Dreadlord Battle ManuaL
-=DREADLORD=-
BATTLE MANUAL
Ramutis Giliauskas
Dec. 18, 1994
edited--Tim Vanderhoek
This was written to help players survive, be more effective, and more innovative when playing VGA PLANETS.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Beginner (one game) to Intermediate (five/six)
This can also be a good reference text for experienced
players.
If you print this out, it makes about 55 pages of great bathroom reading material; it is also easier to read.
You'll notice that the WP51 version of this has margins set for easy printing, whereas the .TXT version has margins set for easy viewing on your moniter.
CONTENTS
I. Preamble
II. Aggressive decision making
III. Battle and Convoy Groups
IV. Weapons
VI. Basic Strategy
VII. Individual Race Examples
VIII. Strategy for Privateer and Crystalline
IX. Team play
X. Fleet planning and guide to playing for the new player
XI. Hyper-drive
XII. Documents and utilities
XIII. Credits
XIV. Terminator utility
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I. Preamble
Contrary to popular belief, there is only one way way to win VGA PLANETS. The strategy and tactics were written 2500 years ago by Sun Tsu in "The Art of War", translated and rewritten by Samuel B. Griffith. Though the first part is quite dry, the latter third of the book has all the principals of warfare that apply directly to VGA PLANETS. During the last 12000 years, the only thing that has changed is technology. Successful strategic and tactical ideas have never changed. They were the same in 500bc China, 400bc Greece, 100bc Rome, 1200ad Mongolia and during Napoleonic times. The rules for winning a war are simple but seldom followed.
Victories against forces larger and more powerful are usually due to skillful application of these two principals of war --- surprise and concentration of forces.
In the history of warfare speed and daring has always won the prize.
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II. Aggressive decision making
When to attack or not?
A bold operation is one that has no more than a chance of success but which, in case of failure, leaves one with sufficient forces in hand to be able to cope with any situation. This type of operation gives the best promise of success.
A gamble, on the other hand, is an operation which can lead to victory or to the destruction of one's own forces.
When defeat is merely a question of time, when the gaining of time is pointless, then the only chance lies in an operation of great risk and a gamble can be justified.
Normally there is no ideal solution, but each possible course of action has its advantages and disadvantages. Select the one which seems the best from the widest point of view, then pursue it, and accept the consequences. Any compromise is bad.
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III. BATTLE AND CONVOY GROUPS by Doug Suerich
A. Definition
A BATTLE GROUP or a CONVOY GROUP is a specific group of ships that complement each other in a task. By keeping the ships in each group standard, it is easier to manage your forces. Keeping track of 30 ships is hard; however, if the ships are placed into similiar groups of 3 ships, the task is much easier.
B. How to Create
1. Ships
When trying to pick out ships that will work well together, first decide on exactly what you want them to do. In the example that follows, we are trying to create a battle group that will be able to run along the border of enemy territory and take out most ships that it meets, causing general disruption, destroying enemy ships and resources, and putting the enemy into a defensive frame of mind.
After choosing a purpose, we will try to weed out the useless ships in our arsenal from those that can be put to good use in our battle group.
a. Ships to Consider for your Battle Groups
There are certain criteria that will make a good general-purpose ship.
i. Cloaking
A vessel that cloaks will allow you to go undetected in your activities, and is especially useful for spying on your enemies. A cloaking ship can sneak into enemy territory and attack undefended freighters. If the cloaker has two engines, it can tow small capital ships or frieghters right off of planets, into space, and then attack and defeat them. After this the ship will recloak, enter into orbit, and grab another ship! There is, however, a way to counter this. If the enemy sets one of his capital ships to intercept the ship that you tow, he will intercept the ship you towed, and, since you are in the same place as the ship you towed, you will get blown up. Also, you won't be able to tow a ship that is set to warp 9 and has a waypoint that is more than 81 light-years away.
ii. Large Cargo Hold
With a large cargo hold you can carry enough torpedoes or fighters to last a long attack. You can also carry supplies to repair in space. 5 supplies will repair 1% of damage on any ship. A large cargo hold can also be used for freighting.
iii. Large Mass
A hull that has a heavier mass will have a better resistence to beam and torpedo damage, as well as to deep space mines.
iv. Large Crew
A large crew size will prevent you from being captured. Crew size is not a problem on most large ships, but on the smaller ships the crew is sometimes small enough that a determined enemy can capture your ship, and use it against you.
v. Firepower
A large number of beam weapons can knock down fighters.
When you are planning to capture planets, ships that have 8 X-Rays, and 3 Mark 6 or Mark 7 torpedo tubes will work well, for the simple reason that planets depend on fighters for defence--they can't launch enough fighters to overwhelm a ship with 8 beams. The torpedoes will capture the planet before you have to worry about the planet's beams damaging your ship.
Fighters can destroy large ships.
Torpedoes can help in the capture of vessels.
Determine what type of weapons your ship will need in order to be effective in its planned role.
