the
strongest ships in the game, and it is yours. It will cause a lot of deadache
and |
|
|
there are only 4 ships,
which really endanger a Rush. Build as many as you can effort. |
|
|
MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP |
|
|
The Merlin is important.
To build large numbers of fighter you need much Tritanium and Molybdenium. |
|
|
Place the Merlin on a
Bovinoid planet and keep it continuously producing minerals. As the Refinery |
|
|
the Merlin does not
require expensive engines or high tech armament. |
|
|
You can find a data list
in CHAPTER 5. |
|
|
CHAPTER 2 |
|
|
Basic techniques |
|
|
You cannot run if you
cannot walk |
|
|
2.1 When the game starts |
|
|
When a game starts the
most important is, to explore and expand quickly. When later the big wrangle |
|
|
starts, you must know
which planets are worth and which are potential enemy bases, if they have not
been |
|
|
in colonizing range. So
your first goal is, to explore as many planets as possible. |
|
|
The better you know the
area, the better you choose your way. |
|
|
This is a possible way
to start the game as Rebel: |
|
|
Usually you get two free
ships. A Small freighter and the Taurus with Blasters. Both equipped with
Heavy |
|
|
Nova 6 Drives. If you cannot reach a next planet within
one month, try to overburn the engines to get there |
|
|
in a single turn, and if
this also is not possible, decrease the tax rate to 0, improve your planetary
facilities, |
|
|
increase the engine tech
level, build the next Taurus and wait until next turn. The reason is, that
you want to |
|
|
stay hidden the first
turns, and not only in the initial phase but during the whole game. You do
not need to |
|
|
increase planetary
defense and starbase tech levels
(excerpt of the engines) right now. |
|
|
The second Taurus now is
ready. Store 100 clans, 120 supplies and some Credits, do the same with the
other one, |
|
|
set its mission to tow
the first and make your way to the next planet. Your next ship is the Gemini
with Star- |
|
|
drives and Lasers. |
|
|
Now the Taurus has
reached the planet. If the towed Taurus(with Nova6 engines) now is able to
reach planets |
|
|
within a turn by itself,
then release it, drop a clan and move on. Whenever you pass a mineral rich
and or na- |
|
|
tive planet drop some
more clans on the surface. When no natives are present wait the turn until
the planet gets |
|
|
colonized and beam down
the credits for the first small factories. The Gemini now gets a friendly
code (fc) of |
|
|
'lfm' to start your
Rebel fighter production. Your next ship is the Patriot. |
|
|
The scouts proceed in
exploring new worlds and the Patriot is finished. Arm it with fighters and
wait. Your next |
|
|
ship is the Medium
freighter. |
|
|
Now, that the Gemini has
produced another 39 fighters, stop the production, arm your base, load the
medium |
|
|
freighter with colonists
and ship them to your best known and near planet, escorted by the Patriot.
Now increase |
|
|
beam weapon technology
to level 3 and build your first Falcon with Blasters. |
|
|
Now it is turn 6. If
your neighbor is not a Bird or Privateer you already have a foreign ship on
the charts |
|
|
and must think about a
sensible relation. You stayed invisible, so nobody knows, where you are.
Should you |
|
|
send a message and let
out that you are neighbors, to offer a treaty, or should you continue hiding
and secretly |
|
|
gather a fleet to start
the Rebellion? Well this is open to you. Your goal, exploration and
colonization must |
|
|
not be deflected by any
hostilities, so only if you really can effort and still continue
concentrating on your |
|
|
exploration, then equip
a small fleet and do what a fighter has to do. Which races you better not
contact through |
|
|
an early elbow drive you
should read in chapter4. Freighter and Patriot have reached their
destination. |
|
|
Now you can either
divide the colonists and travel to the next planet, or drop them all and
repeat the flight, |
|
|
it just depends on the
planets around your home, where the minerals and natives are. The Falcon now
is ready. |
|
|
Load the Falcon with 80
clans and 40 supplies, aim on a planet at the edge of the map (or any planet)
and jump |
|
|
there. The Falcon
explores a small area, looks for a little cluster with good planets and
starts shipping |
|
|
colonists to your new
"outpost". At home you build the next medium freighter, ship the
colonists and supplies where |
|
|
they are required and so
slowly start with the mineral extraction. |
|
|
Don't build the Gemini
in mineral poor games that soon, exchange it with a Falcon to find the rich
world. |
|
|
The Patriots aren't
necessary, when you start in good relations with your neighbor. You will need
at |
|
|
least 3-5 turns to get a
first planet extracting minerals, so you should carefully plan each ship you |
|
|
build. If the increase
to tech 10 engines foils the construction of a ship for this and next turn
remain |
|
|
at a lower tech level to
build exploration ships instead. Always optimize the construction of ships
with |
|
|
your current and future
needs. |
|
|
2.1.2 The isolated homeworld: |
|
|
You finally got that
first rst file you have been waiting for a week, and after the first look on
the |
|
|
map you cannot believe
what you see. Rodu 9. So, the Falcon is your first ship. Not one, but two or
three of |
|
|
them. Send them all in
the same direction and find the very good planet with minerals and natives.
Keep the |
|
|
Falcons carrying
colonists. This planet will be your first source of minerals and money and
later your next base. |
|
|
During this exploration
build the Gemini, your Patriots and do
not build the Taurus. Send a LDSF directly to |
|
|
nearest planet escorted
by one or better two Patriots. When you send them out "walk like an
Indian" (see CHAPTER 3). |
|
|
Don't hurry, and never
leave your freighter without escort. When you loose it, you need one turn to
rebuild it, |
|
|
and two more turns to
get to same point you've been before. It will take some more time to get
resources shipped |
|
|
to your base, when it is isolated, but you are not so
money dependent and the minerals on the homeworld will |
|
|
allow you to build
several Patriots to secure the area your freighters travel through. |
|
|
2.1.3 Colonizing guide
lines: |
|
|
Colonizing planets,
there are some guide lines you should follow: |
|
|
a) As Rebel you are able to support up to
9.000.000 colonists on ice planets (temp below 15). |
|
|
(Colonists don't grow in
extreme climates) |
|
|
b) Find early a Bovinoid planet, and carry a
lot of colonists there. |
|
|
c) On mineral rich planets with no natives
drop a maximum of 200 clans. |
|
|
The formula MaxMines = 200 + sqrt(clans - 200) explains
why. Up to a number of 200 |
|
|
clans you can effort 1
mine for each. |
|
|
d) Do not colonize mineral poor planets with
low or no natives in the early game. Once you |
|
|
got a working economy
there's enough time to pass the planets and drop some clans for |
|
|
mining the few minerals.
But set a clan on them. |
|
|
e) Never build more than 14 factories or 19
mines unless you got at least 15 defense posts. |
|
|
But once everybody knows
where the others are located there is no need anymore to proceed this way. |
|
|
f) Only tax colonists you just dropped on a
planet when you really need money. This will keep them growing |
|
|
faster, until they reach
a tax rentable number (2.000.000 and above) |
|
|
g) Do not max out the defense posts of a
planet too early, and save the money to build your |
|
|
first Rush. An orbiting
Patriot is a much cheaper and better defense. Once |
|
|
you have enough credits,
maximize their number. |
|
|
2.2 The game in progress |
|
|
Now it is turn 20 and
you have several Patriots, two or three Falcons and some freighters. |
|
|
Your economy works and
freighters ship the resources and credits to your base. Your starbase |
|
|
technology levels should
look like this: Hulls: 10 - Engines 10 - Beams 6 - Torps 5. |
|
|
What comes next strongly
depends on how you get along with your neighbors. |
|
|
If there are no fights
to resolve, concentrate in improving and expanding. Think about your |
|
|
next base. Where?
Preferable are planets with Ghipsoldal or Humanoid natives. Siliconoid and |
|
|
Amphibians are not as
well, you are not in need of Heavy phasers and Mark8 photons. If any |
|
|
conflicts, started by
you or any other, disturb your expansion, you must think about the Rush. |
|
|
Your first Rush has
medium tech engines like the Heavy Nova6 Drive, and Blasters and you tow it |
|
|
into the pool of your
conflicts. Guess why. Now that you have two bases the things proceed faster |
|
|
and you should continue
building Rushes and Fighters continue to claim and expand. |
|
|
Note: |
|
|
The turn 20 mark is a
quite common border to close the exploration/colonizing phase and start |
|
|
the fight for territory.
You should always try to get your economy working as soon as possible, |
|
|
to get up the ships
quickly. If you notice that the explored planets around you are really rich |
|
|
in all, then you
possibly will be ready in turn 15 or even turn 10 to defend yourself or to |
|
|
plan an attack against
your neighbor. |
|
|
2.2.1 Ship building guide
lines: |
|
|
GENERAL |
|
|
Always know which task a
newly built ship will have. |
|
|
Geminis. Many. But If
you can effort take Stardrive Rushes instead (for better defense). |
|
|
Put Lasers or X-Rays on
them. Best solution if you can effort are Disruptors, to catch up |
|
|
smaller ships getting
lost at your bases. |
|
|
WARSHIPS |
|
|
A Patriot's weapon is
the Laser (or the Blaster if you live in a bank). |
|
|
The Heavy Blaster is
your standard beam. A Heavy Phaser has
only 5 points |
|
|
more destructive power
than a Heavy Blaster. Spend the difference of Mol and |
|
|
Cr. in new ships and
fighters. Compared to your fighter power the 5 extra points |
|
|
are nothing. The Heavy Blaster has the best
cost-efficiency destructive rate. |
|
|
If you are low in money
use the Blaster instead, but you should know that the |
|
|
simple Blaster is not a
very good mine sweeper. |
|
|
Build only Mark 4 and
Mark 7 torps. Watch the prices. There's a big step from |
|
|
4 to 5 and 7 to 8,
without increasing the destructive power enormously. |
|
|
If the EngineShieldBonus
is off Heavy Nova 6 drives for the Rushes are far enough. |
|
|
Spare the difference of
1482 Cr compared to Transwarp for another Rush. Tow them |
|
|
with a Taurus or Gemini
into battle. Another aspect is, even with no ESB Transwarp |
|
|
Rushes are much more
flexible due to their greater intercept range. |
|
|
Your Tranquilities are
equipped with Mark 4 torps, until you get the money for the |
|
|
Mark 7 tubes and torps.
