A newly revised "Tricks of the Trade" - Please post more
Art Lathrop
positive quality, I decided I would go see what I wrote. Anyway, I found
lots of things that I could add, so here is a more complete list of tricks.
As before, I would like as many people as possible to send in some more
tricks to add to the list.
Tricks of the Trade
Last Update: August 28, 1999
There are many tactics that players use that use that not everyone knows. I
was discussing compiling a list with another web host several months ago. I
have organized the tricks into three categories (beginner, intermediate, and
advanced). This largely reflects how common the tactic is, how important it
is to learn, and at what level player the advice is aimed. Please note that
some of the items included may seem VERY basic; however, they address
questions I see commonly on the newsgroup or mistakes I see in games. My
goal here is to focus on tactics rather than a comprehensive strategy. Any
site(s) that I mention in this have their URLs listed at the end of the
article. My thanks to those who posted replies helping me build the list.
Beginner
Boosters - Boosters are small ships that basically act as fuel tanks for
your fleets allowing you to move more quickly (mainly for settling planets
or moving your population around). Most people just use their long range
scouts for this; however, Bill Butler has pointed out that destroyers
specially designed for this are much more efficient as fuel tanks. Another
option is not to fill privateer transports as fully. These privateers are
more expensive than the destroyers, but they can be used also as transports.
Chaff - Small, cheap ships make good defenses against missiles, as the
missile ships will waste their shots attacking these ships instead of your
more important ships. The Advanced FAQ has an extensive section on chaff.
You can also find information at the Stars!Web Players Lounge.
Efficient Scouting - The fastest path for scouting with penetrating scanners
rarely involves a waypoint at a planet. Instead, you should try to set your
waypoints so that they are in between planets allowing the largest number to
be scanned at any one time. Also, you can improve your speed by
deliberately setting waypoints that are at the maximum distance you can
travel one year at a given speed. While this is a little more time
consuming than setting one or two waypoints a few hundred light years apart,
carefully setting the waypoints will improve your fuel usage and also allow
you to scan more planets with fewer ships.
Mineral Packets - Packets kill. A mass driver at your base is not enough.
You need to have strong planetary defenses to protect yourself against the
faster warp packets. Build defenses on your border worlds before your
opponent takes advantage of the situation. Also remember that in-space
packets move before production. If you see a packet in space and you don't
have defenses on your
planet nor freighters in orbit, you are in trouble.
Shadow Fleet - Instead of trying to cloak your entire fleet of warships, try
cloaking just a part of it. Partial cloaking is cheaper than trying to cloak
the entire fleet at 97% or 98% and far better than having the entire fleet
cloaked at anything less than that. The first time you use this you should
be able to catch your opponent off guard. If you make a habit of including
some cloaked ships with all your war fleets, your opponents will rarely know
for certain how large the fleet they are facing truly is.
Terror Ships - While much more effective in the hands of SS, any race can
create terror ships. The general idea is to send 30 or so 98% cloaked ships
into your enemy's space. The ships should be equipped with a few weapons,
mine dispensers, and penetrating scanners (the robber baron is ideal, for SS
of course). Use these ships to destroy unarmed utility ships, sweep
minefields, steal minerals, and get good scans of your enemy's space. This
strategy will not work against IS, or anyone else who has managed to acquire
a tachyon
detector.
Intermediate
Baiting - This can be a useful tactic for sweeping minefields. Use two
sweeping fleets; however, only have one near the target at any time. Have
the other move back to a larger fleet or planet. If your opponent tries to
intercept the ships, he will have to fight the larger force. With cloaked
ships you can use this to lure your opponents ships to their death. Without
cloaked ships this can be an effective way to keep your enemy's minefields
very small. Be careful not to send the ships repeatedly to the same spot.
Also, you will need to change ships or such to prevent your enemy from
targeting the sweeping fleet before it moves. Another thing that you must
watch for is your opponent increasing the number of minelayers present. If
your ships are in the minefield after sweeping takes place, they may be
destroyed when they move back to their home.
Deceptive Naming - By assigning misleading names (or identical) names to
your ships you can trip up your opponents. Some players recommend against
this tactic, while others are for it. Be warned it will add not only to your
enemy's micro-management, but also your own. If you are really unlucky, your
neighbors will gang up on you just to get rid of the headache of keeping
track of your ships.
Disguised Movement - Keep your opponent guessing for as long as possible.
If you are going to attack a particular planet do not make a direct approach
that he will be able to see. Instead, set a waypoint in between that is as
far off course from your intended target as possible. This will keep your
opponent guessing. This works best when you force your opponent to guess
which of many potential targets you will pick. Remember, that he can always
target your fleet instead of trying to guess, so an even more effective
version of this includes
the possibility that you won't attack, and will instead retreat to a larger
force. You can also use your own planets to hide some of your movement.
That sort of movement is less likely to be noticed and also could be
interpreted as your just resupplying a particular planet (in the case of
freighters) or building up a fleet (warships).
"The Flying Orgy" - By putting fleets of ships with amazing cargo capacities
in orbit around their worlds, IS can create a second population for capping
off their world's populations and for pop dropping. Remember that defenses
will never stop more than 75% of invading colonists. If you have 4,000,000
colonists to spare, you can take nearly any planet.