b. Good All-Purpose Vessels
Here are some good all-purpose vessels:
BEST OVERALL FREIGHTER....LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER
SOLAR FEDS....NEBULA CLASS CRUISER
VENDETTA CLASS FRIGATE
LIZARD........REPTILE CLASS DESTROYER.....cloaking
LIZARD CLASS CRUISER........cloaking
BIRDMEN.......SWIFT HEART CLASS SCOUT.....cloaking
FEARLESS WING CRUISER.......cloaking
DETH SPECULA CLASS FRIGATE..cloaking
FASCIST.......GOLDPAIN CLASS CRUISER......cloaking
D7 COLDPAIN CLASS CRUISER...cloaking
D3 THORN CLASS DESTROYER....cloaking
DETH SPECULA CLASS FRIGATE.cloaking
PRIVATEER.....BR4 GUNSHIP..................cloaking, accelerated
BR5 KAYE CLASS TORPEDO BOAT..cloaking, accelerated
METEOR CLASS BLOCKADE RUNNER.cloaking, accelerated
DWARFSTAR CLASS TRANSPORT....cloaking
CYBORG........B200 CLASS PROBE........HYPER-DRIVE
FIRECLOUD CLASS CRUISER
BIOCIDE CARRIER
ANIALATION CLASS BATTLESHIP
CRYSTALLINE...RUBY CLASS LIGHT CRUISER
EMERALD CLASS BATTLE CRUISER
EVIL EMPIRE...PL32 PROBE..............HYPER-DRIVE
H-ROSS CLASS LIGHT CARRIER
MOSCOW CLASS STAR ESCORT
SUPER STAR FRIGATE
SUPER STAR CARRIER
ROBOT.........CAT's PAW CLASS DESTROYER
INSTRUMENTALITY CLASS BASESHIP
Q-TANKER
REBEL.........FALCON CLASS ESCORT.......HYPER-DRIVE
GEMINI CLASS TRANSPORT
PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIER
GUARDIAN CLASS DESTROYER
LOST COLONIES.GEMINI CLASS TRANSPORT
TRANQUILITY CLASS CRUISER
PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIER
Whichever ship you select, KNOW what role you will use it for and build it with the weapons that will be most effective. Don't mix and match. Having 7 identical ships is easier to plan with than having 7 non standard designs of the same ship. When you start building BATTLE GROUPS keep them standard as well. A BATTLE GROUP is a collection of ships that complement each other as a fighting force.
ALL ships are designed for a specific purpose, and when used for that purpose are very effective. The above list is a general guide, other ships may be more cost effective and better suited to your needs than those shownabove.
Remember, obtaining an effective fleet may take take 21 to 28 days.Because of losses due to battles, after 21 days your initial 7 capital ships will probably be gone, thus the need for planning ahead.
2. Uniqueness
Next, we will decide on exactly which ships will be in our battle group, taking into account what we are likely to be be fighting, as well as our unique resources and circumstances. It is particularly important to be able to put our race's special advantages to use, and to take advantage of our enemies disadvantages. In our example, we will be putting together a fairly general-use battle group, and neither our enemy's special disadvantages or our unique circumstances will have a large effect.
C. How to Use
If you have several capital ships travelling together, also have a supply ship. On this ship carry extra fuel and supplies. By carrying supplies, repairs can be made to damaged ships far from a starbase. Five supply units repair 1% damage. Always carry the minimun fuel and fighters/torpedoes required for battle on a capital ship so that if the capital ship is destroyed your resources in the form of extra fighters/torpedoes and fuel aren't lost as well.
D. The Colonies of Man's Ships
The COLONIES OF MAN are an often overlooked race in VGA planets; here is a short lesson on how to use their ships effectively. For the purpose of this supplement, it will be assumed that you are using an UNREGISTERED version.
First off, it is vital to know about the better ships in the COLONY arsenal. Here are some notes about the best COLONY ships:
1. PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIER
- 6 Fighter Bays
- 2 Beam Weapons
- 30 KT Cargo Capacity
This ship is a deadly killer. It can destroy virtually any small to medium sized ship and take no damage. The secret to its effectiveness lies in its 6 fighter bays. In a battle, an opposing ship will only be able to fire each of its beam weapons twice before the first fighters arrive; in this same period of time, usually 18 - 20 fighters will have been launched by the PATRIOT. Therefore, unless the opposing ship has 9 - 10 beam weapons (which is rare), you can be certain of causing damage to the enemy.
Against a medium size ship, if only 10 - 12 of the PATRIOT's fighters are destroyed, the remaining fighters are usually sufficient to destroy the victim; therefore, unless the ship has an extremly high mass, a PATRIOT CLASS CARRIER can destroy most medium sized ships with less than 7 beam weapons, and 2 PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIERS working together can destroy virtually any TECH 7 or below ship that does not have fighters of its own. Best of all, it is a component of the COLONY BATTLE GROUP, described below.
CAUTION: The PATRIOT CLASS LIGHT CARRIER is virtually useless unless it has 30 fighters. Although you may be able to get away with 25 or so, with much less you are giving up the only advantage the PATRIOT has --- the ability to put a large number of fighters in the air very quickly.
NOTE: If you need to save money, you can get away with TECH 1 beams on the PATRIOT --- it rarely uses them, and when it does, it is to destroy enemy fighters (and for that TECH 1 is as good as TECH 9).
2. GEMINI CLASS CARRIER
- 1 Fighter Bay
- 4 Beam Weapons
- 400 Cargo
This capable little ship is great for 2 missions:
a) Transport: With 400 cargo capacity you can load a lot of minerals onto this ship, and, with its Fighter Bay and 4 Beams, it is capable of defending itself against smaller ships; therefore you can send it on short journeys unescorted.
b) Fighter Production: When it comes to building fighters, nothing beats the GEMINI. To build a lot of fighters quickly just put a GEMINI around a mineral rich planet (preferably one with a starbase), and do the following:
i. Load these on board:
120 - Tritanium
80 - Molybdenum
150 - Supplies
ii. Set the mission of the GEMINI to `Build Fighters'
iii. Next turn you will have 40 fighters! Without paying even a single mega-credit!
3. TRANQUILITY CLASS CRUISER
- 2 Torpedo Launchers
- 4 Beam Weapons
- 380 Cargo
The TRANQUILITY is a hardy ship that is also a good transport; slightly more powerful than the GEMINI, it can be trusted to move cargo to anyplace you need it to go. 'Nuff said.
4. LITTLE JOE CLASS ESCORT
- 6 Beam Weapons
- 20 Cargo
The LITTLE JOE is an excellent ship, but only if used properly and never when used alone. Proper use of the LITTLE JOE is described below, in the COLONY BATTLE GROUP section.
5. CYGNUS CLASS BATTLESHIP
- 4 Torpedo Launchers
- 4 Beam Weapons
- 50 Cargo
This ship is the third component of the COLONY battle group described below. It is the perfect addition to this battle group because it's a cheap torpedo carrier that holds enough torpedoes to last a long campaign.