Increase your Tech as fast as you can: |
|
|
50 Mark 4 torps cost 650
Cr.They will make minefield of 35 lj |
|
|
18 Mark 7 torps cost 648
Cr. They will make minefield of 34 lj (and you save a lot of minerals) |
|
|
The one lj less is
nothing compared to the saved cargo space (and so saved fuel) . |
|
|
Equip small torpedo
ships (Cygnus) only with Mark 7 torps. Don't build Mark 8 tubes, if |
|
|
you do not have huge
ammounts of money, that you don't know what to do with it, |
|
|
nor equip them with Mark
4 in the late game. |
|
|
As Rebel you are able to
build very cheap, so very fast effective fleets, leaning on your |
|
|
ability to get the Free
Fighters, so don't play in games where the "Free Fighters" option
is |
|
|
turned off. If you did
that mistake, then read "Rebel without clue" an essay about playing |
|
|
fighter races ... without
fighters! |
|
|
2.3 Fighterbuilding (selling): |
|
|
The ammount of fighters
a ship can build in one turn is limited by the size of its cargo space |
|
|
(what a genius). Each
fighter will cost you |
|
|
2kt of Tritanium |
|
|
3kt of Molybdenium |
|
|
5kt of Supplies |
|
|
When you set a fighter
carrier's friendly code to "lfm" it will automatically load the
necessary |
|
|
resources to build as
much fighters as possible. Thus, you need at least 10 kt of free space to |
|
|
start fighter
construction. The two minerals are the most important to you. Large ammounts
of |
|
|
Duranium you will only
need for Rushes and Refinery ships to produce fuel. This is what your
carriers |
|
|
can build with a free
cargo space: |
|
|
Patriot :
3 fighters |
|
|
Sagittarius : 30 fighters |
|
|
Gemini :
40 fighters |
|
|
Rush : 39 fighters |
|
|
When you build Rushes
and their way to the borders get very long, don't overload them right from
the |
|
|
start, because on your
route you can pass some planets with Geminis
to get the fighters aboard. This |
|
|
saves much fuel. |
|
|
Fighter selling |
|
|
So the natives all have
emigrated from the planets around you, and you hold a million ton |
|
|
of minerals, then you
start selling your fighters for the cash you need. See in chapter4 |
|
|
how it works. When they
want to haggle, you start at 99Mcr per fighter. But you must not sell |
|
|
more than 300 to max.
600 fighters to any one, except to your close ally, who personified by |
|
|
your little brother never
will betray you. |
|
|
Your advantage is, that you can build fighters without any special mission. This means,
you |
|
|
can have an empty Rush
on a planet with enough resources, and direct it to intercept another vessel |
|
|
having 39 fighters
aboard when combat starts. The right number for a capital torp ships. |
|
|
CHAPTER 3 |
|
|
Advanced techniques |
|
|
We do not wait for enemy
mistakes |
|
|
but rely on our own skill |
|
|
3.1 Combat |
|
|
The great ancient
cultures did not survive the centuries for their cultural goods, but for
their |
|
|
military strength, and
most of their records are about great battles and war. Deciding about raise |
|
|
and fall of a culture,
technological improvements were the necessity to survive. The harder steel, |
|
|
the better sword, the
more dead enemies. Improvements were not only technological but also
technical. |
|
|
Alexander the Great
improved his army technically by escorting the greek phalanx with horsed men, |
|
|
to prevent the slow
moving phalanx from being attacked on the flanks. This simple technical |
|
|
improvement, replacing
single weapon typed armies by differentiated cooperating troops, enabled him |
|
|
to conquer nearly the
whole ancient civilized world. When
technology ends in a patt, like in VGA-Planets, |
|
|
then the technical
improvements come to the fore. These are the right consistence of fleets, the
right battle |
|
|
order and the right
tasks for the right ships. Also, you know it, surprise and concentration of
forces is a |
|
|
very part of
victory. The Rebel is no spy or thief,
he is a warrior. His eye is the Falcon and his fist the |
|
|
Rush. He is able to
crush an enemy fleet with a single ship, leaving the battlefield alive. |
|
|
But he is not invincible. |
|
|
3.1.1 Two combat basics: |
|
|
1. Beams for fighters,
torps for shields, fighters for ships. |
|
|
2. Choose the
"right" side |
|
|
When two ships fight,
one comes from the left and one from the right; the behaviour of the ships
changes with |
|
|
their side. Torpedo
ships on the right side have a chance of 60% to get extra 360kt of
battlemass. In battles |
|
|
carrier versus carrier
the ship on the left side gets an advantage. On which side side your ship
appears in battle |
|
|
is determined by its
battle order. Ships with lower battle orders get the right side. Battle order
is determined |
|
|
1. Friendly codes |
|
|
2. Ship ID |
|
|
A non numerical FC is
equal to 1000. If two ships have equal FCs, the lower ID ship has a lower
battle order. |
|
|
Here's a markable dialog
from the IRC conference logs: |
|
|
(Greg Guiher) I'm playing the Lizards and it
seems like I'm always the left side. Though, I never really |
|
|
payed attention. How
do you decide who's left and whose right side in combat? |
|
|
(Cocomax) The Left Right side is desided
by a friendly code "100" to
"999" the lowest gets the |
|
|
right, in the event of a
tie the lowest ID number ship gets the right. |
|
|
(Greg Guiher) is it 100-999 or 1-999? |
|
|
(Cocomax) Friendly code numbers 001 to
099 do not always work correctly. |
|
|
(JD [Auxhost] cocomax)
so FC's 001-099aren't safe to use for combat, right ? |
|
|
(Cocomax) Right, start with code
"100" |
|
|
Here Tim (Bovinoid1)
explains why this is so (from IRC conference logs): |
|
|
(Lavos) Why does the ship on the left gets the
advantage? |
|
|
Is it intentional? |
|
|
(Bovinoid1) The left
advantage is an flaw in the random number generator, that takes place when
two |
|
|
ships with fighter bays
fight. |
|
|
This means: |
|
|
Your torp ships
(Cygnus,Guardian,Tranquility) fight best with low numbered FCs and low IDs
(due to the 60% chance). |
|
|
Your carriers (Patriot,
Rush) against torp ships fight best with low numbered FCs and low ID (so the
torpers don't get the 60%). |
|
Your carriers against
carriers fight best with non numerical FCs and high ID (due to the left side
advantage). |
|
|
These configurations of
course are no guaranty that you get the "right" side, because your
opponent will also do the |
|
|
same, but you always
should try it. |
|
|
3.1.2 DEFENSIVE WORKS: |
|
|
Your offensive power
depends on Tritanium, Molybdenium and supplies to build the fighters. |
|
|
Therefore you must have
a good working economy to constantly extract minerals and ship them |
|
|
to your fighter
factories. This economy must be protected, or will be disrupted by cloaking |
|
|
or crushing surprise
attacks from other players. Your good planets are mineral rich and / or
inhabited |
|
|
by Bovinoid natives for
the use of a Merlin. You are not in need of huge credit ammounts like the
torp |
|
|
races, but of course
will also need money, to build your Rushes. One heavily colonized planet with |
|
|
good natives near a
base, usually produces enough credits to effort a heavy fighter carrier every
turn. |
|
|
These planets are your
defensive nodes. |
|
|
Be ready from turn 1 on
to defend yourself. Do not wait until somebody captures your first freighter |
|
|
to remind you that this
is a game of war. Be ready. Always. |
|
|
Planetary Defense |
|
|
The following table illustrates the ammount of beams and
fighters you get at a special number of |
|
|
defense posts, and how
many clans you need to build the number. |
|
|
DP
Ftr Bm Clans
Tech DP Ftr
Bm Clans Tech |
|
|
1
1 1 1
1 85 9
5 1257 7 |
|
|
3
2 1 3
1 91 10
6 1710 7 |
|
|
5
2 1 5
2 111 11
6 3740 7 |
|
|
7
3 1 7
2 113 11
6 3987 8 |
|
|
13
4 2 13
3 127 11
7 5940 8 |
|
|
19
4 3 19
3 133 12
7 6897 8 |
|
|
21
5 3 21
3 145 12
7 9027 9 |
|
|
25
5 3 25
4 157 13
7 11445 9 |
|
|
31
6 3 31
4 169 13
8 14151 9 |
|
|
37
6 4 37
4 181 13
8 17145 10 |
|
|
41
6 4 41
5 183 14
8 17672 10 |
|
|
43
7 4 43
5 211 15
8 25890 10 |
|
|
57
8 4 95
5 217 15
9 27855 10 |
|
|
61
8 5 165
6 241 16
9 36435 10 |
|
|
73
9 5 567
6 271 16
10 48780 10 |
|
|
More defense points just
increase the colonists' combat ratio. 20 Defense points increase the ratio by
1. So if you're |
|
|
groundpounded by Lizards
on a planet with 100 defense points they will not attack your colonists with
30:1 but 30:5 and |
|
|
so 6:1. |
|
|
Planetary defenses are
not very useful, when the attacking ship is a major one, that means more than
6 or seven beams |
|
|
and 3 and more
tubes; best example is your Iron
Lady. 50 Planetary bases will destroy
any smaller scout or light |
|
|
ship, 200 of course will
do more, but if you really want
to defend a planet, put a starbase
on it and fill it with |
|
|
fighters. You have
them. Have an additional Patriot with Tech 1 engines in
stationary orbit to do best. Always try |
|
|
to have your planetary
defense maxed out to block any surprise attacks by cloakers. Never set the
friendly code to NUK |
|
|
or ATT, if you do not
have enough defense posts or have an own orbiting battleship. |
|
|
Movement |
|
|
Defense not only is
parry or block a strike, but also the agility in movement. Two rules you must
keep in mind: |
|
|
Hide |
|
|
Choose planets in 81lj
range and if not present set your way point below 81lj, so your heading is
not visible. |
|
|
Deceive |
|
|
Sometimes you must set a
wrong way point to escape or fly a feint. You set the way point beyond 81lj,
so it |
|
|
becomes visible next
turn, so whoever wants to catch you, will wait at the end of the red line (or
intercept |
|
|
you. Hope). But you
change your heading on your next turn and fly somewhere else. |
|
|
Another way to deceive
is "walk like an Indian". When you choose a planet "A" to place a defensive
ship at, and its |
|
|
distance is greater than
81lj from your location "B", set
your way point exactly 81lj away from A, even if you only travel |
|
|
10 or 20 lightjears this
turn. Your opponent might believe that B is your destination, and if he does
not spot the ship again, |
|
|
he will not expect it at
A. This of course only works one or two times, and if he spots the ship
again, he immediately will |
|
|
know you tricked him. |
|
|
Defensive fleets |
|
|
Planetary defenses are
easy overwhelmed, so most of the defensive work will be done by ships,
grouped |
|
|
to small defensive
fleets. They are no real "fleets", but small groups of two or three
ships each, placed and |
|
|
cruising along your
borders. |
|
|
A small defensive group
consists of: |
|
|
a Patriot |
|
|
a Guardian with Mark 4(7)
torps |
|
|
( a Cygnus with Mark 4(7)
and Disruptors) |
|
|
Patriot with Lasers and
Transwarp will cost about 400 Cr. |
|
|
Guardian with Blasters,
Mark 4(7) tubes, and 20 torps about 600 Cr. |
|
|
This group will stop any
medium sized vessel. Against carriers the Guardian goes in first to get down
the shields, |
|
|
followed by the Patriot
to do the rest. Evade larger targets, they will knock out your small ships
one by one. In |
|
|
this case you should
have a Rush ready to block them. |
|
|
Minefields |
|
|
Especially when you get
in conflict with cloaking races, you must lay minefields, to harden unallowed |
|
|
movements inside your
territory. Minefields will not prevent all cloakers from sneaking through,
but will |
|
|
slow down their movement
and often, when laied by the right time they can even stop approaching |
|
|
fleets of small ships.
