Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ by Kasey Chang released July 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 combat 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. As of this guide I've also finished as the Klingons and Hydrans. When I find the time to play other races those sections will be added. Some of you may recognize my name as the editor for the XCOM and XCOM2: TFTD FAQ's, among others. If you don't care about all these verbiage (it's mainly for people who want to redistribute the guide) you can jump right to the end of this section and read some of the FAQs. If you like the FAQ, send me $1.00. :-) 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 stamps 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 (https://www.gamefaqs.com) and other major PC game websites (such as gamesdomain.com, gamespot.com, etc.). I only release it to Gamefaqs, so they would always have the latest. If you get it from anywhere else, beware that it may NOT be the latest and greatest version. 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. 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. Some bits of information here are condensed, summarized and adapted from the SFB Tactics Manual (original edition). 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 spammers can't use spambots on 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. This is "military phonetics" or "aeronautical phonetics" in case you're wondering. This document was produced on Microsoft Word 97, with some notetaking on a Handspring Visor with the Targus foldable keyboard. Some editing done with Editpad (editpadclassic.com). 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, Wing Commander 2, Wing Commander 3, Wing Commander 4, Privateer, Spycraft, 688(I) Hunter/Killer. Mechwarrior 3, MW3 Expansion Pack, Mechwarrior 4, Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, The Sting!, Terranova, Fallout Tactics, and a few more. Most of them should be on https://www.gamefaqs.com, the biggest FAQ site around. To contact me, see 0.4 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. https://www.taldren.com Star Fleet Battles is a registered trademark of Amarillo Design Bureau. Starfleet Command is partially based on Star Fleet Battles. See https://www.starfleetgames.com for more details. Starfleet Command and Star Fleet Battles are both based on/inspired by Star Trek, which is a trademark by Paramount Pictures. See https://gaming.startrek.com for all you want to know on Star Trek computer and console games. 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. That is a good reference to have, if a bit pricey. 0.7 REVISION HISTORY 01-JUN-2002 Initial Release, only has Fed and Mirak information, no info on the special missions. About 50 pages. 12-JUN-2002 Second release, mistakes fixed (like calling Dynaverse "Metaverse", blame my spellchecker!) major reorganization into 3 parts (tactics, Dynaverse, and ships), added Klingons discussion, more detailed maneuver tips, more info on special missions, some Dynaverse play tips. Double in size, about 100 page. 01-JUL-2002 Added Hydran and ISC discussions, fighter tactics, fleet tactics, cloak tactics, drone tactics, and more. Added LOTS of notes from ISC campaign. All ship info is now included. Also included Mirak mission info provided by 3dot14. Right now it's at about 165 pages. 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. Another good start is Mirak. 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 patches at https://www.khoromag.com. They have taken over "maintenance" of SFC2 from Taldren (for the most part). Other patches are "coming soon". Q: How do I beat those special missions in single player Dynaverse? A: See section 15 Q: Where are the cheat codes? A: There aren't any. This is a STRATEGY game. Q: What are some of the terms used in SFC/SFB mean? A: See the "glossary" at 1.8 Q: I'm an SFB veteran. Why can't I make sense of SFC? A: SFC is based on SFB, but it's NOT a direct computer adaptation. It has its own quirks and tactics, though a lot of the basic tactics such as Mizia, anchor, and so on still applies. Q: But aspect ___________ of SFC does not fit rule ___________ of SFB... A: Being "based on" does NOT mean it's a direct translation. Q: Where are the X-ships? A: They are in the Orions Pirates "standalone expansion". 1 Game Information: What is SFC? SFC, or Starfleet Command, is a starship combat simulation set in the Star Trek universe. It is an officially licensed Star Trek product. SFC2 is the sequel to SFC, with a more extensive "campaign generator" called Dynaverse II 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. It was first published in 1979 though it was designed as far back as 1975. It only had the Feds, Klingons, and Romulans. Some races were added later. Then came the "Commander's Edition" in 1990. Commander's Edition had Federation, Klingon, Tholians, Romulans, Orions, Gorns, and Kzintis (from the animated Star Trek episode, "The Slaver Weapon", which used the Kzintis from Larry Niven's stories). You can find more about the Kzintis by reading the "Man-Kzin Wars" collection in your local library or bookstore. The final (often called "Doomsday") "Captain's edition" rules was in 1994. All the rules are now revised properly and swore never to be changed except for VERY good reasons. 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), the WYN, and so on in later expansion modules. In time, the SFB universe diverged significantly from the Star Trek universe. In SFB, the empires continue to fight minor wars on and off until the General War, where everybody started fighting. The Organians are missing, off dealing with some other threats. The General war lasted 18 years. Organians later came back with the ISC and tried to let ISC enforce peace on everybody, and initially the ISC were successful, until a new invader came, the Andromedans. To learn more about the General War, please read the "General War Timeline" on the SFB website at https://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/general_war.htm. There was even a company or two that creates "unofficial expansion" for SFB that adds new races in a different galaxy with completely different combat rules. ADB themselves also published several "alternate universe" products, including "Omega Sector" (space beyond ISC) and "Stellar Shadows". They also published some "minor races" (Lyran Democratic Republic, the WYN cluster, the Jindarins, etc.) and the "simulator races" (what each "empire" use as imaginary enemies in their training academies). SFB also has a strategic component called "Federation and Empire", which is a board game that simulates the General War complete with strategic movement, supplies, shipbuilding, fleet battle, bases, and more. You can even generate battles to be fought with SFB. It has its own set of expansion modules which adds rules to deal with marine action, carrier battles, detailed combat resolution with new special devices, more races, and so on. SFB inspired a pen-and-paper role-playing game called "Prime Directive", where you command "prime teams", basically special agents that can handle ANYTHING for your empire. The game features a "tiered" resolution system where it is possible to completely BOTCH an operation. Otherwise it's a pretty standard RPG in a sci-fi setting. Later, Paramount granted ADB a conditional license that basically says, "as long as you continue what you do now you are okay with us." ADB has NO permission to use ANYTHING beyond what they do now... To quote from ADB website, "We have Vulcans, but no one named 'Spock'." 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, contributor to Sid Meier's Civilization) 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. You can also join one of several "elite" organizations within each "empire". As a Fed, you can join "Starfleet Special Task Force". As a Romulan, you can join the "Tal'Shiar", and so on. You will need to use your prestige pts, but they will allow you access to even more lucrative missions. The Lyrans, Kzinti, and ISC never made it into SFC1 though. The term 'Kzinti' was copyrighted (by Larry Niven's books) 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. Orion ships are in SFC, but you can't command one. They are only there for you to fight against. 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. Mirak were the SFB Kzintis. Fighters and Fast Patrol ships (gunboats), and carriers/tenders that carry them 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 "Dynaverse II". The different races have campaigns set in the SFB "ISC Pacification" period. Basically, the ISC jumped in near the end of the General and shot at everybody, and was universally hated as meddlers. They prompted the end of the General War. Essentially the galactic powers, through separate efforts, pushed back the ISC on all fronts, and you will discover the fate of the Organians, and that threat they were talking about... You can also play as the ISC and fight against everybody. If you don't like the scripted campaigns, you can play a "pure conquest" game by doing some unsupported modifications in your game install directory. Look for two .BAT files in the game directory and read the file before running it. It is NOT supported, so don't blame anyone if that didn't work! A stand-alone expansion pack: SFC2: Orion Pirates was later released featuring advanced weapons and X-ships, Orion campaigns, and final bug fixes. You can now finally play as one of the pirates by joining one of the cartels. However, the individual race campaigns have been eliminated. You can still play as one of the galactic races, but you can only play "conquest". OP does NOT require SFC2 to play and can be installed side-by-side with SFC2. It has its own set of patches. 1.4 SO WHAT IS SFC2? SFC2 has two parts: a campaign engine and a starship battle simulator. In that way, it is similar to XCOM, with the separation of GeoScape (world view) and BattleScape (tactical combat view). In the 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 and other units are fully 3D. Surrounding the battle simulator is the campaign engine dubbed "Dynaverse II", which can work both in single-player and multiplayer modes. Dynaverse 2 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. In single-player, some missions are "special" missions and pre-scripted. Others are randomly generated. Some missions will have a forfeit penalty. As you win missions, you earn prestige points. You can then used those points to buy supplies, repair and upgrade your ships, purchase more ships, and so on, on the strategic map level. Depending on how well you perform the missions, your empire can win or lose control of a particular sector. Each of the races has its custom campaign. Some have more than one. If you prefer a raw "conquest" campaign, that can be arranged by running some special setup .BAT files in the SFC2 directory. Look for it and read carefully what it does before you run it. In Multiplayer mode, SFC2 can be played in skirmish mode (fight a single battle online), or on Dynaverse II server, where you can contribute to your empire's war effort by winning battles. 1.5 WHAT IS SFC'S STARSHIP COMBAT LIKE? SFC combat is VERY different from other types of combat, like land combat and naval combat. Land combat speed is quite slow with long range weapons. Same with naval combat. Weapons are very powerful and protection is nearly nil. If you're hit, you're toast. A typical weapon in SFC has effective range of 8 (80,000 kilometers), while a ship can travel 200,000 kms or more during that weapon recharge period (speed 20). Ships are all protected by shields. It will take several salvoes to defeat the shields on a ship and actually damage the ship. Firing arcs and maneuvers are very important. Think of it as aerial dogfights between helicopters and you wouldn't be far off... Except these helicopters have energy shields... 1.6 WHO MAKES SFC2? Talden created SFC2. It is published by Interplay's "strategy" division, "14 Degrees East". KhoroMag has taken over the ongoing support of SFC2. See https://www.Khoromag.com 1.7 IS THERE GOING BE A SFC3? Taldren has signed on to make SFC3 for Activision. SFC3 will feature "Next Generation ships", including Galaxy, Sovereign, Akira, and other classes. You'll be fighting the Borg, Romulans, and more. It will be set AFTER Voyager returned home. Supposedly, the plot is about a new super starbase the Feds built in collaboration with the Klingons, and Romulans didn't like that at all. Then the Borg somehow got involved... 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. Supposedly this game will also make each race a lot more dependent on that race's unique weapons. Feds will feature phasers, Klingons will feature disruptors, and so on. 1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THIS GUIDE This guide will organized in roughly THREE parts. Part 1 is a discussion of the battle simulator in SFC2, and the various "general" tactics that would applies to several races, not just a specific race or weapon. Things like plasma tactics, fleet tactics, fighter tactics and so on would be here, as will maneuvers, HET usage, and so on. That would be from 2 to 11. Part 2 is a discussion of the campaign engine, Dynaverse II, how to play single-player and multi-player campaign, how to pick the best missions, and so on. The specific mission walkthrus for the special missions would also be here. That includes sections from 12 to 16 Part 3 is a race specific discussion on the ships, tactics, and so on, for each race, a list of their ships, which ships are good, and so on. That includes sections from 17 to 30. 1.9 HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE This guide was not designed to be general reference, but it sort of ended up that way. You may want to read over EVERY section in this guide, as we discuss tactics, systems, ships, races, special equipment, weapons, and so on. This guide covers EVERYTHING. Read the sections that apply to you first. For example, if you are playing the Feds, read the Fed tactics, ships, read the section on photons, drone defense, then read about the general tactics, the discussion about your enemies. Eventually you'll read the whole thing. I don't cover stuff that's already in the manual. If you can't figure out which buttons are which, you need the manual, not this guide. 1.10 SOME SFC/SFB TERMINOLOGIES Alpha strike -- fire EVERY weapon that is currently in arc at the designated target. Also see "peak output" Anchor -- see "Gorn Anchor". Battle pass -- move past the target, allowing your rear/side weapons to shoot at the enemy's rear/side shields Battle run -- approach the target, shoot, then turn away to expose rear weapons. Crunch Power -- see "peak output" below 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 very large ships can have "triple drone control" (18 drones). 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. Erratic Maneuvers (EM) -- sudden random movements, makes your ship harder to hit but move a bit slower and makes your weapons less accurate as well. EW / ECM / ECCM -- EW is electronic warfare, which is comprised of ECM (electronic counter-measures, better known as "jamming") and ECCM (electronic counter-countermeasure, known as counter- jamming). Gorn Anchor -- holding the enemy ship with a tractor beam. This prevents the enemy from launching a wild weasel (sensor decoy), thus impossible for seeking weapons, such as plasma, to miss 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. Example: "That salvo caused some internals." Klingon Saber Dance -- a maneuver started by Klingons. Basically, it maneuvers staying just out of overload range to "wear down" the opponent, who lacks the speed to get into overload range. Mizia Concept -- introduced by Walter Mizia, it is an SFB concept that a multiple smaller volleys is preferred to a single large volley of damage. Statistically, in SFB, single large volley tend to kill power but leave weapons, while smaller volleys kill weapons but leave power. SFC has inherited same damage allocation routine and thus the same analysis applies. Thus, the "multiple small volley attack" is also known as "Mizia Attack". Overrun -- pass right OVER the enemy ship, thus giving you the opportunity to do point-blank shots, rear weapon shots, mines, H&R raids, and so on. Peak output -- better known as "crunch power", the theoretical maximum damage that can be done in one alpha strike from a ship in a single salvo. A Federation ship, for example, would have higher peak output due to photon torpedoes doing twice the damage as the disruptors. Seeking weapon shooters have even higher peak output. Usually used like "a Federation ship has higher crunch power than a Klingon ship." Power Curve -- a measure of how much power a ship has vs. how much power it needs to arm all weapons at regular and/or overload levels. The "higher" the power curve, the faster you can go while arming all weapons. Ships with fast-firing low-damage weapons have a "flat" curve, while plasma-torpedo ships have a pretty uneven power curve. Scatter-pack -- a shuttle packed full of missiles (just 6) 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. Sensor Decoy -- see Wild Weasel Shock -- when internal damage is received, one or more systems may be 'shocked' into being temporarily disabled. A "shocked" system will come back online after a period of time without being repaired, but in the meanwhile you have to do without the system. Sicilian Knife Fight -- a low-speed short-range battle with a lot of overloaded weapons and reinforced shields. 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 beam that can push or pull other objects as needed. Underrun -- overrun done by a cloaked unit Wild Weasel -- i.e. sensor decoy, 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. Weasel also generates 3 pts of ECM, which can help you dodge things. 1.11 RANGE TERMS Point-blank -- range zero or one, hit probability is 100%... You can't miss. Knife-fighting range -- range two or so, very slow maneuvering battles Drone-defense range -- roughly range two or three, where your ADD/AMD and point-defense phasers/tractors works best Overload range -- range 8 or less, where overloads can be used Medium range -- range 8 to roughly range 15-20, reduced probability of hit Long range -- starts from end of medium to about range 30, or the maximum range of the weapon. Extreme range -- starts from when sensor contact is possible (about 100) to long range. 2 Power, and what it affects Before we explain the tactics, weapons, etc., we need to explain HOW the ships actually produce the energy and move around, and where all the energy would go. 2.1 POWER SOURCES A ship has several sources of power: the warp engines, the impulse engines, the auxiliary power reactors, and the auxiliary warp reactors. Some ships also have "batteries" which can store energy for later use, giving you a short-burst of extra power. You don't really need to know all this though. Just remember that a ship needs a LOT of power to move at "full speed", which is "31". In fact, few ships would have much power in surplus while moving at speed 31. A typical cruiser has 34-40 pts of power. The power is used in movement, EW, weapons, shields, and other ship systems. There is never enough, so consider how are you going to use it. 2.2 MOVEMENT COST A ship has "mass", and power must be applied to move it. The "movement cost" is a ratio of how much power does a ship need to move at a certain speed. A typical cruiser has movement cost of 1. To move at speed 30, a cruiser would need 30 pts of power. Smaller ships have lower movement costs; larger ships have higher movement costs. Here's the movement cost list: FF (frigate) -- 0.33 DD (destroyer) -- 0.5 CL (light cruiser) -- 0.66 or 0.75 CA (cruiser) -- 1 DN (dreadnought) -- 1.5 BB (battleship) -- 2.0 Special movements like HET and Erratic Maneuvers (EM) use some movement energy. You can have full energy applied to movement and still not get full speed if you are using either an HET or EM. HET and EM are explained in 3.1. As mentioned before, a typical cruiser has 34-40 pts of power. 