E. The Colonies of Man General-Purpose Battle-Group
1. Ships
1 x PATRIOT CLASS CARRIER with 30 fighters and TECH 6 Beams.
1 x LITTLE JOE CLASS ESCORT with DISRUPTORS.
1 x CYGNUS CLASS BATTLESHIP with TECH 6 Torpedoes and Beams.
These 3 ships, when sent out together, combine to form one of the most powerful battle groups available to the unregistered player, if used properly.
When this battle group is about to attack an opponent, set the ships to attack in a certain order that depends upon the type of ship being attacked.
2. Against a TORPEDO carrying ship: Set the attack order to the following:
- PATRIOT 1st
- CYGNUS 2nd
- LITTLE JOE 3rd
This is for an obvious reason; the PATRIOT can destroy most ships, but if it does not succeed, the LITTLE JOE would be mincemeat against a TORP ship.
3. Against a FIGHTER carrying ship: Set the attack order to the following:
- LITTLE JOE
- CYGNUS
- PATRIOT
The LITTLE JOE will likely be destroyed, but it will take a lot of fighters out with it. Then the CYGNUS with it's 4 beams and 4 torps, can clean up.
4. Against a BEAM only ship: Set the attack order to the following:
- CYGNUS
- PATRIOT
- LITTLE JOE
In this situation you don't want the PATRIOT to attack first, since you could expect to lose a lot of its fighters needlessly.
5. Against an UNARMED ship
Send in the LITTLE JOE first. This is the reason why the LITTLE JOE should be armed with disruptors: so that it can capture enemy freighters. Obviously against an unarmed ship, no other ships will enter the battle.
If you want to boost the number of ships in this arrangement, you should first add an extra LITTLE JOE to the group. The LITTLE JOE is likely to be destroyed first, and it would also be helpful to have 2 LITTLE JOE's around for stripping fighters off of large enemy fighter carriers.
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IV. Mass, Weapons, and Planetary Defence
A. Ship Mass
Every race has the NEUTRONIC REFINERY SHIP (mass 712) and the MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP (mass 920). Above a mass of 180 there are only 23 other ships, all the remaining 145 ships have a mass below 180.
B. Fighters
1. Use
At weights lower than 180 the beams and torpedoes are very effective, but as the mass increases their effectiveness decreases. Fighters have the same effect on every weight of ship after destroying the shields. Between masses of 450 to 980, the fighters are more effective at destroying ships than the beams or torpedoes.
2. Ordnance--How Many?
On a large carrier, carry at least 80 to 90 fighters, while a smaller carrier about 30 to 40 fighters is sufficient. However, if you are attacking several targets with a single ship (not wise) more fighters may be prudent.
C. Beam Weapon Selection
Against fighters the LASER is fine; however, it is wise to choose the X-RAY LASER in case you need to capture a freighter. In ships that have a mass up to 180 use 4 BLASTERS as a minimun. The BLASTER is the best value for your money. For masses 180 to 450 a higher tech and a larger number of beam weapons should be used. Above 450 never rely on beam weapons alone to destroy a ship; you will need fighters or torpedoes to supplement the beam weapons.
D. Torpedo Selection
1. Which Type?
As a general rule torpedoes are more effective at destroying the shields of a ship than causing hull damage. The best torpedo for both sheild destruction and hull damage is the MARK 8. Unfortunately, though, your resources at the beginning of the game are limited, and are often best used elsewhere.
Above 450 mass, a minimun of 5 torpedo tubes and high-tech torpedoes, to destroy the shields, are needed to do any appreciable damage. It is possible to use Mark 7 or 8s to destroy the shields of a very heavy ship (ex. Fed's Super Nova), and then to use Proton Torps, which always do at least 1% damage, to destroy the hull, but the conditions needed to make this worthwhile are rare. Above 450 mass carriers with fighters are the best choice.
There are only 5 useful torp types.
a. The Gamma Bomb
The only real use for the Gamma Bomb is putting it on on ships (often low-mass cloaking ships) that will be trying to steal freighters.
b. The Mark 4
For destroying ships that have a hull mass up to 180 the Mark 4 gives the best bang for the buck, but, in the long-run, the amount of minerals needed may offset this. However, at the start of the game it is best not to be overly-worried about the long-run, or you may not be around to see it. The money saved by using Mark 4s at the beginning of the game can go elsewhere and be better used (than on Mark 7 or 8s), usually. Besides, you may regret having upgraded your HW torp tech level to 10 when you find a Siliconoid planet that is perfect for a starbase the next turn.
c. The Mark 6
The Mark 6 can provide a useful amount of explosive in a package that, while not as effecient as the Mark 4 or Mark 8, does not have a large start-up cost; to upgrade from tech 7 (the Mark 6) to tech 8 (the Mark 7) costs 700mc or 2400mc to upgrade to tech 10 (the Mark 8). The Mark 6 is the torp to use in a one-time application that requires something with more BANG than the Mark 4. If you are not planning a one-time application, consider the Mark 7. This is also the minimum torp to use if you are destroying ships with a mass of 180 or more.
d. The Mark 7
The Mark 7 offers almost as much BANG as the Mark 8, and at a much lower start-up cost (1700mc less). This torpedo can easily replace the Mark 8 in most applications. The Mark 8 itself, however, is a must if you have lots of money, few minerals, and weak ships.
e. The Mark 8
Switching from Mark 4s to Mark 8s (or Mark 7s) can make an incredible difference in under-180 mass ships; however, it is only worth the extra money if you are on a Siliconoid planet, or if you are planning to produce a lot of Mark 8s. When producing over-450 ships, the heavier torpedoes (Mark 6, 7, and 8) are almost always used in favour of the Mark 4.
2. How Many Launcher Tubes?
In most torpedo ship combats, usually two salvoes will be fired. To get the most damage from these salvoes the following MINIMUN combination is recommended for targets that have a mass less than 180:
Ships with 4 torpedo launchers....... MARK 4 PHOTON
.. .. 3 .. .. ....... .. 6 ..