Sensible locations for minefields are worthy planets, amourphous planets,
bridge |
|
|
planets and worthless
planets. Ehm..., yes, all planets. The worthy and bridge planets are self
explanatory, the |
|
|
amorphous and worthless
ones to prevent enemy ships from moving and hiding there. You should mine |
|
|
these first, to have a
couple of dummies, an enemy runs inside in believe to find a worthy base. |
|
|
Choose Tranquilities
with low ID's for your borders. When you spot the enemy approaching your area
and none |
|
|
drop a minefield he will
be caught in next turn. Mine dropping takes part before movement and his
smaller |
|
|
ships could get blasted
by moving inside the field. Scoop it up next turn. |
|
|
Here's the formula for
the radius of new minefields: |
|
|
radius=sqrt(number of
torps * tech^2). |
|
|
Easy to see, that the
minefields grow enormously with raising tech. The higher your torpedo tech
the lesser |
|
|
cargo you use to create
a mine filed of an aimed size. This is important when moving inside enemy
space. |
|
|
Active areal defense |
|
|
Imagine a castle, where
the guards do not patrol, but remain at several points. It's easy to find
these points, |
|
|
to avoid them, to sneak
into the chambers and kill you, the king. Whenever your defensive fleets
stand still, they |
|
|
can be located and
recognized by cloakers and so be avoided by following stronger forces with a
single task |
|
|
to destroy your base.
Keeping your defensive ships in move of course needs fuel, but Patriots and |
|
|
Guardians are low in
mass and don't need much, so they should not run out of it along your border.
Let |
|
|
them patrol between 81lj
planets and if a planet is really worth, place a stationary defender there.
Keep |
|
|
your ships invisible. If
you want to frighten, you can later do it with a Rush. But, showing the same ship from |
|
|
time to time you could
lure an enemy to your location and block his ship(s) with your awaiting
fleet. Awhile |
|
|
attack his borders on
other locations. Also, do not only place ships along the line, place some
single |
|
|
Patriots several
lightyears deeper in your territory, that an enemy still faces resistance,
when he successfully |
|
|
sneaked trough.
Place a Patriot upon Amourphous planets, so nobody can hide there. If
you need |
|
|
credits fit it with a
Tech 1 engine and tow it there. Deceive your enemy whenever you can, equip a
Falcon, send it |
|
|
away and build an
outpost on a worthless planet very close to his territory. Build 15
factories. Withdraw again, |
|
|
when a ship approaches.
Repeat it. There will be no assurance about the shape of your territory. The
best |
|
|
defense of all is
putting an enemy himself in defensive mind. How to do? Three or four Falcons
continuously |
|
|
visiting his empire will
do so. Don't run for freighters now if you are not 100% sure not get close to
a battleship. |
|
|
You could hit some
planets with RGA. Keep moving, deceiving and doing until the time has come
for the real attack. |
|
|
3.1.3 OFFENSIVE MEASURES: |
|
|
And the time has come
now. When you start this, moralities die, and you must be tough and cruel to
survive. Now, two |
|
|
things are part of your
goals: Destruction and Extinction. Oh my god; but if you don't, you will be
dead soon. The harder |
|
|
you hit an enemy the
faster his empire gets destroyed, and the greater your change to survive, and
this is what |
|
|
you want. To do so, you
must know, when to attack, where to attack and you must know what defense is
waiting for you. |
|
|
Thus, before you start
any fleet movement send Falcons to
observe the area and get an overview of your opponent's |
|
|
strength. When the
Falcons cannot spot any major ships, don't conclude that there are none at
all. They are hidden in orbit. |
|
|
Wrong conclusions turn
your enemy to the most dangerous of all: the underestimated one. When the game is in |
|
|
progress and your
opponent has several bases, be sure that his warships are equipped with best
weapons, that means be |
|
|
ready to fight against
Novas, Cubes and whatelse with Tech 10 beams and torps. |
|
|
For now it's not the
time for freighter hunting; just observe them. Scout their routes and
calculate where he could |
|
|
have a base. Once your
Falcons appear in his area, he will set his ships' primary enemy to
"You", to catch your |
|
|
scouts jumping directly
on his worlds. That's why you should not do it. Hyper jump takes part before
regular movement, |
|
|
and when he commands his
ships to intercept you in empty space, the Falcon will have disappeared in
hyperspace again. |
|
|
Rebel Ground Attack (RGA) |
|
|
You have the ability of
landing saboteurs on a planet to destroy the planetary facilities. Any of |
|
|
your ships can do this
by setting its mission to "Rebel Ground Attack". Performing the
mission |
|
|
30% of the planet's money |
|
|
40% of the planets
supplies |
|
|
20% of the defense
outposts |
|
|
60% of the mineral mines |
|
|
30% of the factories |
|
|
20% of the colonists |
|
|
get destroyed / killed. |
|
|
RGA is not cumulative,
so if several ships perform this mission on the same planet, only one will do
the effect. |
|
|
It takes part after
movement so don't forget to set another mission on the way home. It also takes part after
combat, |
|
|
so you cannot RGA a
planet if an orbiting ship has set you as PE or its mission to
"kill", unless you destroy it. |
|
|
RGA is awful to your
enemy when combat starts. Deleting 60% of his mines will slow down the
mineral extraction and |
|
|
gets his colonists very
angry, if they were happy before. You can also get them into civil war by
hitting the planet |
|
|
only one time, if he
taxed them too high. Choose the right targets after having observed his
freighter routes. Reducing |
|
|
his resources is equal
to reducing his power. Using RGA on planets you want to occupy is waste on
facilities, credits |
|
|
and supplies, which
could be yours, if the enemy does not beam everything up before you arrive.
Remember that the |
|
|
Iron Lady with Mark 7
can take Planets with up to 150 defense ports. |
|
|
RGA will also make
natives happy. If you got a run out planet with good natives and a lot of
mines, beam up your |
|
|
colonists except of one
clan, sell the supplies, get the credits aboard and RGA yourself to reduce the number of |
|
|
mines. Next turn
recolonize it and tax the natives again. You also can offer the RGA to other players (see CHAPTER |
|
|
4) in exchange for
something you need. RGA is a very nasty weapon when combined with a cloaker.
You can imagine |
|
|
why. When dealing with
the Privateer, the ability of sabotage plays an important role. |
|
|
When time unfortunately
has come to retreat from an area, try to destroy as much facilities as
possible on the |
|
|
evacuating planets using
RGA, so your opponent must rebuild them again. |
|
|
In THost any of your
ships can do it, even freighters. PHost has a configuration option to allow
armed ships only, |
|
|
so be sure to have a
look into the PHost configuration file, before you hopelessly try to RGA with
captured freighters. |
|
|
Patriots and the early
war |
|
|
There are two fine
descriptions for the Patriot: "a round of ammunition" (H-Files) and
"a deadly killer" (Dreadlord's |
|
|
Battle Manual). This is
what you need, when hostilities start very soon in the game. Playing another
race, the Patriot |
|
|
is the ship you avoid,
as long as you do not have high tech torps and a good couple of beams and in
shareware games, where |
|
|
those torps rarely are
available, the Patriot is THE ship. If you are a newbie don't mistake it,
just because of its none |
|
|
see-at-first-sight
advantages and its awful bitmap. The Patriot will launch from its 6 fighter
bays rapidly a large |
|
|
number of fighters,
which an enemy vessel has to face before it can spit torps. At normal
recharge rate (which can be changed |
|
|
in Phost) the undamadged
enemy vessel will fire two banks of beams, before the fighters arrive, so
multiply the vessel's beams |
|
|
by two, to get a first
overview of your own losses. |
|
|
Here's a statistic of
what can be destroyed by a Patriot when torpedo techs did not get too high: |
|
|
A Death Specula (113kt
- 6 Beams - 4 Tubes) |
|
|
Blasters and Mark 4 - will launch about 4 banks = 16
torps |
|
|
COST: 1228Mc - 67D - 161T
- 185 M |
|
|
An Arkham Class (150kt
- 6 Beams - 3 Tubes) |
|
|
Blasters and Mark 4
- will launch about 4 banks = 12 torps |
|
|
COST: 946Mc - 58D - 140T
- 158M |
|
|
A D7 Coldpain Class
(175kt - 4 Beams - 2 Tubes) |
|
|
Blasters and Mark 4 - will launch about 4 banks = 8
torps |
|
|
COST: 904Mc - 91D -138T -
147M |
|
|
COST for you: 392Mc -
50D - 81T - 130M |
|
|
ESB at 0%, opponent on
left side |
|
|
The listed costs of
course aren't a great thing, but when war comes in the early stage, every
credit counts, and it's a |
|
|
difference, if you spend
1200 Mc loosing a ship, or 400Mc surviving combat. The fewer tubes a ship
has, the greater can |
|
|
be its mass to be
destroyed by the "deadly killer". At a number of 6 or 7 beams and
below there always remain enough fighters |
|
|
which get close to the
enemy vessel, to drop its shields, cause damadge and destroy it, if it is not
armed with more than 4 |
|
|
low tech tubes or two
high tech ones. Above These numbers a Patriot should not engage, if not
grouped in pairs or triples. |
|
|
For a mark4 Resolute as
example you need two Patriots. Your carrier becomes much more dangerous when
the shields are supplied |
|
with extra power, the
ESB. At a rate of 25% your Transwarp Patriot fights like a ship with 170kt.
