Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ by Kasey Chang released June 1, 2002 0 Introduction 0.1 A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR This is a FAQ, NOT a manual. You won't learn how to play the game with this document, and I'm NOT about to add it to ease the life of software pirates, no matter how old the game is. Most of the tactical tips and discussions will also apply to SFC1 and SFC2:Orion Pirates. This version is NOT complete yet. I mainly play as the Federation and Mirak (Kzinti) so those sections are done. When I find the time to play other races those sections will be written. Some of you may recognize my name as the editor for the XCOM and XCOM2: TFTD FAQ's, among others. 0.2 TERMS OF DISTRIBUTION This document is copyrighted by Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang (c) 2002, all rights reserved excepted as noted above in the disclaimer section. This document is available FREE of charge subjected to the following conditions: 1) This notice and author's name must accompany all copies of this document: " Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ" is copyrighted (c) 2002 by Kasey K.S. Chang, all rights reserved except as noted in the disclaimer." 2) This document must NOT be modified in any form or manner without prior permission of the author with the following exception: if you wish to convert this document to a different file format or archive format, with no change to the content, then no permission is needed. 2a) In case you can't read, that means TXT only. No banners, no HTML borders, no cutting up into multiple pages to get you more banner hits, and esp. no adding your site name to the site list. 3) No charge other than "reasonable" compensation should charged for its distribution. (Free is preferred) Sale of this information is expressly prohibited. If you see any one selling this guide, drop me a line. 4) If you used material from this, PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE the source, else it is plagiarism. 5) The author hereby grants all games-related web sites the right to archive and link to this document to share among the game fandom, provided that all above restrictions are followed. Sidenote: The above conditions are known as a statutory contract. If you meet them, then you are entitled to the rights I give you in 5), i.e. archive and display this document on your website. If you don't follow them, you did not meet the statutory contract conditions, thus you have no right to display this document. If you still do so, then you are infringing upon my copyright. This section was added for any websites who don't seem to understand this. For the gamers: You are under NO obligation to send me ANY compensation. However, I do ask for a VOLUNTARY contribution of one (1) US Dollar if you live in the United States, and if you believe this guide helped your game. If you choose to do so, please make your US$1.00 check or $1.00 worth of stamp to "Kuo- Sheng Chang", and send it to "2220 Turk Blvd. #6, San Francisco, CA 94118 USA". If you don't live in the US, please send me some local stamps. I collect stamps too. 0.3 DISTRIBUTION This USG should be available at Gamefaqs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) and other major PC game websites (such as gamesdomain.com, gamespot.com, gamecenter.com, etc.). To webmasters who wish to archive this FAQ on their website, please read the terms of distribution in section 0.2. It is quite clear. In case you can't understand it, it says "no modifications". This means you may NOT modify any bits of it! Read that carefully. It says exactly what it says. 0.4 OTHER NOTES There is no warranty for this unofficial strategy guide. After all, it depends on YOU the player. All I can do is offer some advice. PLEASE let me know if there's a confusing or missing remark... If you find a question about this game that is not covered in the USG, e-mail it to me at the address specified later. I'll try to answer it and include it in the next update. The address below is spelled out phonetically so pirates can't read it: Kilo-Sierra-Charlie-Hotel-Alpha-November-Golf-Seven-Seven AT Yankee-Alpha-Hotel-Oscar-Oscar DOT Charlie-Oscar-Mike To decipher this, simply read the first letter off each word except for the numbers and the punctuation. 0.5 THE AUTHOR I am just a game player who decided to write my own FAQs when the ones I find don't cover what I want to see. Lots of people like what I did, so I kept doing it. Previously, I've written Unofficial Strategy Guides (USGs) for XCOM, XCOM2:TFTD, Wing Commander 3, Wing Commander 4, Fade to Black, Spycraft, 688(I) Hunter/Killer. Mechwarrior 3, MW3 Expansion Pack, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, and a few more. Most of them should be on gamefaqs.com, the biggest FAQ site around. To contact me, see the section above. 0.6 DISCLAIMER/ COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Starfleet Command, Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War, Starfleet Command Volume II: Orion Pirates are trademarks of Interplay and its strategy division, "14 Degrees East" respectively. Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War was created by Taldren. Star Fleet Battles is a registered trademark of Amarillo Design Bureau. Starfleet Command is partially based on Star Fleet Battles. Starfleet Command and Star Fleet Battles are both based on/inspired by Star Trek, which is a trademark by Paramount Pictures. Some material in this guide is taken from the master ship list and master fighter list included with the game. This guide was written withOUT having read the official strategy guide published by BradyGames. 0.7 REVISION HISTORY 01-JUN-2002 Initial Release 0.8 THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: Can you send me SFC2 (or portions thereof)? A: No. Q: Can you send me the install code? A: That's a portion of the game. Q: Can you send me the manual (or portions thereof)? A: That's a portion of the game too. Q: Can you tell me how to play the game? A: Read the manual. Q: What are the keyboard shortcuts? A: Read the manual or look in the game options Q: Which race should I start first? A: Probably the Feds. They are "average" in all areas and their ships are a bit more survivable. Q: What is the maximum number of ships I can own? A: Three ships. You may temporarily command more if you capture enemy ship(s) during the battle. Those ships go away at the end of the battle. Q: What's the latest version of SFC2? A: 2.0.1.3, released December 2001. You can find patch at http://www.khoromag.com. They have taken over "maintenance" of SFC2 from Taldren (for the most part). Q: Where are the cheat codes? A: There aren't any. This is a STRATEGY game. 1 Game Information SFC2 is the sequel to SFC, with a more extensive "campaign generator" called Metaverse where you can actually affect the outcome of the war by winning sectors, building bases, and so on. 1.1 BEFORE SFC, THERE WAS SFB Star Fleet Battles was a board game that was inspired by Star Trek. Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB) based Star Fleet Battles (SFB) on the Franz Joseph "Star Fleet Technical Manual" (to Trekkers, the TOS Tech Manual) where ships such as destroyers and dreadnoughts were proposed as part of Federation Star Fleet. SFB was VERY careful not to ever mention Star Trek or use ANY of the Star Trek elements in its materials, as Paramount never licensed SFB. The original SFB was published in a small "booklet" format sealed in ziplock bags. Then came the "Commander's Edition", and finally, the overall "captain's edition" rules, where all the rules are now revised properly and swore never to be changed except for VERY good reasons. The first game had Federation, Klingon, Tholians, Romulans, Orions, Gorns, and Kzintis (from the animated Star Trek episode, "The Slaver Weapon"). In time, the SFB universe diverged significantly from the Star Trek universe. Other races such as Lyrans and Hydrans were added, and later the ISC. There are also a lot of minor races like Lyran Democratic Republic (LDR) and so on. Later, Paramount granted ADB a conditional license that basically says, "as long as you continue what you do now you are okay with us." 1.2 THEN COMES INTERPLAY When Interplay obtained the license to make computer games based on the "original Star Trek" license, one of the ideas thrown around was to computerize Star Fleet Battles, and make it into an official Star Trek product. Alan Emrich (noted strategy game designer) claim to be the first to submit the idea to Interplay. The result is "Starfleet Command". It featured a full "career" mode where the player creates a captain, gets a starship, goes on missions, win prestige pts, then spends the points on better crew, bigger ships, and so on. The Lyrans and Kzinti, and ISC never made it into SFC1 though. Kzinti the term was copyrighted and Interplay couldn't get a release without paying another license fee. Tholians didn't make it in due to the complexity of their "web" rules. 1.3 NOW THE SEQUEL Starfleet Command Volume II features several new races: Mirak, ISC, and Lyrans. It also features expanded ship list for all of the races, plus a whole slew of neutral ships, planets, and so on. Fighters and Fast Patrol ships (gunboats) have been added as well. However, the individual crew for each station (captain, science officer, tactical officer, etc.) have been eliminated in favor of a vastly expanded "campaign engine" dubbed "Metaverse II". Mirak were the SFB Kzintis. A stand-alone expansion pack: SFC2: Orion Pirates was later released featuring advanced weapons and X-ships, Orion campaigns, and final bug fixes. OP does NOT require SFC2 to play and can be installed side-by-side. 1.4 SO WHAT IS SFC2? SFC2 is a starship battle simulator. All of the systems on a starship are at your command, from the sensors to the engine room (power distribution), from the weapons to the transporters (to beam out T-bombs or marines), from tractor beams to shuttles, and more. The battle is on a 2D plane though the ships are fully 3D. Surrounding the battle simulator is a campaign simulator dubbed "Metaverse II", which can work both in single-player and multiplayer modes. M2 in SP mode tracks each and every hex on the map, location of enemy planets and bases (which are visible on the map), location of enemy and friendly ships (which may or may not be visible), special terrain features (asteroids, nebula, black hole, etc.). Then based on your movement, it will generate missions for you. Some missions are "special" missions and pre- scripted. Others are randomly generated. Some missions will have a forfeit penalty. Depending on how well you perform the missions, you can win or lose control of a particular sector. A enemy sector will turn into neutral, then friendly, if you continue to win missions there. Metaverse II also tracks your supply status. As you win missions, you earn prestige points, which can then be used to buy supplies, repair and upgrade your ships, purchase more ships, and so on. Each of the races has its custom campaign. Some have more than one. 1.5 WHO MAKES SFC2? SFC2 is created by Talden. It is published by Interplay's "strategy" division, "14 Degrees East". KhoroMag has taken over the ongoing support of SFC2. 1.6 IS THERE GOING BE A SFC3? Taldren has signed on to make SFC3 for Activision. SFC3 will feature "Next Generation ships", including Galaxy, Sovreign, and other classes. You'll be fighting the Borg, Romulans, Cardassians, and more. The game will also be redesigned from the ground up, thus removing the dependence on SFB inspired rules. For example, shields will be reduced from 6 to 4 per ship. You will be able to outfit your ship with specific enhancements, such as better shields, weapons, and so on. 2 Quick Review of SFC2 This will serve as a quick review of all the systems in SFC2. You should run through all the tutorial missions before you start reading. A good captain uses ALL tools at his/her disposal. Those captains that can use ALL of his/her tools most efficiently will defeat the captains that do NOT use tools as efficiently or only use some of the tools. I'll go down the list of the commands given in the "officer strip". 2.1 HELM This is a quick overview of all the helm commands and what is it used for. 2.1.1 Emergency Deceleration Or in plain terms, "emergency brakes". It is usually shortened to EmerDecel. EmerDecel immediately slams your ship to speed 0. It will be at least 10 seconds (at default speed 7) before you can move again. EmerDecel also has the effect of increasing your forward shields by a few points, depending on your speed before you come to be a full stop. The higher your speed was, the most shield bonus you get. EmerDecel have several tactical uses. In general it is to stop approaching something. For example, if you suddenly realized you're heading directly at a planet and you're moving too fast to turn, you can do EmerDecel, which would give you a chance to turn away. If you combine EmerDecel with a tractor beam, you can slow down an enemy ship so other ships (or missiles, or torpedoes) can catch up to it. Slap the tractor beam on the enemy, then hit emergency stop. The other ship will then "drag" you along, thus slowing it down (how much depends on your size and his size). EmerDecel, combined with a wild weasel (sensor decoy), becomes a defensive maneuver against seeking weapons. As wild weasel cannot be launched at speeds greater than 4, the quickest way to slow down is with EmerDecel. 