.. .. 2 .. .. ....... .. 7 ..
.. .. 1 .. .. ....... .. 8 ..
For logistics and planning, it is best to not choose torpedo types at random but rather to have well-designed battle-groups.
Also, see the section on defending your Home World with small capital ships.
3. Ordnance
For torpedoes, 7 times the number of torpedo launchers should be adequate. So, on a ship with 3 torpedo launchers have 21 torpedoes. On real naval carriers, the compliment of aircraft is about 85 aircraft on a big carrier and 35 aircraft on a smaller one. Submarines (ships that cloak) carry 18 to 24 torps, while a destroyer will have 6 to 12 torps (the more launch tubes, the more torpedoes).
4. Minefields
If you only plan to build one small mine field surrounding your starbase the MARK 4 PHOTON is cost effective. A radius of 50 light years will cost 1300mc and use only 100 torpedoes.
Up to a radius of 100 light years the MARK 7 PHOTON is better because it uses fewer minerals than a MARK 4 PHOTON.
Building more than one minefield or fields larger than 100 light years use the MARK 8 PHOTON because of the tremendous savings in minerals.
The important thing to realize is that once you have upgraded the torp tech level on a starbase, you should use the same tech level of torps on your all ships. If you are really interested in winning, you can even build starbases dedicated to producing a certain tech level of torps\beams\engines\hulls which will take advantage of native races. You can use the starbase RECYCLE command to spread the high-tech parts throughout your empire.
The following is a mine-laying efficiency listing of the various torps.
TORPEDO COST (NOT LAUNCHER) TO LAY _1_ MINE UNIT:
T C T M T
Y O R D O E
P S I U L C
E T T R Y H
MARK 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1
PROTON TORP 2.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1
MARK 2 0.56 0.11 0.11 0.11 3
GAMMA BOMB 1.11 0.11 0.11 0.11 3
MARK 3 0.75 0.06 0.06 0.06 4
MARK 4 0.52 0.04 0.04 0.04 5
MARK 5 0.86 0.03 0.03 0.03 6
MARK 6 0.71 0.02 0.02 0.02 7
MARK 7 0.56 0.02 0.02 0.02 8
MARK 8 0.54 0.01 0.01 0.01 10
THE FORMULA FOR NUMBER OF MINES LAID IS:
mines_laid=number_of_torpedoes * tech^2
or
Number of torpedoes times the torpedo tech level squared will equalthe number of mine units layed.
Assuming that one torpedo was used, divide the cost for one torpedo by the number of mines laid by that same torpedo to find the cost per mine.
Note that this is for comparison purposes only; do not try to calculate the cost of laying a minefield with this, because you will likely end up with an incorrect answer due to rounding.
Do not dismiss a difference of 0.02, or 0.01. When you start laying 25 or so torpedoes every couple of days, it adds up FAST!
An important factor not included in the mine-laying efficiency stats is that if you use the torpedoes for battle, it is a great deal of help if you have a high torp tech level (although, this does not mean that all your torps have to be high-tech torps; it means that you should use high-tech torps when they are available).
Since you will always be using the highest tech level of torps that you can produce, the only question is what tech level to upgrade to. If you're on an Siliconoid planet (which gives your starbase automatic tech 10 torp level) you will be building only Mark 8s or Gamma Bombs (except for a few, rare scenarios where you may need to use a different type of torps). If there is no starbase on a Siliconoid planet nearby, you will have to choose a tech level to upgrade to. For the 5 useful torp types see the section on choosing torp types.
E. Planetary Defence Post Tables
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
`*' denotes a beam tech level increase.
NOTE: Having 181 Defence Posts means that when the planet is attacked it will use Heavy Phasers in its defence; it does not mean that a starbase over the planet will have a tech 10 beam level. In other words, just because the tech level of beams used to defend a planet against attack increases due to a high number of defence posts does not mean that the tech level of beams that a starbase can produce goes up.
NOTE: The tech level of beams used to defend a planet will not be lower than the beam tech level on a starbase above the planet; however, it may be lower.
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V. Basic Conservative Strategy for the New Player
The following is what can be referred to as standard practice. It is not necessarily recommended; it is just standard, conservative play that you can use as base for more complex, innovative, and effective strategies and tactics. Make sure that you also read the section on Convoy and Battle Groups.
A. On the First Day
1. Race Choice
For the novice player, a cloaking race such as the Lizards or Birdman would be a wise race choice. Cloaking ships have the advantages of usually being low-tech, as well as forcing you to become a better player. Cloakers can also get away with low-tech engines easier than most other ships.
The Robots would also be a wise choice, especially in a short game.
2. Home World Development
bring your defence posts to 101: guaranteed to not be detected by a sensor
sweep.
.. .. factories .. max: supplies can be sold for money and
are needed to colonize. Free fighter races
also need supplies to build fighters.
.. .. mines .. .. : this will let you get a quick start on
colonizing as well as in defence/small
raids.
.. .. tax rate .. 9% : you can usually increase taxes to the first
level of "They are angry at you" without
any adverse effects. Money is needed to get
a quick start in the game.
3. Home World Defence
Do not bring your starbase defence level to 200 right away. Doing so will waste 1800mc, and 180 duranium, a precious commodity early in the game. Neither should you bring your starbase fighters to 60. This will waste more money than you can spare this early in the game. If you are a free-fighter race (Robots, Rebels, and Colonies) you should bring your fighters up to 60 with caution, always making sure that you will have enough minerals for the ships you will soon be producing.
Later on, as minerals become more common, colonization less important, and the threat of attack more menacing, you will likely want to raise your Home World defences as much as you can.