31 of that are needed to move the ship at top speed, which leaves very few left for the rest. If you need power to arm weapons, tractors, shields, and so on, you need to take it away from speed. Gives a totally new meaning to "speed is life", doesn't it? 2.3 ELECTRONIC WARFARE (EW) One of the places you can use power is electronic warfare, namely ECM and ECCM. They are technically more efficient than reinforcing shields in some circumstances. Maximum power you can use in EW is 6 pts of power. At medium ranges, they can be more efficient in reducing damage than shield reinforcement. EW is explained more in 4.2 2.4 WEAPONS There are basically three classes of weapons: phasers, direct- fire heavy weapon, and seeking heavy weapon. Phasers are simple enough to charge with energy... Each Ph-1 takes 1 pt, Ph-2 takes 1 pt, Ph-3 takes 0.5 pt, and Ph-G takes 1 pt. Heavy weapons can be normal load or overload. Overload cost double the power but produced a more powerful shot with limited range. Some weapons can have other special modes. Please see individual weapon explanations in 5 for full discussions. Once loaded, the weapon needs to pay a "hold" energy charge per weapon until fired. When you shoot, then the weapons are charged again. Seeking heavy weapon need charging also, (except drones) with a longer charging period in general. Once charged, seeking weapon also pay a "hold" cost. 2.5 SHIELDS Shields need 2 pts to power up to full strength. If you have excess power, you can use that to reinforce one or more of the shields against attacks. Shield damage during battle is repaired automatically, but that takes time. 2.6 OTHER SHIP SYSTEMS A ton of other systems can use power, such as electronic warfare, tractor beams, transporters, suicide shuttles, and so on. 2.7 LEARN YOUR POWER CURVE There are many demands for power, but the source is limited. The proper management of your available power is the key to success in SFC2. Learn your power curve, which refers to how fast can your ship move after all the "housekeeping" is done (raise shields, and such) and arm all weapons, and perhaps overload. As an experiment, take a Fed CA. Go to Red Alert and try to set maximum speed, regular photons. How fast CAN you go? Now change to OVERLOAD. How fast can you go? Try the same with a Klingon D- 7. See the difference? 3 Ship Controls This will serve as a quick review of all the systems in SFC2. You should run through all the tutorial missions AND read through the manual before you start reading this section. This is an overview, not a full explanation. 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". 3.1 HELM This is a quick overview of all the helm commands and what is it used for. 3.1.1 Emergency Deceleration Or in plain terms, "emergency brakes". It is usually shortened to EmerDecel. EmerDecel immediately slams your ship to speed 0 (well, it takes a second). 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 away, 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. 3.1.2 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. However, it also makes your weapons less accurate as well. So you will need to stop EM before you attack. EM is basically a defensive maneuver. Smaller units or slower units can use it to avoid taking hits at long-range, then unleash weapons when the range is closer and they can be sure of doing some damage before being destroyed. 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. 3.1.3 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 allows 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. . 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. 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. 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. See maneuvers section 8 for more discussions on HET maneuvers. 3.1.4 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 at speed 10. You can increase speed though and the computer will do its best to orbit. However, every time you select "orbit" you'll slow down to 10 again. Giving any other helm order (like click on the map to indicate a turn) will cancel any existing follow or orbit command. 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. You can increase speed though. 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. 3.2 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 and that can wait. 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 so losing one is not a big deal. If you have only one, then you may want to think about repairing it, and then only if you plan to use it later. Drone launchers are probably 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 and repair more important weapons first. If you reach a friendly planet or base you can repair there as well. Hull integrity cannot be repaired in battle. It can only be repaired at a friendly planet or base. 3.3 SCIENCE Not too many commands here, except probe, deep scan, and self- destruct. 3.3.1 Probe The probes have two modes: normal, and weapon. The probes don't do much damage if you arm them as weapons. Only use in desperate situations. 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. 3.3.2 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. 3.3.3 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. 3.4 SECURITY There are two modes in security: hit-and-run, or capture. 3.4.1 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. It is a one-way trip though for them. 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. Remember that H&R raids are "automatic". You can't control when will the shield be dropped. As soon as the enemy is in range, you have available transporter and targets are in the queue, and you have marines, your shield goes down and the raid is gone. H&R raid is quite powerful and way too easy. It is devastating against the AI and can turn the tide of a battle. The AI controlled ships don't use H&R. Don't be surprised that some human players request that BOTH of you do NOT use H&R raids against each other during battle. 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. 3.4.2 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 the transporters you have). 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. That's why you need multiple ships to do captures... A lot transporters and marines to beam over. While assault shuttles (see 3.5) can help get more marines over at once (4-6? per shuttle), the shuttles are quite slow and can be shot down. Using assault shuttles on armed targets moving at speed is a waste of resources. They may work against planets. Stop beaming over marines when you enjoy a 15-25% 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 more when you know you'll win. You'll just win faster, and those extras you beamed over must be replaced. . Small units like shuttles and fighters, PFs, and so on cannot be captured. Monsters cannot be boarded. Boarding may not work in Dynaverse against a ship controlled by a real human player. Against AI ships it seem to work fine. 3.5 WEAPONS The weapons panel is used to assign weapon groups, but you can also assign weapon groups directly by using the ship system display with hotkeys, 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, mostly rear arcs. Used in point- defense. 3) Heavy weapons group 4) Any auxiliary weapons (drones, etc.) Assign the groups as YOU see fit. You can change group settings here or use the hotkeys directly, so change them when you need to. 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. 3.6 COMMUNICATIONS This panel is virtually useless tactically except in special missions. Some special missions may allow you to control certain other units by issuing commands here. You need to target the specific ship and select the proper commands. You may also be able to hail other ships from here in certain special missions. 3.7 DEFENSE You can 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). 3.8 TACTICAL MAP In general, it's best to set lowest zoom (widest view), and zoom in when needed. You can see the heading of the individual ships. The contacts are also color-coded with each race a unique color. 3.9 FLEET CONTROL See your manual for fleet control explanations, about the different formations, "postures" (attack, capture, defend, tractor), order intensity settings (loose, medium, tight), and weapon control settings (off, regular, overload, special, stealth). In general, I set order intensity to medium to make sure all ships are targeting the ship I want except in free-for-alls, and weapon control is set to default. 3.10 ENERGY MANAGEMENT Usually I don't adjust this. See your manual for explanations. 3.11 PREFERENCES See your manual for preferences panel explanations. 4 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. 4.1 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, and up. You can reinforce any or all of the shields with any excess energy you got. Each pt you use in reinforcement on a specific shield will cancel one pt of damage applied to that shield. 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. 4.2 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. An active wild weasel (sensor decoy) produces ECM as well (until it is destroyed). ECCM creates "offensive shift" the same way. Enemy can use ECCM to counter your ECM, just as you can use ECCM to counter his ECM. 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. 4.3 TRANSPORTERS Transporters send things out or bring things in. Transporters have 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 use altogether). See your command reference on how to designate T- bomb targets. Also see 4.10 for more information on mines in general. In general, the AI ships under your control seem to be very good at placing T-bombs. Usually they place it so the enemy ship runs right over it with no chance to dodge, and they can do this several bombs in a row. 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, and get away. 4.4 TRACTORS Short for tractor beams, these are the force beam emitters that can exert both push and pull forces. Tractor beams have an even shorter range, at 2.49. Tractor beam can be set to either pull or repel. Tractor beams can be charged to six different force levels. The higher the level, the longer it takes to "charge", but the more likely it'll hold an enemy ship for a longer period (until he charges his own tractor to repel, see below). Tractor beams can keep annoying things from you (things like drones) in point-defense mode. Tractors can keep stuff close to you (like enemy ships) in "pull" mode. Tractors can also keep other ships from tractoring you when set to "repel" mode. While in repel mode, the tractor will repel all attempts to tractor up to the force strength it is set to. For example, if you have your tractor set to repel at strength 3, enemy tractors set to strength 2 will not be able to tractor you, but enemy tractors set to strength 4 can. 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. However, DO NOT do this to human-commanded ships while online. It is VERY annoying and is considered VERY BAD MANNERS. Same goes for tractoring the human-commanded ship and pushing him off the map. Against AI, then "who cares". Tractor beam do NOT work on shuttles. 4.5 SHUTTLES 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) is 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. 4.5.1 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: * Exceeding a speed of 4. * Activating fire control (firing weapons). * Operating transporters. * Launching a probe. * 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. After all, you don't know if that enemy torpedo coming at you is a real one or a pseudo, and if you launch a weasel, you'll never know. He may still have that torpedo charged and ready to shoot... 4.5.2 Assault Shuttle An assault shuttle carries a team of marines to board enemy ship. However, assault shuttle is slow and vulnerable to enemy weapons. It is not that useful. Assault shuttle may be useful against undefended planets. 4.5.3 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. Then you've wasted all that time used to arm it, the shuttle, AND the drones. 4.5.4 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 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. 4.5.5 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 just a single ph-3. 4.5.6 Fighters While fighters in general refer to fighter-shuttles, in SFC2 it can also refer to PFs (fast patrol ships, a.k.a. gunboats, a.k.a. pseudo-fighters) 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 carried externally on "PF tenders", though some heavy ships carry PFs externally 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 fighting a small carrier like a FFV, DDV, or CLV, blow up the carrier first so you don't have to deal with the individual fighters and PFs. 5 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% more energy to load, cause 50% more damage, and have a max range of 8. Knowing how a weapon affects your power curve can be very useful. [Previously reported tip about FASTLOAD was a bug that has been since fixed.] 5.1 PHASER Phaser, the directed energy weapon, is the most popular weapon. 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-1 is the most energy-efficient direct-fire weapon. It causes the MOST damage per pt of energy allocated. Effective range is about 5. Ph-2 is considered the poor cousin of ph-1, as it has same energy use, but less range and damage. Effective range is about 4. Ph-3 is a defensive weapon only, with effective range of 1. However, a pair of these (same power use as ph-1) do more damage than ph-1 at point-blank range. Ph-4's can only be mounted on a base, though some monsters may have equivalent weapons. Effective range is 10-15, which is quite far. Only Hydrans and Federation use ph-Gs. Hydrans have it on every ship while Feds have it on certain special escort ships. Ph-G takes same energy as ph-1, but fires FOUR TIMES with beam strength similar to ph-3. This means it delivers a lot more damage in point-blank. Phasers cannot be overloaded. You should split your phasers in 2 groups and do NOT fire all phasers at alpha strike. Keeping some unfired phasers is a very good idea to deal with any emergencies, like a scatter-pack you didn't notice, and so on. Scan his ship (use a probe if necessary) and calculate how many phasers should you reserve for point-defense. If they don't use seeking weapons (Lyrans, for example), don't allocate any. Your ship will automatically perform point-defense (like mini- Aegis) so just leave the phasers (preferably 360 or rear arc) and the computer will shoot them for you. 5.2 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 envelops 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". If hellbore's flight path intersects an ESG, it ALWAYS hits the ESG. Hellbore can be overloaded. 5.3 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 burns out the firing weapon (it can be repaired, of course). 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. Suicide overload should be used if you need to bring a QUICK end to the battle. If you are at point-blank range, slow (i.e. plenty of power), then by all means go for it. 5.4 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. ESG cannot be overloaded. ESG is very useful against cloaked ships, as ESG just "sweeps" a section of space. 5.5 DISRUPTOR Disruptor is a very standard direct-fire heavy weapon used by Klingons, Lyrans, and Mirak. Some monsters also use disruptor equivalents. Disruptor takes half the time of photons to load, takes half the energy overall, causes half the damage. It has low "crunch power", so you'll need to fire more shots at the same shield to do the same amount of damage, making it a "finesse" weapon. Disruptors generally have better weapon arcs than other weapons. Look at your ship carefully and note your firing arcs, and exploit them. Most disruptor-using races have secondary weapons. Klingons and Miraks have drones, while Lyrans have ESG. Use them. Disruptors generally have good range unless you're in one of those small disruptor-armed units with those weak disruptor-1's. If you can shoot enemy at long range, do so. By the time you close range you've already recharged. As overload disruptors still don't do much damage, you must be careful on when to employ it. Consider using oblique pass to reach JUST inside range 8 to shoot, then get out of range again. If he withholds his shots, you won't be damaged. If he fires any way, he'll hit a non-critical rear-side shield. Maneuver with disruptors means looking one turn ahead. You want to be in position to deliver your NEXT attack when your weapons can fire again. This is more difficult than you think as the longer-cycle-weapons give you more time to move away then move back in. Look at his speed and plot accordingly. If you go too fast, you'll cruise into overload range or out of arc. If you go too slow, you gave up the initiative to the enemy ship and your weapons will invariably be out of arc. 5.6 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. It also causes the SAME amount of damage at any range (if it hits). Photon does some of the highest damage among direct-fire weapons at point-blank range. Photons have 3 modes: regular, overload, and proximity. 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. Photon is vulnerable to ECM, esp at long and medium ranges. 5.7 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. This also has the range 8 limitation, so this can be very tricky to get all 6 pulses off before you get into the myopic zone. One possibility is to arrange a different ship to tractor the target in the "deadweight" maneuver. Another is to slow or use EmerDecel. You can also underload the PPD, which makes it send LESS pulses (with less power). 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.) 5.8 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 and does twice the damage). You cannot mix types on a ship. A ship must carry one or the other type. For example, let's say you have one drone launcher of capacity 6. With one set in the magazine and four sets of reloads, that's 30 Type I drones. If you choose Type IV drones, you only get 15. Each type of drone comes in 3 "speeds", slow (16), medium (24), and fast (32). Slow drones are free. Medium cost some, fast cost a LOT. You can only have one speed 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. Some reload faster, some have larger capacity, and so on. You can see the manual for their explanations. 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. You can launch a drone at another drone. Target a seeking weapon chasing you, then launch a single drone at it. You can use the "target nearest seeking weapon" command to help you. 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) * Another drone (yes, you can launch a drone at another drone) * Terrain features (planets, asteroids, dust field, etc.) The tricks to use drones are mass, and timing. Mass means create a swarm... Have so many drones launched they saturate and overwhelm the target's defenses. However, having a swarm means they are vulnerable to wild weasel (sensor decoy) and T-bombs. Timing means get all the drones to arrive almost simultaneously so the target have the minimum amount of time to defend itself. The best compromise is to launch them one at a time with a small gap in between so they are NOT all vulnerable to the same T-bomb. Can't do anything about sensor decoys, but more on that later. For more drone and counter-drone tactics, see 11.3 and 11.4. 5.9 PLASMA TORPEDO Plasma torpedoes are seeking weapons. It is basically a blob of plasma enveloped in a force field inside a warp field. The Romulans and Gorns are the primary plasma users, as well as ISC. Feds operate some plasma-equipped ships as well. The plasma torpedoes "dissipate" as it travels. They are very powerful up-close, but become less powerful as they travel. The plasma torpedo can also be further dissipated by phaser fire. Plasma torpedo moves at speed 34, like "fast" drones. 