No Villain Here - Going on a mad rampage against your neighbors may get you
planets, but it will also earn you a lot of enemies. You will find the path
to galactic domination much smoother if you do not make enemies of everyone
at once. Being to nasty will allow competitors to organize large coalitions
against you (even if they are the ones everyone should be worried about).
Instead, sugarcoat your aggression with plausible diplomatic excuses for
crushing your foes. Even evil emperors need to play their diplomatic cards
right.
Overcloaking - By building massive Nubians with a large number of cloaking
devices all races are able to cloak any ship they wish. SS building these
ships can produce a ship that can cloak around 6,000 kT of ships at 98%.
This also allows that an SS race to not waste a ship slot on their combat
vessels on cloaking devices; however, it is simpler (though less effective)
just to add the cloaking devices to most warships and then use these ships
to hide things like chaff.
Rapid Minesweeping - This strategy is really a variation of baiting. By
using tough ships, such as battleships, dreadnaughts, well protected
cruisers, and Nubians you can clear a large enemy minefield in two or three
years. Send three or more ships, in separate fleets, at full speed towards
a point that will expose whatever your target is. The ships will most
likely be stopped by the mines and damaged (hence, the need for tough
ships); however, they should easily clear a large portion of the field.
They retreat back to the main group while another group does the same thing
(make sure you pick a slightly different point than where the previous ships
ended up). After three years or so, you should have mostly cleared the
area. Of course, your opponent will be well aware of your target, so it is
good to occasionally pick a different target and perhaps use chaff
minesweeping (see below) to attack a planet that is near your original
target.
Reduced Fuel Consumption - Often you can reduce your fuel consumption by
setting waypoints and then traveling to those waypoints at a slower speed.
For example, lets say you need to travel 260 light years to some planet to
colonize it. You could travel four years at warp 9 or you could travel three
years at warp 8 and one year at warp 9. Of course you need to make sure that
your waypoints are on a straight line to your target and that they are
spaced the maximum distance apart for whatever speed you are traveling.
Usually when I use this fuel reduction strategy, it would be more like
traveling three years at warp 9 and then one or two years at warp 8. So why
use this? Well, for short journeys you should not use this since it is just
a waste of MM time. But in the early part of the game, you often cannot
travel warp 9 all the way to whatever planet you want to drop colonists on
or colonize. You are faced with two options, reduce your cargo or go slower.
By lowering your fuel consumption you maybe able to get there with a full
load - at the very least you will be able to get there with a greater load.
Remember, you can't always use this trick, but it can speed things up in the
early part of the game when any little advantage can help. Of course you can
also look at this trick in reverse (that is you are traveling warp 8 and you
decided to travel warp 9 for a year or two).
Strategic Mine Laying - If you drop off a few minelayers on your way to
attack your enemy, you can give yourself an escape corridor. Simply place
the minelayers so that they will lay a path of fields leading away from your
target planet. Your enemy will risk striking your mines as you move quickly
through the fields. Note that the fields must go up the same year that the
attack takes place.
Advanced
Ally of Doom - In a strong, secret alliance, ships can be given to one
member while the others play dumb. The leader goes on the rampage. This
strategy has two benefits. First attacks can be more easily coordinated.
Second, it can be effect in waging psychological warfare against your
opponents since the leader seems to have an endless supply of ships.
Chaff Mine Sweeping - By sacrificing ships, one can sweep a mine field
DURING the movement phase - allowing ships that move later to move without
risk of striking a mine. See The Advanced FAQ's chaff section for details on
this strategy. You can also find information at the Stars!Web Players
Lounge. This strategy can be extremely effective if you first sweep the
mines away from one target and then attack a second target that is protected
by mines. Few opponents will anticipate this maneuver.
Shielded chaff - By picking the correct shields, you can make it so that
beamers attack your chaff last, while missile ships attack your chaff first.
This will increase the cost of your chaff, but on the other hand you will
not have to worry about them being destroyed by high initiative beamers.
This tactic is not so appealing unless you have a number of beamer warships
to absorb the damage. Also note that if you use inexpensive shields, the
chaff will become completely useless because missile weapons will not target
them first (look for details on
target attractiveness to determine which shields to use). I have not seen
this strategy used in a game yet.
Warp 10.04 - Ships movement is always rounded up and you can use this
advantage to get just a little further than you would normally be able to
travel. By setting waypoints you can take advantage of the rounding to go,
for example, 201 light-years in two years or 302 light-years in three years.
It is a small advantage, but sometimes it can be worth it.
Sites mentioned above:
The Advanced FAQ (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Keep/6985/)
Stars! Web Players Lounge (http://www.chesspro.com/stars!/)
Art Lathrop
The most recent edition of this article can be found at the Stars! Directory
(http://art.lathrop.com/stars/directory.htm). It is under "A Few Extra
Things."
--
Art Lathrop
The Stars! Directory
http://art.lathrop.com/stars/directory.htm
Spike Wyatt
<temp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>After Spikes comment about my being evil and Jeff affirming that this is a
>positive quality, I decided I would go see what I wrote. Anyway, I found
>lots of things that I could add, so here is a more complete list of tricks.
>As before, I would like as many people as possible to send in some more
>tricks to add to the list.
>
Being evil... a way of life... :o)
Please note that I can;t really comment... I have saved the message
and am studying it right now... :o)
And, of course, have the greatest respect for Art.
Spike