2.1.2 Erratic Maneuvers Erratic maneuvers, usually shortened to EM, is basically small random changes in course that makes you harder to hit. EM reduces your overall speed, but generates several pts of ECM in addition to what you can produce internally. It also makes your weapons less accurate as well. EM is basically a defensive maneuver. Smaller units can use it to avoid taking hits at long-range, then unleash weapons when the range is closer. Races that use plasma torpedoes can use EM to help them avoid enemy counter-fire when they have fired off their torpedoes and are in the process of recharging. Or you can turn on EM to confuse the enemy, to make them think you're recharging when you really are not. 2.1.3 High-Energy Turn Better known as HET, this allows your ship to ignore the "turn mode" for a split second and make a turn in any direction. Thus it is sometimes called a "snap turn". It is also sometimes called "warp turn" as it basically generates a small warp field, thus reducing the mass and allow the ship to freely rotate. On the helm panel, some preset angles have been created for you (left, right, hard left, hard right, 180) or use the free-angle control. The problem with HET is you are NOT guaranteed to always succeed. If you failed in performing an HET, you'll suffer random damage and you will temporarily lose control of your ship in the "HET breakdown". The crew will pull themselves off the floor in a while, but your ship is vulnerable in the meanwhile. You can see your "HET success chance" as a percentage on the helm panel. In general, the smaller the ship, and slower you're going, the better your chance of success. There is a delay of second seconds when you issue the command and when the HET was actually performed. That was delay for the warp field to "charge up". This makes timing the HET maneuver very difficult. HET can be used both offensively and defensively. Defensively, it can be used to snap a new shield into place. Offensively, it can be used to bring the weapons on the other side of the ship to bear. 2.1.4 Intercept / Orbit Target Intercept basically means you're pointing the ship directly at the target, right down the centerline. It is sometimes referred to as "follow target". Orbit target means you're pointing slightly off to the left of the target. When you get close to the target you'll go into a clockwise orbit around the target. While intercept is good to keep the enemy in your sights, it does not do "lead" or "lag" pursuit (i.e. no aiming at where the enemy would go or try to fall behind). It only does "pure" pursuit. Orbit is pretty useless unless you're dealing with an extremely slow or immobile target like planet, base, and so on. It also slows you to speed 10. Both can work on a "non-target". Just target the ship you wish to follow or orbit, select the command, then target another ship. Your ship will still follow the first ship while you can target the second ship for more shots. If you want to follow other friendlies into battle, target one of them for intercept, match their speed, and you can start targeting enemy ships. 2.2 REPAIR There are two things you can repair: engine power, and ship systems. Each repair attempt uses one of your "spare parts". You only have 8 maximum, provided you purchased extra ones. You start with only 4. Shields are repaired automatically as time goes by. Engine power can and should be repaired if your ship's power falls below the normal/undamaged levels. As for how much that is, you should check your power graph (at the bottom of the screen) when the scenario starts. If the number falls lower after damage, engine repair should be done. If you still get "repair engine", it's probably non-essential system like batteries. Individual ship systems can be repaired as well. Usually, that means weapons systems, though shuttle, transporter, tractor, and sensors can also be hit. Tractors and transporters are generally not worth repairing in battle as you usually have several of those to use. If you have only one, then you may want to think about repairing it, and only if you plan to use it. In general, drone launchers are not worth repairing, as the drones are destroyed with the launcher. If you have reloads, then repairs may be worth it. If you have virtually no reloads left, spent your spare parts on something more productive. Other heavy weapons should be repaired immediately, as they can be put back to use immediately. Phasers should be repaired ASAP as they have multiple uses. Though if you have a lot of Ph-3's damaged you may want to hold off on those. 2.3 SCIENCE Not too many commands here, except probe, deep scan, and self- destruct. 2.3.1 Probe The probes have two modes: normal, and weapon. The probes don't do much damage if you arm them as weapons. If you fire them normally at a ship or planet or whatever, you can pick up details about them earlier. This can be useful as you can tell how they are armed, what class they are, and such info long before they actually come into sensor range. 2.3.2 Deep Scan Deep scan is needed to finish some missions. You may need to scan enemy ships or planets. You can "charge" the deep scan ahead of time then when you get into range the target will be scanned. That is, if you don't switch targets. If you switch targets you'll lose the deep scan "charge". Deep scan must be performed at less than range 10. 2.3.3 Self-Destruct Self-destruct is obvious. There's a count down before the ship actually goes up, so it's best to anticipate the enemy's final approach, and make sure you don't blow up before then. Slap a tractor beam on the enemy can be good as well. 2.4 SECURITY There are two modes in security: hit-and-run, or capture. 2.4.1 Hit and Run raids Hit-and-run raids (usually abbreviated H&R) are basically marine boarding parties with demolition charges. They will try to damage the enemy ship system you target. They probably won't make it back though. When you get close enough to the enemy ship (range 15 or less) you can see detailed display of the enemy ship's systems. Click on the systems you want to hit and they will be attacked in sequence subject to available transporters and boarding parties. To remove an item from the attack queue, click on it. As a shield must be dropped to transport, you should immediately start a turn to avoid the enemy pounding your down shield. In general, it is better to target systems like phasers, shuttles, tractors, etc. instead of heavy-weapons and such. Those have more impact later in the scenario as most people tend to repair heavy-weapons. Phasers are good choices also. Monsters cannot be boarded. 2.4.2 Capture In capture mode, you basically beam over a bunch of marines in hopes of taking over the enemy ship. To best accomplish this, you need multiple ships, all set to "capture" order, and at "medium" autonomy so they all target the same ship, and set to "trail" formation, with you in lead. You beat down the enemy-facing shield, then beam over your marines. Your other ships will also hit the enemy ship and beam over their marines. You need two or three ships each with at least 4 transporters to best capture enemy ships. You need to beam over at least what the enemy ship has in "one pass" to be able to hold the ship. For example, let's say the enemy ship has 10 boarding parties defending. You beam over 4 (that's all you got). By the time your transporters cycle back, that 4 would be down to 1, and they may or may not have caused even 1 casualty. So now, you're left with 9 vs. 1. If you have like 20+ boarding parties, you can eventually beam over enough, but you end up wasting a lot of boarding parties if you beam them over piece-meal. While assault shuttles (see 3.5) can help get more marines over at once (4-6? per shuttle), the shuttles are slow (speed 6) and can be shot down. Using assault shuttles on armed targets moving at speed is a waste of resources. Stop beaming over marines when you enjoy a 25% or higher superiority (say, 8 to 6 in your favor). You can do that by changing other ships' modes to "tractor" or "defend". Any boarding parties you use must be replaced (which costs prestige pts), and there's no reason to beam over 20 boarding parties to capture a lousy frigate when what you already got onboard will win in another minute. Small units like shuttles and fighters, PFs, and so on cannot be captured. Monsters cannot be boarded. 2.5 WEAPONS The weapons panel is used to assign weapon groups, but you can also assign weapon groups directly by using the ship system display, so this panel is not that useful. This can be good for quick adjustments of weapons groups though. With 4 weapons groups to use, and a "choose all" ("red alert" command), I suggest organizing your weapon groups this way: 1) Attack phaser group, 50-75% of your ph-1s or ph-2s, probably frontal arcs. Used in attacks. 2) Defense phaser group, all your ph-3s or ph-Gs, maybe some of your ph-1s with 360 arcs. Used in point-defense. 3) Heavy weapons group 4) Any auxiliary weapons (drones, etc.) Assign the groups as YOU see fit. You can also use weapons panel to switch between regular and non- violent combat (i.e. minimize enemy casualties). However, no one uses non-violent combat any way, so you can safely ignore that. 2.6 COMMUNICATIONS This panel is virtually useless tactically. Some special missions may allow you to control certain other units by issuing commands here. You may also be able to hail other ships from here in certain special missions. 2.7 DEFENSE You use this panel to hit EmerDecel, turn on/off point-defense mode, turn on/off point-defense tractors, and get status of sensor decoy (wild weasel) shuttles (and launch if you got any). EmerDecel is discussed in the Helm section. Point-defense allows the ship to automatically fire bearing phaser(s) on approaching plasma torpedo or drones. In general, you would want to leave point-defense on. Defense tractors setting allows you to set the number of tractors beams you got to point-defense (i.e. hold the drones from hitting you.) Set defense tractors to 1 less than max, or max if you don't plan to do anchors (6.3). Wild weasels are discussed in (3.5). 2.8 TACTICAL MAP In general, it's best to set lowest zoom (widest view), and zoom in when needed. 2.9 FLEET CONTROL See your manual for fleet control explanations. 2.10 ENERGY MANAGEMENT Usually I don't adjust this. See your manual for explanations. 2.11 PREFERENCES See your manual for preferences panel explanations. 3 Ship Systems These systems are a part of the ship that can be used in various ways that does not directly affect combat, but are important in other ways. 3.1 SHIELDS Shields protect your ship from being actually hit (duh!). There are six of them, covering the "hex" around the ship. The "front" shield is #1, go clockwise. So rear shield is #4. You can raise shields in multiple stages: down, minimal, up You can reinforce any or all of the shields with any excess energy you got. Each pt you use in reinforcement will cancel one pt of damage. For example, let's say you have a 35 pt front shield. You have 2 pts of reinforcement. Enemy fires phaser and scores 8 pts of damage. Actual damage to your front shield is 6, as 2 were covered by the reinforcement. Your front shield is now at 29. A facing shield will be automatically dropped for special transporter activity such as T-Bomb, Hit-and-Run raids, beam- in/out, and so on. If you are in a nebula, your shields only operate at "minimal" level. 3.2 SENSORS (ECM/ECCM) You can jam enemy sensors by sending some power to ECM (electronic countermeasures). You can counteract enemy jamming by sending power to ECCM (electronic counter-countermeasures). This together is known as EW (electronic warfare). Maximum amount of power you can dedicate to EW is 6 pts total. You can distribute this between ECM and ECCM as you see fit. ECM creates a "defensive shift". The number is the "square" of the power you put in. So if you put in 1 pt, defensive shift is 1. If you put in 4 pts, defensive shift is 2. ECCM creates "offensive shift" the same way. The "net" shift (defensive-offensive) is then used to calculate reduced damage from weapon hits. Some natural terrain like nebula and so on can produce natural ECM or ECCM that affects everybody. 3.3 TRANSPORTERS Transporters send things out or bring things in. Transporters have a very short range (5.99) so you need to be very close. Transporter bombs are small mines that you can "beam" out into space, hopefully right into the path of enemy ships. (You can also drop such bombs out the rear hatch, but that's a different problem altogether). See your command reference on how to designate T-bomb targets. Also see 4.10 for more information on mines in general. Transporters can also be used to conduct hit-and-run raids. See 2.4.1 Transporters can also be used to capture enemy ships or bases or planets. See 2.4.2. In more peaceful uses, transporters can bring up certain items from planets and ships, or even empty space. It can also send certain items to planets and ships. In a lot of the special scenarios, this is the only way you can solve the problem: get to the place, beam up things, beam down things, get away. 3.4 TRACTORS Short for tractor beams, these are the force beam emitters that can exert both push and pull forces. Tractor beams can be charged to six different force levels. The higher the level, the longer it takes to "charge", but the longer it will hold the enemy ship. In SFC2, they are useful in keeping annoying things from you (things like drones), or keeping stuff close to you (like enemy ships). One of the most satisfying ways to kill another ship is to tractor it, then rotate it (using the tractor rotation buttons) so you crash it into an asteroid or planet. You can kill shuttles by flying very fast (depending on the shuttle's maximum speed) and dragging that shuttle with a tractor beam. This is called "death-dragging". 