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 and defense turrets. The ISC rear F-type torpedoes are called type-I. The plasma torpedo takes a VERY long time to charge (3 times the 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 slightly reduced strength). When you "overload" a plasma torpedo, it goes into enveloping mode. 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 plasma torpedo launcher 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? You can "download" a plasma torpedo by charging a size that is smaller than the launcher can hold. For example, if you have an S- type launcher, you can charge G- or F- type torpedoes at a reduced energy rate. For more plasma and counter-plasma tactics, please see 11.1 and 11.2. 5.10 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 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...) Mines are also good to rid yourself a bunch of drones chasing you. The AI uses mines pretty effectively, but you seem to need to "take the lead". Sometimes they use it, at other times they don't. Drop mine just before overrun is a good start. Beam bombs into enemy ship's path is also good idea but has greater risk. T-bombs is a trade-off between risk (dropping one of your shields) and profit (damage enemy AFTER all your weapons have fired). If you can minimize the risk (i.e. you know dropping the shield won't do you much damage as enemies have spent most of his weapons) and maximize profit (i.e. do damage to the enemy) by all means take it. T-bombs are devastating against fighters. One nicely place t-bomb will damage a whole group of fighters. On the other hand, most fighters move a bit fast for T-bomb targeting. You obviously need available transporters to use the T-bomb. If you have a lot of H&R raids in the queue you may not have enough transporters to use the t-bomb. Best time to use the T-bomb is when you already HAVE a downed shield, courtesy of the enemy. Do it right after the overload exchange. T-bombs are the foundation of the "flash-bulb" anti-cloak tactic (see 11.8.1). Best part, the receiver can't do anything about it. Use mines and T-bombs to encourage the enemy to turn a certain way that is more advantageous to you. The enemy's instinct to avoid the T-bomb may cause them to reveal a down shield to your weapons. Klingons LOVE T-bombs as they have plenty of transporters to use them. 5.11 NOTE ON OVERLOADS Overload is the ability to push a weapon to do more damage than it's designed to do. The price you pay for 50% more damage is 100% more energy use, and range limit of 8. Some weapons also have point-blank "feedback" damage. Why overload? When you need to do MORE damage than what you normally do. You always want to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, subject to tactical situations. If you are going to fire close any way, there's no reason why you would not want to overload. Overload's primary drawback is the limited range. If you cannot get into overload weapon range, then the energy you used for overload would have been for nothing. If you have to turn the overload back into a normal load, that time spent recharging the weapons will leave you without weapons except phasers. The large power requirement for overload will severely reduce your speed. Phasers, as noted before, are far more efficient. If you are short on power to start with, you may want to stick with regular loads. While you CAN overload SOME weapons and not others, it's a poor compromise. 6 Introduction to SFC2 tactics Every action you do in SFC has a "price". It can be energy, availability, and so on. The decision you need to make is how to get the most benefit out of that price you pay. The old adage "apply your strengths to his weaknesses" is the heart of SFC2 tactics. Or as American Civil War General 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. We will also discuss the difference between passive vs. aggressive play styles, and how to counter each type in general terms. 6.1 THE PRICE VS. THE PAYBACK Everything you do in SFC has a price. If you fire a weapon, you can't use it until the weapon has been charged again. If you don't fire, you won't do any damage. If you overload the weapons, you may not have the speed to get into overload range. If you don't, you may not penetrate the enemy shields. If you fire a drone or use a shuttle, it's taken out of your inventory and thus is not available any more. If you don't use them, you don't get their benefits. Increasing speed decreases power available to other systems. Decreasing speed gives up initiative to the enemy and may worsen your "turn mode". The trick is to make the MOST of them by knowing what are the prices vs. the benefits, and use proper timing and circumstances to get maximum effectiveness out of them. The new players seem to fall into 2 camps... Either they are TOO aggressive (they pay the price at the wrong time for little or no payback), or waited TOO LONG for that "perfect shot" (waiting for that big payback). The proper balance lies between those two extremes. 6.2 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? Are you moving fast enough so you can turn in time? If not, do you have enough energy for an HET? Knowing your power curve would help a lot here, as you need to estimate your speed, the enemy speed, and plan your engagement range and which weapons to arm and fire. 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. 6.3 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). Yet when you go very slow, you also turn very slow. Each ship has a "corner speed", where it turns the fastest. Find it, and exploit it. 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. 6.4 WEAPON ARCS (Summarized and adapted from article by Felix Hack, originally appeared in SFB Tactics Manual) Maneuver and firing arcs are closely related. Maneuver is used to get the weapons into range with the enemy in the arc. The arc then dictates what maneuvers are needed and can be expected. Most ships can be divided into two categories: forward-centerline firepower, and FA arc firepower. The ships with forward-centerline firepower must point the ship directly at the enemy ship to bring maximum amount of firepower to bear. For example, Gorn ships and Hydran ships with split "left/right" arcs are forward-centerline ships as you need to fly them center-line to enemy to get all heavy weapons to bear. I'll abbreviate these as FC ships. The FA firepower ships can deliver all the firepower roughly through the entire FA arc. Most Fed, Klingon, Romulan, and ISC ships are FA ships. The FC ships need to face the enemy to get maximum firepower to bear, so the best way to fight such ships is to go to the sides or even to the rear. If you do that you instantly halved their firepower. On the other hand, the FC ships can choose to fire half of their weapons, then turn and fire the other half. The FA ships can use the "oblique pass" (see 8.1.2), which gives them more options to maneuver. Plasma torpedo users often have pretty wide weapon arcs, and thus should be exploited. Remember that an HET can be used as a surprise to suddenly bypass any maneuver and firing arc restrictions. 6.5 TIMING 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. In general, you want your weapons pointed at the enemy when the weapon is ready to fire, with no idle moments. Of course, this is not always possible. You may be waiting for a down shield to come around so you can do more damage. Just beware of all these considerations. This mainly comes from situation awareness and preparation. It requires a bit of tactical finesse and experience, so keep playing and keep learning. 6.6 PASSIVE VS. AGGRESIVE PLAY STYLE To paint broad strokes, there are two types of play styles: aggressive, and passive. Aggressive players come after you, while passive players wait for you to go after them and will try to keep their distance. A player can be both depending on their "phase". Most players are aggressive when they have their weapons charged and "passive" when their weapons are charging. Direct-weapon users tend to be aggressive, esp. those with close- range weapons, like Hydrans (fusion beam) and Lyrans (ESG). They have to as they need to get close to you. Those with heavy weapons in FA arc need to be aggressive, as they need to point the weapons at you to do damage. This is esp. true for those forward-centerline firepower ships. Ships with low crunch power tend to be passive, esp. fighting high crunch power ships. Drone-users tend to be passive, as they need time to build-up a "swarm" of drones. Drones are 360 free-fire so they can be launched as pursuers. Drone users prefer to be chased as they hold the "positional advantage". They shoot drones "downstream" while your seeking weapons have to travel "upstream". However, some drone users, using plasma-style tactics, can be aggressive. Plasma users can be both passive and aggressive. Gorn, with their "anchor" tactic (see 8.3.1), can be aggressive in their charge, but passive during their recharge cycle. It's same with Romulans. To fight aggressive style players, you need to take out their FRONT shields. This will force them to expose their down shields in order to hit you. To fight passive style players, you need to take out their REAR shield. This will force them to turn their shield 3 or 5 (rear side) shields toward you, thus allowing you to get closer. 6.7 "USE YOUR TRACTORS, DAMMIT!" In SFB lore, this slogan was in a plague right above the door to the starship combat simulator in the Federation Starfleet Academy. What it REALLY means is you should use ALL your ship's systems. A captain who is aware of ALL his ship's capabilities and can use them at the right time has advantage over the captain who is not. For example, how many people use the probe at all? Yet using it can mean the difference between knowing what you are fighting ahead of time vs. when you get close enough to do H&R raids. Tractors can be used to hold the ship AWAY from point-blank range. Many weapons do the most damage at range 0, and a tractor will ensure they stay at range 2.5. You can then rotate the tractor to the rear and then release the enemy in your wake. Tractors are also excellent drone defense, and foundation of the "anchor" maneuver. Transporters can be used to beam up or down items, transport marines for raids or captures, even beam out t-bombs to damage enemy ships. Learn and use ALL of your ship's systems. 6.8 "SPEED IS LIFE" This is actually the motto of the Israeli Air Force, but borrowed for the SFB. In order to power non-movement systems, you need to divert power from the movement systems. But if you do it too much, you can't maneuver. Victory is a careful balancing act. Use your speed (or lack of) for a purpose. Again, knowing your power curve would be really useful here. 6.9 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS 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 fighter combat or aerial 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, or trying to get away from an enemy ship only to smack right into a planet. 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. 6.10 MIZIA CONCEPT Mizia Concept was very simple: instead of firing a single massive volley of all weapons, beat down that shield, then fire several smaller volleys. Why is this better? Because multiple smaller hits damage more weapons, whereas single overwhelming volley damages power and hull. What's better... There really is no "defense" against this attack. It is a bit difficult to execute, but quite useful. Trivia: Mizia Concept was named after Walter Mizia, veteran SFB player, who observed this trend in the damage allocation rules and came up with a way to exploit them. 7 Combat Checklists and some more tips 7.1 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) 7.2 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 necessary) * 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, oblique 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 7.3 CAPTURE CHECKLIST Here is a list of items you should check before attempting to capture an enemy unit * Check all available marines on YOUR ships (AI friendly ships do NOT assist in captures. They often RUIN your captures by blowing up that ship with your marines onboard) * Count total number of transporters available on YOUR ships * Check enemy marines on target in the "capture" panel. * Calculate approximate marines usage. Marine usage is dependent on the number of transporters you have available and how fast can you send over reinforcements. The rule of thumb is Usage = 1.5 * (enemy_marines ) * (enemy_marines / your_transporters ) For example, if the enemy has 10 marines, you have only 5 transporters available, expect to use about 30 marines to capture the enemy ship. (1.5 * 10 * 10 / 5) = 30 However, if the enemy has 10 marines, and you have 10 transporters available, then you can expect to use only 15 marines to capture the enemy ship. (1.5 * 10 * 1 = 15) * If you have enough marines to do it, then continue. Otherwise, destroy the enemy ship and don't bother. * Confirm all your ships set to medium order intensity and capture mode. Also set all ships to "inline" formation with you in the lead. (This is to make sure they try to capture the same ship instead of wandering the map with "no target" and they would go through the same shield you do in a single "burst") * Make your pass, use just enough weapons to beat down a shield, and beam on your marines. Fire weapons in single shots. As the other ships see the down shield they should beam their marines also. Then repeat sending in marines if necessary. 7.4 CALCULATING YOUR ODDS 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. If the enemy uses plasma torpedoes or drones, add 1. (To account for crunch power) 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. 7.5 LEARN THOSE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS! Almost EVERY command in SFC2 has a keyboard shortcut. You should learn them by heart, or at least copy the quick reference card. They allow you to give orders much faster than going through the mouse-clicks alone. 7.6 PLAY AT A SLOWER GAME SPEED IF YOU WANT If you play alone, you can go as low as game speed 1. However, such a game would be really slow. Default speed of 7 is actually quite fast. You may want to consider 4 or 5 first, then increase speed when you understand the battle a bit more, then speed up or slow down as needed. 7.7 A NOTE ON TERRAIN There aren't that many terrains in SFC, just empty space, asteroids, dust field, pulsar, black hole, and nebula (and some planets). Asteroids are navigational hazards. If you have a heavy ship and have plenty of tractor power, consider pushing enemy ships into asteroids. Lyrans hate asteroids and dust fields as it wears down their ESGs. Dust fields forces you to slow down and apply reinforcement to front shields, reducing available power. Pulsar and black hole only rarely appear in a scenario, and never in the regular ones. Nebula makes everybody have equal shields, and seeking weapons nearly useless. Still, if you fire them close enough some may still survive long enough to hit. The reduced shield strengths mean there will be a lot of internal damage scored. Smaller ships may have the advantage here as they mount more weapons. Minefield can be considered "artificial terrain", but that's a separate topic altogether. 7.8 A QUOTE TO DWELL ON "The only valid test is combat; the only valid result is victory" -- Adm. Steven V. Cole, designer of Star Fleet Battles In other words, no matter how fancy of a tactic we can explain to you, it is up to you to put it into action. You can dream up fancy tactics on paper, but until you test them in combat, you would never know if they work or not. Trivia: this quote was originally attributed to Ardak Kumerian, a Klingon Admiral, who's S.V. Cole's alter ego in SFB. 8 Offensive Maneuvers You need to know some of the common maneuvers that are performed... 8.1 SIMPLE MANEUVERS These maneuvers don't require any special devices or any specific setup, and does not involve HETs. 8.1.1 Overrun Overrun is simple: point the nose at the enemy, shoot at point- blank, and fly right over the other ship. Overrun is best done by ships with maximum point-blank firepower, esp. those with forward centerline firepower. Hydrans are good candidates. 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". 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, erratic maneuvers, max ECM. Enemy fire would be ineffective. Then at point blank, stop the EM and deliver a devastating alpha strike at point-blank range. The Feds can do the same with a photon salvo at point-blank range. Plasma using races can do the same by firing plasma so close the enemy has no chance to launch a weasel. The "charge" doesn't work against people who know how to maneuver and avoid the charge. Those who use "saber dance" maneuvers can avoid the charge easily. The "charge" also usually causes severe damage on the front shield, leaving you vulnerable to later attacks. Higher speed and maneuverability can counter overrun. Then it turns into a battle pass or pursuit. 8.1.2 Oblique pass Oblique 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. Then you can decide if you want to turn away, or turn in to attack. Ships with FA firepower are best candidates to use oblique pass. They can deliver the same firepower throughout their FA arc. This is sometimes called a "battle pass", and it can be quickly converted to overrun or battle run, or even pursuit. The oblique 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. The chasee can launch drones, drop T-bombs, etc. to attack, but cannot use primary weapons. The chaser has primary weapons in arc but can't really use seeking weapons as he's a positional disadvantage. If the Klingon turns in, this maneuver is called "the Klingon Hook" as the superior maneuverability of Klingon ships makes this easier. If both sides turn out, it's time to disengage. Oblique pass may not be good if your ship has firing arcs that emphasize firepower to the sides. Oblique pass can halve your firepower, though you can always maneuver after you fire half of your weapons. Beware of the HET following a battle pass or battle run. 8.1.3 Battle run You approach the enemy pointing just off to one side of him. After you fire at the range of your choice, you turn away to expose your rear weapons at the same shields you had hit before. If you have significant number of side or rear firing weapons (like Klingon's wing phasers on the D-7's or the ISC's rear I- torps), you are good candidate for battle run. 8.1.4 The Feint A feint is basically a maneuver to get your opponent out of balance. In SFC, it's a maneuver of deception to get your enemy to commit to countering one of your moves when you really intend something else. For example, the HET reversal below [8.2.3] is a feint. He countered your battle run with pursuit, so you suddenly turn it into an overrun instead. There are many ways to do "feints". For enemies who seem to have an answer for everything, a feint can do wonders. 8.1.5 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. 8.1.6 The Starcastle This tactic can be effective against races that have low "peak output" and prefer to nibble you at medium range, like Klingons. This is a counter against the "saber dance" maneuver. Basically, it means go at speed 4, maximum ECM, erratic maneuver (EM), max shield reinforcements on facing shield, and wait for the enemy. At maximum jamming and EM, it's doubtful attack at range 15 will do any damage. The enemy must close in to do any damage. You can then switch to an overrun or oblique pass. This turns a maneuver battle into a knife-fight. 