However, do not totally neglect defending your HW (Home World). During the first two weeks, while building ships, increase your planetary defence posts, starbase defense strength, and add fighters. Work toward getting the number of fighters on your starbase to 60 (max) and the planetary defence to max within 20 to 25 turns. This is your last line of defence. Always make sure your defence posts are 100+ so that your planet's industrial activity is guaranteed to be shielded from long range sensor sweeps. Obviously, if your HW is closer to your enemies, defence will be more important sooner.
A starbase with 30 fighters, 100 planetary defence posts, and 100 starbase defence strength is equivalent to a carrier with a mass of 300kt, 40 fighters, and 6 phasers (section 2.4 and 4.1 docs).
a. Small Capital Ships for Defence
i. Reason
One of the other tools for defending your starbases should be several low-cost ships with beam weapons and torpedoes. When a carrier attacks a small ship, the small ship will usually get to fire off two salvoes of beam weapons and two salvoes of torps before it is destroyed.
So, if it has 4 beams and 2 torp launchers, it will shoot down 8 fighters and do a little damage to the carrier. Several of these expendable capital ships may weaken the carrier sufficiently that the starbase to survive.
ii. Construction
Use TECH 1 engines with one kt of fuel on board. Put X-RAY LASERS on board, and use the most explosive torpedo that you can afford but load only 2 or 3 torps per tube.
4. Starbase Tech Levels
HULL.....TECH 6.....I find that this level gives a good complement of ships. The ideal freighter being the LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER.
ENGINES..TECH 10....Most fuel efficient on all ships.
WEAPONS..TECH 3.....The blaster offers good explosive damage for its cost, use in minerals and cost in tech level.
TORP.....TECH 5.....The MARK 4 in all weight ranges is the best bang for the buck. On ships with only 1 or 2 tubes the MARK 8 or the MARK 7 offsets the disadvantage of few tubes and the 35% chance of a miss.
5. Planning and Calculating Ahead
You can plan for most games to last about 40 to 60 turns. The first major battles will likely occur around turn 20 to 30 with a couple races knocked out. Turns 30 to 50 usually see a few more players knocked out with the game winding down after turn 50.
Prepare your strategy. Even before you begin the game, review your race's advantages, and plan a strategy that you will use. Then, be sure to stick to your strategy. You will likely have to wait until you know who your neighbours are before you can get too specific about your strategy. Also, be sure to leave room for change in your strategy. Do not leave it so open-ended that you fight an undisciplined war, but do leave room for change. This is easy to forget as you progress in playing ability.
When following through with your strategy, use aggressive tactics that are specially designed and customized for the task at hand. As an example:
if you are planning to distract the enemy and then launch an attack to hisside the following tactic could be used to distract the enemy...
(example)
Object: To put the enemy into a defensive and frame of mind by disrupting freight lanes and through the use of a sudden, large number of attacks (sweeping a minefield can be considered an attack in this case).
Requirements: Birds as offending race, Robots as the defending race. 5-10 Swift Heart Class Scouts with X-Rays. 4-7 Resolutes with Disrupters (one Resolute sweeps 800 mines per turn), Heavy Disrupters (one Resolute sweeps 1984 mines per turn), or Heavy Phasers (one Resolute sweeps 3200 mines per turn).
Explanation of Requirements: The Swift Heart Class Scout is a cheap cloaking ship that you can sacrifice for the purpose of taking out a freighter along with you. You may want to use beams with a smaller crew-kill factor.
The number of Resolutes needed depends on the beam weapon used. Disrupter, Heavy Disrupter, and Heavy Phaser are the levels to consider upgrading your starbase tech level to for the purpose of minesweeping. Disrupter is the minimum to equip your minesweeping Resolutes with. Remember that if you spend a large amount of money on a tech upgrade to get full use out of it.
Method: Line up all your Resolutes as close to the border of the Robots existing minefield as possible. On one of your Resolutes, have enough torpedoes so that you can drop a minefield of your own as a quick way to remove the Robot's minefield. It is possible that you can achieve the same quick-removal effect through regular sweeping, but that method is limited in the area that can be cleared of enemy mine. When all the Swift Hearts and Resolutes are as near to the minefield as they can safely get (they're all cloaked, of course!) you will drop a minefield from your Resolute prepared for that purpose.
This same turn that you dropped your own minefield move your Swift Hearts (cloaked) to, or as near to a planet as they can get. You will also begin the following with your Resolutes.
The Resolutes are used to mine-sweep when Robots drops mines. The main purpose is to put the Robots into a defensive frame of mind. The Resolutes must cloak and move a few light-years, and then uncloak in order to mine-sweep. They then cloak and repeat. Be sure within reach of the Robot's mines, and to always have at least two Resolutes uncloaked and sweeping mines so that the enemy knows he is wasting his resources laying mines, and also so that he knows that if he stops laying mines, the Resolutes will sneak in and attack (they would attack using a tactic similiar to the one the Swift Hearts are currently using).
The Swift Hearts will attack anything they can damage, destroy, or steal every turn until they are gone. The Resolutes can continue sweeping mines ad infinitum, or at least until they run out of fuel.
When you feel that you have the enemy playing the most defensively, you will launch your attack with properly designed attacking ships.
(end of example)
Try to always have a 7 day plan. Be aware of the cost in mega-credits and minerals for the fleet you are building so that you will not be caught short. See the section `Documents and Utilities' `BUILD1_1' for more information on fleet planning and design.
Once you own more planets, take a look at the mining surveys and calculate the number on minerals you will have in 7 days, 14 days and 21 days. By looking ahead you can see where your weakness in minerals is, and when you might run out. You will also see which ships you will and will not be able to build.
First determine what you would like and how much it will cost. For example, to build 10 WHITE FALCON CLASS CRUISERS consider:
Cost of raising the HULL tech levels to a minimun tech 3.
Cost .. .. .. BEAM .. .. .. level desired.
Cost .. .. .. TORP .. .. .. .. ..
Cost .. .. .. ENG .. .. .. maximum.
Cost in mega credits and minerals for 40 beam weapons.
Cost .. .. .. .. .. .. 10 torpedo launchers.