You can take more torps so |
|
|
your fighters have more
time to fly their attacks. Here is what your opponent will need to knock out
your ship with view on |
|
|
the shield bonus: |
|
|
ESB 0% :
8 mark3, 4 mark4, 4 mark5, 3 mark6, 3 mark7, 3 mark8 |
|
|
ESB 25% : n mark3,
10 mark4, 9 mark5, 8 mark6, 7 mark7, 6 mark8 |
|
|
ESB 50% : n mark3,
18 mark4, 16 mark5, 14 mark6,
12 mark7, 10 mark8 |
|
|
As you see, with an ESB
of 50% the cheap little Patriot kills most of the medium sized torp ships and
if not the first, then |
|
|
the second ship will do
it; and don't forget, you should try to get the torpers to the left side (see
3.1.1). |
|
|
The "round of
ammunition" is a single use ship.
Its fighters are easily gone and if it survives the battle you will |
|
|
have to redraw for
refill and repair. With two beams and a mass of 90 kt it is even a target for
small ships like |
|
|
the Opal class or any
other one tube scout. Without a full hangar the Patriot is the most useless
ship inside your |
|
|
fleet, so you must never
run out of fighters on it. One battle, against scouts two or three, and the
Patriot must be |
|
|
refilled by traveling
back to a base, or by a near Gemini. You also can have distributing Geminis.
In the early war |
|
|
your attacking forces
are very similar to a defensive fleet with Consistence of a Patriot, the
Guardian and a Cygnus, |
|
|
both with at least mark
4 photons. When you find the location of an enemy base within the first three
days, then a |
|
|
fleet of two Patriots a
Guardian and Cygnus can even take a base, in case that no protecting ships
are in orbit, |
|
|
just because in the
early stage players cannot effort additional 100MCr. starbase fighters. Whenever you do not know |
|
|
what ship to build,
build the Patriot, fill it with fighters and go ahead. |
|
|
The Patriot even kills
battleships like Darkwings and Cubes(!); under two conditions: |
|
|
1. Those have at least a
damadge level around 10% |
|
|
2. Those have no
torpedoes/fighters left |
|
|
Entering a battle with
damadge the enemy vessel has to recharge the beams first, and will fire them
only once against your |
|
|
fighters, until these
get close enough to open fire themselves. Now this is a very special
situation, and you rarely will |
|
|
encounter heavy
battleships without torpedos. But it is possible. |
|
|
Two general fighter
fighting rules: |
|
|
Beam Tech does not count
at all against fighters, when enough fighters are present and not get
depleted |
|
|
during combat, that
means it does not play a role if e.g. the Death Specula is armed with X-Rays
or Phasers. |
|
|
The beams will be busy
shooting down fighters and will not come to touch the hull of a carrier. |
|
|
Beam number will decide,
if all of the fighters can be killed before combat ends, to use the primary
weapons |
|
|
against the carrier
itself. More beams more "We just lost Jones!". |
|
|
The Rush and heavy
battles |
|
|
Now the game has
proceeded, the ship masses and techs have increased. Credits aren't the
problem any more, |
|
|
and so it is time to
change a Patriots' place on the battlefield, and replace it by the Rush.
Until now your ships had a |
|
|
more defensive function,
protecting your routes, and with easy depleting fighter numbers they were
limited in their |
|
|
activity range. The Rush
enables you to change this. Now you can enter the Rebel's natural way.
Fighting. |
|
|
The events in full scale war are unpredictable. Cloakers
can appear where you never expected, bases can fall by |
|
|
single strikes, your
enemy can approach from several directions, and you will meet his ships where
ever you attack. |
|
|
Like your own ones,
enemy ships differ in mass and fire power. Although there are countless
techniques you can |
|
|
develop to engage an
enemy there are some general rules you should follow. |
|
|
A crushing attack is
done in by a fleet of different ships. Each ship has its own task, and their abilities
combined are |
|
|
your key to success A
major fleet is ment to break the enemy lines, take some planets, kill several
ships, head for a starbase and destroy it. |
|
Consistence: |
|
|
The Rush with about 200 fighters and Blasters (Hv. Blasters) |
|
|
A Gemini having 300
Colonists and 100 supplies aboard; Lasers and Transwarp. |
|
|
A Guardian to bring down
the shields of a major ship; Lasers, Stardrive, Mark 7). |
|
|
[- A Tranquility with Disruptors and about 30
Mark 7 torps. ] |
|
|
[- An Iron Lady with Heavy Blasters and Mark 7
tubes. ] |
|
|
Credits - DUR
- TRI -
MOL - SUP |
|
|
2837 -
194 - 398 -
457 - * |
|
|
749 -
52 - 46
- 118 - * |
|
|
907 -
74 - 29
- 59 - * |
|
|
[- 1032
- 83 -
128 - 133
- *] |
|
|
[- 1378
- 39 -
156 - 245
- *] |
|
|
Add |
|
|
*
- * -
600 - 400 - 1000 for 200 Fighters |
|
|
1800 -
50 - 50
- 50 - *
for 50 Torps |
|
|
These are minimum configurations. Increase
engines, beams and torps if you ca effort it.
Have a look on the |
|
|
minerals. Duranium is
what you do not need in large masses. Use Duranium to produce Neutronium in a
refinery. |
|
|
Merlins should only
produce Dur, when you need it next turn. You
build the ships at several points spread |
|
|
through your area.
Essential are the Rush, Gemini and Guardian. The other ships can be deleted,
when your |
|
|
resources are low. |
|
|
Battle Order: |
|
|
Border planets usually
don't have that mass of colonists to build large defense posts, so take them
with the Iron Lady |
|
|
and don't waste fighters
on the planetary beams. When warships cross your way, face them with the
Rush. When you passed |
|
the first border planets
and get some closer to your object, start taking the planets with the Rush.
You never |
|
|
know, perhaps you hit a
base with many fighters. You have more. The Iron Lady can't stand a base.
Once |
|
|
your Rush gets damaged, stop at a planet, drop
20 mines with the Tranquility and repair the carrier with the |
|
|
supplies on the Gemini.
Do not drop the mines in Colony
space. Build fighters with captured
planetary resources in |
|
|
the free cargo, when the
planet has not been cleaned up. If you are sure, that you do not want to hold it, raise the |
|
|
tax rate to 100, scoop up the minefield and fly on,
until you reach the target base. Yes, it sounds too easy. |
|
|
Your opponent does not
sleep, he had the same time like you to build heavy and well equipped ships
Let's see how a Rush will |
|
look like after battle
with a single major ship, one-on-one: |
|
|
Nova Class
Dreadnaught : Avarage damadge
of 60%, using about 40 fighters. |
|
|
T-Rex Class
Battleship : Avarage
damadge of 30%, using about 40 fighters. |
|
|
Darkwing Class
Battleship : Avarage damadge of
50%, using about 40 fighters. |
|
|
Victorious Class
Battleship : Avarage damadge of
30%, using about 40 fighters. |
|
|
Annihilation Class
Battleship : Avarage damadge of 50%,
using about 40 fighters. |
|
|
Bloodfang Class
Carrier : usually no
damadge, using about 50 fighters. |
|
|
Biocide Class
Carrier : Avarage
damadge of 50%, using about 100 fighters. |
|
|
Golem Class
Baseship : Avarage
damadge of 50%, using about 90 fighters. |
|
|
Gorbie Class
Battlecarrier : Avarage damadge
of 70%, using about 100 fighters. |
|
|
Virgo Class
Battleship : Avarage
damadge of 15%, using about 100 fighters. |
|
|
Against torpships Rush
on right, against carriers Rush on left side. |
|
|
ESB at 0% - all ships max
tech/armament |
|
|
There are only 4 ships,
which can be dangerous to your carrier, the other heavy carriers. Do not put
more than 120 |
|
|
fighters on a Rush, when
you face the single Biocide, Gorbie, Golem or Virgo. If you loose the ship,
any additional |
|
|
fighter was built to get
blasted in a hangar. If you win, alright. Your chances against other big
carriers are: |
|
|
Biocide : Rush on left
wins 50% |
|
|
Rush on right wins 10% |
|
|
Gorbie : Rush on left wins 50% |
|
|
Rush on right wins 10% |
|
|
Golem : Rush on left wins 60% |
|
|
Rush on right wins 20% |
|
|
Virgo : Rush on left wins 75% |
|
|
Rush on right wins 50% |
|
|
You see, it is very
important to you to get the left side against Bio, Gorbie and Golem; given
they have enough fighters |
|
|
aboard; and you will do
much better against these killers if you first send a Guardian in. A capital
torp ship like an Annie |
|
|
or Darkwing, will launch
a maximum of 4 full banks, which are at worst 40 mark8 torpedoes. The ten
beams will do nothing than |
|
toasting about 40
fighters. But the Rush needs 40+ mark8 hits to be killed, so a single capital
torp ship rarely will destroy |
|
|
an undamadged Rush. |
|
|
Massive attack |
|
|
Imagine the big nasty
dude, who wants to have your jacked, without knowing that you not only have
two hands but four. |
|
|
When he comes for you,
two hands will punch, two parry and
your legs will kick. Knock out. In reality of course, you don't |
|
|
have additional hands
and cannot do all the things at once - because you are not in a group. So you
better run for your |
|
|
jacked and life. In the
group one punches, one parries and one kicks, to get that dude to the floor.