8.2 HIGH-ENERGY TURN, WHY AND WHEN High-energy turn gives you a sudden change in direction (payoff) in exchange for some disadvantages (power expenditure) and risk (possibility of breakdown). HET uses a significant amount of power (5 movement pts) so you have to be sure you don't need it for anything else. Ships that cannot make an HET safely ever (i.e. breakdown chance of less than 100%) should probably NOT make one, ever. A breakdown will almost kill that ship for sure. There are basically three reasons to use an HET: sudden problem, defensive turn, surprise attack 8.2.1 Sudden problem An HET can be used to get away from a sudden problem to buy some time to deal with it. Say, a scatter pack was launched in front of you and you can't turn away in time and you're out of weapons, or a plas-R coming at you. Turn away and you may get some time to deal with them. 8.2.2 Defensive HET A defensive HET is using an HET to bring a fresh shield into play, so enemy won't be able to pound a weakened or down shield. HET takes time to charge, so you have to plan this ahead of time. If you suddenly decide you need one, it would have been too late. 8.2.3 Surprise attack Generally, you want to ship to follow you, slow enough not to catch you yet too fast to weasel (except with EmerDecel). Use a feint to get the enemy to commit to a counter. Then use an HET reversal [8.3.2]. 8.3 EMERGENCY DECELERATION EmerDecel is most often used to slow the ship down so you can launch a wild weasel. This also reinforces the front shields slightly. EmerDecel does NOT conserve power. EmerDecel DOES slow you down, which may prevent you from revealing one of your down shields. EmerDecel can be used when the enemy is closing faster than expected. EmerDecel can save you from collisions. ISC ships may use EmerDecel to reduce closure rate with the target so it can get more PPD pulses off. The price of EmerDecel is speed 0, which gives the enemy the initiative. He can take the time to recharge weapons, even disengage. He can go to your rear shields and pound it. He can wait and do a Gorn anchor on you when the weasel expires. You can't do anything about it. Consider how WILL you get back to battle speed BEFORE you use EmerDecel. How do you dodge drones or plasma torps now that you've stopped? How long will it take for you to get back up to speed? Can you survive till then? 8.4 ADVANCED MANEUVERS The advanced maneuvers involve using HETs in combination of simple maneuvers. 8.4.1 The Flanking Snap Turn This is a continuation of the oblique pass if both sides simply keep going. Basically you pass down the side of the enemy so your 3 o'clock is at his 9 o'clock, or vice versa. THEN you use an HET so you can bring your weapons to bear on his side/rear shields, which are probably weaker than his front shields. To counter the flanking snap turn, keep your distance in the oblique pass. A T-bomb or two and a turn-away would help also. Then you can use an HET reversal after you've damaged his front shields. 8.4.2 The HET Reversal At the oblique approach, you turn out, the enemy turns in, and he's now chasing you, hoping to hit your weaker rear shields. You then suddenly use an HET to bring your front-weapons to bear and turn it into an overrun. To counter this, you just have to be careful. If the enemy looks like he's overloading, don't chase too close! 8.4.3 Anti-anchor If you have plenty of point-blank firepower (like Hydrans) fighting plasma or drone user who's likely to anchor (like Gorn or Mirak), consider the anti-anchor. Maneuver so the enemy is about to catch you on the side, HET ready to go, all weapons overloaded. When the enemy tractor you, HET into him and blast him. He's probably expecting you to fight his tractor and would have put a lot of power into it. You instead put the energy into shield reinforcements. Net result... Instead of losing, both ships are heavily damaged. At least you salvage a draw. You MAY even win it if you have good damage control and other sources of firepower (like fighters and so on). 8.5 SPECIAL MANEUVERS Special maneuvers use specific devices (such as tractors), weapons, and so on to exploit a specific characteristic. 8.5.1 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. 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. An anchor can be enhanced by NOT firing all your weapons in a single salvo. Instead, fire in several small salvoes to gain maximum damage from the Mizia attack [see 6.10]. An anchor combined with HET can be devastating. You shoot, you score, and you turn away in an instant without giving enemy much chance to shoot back. This requires very good timing though. Some ships should NEVER be anchored. Fusion-beam armed Hydrans can be deadly (to you) to anchor. A smaller ship should NOT attempt to tractor a larger ship unless it is going for the deadweight maneuver, and even then Anchor can be defeated by NEVER coming into tractor range. You can keep the enemy away by using some mines to "encourage" him to go somewhere else. You may even want to use an HET to turn away ASAP. Another way to defeat the anchor is to pre-charge the tractor beam to REPEL. Choose the strength you want to repel, up to 6. You can then repel all tractors charged up to that strength. Hydrans have a similar maneuver discussed in their race specific section. 8.5.2 Deadweight The "deadweight" maneuver is a maneuver used by the Mirak. The maneuver is very similar to the anchor. Basically, one lighter ship serves as the "deadweight". The lighter ship arms minimal weapons, gets in there, tractors the enemy ship, reinforces facing shield, and come to a FULL STOP. That enemy is now severely limited in its mobility. Even SLOW drones now will catch up to the enemy ship. Even better... The lighter ship fires its drones and weapons, and takes the return salvo on the reinforced shield for minimum or no damage. Now the target has no more weapons to defend itself, and are vulnerable to weapons from other ships. It can't even dump a weasel to protect itself. 8.5.3 Plasma String Sometimes called a "plasma bid", this is used by the plasma using races, mainly the Romulans. 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. He will have to dump a weasel at some point if he's slow enough. 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 should run out of shuttles before you run out of torpedoes. Plasma string can be countered by speed and distance, like the general anti-plasma tactics. 8.5.4 Drone Swarm The swarm can be a scary sight for races not armed with anti- drone weapons. Mirak is the primary drone swarm user, though any race with drones (Feds, Klingons) can do a swarm also with the right ship(s). 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 drones 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, are less vulnerable to anti- drone fire, and so on. 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. 9 Offense There are a lot of ways to do damage to the enemy 9.1 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. Everybody uses phasers in one form or another. They are all treated as "phasers" in terms of SFC even though their innards may be somewhat different. 9.2 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. Overloaded weapons also have limited range. 9.3 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. Drones also in general travel at a lower speed. Plasma torpedo never "run out" (unlike drones), but it takes a LONG time to charge (3 times as long as disruptor) and takes energy. They also dissipate over distance traveled. 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. If there are multiple targets, a plasma torpedo can be used in "shotgun" mode which shoots several smaller torpedoes against multiple targets. 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". 9.4 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). ESG is also a good defensive weapon, as it kills fighters, shuttles, and drones. 9.5 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. 9.6 MINES AND T-BOMBS Mines and T-bombs, when placed properly, can cause significant damage to enemy ships, fighters, shuttles, PFs, etc. 9.7 TRACTOR/TERRAIN One of the most satisfying ways to kill enemy ship is by pushing the enemy ship into an asteroid or a planet. This can be hard to arrange though, and is considered "bad manners" if done in a Dynaverse battle against human opponent. Terrain such as dust fields can cause damage to shields, and if shields are down, cause damage to the ship directly. Therefore, when fighting in a dust field, you may want to target the front- shield of the enemy ship(s). 9.8 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). 10 Defense How to prevent your ship from being damaged while dealing damage to the enemy ships is very important. After all, this quote said it best. "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." --- General George S. Patton, US Army 10.1 "SPEED IS LIFE" Speed, when your ship is heading in the proper direction, gives you more time to deal with the incoming threats. You can run until the plasma torp run out of juice. You can run until the drones run out of juice. You can run to keep enemy out of overload range so he can't hit you if his weapons are overloaded. NONE of this can happen if you do NOT have speed! 10.2 USE EW! Electronic warfare, at long to medium range, is more efficient in reducing damage than shield reinforcements. With max ECM and EM, you should rarely if ever take damage at medium range. 10.3 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. So if a shield has been busted, there's no point in reinforcing it. 10.4 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! 10.5 "USE YOUR TRACTORS! DAMMIT!" 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. 10.6 LEAVE SOME PHASERS FOR 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. 10.7 AVOID THE ENEMY'S WEAPON ARCS If you know the enemy's weapon arcs you know which sides of the enemy ship to avoid. Few enemy ships can fire into the hex directly behind the ship. 10.8 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! You need to be close, or use a probe. 10.9 WATCH THE RANGE! If the enemy is going fast, he is probably not 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. Stay away from plasma users as they need to be close to do significant damage. 11 Tactics and Counter-Tactics Here, we discuss some common questions on how to use plasma weapons, and drones, and how to counter each. 11.1 PLASMA TACTICS First, let us discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a plasma torpedo. Remember, deception and confusion are primary tactics for plasma torpedoes. 11.1.1 Plasma Strengths Plasma torpedoes deliver a LOT of damage in a compact package. Plasma torpedo has some of the highest crunch power available. Plasma weapons are seeking. As long as the launcher is in arc you can shoot and maneuver away. Plasma torpedoes are fast (speed 36). [NOT 32 as previously reported] Plasma torpedoes are flexible: you can regular, download, envelope, or shotgun. Plasma torpedo can be fired (for a limited time) AFTER the weapon has been destroyed Enveloping plasma torp is essentially the ONLY overloaded weapon without the 8-hex limit. 11.1.2 Plasma Weaknesses Plasma takes a LONG time to charge (3 times the period needed by disruptors). Plasma takes a lot of energy to charge. Plasma, as a seeking weapon, give the target a choice on which shield to expose. Plasma dissipates as it travels, losing its punch. Plasma can be further dissipated by phaser fire Plasma can be distracted by a wild weasel (i.e. sensor decoy) Plasma launchers are NOT 360 degrees. (Some Gorn launchers have wider arcs) 11.1.3 Dealing with recharge period To counter the long recharge period, do NOT fire ALL of the your torpedoes at once. Fire them one at a time. (This is the foundation of the "plasma string" tactic, see 8.3.2). By staggering the reload cycle you also minimize the energy problem. On the other hand, that also means you're spreading out your firepower. By spreading your firepower, enemy can choose which shield he would want to take the hit on. You risk the chance of not hitting the same shield. Downloading, by generating type-F plasmas in two turns in larger tubes, also helps with the long recharge period, as the expense of some crunch power. 11.1.4 Dealing with dissipation To solve the dissipation problem, you need to launch the torpedo as close to the target as possible. Launch close also prevent the enemy ship from turning a new shield. However, launching close exposes you to his counter-fire. It also reveals your charging cycle to his sensors. The foundation of the "anchor" (see 8.3.1) is on getting as close as possible. Torpedoes are great against stationary targets like bases, which can't dodge. If the enemy ship will not expose a down shield, an enveloping torpedo may be the answer. While that takes more energy, it can go through down shields, as well as damage all the other shields for later penetration. 11.1.5 Dealing with phasers You can't really do much about enemy phasers except launch several torpedoes or offer them other targets than your torpedo. Using pseudo-torps can make them waste phasers as well. 11.1.6 Dealing with weasel The "cure" for weasel is the anchor. If you tractor a target, the enemy cannot launch weasel. Of course, the trick is getting close enough to do it. On the other hand, taking a weasel isn't that bad. Most ships have very limited number of shuttles and it takes a long time to charge a weasel. Once he's out, he's toast. You can always just charge another torpedo. The ship that launches a weasel also loses the initiative and thus is quite vulnerable to anything you do. Just be prepared to take advantage of it. 11.1.7 Be unpredictable Plasma users need to be unpredictable. With so many options and combinations, you need to confuse your enemy as to your actual operating pattern. Your opponent will try to guess your reload cycle and attack while your torpedoes are recharging. How do you minimize your vulnerability during that time is critical to your survival, you do that by being unpredictable. To completely confuse enemy regarding your reload cycle, you can download to a smaller torpedo, or use a pseudo torpedo. Download charges a torpedo faster, thus taking only 2 turns or even 1 turn for a torpedo. Pseudo disguises your shots. 11.1.8 When to use Enveloping An opening salvo of enveloping torpedoes can surprise a lot of opponents. As you run away, the enveloping torpedo "sandpaper" all of your opponent's shields. Subsequent torpedoes would have much better chance to break through. In fleet action, when there's more weapons going around, some can go enveloping to confuse the enemy. 11.1.9 When to use shotgun Shotgun, with the restriction on targeting, means it's mainly a defensive weapon used when there are a LOT of targets, like PFs, frigates, fighters, and so on. 11.1.10 When to Underload Personally, I underload after the first salvo is shot. I don't like to run away (as I need the power to arm the weapons), so I prefer to underload and get the weapons up faster. 11.1.11 Keeping the enemy away during recharge period You are vulnerable during the recharge period. So keeping the enemy away during the recharge period is the key. One of the best ways to keep the enemy away is with a pseudo- torp, and that's discussed in the next section. Another possibility is a mini minefield from either T-bombs or Nuclear Space Mine (if you're a Romulan). You hide behind the mines while you reload. However, this can be very difficult to arrange, and is more of a theoretical exercise. It is difficult to put into practice. For a more practical method, try leaving T- bomb or two and hide behind them while you reload. T-bombs are also excellent drone defense when you're fighting a drone user. Your plasma torps are not vulnerable to t-bombs. Another way to keep the enemy away is with the cloaking device. Actually, it doesn't keep the enemy away, it just make you harder to hit when the enemy does get close. The problem then is getting AWAY from the enemy when you're ready to decloak. When you decloak, you're at the MOST vulnerable stage. If you have speed, you can just stay away from the enemy that way. But if you have speed, you may not have enough to recharge. 11.1.12 Deploying Pseudo-Torps In general, Pseudo-torp is used when you want to make the enemy think it's a REAL torpedo when it is not. There are three situations: you want to keep the enemy AWAY, you want the enemy to waste phasers, or you want the enemy to pop a weasel. If you want the enemy to stay away while you recharge, a pseudo can do that. However, if the enemy is careful in timing your recharge, or pays careful attention to his sensors (or use a probe), he can guess pretty well if that torpedo is real or not. A pseudo torpedo will cause the enemy to use up their phasers, hopefully on the pseudo instead of the real torpedo. As most people leave point-defense on auto, firing a pseudo first can soak up the phasers. You can force the enemy to pop a weasel if you have enough torpedoes in the air, and he doesn't know which ones are real or fake. As fighter pilots say, "honor the threat!" Your enemy must treat each torpedo as a real one if he is not sure. That is the foundation of the "plasma string" tactic (see 8.3.2). 11.2 COUNTER PLASMA TACTICS A lot of new players (newbies) have problem fighting the plasma races. The AI fires off all three plasmas... The newbie tried to maneuver. The three plasmas hit the same shield, wrecking his ship. Then the AI ship fires phasers... And the newbie blew up. Well, this section is for the newbie. Welcome to plasma avoidance 101. Please read 11.1.1 and 11.1.2 to review strengths and weaknesses of the plasma torpedo. 11.2.1 Use your speed and distance To counter plasma races, you need to keep your speed up and keep your distance from the enemy ships. By keeping the range open, you give time for the plasma to dissipate. If he waste his plasma, he will have to get away from you to recharge. You can then pound him during his recharge cycle. Of course, that's assuming you're NOT dealing with a pseudo. Changing speed can help here. Start slow, switch to fast when the enemy is likely to launch, take the hit, turn back to slow to get your weapons recharged and fired. 11.2.2 Use your sensors! If you scan the enemy ship, you can see if his torpedoes are recharging of not (if you are close enough). If you know when his torpedoes are recharging, then the torpedo in flight must be a pseudo. If you know when his torpedoes are charging, then you know when to attack! If you are NOT close enough, you can use a probe. 11.2.3 Use all your shields! You can virtually choose which shield you want to let the seeking weapon hit. While most people assume that would be the rear shields, you COULD let the torpedo hit a front shield. If the enemy ship fire torpedoes one at a time, you can take them on all different shields. If he fires all of the plasma torpedoes, he just spat away most of his firepower. After dealing with the torpedo, you can pound him during his reload cycle. (Assuming no pseudos, of course) There is also of course, the wild weasel. After those torpedoes hit, you can accelerate away and hopefully still catch the guy before he recharges. 11.2.4 Counter the pseudo You may want to allow the dissipated torpedo to hit a shield of your choice, so you can tell whether it is a pseudo or not. In SFC2 you get an infinite number of pseudos (albeit there's a long "recharge" time). So counting the pseudo doesn't help that much. Still, knowing that you got hit by a pseudo vs. a real torpedo helps if you can keep a clear count. 11.2.5 Counter the anchor To counter the anchor, don't get close to a plasma ship, and always charge repel tractors. Anchor prevents the 'weasel' defense. Speed and distance again are the critical factors here. I personally consider the weasel as a last resort, which is why I am usually NOT afraid of the anchor. 11.2.6 Against cloaking plasma users Cloak guys may actually be EASIER to kill than you think. In SFC2, the cloakers CAN be found. In fact, you can designate a cloaked ship, you just can't lock-on to it. That simply means that 1) you can only use direct-fire weapons to shoot at him and 2) you may not do much damage to him unless you're point-blank. Plasma takes energy to charge, and so does cloak. So a cloaker need to be QUITE slow to do both. That means you have PLENTY of time to fry a cloaker if you keep your speed up. While I DID say it's dangerous to get close to a plasma ship, keep in mind that a cloaker takes time to decloak. During that time, he's NOT under the protection of cloak AND he's vulnerable to weapons. If you can catch him while he's reloading under cloak, even better! You can make two to three different passes and he'll still be recharging. A point-blank alpha strike CAN still work. It may not do as much damage, but it will still damage a shield. And he can't stay "under" forever. Catch the cloaker with a drone swarm or alpha strike right as he decloak on his rear shield, and turn away to disengage. He'll have to build up speed to catch you again, if he survives the swarm. 