Cost .. .. .. .. .. .. 20 engines.
Cost .. .. .. .. .. .. 10 hulls.
Cost .. .. .. .. .. .. 100 torpedoes...10 per.
Amount of fuel required.......full tanks....4300 neutronium.
Now, from the mining surveys you can determine if some of the minerals you are short of can be transported from other planets. Or maybe your ships can be just as effective with tech 1 beam weapons which are cheaper and use less minerals than higher tech beam weapons. Maybe tech 2 torpedoes could still perform in the role required, but are cheaper than higher tech torpedoes. Maybe have only 3 beam weapons instead of four, or no torpedo launchers instead of 1 on board.
As your resources improve you could plan a fleet replacement and purchase the ships you truly desire. Whatever your strategy is, plan for 7, 14 and 21 days ahead and ensure you have the resources in supplies, factories, minerals and mega credits to fulfil it.
Whatever you plan, be innovative, cunning, and read up on tactical warfare. Strategy by B.H. Liddel Hart and How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander are but two of the many excellent books available at your local library. Field Marshal Rommel's tactics with the Afrika Corps in North Africa can be used here with astounding results.
6. Ships
a. First Ships
Unless Home Worlds are close together, you should first build an LDSF (Large Deep Space Freighter) for colonizing. After building this, you may have to rest a few turns to let your duranium stores build up again.
In the case that Home Worlds are close together, you may want to build a suitable capital ship or two first. If possible, build one with a large cargo capacity (350 or more) so that it can act as a freighter. When Home Worlds are close together, you do not want to risk losing a valuable freighter to a scout with only 2 X-Rays. If you cannot build a capital ship that can act as a freighter, always be sure to escort your ships.
If you are playing in a game where many of the planets you find will not be worthwhile, you may want to build an MDSF (Medium Deep Space Freighter) so that you can scout out the good planets. Once the MDSF's job of scouting has been finished, it can be colonized or put to use in small cargo transport. If you plan to colonize it you may choose to build a Smallie (Small Deep Space Freighter) instead.
For the first seven days you should likely build the cheapest craft with the highest number of cargo holds. This is usually the Large Deep Space Freighter. Consider using the Large Deep Space Freighter for colonization, and the Medium Deep Space Freighter for mineral movement at this early stage in the game. Do not forget that you may have a capital ship that will function in the role of colonization or mineral movement more effectively than these two freighters.
Be sure to equip your first ships with tech 10 engines so that they can remain out of sight of the races that have HYPerdrive ships (Cyborg, Empire, Rebels). These ships can be aimed at your planets (see section on the HYPerdrive) to capture undefended freighters from you in less time than it takes to send a capital ship to save your freighter.
You will also have to make sure that you produce enough capital ships to defend a minor exploratory attack on your growing empire. Unless you're planning a sudden surprise attack, stay away from large expensive ships that will hinder your colonization. Large expensive ships also have the disadvantage that they can only be in one place at a time. An attack may strike just far enough away from your large expensive ship that you could be wiped out, even if you currently own the most powerful ship in the game. Take note, Cyborg.
b. More Ships
i. Criteria
Whatever ship you select, KNOW what role you will use it for and build it with the weapons that will be most effective in that role (taking into account your resources, too, of course). Having 7 similiar ships is easier to plan with than having 7 non-standard designs of the same ship. When you start building BATTLE GROUPS keep them standard as well. A BATTLE GROUP is a collection of ships that complement each other in fulfilling a single role.
ALL ships are designed for a specific purpose, and when used for that purpose are very effective. Do not ignore any particular ship because it is traditionally not used, or seems to be too wimpy. Even the most useless seeming ships can sometimes have valuable purposes in your empire.
Also, see the section on BATTLE OR CONVOY GROUPS for a list of important criteria for general-use ships.
Also, see the section on Battle and Convoy Groups, which contains useful criteria for selecting ships.
From turns 7 to 14 you should start building your main capital ships. If you empire is running smoothly, you should be able to produce almost one every turn, so that by turn 14 you have a fleet of at least 7 capital ships.
Between turns 21 and 28 you should have developed an effective fleet.
ii. Outfitting
x. Engines
It is important to remember that this is just basic strategy. If you are daring and plan to win, you will have to be more innovative than this, have enemies that play poorly, or just be very lucky.
If you are registered, put tech 10 engines (the TransWarp) on all of your ships. This is the most fuel efficient, will allow you to easily chase down enemies, and let you spend less time in space while en-route to your destination.
xx. Weapons
There are two primary theories to weapons. One is to use the most powerful weapon you can (ex. Mark 8), and the other is to use the most efficient weapon (ex. Mark 4).
The best solution is a combination of both. The reasoning behind the biggest BANG theory is that if your ship survives because you spent more on weapons, then the extra money was worth it. The reasoning behind the most efficient weapon theory is that by using cheaper weapons, you can produce so many more ships that it's worth losing a few more battles. The best solution has to be tailored to your particular circumstances (enemy, abundancy of minerals, abundancy of mega-credits, race) as well as to your playing style.
For a more detailed discussion on weapons see the appropriate sections.
B. Expanding your Empire with Planets
1. Colonizing
You will often want to send a small scout ahead of you so that it can find good planets and you can plan ahead for them. For example, if your scout has found a planet that can generate a lot of money is only a bit farther on, you may want to hold off on colonizing the in-between planets so that you can tax this high-revenue planet sooner.
You will want to put 100 clans on most planets that you colonize. The reason for this is that 100 clans can sustain enough mines for most planets as well as build 100 factories. Over 100 clans, you can not build 1 factory for every clan. For most races the best colonizing freighter is the LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER.
Remember to include about 25 supplies and 100mc for every 100 colonists. If resources are scarce, you can go to 10 supplies and 50mc. Planets that have natives (other than Amorphous ones) can generate their own money, and you do not have to supply these with mega-credits to get started.
Try to make the warps between planets in one turn so that you will not be seen. This is especially important if everyone knows that you are a rookie. If you are experienced, they may assume that you believe you are strong enough to repel an attack.
