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(200) Special Tips For The Races

Don't refuse to read the chapters of other races than yours, there are some more useful hints.

(201) Feds

Regarding Feds and Lizards, maximum velocity is the key. One day those fighter races will get stronger than you with every month, so you have to beat them before that time.
The Feds are good victims. Their ships are useful (for the enemy, too) and often weak in the beginning. Their fuel tanks are small so the Privateers and Crystals love them. The fighter races can easily smash them. So be careful and look for a strong partner. In PList (see below), Feds are much stronger, probably one of the strongest race.
You have the advantage of equipping your ships with better parts in a later stage, so you could build the good hulls in advance and refit them later.
Against fighter races, use Kittyhawks! They're very effective. OK, Fighters are expensive, but you will have enough money later on.
Sell your Refit ability! Good players will be very interested in it. Buy fuel carriers some day.

Try to buy carriers, e.g. from the Empire. In your hands, you get 3 more bays on it via the Fed-Combat-Bonus!
There are many rumors about the Fed combat bonuses. Here they are:
 - 3 bays more on Carriers
 - each ship has 50 kT more (virtual) hull mass (in combat, not in movement)
 - after each battle, surviving ships can still fire all weapons
 - after each battle, surviving ships get 25% more shields  (e.g. if you end with 10% shields you will have 35%; if you end up with 20% damage, you will have 20% damage AND 25% shields)

Considering this, you should always try to build big ships instead of many small ones, because some valuable combat advantages only work if you survive the first battles in a turn. It is easier for you to build big ships than for others because you firstly only have to build the hull with tech1 equipment. Refit it later. This also helps a lot once the 500 ship limit is reached. Just put a good hull with bad parts into the queue and refit it once it has been built. In the meantime you will have time to gather the material. Tip: you can refit and clone in the same turn! Even the same ship. But the NEW weaponery will be cloned, so it will be more expensive than VPA prospects!

With the Loki/Constitution decloaker, you have a nasty cloaker killing race. Privateers, go home! You don't have to fight with Lokis, just tow them by your big ships or place them NEAR to a planet - they decloak 10 ly radius. But beware of the Lizards, their ships are not affected. This is obsolete only with the PHost AlternativeAnticloak feature.

PList2: The Nova cloaks!!! Puh. In Plist 2.3, it doesn't any more, but is even stronger. There, a new cloaking Defiant Heavy Destroyer is introduced. I do not see too much sense in Rigels (Thors). Better build multi-purpose ships.
 
 

(202) Lizards

An interesting race! Weak capital ships; you won't win in plain combat and more than ever you'll lose being attacked. So attack your opponent before he does it to you. Try to ally with one neighbour, cloak to the other with several LCCs/Raptors
_quickly_. They don't have to have good weaponry at start, but should have Warp9 (8). A few Reptiles might be enough for taking over valuable planets each with up to 500 clans and a defense of about 60. Don't use Reptiles for anything
else. Go for his worthy planets, and hit several planets and bases in the same moment. Shocking! Before, he should have seen no capital ship moving his way.
One to three LCCs with 250 cols each can take over nearly every starbase, and that is your strongest weapon! Not only that the enemy loses a starbase, you win one! Esp. from fighter races (Empire!) you could win fighters with it. But! Don't wait too long. OK, while you attack you lose these ships for boosting your economy, but if your victim had enough time, he will have laid several minefields to discourage cloakers, and that's exactly what they do. If you're too careful and neglect using groundattacks, you might be lucky to have shy or stupid neighbours, but if not - in the defense you have no chance if you haven't found that big money-planet (warm, Bovs or Insects, Feudal or more). Take care of your cols at home - send them to warm planets to breed them on, because that is your capital.

Use the Hiss-mission! Exactly calculate (VPA helps) on which planet how many of your hisssers (Serpents/Lumberjacks are great for that!) could work out the best results. Especially on planets with many cols and many natives, which have but a bad government, each hissing ship allows to increase taxes for about 5%! This makes the Lizards one of the richest races.
Offer GAs to your friends. Use Madonnzilas against Fighter Races, esp. the Empire. Perhaps they are stronger than T-Rexes. T-Rexes: only with Mark8. With their 10 beams, the are good minesweepers, too. But they lose against every other battleship.
You will have enough money for fighters some day. But on pure fighting skill other races do better.
The Reptiles aren't worth too much, but they can scout and  surprisingly tow out enemy ships.
 
 

(203) Birds (Romulans)

All you need is money, money, money. Your ships are cheap in minerals and very effective. Don't fight, only if you're sure your stronger. And that's your advantage: information of your opponent's strength. Walk in his orbits, look what's there (you stay cloaked with SuperSpy), drop colonists for ground attacks (you've got plenty of cargo!) or tow prizes out (normally, you need two engines for that) or even attack the spied-out planet. But don't do it arbitrarily!