11.2.7 Worst-case scenario: the wild weasel In general, I don't like weasels. You only have a certain number of weasels (none if you don't charge any). Using a weasel also gives up the initiative to the plasma user. However, if you are sure you can take whatever else he's got left, then wild weasel can be a good choice. Launch a weasel and let the torpedoes hit the weasel. Then accelerate away and catch the plasma user in an alpha strike. 11.3 DRONE TACTICS I prefer the term "drones" to "missiles". I started playing SFB in the 1990's and I tend to use the SFB terms. Any way, let's see what are the advantage and disadvantages of drones. [Some tips summarized from "Drone Tractics" by Alan M. Gopin from the SFB Tactics Manual] 11.3.1 Drone advantages Drones deliver a LOT of damage in a compact package. Type IV drones cause a LOT of damage, esp. if you can get a salvo to hit the same shield. Drones are seeking weapons. They are "fire-and-forget". Drones are 360-degree weapons: no firing arc restrictions Drones cost NO energy to launch Drones CAN be fast (though that cost a LOT of prestige pts) 11.3.2 Drone disadvantages There are a TON of ways to kill drones (see 11.3.7). Drones cost a lot of prestige pts if you want faster/fastest speed, and need to be replaced after every battle Drones, as seeking weapons, give the target a choice on which shield to expose. Drones can be distracted by a wild weasel Drones are subject to control channel limits Once you're out of drones, you're out, period. 11.3.3 Mass and Timing Mass means create a swarm of drones, so the target's defenses are completely overwhelmed. However, this is subject to control limits and launch rate limits. Mass also means the swarm is vulnerable to a single t-bomb, and to a lesser extent, the wild weasel (sensor decoy). Timing means you need to get all the drones to the target as simultaneously as possible to help with "mass". You need to minimize the time the target has to defend itself against the drones, and try to time the arrival so as many of the drones will hit the same shield. 11.3.4 Picking the target A slow ship can't outrun the drones, so should be an excellent drone target. Slow, of course, depends on how fast YOUR drones are. A slow ship also can't turn fast enough to present another shield, thus even MORE vulnerable. A ship that has just fired most of its phasers is a good target, as it won't be able to defend itself against more drones unless it has a LOT of tractors and AMD/ADD. You can tell that by your scanners (or a probe). A ship that is away from the rest of its fleet's defense zones is also a good target. A closer target is better than a far away target as it takes less time for the drones to hit it. A ship coming closer is better than a ship moving away. The higher closing speed means he'll have less time to defend against it. 11.3.5 Drones as defense If enemy chases you, firing back to them. Drone has 360 degree fire and thus can cover your escape. His "tail chase" also decreases his reaction time to defend against the drones fired "downstream". Drones is also a good way to defend yourself against ESG ram. Throw out enough drones out there and you can take minimal damage against ESG ram on your shields. The Lyrans under AI control don't seem to defend themselves with ESG if you're out to long range. 11.3.6 Scatter-pack Pros: dramatically increases the launch rate from 1-2 to 6 drones Cons: Uses a shuttle, pack itself is vulnerable before it "pops", can overwhelm control limit Scatter-pack can be useful if you are sure the enemy cannot kill it before it pops. If you drop one before an overrun (say, range 15) it should pop right when you meet the enemy ship. This requires good timing. Make SURE you have control channels available or you'll be wasting previously launched drones. You can launch it close to the enemy if you are SURE enemy has no weapons left to kill it. To defend against scatter-packs, try to kill one before it "pops". Else, it's standard drone defense. 11.3.7 Spread them out if you can A swarm is a concentrated target. You should spread the drones out so one t-bomb or one counter would not get all of them. You need to set the launch racks to "one missile" instead of "all missiles". Then you just need t launch multiple times with a slight gap in between. Leaving the gap in between would give the enemy a bit of a breathing room, but also makes your swarm multiple smaller targets. You need to determine what IS the optimum gap... So the salvo is still concentrated enough to be a swarm, yet separate enough so one T-bomb won't get them all. Obviously you can't control a scatter pack... 11.3.8 Mediums are the best compromise The medium speed drones are the best compromise between capability and prestige cost. The "fast" drones just cost too much, esp. if you need a LOT of reloads. You probably want Type-IV drones instead of Type-I. While get half as much Type-IV's as Type-I's, the Type-IV's, if hit, do TWICE the damage. 11.3.9 Do the anchor A Mirak anchor is just as dangerous as a Gorn anchor if you perform it correctly. A full salvo of 6 type-IV drones will severely maul a cruiser and kill lighter ships. Anchor also makes SLOW drones dangerous. You can even anchor another ship to slow it down so slow drones launched by other ships can catch up to it. This is sometimes called the "deadweight" maneuver. Combine an anchor with a scatter-pack can be completely overwhelming. Imagine this scenario... You dropped a scatter-pack before you enter weapons range. You snagged the enemy just as the scatter-pack popped, before he can pop a weasel. He shot down 1-2 and stopped another 3 via tractors. THEN you feed him a salvo from your internal launchers AND your alpha strike from your other weapons. 11.3.10 Counter-counter tactics A swarm sure look scary, but there are a LOT of ways to stop drones. To recap, here's the list: * 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) * Another drone (yes, you can launch a drone at another drone) * Terrain features (planets, asteroids, dust field, etc.) Let us discuss each of the counter and discuss how to counter that. 11.3.11 Phaser You can make the enemy use up the phaser so it is not available shoot your drones. Basically, you need to offer the enemy ship something else to shoot at, and usually, that would be yourself. Shuttles are usually too valuable to be 'spent' like this, but they are a possibility. On the other hand, you can shoot the drones to let the enemy spend the phasers on the drones instead of you. That's usually what Klingons do. 11.3.12 Tractor Beam and ADD/AMD You can't do much about tractor beams and AMDs, except with hit- and-run raids. To do that, you need to expose yourself to counter- fire. However, AMDs have a fixed number of "shots" and need to reload. If you can make the AMDs expend themselves, the firing ship will be vulnerable for a period of time while the AMD reloads. If you are slightly faster than the incoming drones, turn so the tractored drones are behind you, then turn off the tractors to leave the drones behind. Now your tractors can be used to intercept MORE incoming drones. 11.3.13 T-Bombs T-Bomb can kill a large group of drones at once. To beat that, spread your drones out by firing at slight intervals instead of one single swarm. So one T-bomb will kill only a few. 11.3.14 Wild Weasel You can't do much about the wild weasel except to note that a WW user surrenders the initiative and speed completely. The WW user also used up one of the shuttles, which is always in short supply. Once you got the initiative, don't ever give it back. You can always do the anchor, which negates the weasel. 11.3.15 ECM ECM is not an efficient way to counter drones. You can slightly reduce the damage from a drone, but minimally only. 11.3.16 ESG If you are a Lyran, ESG is a good drone defense tool. Keep the radius to a minimum for maximum stopping power. If you're fighting a Lyran, use shuttles and other things to pop the ESG before the drones hit. This is sometimes called the "FOD maneuver" (after "Foreign Object Damage", a military term used to describe misc. trash sucked into jet engines). You can counter the ESG defense by a "reverse ESG ram", which means YOU take the hit instead of the drones. You charge in just ahead of the drones so the drones would survive and hit the enemy. 11.3.17 Another drone ONE drone can kill only ONE drone. So you have to target individual drones individually. Slow the game down may help. Note that AI don't do counter-drone launches. 11.3.18 Terrain Features Enemy can fly behind objects so the drones can fly into them. However, this requires a fairly crowded map. If you have a pretty empty map, there's nothing to hide behind. 11.4 COUNTER-DRONE TACTICS In general, if you run the drone user out of drones, you would win as they lose most of their "punch". 11.4.1 DO NOT PANIC! A typical cruiser can easily stop 6 or more drones. Tractors alone can stop 3-4 drones. Phasers, ADDs, and so on can stop 2-4 more. Don't forget your shields can stop one or two easily without taking too much damage. 11.4.2 Use ALL your anti-drone weapons If you need a reminder, read 11.3.7 for the full list. Beware of all the "counter-counters" they can use. So read that section and see what THEY can do against your anti-drone weapons. You should almost ALWAYS turn on point-defense tractors and point- defense phasers unless you're flying against races that do NOT use drones. Your point-defense phasers are tractors are your PRIMARY anti-drone weapons, other than your ADD/AMD. ESG is a great drone defense weapon if you got one. Remember to raise them BEFORE the drones arrive. Set radius 0. 11.4.3 Remember COUNTER-DRONES A drone CAN hit ANOTHER drone. So USE THEM! If you have low drone launch rates fighting a fast-drone-firing enemy, one good use of the drones is hit incoming drones. 11.4.4 Keep your speed up Slow drones aren't that dangerous unless you get anchored, and the enemy must get close to you to do that. If you keep you speed up, you can keep your distance and give you time to deal with all the drones "in the air". You can run medium drones out if you just fly around the map slightly faster than they are. If you keep the speed up you have more time to deal with fast drones. 11.4.5 Find help All friendly ship will assist in drone defense. Play against the AI and you'll see other ships fire at nearby drones using ADDs, tractors, and so on as they see drone swarms aimed at one of their own units. Your friendly units will do the same, if you are near them. 11.5 FIGHTER TACTICS Using your fighters optimally is a difficult subject, as fighters don't exactly follow your commands. 11.5.1 Understanding and exploiting fighter AI The fighter has four modes: attack, harass, defend, and defend me. Attack means an all-out charge... Fire distance weapons when close enough, then close up with phasers on strafing runs. Harass means stay at mid-range if possible, constantly shooting phasers and other weapons (if available). Defend / defend me means stay close to the target / carrier and attack nearby enemy units. Attack is useful when you will be joining the attack, as the enemy must divide weapons among you and your fighters. You all go for overruns and gut the enemy in one huge alpha strike. Usually, the fighters bring down a shield and you shoot through it. You will lose many fighters, but you'll get results. Harass is useful when you just want to keep the enemy occupied while you reload. You'll lose less fighters, but they won't do as much damage. In general, it's better to let the fighters go first and you try to follow them to exploit the damage they do. You can set your ship to follow the fighters. As you can't control the fighters, only yourself, this gives you more chances to exploit any down shields. If you do the damage, the fighters may not be smart enough to shoot through the downed shield you caused. AI ships with fighters tend to just "attack" instead of harass, and thus the fighters are often lost. Replacing the fighters can be a drain on your prestige points. 11.5.2 Launch immediately, or wait until after first pass? Do you follow the fighters in, or do you go in first and the fighters follow you? Due to the lack of control over the fighters, it's probably better to follow the fighters in and take advantage of any damage they do. Which means you launch early. I'd probably make an exception for Hydran hellbore-armed fighters. For those, I'd make an initial pass to beat down an enemy shield, THEN launch them to get some damage through that down shield. 11.5.3 Load them back! One of the biggest mistakes fighter users commit is NOT recalling their fighters when they should have. After fighter exhausted their payload (heavy weapons, drones, whatever) they are left with only phasers. Their firepower is halved or less and they are more vulnerable to enemy fire as they must get close to do damage. Reload in SFC is quite fast so check if your fighters have fired their payload and recall them, then launch them again when they are reloaded! Look at them fight. If they have expended their ordnance, then recall them For their loadout, see the last section, 30 11.5.4 Convoy Raiding Carriers are GREAT raiding convoys. The fighters can be killing the ships while the carrier keeps the escort busy. Then you both run for it. 11.5.5 Note on Hydran fighters As Hydran ships tend to be a mix of hellbore vs. fusion beam, you should pick the fighters to complement your ship. If you are fusion beam only, pick hellbore armed fighters. If you have plenty of hellbores, pick some fusion beam-armed fighters. That way, you can exploit weaknesses made by the other. 11.5.6 Drone-Armed Fighters Drone armed fighters are VERY dangerous in large groups, as they can suddenly double or triple drone launch rate. Once I was flying a Mirak battle carrier (BCV) when I was fighting another cruiser (and several other ships, both friendly and enemy). I launched my squadrons and they are off. I just sent a swarm from internal launchers AND a scatter-pack toward this Lyran CA. He turned up the ESG and together with tractors, took out all the drones. I was turning away when my fighters group- launched THEIR drones at the CA... And crippled it in ONE salvo, when no less than 12 drones hit the same shield, gutting it. After another burst of phasers, the CA's toast. However, once the fighters exhaust their payload, you need to call them back and rearm them. And that takes time. A drone-armed fighter without drones is nearly useless. While it still has its phasers, and multiple fighters together CAN make a dent in your shields, a single fighter must get close to do damage, and that also means it is in range of enemy weapons, such as phasers, AMD (ADD), and even T-bombs. 11.5.7 Heavy-Weapon Armed Fighters Many heavy fighters are armed with heavy weapons (and can almost be called bombers). They usually have very short range (typical range is like 4). However, if they fire as a group the result can still be quite devastating. Hydrans should HOLD any Hellbore-armed fighters until AFTER the initial pass, after the shield damage has been done and perhaps down shields created. This will also give the ship a chance to attempt to knock out any ADDs and phasers with H&R and weapons. Hydran hellbore fighters should suffer minimal attrition as it is the only fighter capable of doing significant damage at range 8 (the only fighter weapon to reach that far). 11.5.8 PFs and INTs PFs and INTs, while more durable, are still vulnerable to heavier weapons. They also don't fly in groups like fighters and therefore are vulnerable to other weapons. They are also vulnerable to the destruction of their carrier, esp. on those light carriers like frigate PF tenders and so on. Use them and use them hard. 11.6 ANTI-FIGHTER TACTICS While fighters can be a threat, fighters are much easier to kill than the ship they are based on (except when the carriers are small, like frigate or destroyer-sized carriers). Fighters CAN be killed by all sorts of weapons, from T-bombs to drones, from phasers to ADDs. Let's examine them in roughly two classes... The fighter-shuttles, and the PF/INT. 11.6.1 Fighters Fighters fly in a group, and each group acts as a single entity. They launch together, and they shoot together. Most fighters have about 10 pts of health, which is actually not a lot. See fighter list at the end [30] for a full list on who has what, or see "ManualAdditions.doc" in your SFC2 directory. Fighters are NOT shielded, which makes them killable from ANY direction. Fighters are fast, many can move as fast as ships. Fighters are vulnerable to ALL weapons, but some do better than others. AMD/ADD do wonders on fighters, as will phasers in point-defense if you get close enough. Just set point-defense on and try to get close to the fighters. A T-bomb in the middle of a fighter group can do wonders. ESGs will go through fighters like a scythe through wheat. Drones can kill fighters easily, but most fighters have phasers to protect themselves. Still, if you can fire a few they may keep the fighters away. 11.6.2 PF / INT The PFs and INTs are big enough to get their own shields. On the other hand, those shields are paper-thin (worse than a police ship). Even a type-IV drone can kill a PF. The fighters are actually harder to kill as the groups of fighters can protect each other. PFs and INTs tend to fly alone and thus are vulnerable individually. 11.6.3 Convoy Raids For the defenders, fighters on convoy raids can be a nightmare, as you have TWO targets you need to hit, both of them can kill freighters. If the carrier is relatively small and light, and you have high crunch power, killing the carrier will take out all the fighters and PFs and such. However, if the carrier is pretty big, you may have to settle for killing fighters first. 11.7 CLOAK TACTICS 11.7.1 Underrun 11.7.2 Hit and Fade 11.8 ANTI-CLOAK TACTICS There are several ways to defeat the cloak... The idea is to convince the enemy commander that the cloak's disadvantages outweighs the advantages it provides, so he won't use it. To do that, you need to cause damage to the enemy WHILE it's under cloak. 11.8.1 Flash bulb One way to find a cloaked ship is via the "flash bulb" effect. Basically, you drop a mine near the cloaked ship, right on top of it if possible. It probably won't go off, but that's all right. THEN you somehow detonate the mine, using a drone, a shuttle, or even yourself. That explosion will cause the cloak to temporarily lose its effects, allow other ships to lock-on. At that moment, do your alpha strike and launch your seeking weapons. Ka-boom! 11.8.2 Blind Overrun 11.8.3 Plinking 11.9 FLEET TACTICS 11.9.1 Concentrate fire! Concentrate your fire on ONE target. This may be obvious, but not a lot of people seem to follow it. They let their ships run wily- nily and blame the AI when their ships got whacked. Concentrate your firepower on ONE enemy ship at a time (this usually means you need to use "medium" order intensity so they all shoot at the same target). You also need to be aware of your other ships' positions so you can hit the same shield. This may be a good time to order a different formation. 11.9.2 Exploit down shields! Once a down shield has been exploited, set ships to "column" formation and start circling the wounded enemy ship. One of your ships will get to the down shield and exploit it. 11.9.3 Use formations! Use your formation buttons! While there will be some maneuvering, the formations allow you to get your ships in the right places to exploit any openings. 