When you have a ship over an unowned planet do a mineral survey. To do this, select the ship that is over the unowned planet. Then press F4 and the F5. You can now unload some colonists onto the planet. If there are natives (other than Amorphous ones) you need only to unload supplies and colonists and your freighter can move to the next planet in the same turn. If there are no natives, your ship will have to wait there until next turn when you own the planet so that you can give it some mega-credits. The reason it does not need mega-credits if there are natives is that you can tax the natives and the planet will generate its own mega-credits.
You may have to stay in orbit, even if there are natives on the planet. Your ship may be short on fuel, in which case, you can gamble that there will be enough fuel on the planet's surface to get you to the next planet. To gamble like this, set you mission to `G'ather Neutronium and before you leave the planet's orbit, your ship will automatically beam up all the neutronium on the surface. You may be forced to wait at the planet until another ship can refuel you or until you have mined some neutronium from the planet.
2. Development of Planets
When colonizing, do not neglect planetary defence posts on newly-owned planets. There are three primary types of defence--capital ships, planetary defence, and mines, usually in that order of importance. Of the three, planetary defence will be the most important defence against small scouts with 2 X-Ray beams that wander into your territory looking for unguarded planets.
In order to prevent small scouts from taking over your precious new planets and destroying many of the factories and mines as well as stealing any money on the planet you need about 13 defence posts. It is generally safe to let a planet go without 13 defence posts for the first few turns that you own it. After that, you will want a minimum of 13 defence posts to defend from small scouts or small HYPerdrive ship attacks. The 13 defence posts should be increased by a couple every turn. Don't build mines until you have maxed out the number of factories you can build (unless you urgently need some minerals). By the time you have about 25-50 mines built (if you have decided that the planet is worthy of that many) you should have your planetary defence to max, or almost there.
3. Building a New Starbase
a. What for?
Do not think that you will never have to build another STARBASE. If someone attacks and destroys your Home World, you will need another base to survive in the game. A STARBASE can also be used as added defence for a valuable planet. You may find that your Home World starbase is overwhelmed by the need for new ships in your empire. You may need ships to be produced nearer to your enemy's heartland. Maybe you need a supply of torpedoes or fighters closer to the action. Moving minerals from far away to your Home World is also very wasteful of fuel, and a starbase nearer to high- production planets will save fuel and effort. Once the 500 ship limit is reached, he with the most starbases has the best chance to win.
Do not build a starbase simply for the sake of building a starbase, though. Whenever you build a new starbase, have a specific purpose for it in mind that is part of your over-all strategy.
b. About Building a Starbase
You may need to build a Large Deep Space Freighter, to transport any materials and colonists required to the chosen planet. To defend the new starbase you will need one to three capital ships, at least until it has full defence posts and max fighters. For building a starbase you need the following:
900 mega-credits
402 tritanium
120 duranium
340 molybdenum
colonists
A Large Deep Space Freighter or a couple of capital ships with a lot of cargo holds can deliver these minerals. The ships can also be used to deliver additional colonists and minerals after the starbase is started. You will also need supplies and more mega-credits to build factories, mines, and defence posts.
Do not leave only 100 clans on your starbase. A cloaking race (especially the Lizards) may find this out and beam colonists of their own down. Suddenly, they'll have your starbase for free! You will need at
least 500 clans to be fairly safe. Before you can feel really secure, you should have several thousand clans on your starbase.
C. Defence of your Empire
With hyper-drive potentially in the hands of any race you can be attacked from a 1000 light years away only a few days after the start of the game. Get your HW (Home World) defence posts above 100, keep your ships hidden and don't lay a minefield until it is absolutely necessary (minefields can be detected from a large distance away).
Every day check to see if any other ships are orbiting any of your planets.
Always be watching for any sign that your enemy (or your ally) is planning an attack.
Always be thinking about how you would attack if you were your enemy. Prepare your defence for this. You can second-guess yourself forever. For every tactic there is a counter-tactic for which there is a way around by using a different tactic. Choose the type of attack you expect and prepare for it. Do your best to prepare for every possibility, though. The Parker Bros. game "Risk" was called so for a reason. You can't play without being aggressive, taking risks, and gambling and still hope to win.
D. Attacking the Enemy
Always plan out your attacks. Avoid an all-out battle of attrition. Use your forces with daring and stealth.
See the section on HYPerdrive ships.
See the section on BATTLE GROUPS. Battle groups can make effective forays into enemy territory that can put him into a defensive mood, as well as destroy valuable ships and resources, especially when used in an organized and thought-out manner.
1. Your Enemy
See the section on team-work.
Avoid a two fronted war by having one enemy at a time. Negotiate with the others for an alliance or truce so that you can use your forces on a single enemy. In this way you can concentrate your forces against one opponent. If possible, use your ally to help destroy the enemy. Two against one is always better than one on one. Working in a team is even better. With your resources pooled you will be more effective.
If my race cannot build fighters cheaply (ie just use 3 TRI, 2 MOLY and 5 supply, no mega-credits) then I will build ships that carry torpedoes. Unless I can do a quick kill on their starbase, I will avoid conflict with races that can build fighters cheaply. Instead, I will aid another race by providing some ships/credits to do my "dirty work" for me. This is similar to the strategy the Byzantine (500ad) and the British Empires (18th century) followed.
Be ruthless and aggressive to effectively carry out your plans of universal domination. An opponent who isn't completely destroyed can rebuild. Spare no one. The U.S. Navy in World War II had a motto--"HUNT THEM, FIND THEM, SINK THEM!".
Even if your opponent has a fleet stronger and larger than yours, never despair. All the great Generals in human history won their battles with forces that were greatly outnumbered and outgunned. How? They concentrated their forces and struck at their enemy's weakest areas. Attacking where least expected and with more forces than your opponent has in that area will allow you to survive, and eventually turn the tide. Never do what your opponent expects you to and never be where he thinks you are. In any situation, determine what is most the most obvious course of action to follow and what is LEAST obvious. In most cases, do the least obvious. Always mystify, mislead, and surprise your enemy.