3.5 SHUTTLE Shuttle panel controls the shuttle bay. A ship can have several shuttles in a shuttle bay. The normal "admin" shuttles can be reconfigured as wild weasels (sensor decoy), assault shuttle, scatter pack, or suicide shuttle. Or you can just launch it as is and it'll shoot its ph-3 like a fighter while trying to follow you around. You can launch fighters the same way. The difference is the entire squadron (2-6 fighters) are launched together as if it's a single ship. Each squadron also behaves like a single ship (they fly together and shoot together). Most ships have only a limited amount of shuttles (1-5) and with this many uses, you'll have to decide carefully how to use each one. 3.5.1 Wild Weasel (Sensor Decoy) Wild weasel is a decoy that attracts seeking weapons such as drones and plasma torpedoes. It is created from a shuttle (must be one of yours) and it only distracts seeking weapons that are targeting you. It costs 1 pt of energy to hold per "turn". A functioning weasel can be "voided" if you do any of the following: 1. Exceeding a speed of 4. 2. Activating fire control (firing weapons). 3. Operating transporters. 4. Launching a probe. 5. The launching ship exceeds range of 35 from the WW. You can only launch a weasel from speed or 4 or less. If you are moving faster and try to launch a wild weasel, you will automatically EmerDecel (to speed 0). You cannot launch a weasel if you are being tractored. (This is the foundation of the "anchor" tactic, see 6.3) In general, it is NOT a good idea to use a weasel unless you have NO hope of survival otherwise. Using a weasel slows you down and the enemy can do all sorts of things to you before you can shoot again. 3.5.2 Assault Shuttle An assault shuttle carries a team of marines to board enemy ship. However, assault shuttle is extremely slow (speed of 6) and vulnerable to enemy weapons. It is not that useful. 3.5.3 Scatter Pack A scatter pack is basically a shuttle packed with multiple missiles/drones on a delay-launch profile. When launched, the shuttle points at the enemy and when the sensor stabilizes, it dumps its payload into space. This temporarily increases the launch rate of any drone-using ship at the expense of a shuttle. As a con, the scatter pack itself can be shot down if done early enough. 3.5.4 Suicide Shuttle A very slow seeking weapon with a powerful punch, a suicide shuttle is just that... a shuttle with autopilot and an antimatter warhead onboard. It only moves at speed 6, so it can only be used on VERY slow (or nearly dead) enemies. It can be easily shot down by the puniest of weapons. In general, SS is not that useful. If you are out of other weapons, SS may be considered as a last resort. 3.5.5 Regular (admin) A regular admin shuttle can be launched and be kept nearby for defense. You can give it orders just like a fighter, except it is very slow and has wimpy weapons. 3.5.6 Fighters While fighters in general refer to fighter-shuttles, in SFC2 it can also refer to PFs (fast patrol ships, a.k.a. gunboats) and INTs (interceptors, basically a half-sized PF). A fighter squadron is launched like a single admin shuttle, but it is actually multiple fighters. The squadron flies together and shoots together. Each squadron a single "fighter" icon in the shuttle bay. There are actually 3 classes of fighters: light, medium, and heavy, but that just affects their damage capacity (each) and their weapons load. PFs and INTs are gunboats. PFs are twice is large as INTs. PFs are roughly half the size of a police corvette. They are based on "PF tenders", though some heavy ships carry PFs as well. The PF tenders are considered carriers in SFC2. SFC2 TIP: If you kill the carrier, the fighters (and PFs) blow up as well. So if you are dealing with a small carrier like a FFV, DDV, or CLV, you may want to consider blowing that up first so you don't have to deal with the individual fighters and PFs. . 4 Weapons While these are the primary ways you do damage from a starship, they are NOT the only way. (Don't forget the probe in weapon mode, hit-and-run raid, and so on.) In general, the weapons that can be overloaded cost 100% energy to load, cause 50% more damage, and have a max range of 8. 4.1 PHASER Phaser, the directed energy weapon, is the most popular weapon, and one of the most energy efficient direct-fire weapons. Everybody use phasers, including some monsters. There are five types of phasers: ph-1, ph-2, ph-3, ph-4, and ph-G (gatling). Ph-4's can only be mounted on a base, though some monsters may have equivalent weapons. Only Hydrans and Federation use ph-Gs. Hydrans have it on every ship while Feds have it on certain special escort ships. Phasers cannot be overloaded. 4.2 HELLBORE Hellbore is a Hydran heavy weapon for long-range engagements. Some monsters may use a similar weapon. Hellbore is a direct-fire weapon that acts in an indirect-way. When a hellbore hits, it envelopes all six shields of the target and damages the weakest shield. If one of shields on the target is down, the hellbore will cause "internals". Hellbore can be overloaded. 4.3 FUSION BEAM Fusion beam is the "other" Hydran heavy weapon designed for close- range combat. It is a "normal" direct-fire heavy weapon. Fusion beam can be regular loaded, overloaded, or suicide overloaded. Overloaded fusion beam cause 50% more damage than regular and cost twice the energy to load. Suicide overloaded fusion beam cause 100% more damage than regular, cost 3 times the energy to load, AND destroys the weapon after shooting. Fusion beam should ALWAYS be overloaded as it doesn't do that much damage beyond overload range any way. Charge in, reinforce forward shield, then blast the enemy to pieces. 4.4 ESG Expanding Sphere Generator is a Lyran heavy weapon, which can be used as ramming and drone defense. Basically, it generates a "solid" forcefield around the projecting ship at a variable radius. The smaller the radius, the more powerful the field, but the less area it covers. If the projecting ship can maneuver so the field hits another ship, that ship's facing shields will be damaged. If you overlap multiple fields, you can beat down the facing shield completely. Then the rest of your weapons will find down shield to exploit. The field is also murderous on fighters, PFs, shuttles, and drones that come close to the ship. However, the field has a very limited range. More maneuverable units can avoid the field completely. The field also does not affect energy-based weapons such as plasma torpedoes. 4.5 DISRUPTOR Disruptor is a very standard direct-fire heavy weapon used by Klingons, Lyrans, and Mirak. Some monsters also use disruptor equivalents. Disruptor is a pretty even weapon. Takes half the time of photons to load, takes half the energy overall, causes half the damage. Disruptors generally have better weapon arcs than other weapons. 4.6 PHOTON TORPEDO Photon torpedo is the probably best known heavy weapon of all. It's a reddish blob that pulsates as it traverses the distance. It takes twice the time to load than a disruptor, but causes twice the damage. Photon does some of the highest damage among direct-fire weapons. Photon can be overloaded, which limits its max range to 8, but doubles the damage. Photon also has a proximity mode, which allows more hits at long distances. 4.7 PPD The Plasmatic Pulsar Device (PPD) is an ISC heavy weapon. It is quite weird in that it is more like a "chain-fired" direct-fire weapon. When you charge it, and the enemy is in range, you get a "wavelock" on the ship. When the wavelock has established, the PPD will send "pulses" of plasma down wave lock. It takes a few seconds to send all the pulses. The PPD damages the facing shield and the 2 shields beside it. You can overload the PPD, which makes it send more pulses. The PPD has several limitations. It has both a maximum range AND a minimum range. Inside the minimum range, the PPD cannot establish the wavelock. This zone is called the "myopic zone". The PPD takes a while to load, and firing the pulses also takes time. (Keep in mind that ISC ships also carry plasma torpedoes.) 4.8 MISSILE/DRONE Missiles, also known as drones, are seeking weapons with small warp drives and anti-matter warhead. Many races operate drones, including Feds, Klingons, Mirak, and more. There are two types of drones in SFC2, Type I, and Type IV (which is twice as large as a Type I). You cannot mix types on a ship. A ship must carry either one or the other type. Each type of drone comes in 3 "speeds", slow (12), medium (24), and fast (32). Slow drones are free. Medium cost some, fast cost a LOT. You can only have one type of drones in your ship, no mixing and matching allowed. When you have several launchers and a LOT of missiles to upgrade, the cost of upgrading the speed can be significant. Drones cost no energy to launch, but are subject to reload limits. If you're out, you're out. Each launcher can have one to four sets of reloads, and those will cost money (except the slow drones, which are free). You control the number of reloads in the supplies menu. There are several types of drone launchers, A, B, C. C is a "fast" launcher with half the cycle time of other launchers. B has a larger magazine capacity. You can temporarily increase the launch rate by using a scatter- pack. Drones are subject to launching ship's control limit. Most ships have single drone control, meaning it can control 6 drones. Some ships can control 12 (double drone control) or 18 (triple drone control). Those will be noted specifically on the ship list. Drones don't always hit where you want them. It can also be stopped by many different means * phaser (in point-defense mode) * tractor beam (in point-defense mode) * anti-drone launchers (ADDs) (in point-defense mode) * Transporter bombs (beam them or drop them) * Wild weasel (takes care of ALL seeking weapons targeting you) * ECM (which can reduce the damage) * ESG (absorbs all physical hits, including drones) 4.9 PLASMA TORPEDO Plasma torpedoes are seeking weapons with small warp drives and anti-matter warhead. The Romulans and Gorns are the primary plasma users, as well as ISC. Feds operate some plasma-equipped ships as well. The plasma torpedo comes in several sizes, from small to large: F, G, S, and R. There's actually also a plasma-D, which is a "pre- packaged" torpedo for the Romulan and Gorn fighters. The plasma torpedoes "dissipate" as it travels. They are very powerful up-close, but become less powerful as they travel. Plasma torpedo moves at speed 32, like "fast" drones. The plasma torpedo can also be further dissipated by phaser fire. The plasma torpedo takes a VERY long time to charge (3 times recharge period of a disruptor). Plasma torpedo has three modes: regular, enveloping, shotgun. Enveloping torpedo cost twice the energy, and produces a torpedo that is twice as large, but this spreads itself evenly against all six shields when it hits (at the REDUCED strength). Shotgun torpedo subdivides into multiple type-F torpedoes, each of which must engage a different target randomly. Obviously, a type-F cannot be fired as shotgun. Each launch also has one to two pseudo-torpedoes, which are torpedo decoys that looks JUST like a torpedo when fired, but does not require charging and does no damage. This primarily used to confuse the enemy as to your torpedo charging cycle. Is that torpedo you fired a real torpedo, or a fake? 4.10 MINES Mines are stationary explosive weapons you plant either via the rear hatch or via transporter. There are two sizes of mines: a T-bomb, and a NSM (nuclear space mine). T-bomb does 10 pts damage, while NSM does 25 pts. In SFC2, only Romulans carry a NSM, and that's "built-in". You can't buy extras, nor can any one else. You can drop a shield and beam out a T-bomb, which will activate after a second or two if you beam it far out enough. If you drop the mine out the rear hatch, it will activate when you get at least 1 unit away. Mines just "stay" there for 5 minutes after being laid and blows up near anything that comes by (drones, shuttles, ships, PFs...) Drop mine just before overrun is a good start. Beam bombs into enemy ship's path is also good idea. Mines are also good to rid yourself a bunch of drones chasing you. 5 Introduction to SFC2 tactics The old adage "Apply your strengths to his weaknesses" is the heart of SFC2 tactics. Or as American Civil War Nathaniel Bedford Forest was reputed to have said, "Get there fastest with the mostest." (Which is a misquote, by the way.) To do that, you need to know energy management, maneuver, and timing. 