Punch and kick |
|
|
are done at different
points. The dude is your enemy and the group your ships. |
|
|
To knock out an enemy
you must do several things simultaneously and combine the abilities and
locations of several fleets |
|
|
to one tremendous
attack, or he will have time to recover to launch an attack himself. You got
Falcons, Patriots and |
|
|
Rushes spread along the
borders and, if you started soon enough building those outposts with Falcons,
a base far from |
|
|
your regular space. Even
when your fingers now burn, to click your opponent to death, you must not
start a headless attack, |
|
|
but should first think
about the right timing. |
|
|
Start a first crushing
attack with a Rush and escorts. Enemy forces obvously will concentrate to
block you. Now launch |
|
|
Falcons, many, to catch
up freighters. Watch for freighters in empty space and rarely touch those
being less than |
|
|
81lj far from the planet
they are heading on. You set the Falcon's PE, set your mission to intercept
the freighter and |
|
|
get caught at the
planet. Even if you do not hunt anything, just frequently show your presence
in the heart of his |
|
|
empire to slow down the
freighter movement. The freighters you capture now get a comletely different
task: to ground |
|
|
attack his own worlds.
If protecting ships are orbiting, your opponent must destroy "his
own" freighters to prevent his |
|
|
planets being ground
attacked. Further, if you succeed in capturing three or four freighters, he
must start hunting them |
|
|
in his own space. |
|
|
Start interrupting the
freighter routes now, when the heavy fights begin. |
|
|
Launch the next fleet at
another point. His defensive ships have gathered around your first attack so
the way will not be |
|
|
free at all but much
easier. Build missile Falcons with Stardrive, tow them to a jumping point and
launch them to ground |
|
|
attack. Jump back, if
they survived and repeat it, until they get lost. Build new ones. Launch a
fleet from an outpost. |
|
|
His freighters get
caught by your Falcons, and his planets hit by ground attacks - his economy
slows down, so lost |
|
|
ships cannot be replaced
that fast. |
|
|
He now is being attacked
inside his own empire and from outside at three different points. A very
difficult situation. |
|
|
Use all of your weapons,
combine them, each one at the right location by right time. Don't let him
breath a second and |
|
|
attack as hard and as
often as you can. You want his knock out. |
|
|
3.2 ESB (Engine Shield Bonus) |
|
|
The ESB increases the
effective battle mass of a ship by a value deduced from the host settings and
the |
|
|
cost of the mounted
engine type. Think of a Patriot. A mass of 90 kt. Now, your host configures
the ESB |
|
|
to 100%. If your Patriot
is mounted with Transwarp engines, which have a cost of 320 Cr. it fights
like a |
|
|
ship with 410 kt(!). But
100% are quite unusual. In common you have no ESB at all or about 25%. |
|
|
The ESB is very
important for one of your ships, the Guardian. Without, you hardly will be
able to fire more |
|
|
than a few torps against
other torpedoe ships, because the Guardian, as low in mass, will be blown by
just |
|
|
three Mark7 hits. So
don't try to use a Guardian the same way you use it against the major
carriers |
|
|
(as lamb), if there is
no ESB. At a bonus of 25% the Guardian's (Transwarp) effective battle mass
will increase |
|
|
from 80kt to 160kt which
will ensure that you can fire at least one full bank, and which should be
enough to |
|
|
reduce the enemy shields
to an acceptable level. |
|
|
3.3 The Falcon - some kind of hero |
|
|
Exploration: |
|
|
The regular map is 2000
lj from side to side. This means you can cross it with a Falcon in six jumps,
equal |
|
|
six turns. This
advantage is amazing during the exploration and colonizing phase, because you
can expand |
|
|
faster and grap planets
in the edges of the map, which often are forgotten. |
|
|
Economy: |
|
|
Once your planets have
grown to a number of more that 30 or 40, you territory is that big, that
freighters would |
|
|
run out of fuel before
crossing it. You will have some planets bursting of credits, and other ones
counting the |
|
|
coins. When you play
with the Star base+ Addon there's no
problem, but usually you don't. Use the Falcon |
|
|
to distribute credits
among the star bases. Have it carrying small amounts of minerals to bases,
where you want to |
|
|
build a ship but need
e.g. 80kt more Tritanium. Keep a Falcon moving. If it has no actual task fill
it with colonists |
|
|
and colonize a far
planet. When you use the Falcon this way, think of it as an armored, hyper
jumping cargo |
|
|
ship, which enables you
to organize a big economy better than any other race. |
|
|
Far assistance: |
|
|
Use the Falcon to jump
supplies to your fleet deep behind lines. Imagine you fell under attack in
open space |
|
|
behind the lines and the
Rush got damaged, so your movement slows down. Your supplies are gone and |
|
|
you cannot quickly reach
a planet for occupying, to repair the carrier with the captured supplies. A
Falcon |
|
|
carrying 120 kt and
permanently moving relative to your attacking fleet in a distance of 350 lj
will directly |
|
|
jump to your damaged
ship and repair 24 points of damadge. So the tiny Falcon often prevents a
Rush |
|
|
from being destroyed. |
|
|
War: |
|
|
The uncatchable
observer. The quick hunter. The hyper jumping missile. Need more? Think of it
and do it. |
|
|
When you don't use
Winplan, you will need a calculator and an equation term (see below) to
navigate your Falcon. |
|
|
Alright, you already
have the ONLY hyperspace utility you ever wanted. |
|
|
About |
|
|
SMALL SHIPS |
|
|
The Cygnus isn't a deal
for any medium ship. Don't waste resources by attacking with a single one.
But, equipped with |
|
|
Heavy Blasters and only
10 Mark 7 torps it can occupy outposts with up to 70 defenses, without taking
damadge. |
|
|
Add the Patriot and you
take planets with heavy defense. Don't use it against ships with more than
130 kt mass and |
|
|
a couple of tubes. With
its own mass of 90 kt it will not stand the fight. Add the all round fighter
Patriot. |
|
|
You can not make war
with only large carriers. You will need the small ships to stop your opponent
expanding near the |
|
|
borders, and you will
need them for patrolling in areas you did not colonize every planet to watch
for movements |
|
|
and outposts. The
fighting power of small ships grow enormously when there is ESB (see 3.2) |
|
|
SINGLE SHIP ATTACKS |
|
|
Your preferred attack is
done in crushing fleets. But often you will have to launch single ships for a
feint. A single |
|
|
Cygnus of course will
not frighten your enemy, a single Rush will. If you have a lot, place them
along your borders |
|
|
and if time has come,
launch one for a feint. The single ship attack is very effective, when your
opponent has to |
|
|
defend a large area and
if it is done by a Rush. Do not use anything else for it, or the damadge
you've done isn't |
|
|
worth. |
|
|
USEFUL SHIPS |
|
|
You do not have any
cloaking ship. Adding an invisible ship to your forces is the best thing you
can do. The best |
|
|
cloaker for you is the
Swift Heart. Very cheap to clone and a large fuel tank to fly deep inside
enemy space to RGA |
|
|
some planets. A Reptile
class destroyer does similar work, but its two engines make it more expensive
in cloning. |
|
|
Once you get one of
these, choose a base and start to clone it. Or even better when you get a BR4
or BR5. |
|
|
THE EXPERIMENTAL GAME or
About the efficency of your ships |
|
|
What you should do at
least one time, is joining an ongoing game in about turn 40 or 50. If you
survive the first |
|
|
turns, after the others
noticed you, then you start building warships and when you're satisfied, you
send a |
|
|
message to all the
players, that now their last day has come. Now, count the turns and watch the
battle closely |
|
|
to see how your ships
resolve it. |
|
|
THE AGGRESSIVE GAME |
|
|
Now all the techniques
described above are the common way to start a game, to build a fine economy
and to produce heavy |
|
|
ships ... to kill your
opponent. But this is only the standart way, a guideline how it works
basically. As Rebel you don't |
|
|
have to wait until you
get a neccessary firepower to attack an enemy. You can do it from turn 3 on,
and the key to this |
|
|
is the Falcon. When you
want the real aggressive game, then your first ship is a LDSF, you load it
with all needs for a |
|
|
second base and you look
for a fine planet. From now on the only ships you produce are Falcons -
clouds of Falcons. You |
|
|
send them whereever you think, and you watch for
freighters. Contact the Empire and trade for the locations of other |
|
|
homeworlds. Go and
Ground Attack them. Disturb the others in their expansion and force them to
escort every single freighter, |
|
|
force them to park a war
ship over every worthy planet. Until they get aware what you are doing, it
might be too late |
|
|
(for example: you RGAd a
base on turn 5), and anyway, what else should they do, than to slow down
their steps? Beeing that |
|
|
aggressive from the very
first turn on you also can break the moral of everybody who is not strong
enough to recover from |
|
|
an early loss of
freighters or even a ground attack at his only base. Yes, you get many many
enemies through this, but if |
|
|
you ruin them, they
cannot strike back. |
|
|
CHAPTER 4 |
|
|
Dealing with the others |
|
|
You are not alone |
|
|
Diplomacy has three
different states: the alliance, peace and tension. When you don't speak
anymore, you simply |
|
|
fight. In each game, all
the time your relation to another race emerges in one of the three states; or
in explosions |
|
|
on your screen. What you
know from you neighbor, your knowledge, is casting. Knowledge becomes most
important in |
|
|
case of war. You cannot
fight an enemy you do not know. Thus, information is one of your greatest
goals |
|
|
during the whole game.