Never underestimate any player. Always be sure to correctly estimate the effects of your attack on your enemy.
2. Targets
It is usually best to try and avoid head to head conflicts involving the loss of ships. Attack the resources that supply, build, and fuel these ships. By avoiding battles against large ships you can commit your resources to smaller capital ships and have economy of force.
Remember to try and do the unexpected, but at the same time be sure to keep in mind that certain operations are simply more worthwhile than others. In order of importance, here are the primary targets.
a. Home World
Whenever possible ALWAYS destroy your opponent's HOME WORLD. As well as being his source for building ships, mega-credits, supplies, and colonists a blow here can also knock him out of the game. Psychologically the loss of the Home World can cause a player to give up and stop playing.
b. Control of the Battlefield
If you can take control of the battlefield, you can call the shots. Bully the enemy if you can. The safety that freedom of movement generates will usually pay for itself.
c. Planets
By capturing enemy planets you deny him observation posts. This can be done by unloading colonists onto the planet for ground war.
Watch enemy movements with cloaking ships, as well as from a distance. See if you can find his primary planets. Attack a couple of these over a spread-out area can weaken the enemy greatly.
Attacking lesser planets that the enemy is using primarily for the 100 supplies per turn it generates can also force him to either spend a lot of money on a minefield (which you will just sweep), force him to spread out his forces, or force him to lose these planets. If he decides to sacrifice these lesser planets, you can use them as FORWARD SUPPLY BASES.
d. Freighters
Destroying enemy freighters denies the enemy the minerals needed at his starbase.
e. Capital Ships
Destroy enemy capital ships ONLY when your losses are minimal and his losses are maximum or when it gives you a commanding control over the battlefield.
3. Attacks
Time your attacks carefully. Timing can make the difference between success and failure.
Before you attack know what your target has for defence. If you are attacking ships that are in space, check to see what you will be attacking by using `L' and `V'. After you have identified the enemy ships, use the program PROSIM.EXE (with SIM.EXE) to see if you will be successful in a conflict. Determine which ships and in which order you will send your ships in to attack. Set the ship's mission to INTERCEPT or KILL and input the PRIMARY ENEMY. The ship with the lowest ID # will attack first. To change the order of attack change the friendly code. For example ship A is to attack second and ship B first. Set ship A code to 2xx and B to 1xx. Read the Doc "HOSTxx.ZIP" for more info.
When attacking or defending, do not waste your forces piecemeal. If you want a target, then commit enough ships to be successful.
It is a waste of resources to send 3 ships and lose them, even if the target is destroyed. Send 6. That way, although you still lose three ships, you have 3 left to control the area. Remember, you must have sufficient ships to win, as well as to repel any counter attack. Know what your target defences are, and then use the best combination of weapons against it. You will lose ships in an attack, anticipate this.
Carriers are the most efficient way of attacking a starbase, but only when used as part of a BATTLE GROUP.
E. Freight Movement
Bringing minerals to a starbase can be done with capital ships that have large cargo holds or freighters. Using a capital ship that cloaks is ideal, because no one can see what your route of travel is.
F. Movement
If you are using a ship that doesn't cloak, try to travel from planet to planet in one turn. When in orbit around a planet your enemies cannot see you.
When you cannot make a move in one turn, be sure to avoid telegraphing your moves. Don't move in a straight line from one planet to another. Zig zag so your opponents are not sure of your destination.
1. Convoy
To protect your ships have them travel in a convoy. Set the to travel at the same speed, moving to EXACTLY the same location each turn. This is accomplished by having all the ships intercept the lead ship in the convoy.
To travel to a distant cluster of planets have several freighters travel in a convoy with an escort. Their path should closely resemble a firecracker on the 1st of July. All the ships travel together for as long as possible and then suddenly the convoy breaks up with each ship travelling a very short distance to its assigned planet. Using several freighters, a large number of planets can be checked out quickly.
If the distance between planets is too great to be done economically because of fuel concerns, have some escorts standing on station at certain locations. Sitting on station at warp 0, the escorts will not use valuable fuel. The convoys can then move to these stations for extra protection.
If your resources are low, you can tow a ship and put StarDrive 1 engines on it. For example, a LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER with high tech engines could tow a capital ship that has only tech 1 engines. The cost of the capital ship then is minimized.
2. Or the Lack There-Of: When NOT moving
Unless your capital ships are on convoy duty they should be in one of two locations. 1) At the starbase to maximize the defences or somewhere else standing by to face any enemy action. 2) In a strong, single strike force moving to attack the enemy.
3. Fuel Burn
The heavier the ship, the more fuel it will burn. When selecting beam weapons, engines, torpedoes, torpedo launchers and fighters check the weight. A positron beam weighs 3 KT and a blaster 4 KT. Carrying 60 fighters will burn less fuel than 80 fighters. Having 150kt of fuel weighs less than 200kt fuel, therefore the ship will burn less.
The biggest advantage to registering is that you will be able to build tech 10 engines, and move further and faster than before. A tech 7 engine is the minimun size engine that should be used on most ships. Lesser tech engines can be used on ships that are just staying and protecting the starbase.
G. Scouts, Observation Posts, and Forward Supply Bases
A SMALL SCOUT with high-tech engines can move rapidly and economically around the universe looking for enemy ships and planets. By leaving one colonist clan at each planet, this planet becomes an OBSERVATION POST on enemy activity. By leaving several colonists with supplies and mega-credits, some factories and eventually some mines can be built to provide fuel and supplies to ships operating far from your own territory. This planet is a FORWARD SUPPLY BASE.
With colonists on the planet you can use `v' to look at other ships that come close. Also use `l' to list the ships if they are travelling in a convoy; then cycle through using `v' to see which ships are there. Depending on which version of PLANETS.EXE you have, you m