5.1 ENERGY MANAGEMENT A starship never has enough energy to run everything it needs. If you want speed, you have to give up energy from elsewhere, such as shields, weapons, and so on. There is SOME reserve power available, but amount is small and it runs out quickly. Fortunately, in SFC/SFC2 AI handles energy management and there usually isn't much need for changing any thing. You just need to remember your energy expenditure and how they affect your energy allocation, and remember to change it when you need to. Basically, energy management is having enough energy WHEN you need it so you don't have to wait to do something else. If you overload all heavy weapons, you HAVE to sacrifice speed. However, will the lower speed allow you to enter overloaded weapons range (8) at all? Can you afford to arm AND "hold" all the heavy weapons while you chase the enemy ship down? Do you have enough energy for tractor beams and transporters? You have to make decisions on these and more during battle in split seconds. Make the right ones and you'll likely succeed. Make the wrong ones and you will likely fail. 5.2 MANEUVER Two things affect maneuver: your turn rate, and your weapon arcs. Your ship's size, speed, and design affect your turn rate. A Gorn ship is relatively slow to turn while a Klingon or Lyran ship of the same size would turn faster. The larger the ship is, the slower it turns, so a frigate would outturn a dreadnought any day. Finally, the faster you go, the slower you turn (and bigger your turn radius). Your weapon arcs are very important when fighting, as you want to put most of your firepower on the enemy while avoiding his firepower. Most ships have most of their firepower concentrated on their forward centerline (i.e. when it is facing you directly). If you are off to one side (the 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock positions) of the enemy the firepower facing you is vastly reduced, as most heavy weapons are FA arc only. (For explanation of the various firing arc terms, please see your SFC2 manual). For example, let's say you are flying a Klingon ship that have FH firing arcs for your disruptors instead of the regular FA arcs. FA is only the front 60 degrees, while FH is the entire forward hemisphere. So instead of having to point your nose more-or-less at the enemy, you can put the enemy on your 3-9 line (off to a side) and still hit the enemy with your heavy weapons. That makes your maneuvering much easier. Therefore, your maneuvers will be very different from a Federation ship that only has FA firing arcs for the photon torpedoes. Maneuvering in battle basically means you are trying to point most of your weapons at his weakest shield while keeping YOUR weakest shield away from most of his weapons. This can get tricky when there are multiple enemies involved. 5.3 TIMING IS EVERYTHING Timing is basically tactical sense on knowing WHEN to do something, not too early and not too late. For example, if you make a turn too late, you may not hit the enemy's downed shield with your phasers, or worse, exposed your own downed shield to his weapons. If you activate an ESG too late that weapon may not activate soon enough to block the enemy missiles. And so on. 5.4 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS Sometimes called kinesthesia, situational awareness basically means being aware of everything around you. Someone with good situational awareness doesn't need to take attention off the primary task to double-check. While situational awareness is not as crucial in starship combat (i.e. SFC2) as in more fast-paced games like space combat or air combat, it is still important. For example, it wouldn't do for you to line up a perfect pass at the enemy's down shield if your facing weapons haven't recharged yet, and so on. The control panel indicators are there to help you. All the indicators have a meaning, and it's up to you to learn them all. The two ship displays have relative facing indicators, but that only works on the ship being targeted. If you are fighting multiple ships you may end up dodging one ship and exposing your down shield to another. Or worse... fly right into a planet or asteroid. Having good situational awareness also helps in the other three aspects of tactics: timing, maneuver, and energy management. You would know when to time your burst of speed (based on your ship's acceleration) to maneuver so your weapons are pointing at the enemy's down shield with enough power to shoot. 5.5 LEARN THOSE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS! Almost EVERY command in SFC2 has a keyboard shortcut. You should learn them by heart, or at least make a quick reference card. They allow you to give orders much faster than going through the mouse-clicks alone. 5.6 BATTLE START CHECKLIST Here's a list of items you should immediately perform upon starting a mission * Red Alert (which arms and selects all weapons) * Check number of friendlies, note classes and numbers * Arm scatter-pack and/or decoy shuttle depending on mission * Set tactical zoom level to lowest/widest (so you can see more of the space) 5.7 ENEMY DETECTED CHECKLIST Here is a list of items you should immediately perform upon detecting enemies on sensors * Determine enemy numbers and type (use a probe if necesary) * Determine which enemies friendlies (if any) appear to be engaging * Determine which enemy ship to engage first or to disengage * Determine whether to capture or destroy the target if engaging * Determine initial tactic: overrun, offset pass, etc? * Determine shield reinforcement if needed (usually front hemisphere shields) * Determine battle speed (slow, fast, etc?) * Determine hit-and-run targets if needed * Determine ECM and ECCM settings if needed * Charge tractor beam(s) for anchor if needed * Set point-defense mode for phasers and tractors beams if needed 5.8 SOME SFC/SFB TERMINOLOGIES Alpha strike -- fire EVERY weapon that is currently in arc at the designated target Peak output -- maximum damage that can be done in one alpha strike from a ship. A Federation ship, for example, would have higher peak output due to photon torpedoes doing twice the damage as the disruptors. Drones -- i.e. missiles, self-seeking weapons with anti-matter warhead and small warp drives. They were called drones in SFB, missiles in SFC. They come in various types, but in SFC there are only 2: Type I, and Type IV (which are twice as big as Type I). Each comes in 3 separate speeds: slow (16), medium (24), and fast (32). Drone control limit -- a ship can only control a certain number of drones. If you launch more than that, the first ones were "lost" due to the limit. Most ships can control 6 drones. The special drone ships can control 12 ("double drone control"). Some larger ships can have "triple drone control" (18 missiles). Drone reloads -- each ship that has drone launchers need to determine how many reloads to carry. By default, they carry only one set of reloads. For example, if your launcher carries 6, you have 6 more in storage, and that's it. It is best to upgrade to 4 set of reloads ASAP. Hit-and-Run Raid (H&R) -- raid on specific enemy systems conducted by your marines/boarding parties. If they succeed, the system they attack is destroyed. Internals -- short for "internal damage", amount of damage that penetrated the shields. Scatter-pack -- a shuttle packed full of missiles so you can get a lot of missiles in flight all at once instead of relying on the launcher to pump them out one at a time. There is a delay between scatter-pack launch and the scatter-pack "pop", so you have to protect it or drop it just before the enemy is in weapons range. T-Bomb -- short for transporter bomb, a small mine you can place via transporter in the path of the enemy. You need to drop a shield to transport a mine. You can also "drop mine" out of the rear hatch of the shuttle bay. That does not require dropping a shield. Tractor beam -- a force field beam that can push or pull other objects as needed. Wild Weasel -- i.e. decoy shuttle, a shuttle packed with electronic gear that simulates your ship. It can deceive seeking weapons such as drones and plasma torpedoes. However, it can be "voided" if you go too fast, fired weapons, or so on. If you launched a weasel and then voided it, the seeking weapons turn back and come after you again. 5.9 HOW MANY ARE YOU FIGHTING? You can read enemy ship classes at distance of over 100 kk. You should be able to figure out how far are you outmatched, if you are at all. Here's a rule of thumb to use Use 9 for BB, 7 for DN, 5 for BCH, 4 for CA, 3 for CL, 2 for DD, 1 for FF. Zero for all else. If the any are carriers or PF tenders, add 1 per carrier. Total up the "force number" for both sides and compare the number. That should give you a quick idea on how the two forces match up. If the ratio is within 10% of 1 to 1, you should be able to win if you don't make any mistakes, and not lose any ships. However, it's a very even fight and there wouldn't be much 'profit' in it. If the ratio favors the enemy a bit, see if you can even up the odds a little by using tricks like scatter-pack and anchor to quickly kill one ship. Otherwise, stay back and kill the smaller ship(s) that gets close first. You can think about disengaging later. If the ratio favors the enemy a lot, run away and pick something easier. If the ratio favors your side, blast them. If the ratio REALLY favors your side, try going for captures to enhance your prestige. For example, say you have 2 BCH's against 1 enemy BB. The ratio is 10 to 9 in your favor (roughly). You should win in the end, but there's probably no "profit" in this battle. This will be a tough fight. If you can find easier battles, do so. 6 Offensive Maneuvers You need to know some of the common maneuvers that are performed... 6.1 THE OVERRUN Overrun is simple: point the nose at the enemy, shoot at point- blank, and fly right over the other ship. As most ships have maximum firepower right down their centerline, overrun is good. To exploit the downed shield, overrun should be followed up by several attacks, such as hit-and-run raids, drop mine, scatter- pack, fighters, drones, or better... another ship. You can combine overrun with anchor (see below) for a really devastating blow. The overrun is very simple but it usually results in your front- shield being blown, and that can be bad. In a cloak-able ship, you can approach until enemy is range, fire weapons, then cloak as you fly over him. This is called an "under- run". 6.2 THE OFFSET PASS Offset pass is nearly as simple as overrun. Instead of point directly at the enemy, you point slightly off to one side, so when you are in weapons range of each other, you hit the right- front or left-front shields instead of front shield. Offset pass may not be good if your ship has firing arcs that emphasize firepower to the sides. Offset pass can halve your firepower, though you can always maneuver after you fire half of your weapons. Then you can maneuver to put another shield facing the enemy and keep fighting. The offset pass can quickly turn into an overrun if both sides turn in to each other. If one side turns in and the other side turns out, it becomes a tail-chase situation. If both sides turn out, it's time to disengage. 6.3 THE ANCHOR The "anchor" maneuver was "invented" by the Gorn, as it makes their plasma torpedoes very effective and makes maneuvering minimal. The concept is very simple: slap a tractor beam on the enemy ship, THEN shoot the torpedoes. Why do it this way? A ship being tractored cannot launch a decoy shuttle (i.e. launch wild weasel), so they will have to shoot the torpedoes or let them hit. At point-blank range, they can't rotate a new shield into play quickly. Any race using seeking weapons can use the anchor. A frigate can kill a cruiser if the anchor was deployed properly. Scatter-pack is very useful here as it suddenly pops 6 or more missiles at a target that can't launch decoys. Anchor can be defeated by NEVER coming into point-blank range. 6.4 THE SABER DANCE The Klingons invented the "saber dance" maneuver. Basically, the enemy ship stays at range 15, where the disruptors have a better chance to hit than other weapons. The enemy ship then repeats the maneuver, keeping the range open, while it wears down your shields. The Hydrans can use the saber dance with their Hellbores the same way, but their weapon arcs aren't as nicely designed as the Klingons and require a bit more maneuvering to stay away. Saber dance requires patience and very good weapon arcs. One mistake and the enemy may get close enough to do you real damage. 6.5 THE PLASMA STRING Sometimes called a "plasma bid", this is used by the plasma using races. Basically, you start randomly mixing the real and the pseudo plasma torpedoes one at a time at a certain interval. The enemy can't tell which one is real or not. Even if you shot 3 torpedoes when you have only 2 launchers, he still wouldn't know which one is the fake. If you are close enough, or he's slow enough, he will have to dump a weasel at some point. It is called a "bid" because you keep raising the ante with more torpedoes until he "blinks" and launches a weasel. Then you wipe out the weasel, anchor him, and feed him the rest of your torpedoes. He'll run out of shuttles before you run out of torpedoes. 6.6 THE DRONE SWARM The swarm can be a scary sight for races not armed with anti- drone weapons. Basically, you have a LOT of drones (more than 6) all targeting one ship and travel in close proximity. You can help create a swarm by using a scatter-pack if your internal launchers can't create a swarm. Remember that each ship has a drone control limit. If you exceed it, the earliest missiles you fired are lost. Most ships can control 6 drones (single drone control), some ships can control 12 (double drone control) or 18 (triple drone control). Obviously, faster the drones, the more dangerous they are. Fast drones can chase down fast ships, less vulnerable to anti-drone fire, and so on. However, the swarm can be beaten with a nicely placed T-bomb. It is also not that useful on ships equipped with ADDs, ESGs, and other anti-drone weapons. 6.7 THE FUSION CHARGE The Hydrans specialize in the "fusion charge" with their fusion- armed ships. Basically, they overload the fusion beams, then hold the weapons, go maximum available speed, and charge right down the middle with forward shields reinforced, then they deliver a devastating alpha strike at point-blank range. The Feds can do a similar maneuver sometimes called "charge of the photon brigade". Photons, at point-blank, can produce similar damage to fusion beams. Combined with phasers, hit-and-run raids, and T-bombs it can be a pretty devastating alpha strike. The "charge" doesn't work against people who know how to maneuver and avoid the charge. 