UC: combat
From BluWiki
How the battle is done
there are a few rules when fighting the stacks attack each other based on their position you can have max 6 stacks when attacking the idea is that you want to outstack if possible the enemy to get more damage
a battle is something like this
your stacks enemy stacks
y_stack1 e_stack1
y_stack2 e_stack2
y_stack3
then there are two waves of attacks from you to the enemy y_stack1 engages e_stack_1 y_stack2 engages e_stack_2 y_stack3 engages either e_stack_1 or e_stack_2 (random)
who fires first is given by the range rule: the greatest range fires first. if the ranges are equal, than the defender fires first when y_stack3 attacks a random e_stack it's called outstacking if the y_stack3 is made out of ships with "takes no damage while attacking" because it will never take damage, it will only attack
when a stack of yours engages the enemy, there are two parts of battle: 1) the greatest range fires first 2) if the fired upon stack (on 1) ) is able to retaliate it will, but with less power
in the case of outstacking the e_stack is not retaliating, so you get free damage :)
MSN id - dacian_hantig@hotmail.com
Long-term strategies
-"naked scouts": Be without a fleet or maybe even without reinforcement, scout as many planets as you can, upgrade systems just before going out of DP (just remember housing cannot be unassigned if you have population left). This is obsolete tactic when your empire gets bigger and your sol system's exploration bonus is no longer enough to scout fast; this is time to make a new system and upgrade it immediately to a very small system and start all over again until you have as many upgraded systems as you want. Then you destroy the sol system (it's only good for exploration). For collective or viral, capture some advanced scouts first as scouting with neutral combat ships is x20 times more expensive.
-"small systems": Have many small systems, typically 5 dark systems on top of the list (and maybe 2 more orions on top of that) so that your "real" systems have a large defensive bonus. Have the last 1 or 2 systems really big and well defended with the most defensive strategy and minister. Eventually someone will capture a tiny number of planets from a lesser systems and you get DP without losing planets on important systems.
-"decentralized": Have as many systems as possible with an even number of planets (dark systems are not really useful here); have both an ideal lord and federation reinforcement when out of DP and little or no fleet of your own (you want low PR). This requires good coordination with your lord and federation (ideally you will be the only vassal of that lord and the stacks will be exactly what you asked your lord for). This strategy cuts planet losses by the number of systems you have and the defense makes the planet loss sting less as weak players can't win against you. This isn't a good idea economically unless you are member and can get 8 ministers, and requires patience!
-"Lone bunker": Have one really big system with extreme defensive style, reinforcement, and minister (3 or 4 defensive traits maxxed out). Hopefully you can stay out of DP as long as you want and the occasional planet loss will be minimal as only the very strongest empires can win against you. Since you have only one system, you can use your second minister (with 4 defensive traits maxxed) when you are not playing. While some players CAN win against you, many will simply seek easy targets elsewhere. Get the ability to do at least 2 million damage at some point to discourage starbase hunting collectives from slowly eating all your defenses.
-"Predator": Don't have your own defenses when online as it only makes your PR higher; rely on reinforcements. Make an invasion-minded fleet with an upkeep matching most of your your income, build fast lots of ships with a really high construction rate when you have losses to save time or turns, and invade recklessly anything that looks easy to invade. Only pick on a "lone bunker" if there are no other target in sight; and remember a "lone bunker" is really useful to bounce on with a recon/raid so you can invade someone else again. All military traits of your ministers should be to reduce enemy hull and inflict more damage on the enemy (especially useful for ship capture or against starbases/K class ships).
-"Dalek": in deathmatch, do the predator strategy with suicide attacks against someone who can't build ships enough to cope (with help from your buddies if needed). Skirmishes might be better if the enemy is even more unable to build ships fast enough as you lose less ships. Eventually the enemy empire may die entirely or be technically alive but unable to recover for days.