Prepare yourself thoroughly. Hit several targets at once! Surprise is the key! For you haven't got the strongest medium ships, don't let them find out where your home is. If your starting smallie can't reach other planets by the end of each turn, recycle it. Or, if you haven't got reachable planets for your Warp9-Large Freighter (anymore), let it tow a cloaked warship, and wait for robbers.. (in many hosts, cloaked ships with a primary enemy set decloak for fighting).

The Resolute is a neat ship, equip it with at least Mark4. For heavier enemy ships like Super Carrier, Ill Winds, Madonzillas and Starbases use Dark Wings.
Compared to their cost, Dark Wing ships are the most effective vessels in the universe. Eight Tubes! They shoot the hell out of nearly everything. Cloaking! Many races can't even build non-cloaking ships with so many tubes. Build them with Warp9, you only need two. And don't lose them, YOU decide when they fight.

Already early in the game, you can hurt an enemy with half a dozen small cloakers in the orbit of his homebase. Set a few to Super Spy and the one with the lowest ID will hopefully change the planet's friendly code (fc) to it's own. Other ships (with large cargo room) can be set to "gather molly", for instance, while moving away a few light years, and voila, he won't be able to build anything without any Mol left on the planet. Drop the ore in space and cloak in again... The problem is: if the base-order is surrender, your non-cloaking ships will surrender before they can gather.
Of course, you can set the base-fc to "bum" and you'll get his money beamed up to your ships. Or (PHost) beam up clans, and next turn do a ground attack with them! You can even change the FC of minefields, but setting the universal minefield-FC of "mf." (only PHost) will cause all ships in orbit to decloak!
 
 

(204) Klingons ("Fascists")

The Klingons are a race with only a few cloakers, the best of which is the Coldpain with two tubes and 100 cargo. This is the best all-round ship: a cloaking minelayer that might even survive a fight (you choose the opponents!) and can carry some cols for ground attacking. They weigh 170 kT, good for combat and in minefields (warp5 after a mine hit), but burn considerable amounts of fuel. Maybe they are a weak race without ground attack 15 or cumulative pillaging (which I strongly recommend to switch off!). However, they are not easy to play, but IMO this is the right challenge for good players. Anyone can play Robots!

Deth Specula is too light, with too few cargo; Victorious is cheap, but most other races get better ships. Saber and Nefarious are garbage without glory device. The Ill Wind is an impressive ship, with high tech beams it is a good minesweeper. As are the other fascist ships with plenty of beams. But most of them don't fight too good. You'll have to work with pillaging and ground attacks - and you will get really well.

Pillage gives you MCs and SUPs in the folowing amount (PHost): ((COL+NAT) / 10000)   (COL and NAT population before reduction)
Some sources say, pillaging fills up your ship (in addition to the pillaging effect) with MCs and Sups already present on the planet until the ship is full and will even sell supllies for MCs. I am not too sure about that.
Pillaging only really benefits in the earlier stage of a game. Later, the Fascist player with a decent econmy doesn't need the money any more, and most enemy bases are filled up with colonists, which makes taking over bases a long-time struggle. Pillaging does NOT decrease Defense, DPs only go down indirectly due to less colonists.
Earlier on, pillaging together with GAs is horrifying for your enemies, you might even have worthless natives yourself to pillage, e.g. on bad temperate planets or anarchic. Put 1 Clan on your planet, pillage, put down another one etc. Build some glory ships to fight other cloakers and to take the initiative of attacking battle ships. Also, you can kill all Amorphs on your planet and get a bunch of MC with them. (But if you ask me, losing any ship hurts.)

The glory ships aren't cheap and are most effectively used in offense. There, besides the mine-hit damage for your opponents, you decrease cols and natives to 60% (!) and buildings to 75%.

In a real PList game with GA 15, fascists are really strong. You have very specialized ships, each being useful. BRels are cheap, Qaibes are as well and serve as good ground attackers (you don't need to have cloakers because planets can't attack your ships). You have reasonably priced big ships and a really cheap medium carrier. Get the money for fighters from pillaging your foes or fighters directly from a fighter-race friend. The Vor'Cha is deadly when you use it for towing apart enemy fleets or prize ships. The Wo'Qua doesn't cloak, but needs only 4 engines and is very strong.
 
 
 

(205) Privateers

Besides battleships, ICBs and the Falcon, the MBR is the best ship in the game. Don't be stupid to sell it (or the BRs) to anyone - as long as you don't get REALLY much for it. Maybe an ICB might be fine. But remember: other races can clone - you can't! E.g., ships you buy are not as worthy as the ones you sell.