7 Offense There are a lot of ways to do damage to the enemy 7.1 PHASERS Phasers are the most energy-efficient weapons in the game. A ph-1 can do up to 10 pts of damage with 1 pt of energy. Heavy weapons don't come close. However, ph-1 is the largest phaser a starship can mount. 7.2 DIRECT-FIRE HEAVY WEAPONS Direct-fire heavy weapons hits (or misses) facing shield immediately. In general those don't hit that often unless you're very close. Some heavy weapons like hellbores and PPDs can damage non-facing shields. If you are very close, you can usually overload, but that will reduce your speed significantly by making less power available. 7.3 SEEKING HEAVY WEAPONS Mirak, Gorn, and Romulan use seeking weapons. Those in general pack a much larger punch than firect-fire weapons, but you can't hit the facing shield. There are also ways to reduce the impact of the weapons. Plasma torpedoes can be reduced by phaser fire. Drones can be killed by phasers or ADDs, kept away by tractors, or blasted by T-bombs. Drone users also have to watch out for the drone control limit of their ship(s). Drones don't cost any energy to launch, but you can exhaust your reloads in a long battle. Plasma torpedo never "run out", but it takes a LONG time to charge (3 times as long as disruptor). Plasma users can use a pseudo-torpedo to scare the enemy. It looks JUST like a regular torpedo, but causes no damage. You can use the pseudo-torpedo to hide the fact that you're still recharging. Enveloping plasma torpedo can be used to "sandpaper" the shields and perhaps hit a down shield. This can wear down the enemy ship for later attacks. Drone users can use scatter-pack to increase the number of missiles in a salvo, at the cost of using a shuttle and the possibility of having that shuttle shot down before it can "pop". 7.4 OTHER HEAVY WEAPONS ESG can be used for ramming, which can be a very effective weapon that can beat down enemy's facing shield(s). 7.5 HIT-AND RUN RAIDS Hit-and-run raids can kill specific ship systems on an enemy ship, subject to transporter, boarding party, and energy availability. 7.6 MINES AND T-BOMBS Mines and T-bombs, when placed properly, can cause significant damage to enemy ships, fighters, shuttles, PFs, etc. 7.7 TRACTOR/TERRAIN One of the best ways to kill enemy ship is by pushing the enemy ship into an asteroid or a planet. Terrain such as dust fields can cause damage to shields, and if shields are down, cause damage to the ship directly. 7.8 SHUTTLES/FIGHTERS Shuttles and fighters have phasers, heavy weapons, and drones which can be used to defend you, defend others ships, or to attack other ships (from long range or close assault). Suicide shuttle is just another seeking weapon (albeit a very slow one). 8 Defenses How to prevent your ship from being damaged while dealing damage to the enemy ships is important. Heed General George S. Patton's advice: "You don't serve your country by dying for your country. You serve your country by making the OTHER poor bastard die for HIS country." 8.1 REINFORCE FACING SHIELD(S) You can use any excess energy for shield reinforcements. This would prevent "premature" wear on your shields when the enemy is just firing some long-range shots. Only shields that are still "up" can be reinforced. 8.2 TURN A NEW SHIELD AROUND If the enemy beats down one of your shields, maneuver and present a different shield. Use HET if you have to! 8.3 USE YOUR TRACTORS! Seeking weapons such as missiles, suicide shuttles, and so on, can be kept away by tractor beams. You can set the number of tractors to use for defense in your "defense" control panel. 8.4 SET POINT-DEFENSE! Are your phasers armed and ready for your own ship's defense? If you have point-defense set your phasers will automatically engage nearby seeking weapons such as plasma torpedoes and drones. Of course, that also means that you will not have those phasers to shoot at enemies. 8.5 AVOID THE ENEMY'S WEAPON ARCS If you know the enemy's weapon arcs you know which shields to avoid. 8.6 WATCH THE ENEMY SHIP DISPLAY That tells you a LOT about weapons under repair, being recharged, and so on. Best time to attack is when the enemy cannot fire back! 8.7 WATCH THE RANGE! If the enemy is going fast, he can't be overloading, so close assault should not be a problem. If the enemy is going slow, he may be overloading, so you should stay out of overload range. Of course, these two are not rules, but general observations. You can "trick" the enemy into you're overloading when you're not by moving slower than you can, and so on. 9 Starting in a Campaign The following tips apply in both single-player and Metaverse campaigns. 9.1 START SMALL Do NOT overextend. You may be tempted to switch to a bigger ride ASAP, don't. Save your prestige. You want to jump to CL (skipping DD) altogether. See [4.7]. You also need medium speed drones when they become available. Slow drones are just too slow. 9.2 START MISSILES/DRONES Easiest way to get started is with a missile-using race like Mirak or maybe even the Federation. You can launch missiles while yourself get away or stay away from enemy damage. Tricks like anchor and scatter-pack can allow you to kill larger prey quickly. The reloads also cost a lot of prestige points. Of course, the enemy may use "decoy shuttles" (wild weasels) or carry anti-missile defenses, so try to fight enemies that do NOT use those systems, like Romulans, Gorns, ISC, and maybe Orions. 9.3 STAY INTERIOR Stay in the interior of your empire until you have 2 decent large ships, such as 2 light cruisers. The interior are usually only menaced by light enemy raiding units or pirates. You shouldn't see heavier units, and having 2 CL's or CA's should be quite sufficient to defeat most threats. Only venture out to the borders when you are ready in big ships. 9.4 STAY ALIVE Stay alive by checking your enemies and determine quickly "do you have ANY chance of destroying the enemy?" If you are a frigate up against a battlecruiser, it's time to run. A ship, esp. when you get to cruiser or bigger ships, is a major investment. A BCH costs around 2500 prestige pts. A good CA costs around 2000. A BB costs over 7000 prestige pts. At only about 200- 300 pt mission, it takes a LONG time to build up those pts. Therefore, it is ALWAYS better to run away and live to fight another day. 9.5 STAY SUPPLIED Keep going back to a base or planet to keep yourself supplied, esp. if you use missiles. It's bad when you're required to fight a battle with empty missile launchers or no mines, or worse, no marines to defend yourself. 9.6 STAY POSITIVE Positive in terms of prestige pts, that is. You need to always keep a reserve of 200+ pts around, more if you use a lot of drones/missiles. If you fail a mission, you may need that reserve just to repair and buy reloads. 9.7 TRADE UP IN BIG STEPS Your vessel's trade-in value is like HALF of what you paid for it. So it's bad economic sense to trade up in small steps, like FF to DD to CL to CA to BC. Instead, trade up in BIG steps like FF to CL to BC and you can save a lot of prestige points. 9.8 DON'T BUY A SECOND (OR THIRD) SHIP JUST YET If you are a missile user (Mirak, Fed drone-ship, etc.) you should consider NOT buying a second ship. If you do, make your second ship a REGULAR, not a drone variant. If you have two to three ships all firing drones, you can actually spend MORE prestige pts on missiles than what you can earn per mission, esp. if you go for those "fast" drones! Having a second ship also causes the mission generator to give you harder missions. Instead, upgrade your own ship to what you want (BCH is good), THEN if you have a lot of pts left over, THEN make your own fleet. The optimum number of ships is 2 (not 3) if you are a fighter- heavy or drone-heavy race. Three ships just require too many reloads. 9.9 PICK THE EASY MISSIONS Some missions are hard, while others are very easy. Monster missions are the easiest (in general). Other missions can be difficult or easy depending on your firepower. Don't forget to use the "zoom level" on the map to determine if you are likely to see any help in the scenario. At the highest zoom level, you can see if there are known enemy and friendly ships in the same hex or nearby hexes. Many of them will join you in your battle. Obviously, the more help you have, the easier the mission is. 9.10 EARN THE EXTRA PTS Every ship you capture is worth extra pts. If you have a clear superiority, captures can yield extra pts. Some scenario, such as Enigma/Patrol, have items you can recover for extra pts. Convoy escort missions yields bonus prestige if you save all the freighters and esp. if you capture the enemy raiders. Stardock defense missions yields bonus prestige, esp. if you capture the enemy ship(s). 10 Specific Mission Types Here are some hints and tips for the generic mission types. 10.1 PATROL Probably the most popular mission type, basically you show up at one corner of sector while some other ship show up in the opposite corner. You see the other ship(s) right away. You can retreat if you need to. No penalties if you do. There are actually THREE variations of this... They are all called patrol, but 3 different scripts are called (6, 10, and Enigma). Haven't figured out what the differences are between 6 and 10 yet. Enigma goes like this: you start on one side of map. In the middle of the map is a derelict ship (or any race), no shields, mostly damaged. On the opposite side of the map is an enemy ship. The derelict ship has an item you can transport off for bonus prestige. The other ship will destroy the derelict ASAP. There are up to three groups of enemies in a V- formation. One or more of the group may be a monster. There can be up to 2 other groups of friendlies. Best outcome is for you to capture one or more of the enemy ships. Advice: pick the easy battles here. If the enemy is nicely matched, retreat and find easier picking. 10.2 DEEP SPACE ENCOUNTER Virtually same as patrol, except you don't see the enemy ship(s) right away, as they are further into the corner of the map. You can retreat if you need to. No penalties if you do. Best outcome is for you to capture one or more of the enemy ships. Advice: pick the easy battles here. If the enemy is nicely matched, retreat and find easier picking. 10.3 SCOUT / DEFEND As attacker: scout means you need to get within 10 kk of each enemy ship(s). Scan each enemy ship using "deep scan", and disengage. You get very little pts for this though. Best outcome is if you capture all the ships you scout AFTER you scout them. As defender: capture the scout if you can. It must not scan your ships and get away. [Can any one find this mission?] 10.4 SCAN / DEFEND As scanner: you need to scan a planet. Another enemy ship is also there in the system and may interfere. You can scan the planet and leave (get 20 pt) or destroy/capture the enemy ship, THEN scan the planet (get a lot more). As defender: prevent the planet from being scanned, or capture/destroy the scanning ship. [Very rare mission.] 10.5 AMBUSH! / AMBUSHEE As attacker: the enemy ship(s) are sitting ducks... Destroy them! You are on one side of map, a friendly ship is on the other side, and the enemy ship is in the middle, immobile. They will start moving when you get close though. Plan for MAXIMUM violence when you arrive. It's too soon for scatter-pack to have armed, so you have to use H&R raids and so on. Overrun the enemy ship with everything armed and ready. Drop a mine just as you go by. The whole works. You may be assigned to attack some ridiculous ships. Once, I was a Fed frigate, and I was assigned to ambush a Klingon B-10 (battleship). The other friendly was also a frigate. Needless to say, I'm "out of there". As defender: you're starting from cold start with time delay in the middle of the map, and enemy ships are coming in from 2 sides. Can you get away in time? You'll get a message about "It is an ambush sir!" First, increase speed to max. Then check which side's enemy ship is weaker (so you can blow by them without getting shot to pieces). Then approach that side. If both sides are equally bad, split the difference (go perpendicular to both). The inverse can also be true: those ambushers can be so weak they are of no threat to you. In that case, slow down, blow them away or capture them, and get a prestige bonus. 10.6 INFO RETRIEVAL / HOLDING ACTION As attacker: You need to reach the listening station to retrieve some info. Enemy ships may stop you. The listening station is directly ahead. Up to 3 groups of enemy ships may come at you in a delta formation. There are two ways to play this: retrieval only, or battle first. You can blow directly by them and just get the info if you just go yellow alert, don't bother with weapons, and speed 31 with energy to shield reinforcements. You'll get the info, and get a few points. If you think you have enough firepower with other friendly ships around to wipe out the competition, then by all means do so. If you capture/destroy the enemy ships you will gain much more prestige points than information retrieval alone. As defender: you need to prevent the enemy ship from retrieving the data. Basically, that means doing everything you can, including slapping a tractor beam on the guy. You can't let him get within the retrieval distance. If he does get the data, you can't let him disengage. [Rare mission.] 