11.9.4 Mutual Defense! Keep your ships together so they can help each other defend against drones, plasma, fighters, PFs, etc. Your fellow ships will use their phasers, tractors, etc. to assist each other if those enemies come in close enough. 11.9.5 Maintain fleet speed! Your ships will do their best to keep up with you, but if you go too fast, they will fall behind as they can't arm weapons AND catch up to you. This is even worse if you order them to overload weapons. So be careful there. 11.9.6 Remember capture! With multiple ships under your command, captures should be attempted whenever feasible. It yields plenty of bonus prestige (esp. larger ships). Just make sure you HAVE enough marines, and you don't accidentally blow up the ship first (or have someone else blow it up from under you). Some freighters and most Orion ships cannot be captured, but you should still get some bonus pts. Beware that when in "capture" mode, your ships will NOT use any "heavy weapons". Therefore, it is best to DISABLE ALL enemy ships first, THEN worry about capturing them. If you try to capture during the middle of a heavy battle, the other enemy ships will pound you. 12 Introduction to Single-Player Dynaverse Campaign This is an introduction to single player Dynaverse campaign. 12.1 SIGNING ON When you start a new campaign, you choose a race and enter your name. Then you get to read a lot of text while the map is initialized. When it's done, you're at the game map. You get a new frigate, and you start in the interior of your empire. Try the up and down arrow on the upper right (the two on the right edge, not the 4-point star). That zooms in and out the map. At the lowest zoom, you can see most of the map. At the highest zoom, you can see other ships in the neighboring hexes. 12.2 LOOK AROUND AND MOVE AROUND THE MAP The left menu has six commands: map, news, mission, supplies, shipyard, and medals. Please note the upper left corner, where you see your rank, your ship, and your prestige points. Your prestige points act as your "currency" in the Dynaverse. You need them to get supplies, new ships, and so on. The only way you earn them is to do well on the missions. At [map], you can get information on each hex by right-click on the hex. You'll get information on the hex, even hexes not belonging to your empire. The numbers don't mean that much, really. The [news] button shows a screen that doesn't say that much. Basically it's galaxy-wide news about how each empire is doing. The more economy an empire has, the more and better ships that empire can build and more and better ships become available in the shipyard. If there are missions available in that hex, the [mission] button is click-able. Click on it to see the mission available in that hex. Most missions are "non-essential" in that you can simply choose to not accept. Those just show an "accept" button. However, some missions are 'required' in that they show two buttons: accept and forfeit. These "essential" missions carry a forfeit penalty. You may even lose your biggest ship if you forfeit. You will NOT be able to leave the hex until you choose to accept or forfeit. If you are at a sector with friendly base or planet, you see the [supplies] and [starbase] buttons active. The [supplies] screen let you buy supplies for your ship(s) with your prestige points. The supplies available are basically shuttles (admin shuttles), fighters (if the ship is a carrier), supplies (marines, t-bombs, spare parts), and missiles (type, reloads, etc.). The [supplies] screen also allows you to trade in one of your ships, and to rename one of your existing ships. Note that trade- in price on a ship is MUCH lower than what you paid for it in the first place. The [shipyard] screen takes you to ship availability list for your empire, where you can spend your prestige points on a new ship. (Don't forget to buy supplies once you got the ship!) The [medals] screen shows your current rank insignia and your medals, if any. You win medals by completing those special missions you received. If you ever want to go back to the map, click on the [map] button again. To move into a new hex surrounded your hex, just click on it. After a short calculation, you'll move into that hex. 12.3 PICKING A MISSION AND FIGHT THE BATTLE Look in the [mission] screen and see if there's a mission. When you click [accept], on the mission, you get the briefing screen. Read the briefing text and look at the icons in the little picture. Often, that gives more warning on what the mission is like than the briefing text itself. Click on [continue] to enter the mission. For notes on what missions are easy, please see 13 You can forfeit a battle by hitting ESC and select [Forfeit Mission]. You will have to pay a penalty, of course. When you have finished the battle, you will exit back to the "map" screen. 12.4 REFIT AFTER A BATTLE Remember to repair damage (if any) and buy new supplies after each mission. You don't need the maximum on each one, but having them can be useful in certain situations. 12.5 BUYING NEW SHIPS When you have saved up enough points, it's time to buy a new ship. Buy a new ship at the shipyard screen of a type you want, then either keep or trade in your existing ship. Buy some more supplies. Now you are ready for bigger challenges! 13 Ten Tips for your Dynaverse Campaign The following tips apply in both single-player and Dynaverse campaigns. 13.1 START SMALL AND EASY Do NOT overextend. You may be tempted to switch to a bigger ride ASAP, which would be a DD. Don't do it. Save your prestige. You take a 50% loss trading in ships, so you should do it as few times as possible. You want to jump to CL or CA directly. See [4.7]. You also need medium speed drones when they become available. Slow drones are just too slow. 13.2 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. However, the reloads cost a lot of prestige points. So your progress may be slower than if you take a direct-fire race. Still, the ability to get away can be quite useful. Try to fight enemies that do NOT use drone defenses, like Romulans, Gorns, ISC, and maybe Orions. 13.3 STAY INTERIOR Stay in the interior of your empire until you have 1-2 decent large ships. 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. If you stay at the interior you are also more likely to find friendly ships about, and having friendlies in a mission is always a big help. Remember to "zoom in" to see friendlies about. Only venture out to the borders when you are ready in big ships. And even then, look for friendlies nearby. 13.4 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. See 7.4 for a quick way to calculate your odds of success. 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- 400 pt per 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. 13.5 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. 13.6 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. Some missions also have a penalty if you do really badly. 13.7 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, and so on. Instead, trade up in BIG steps like FF to CL to BC and you can save a lot of prestige points. 13.8 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! 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. 13.9 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. See 13 for specific mission advice. Don't forget to use the "zoom level" on the strategic 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. 13.10 EARN THE EXTRA PTS Every ship you capture is worth extra pts. If you have a clear superiority and a lot of transporters (multiple ships in your fleet), captures can yield extra pts. Some scenario 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). 14 Specific Mission Types Here are some hints and tips for the generic mission types. 14.1 PATROL Patrol is worth about 250 pts, depending on friendly and enemy ships in the battle. Probably the most common 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) either right away or in a minute or so. 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 regular (6?), asteroid (10?), and Enigma. You can tell which is which by looking at that little "icon map" at the mission briefing. Regular just has red vs. green triangle. Asteroid is same except for rocks dotting the map. Enigma has a "frazzled ship" icon between the green and red triangle. 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, 90% damaged. On the opposite side of the map is an enemy ship. The derelict ship may have an item you can transport off for bonus prestige. The other ship (and even your other AI 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 monster(s). There can be up to 3 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. 14.2 DEEP SPACE ENCOUNTER Deep space encounter is worth about 250, depending on enemy and friendly ships in the battle. 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. 14.3 SCOUT / DEFEND Scout is worth about 250 pts if you succeed in scanning all the ships and disengage. 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?] 14.4 SCAN / DEFEND Scan is worth only about 20 pts if you do scan only. 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 [Any one seen this mission?] 14.5 AMBUSH! / AMBUSHEE The points are almost the same as patrol, except the ambushee gets 100 pt bonus, while ambushers get 100 pt penalty (rough estimates). 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 or plasma torpedoes 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. 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). If the ambushers are so weak they are of no threat to you, then blow them away or capture them, and get a huge prestige bonus (400+ possible). 14.6 INFO RETRIEVAL / HOLDING ACTION Info Retrieval is one of the easiest 150-300 pts you can make. 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 jamming and shield reinforcements. 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. [Any one seen this mission?] 14.7 CONVOY RAID/ESCORT Convoy Raid can be worth 300 pts as a raider, 450 pts if escort. Beware that if your convoy is destroyed (or even mostly destroyed) you can LOSE pts. 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 unless you drop a T-bomb in their path. 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 battle with multiple escorts some of the freighters can get away, though usually that takes a long time. You may slow the freighters down with a tractor beam. However, some of those freighters can be decently armed. 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 or less). Repeat until all freighters 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. Second easiest is with cruisers. Cruisers have the combination of speed and firepower. Destroyers and below don't have enough "crunch power" to blow up freighters in a single pass. One way to blow up the freighters is to 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). If enemy launchers fighters, go after them first. They can kill your convoy while you are still trying to deal with the carrier. Most carriers don't have enough firepower to kill a freighter quickly any way. 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. You may be able to distract the enemy attackers by flying extremely fast (say, speed 30) and just fly near them to distract them. Combine this with yellow alert (no weapons), EM, and ECM, you may be able to "pull" the enemy raiders to you without firing a single shot and buy enough time for the convoy to get away. This is your ONLY chance if you are seriously outmatched. 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. 14.8 SHIPYARD ASSAULT/DEFENSE Shipyard Assault can be worth 300 pts as attacker, 450 pts for defender. 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. 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 shield(s). If you DO have enough marines to capture stardocks, you get extra pts. As the stardocks don't move, transporter bombs are 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. Follow friendlies and attack the same target to kill one quickly. Monsters may occasionally join shipyard assault. 14.9 STARBASE ASSAULT/DEFENSE Starbase assault can be worth 400 pts as an attacker, 300 pts if defender (?). As the attacker, you need to destroy the base. A starbase is VERY heavily armed with long-range weapons. You can't go in piece-meal or you'll be wiped out one at a time. 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 "oblique pass" on the base, reinforce facing shields, and circle the base. Start popping out the scatter-packs, try to go for ONE 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?] 14.10 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 need to. Get as many of them down there as possible in one stroke. Don't run into the planet! [Rare mission unless you attack a sector with a planet] 14.11 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) doesn't do much damage. For more details, please see Monsters section [28]. 14.12 STARBASE CONSTRUCTION This is an unusual 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. 15 Special Missions All special missions are listed here, no matter who they belong to. If any are only for a specific race it will be noted. This list is NOT complete yet. I am working on it. :-) Thanks to 3dot14/j.li for his contribution to the Mirak special missions. Visit Starfleet Universe at https://www.strategyplanet.com/sfc/, THE site for SFC stuff. 15.1 PEACE IN OUR TIMES (GALACTIC POWER) Difficulty rating: 5? This is the FIRST special mission you run into. You only get this while you own a frigate. You're being sent to transport a diplomat to Organia. Four neighboring races are asked each to send only a frigate. No shooting unless others shoot first. Q: What do I do when I get there? A: Run for the planet, beam the diplomat down when you get to transporter range (4.99). Q: Does it matter who gets there first? A: Don't believe so. Q: Then what? A: The ISC and Organian arrive, should be 1 CL and 1 DD. ISC ships demand your surrender. Hail the other 3 ships and see what they say about the situation. They should fight the ISC. Follow them in. Try to kill the CL first as it has heavier torpedoes. When you get there, you find Organia in the middle, and the 4 other frigates at the 4 compass directions. It doesn't matter who gets there first, no pts for being first, but feel free to race everybody there. When you get there, get into transporter range (5.99 or less) and beam down the diplomat (go to your transporter menu and you'll see an extra icon there). When you do that, the Organian 'vessel" arrive (a blob of light), along with 2 ISC ships, a CL and a FF. The Organian delivers a speech about how his lesson of peace has failed, and the ISC will help bring "reason". Then ISC ship demands all four of you to surrender at once. Hail the other 3 ships that came with you one at a time. (Target, then choose Comm panel, and hit the HAIL button). They should agree that they hate the ISC more than they hate each other and you. You can also hail the ISC, who will demand that you shut down and surrender. You can surrender if that makes you feel better. The ISC should start shooting when everyone ignores the surrender request. Fight's on. Blow up or capture (unlikely) the ISC ships. With 4 ships you should be able to overwhelm the ISC ships. Don't be first. Let someone else soak up those torpedoes. Keep your speed up and avoid the plasma torpedoes. Take both ISC ships out and you win. 15.2 PEACE IN OUR TIMES (ISC) Organians has asked us to go on a pacification mission. The Gorn and Romulans are not impressive. The Feds may deserve some respect, try to negotiate with them. Then kill a ship and convince the others to surrender. If not, destroy them. This is best tackled in a CL. Q: What do I do when I get there? A: After the Organian gave the speech, find the Fed frigate and offer truce. Q: The Fed frigate didn't accept the truce. What should I offer him? A: Peace. Q: The other ships won't accept truce. A: Then they are indeed the savages you've been lead to believe. Educate them. When you get there, Organia is nearby, and the 4 galactic frigates are flying around. The composition would be random. Organian should be giving a speech. When he finished, you demand all ships stand down and be boarded. Locate the Fed frigate and go to comm, then offer truce. When given a choice of "offer power" vs. "offer peace", offer peace, then peace again. The Fed frigate should disengage. You can try offering peace to the other three frigates, but they won't take it. So it's time to show them the error of their ways... Capture/destroy all of them to end the mission. 15.3 PROMISES TO KEEP (GALACTIC POWERS) Difficulty rating: 8 ISC has set a blockade on a planet with a plague outbreak. You must break the blockade, beam down medicine and personnel, and beam up wounded. However, there is a catch... ISC has placed mines all over the place, and cannot be avoided. The scientists have came up with a way to neutralize the minefield, but the neutralizer only fits on a freighter, and its range is only 15. If you get outside that limit, you go BOOM. If the freighter goes boom, you go boom. ISC has ship(s) in the system, and a defense platform. The freighter that laid the mines is also in orbit. Get detailed scan on the platform and the freighter for bonus rewards. Destroy the defense platform if you can. Q: How should I start? A: Try tractoring the freighter and let it drag you. Q: How about those police ships? A: Take them out or capture them (better). Q: I can't get close to the planet! A: Follow the almost same direction as the freighter but toward the planet, at a HIGHER speed. You need to get within range 5 to beam items down and up. You start right next to the freighter. You should immediately slap a tractor on it. In fact, set your speed to zero. Use all your power for shield reinforcements, jamming, and weapons. Then use tractor rotation to put the freighter behind you. Let it "push/drag" you to the planet. If you are in a frigate, you'll probably see 1 ISC police corvette coming for you, another corvette behind the planet and coming. Capture them if you can. They only have 2 boarding parties each. Beat down one of the shields and it should be easy. They will probably go for the freighter first so you should be okay. Use tractor rotation to keep you between them and the freighter. Remember, if the freighter goes boom, so do you! When the freighter reached the planet, it will continue to the defense platform. If you have a captured ship, this is then easy. ISC ships are immune to the minefield, so they can go anywhere. Get the medicine and personnel onboard the captured ship, go to the planet, beam down, beam up the "wounded" and "Harry Mudd", and primary mission is accomplished. If you don't have a captured ship, you have to be very careful. Increase speed to slightly exceed the freighter's speed (15) and drop off the tractor, then move close to the planet without exceeding the range 15 circle. When you've got all the beaming done, head back to the freighter and get on the tractor again. Make sure the freighter is heading to the defense platform. Target the freighter, then to go the comm panel and do "set course", then select defense platform. Now you need to scan the defense platform, but that's simple enough. Just engage deep scan, max reinforce front shield and jamming, and get in there. After you got the scan, blow it up. ISC defense platforms have 4 ph-2, 4 ph-3, and 1 or 2 plas-F. So watch out for torpedo. If you armed a scatter-pack, use it now. Also send your captured ships in. Those ISC police corvettes have plas-Fs too. After you took care of the defense platform, you need to scan the mine-laying freighter. Hail your own freighter again and have it set course for the freighter. Engage your deep scan again. The enemy freighter will attempt to move out, but you can catch up to it. After you scan it, feel free to capture it for extra points. It has 4 boarding parties, so you'll need a little help from those boarding parties you sent to those two ISC ships. After you captured the enemy freighter, the mission should end, or you can disengage by hailing your freighter and click the disengage command. You then wait until it leaves the limit of the map. 15.4 PROMISES TO KEEP (ISC) Difficulty rating: 5 The ______ is trying to break one of our micro-mine blockades around system ______. Find out how they do it and prevent them from getting through to the system. Q: What do I do when I start? A: Just wait, the enemy must come to you. Charge regular weapons (not enveloping). Arm some suicide shuttles while you're at it. Q: What do I do when I see the enemy ships? A: Scan the freighter, as suggested. Q: Then what? A: Blow it up, of course! Then watch "hand of god" take out the warships. The enemy is roughly double you. If you are a CL, the enemy would be two CL's. Though once I played I got 2 Romulan Snipes (frigates) against my CLY. When you start, you don't see any target, and the planet is directly behind you. Start forward slowly and charge weapons. Start charging your scanners when you reach range 50 of the freighter and the 2 warships. Then fly down one side of the freighter. That should explain that the freighter is generating some sort of a field that is disabling the freighters. Fortunately, the range is not that far. So get away from the two warships, then make a quick pass on the freighter, and blow it up in ONE pass (use everything, alpha strike, overload, AND T-bombs.) After that, the enemy ships wouldn't survive for another 5-10 seconds. 