Build Warp9-MBRs (they don't have to have good weapons at start, i.e. Mark2, Lasers...), tow Large Freighters with them and have the largest empire...
Don't fight. Steal. Read the "VGA-Hints".
Playing Privateers and against them is REALLY complicated. Play them if you are a skilled player with much time. Playing them against less experienced players is boring, though, for they have NO chance. But if you like beating weaker people... I wouldn't.

There are many hints for Privs in the net and I won't try to invent the wheel again here.
 
 

(206) Cyborgs (Borg)

The different race. Don't play them without the Firecloud chunneling.
Takes some calculating time to play the Borg well. They are not too easy played just because they have no ships for combat except the Tech10-Hulls. (Different in PList).

There are only a few useful ships. The B200-Probe, the Firecloud and the Cubes. First, build some freighters and Fireclouds, but mainly Probes. Start with Probes. Do you know the chessboard-effect? Because you multiply by two each turn, every turn you arrive earlier, you win much more. Load 11 cols and 4 supplies, jump to distant planets _unseen!_, drop one col on those without natives, one col  plus one supply on those with natives. Jump again unseen to the next, with "gather fuel" you don't even have to wait one turn. When your cols are dropped, come back to refill the probe on one of the new planets. If you encounter a really good planet, send additional probes and drop more cols and supplies to enhance development.

Tax your cols at about 11%. Just don't let them drop under happiness 40%. If you have some near-by planets with many cols, build large amounts of factories and buy a Merlin (or more). Have some freighters bringing in supplies and make ores for your cubes.
Build several Fireclouds for chunneling and logistics. Don't build B222, B41, Watcher, ISCB. O.K., B41 might be good for defending planets against (Rebel) Probes, Iron Slaves might be good for transporting fighters from bases to cubes. But I can't see any use for Watchers or B222.

With a cute logistic, you are one of the wealthy races. Probes for MC-transports, chunneler for ore-transports throughout the galaxy. Though you could build Merlins even without Bovinoids because of the many factories you can build, you might leave them because with fine logistics you will have the ores anywhere you want and can use supplies for MC (tech 10 Cubes everywhere, plethora of torps).
 
 

(207) Crystals (Tholian)

"The thinking man's race". A very interesting race, if you survive long enough. Like the Birds', your future depends on money. Find that planet with 10 million Bovinoids or avian/insects unity and put 1500 col (-clans) on it. Try to get cloakers for minelaying! Do anything for that. Once the 500 ship limit is reached, only Feds, Privateers and Crystals can get reasonable amounts of new ships. Catch the best ones from your enemy with surprising web-mines.
Start laying countless mini-webs early. That means, you need countless small minelayers. That means, you need some bases soon. Siliconoids! Lay 3...5 tech-10-torps around every planet of yours. The high hit chance of 5% per ly will give you a good protection. Other players will tend to prefer other victims than you.
Laying mines with the robots is fun. Laying webs is REAL fun. Wait for those poor victims...
Don't underestimate any ship you can build. Opals are useful! OK, forget the Small Transports. The Ruby is a neat thing, cheap, medium strength, not too heavy, with laaarge cargo. Nice for col and ore transports, deadly as a mine layer. Build Mark4 or Mark7 or Mark8. Emerald is even better and can fight.
Lay webs surprisingly, then scoop them, lay again a.s.o.. If you capture a ship in a web, lay more mines! Wait until he sips his last fuel, then go there and bring it home. For defense, very small minefields can do a good job, because the chance of being hit is much higher then in normal mine fields.
The combination Crystal Thunder-Diamond Flame is very effective.
NB. Web Mines stop ships immediately when hit - in PHost 3.2, if hit inside the gravity well of a planet, the ship will NOT be pulled in by the planet but stay where it is!
Note that there is a mine-field-limit of 500! If there are too many fields layed in the game, you lose your best weapon!! So have a look at the sweeped IDs. And - get those mine-layers with the lowest IDs!
There are tips in the www suggesting to capture Rebel ships to force free fighter-building. At least with PHost, a captured or just "gs7"-given Rebel ship will not build fighters without fuel.
 

(208) Empire (Darth Vader)

Logistics are everything. You need ore, ore, ore. Build SSCarriers (SSCs), and SSFrigates (SSF) with Mark4, later Mark7/8. Warp9. But better build Warp 8 or 7 than not building SSCs at all. Later build H-Rosses for fighter transports (only); warp9!
Biggest enemies are Lizards and Rebels, secondly perhaps Birds, Colonials and Fascists.
Send your SSCs to the front, you don't have to keep them at home for defense. Keep a few SSF there for minelaying against cloakers. And build starbases like hell!!
Send your SSCs in wolfpacks of 2 or more. They strengthen each other and one with good engines can tow another one with bad ones. Saves costs!