10.7 CONVOY RAID/ESCORT As the attacker, you need to destroy as many as the freighters as possible and get away. Best is if you destroy all five freighters, AND capture the enemy escort. On the other hand, as long as you blow up the freighters you should be fine. The freighters only move at speed 10, and will NOT maneuver. Your starting position is randomly chosen from 3 spots. If you start in a tail chase, you better hurry up before those freighters get away. In a bad battle with multiple escorts some of the freighters can get away. You may slow the freighters down with a tractor beam. In general, it's better to attack the front of the convoy first. The damaged ship will fall out of formation (slowed to 6.5 usually). Repeat until all teh ships are slow, then you can blow them up one at a time. The best raider is a carrier. The PF/fighters can attack one freighter while you go after another. You will kill them faster and get away faster. One way to blow up the freighters is capture it with marines. As freighters don't have that many marines to start with, you just need to knock down the shields and beam onboard 2-4 marines. The ship will self-destruct when captured, thus count as "destroyed". On the other hand, marines are pretty expensive. As the defender, you need to prevent your freighters from being destroyed. Best outcome is none destroyed, AND you captured the enemy raider(s). The freighters don't have much firepower, even if you get armed freighters or Q-ships. If you are outmatched, grab one of the freighters with tractor and SHOVE it off the map. At least you've saved one of them. The enemy must come to you, so use the extra power for overloads. After that, switch to normal load as you need the speed to chase the enemy down. Enemy can come from three separate directions. Handle the closer threat and don't get too far. Monsters may occasionally join a convoy raid. 10.8 SHIPYARD ASSAULT/DEFENSE As the attacker, you need to destroy 3 stardocks, which have shields and tractor beams. In your way are one or more enemy ships (up to 3 groups). Kill enemy ships first. It takes a LONG time to kill a stardock. You need direct-fire ships to kill stardocks. The stardocks have 5-10 tractor beams each so you can't really destroy a stardock with drones unless you have a LOT of them. They also have too many boarding parties to be captured easily. As they don't fire back, just orbit them and keep firing into the downed shields. As the stardocks don't move, transporter bombs are pretty useless. As the defender, you need to destroy all the attackers. The attackers will be coming after you. Force all of them to retreat or destroy all of them before you are destroyed. Concentrate on one attacker at a time. Stardocks take a while to die so you have time. The hard part is judging when are you outmatched. Being out- massed is not too bad unless you can't kill the enemy quickly. Monsters may occasionally join shipyard assault. 10.9 STARBASE ASSAULT/DEFENSE As the attacker, you need to destroy the base (could be base station, battlestation, or a full-fledged starbase) in the sector. The bases are VERY heavily armed with long-range weapons. You can't go in piece-meal or you'll be wiped out one at a time. Go all in, blast the defenders, then overwhelm the base with firepower. Kill the defenders away from the base so you don't get hit on multiple sides. Starbase have those extremely long-range ph-4s that can hit you from range of 100. Start very slow and let the defending ships come to you. Destroy the defenders, then follow the friendly ships in. If you use drones, arm a LOT of scatter-packs. Base does have tractor beams, but if you have multiple ships all firing drones you can overwhelm a base. Do the "offset pass" on the base, reinforce facing shields, and circle the base. Start popping out the scatter-packs, try to go for ONE shield specific shield (the one that got hit in the initial pass). The base will be rotating so you can just wait for the down shield to come back around. If you or one of your ships get hammered, do a 180, circle the base the other way, and let the other side take the heat for a while. Starbase assault can be very difficult and costly. The starbase has you outgunned at every turn. Your only hope is to concentrate your firepower upon one shield and overwhelm. As the defender, you need to destroy all the attackers. The attackers will be coming after you. [Any one got this mission?] 10.10 PLANETARY ASSAULT / HOMEWORLD ASSAULT Blast all the defenders to kingdom come, then capture the planet. Some planets can be armed with ph-4s. Planet has 20 boarding parties. You can damage the planet a bit to kill off some of those defenders. When you think you've done enough, start beaming down marines, use assault shuttles if you ned to. Get as many of them down there as possible in one stroke. Don't run into the planet! [Rare mission.] 10.11 MONSTER Destroy the monster(s) ravaging the sector. The difference mainly is in what type of monster it is. Some monsters are tougher than others. There are 18 different types of monsters, divided into 6 "breeds" (AM, DM, LC, MT, SG, SS) of 3 sizes (S,M,L) each. Most monsters are vulnerable to seeking weapons and esp. drones and scatter packs. Most simply don't move very fast to dodge seeking weapons. The fast one (SS) don't do much damage. Also see Monsters section [15]. 10.12 STARBASE CONSTRUCTION This is a special mission. If you "bought" a starbase with a ton of prestige points, you can bring it with you into enemy territory. Then you get to plant that starbase somewhere. When you do, you play this mission... Enemy ships come to prevent you from building the base. If you win, the base is built. If not, you lose that base. Basically, this means you need to protect that special freighter that contains the "skeleton" of your base from all enemy attackers. 11 Federation Overview In general, Federation ships have good all-around shields, good long-range firepower due to their photon torpedoes, and more "hull" than other races so their ships can take a bit more damage than other races and keep on running. However, Federation ships are just average in most areas, like maneuverability, firepower, available power, and so on. Many of the ships also lack rear phaser coverage. There were a lot of refits like the "plus" refit and the "R" refit to address some of the shortcomings. The photon torpedo is both a blessing and a curse. The long- recharge time is a big problem. To do a lot of damage you have to get in close, with overloaded photons, and if you do, you get hammered by other weapons. On the other hand, photons are very flexible. You can stay at long range and pound the enemy with proximity photons. You can stay at medium range and engage with regular photons, or point-blank with overloaded photons. The choice is yours. 11.1 GENERAL FED TACTICS Federation ships generally have average to lousy heavy weapons arcs. In general, the photons are FA arc only, so you have to face the enemy to shoot. Photons also suck up a lot of power so don't expect to move very fast. If you need to move faster, deactivate 1 or more photons. Feds usually have a secondary weapon like drones to keep the enemy busy while the photon reloads. Or you can combine the weapons for a true alpha strike. Your ship's maneuverability is average, so you won't be able to outturn any one. Use HETs only for emergencies. As a Fed, you need to time the photons. Start slow and charge the photons to regular or overload. When necessary, speed up to 24+, get in close to shoot, then open the range again to recharge. If the enemy won't let you get close, use prox photons to pound them and wear them down. 11.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Freighters are discussed in their own section, as you'll never "command" one. 11.2.1 Frigates F-POL Police Ship FRIGATE F-POL+ Police Ship (plus FRIGATE refit) F-FF Frigate FRIGATE F-FFG Improved Frigate FRIGATE F-FFD Drone Frigate FRIGATE F-FFD+ Drone Frigate (plus FRIGATE refit) F-FFE Frigate Escort FRIGATE F-FFE+ Frigate Escort (plus FRIGATE refit) F-FFB Battle Frigate FRIGATE F-DW War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER F-DWC Command War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER F-DWD War Drone Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER F-CDW Commando War Destroyer SPECIAL F-CFF Commando Frigate SPECIAL F-CFF+ Commando Frigate (plus SPECIAL refit) F-PV+ Police Carrier CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. There are three "types" of frigates in Federation service: frigate, police corvettes, and war destroyer (basically a beefed- up frigate to destroyer-level firepower). However, most of them carry at least one photon torpedo launcher. The war destroyers carry two. SideNote: You'll see me refer to "plus refit" or "R refit" a lot. Basically, this is a wartime ship improvement program that added some equipment on the ship, such as extra phasers that covers rear-arc, extra drone launchers for missile defense, extra shielding, etc. The Fed frigates are VERY lightly armed and have paper-thin shields, but then, so are all its chief competitors. Compared to others, Fed frigates are actually pretty good. The Feds are also the only ones to operate a police carrier. It's not much of an improvement. The problem in frigates is power. The photon torpedo needs a lot of power, even more if you're overloading. If all your power is sucked into the photon torpedo and you can't maneuver into position to take a shot, all that power is wasted. For the most part, don't overload. Keep your speed at 20 or higher and keep the range open. Frigates are for maneuvering any way. The smaller you are, the faster you need to be. Use an HET if needed to get on the other guy's tail and shoot his rear end off. Don't use ECM or tractor or such. You don't have enough power to spare. Also forget shield reinforcements as you need the power for the weapons and movement. 11.2.2 Light Cruisers (including destroyers) F-DE Destroyer Escort DESTROYER F-DER Destroyer Escort (R-refit) DESTROYER F-SC Scout SPECIAL F-SC+ Scout (plus refit) SPECIAL F-DD Destroyer DESTROYER F-DD+ Destroyer (plus refit) DESTROYER F-DDG Guided Weapons Destroyer DESTROYER F-DDG+ Guided Weapons Destroyer DESTROYER (plus refit) F-CL Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER F-CL+ Light Cruiser (plus refit) LIGHT_CRUISER F-NCL New Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER F-NCL+ New Light Cruiser (plus LIGHT_CRUISER refit) F-NCD New Drone Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER F-NCD+ New Drone Cruiser (plus LIGHT_CRUISER refit) F-NEC New Escort Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER F-NAC New Aegis Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER F-NSC New Scout Cruiser SPECIAL F-NSC+ New Scout Cruiser (plus SPECIAL refit) F-CLC Light Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER F-NCA New Heavy Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER F-NCM Miranda Class NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER F-NCC New Heavy Command Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER F-NCT New Commando Transport SPECIAL F-NCT+ New Commando Transport (plus SPECIAL refit) F-NVS New Strike Carrier CARRIER F-NVL New Light Carrier CARRIER F-NVL+ New Light Carrier (plus CARRIER refit) NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. The Fed destroyers are a weird bunch. The original Fed DD is basically a cruiser saucer with a warp nacelle instead of a secondary hull. It actually had cruiser armament (4 photon torpedoes) and not enough power to charge all of them. This was quickly modified. Half of the photons are removed and replaced with drone launchers, which don't use power, to create DDG. Destroyer escorts are not regular fleet ships. Instead, they designed to be a part of a carrier task force to protect the carrier. They have most of their heavy weapons removed, replaced with drone launchers, and their light Ph-3's replaced with gatling Ph-G's. The Aegis ships are also escorts but not quite as specialized as the true escorts. The Aegis ship carries the Aegis fire control system that helps defend again drones, but still carry regular weapons. The Feds never really made a "war destroyer" class ship. Instead, they created an excellent light cruiser platform called the NCL (new light cruiser) from which a lot of the other variants are based, including commando, command, even carrier. The NCA is basically an NCL with a secondary hull and built-up to CA standards. If you got a regular DD, deactivate two of the photons as you go into battle. If you got damaged, activate the undamaged ones and use your repairs on something else. If you got DDG or NCD, try to load a scatter-pack and do the "anchor" on the opposing ship. NCL/NCC/NCA are pretty balanced and can be flown as a regular Fed ship. Start slow to overload the photons. Arm scatter-pack and charge tractor beam if drone-equipped. Then increase speed to 20+ and chase the enemy down, any excess energy to front-shields. Get into overload range and feed him the photon torpedoes and phasers on an overrun or anchor. Repeat until dead. 11.2.3 Heavy Cruisers F-CA Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-CA+ Heavy Cruiser (plus refit) HEAVY_CRUISER F-CAR Heavy Cruiser (R refit) HEAVY_CRUISER F-CAI Heavy Cruiser Improved HEAVY_CRUISER F-CC Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-CC+ Command Cruiser (plus HEAVY_CRUISER refit) F-GSC Galactic Survey Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-GSC+ Galactic Survey Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER (plus refit) F-CAD Heavy Drone Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-CAD+ Heavy Drone Cruiser (plus HEAVY_CRUISER refit) F-CADR Heavy Drone Cruiser (R HEAVY_CRUISER refit) F-CB Heavy Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-BCG Battlecruiser (Kirov HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER Class) F-BCF Battlecruiser (Bismarck HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER Class) F-BCJ Battlecruiser (New Jersey HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER Class) F-BCE Battlecruiser Excelsior HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER Class F-CFS Fire Support Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-CFS+ Fire Support Cruiser (plus HEAVY_CRUISER refit) F-CVS Strike Carrier CARRIER F-CVS+ Strike Carrier (plus CARRIER refit) F-CVL Light Carrier CARRIER F-CVL+ Light Carrier (plus refit) CARRIER F-BCV Battle Carrier CARRIER The Fed cruisers are the benchmark all other cruisers are judged by. Heavy shields, 4 photons, etc. etc. There are essentially 4 classes: regular (CA/CC), GSC, CB, and BC. The regular heavy cruiser (CA) is nearly the same as a command cruiser (CC). The only differences are the addition of a "flag bridge" and two more phasers on the secondary hull on the CC. Any deficiencies are quickly rectified via the Plus and R refits. The GSC is not really related to the regular "Constitution-class" cruisers. Instead, GSC, as the name suggests, is a survey cruiser to explore unknown sectors. It is basically half-scout, half- cruiser. In wartime they sometimes operate as a light carrier (CVL). Only Feds operate GSCs as a unique class. Other races convert regular cruisers into survey cruisers. The CB is basically the halfway point between the CA and the BC. The BC, the ULTIMATE expression of the heavy-cruiser class, has dreadnought armaments (or equivalent) on a cruiser hull. The Feds are weird as they have FOUR separate variants of the BCH class. Depending on the variant, they fly a bit differently. Some are photon-heavy, while others have drones or even plasma torpedoes. The carriers have their secondary hulls converted to hangar bays from the original variant. Most retained their original armaments. 