15.5 NO IRON BARS THE CAGE (GALACTIC POWERS) Difficulty factor: 6 The ISC has "arrested" the governor and staff of one of our colonies for resisting ISC pacification. The hostages are being shipped off to another planet. Capture the transports, destroy or capture its escorts, and destroy any ISC units you encounter. Note: depending on the race, you may be requested to destroy the freighters instead of capturing them. However, capture should yield more points. Q: Should I capture or kill the freighters? A: Go for capture. You get more points. You probably don't have enough to capture all four ships, so just destroy the escorts and capture the freighters. Q: How much time do I have? A: Do it as fast as possible, as those defense platforms can do you some harm if you get close. You start near the edge of the map. You are in this little "enclosure" of asteroids (see your tactical map). Off to your right is the planet with 2 def-sats in orbit. Start heading out and turn slightly left. After a little while, you should see two ISC ships. If you are in a frigate, those are probably 2 police ships. The enemy is probably scaled to be two ships one class smaller than your ship, along with two freighters moving at speed 7. From there on, it should be a standard fight. Kill or capture both escorts. You can use the firepower they provide, so try for capture. Then use their help to capture both freighters by beating down the shields on each and beam onboard enough to capture. Each has 4 boarding parties. One carries the "hostages" while the other contains some supplies. You don't know which is which until you capture one of them. When you have captured both, they will change course out of the system. If they have gotten close to the def-sats, the def-sats may fire on them or your ships. Feel free to engage, but it's not required. When the two freighters leave the map, the mission is over. 15.6 NO IRON BARS THE CAGE (ISC) We have "arrested" some terrorists and are taking them to trial. We know there will be a rescue attempt. Defeat the rescue attempt and ensure the convoy arrives safely. You get a cruiser as reinforcement. Q: What do I do when I start? A: Follow the freighters. One is the prison ship, the other is a supply ship. Q: How many enemies would I see? A: Approximately 3 destroyers if you have a CL. Remember you get a CA as a "helper". You start next to the CA and 2 freighters, from edge of map, heading toward the planet. The freighters are only going speed 7. Charge weapons and get ahead of it slightly. You should see the 3 enemy ships soon. When the ships appear, you'll see 2 groups coming toward you, and one ship splitting off to the planet (which has 2 def sats in orbit). Your friendly CA will engage the closer group. Feel free to help him, but don't let the freighters get too far away. Remember that third ship ahead. Once you blew up or capture everybody, you got the secondary objective. When the prison ship reaches the planet the primary objective has been achieved. 15.7 THE GRIM RESOLVE (GALACTIC POWERS) Difficulty rating: 5-8 The difficulty rating depends on what ship(s) you got. If you have a cruiser or two, this is like 5. Otherwise this can be quite difficult. You have three objectives... 1) Destroy the shipyard, 2) Send down an infiltration team and retrieve info from the ISC base on the planet, and 3) destroy Captain Marinus, the ISC "ace". Some races require you the do the infiltration mission, others don't. You do get some help though. A captured ISC freighter loaded with antimatter will fly into the middle of their shipyard and be detonated. That should take out most of the stardocks. You need to destroy the rest. You will control the detonation. Q: What should I do with the freighter? A: There's only one command: detonate, so just leave it. It'll head toward the shipyard and stop when it gets close enough. Q: Where's Marinus? A: After you take out the first defending ship, he'll show up from the planet. Q: When should I blow up the freighter? A: When it's in the middle of the shipyard, of course! (use the tactical map) You start on the edge of the map. The freighter is just ahead of you and moving in. To your left should be a POLW approaching. Target the freighter and set "remember target" to one of the 4 target keys. Capture or destroy the POLW. When the POLW is disposed of, a CL (Marinus) should approach from the planet. While you approach the CL the freighter should reach the shipyard. Use the tactical map to be sure. Just remain out of range 30. When the freighter is in the middle of the mess, target it (use the hotkey) and send the detonation command. 3 of the 4 stardocks should blow up. Now take care of Marinus, then capture or destroy the remaining stardock to end the mission. 15.8 THE GRIM RESOLVE (ISC) You need to protect this shipyard. There should only be unmanned freighters around. Some enemy ships may be nearby. Be prepared for anything. Q: What do I do? A: Deep-Scan all the freighters inbound. You start near the planet. You can see this shipyard with 4 stardocks. There are 3 freighters on the scopes. Pick the closest one and set MAX SPEED to it, and deep scan it when you're in range. Then move onto the next one. Repeat. One of them should be full of anti-matter. Destroy that one. When you do that, the enemy ships show up, should be relatively light, a CL and a DD. Capture of kill them as you see fit. After you take care of them, another pair show up. Repeat until all enemy ships are destroyed. 15.9 J'ACCUSE (GALACTIC POWERS) Difficulty rating: 6-8 The difficulty rating depends on your ship size(s). If you have destroyers, you can have trouble here. If you have two cruisers, this should be a piece of cake. You have been ordered to approach an ISC planet with a ship of an opposing empire. Together, you will challenge the ISC. Destroy all ISC defenders. Recommend you save the game BEFORE this starts. Q: What do I do when my "friendly" starts attacking me? A: Do NOT fire back. Hail him and "reinforce alliance". You may need to do this more than once. Q: My "other" ship fired on the friendly and he got mad! A: When the mission starts, order weapons tight. If he already fired, it's too late. Restart the mission. Q: How do I hail Organia? There's some sort of jamming! A: Destroy the def-sats in orbit first. You start range 300 or further away from the planet and the ships. Your "friendly" is a BCH of an opposing race. As you approach, the ISC hail both of you. They claim that they have a fleet above one of your worlds. Unless you two fight each other and demonstrate your aggressive nature, a world will be destroyed. The winner's world will be spared. If you have more than one ship, make sure you are on "weapons tight" BEFORE you target the "friendly" to "reinforce alliance". If you don't, your other ship will accidentally fire on the "friendly", thus turning that into an enemy ship. That ex- friendly ship will be very annoyed and shoot you. He'll also stop and you will continue alone. This makes fight against the ISC very difficult, so don't do that. If you have hailed the friendly and the alliance is reinforced, he MAY still shoot at you later. The ISC will hail again with the threat. Just reinforce the alliance AGAIN. Take the hit and ignore it. Weapons-tight until you reach the ISC perimeter. When you get close to the ISC ships, the allied captain should say something like "I'm tired of these ISC meddlers. Let's attack!" From there on, he won't turn on you, so change tactic to fire at will, and start attacking. You'll see the planet, along with two defense platforms, and 2 DDLZs and 1 FFL and 1 FFLG. Destroy or capture all of them. Strangely, they never exceeded speed 7, so taking them is easy. One of them is an FFLG (commando frigate leader) and has a lot of marines (24 vs 6-8 on other ships). Just destroy that one. When you destroy the defense platforms, the jamming clears. Hail Organia (comm panel, target planet, select HAIL), and you'll get some dialog going. Apparently Organians have some plans, and ISC is merely a part of it. Apparently they are preparing us for some other threat... 15.10 J'ACCUSE (ISC) You must defend Organia against intruders. They wish to disturb the Organians in their peaceful contemplation. Do not allow that. We have planted agents on each of the enemy ships. They will be able to perform a random sabotage. Use them wisely, as they are bound to discover the ruse soon. Protect the two defense satellite jammers in orbit at all costs. Q: What does "create dissension" do? A: The enemy ship will turn in a random direction. You start near the planet with two defense satellites. Head "west". Reinforce front shields as you are in a dust field. Consider charge enveloping torpedoes and/or suicide shuttles. You should see two enemy fleets, probably twos groups of 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, and 1 frigate each. (I got Klingons and Lyrans, who are allies?) Destroy or capture all of them. You are outnumbered, but you have the saboteurs to help. The sabotage you can do to each is random. The most useful is "sabotage shields", which drops the shields outright. Against plasma torps, it's DEVASTATING. Even better, use enveloping plasma, which causes DOUBLE damage. "Disable weapons" is not bad, as that basically gives you more time to kill it. Same with "sabotage engines". "Create dissension" is not that useful. Go after the FRONT shield of enemy ships as they need it to bull through dust clouds. Without it they need to go very slow or they'll take damage. If you get "sabotage shields", use it JUST before you launch your alpha strike. Don't forget mines, suicide shuttles, and maybe other goodies. Consider sabotage one ship's engines early on so you can spread out the formation and be able to kill one ship at a time without them ganging up on you. Consider downloading the torpedoes after you fire off the first salvo so you can get more firepower out there faster. Capture is an option if you have done enough damage to the defending ships. 15.11 DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY (GALACTIC POWERS) Three other races have sent delegations to a peace conference on a starbase on how to deal with the ISC... Except an ISC sabotage team got there first. All three ships have been disabled, and the Starbase weapons are not working either. You have an engineering team and a rescue party onboard. Use the engineering team to get the 3 ships working (one at a time), then send the rescue party onboard the starbase. Beam them back, then use the engineering team to rig self-destruct on the starbase. Destroy the base, and disengage. Q: How do I repair a friendly ship? A: Target the ship. When you reach transporter range, emergency stop, hail it to drop shields, beam engineering team over. When the team reports repair complete, order "drop shields" again, and beam them back. Q: How do I save the delegates? A: Order starbase to drop shields. Beam in the evac team (marines). When they're done, beam them back. Q: How do I rig the starbase for destruction? A: When you got the delegates, beam in the engineering team. Beam them back when they're done. Then you should get a "detonate" command when you communicate with the starbase. Q: The starbase won't detonate! A: Try multiple times. You may have to be within range 10 or less. Q: Now what? A: You can leave after you blow up the starbase and retrieved the delegates. This one is not that hard if you hurry a bit. The 3 ships are in an mirrored L-shape formation. Pick the closest one, aim at it, and go maximum speed. Start arming scatter-packs ASAP. When you get to range 10, go to Comm panel and tell the ship to drop shields. When you reach 5.99, beam the engineering team (not the marines!) onboard, and hit emergency stop. Turn the ship so you face the next ship, and set speed 5. When your ship start moving again, the repair should be done or almost. Instruct the ship to drop shields again and beam the engineering team back. Head for next ship. Repeat the same steps at the other two ships. When all three ships are done, the ISC should be arriving. There should be 4 ships, a CA, a CL, and 2 DDs. Head to the starbase, tell it to drop shields, and beam the marines onboard. When the marines say they're ready to beam back, order shields dropped again, then beam back the marines, beam in the engineering party, and wait. The 3 ships you helped repair should keep the ISC busy, but they may not last very long under the plasma torpedoes. The three cruisers will engage the ISC separately and probably be destroyed one by one. Feel free to shoot at a few targets and pop a few scatter-packs to help out, but your objective is to destroy the starbase after rescuing the delegates. When the engineering party reports ready, beam them back (drop shields again), move away a bit (range 10), target the starbase, then go to Comm and try "send destruct". It may take many attempts, but the starbase should go boom. After that, you can just disengage, or you can try killing ISC ships if you can. 15.12 DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY (ISC) The galactic powers are trying to unite against us. Our agents detonated a neutrino bomb and disabled the 3 ships and the starbase. Destroy those 3 ships, and capture the starbase, and deal with any reinforcements. Q: Should I destroy the ships or capture them? A: You are asked to DESTROY them, so show no mercy. Q: Should I destroy the ships first or go after the base first? A: I go for the ships first. The base is pretty easy if you move fast. Though you can do two ships first, then the base, then the third ship. Pretty straightforward mission... Blow up all three enemy ships (you can take one out in the first pass). Then put enough marines onboard the SB (10 marines) to capture it. Or you can take out one or two ships, capture the base, THEN take out the other two ships. If you capture the SB, you get its weapons to help out, and it has ph-4's, photons, AND a LOT of fast drones. So use it! Few ships can withstand a full salvo of fast drones. The enemy reinforcements include 3 ships, so head back to the base and use it for cover and firepower. It shouldn't take long to take out all attacking ships, esp. with the starbase's help. 15.13 INTERCEPTOR (EVERYONE EXCEPT ISC) You need to intercept a freighter. It is carrying plans relating to the ISC invasion. It uses a route no one uses... next to a black hole. Capture the freighter, obtain the data onboard, then dump the freighter into the black hole so ISC won't suspect your involvement. After that, disengage. Q: I'm taking damage by just moving! A: Dust field does that. Reinforce front shields to max to counteract the damage. Q: How do I capture the data? A: Capture the entire ship would suffice. Q: How DO I drop the freighter into the black hole? A: Tractor it, and release it as close to the black hole as you can (say, range 10 or less). You start on near the middle of the map... The freighter just entered the map to your left. This occurs on a map with a dust field all over and a blackhole in the middle of the map. You want to catch the freighter as fast as possible, so set maximum speed, and aim a bit ahead of the freighter (don't use follow, as that takes more time). Go for speed 24 to 28. Set maximum reinforcement to front shield to counteract the dust field damage. When you reach range 10, start slowing down to the same speed (he's going 12) so you can stay within transporter range. Pound down his rear shields, and beam in the marines. He has 6 marines defending, so it'll take you more than one pass unless you have 2 or more ships. When you get the ship, the ship will stop. Slap a tractor beam on the freighter. Start heading to the black hole. You should get the notice that you found the data. Increase speed to max. When the range reaches 10, disengage tractor and do max left turn and get away from the black hole (use HET if you need to). Start heading for map's edge. The freighter should go in after a little while. Exit the map, and you win! 15.14 RECLAMATION (ALL GALACTIC?) The best person to stop the ISC ground invasion is a prisoner of (something). You are being sent to retrieve the man any way you can from the (something) base. (If you're Klingon, this would be from another Klingon House. If you're the Feds, this is probably from the Orions, and so on.) Q: What do I do with the listening post? A: Try DeepScan it, and follow the suggestions. Q: What about the code? A: Send it at range 50 or so. If you get too close, it's useless. Q: How do I get the base? I keep getting blasted by those ph-4s! A: You need 2 or more ships and assault shuttles. When you get close enough, open fire to bring down a shield and capture the base quickly. Q: What about the patrols? A: You can ignore them or capture them. It's up to you. If they "stand down", don't shoot them or they'll start back up again. When you start, there's a "listening post" near you. The base station is about 135 beyond the listening post. There would be 2 or 3 VERY light ships around, depending on your fleet size. If you have 1 CA /1 CL, the enemy fleet is 3 FF. If you have 1 CA, enemy fleet is 2 POL. Go to the listening post and do a deep scan. Your science officer would suggest you beam a science team onboard. Use the transporter to do so. After a while, you'll get reports of random messages... About drunken officer thrown into brig, someone being bored, Romulan ale ordered, etc. Eventually, you'll get the access code to the station. Now take your fleet and approach the station, set to weapons- tight. Send the code at about range 50. The station will NOT fire heavy weapons on you, but it WILL defend itself against scatter- packs and such if you launch it too close. So start popping scatter packs at range 15. Reinforce front shields to max. When you get close enough, order all ships to capture, all ships fire to beat down a shield, then rush in there to plant enough boarding parties to take over the station. There are only 12 defenders, so you can do it in ONE pass if you have enough ships. The base should be screaming "traitor!" and starting to fire on your ships. Start rotating shields so those phaser-4s don't kill any one. The station should be yours in a little while if you've planted enough marines. The defending ships should be attacking, but you should get a message from the 'legend' that he can do something about it. So hail the defending ships, they'll cease fire, and you win! With the 100 bonus for using the listening post, you can get up to 550 on this mission. The alternative way: stay away from the base station, and capture as many of the defenders as you can. Then group them all together, repair all items, arm scatter packs, and then ALL charge for capture. With multiple ships you should be able to capture the station. You get slightly less points this way, and there is a danger of blowing up the station before you capture it. However, the pts from capturing all those defenders helps a little. 