You can gather it by yourself or get in trade for it with races accessing
more information |
|
|
in shorter time, like
the Empire and the Birds. An alliance with at least one race is your next
goal, because |
|
|
two and more are
stronger than one. Like combining the abilities of different weapons to a
strong force, combine |
|
|
your resources and
different ships with an ally, to gain more power. Cooperation is of much
greater sense |
|
|
than any plain
"give me that falcon i give you that swift heart" deal. Cooperation
is permanent and so improves |
|
|
your whole game. In
general, trust your ally but rely on yourself. And when you hear
"...psst, listen... Lizards |
|
|
do this and do
that" then do not expect that every Lizard player really does it. Not
every "Bird" knows smart Bird |
|
|
tactics and not every
player reads docs. So you should do it. Further, never forget that your
opponents are |
|
|
human players, with
human brain, imaginative and unpredictable. |
|
|
Now that you made it
trough the basics, here comes the finer piece of the cake. |
|
|
Let's see what to do
when you get in contact with the others: |
|
|
4.1 The Federation |
|
|
The Federation gets the
double ammount of credits, when they tax colonists and natives. They can
Superrefit their |
|
|
ships, they have
Terraformers, the tachyon emitting Loki Class Destroyer and the Bioscanner. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
An interesting race. On
your side the Federation can improve your economy by cooling down desert
planets, |
|
|
and they can heavily
improve your defense when you get in trade for a Loki. But what can you
offer? The Federation |
|
|
accumulates during a
game more money than a Rockefeller ever saw, and so can build the fighters
they need by themselves. |
|
|
Your Falcon? No, don't
do this, except for the Loki. Wake up, the cluster is YOUR market, so offer
the fighters not |
|
|
for 100 but for 90 Mcr.
With 200 fighters the Federation saves 2000 MCr. the half of a Nova!. Over a
long range |
|
|
the Federation saves a
lot of money, buying your 90Mcr fighters, instead of ordering them at local
sellers. |
|
|
In times of peace you
are Fighter-Ferenghi no 1! |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
The Feds have a wide
range of medium sized ships, with a good balance of beams and tubes. You need
the Guardian |
|
|
inside your defensive
fleets, to drop shields before the Patriots do their work. Mark 4 does good
work. This technique |
|
|
should destroy any
medium Fed ship. If they do not come in groups, what they always do. Then you
must think. What is |
|
|
deadly for any small
ship? The minefield. Try to use it somehow. The Federation is not your
easiest opponent, you must |
|
|
improvise a lot. The
Federation will mostly have Mark 8
torps aboard which they easily can effort with the 200% tax |
|
|
advantage, so the
Patriot gets a very hard life. The Nova is deadly for anything but a Rush, so
you should not attack |
|
|
it with something else.
Especially for the Federation you need the outposts, to attack from different
sides, and to |
|
|
interrupt their economy
at several poits by the same time. The hook namely is, that your
"infantery", the Patriot |
|
|
cannot stand two mark8 hits. You need the Rush as soon as
possible, to absorb the many torpedoes Federation |
|
|
ships can launch, and
you must use ANY advantage of place and time you can obtain. Find with your
Falcons the mineral |
|
|
rich planets, that means
a high concentration of freighters, equip your fleet and crush. A recovery
phase for the |
|
|
Federation passes very
slow, because they ore at only 70%. This disadvantage causes a hole in the
early ship production, |
|
|
which you should use, if
this is what you need. |
|
|
|
4.2 The Lizards |
|
|
They are the best ground
fighters, they mine the planets at a rate of 200%, they have cloaking |
|
|
ships, also the Loki and
Terraformers. They fight up to damadge of 150%, and the Hissss mission |
|
|
stops civil war. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
Fine Lizards. They have
exactly what you like. Minerals and cloakers. This race possibly is your most
Useful ally. |
|
|
They usually take
planets by dropping other Lizards. Offer Rebel Ground Attack to help them in
their task. Or, |
|
|
wouldn't a couple of
bulbous Mandozilas be a nice improvement for their fleet? Isn't the friendly
Gemini over |
|
|
a Lizard base a welcomed
guest? |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
Nasty Lizards. They
sneak through your borders and drop their lizards on the surface of your
worlds, without |
|
|
decloaking their ships.
One by one they can take your planets this way, and you will never see them.
Minefields. |
|
|
As much as you can. Over
the planet, under the planet, behind the planet, and if you could, you should
even mine |
|
|
the surface. Maximize
the defense posts on every planet, and kill them as fast as possible. Find
their warm planets |
|
|
and destroy the lizard
breeding worlds. Their ships are immune to the effect of a Loki, so the only
protection you |
|
|
have are minefields.
Ground attack Lizard planets as much as possible, to kill the eggs. The
Hissss mission will |
|
|
reduce the effect, but
not everywhere and every time. |
|
|
4.3 The Birds |
|
|
Nearly all of the Bird
ships are cloakers, the Resolute and Darkwing can stay invisible without
using fuel, |
|
|
they can control
planetary friendly codes and finally are immune to the Loki tachyon
emmission. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
The Birds are nice
combat fellows, especially when you dislike a mine laying race. The Bird
superspy |
|
|
can find as many
friendly codes as a heart likes, and even control all minefields of a race.
Now, |
|
|
imagine a Robot, who
takes cover behind some huge red circles on the chart, biting fingernails as |
|
|
he spots six Rushes
walking by. But he is save. Some bad day the Robot wakes up, and he finds all |
|
|
of his minefield
friendly codes set to "ass", to spot minutes later the Rushes
again, knocking at his |
|
|
door. (Yes, the
minefield fc is mf[X]). Or, your freighters, immune to NUK and ATT beam up
the minerals |
|
|
from a hostile planet to
share them with the Birds, after the Birds got the planetary fc under
control. |
|
|
To speak clearly: You
get the minerals anotherone ores. hehe, an alliance with the Birds is a game
with |
|
|
much fun. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
You minefields, many,
and if you have a lot, the Rush, better two and more on your planet with |
|
|
the highest ID. The Bird
tries to change your general minefield fc, by setting a planet's friendly
code to "mf[X]". |
|
|
He tries this your at
your planet with the highest ID, because this is the last one beeing
processed by host. |
|
|
Protect this planet, in
case that his super spy fails and the ships decloak. A bird likes abusing you
as cash cow, |
|
|
through setting your
planetary code to "bum", to beam up your credits. Distribute these
between your ships, |
|
|
and only beam them down,
to build the next. Once you notice that your fc changed, reduce taxes to 0,
not to give |
|
|
him any of the new taxed
money, if you don't have the orbiting ship. Get the credits from somewhere
else, |
|
|
possibly with direct
hyper jumps. The Bird tries to tow your Geminis off the planet, to destroy
them in open |
|
|
space. A protective ship
with a permanent mission to intercept the Gemini and "Birdmen" as primary enemy, will |
|
|
help you to proceed
building fighters. The best way to get rid of a bird is, to attack very soon,
or to |
|
|
have a close look inside
the "Birdmen Guide to the Galaxy", which should now contain nearly
every possible bird tactic. |
|
|
4.4 The Fascists |
|
|
The Fascists have
cloaking ships, they are advanced groud fighters and they can pillage planets
for money |
|
|
and supplies. Their
ships are, like yours, not affected by planetary defense. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
A Death Specula would be
a nice addition to your fleet. And you really don't want to see the planet, |
|
|
which got both pillaged
and ground attacked in single turn. Hmmm, cooperate somehow. The Glory Device |
|
|
can be usefull, if you
plan to take a base and need to weaken the orbiting ships. As with the
Lizards, |
|
|
you can reduce the
population on a planet, so the Fascists can take them more easily by dropping
clans. |
|
|
The Glory Device is also
very effective against Privateer wolfpacks, or any other cloaking ship. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
Fascist ships have many
beams, so they kill many fighters. But they lack of tubes. The D7a Painmaker
and the Little |
|
|
Pest Class are what a
Patriot's Captain dreams of, and even the D19b Nefarious sometimes gets
beaten by one (usually |
|
|
you need two Patriots),
if the Glory Device does not get activated. You should carry supplies on your
attacking ships. |
|
|
A small fleet of D19b's
will enormously reduce your number of fighters, and if the Victorious Class
follows, this |
|
|
might get a dicey trap
for your Rush. The Victorious never comes alone, so fighting the Fascist you
must especially |
|
|
care for an abundance of
fighters. Not to forget the minefields, for these pillaging barbarians. |
|
|
4.5 The Privateers |
|
|
A Privateers is master
in stealing your ships. If he is played well, the Privateer will be your
enemy no 1 |
|
|
when you do not ally
him. He can rob your ships off fuel, and board them by simply towing them
away. |
|
|
Three of his ships have
Gravitonic Accelerators do they travel 162 lj a turn. He gets very easy and |
|
|
unseen deep inside
hostile space and by towing his freighters he will expand faster than anyone
else. |
|
|
Wonder if Tim knew what
he creates, when he thought of the Privateer. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
The Privateers don't
really need anyone - except against the cloaking races, especially Lizards
and Birds. |
|
|
The Lizards equipped
with both Loki and cloakers can take Privateer worlds by dropping clans and
can even |
|
|
directly attack a
Privateer base. The Birds anyway can throw in a fleet of Darkwings and knock
out the |
|
|
Privateer bases one by
one, never decloaking and never getting robbed. But the efforts for the
Privateer's enemies |
|
|
raise enormously, when a
Rush guards the important planets, and with Bloodfangs full of fighters, he
also can |
|
|
defend himself up to a
certain grade. As exchange your ally can tow your battleships twice as fast
to a |
|
|
conflict, can supply you
with cloakers and can even go out and ruin your opponent's economy, to get
him |
|
|
faster down. If you
don't want to fight the Biocide that comes along to kill you, and your
relation to your ally works |
|
|
on 120%, then you
surreder a Rush to him, he places it without fuel (so it will not fight) on a
planet the Bio could |
|
|
pass, and robs it dry in
a single turn with the fuel tank of your carrier. There are much more similar
things |
|
|
you can do in a game
with Privateers, like moving a single Rush close to a enemy empire, so the
one you evidently |
|
|
want to attack might
want to stop you with some heavy battleships, when you are close enough. But
once |
|
|
you reached a dangerous
distance the Rush "runs out of fuel" and your enemy's vessels get
trapped by the |
|
|
wolfpack, cloaking
behind (or infront of - who knows) your carrier. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
The worst of all. When
the Privateer succeeds in stealing one or two Rushes, you have a problem.