11.2.4 Dreadnoughts Dreadnought F-DN Dreadnought (plus F-DN+ refit) Space Control Ship F-SCS Improved F-DNG Dreadnought Heavy Dreadnought F-DNH Plasma Dreadnought F-DNF Heavy Carrier F-CVA Heavy Carrier (plus F-CVA+ refit) Battleship F-BB The first Federation dreadnought was a pretty abysmal failure, as it only has 4 photons, same as the cruiser. The "Plus" refit fixed that, but didn't quite add enough power to feed all six tubes while maintain a decent speed, and lacks drone defense. The DNG, which added some drone racks, fixed that. DNF is a plasma-F- armed variant of the DNG. The Fed CVA is basically a DN converted to a full carrier. The SCS is basically a super CVA that carries an extra bomber squadron externally. Federation does NOT operate PFs, so the Fed SCS is a bit different from other SCS's. DNH is half way between the DNG and the BB. Fed BB basically is one huge photon shooter... 8 tubes forward, 2 rear, and a TON of phasers. It even carries a few fighters. 11.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES The Feds borders just about EVERYBODY, so they have to be prepared to fight everybody. They are usually allied with Mirak, Gorn, and Hydrans. They fight with everybody else. 11.3.1 Klingons Klingons have ADDs, so drones and scatter packs don't work that well unless you can make the Klingons use up their ADDs. If you have drone-armed ships, don't fight on the Klingon border! Klingons have low "peak output" and their ships aren't built quite as strong as your ship. Your photons may take twice as long to load, but does twice the damage as his disruptors, so if you can blow down his shields, you'll cause more internal damage. If they choose to overrun, reinforce front-shields and BLAST them point-blank, and thank them for their stupidity. If they decide to do the "Klingon Saber Dance" (stay around range 15), arm regular torpedoes and see if he turns in or out. If he turns out, shoot at his weaker rear shields. If he turns in, overrun him with a sudden speed increase. Remember to counteract their ECM with your ECCM as your photons are more affected by ECM. Keep a few tractors to defend against their drones. Save the phasers for the enemy SHIP. 11.3.2 Romulans Hunting cloaked Romulans is difficult, as is dodging plasma torpedoes. Keep your speed up, 20 or higher, then load prox photons and phasers and keep firing them 2 at a time to wear down his shields, even when he's cloaked. Reserve phasers for anti-torpedo defense. Stay out of his torpedo firing arc so he can't shoot his torpedo at you. Scatter pack or drones can be useful if timed right, but wasted otherwise. Plasma torps don't do that much damage. The danger is eating them on a downed shield. 11.3.3 Lyrans The ESGs can be a problem as the ESG can be used for both ramming (protect against overrun) and drone defense. Launch drones to waste his ESG field so you can blast him with photons. Otherwise, Lyrans are like Klingons without drones. They are vulnerable to anchors as they don't carry ADDs. 11.3.4 Orions Orions can be equipped with anything, but in general are smaller and weaker than equivalent Starfleet ships. They can't take much damage after their shields are penetrated. If they cloak, treat them like Romulans. Orions are vulnerable to anchors. 11.3.5 ISC ISC ships are nicely equipped, as good as Feds, and armed with PPDs and plasma torps. The smaller ships only have plasma, so if you can eat the plasma on the side shields, your overrun will not be affected. Keep the speed up to outrun the torpedoes. PPD can be a problem as the "splash damage" can strip your facing shields. Use reinforcements and left-right turns to spread the damage. Otherwise, ISC are like Romulans, except they don't cloak, and thus vulnerable to seeking weapons. Anchors work great on ISC. 11.3.6 Other races You should not be fighting Mirak, Hydrans, or Gorns as they are usually your allies. However, here's are some quick tips. Mirak is basically like Klingons, except Mirak use more missiles than disruptors. Once you used up their missiles they are easily defeated. Keep your tractors available for drone defense. Keep your speed up and phasers in point-defense. Stay away from point- blank to prevent him from doing an anchor on you. Hydrans are like ISC but with heavier weapons closer-in. Hellbores hit your downed shield no matter the facing. They also like their fighters. Stay at range, kill the fighters, then bombard the enemy ship with prox photons. With Ph-Gs Hydrans are almost drone-proof. Gorns are like Romulans that turn worse and don't cloak. Keep your speed up and go for its rear shields. Stay away from those plasmas and you should eat them for lunch. They don't fight drones that well either. 11.3.7 Monsters There's nothing special about killing monsters with Feds. Just use all the weapons, a scatter-pack if you can build one. 12 Klingons In general, Klingon ships are faster, more manueverable, with better weapon arcs, but less shielded (more shields up front than rear), less hull (so can take less damage overall), and armed with generally weapons with lower peak output. The Klingons fight by maneuvers, exploit their superior weapon arcs, and wear down the enemies. Klingons use their drones to tie up enemy phasers rather than as a primary weapon. This is opposite the Mirak. 12.1 PRIMARY KLINGON TACTICS Klingons invented the "saber dance" tactic. 13 Gorns Gorns are intelligent saurians (dinosaurs) and are pretty slow and clumsy, but very powerful. They design their ships the same way... They don't turn well, but they have great torpedo coverage arcs and those torpedoes will put a world of hurt on you. They also have a lot of "marines" onboard (accounts for increased combat prowess). 13.1 PRIMARY GORN TACTICS Gorn invented the "anchor" tactic. 14 Hydrans Hydrans have several specialties... They love fighters (a lot of their ships carry small squadrons). They have fusion beams (close- range heavy weapon). They have hellbores (which damages your weakest shield, even if non-facing). Hydrans also use gatling phasers for point-defense. If you get close to them, they will destroy troy you. 14.1 PRIMARY HYDRAN TACTICS Hydrans invented the "charge" tactic. 15 ISC ISC is a lot like the Federation, even MORE idealistic. They honestly believe they can conquer the galaxy and enforce peace on everyone. Their ambition however, is further than their fleet. Their ships aren't too bad. Their PPD is an interesting weapon that is sort of like direct-fire plasma torpedo yet it spreads among multiple shields. The main problem with the PPD is its limited engagement range, with both a max range and a min range. However, ISC ships carry a lot of plasma torpedoes for backup. 16 Lyrans Lyrans are like Klingons, except they use ESGs (expanding sphere generators), which basically puts out a forcefield that can be used for drone defense, shuttle defense, and ramming. They use disruptors as secondary weapons. Lyrans are mortal enemies of the Mirak. Their weapons are designed to counter the Mirak drones. The ESG is a difficult weapon to use well. They are great in overruns but they don't do damage until extremely close range, and they have limited duration. If you dance at extended range they are useless. The Lyran AI seems to be vulnerable to long-range drone bombardments. It doesn't seem to power up the ESG except when you are nearby. So if you can launch a swarm at it from beyond range 15 often it will not power up the ESG and many drones will get through. 17 Miraks Mirak likes drones. Their ships usually have a LOT of drone launchers and a LOT of reloads. They use disruptors as secondary weapons. Mirak ships are decently built though not quite to the level of the Feds. Maneuvering is slightly better than the Feds. Reliance on drones means it CAN kill larger prey if it gets lucky with the drone hits. However, there are plenty of defenses against drones. Mirak are mortal enemies of the Lyrans. 17.1 GENERAL MIRAK TACTICS Mirak, as the primary drone-using race, relies on the "drone swarm" tactic. They use scatter-packs all the time. They use anchor when they can. Mirak, being drone users, can maintain a higher battle speed than most other races since drones don't use power. They can maintain speed 24 easily, and even while overloading they can maintain about speed 18. 17.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Freighters are discussed in their own section, as you'll never "command" one. 17.2.1 Frigates Z-POL Police Corvette FRIGATE Z-FLG Police Flagship FRIGATE Z-FF Frigate FRIGATE Z-FF+ Frigate (Refit) FRIGATE Z-FFK Improved Frigate FRIGATE Z-FFK+ Improved Frigate FRIGATE (Refit) Z-DF Drone Frigate FRIGATE Z-DF+ Drone Frigate FRIGATE (Refit) Z-FH Heavy Frigate FRIGATE Z-FH+ Heavy Frigate FRIGATE (Refit) Z-EFF Escort Frigate FRIGATE Z-AFF Aegis Escort Frigate FRIGATE Z-SF Scout Frigate SPECIAL Z-SF+ Scout Frigate SPECIAL (Refit) Z-SDF Scout Drone Frigate SPECIAL Z-SDF+ Scout Drone Frigate SPECIAL (Refit) Z-FFG Commando Frigate SPECIAL NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. Police ships, as in all races, are extremely weak. The flag ship has more shields at the expense of firepower. The frigate is doesn't quite have enough direct firepower. Once it is out of drones it must disengage. The FFKs (sometimes called the "Killer" refit) added more disruptors for direct-combat power. There are also plenty of other variants such as Heavy, Escort, Aegis Escort, Drone, Scout, and so on. Regular ships have single drone control. Drone ships have double drone control. A note on the Scout Drone frigate: it's an odd hybrid of a scout and a long-range drone bombardment ship. One of the Mirak drones is like a "long-range cruise missile", capable of reaching across sectors. If a scout can pin point the location of an enemy convoy, a drone bombardment vessel, loaded with these "cruise drones", can attack one of these convoys from a safe distance. However, scouts are hard to build and the more vessels you send, the more likely they will in intercepted. The result is this hybrid ship that can do both. That idea turned out to have problems as the Klingons simply resorted to staking out likely launch spots. Mirak frigates have surprising amount of firepower if you exploit the scatter-pack. However, when fighting races equipped to fight drones the Mirak are at a disadvantage. Their firing arcs aren't that great, tend to be one side vs. the other side. 17.2.2 Destroyers (including War Destroyers) Z-DD Destroyer DESTROYER Z-DD+ Destroyer (Refit) DESTROYER Z-DWS War Destroyer Scout SPECIAL Z-DWS+ War Destroyer Scout SPECIAL Z-DW War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER Z-DWD War Drone Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER Z-DWE War Destroyer Escort WAR_DESTROYER Z-DWG Commando War SPECIAL Destroyer Z-DWL War Destroyer Leader WAR_DESTROYER Z-DDV Destroyer Carrier CARRIER Z-DWV Mobile Carrier CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. There are two classes of destroyers in Mirak hierarchy: destroyer, and war destroyer. A war destroyer is basically a beefed up frigate so it's almost equivalent to a destroyer. The DWV is a carrier based on the war destroyer hull. The squadron is quite small (2+2). There's nothing too special about these ships. They are typically Mirak. 