-"Borg": don't build the expensive ships, just assimilate them using K class ships in your first few stacks and some capture-capable ships for other stacks. You may be able to capture starbases without taking any losses at all against starbase-only strategies; if it's a small enough PR loss for the enemy you get to do it over and over and over again. Merge captured ship stacks by moving them to other systems. Once you have lots of ships, disband what doesn't fit your strategic style and (usually) go "predator" or "bunker".
-"Balanced": have enough offense to prey on non-bunkers but especially on undefended systems. Have enough defense to prevent weak players from getting too many planets.
-"Trap": You need not have the marauder race, but marauders rarely do anything else. Stash lots of money and minerals before you start (and some food). Build only the most offensive ships, get the most offensive reinforcements, max your fleet well above what you can pay in upkeep (which is not necessary for racial marauder, but it helps), and wait for people to attack you (don't use turns if you lose money every turn, except for raids on easy targets and ship building). The massive losses will make many players remember you and never attack again (retaliation followed by lots of suicide attacks help); if you are truly memorable and PM the players taking extremely painful losses, they may even tell their friends and fed about you. An easily remembered empire name which implies you are setting a "trap" can help. After some weeks (or almost immediately if your race is marauder) you will get much less attacked and this helps greatly improve on your planet count and keep it high. If you're not a racial marauder, you can now switch strategies if you want and many people will still avoid attacking you. As people's memory is limited, it is not efficient to use this tactic as a non-marauder if many non-marauders do it too; you must be famous! NOTE: you may get hated for this tactic, especially the suicide attacks. Consult with your federation leader first or join a marauder federation.
Current combat strategies
Remember that the manual is badly out of date. Many ships don't have the stats they're supposed to have, such as the strafez queen range being 6 instead of 14.
-Recon first unless you are much more powerful. Especially in realtime servers 5 turns are expendable and a large fleet is not.
-If you don't recon ahead, take note of people who have an extreme tactic and play accordingly.
-Share information with your federation.
-Remember which federation or lord had which reinforcement type when you attack other empires with the same lord or federation in the next few hours. Once a federation loses all outposts, seek out all members and invade away!
-Large amounts of one ship type may work rather well, unless you're outranged by something that prevents you from shooting back. Two stacks are much more versatile than one even with similar ships for this reason.
-Outrange when you can. It makes some ships don't shoot back, and others all shoot at 50%.
-Learn how many hull points and resistance % starbases have; it helps a lot with strategies involving killing a certain percentage of a known starbases type for invasion or repeated skirmishes.
-Learn the ranges of each ship that can prevent a your stack from shooting back, so you may outrange them or at least stack accordingly.
-Having serveral stack with a similar PR means you can adjust stack order before attacking. This sometimes makes a lot of difference.
-Some people just build very powerful fleets with lots of good ships (not too specialized) and a few expendable stacks, and attack as quickly as many targets as they can. This works extremely well in the newbie PR range, well against targets that are almost too low PR for you to attack (federation wars and retaliation helps), and against people who don't defend some small systems except for reinforcements. On the long term, your victory ratio will drop to 1/3 or lower in the high PR range (unless you are marauder).
-Some systems can be invaded only after a few skirmishes to wear them down a bit; beware of not making your target into DP before you get to invade.
-If you get out of PR range for an easy target, you may wish to disband some ships to invade more planets.
-Once ranges have been figured out and you know how many stacks your enemies have, you may want to add strafez runners or queens as your 5th or 6th stack. As long as you have more stacks and don't lose a complete stack this tactic will rock; one mistake and all your strafez might be dead!
-If your goal is to capture ships or reduce enemy defenses, you may wish to do a skirmish rather than an invasion so that no reinforcements get in the way.
-Raids don't get you planets, but they do wear down the enemy while providing some cash to replace the ships you will lose; this however is rarely worth it. It is good for your victory count.
-Suicide attacks may be banned by some federations, but they're extremely useful against some new players who defend with strafez fodder and only strafez fodder. Once you actually destroy some planets, you may wish to try to invade instead until you succeed.