Minefields. |
|
|
Align the fuel of
stationary ships to 1 kt and their mission always is on "Beam up
fuel". All of your ships are |
|
|
on warp 9; it is hard to
escape an MBR tow, but you could be lucky, when he tries to do it. The Loki
is what a |
|
|
Privateer sees only once
in his life and the ship you must get. And once you obtained this nice vessel
clone it |
|
|
as much as you can, and
do not fight with it. The Loki will just ecort your fleet and will do nothing
else. It is |
|
|
too worthy to loose it
in a fight. When you do so, be carefull which way your fleet will take to
attack this |
|
|
enemy. If you have to go
through a passage greater than 81 ly, you first must send in advance a
minelayer to |
|
|
your next waypoint and
follow with the fleet into the minefield you dropped and you will do the same
near the planet |
|
|
you are aiming on. The
reason is, that the Privateer could sacrifice an MBR to itercept the Loki and
destroy it. |
|
|
Cloakintercept-fights
are done before any others and no matter how many of your ship inetercept the
Loki themselves, |
|
|
it will be lost. In a
TKF game you don't have this problem, because an intercepting ship anyway has
to fight all |
|
|
of your battleships and
the Loki can stay in background. |
|
|
If you don't have the
Loki you must have an ally with cloakers. Your ally ecorts your ships and
whenever you could |
|
|
get robbed (e.g. you
just took a Privateer planet), your ally transfers some fuel into your ships,
and after they |
|
|
got robbed and towed
away, they still will have fuel. But if he tows you into a wolfpack, well...
this just depends |
|
|
on how skilled the
Privateer is. |
|
|
A small tactic which
could help you: |
|
|
TurnA: You engage a
planet destroying the defenses. The Privateer was waiting for you. |
|
|
TurnB: You cloaker
inside the fleet distributes fuel among the ships (e.g. X gets 12kt fuel, Y
gets 7kt of fuel ...) |
|
|
The Privateer robs you. |
|
|
TurnC: He gets his
message and compares the robbed amounts with his fuel tanks. They still have
space. He believes |
|
|
that your ships are
robbed empty. He returns or decloaks another ship to tow you off. Meanwhile
your |
|
|
cloaker refueled your
ships. |
|
|
TurnD: He towed a ship,
which now has fuel, and his own gets destroyed. |
|
|
However be careful. If
he has enough fuel capacity, he could try to rob and tow in a single turn.
Also don't do |
|
|
this, playing against
experienced privateers. |
|
|
So when you do not have
that Loki or a cloaking ally, you NEVER (never) orbit the Rush at a Privateer
planet inside |
|
|
his empire, when he has
enough ships to rob you dry. Exceptions are Rushes with a fuel tank of one
billion kilotons. |
|
|
4.6 The Borg |
|
|
The Borg reproduce by
assimilating natives, they have a hypership and the Chunneling |
|
|
Firecloud which, working
in pairs, can be used like a wormhole. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
A Biocide is an
impressive ship, isn't it? After about turn 20 the first one appears, and the
Borg needs a friendly |
|
|
neighbor, who is so kind
to arm it with fighters. The problem is, that he has nothing to offer for you
in exchange. |
|
|
Borg money anyway is
nothing else than assimilated cowpat,
and persons with ugly plastic eyes are not allowed on the |
|
|
fighter market. The
Chunnel perhaps, but nothing really else, and you never give the Falcon to a
Borg. For nothing. |
|
|
Alright, they are not
that worse and you and the Borg really are very strong. The Bio is one of the
strongest ships in the |
|
|
game, and with a good
load of fighters it sure will kill a lot. The Borg can also supply you with
many colonists and |
|
|
also many credits which
they get for example from a planet that once was inhabited by 10000000
natives. But be sure, |
|
|
if you ally a good Borg
player you will not win the game, because at least after turn 50, he
hopelessly starts to |
|
|
outproduce you, and if
you do not watch he also might eat you. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
The Borg has survived
until turn 20, and caught enough planets to infect with his own kind. Then,
your horizon gets |
|
|
dark and the cubes come.
Now what to do, when these hosed monsters come to build a highway right
through your |
|
|
lovely little Rebel
home? The Biocide has 5 more beams
than a Rush, that means usually, one-on-one, the Rushes death. |
|
|
Mistake a Biocide and
attack it without escorts; sacrifice a Guardian to reduce the shields. Same
thing with the |
|
|
torpedo cube. The snag
is, that the Borg always survives.
Hyperjump,assimilate,hyperjump,assimilate... this way |
|
|
he infects planets all
through the cluster and can attack you from completely different directions.
Your Falcons are |
|
|
always open eyed for
Borg probes. Assimilation facilitates a high ammount of planetary defense, so
you need many RGA |
|
|
ships to safe fighters
for the major threat, the cubes. First Borg goal is, to survive the initial
turns(!). |
|
|
4.7 The Crystal People |
|
|
The very
extraterrestrial race. The Crystal people are known for their web mines.
These, when you hit them |
|
|
drain the fuel of your
ship, so they can similar to the Privateer, capture it by a simple tow. They
have |
|
|
a special terraformer
which heats a planet up to 100. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
Web mines are extremely
useful against cloaking races. Cooperate with the Crystals, build fighters
for the Crystal |
|
|
Thunder and get some
nice web mines at your homeworlds. The deal is very easy, and of great use
for both of you. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
You will play "kill
the big boss" and "crack the nut", when the Crystals move to
your black list. The good |
|
|
Crystal leader is
patient and waits for a stolid like you, who cannot but break a wall with his
own head. What do you |
|
|
want from the Crystals?!
Yes, you will not sit and watch, while the Crystal takes planets you want to
have, but |
|
|
else there is totally no
reason to attack them. The planets you capture will be desertous rocks and
you cannot |
|
|
move a single turn
without permanently sweeping web mines. But if they attack you, which rarely
should happen, |
|
|
then you need many Heavy
Phasers. Arm the Iron Lady, many nice Ladies, to sweep the webs he comes
trough. |
|
|
Comes to your borders,
lays web,moves,sweeps,lays web.... and so slowly he surges inside your own
home like |
|
|
an invulnerable tank,
when you do not have those Iron Ladies. If you anyway want to attack, the all
of your |
|
|
ship should be armed
with Hv.Phasers for the minesweeping capacity, and be sure that your fuel
tank are full, |
|
|
because you will not be
able to sweep all of the webs, and you will hit many. You also need supplies
aboard |
|
|
to instantly repain the
minehits you get. |
|
|
4.8 The Empire |
|
|
The Empire usually gets
5 free fighters per turn and starbase , depending on your host settings. They |
|
|
can Dark Sense the socks
under your bed, and their ships mostly are medium and heavy carriers. The
empire |
|
|
has a hyper chip. The
Super Star Destroyer can perform a
mission called "Imperial Assault", and so take |
|
|
planets by dropping ten
clans, if the ship has no damadge. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
Friendly empire. The
Empire knows a lot. For example where the borg root around. In a single turn
the |
|
|
Empire detects more home
worlds than others in a whole game. Get in trade for this information.
Although |
|
|
fighting with carriers,
the Empire cannot produce the fighters "manually", so there are 7
more star bases |
|
|
to build, until the
production has reached the level of a Gemini: 40 fighters per turn. Get in
trade with |
|
|
fighters. Also, when you
ally, you could get a fine medium sized carrier for the Falcon, like an SSC. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
Unfriendly empire. A
Super Star Carrier has 4 fighter bays, the Destroyer only 3 and the |
|
|
Cruiser also 4. This
says: even a Patriot can launch the fighters more rapidly. Slow empire. |
|
|
And usually, emperial
ships are not full of fighters. At any point by any time you always have more |
|
|
fighters than the
Empire. A Rush can take up to four Cruisers with 80 fighters each, getting no |
|
|
or little damadge and
using about 200 fighters. It is the Cruiser broom. Reduce the fighters on the |
|
|
emperial ships, and add
some more explosions. The SSD is a dangerous ship, not because of its
firepower, |
|
|
but because of its
special ability: The imperial assault. When it happened that an SSD came
close |
|
|
to one of your bases, be
sure to have a ship ready to cause at least one point of damadge. The
Guardian |
|
|
with mark7 will do so,
and followed by a Patriot you will give those unfriendly assault troops the
rest. |
|
|
Have a close look at the
mineral costs for a Gorbie. Until the Empire builds one you have built two |
|
|
Rushes with that much
fighters, that the Empire gets gray from envy. Gray Empire. The Empire
habitualy |
|
|
knows everything, but
habits can grow to a trouble, when you cannot apply them any longer. So, the
Empire |
|
|
Darksense is completely
worthless against you, the Rebel, and the Empire player must rethink his
whole |
|
|
strategy, which,
designed on knowledge is not very effective against you. You have the
fighters and you |
|
|
are invisible, so you
must not loose against the Empire! The starbases are the key. |
|
|
4.9 The Robots |
|
|
The robots always will
lay the greatest minefield, and even if you could use the freighters for the |
|
|
job, the Robots would
laugh on your spots on the map. Just because the value every mine unit is
multiplied |
|
|
by four. They can build
free fighters and have the Bioscanner. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
What they need is what
you have: Duranium. Who does not like it, the assurance to travel safely |
|
|
through the biggest
minefields on the map and the assurance to somehow have an emergency exit, |
|
|
when your ships better
run. You and the Robots in an alliance are like the tiger and the bear, |
|
|
two fearcefull warriors,
you better avoid when your alone. Two powerful tools, fighters and |
|
|
minefields, are one of
the many usable keys to success. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
The Robot is very crude.