17.2.3 Cruisers / Light Cruisers / Battlecruisers Z-CL Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER Z-CL+ Light Cruiser (Refit) LIGHT_CRUISER Z-CLG Light Commando Cruiser SPECIAL Z-MDC Medium Drone Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER Z-MDC+ Medium Drone Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Refit) Z-CM Medium Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER Z-CM+ Medium Cruiser (Refit) LIGHT_CRUISER Z-MEC Medium Escort Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER Z-MAC Medium Escort Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Refit) Z-MCC Medium Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER Z-MCG Medium Commando SPECIAL Cruiser Z-MCV Medium Carrier CARRIER Z-CVE Escort Carrier CARRIER Z-CVE+ Escort Carrier (Refit) CARRIER Z-CA Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-CS Strike Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-CD Drone Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-CD+ Drone Cruiser (Refit) HEAVY_CRUISER Z-CC Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-CC+ Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER (Refit) Z-CCH Heavy Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-BC Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-BC+ Battlecruiser (Refit) HEAVY_CRUISER Z-BCH Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER Z-SR Survey Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER Z-CLV Light Carrier CARRIER Z-CLV+ Light Carrier (Refit) CARRIER Z-CV Carrier CARRIER Z-CVS Strike Carrier CARRIER Z-CVS+ Strike Carrier (Refit) CARRIER Z-BCV Battle Carrier CARRIER Z-NCA New Heavy Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. Mirak designed a range of "medium cruisers", which are really light cruisers with lengthened hulls. They don't have a 'war cruiser' class. Their light and medium cruiser hull is sufficient for their use. Mirak was the first to introduce a "battlecruiser", but it is really just a heavy cruiser with a couple more weapons than normal. It wasn't until the BCH that the Mirak have a "true" battlecruiser. With up to 5 drone launchers, the Mirak cruisers can put out a true swarm without using a scatter-pack. Some drone variants can launch 7 drones simultaneously. That is a lot of drones to defend from. Of course, the reload costs will stagger you, esp. if you don't earn much from each battle. Mirak disruptor arcs are not so good. Make 180 turns to bring the other side's weapons to bear. The BCV can be quite dangerous as its fighters can double/triple your drone launch rate. If you got 2 full squadrons of heavy fighters (total of 8 fighters), they each will shoot off their own drones, plus reloads. Add your own swarm, and there will be 30+ drones at the same time. Not even multiple ESG can protect the Lyrans from that kind of swarm. 17.2.4 Dreadnoughts Z-DN Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT Z-DN+ Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT (Refit) Z-DNH Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT Z-CVA Heavy Carrier CARRIER Z-BB Battleship BATTLESHIP The dreadnoughts are just heavier versions of your typical Mirak ship, with a LOT of drone launchers and more disruptors. Like the BCV, the CVA can be quite dangerous. 17.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES 17.3.1 Klingons Klingons operate ADDs so to kill Klingons you need REALLY big swarms, and use the anchor so he can't weasel. He can't hurt you with his drones so just reserve a few tractors for defense. H&R targets should be ADD, disruptors, tractors, and phasers. 17.3.2 Lyrans The main problem killing Lyrans is their ESG. If they charge all ESGs and do an overrun, they can do severe damage to your ship depending on how many ESGs. The ESGs recharge, and your drones don't replenish. Sacrifice a side shield and your first swarm to pop the ESG. Leave the scatter-pack behind (beyond his weapons reach) just before the overrun so when his ESG popped, the missiles will catch him. Of course he still has phasers and tractors, but at least it's more likely to penetrate. Designate ESG as your primary H&R target, along with tractors and maybe phasers. 17.3.3 Romulans Romulans love to cloak. Use regular weapons to "plink" them when they're under cloak. Launch swarms when they decloak. Keep phasers in reserve, esp. rear-arc phasers for point-defense. Designate certain groups of phasers for offense and use those only for "plinking". Keep speed up to outrun torpedoes. Keep at least distance of 10 between you and the enemy for room to maneuver. 17.3.4 ISC ISC are sort of like Romulans, as they like plasma torpedoes. Their PPD can do you some damage, but nice part about drones is no firing arc restrictions. You can rotate all around and still launch drones. ISC are vulnerable to swarms and will tend to weasel. Just don't get caught by those torpedoes on a weakened/down shield and you can beat the ISC. 17.3.5 Orions Orions can be equipped many ways, so tactics fighting them will vary. If they don't cloak, you can anchor and swarm normally. Watch out for the drone equipped Orions, as they can use scatter-packs. If they do cloak, treat them like Romulans. 17.3.6 Feds, Hydrans, Gorn These are nominally Mirak allies and you should not be fighting them any time soon. In any case, the Gorn is on the other side of the Federation and you should almost never see them. The Feds have ADDs and they can use up your drones. Fly like a Klingon and wear away his shields. Launch really close to him so he has no time for his ADDs to fire. H&R his drone defenses (tractors, ADDs, etc.). The Hydrans... First kill their fighters with drones and phasers. THEN their ship will be vulnerable to drone swarms. They don't operate that many Ph-Gs. Stay away from their fusion beams. Reinforce weakened shield so the hellbore don't break through. Gorn are slow and cumbersome. Drone swarms work wonders on the Gorn. 17.3.7 Monsters Monsters are very easy to kill with Mirak. Just keep your distance and keep launching drones. Most monsters can't even outrun slow drones, much less medium and fast drones. On the weaker monsters (the small ones), or space shell, you can close in and use overloaded weapons, thus save the drones for later. 18 Romulans Romulans are famous for their cloaking device and plasma torpedoes. Romulan ships have three distinct generations: refitted relics, Klingon conversions, and new designs. Each generation is quite different in design philosophy and equipment. See the manual for more details on each generation. To be completed. 19 Orions Orions show up just about EVERYWHERE and can act as mercenaries to all of the major races. They can also use all sorts of equipment. Most Orions use a mix of weapons. Orion ships also have a lot of boarding parties compared to other ships. 20 Monsters You can't play as a monster. This is mainly here to show you how the monsters are armed and how you can kill them. There are 18 different monsters, divided into 6 types (AM, DM, LC, MT, SG, SS) of 3 sizes (S,M,L) each. Monsters rarely if ever exceed speed 15, though some can go speed 25 in certain cases. Monsters are unshielded except Sungliders (SG's). They have armor instead. Monsters are vulnerable to mines in general. They usually have pretty lousy turn rates. Monsters are vulnerable to seeking weapons except the SG's. That one has phasers that can kill drones. However, a big enough salvo can kill any monster. In general, monsters are quite easy to kill unless you are careless. These are the easiest prestige points you can earn. 20.1 ASTRO MINERS [Looks like an asteroid] The AM's (Astro-miners) are armed with plasma torpedoes, and are very dangerous. The bigger ones have heavier torpedoes, including Type-R torpedoes, as well as an assortment of smaller torpedoes. Stay at high-speed and stay away from it. Reserve phasers for torpedo defense. Fight at long range so you have time to wear down the torpedo. Do NOT close to overload range. Use all seeking weapons you got, scatter-pack is good. 20.2 DOOMSDAY MACHINES (SPECIAL) Doomsday Machine only appears in special scenarios. The DM's (Doomsday Machines) are armed with PPDs. Their splash damage can strip your facing shields. It also has tractor beams, so drones may not be of much use against this one. 20.3 LIVING CAGES [Looks like a bunch of rods connected together like a construction scaffold] The LC's (Living Cage's) are armed with Hellbores. Their splash damage goes after your weakest shields. Otherwise they are not too hard to kill, esp. with seeking weapons. LC's (along with MT's) can repair themselves slowly. 20.4 M-EATERS [Looks like a tripod inverted] The MT's (M-Eater's) are armed with Fusion Beams, which is a close range weapon, so stay away. The bigger the MT, the more FB's it has. It can beat down your facing shield on one pass. MT can also repair itself slowly. 20.5 SUNGLIDERS [Looks like a spinning top where the top part is a spread of spikes] The SG's (Sungliders) are armed with phasers (up to Ph-4's), and have shields (relatively weak though). Stay at long-range and overwhelm one of its shields, then go in and blast it into pieces. It can repair itself. 20.6 SPACESHELLS [Looks like a bullet with a split tail] The SS's (Spaceshells) are armed with disruptors, and not that dangerous. They can move pretty fast so they may be able to outrun slow drones. The bigger the monster, the more/heavier the disruptors are. 21 Freighters Every race has freighters, and some has more models than others. The freighters essentially fall into 3 sizes: small, medium, and large. They also falls into several types: civilian, military, Q- ships, and auxiliary naval. The civilian freighters are very lightly armed. Most carry one Ph- 2, maybe some Ph-3's. Some may carry ADD for drone defense. The refitted versions get an extra weapon or two, but are still very lightly armed. The military "armed" freighters have slightly heavier shielding than the civilian versions, with a few more weapons, but are still very weak. Q-Ships are basically freighters converted to warships. They look just like a freighter, until you get a closer scan. Historical note: The idea originated in World War I, when the German U-boats ruled the seas. At that time, it was customary for the a warship to demand the surrender of a merchant vessel. An U- Boat must surface to demand the surrender of the merchant. The British introduced the Q-ship, which is a normal merchant with hidden guns on the deck. When the U-Boat surfaces and is in range, the Q-ship will engage the submarine. Q-ship has only ONE chance... It either sinks the sub right there, or it will die from torpedoes. After multiple losses to Q-ships, Germans simply sank the ships without warning. This is known as "unrestricted warfare". The auxiliary naval freighters are freighters converted to other uses, such as an auxiliary carrier (AuxCV). Those that use Fast Patrol ships (PFs) use a similar ship called AuxPFT. 21.1 FEDERATION Fed Luxury Liner F-Lux Fed Presidental Liner F-Pres Fed Large Merchant Ship (Dre F-LMDr refit) Fed Large Merchant Ship (Phaser F-LMPh armed) Fed Large Merchant Ship (Q-Ship) F-LMQ Fed Medium Merchant Ship (Drone F-MMDr armed) Fed Medium Merchant Ship (Phaser F-MMPh armed) Fed Medium Merchant Ship (Q-Ship) F-MMQ Fed Small Merchant Ship (Drone F-SMDr armed) Fed Small Merchant Ship (Phaser F-SMPh armed) Fed Small Freighter F-FSML Fed Large Freighter F-FLRG Fed Small Phaser-Armed Freighter F-FSPh Fed Large Phaser-Armed Freighter F-FLPh Fed Small Drone-Armed Freighter F-FSDr Fed Large Drone-Armed Freighter F-FLDr Fed Small Q Ship F-FQS Fed Large Q Ship F-FQL Fed Auxiliary Small Carrier F-AxCVL Fed Auxiliary Large Carrier F-AxCVA The Feds have a full range of freighters. The "merchant" ships are civilian-owned. Others are owned by Starfleet. Only the Q ships carry photon torpedoes. Others rely on phasers and drones. The two "Liners" are special ships that only appear on special missions. 21.2 MIRAK Z-FSML Small Freighter FREIGHTER Z-FLRG Large Freighter FREIGHTER Z-FSPh Small Phaser-Armed FREIGHTER Freighter Z-FSDs Small Disruptor-Armed FREIGHTER Freighter Z-FSDr Small Drone-Armed FREIGHTER Freighter Z-FLPh Large Phaser-Armed FREIGHTER Freighter Z-FLDs Large Disruptor-Armed FREIGHTER Freighter Z-FLDr Large Drone-Armed FREIGHTER Freighter Z-FQS Small Q Ship FREIGHTER Z-FQL Large Q Ship FREIGHTER Z-AxCVL Auxiliary Small Carrier CARRIER Z-AxCVA Auxiliary Large Carrier CARRIER Mirak are your typical freighter race. They don't have those exotic types like the Feds. Only two sizes: large, or small. The differences are regular, phaser, disruptor, drone, Q, aux. That's it. Most freighters are armed with only Ph-2s and Ph-3s. the Phaser- armed, Q-ship, and Auxiliary may get Ph-1s. Most carry only 2 boarding parties. 21.3 OTHER RACES FREIGHTERS To be completed. 22 Bases 22.1 STARBASE Starbase is the big mama, armed with ph-4's that can blow up ships, as well as heavy weapons. Some have hangars for PF's or fighters, and shields that are extremely heavy. So how do you kill one? With a LOT of firepower. Deal with the defender ships first, away from the base. Those ph- 4's can hit from very far away (range of 100) so stay away. Then kill the PF's or fighters. Arm all the scatter packs you can and perform offset approaches. Then start launching overwhelming salvoes of drones. Then start circling the base, reinforce facing shields, and fire at its down shields. If it hits your (or your ships) hard, turn 180 and let the other shields take the heat for a while. If you shoot only at the down shield it should take long to kill the base. 22.2 BATTLESTATION To be completed. 22.3 BASE STATION To be completed. 22.4 MISC STATIONS To be completed. 23 Fighters Please see your "ManualAdditions.doc" to see a list of the fighters and PFs in the game. Basically, there are 3 classes of fighters, and 2 classes of PF.s Fighters are just class I, class II, and class III. PFs are "Interceptors" and PFs. To be completed. 24 Special Missions To be completed. 25 Metaverse Online Play To be completed.