Your capital are the fighters from your starbases (the host should grant you 10 per month, don't play the Empire with much less). You can't have enough fighters so you won't ever have too many bases!
The only way to stop fighter building is keeping all ore (e.g. molly) on a ship. Otherwise, you might not have enough ore for a big new ship because the automatic fighter building took 30 Tri and 20 Mol away. Imperial Assault ships (SSDs or Draklors) are your goodies. They mustn't have any damage to work. Planets cannot attack them. Arriving at any planet and beaming down at least 10 clans, they will take over the planet - and it's starbase! "Normal" ground attack (Liz..) is useless, for it comes before the IA!

The EE is not too easy to play. A little slow, a roller. In PList, it is even stronger. Here, 8 fighters/trn might be enough. In normal games, only play it with at least 10 fighters a turn.
 
 
 

(209) Robots (Cylons from Battlestar Galactica)

Strong and stupid. If it's fun for you to beat weaker neighbours, take the Robots. You don't have to build that many freighters because you have the Cat's Paws. Laying huge minefields is pure fun. Build a Q-Tanker first, to build 12 Fighters every turn. Put them on your home base, firstly. Then build several Warp9-Cats with Lasers and Mark4. Fill them with some torps and many cols and spread out. After dropping the cols on good planets, put more torps on them and catch enemy ships in your discouraging minefields. Use the mine fields for defense _and_ attacks. Don't build ICBs too early. Build enough Q-Tankers to serve your fighter needs. If you find a neighbour and wish to beat him (beware of the colonies!) take 1..3 ICBs and the same number of Cats and QTankers and just take him out. No problem.
Otherwise, you won't need ICBs, though they are one of the best ships in the game. Forget Cybernauts and ISCBs, they're worthless, in registered games go for Automas and Golems, as well. For the really big enemy ships.
 
 
 

(210) Rebels (Luke Skywalker, Han Solo etc.)

Besides battleships, ICBs and the MBR, the Falcon is the best ship in the game. Extremely cheap, hyperwarping, good for Rebel Ground Attacks (RGAs) with reasonable cargo room. Use them for boosting your economy and you will even run out the privateers. With it you are able to build the largest and economically strongest empire in the universe. Build only Falcons at first, jump to planets 340..360 ly away (taking into account warp wells) with 110 cols, 10 supplies and some money. Come back home with minerals. Stay unseen. Lasers and Warp5 may do, later Blasters and Warp6. Even Warp1 is possible, because you don't necessarily need engines for Hyps.
   When several Falcons are jumping around, build a Sagittarius or Gemini for building fighters and endless amounts of Patriots. Fill them with 30 fighters - _never_ less than that! - and send them to your enemy in groups, towed by your Sagis, if good engines are rare. Only do one attack. Don't use them again until you've refilled them with (26 to) 30 fighters. There are not many planets nor ships that can withstand those Patriots. Unfortunately, they are only destroyers and might not survive too often. So try to build some Rushes. Don't build Iron Ladies, build Cygnuses with Mark4/7 and Tranquilities for mine laying. And - don't lose Falcons to your enemies early, it would boost their realm, too.
  The Rebels lost a bit with the "lfm" friendly code. Now, Robots and Colonies can use other missions while building fighters, as well.

   PList 2: you will need time to build your first carrier. Build countless SIRIUSes (and bases to build them) and hyp around everywhere. People tend to be careful with you because of the RGA threat. You can build the mightiest economic power in the game with your hyps. Send clans away, bring back resources. Build SBs far off soon. Look for Tri planets. Kill your victims with Borallusses, Moncalamaris and simultaneous RGAs. Better use Lumberjacks for RGAs than possibly losing Falcons to your enemy. Travel with your carrier to your enemy, then spread them out explosively.
   I cannot see too much use in the Falcon tube. Build them to sell them, but leave the tubes away in your own ones. Reason: if you send them out (for RGA), your victim might take them over. Of course YOU do not attack with them, just RGA.
   Do not build too many Gallofrees, they do not fight well and are less useful than Sagittariuses. But the latter are expensive...
 
 

(211) Colonials (Galactica etc.)


The Collies are a real killing race! Early, the Patriots will take out everything else, later on those (too) bloody cheap Virgos will raze your enemy's estates. They can't even be stopped by mine fields. Comparable is only the Rush or maybe the Golem; Gorbies and Cubes are far more expensive and hardly do better.
Read the Patriot section for the Rebels. Don't build good beams; Blasters are enough. Only if encountering the Crystals, you have to have sweeping beams. Your carriers will easily sweep the other minefields.
Use Little Joes only against non-fighter-race's carriers and bases. If the Cobol has that fuel-RAMScoop and Bioscanners, go for it!
In addition, the Collies have advanced refineries an large fuel tanks.
If you ask me, the Collies race is just too strong and should only be played by the weaker players in a round.
 

(to be continued - still under construction)

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  Last updated 09.02.2002