He needs a lot of time to develop, and a lot of Q-Tankers to arm his ships |
|
|
with fighters. The
Instrumentality is the first ship you meet (beneath the Cat's Paw) and always
the |
|
|
first remarkable carrier
you fight. The Instrumentality has three times the mass of the Patriot, one |
|
|
more fighter bay and two
more beams. So, you need at least three Patriots to destroy one
Instrumentality. |
|
|
The Iron Lady always is
inside your fleet, when you tackle the Robot, and escpecialy for the battle |
|
|
described above. The
Lady and two Patriots, that's an expensive fight. Only one Patriot, if you
got those |
|
|
mark8 torps. You could
also take a Guardian instead. Your primary weapon against the Robot always is
the |
|
|
Heavy Phaser, to keep
the minefiels off your skin. The mines. Get rid of them. Best with the
Colonies or |
|
|
many Iron Ladies. The
Q-tankers, where the Robot fighters come from, then the Golem, oh dear; with
your |
|
|
Rush and one or two
sacrificed Guardians only. Killing a Robot is a slow and arduous way. Don't
let the |
|
|
Robot come to you, you
go to him, so your area stays clear from mines. |
|
|
4.10 The Rebels |
|
|
For more information
about this formidable race, read "The Rebel's Handbook"! |
|
|
4.11 The Colonies |
|
|
The Colonies get the
free fighters like yourself, and they posses many special ships. |
|
|
The very special is the
Cobol class. |
|
|
ON YOUR SIDE |
|
|
Now, what can the
Colonies do for you? Whenever a minefield crosses their way, they send out
their Starbucks |
|
|
and clean the map. You,
especially when dismantling of Robots comes to your mind, you should try to
offer any- |
|
|
thing the Colonies lack
of, to get a Colony carrier inside your fleet. The Cobol is the best exchange
for a |
|
|
Falcon (beneath the
Cloaker and Loki), and you should even give two or three, which does not make
any sense, |
|
|
just reduces cloning
time for the Colonies. The Cobol will pull the Rush as wide as you can see,
and never runs |
|
|
out of fuel. |
|
|
AS ENEMY |
|
|
Fighting the Colonies
somehow is, like fighting yourself. Colonial ships are very similar to your
own ones and |
|
|
now that you know what a
Patriot is, you know how to resolve a
combat. Use your own Patriots and the Cygnus |
|
|
with Mark7 and 8
photons. The Virgo Class has 5 beams more than a Rush but two less bays,
which almost are more |
|
|
important. The Colonies tend to mount low level drives
onto the Virgo to tow this reinforced rock wherever |
|
|
they want, using the
Cobol. This is the ship you somehow should smooth out, so these fighter
carrying rocks run |
|
|
aground, and you have
the time to care for them. The Colonies will also never run out of fighters,
when your |
|
|
fleets do not include
the Iron Lady (many). So, like fighting any other race, by switching off the
advantage, you |
|
|
must look for the
Colonial special ships and capture or destroy them. Further, the Colony
player builds exactly |
|
|
the same outposts like
you do. Track the Cobols you spot in open space, to know from which
directions the Colonies |
|
|
could attack. The
Colonies are the strongest race of all, if they have enough time to develop.
They carry and move |
|
|
whateever they want and
operate inside your own house without the need of fuel. Their ships are
completety "planet- |
|
|
independent" and
when you must spend the minerals for a refinery, they build a Virgo instead. |
|
|
So, why don't you play
the Colonies? I tell you why: |
|
|
YOU ARE A REBEL ! |
|
|
SUMMARY |
|
|
There is always a big
discussion about what is better: torps or fighters. When you play the Rebels,
fighters are |
|
|
the sugar on your cake.
Produce them in a huge mass to arm your cheap and effective ships. You cannot
survive, if |
|
|
your fighter production
gets interrupted or your economy in general does not work. Resources gone, ships gone, |
|
|
Rebel gone. Very easy
conclusion. This not only is valid for you, but also for the other races.
Without a good |
|
|
network of cargoes,
nobody can stand war over the long period, and usually not the one with the
biggest and most |
|
|
threatening ships comes
to success, but the one who continuously can keep his empire producing and
expanding, the |
|
|
one who knows when to
fight and when to retreat and the one who develops the best ideas will be the
winner. |
|
|
CHAPTER 5 |
|
|
Tables / Equations |
|
|
5.1 Advantages |
|
|
Hyperjump :
Xreentry = Xpos + round (cos( 5/2pi -
2pi / 360 * HEADING ) * 350) |
|
|
Yreentry = Ypos + round
(sin ( 5/2pi - 2pi / 360 * HEADING ) *
350) |
|
|
^^^^ hypothenuse |
|
|
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to
get a RAD value |
|
|
^^^^^ to make it
anti-clockwise |
|
|
(For the mathematicians:
this is the trigonometric way. This is
the formula used in "Hyperspace Navigator". |
|
|
It calculates the jump not by using
additional coordinates, but by accepting
a simple heading. To get a gravity |
|
|
field add / substract the requested value to
/ from the hypothenuse) |
|
|
A mini Hyperspace utility
in Pascal: |
|
|
program hyperjump; |
|
|
uses crt; |
|
|
var
Xpos,Xreentry,Ypos,Yreentry,Heading:integer; |
|
|
begin |
|
|
clrscr; |
|
|
write('Current
X-Locatrion:'); readln (Xin); |
|
|
write('Current
Y-Locatrion:'); readln (Yin); |
|
|
write('Heading:'); readln
(Heading); |
|
|
Xreentry = Xpos + round (cos( 5/2pi - 2pi / 360 *
HEADING ) * 350); |
|
|
Yreentry = Ypos + round
(sin ( 5/2pi - 2pi / 360 * HEADING ) *
350); |
|
|
writeln('You reenter at
:' + Xreeentry +' / ' + Yreentry) |
|
|
end. |
|
|
RGA: ColonistsHappines := ColonistsHappines - 50 |
|
|
NativeHappiness :=
NativeHappiness + 30 |
|
|
Remaining := OnSurface -
OnSurface/100 * n |
|
|
[ n(Credits)=30,
n(Supplies)=40, n(Defense)=20,n(Mines)=60, n(Factories)=30, n(Colonists)=20 ] |
|
|
MaxCol on Temp < 15 :
9000000 |
|
|
MaxCol on Temp > 84 :
6000 |
|
|
FreeFighterCost : 2 Tri +
3 Mol + 5 Sup |
|
|
5.2 Shiplist |
|
|
TL Bms
T/F Dur - Tri
- Mol Mass - Cargo -
Fuel Crew - Eng -Cost |
|
|
|
Small DS Freighter 1 0 0 2 2
3 30 70 200 10 1
10 |
|
|
Taurus Class Scout 1 2 0 20 40
5 95 140 590 180 2
50 |
|
|
Cygnus Class
Destroyer 1 4
4/0 25 50
7 90 50 130 190 1
70 |
|
|
Falcon Class Escort 2 2 0 5 5
12 30 120 150 27 1
50 |
|
|
Neutronic Fuel
Carrier 3 0 0 10 2
20 10 2 900 2 2
20 |
|
|
Medium DS Freighter 3 0 0 4 4 6
60 200 250 6 1
65 |
|
|
Deep Space Scout 3 4 0 1 1
29 30 200 450 10 1
190 |
|
|
Guardian Class
Destroyer 4 3 6 10 60
11 80 20 120
275 1 180 |
|
|
Armored Transport 4 1 0 14 12
16 68 200 250
126 2 35 |
|
|
Sage Class Frigate 5 4
2/0 12 63
27 100 50 150 79 2
170 |
|
|
Saggitarius Class
Transport 5 2
0/2 14 12
38 99 300
450 226 2
75 |
|
|
Large DS Freighter 6 0 0 85 7 8
130 1200 600
102 2 160 |
|
|
Tranquiliy Class
Cruiser 6 4
2/0 42 71 43
160 380 460
330 2 140 |
|
|
Patriot Class Light
Carrier 6 2
0/6 5 45
35 90 30 140 172 1
90 |
|
|
Gemini Class
Transport 6 4
0/1 14 42
48 140 400 350 326 2
145 |
|
|
Iron Lady Class
Frigate 9 8
2/0 22 23 47
150 60 210 99 2
290 |
|
|
Neutronic Refinery
Ship 9 6 0 125
150 527 712
800 1050 190
10 970 |
|
|
Super Transport
Freighter 10 0 0 125 13
18 160 2600
1200 202 4
220 |
|
|
Rush Class Heavy
Carrier 10 5
0/10 242 171
242 645 390
1550 1858 6
987 |
|
|
Merlin Class Alchemy
Ship 10 8 0 625
250 134 920
2700 450 120
10 840 |
|
|
MaxBuiltFightersPerTurn
= Patriot : 3 (9t/6m/15s) |
|
|
Saggitarius : 30
(90t/60t/150s) |
|
|
Gemini : 40 (120t/80m/200s) |
|
|
Rush : 39 (117t/78m/ 195s) |
|
|
5.3 Planets |
|
|
Max. defence posts 50 + sqrt(clans - 50) |
|
|
Max. factories 100 + sqrt(clans - 100) |
|
|
Max. mines 200 + sqrt(clans - 200) |
|
|
Below theese numbers of
clans, the ratio is 1 structure/clan. |
|
|
Credits |
|
|
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: |
|
|
is reading
"Dreadord's Battle Manual" (Internet sites) |
|
|
is reading usefull
comments about any race (Internet sites) |
|
|
is getting a battle
simulator (Internet sites) |
|
|
is getting a file with
game formulas (Internet sites) |
|
|
is avoiding everybody
who wants to kill your fun |
|
|
VGA-Planets: |
|
|
Science fiction pbem
graphical strategy game |
|
|
Author : Tim Wisseman |
|
|
e-mail : Cocomax@aol.com |
|
|
Thanks to: |
|
|
Tim - Fun |
|
|
Bane, Robobob - Game
knowledge |
|
|
All others - Ideas |
|
|
Pythagoras - Brain |
|
|
Resources: |
|
|
Usenet |
|
|
The H-Files |
|
|
The Firm |
|
|
Various other docs |
|
|
IRC |
|
|
The Rebel's Handbook: |
|
|
Ok, an old analogy sais:
Never write something, if you don't want to place your name under it. |
|
|
Pavlos Chatzis |
|
|
albatross |
|
|
chatzis@albasoft.de |
|
|
July 31st 1998 |
|
|
Internet sites: |
|
|
Tim's own page : www.wilmington.net/vgaplanets and
www.vgaplanets.com |
|
|
VGAP-Newsgoup : alt.games.vga-planets |
|
|
Galactic Traveller :
www.jacobean.demon.co.uk/vgaplanets/start.html |
|
|
This file :
members.tripod.com/~Chatzis/rebel.html |
|
|
Last word: |
|
|
Imagine to have a dream
and 50000 pay to share it |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|