15.15 BLEEDING THE APES (ALL GALACTIC?) You need to prevent ISC reinforcements to the ground battle. Except this is NOT a convoy... This is a fleet. Q: Which are the invasion ships? A: There will be 2 CLGs (light commando cruiser) moving at speed 20, in addition to any escorts. When you start, the planet is in front of you, and to the right is the fleet. There will be 2 CLGs, which are the invasion ships. The invasion ships will have other ships as escorts. The exact composition will be identical to your fleet. If you have 1 CA/2 CL, the enemy will have the 1 CA and 2 CL. If you have 2 CA, the enemy fleet will have 2 CA as escorts. If you bring a DN, they will have a DN as well. To reduce confusion, do NOT bring any war destroyers or light cruisers. That way you know any CLs you see need to be destroyed. The invasion ships are easy to spot... they move at speed 20, and does NOT head toward you. They also have only phasers/PL-Fs and a TON of boarding parties (30+). The invasion ships will peel off if you attack them. So just do close passes and they won't go toward the planet. Try to get AROUND the escorts so the escorts can't protect the invasion ships. Try to separate the two CLGs and kill each one separately. When playing as the Klingons, I can't win this one with cruisers. I ran around a bit, finished enough missions so I was able to trade up to a C8K with fast type-IV drones (there are 6 type B launchers on a C8K). I armed all the scatter-packs, and damaged the ISC DN so it can't chase me. Then I used my 6-missile launchers to destroy both CLGs after softening their shields with my other weapons. Then I used the scatter-packs on the DN. 15.16 BATTLE AT THE GRAVE OF THOUGHTS (GALACTIC) The offensive against the ISC has begun. You will lead the attack against one of the ISC "reeducation camps", which are 3 base stations. Capture each one, call in a transport for each, which will take off the prisoners. You will get 2 other cruisers for this mission. The HQ has a relay station in the sector, which has extra marines onboard that you can use at the edge of the system. You can use the relay station to call for further assistance. You can use the relay station to request up to 8 other units. The HQ would really appreciate it if you can lure enough of the enemy ships out so you can destroy 10 of them. Q: How do I get more marines? A: Stop near that relay station and beam on some more. Do this before the last freighter leaves so you don't need to spend prestige points to replace those you used. Q: What's with that Orion relay station? A: That allows the ISC base stations to call for reinforcements. Destroy it if you don't want to see reinforcements for their side. However, you may fail the "destroy 10 ships" requirement if you destroy the Orion relay station. Q: Where do the ISC reinforcements come from? A: Through that asteroid field you see on the map. If you want to mine that corridor be my guest. Q: Can I order multiple freighters to come in? A: No. Only one will appear at one time. It must leave the map before the other will arrive. Q: The freighter arrived and is doing nothing! A: You need to target it and order it to approach the station. You start on the map edge. Right behind you is the friendly relay station. In front of you are the 3 base stations in a triangular formation (the tip pointing at you). You will probably only see the one at the tip until you get closer. Behind the station seems to be a LOT of asteroids. That's the ISC "holding zone", where their reinforcements come from. There is also an Orion relay station next to the asteroids. If the Orion listening post is destroyed, ISC can't call for any further reinforcements (which would prevent you from doing the secondary objective). Move in SLOWLY and take your time. You don't need to capture a base yet. Your AI friendlies are over-eager and they will go after the 2 CM's that come out first. They simply go after the closest target (except the base stations, those are considered "neutral"). If you don't keep them away from the enemy relay, they will probably destroy the relay and prevent you from meeting the secondary goal of destroying ten ships. Instead, you'll have to "manage" the AI by letting the AI ships get killed. Do NOT help them. Let them fight with the 2 CMs while you wait near the first base station you see. Those two CMs will try to kill the AI cruisers. Let them get killed. When they come after you, call for help and go back to your relay. Then when your help arrive, stay near your relay and wipe out the ISC. If you have two or more ships, use your marines to capture as many ships as you can. Remember, you get a LOT of replacements (30+) back at the relay station, so use them. The next ISC group should come out then and by the time your group gets there that other group should be in front of the relay. Then keep blasting. When you've got ten, you can let the AI friendlies destroy the enemy relay. Then capture a base, call in the transport, order the transport to "goto station", wait for transport to leave the map. Repeat two more times, and you win! 15.17 BATTLE AT THE GRAVE OF THOUGHTS (ISC) Difficulty rating: 8 (tough mission) You are to defend the 3 base stations against the attackers, who want to destroy the bases. If your ally ship(s) has been destroyed, reinforcements should arrive. However, you also need to destroy the enemy relay station at the edge of the sector to prevent THEM from calling in THEIR reinforcements. Q: Should I go after the relay or defend the stations? A: Defend first. Try to drive the cruisers back. Engage them as close to the relay as possible so you can "sneak" over and destroy one. You start in the middle of the bases. Head "west" immediately. You need to catch the enemy ships before they reach your first base station. Arm suicide shuttles as supplemental power. The enemy task force is comprised of 2 heavy cruisers and 2 light cruisers of a random galactic race. They go directly after your base stations, which are NOT shielded and have NO weapons. You need to slow down the enemy by shooting at them and get between them and your bases. The enemy task force stays at about speed 10- 14, so it's not that hard to get in front of them. You get a cruiser as ally. If it's destroyed, supposedly you get more reinforcements. You can't call for reinforcements directly, and mine never did arrive. They need to get their way out of the asteroids, so they are REALLY slow. If you can, destroy 3 ships and leave one damaged. THEN destroy the relay station, THEN come back and destroy the last ship. The allied cruiser SHOULD help keep that remaining enemy busy so you CAN kill the relay station. Another possibility is to tractor that last ship and DRAG it away from the stations. Capture as many as you can. You can end up with a whole FLEET of ships (10 or more). They help keep the enemy ships busy. However, your job is the PREVENT the destruction of the base stations, NOT to capture ships. As long as you save ONE you win, but saving all three is the best outcome. 15.18 DROPPING THE HAMMER (ALL GALACTIC?) You are to attack an ISC planet being used as a forward base. This should draw out the fleet. Destroy it, then capture/destroy the planet. Q: I don't see any enemy ships A: Then take out the def sat at the planet. Q: Done that. Now what? A: Wait and prepare the welcome to the approaching enemy cruisers. Q: Got the cruisers. Now what? A: Capture the planet, of course. The planet is not armed. There is ONE def-sat in orbit. Once you blew away the def-sat, the AI should pound the planet. Just follow the AI closely as the 2 ISC cruisers will take a while to get here. Save your missiles and scatter-packs for the cruisers. You can't destroy the planet. Save the heavy stuff for the cruisers. Try hailing the planet and your allied units for some interesting conversation. Destroy both cruisers (you can try capture, but your allies will probably blow them up first). Then capture the planet. 15.19 OPERATION TYR (ALL GALACTIC?) The final attack on the ISC is on... You are to destroy the ISC starbase. This will break their back, figuratively. Destroy all defending ships as well. Use all your allies. The ISC starbase is nicely armed and it has 3 def-sats covering it as well. There should be five defending ships, though once I only saw three. Many ships will accompany you, total of 5 (or more if you brought more than one). You can hail each of your allies and give them targets. Unconfirmed: You can also hail the ISC base or units and demand surrender. Just blow up the starbase. Then blow up all the defenders. 15.20 THE WAR CRIMINALS (ALL GALACTIC) It's time to try the Organians in a war criminal court... A special freighter has been equipped with a neutrino pulse emitter, which should "imprison" the Organians. You are to lead the task force to capture the Organians. When the freighter is within range 15 of the planet, hail the planet with neutrino pulse, then use the freighter to capture the Organians. In front of you is Organia. In your way is the final ISC task force. If you can get the freighter there faster (within range 15), you can beat the ISC there. You can even demand that the ISC surrender. The ISC have just destroyers and frigates by this time, with ONE cruiser. My task force blew them to bits. Then we approached the planet... Hailed, and the Organians came onboard willingly. Didn't even have to use the freighter. Thus ended the ISC Pacification War... 15.21 A THIEF IN THE NIGHT (ISC) You have been ordered to stand guard at a base with some of our freighters. Their crew has been delayed and we have word that enemies may try to capture these unmanned freighters. You are to protect these at all costs. They must NOT fall into enemy hands. Destroy them if you must. Q: How many enemies can I expect? A: Usually 2 ships, a destroyer and a cruiser. Q: Should I try to get those freighters out of these by beaming over some marines? A: That's one possible approach, esp. if your ship is relatively small. However, beware that they may not be under your direct control. Q: I got the freighters. What can I do with them? A: They will either head for one of the def sats, or follow you like puppies. They won't disengage. Q: The enemy has captured one of the freighters. What do I do? A: Capture it back is a possibility. Else, destroy it. You see an enemy destroyer in the middle of the map. Around it are four freighters in a "cross" pattern and two def sats at 3 and 9 o'clock positions. Charge weapons and get in there. You need to keep BOTH ships busy so they don't try to capture the freighters. In general, even in a CL you should be able to defeat both, but you may get pretty banged up. Try to heavily damage the DD in the first pass, maybe even capture it, so the cruiser will waste its weapons on the captured ship instead of you. Then you can pop the cruiser. Try hailing the enemy ships for some interesting dialogue. 15.22 BOMBER MEN (ISC) You have been ordered to escort this supply freighter to resupply two of our asteroid bases, alpha and bravo. However, some enemy presence is expected. Q: What do I do when the bomb was discovered? A: Slap a tractor on the freighter and PUSH it over to asteroid Alpha ASAP. Don't RAM the freighter INTO the asteroid though. Q: The freighter won't move to base bravo. A: Use the comm panel to order the freighter to head to asteroid base Bravo. Q: How about that enemy ship that shows up later? A: Take him out or capture it. Q: Freighter has disengaged. Now what? A: You need to leave the map as well. When you start, the freighter reports it has a bomb onboard and you have less than 3 minutes to get the freighter over to the asteroid alpha base so the base can help defuse it. Slap a tractor on the freighter and PUSH it toward base. You should reach the base not too long after you received note that there is about one minute left. The enemy ship then heads in, sensing his trick has failed. Take out that cruiser. Capture for more points. Then a destroyer should show up. Take him out as well. Capture for more points. When the freighter has left the map, you should leave the map to end the mission. Try hailing the enemy ships for some interesting dialogue. 15.23 FOXTROT (ISC) Qori, a famous ISC general, has "defected" to the ________. Four other cruisers will blockade the system. NO ONE must leave the system. If you can capture Qori's cruiser it would be even better. Try to find out what did Qori traded to the Alliance also. Q: Where is Qori's cruiser? A: He's running for the corner of the map. Go max speed and you can catch him. Q: How about enemy ships? A: DeepScan any enemy ships you see. You need to find out what Qori traded FOR. Maybe capture one of the enemy ships. You start on the "eastern" edge of the map. Four other cruisers are at compass positions around the system. Charge at the system, max speed, column formation. Set to mode capture. Load small torps as you don't have much power left. Some enemy light cruisers are making a run for it, but you should be able to catch them. Fly by, bring down a shield, and capture one. Continue on. You need to find Qori's ship ASAP. Maintain speed 31 and get close to it, then DeepScan his ship as well without getting TOO close. Other ships should be keeping it busy, so just keep bringing down a shield and beam onboard marines while your scan goes. After you got the results, go after other ships. Hit each hard enough to slow it down so other cruisers can kill it. When all enemy ships have been captured, destroyed, or have escaped, you're done. 15.24 TEMPLE IN THE SKY (ISC) A Federation scientist, Dr. Severin, claims he has a secret he wishes to share with us. Undoubtably the Feds have heard him. Intercept Dr. Severin's ship before the Feds do, get the secret and see how well it works. Red alert, speed 30, and charge all weapons, normal loads. Just head straight "north" and you should see Dr. Severin's freighter to the north, range 170+. Intercept it. Reinforce front shields as you'll hit a dust cloud. There's a pulsar to your right, ignore it. Soon you'll see some Feds to your left, ignore them. Should be two ships, depending on your tonnage. Could be CA/DD to BCH/CA. They only move at speed 10 while you move at speed 30, so you will catch Dr. Severin before they do, even if they're closer. Feel free to toss a few torpedoes their way. Try hailing Dr. Severin at range 50. He'll tell you to come closer. When you're point-blank, he'll send you the info. It's something about first contact with a new specie. I personally tractor the freighter and push him just off the map. THEN I come back and deal with the Feds. Those guys only move at speed 10, so I move behind them, slow down, and blow both out of space or capture as you see fit. Then head to the pulsar, stop at range 50. Try hailing the pulsar multiple times... When you got a reply, you win. 15.25 THE FIRM HAND OF DIPLOMACY (ISC) You are to escort our finest diplomat(s) in. Protect him/them at all costs. Expect enemy interference. Destroy them. Scan the planet while you're at it. WARNING: Do NOT ask the same ship to surrender multiple times. You MAY crash the game. Also, during battle I was able to get the game to lock-up. Q: I can't get to the freighter! He's moving too fast! A: Shoot at him (yes, at a friendly). He'll start evading, and you can get closer. When you start, the freighter sends a distress call... Three ships are after it. You see a planet to your right, and freighter will appear to your left. Turn left 30 degrees (approx.) and you'll see the freighter. Intercept it. Don't tail chase it or you won't get into range, as he's moving at speed 31, same as you probably. If you have to, shoot him to have him evade so you can get closer. Then order it to drop shields so you can beam the diplomat onboard. Then it's a matter of taking out those three pesky meddlers. Two of them are special commando ships. One Hydran, one Klingon. There's also a Gorn cruiser with extra marines onboard. If possible, follow the freighter around as it's a great target and moving at maximum speed. However, if you move that fast you won't have weapons armed at all. Switch to F-torps and go after ONE ship at a time. Destroy all of them and you win. You can order the enemy ships to surrender. Some will, others will keep fighting. If the ship has surrendered, do NOT shoot at him again or he'll start shooting again. Or you can surrender yourself, but ISC is NOT the Federation, so beware of the consequences. Scan the planet may yield some surprises. 15.26 DESCRETION (MIRAK) You are dispatched to guard a Mirak burial ground. Q: What kind of enemy should I expect? A: Ship or ships similar to your fleet level. Q: What do I do with the incoming Lyran fleet? A: Destroy the incoming Lyran ships before they reach the Coffins. (Z-BOX) Q: Is there anything I should do with the Coffins? A: No. Your ONLY objective is to protect them. 15.27 DILITHIUM DANCE (MIRAK) You are dispatched to recover cargo from a destroyed freighter and rescue disabled allied ships near a pulsar, which can "burst" any minute... There's a Lyran ship there as well... Q: Where are the dilithium crystals? A: DeepScan the boxes one by one. Your science officer will notify you when you found one. Beware that the boxes that do NOT contain dilithium act as mines and will explode if you get too close. Q: How do I beam the dilithium? A: Target the box, and the dilithium icon in your Transporter Panel. Then beam them onboard. Q: How many dilithium crystals are there? A: More than enough. :-) Q: How do I transport the dilithium to allied ships? A: Approach the allied ships. You may need to hail them to drop shields. Then beam the dilithium and engineering team onboard. When they said they started working, beam the team back and go find another dilithium. Q: What about the Lyran ship? A: Ignore it, even if it powers up. Your other ships still have phasers and shields. Q: What about the Pulsar? A: It will burst in roughly 15 to 17.5 minutes, game time. Watch the clock on the top right carefully. When your science officer says the star is destabilizing, go max speed and run for the map edge. You start on the map edge. There's a pulsar in the middle of the map. You see this "glob" of various cargo boxes and beyond that, three lighter Mirak ships, disabled, and beyond that, a Lyran ship (cruiser?), also disabled. Charge deep scanners and move in at max speed. You need to find the 3 or more dilithium boxes among the ammo boxes. The ammo boxes will explode if you get too close. You can tell the boxes two ways... 1) by getting close enough (range 5?) and 2) by using deep scan. If you are in a REAL hurry, just max reinforce front shields and plow through all the cargo boxes. When you find the dilithium, beam one onboard, go to friendly ship, beam it over. Repeat until all three ships are fixed. The Lyran ship should power up when you got 2 ships repaired. Ignore him and keep searching. You better be done by minute 15. The pulsar will burst at minute 17 so you better be near map's edge by then. 15.28 TUG OF WAR (MIRAK) You are to scan and recover a freighter. However, beware of interference. Q: How do I obtain ship's log? A: Hail the freighter through Communications. Also DeepScan the ship. Q: I am outnumbered by Klingon and Lyran forces, what do I do? A: Approach and tow the freighter off the map at maximum speed. Do not fight the Lyran and Klingon ships. You don't have to destroy both ships. 15.29 PLAYGROUND (MIRAK) You are to investigate a star system. Q: I am being hailed, but I don't see any messages from the Monsters? A: Use Comm Panel Q: I am outnumbered by both of them? A: Proceed to fight the monsters, but pay close attention to what they say. Q: How do I beam down the survey team? A: Transporter Panel. Q: Where do I beam them to? A: Use you DeepScan to scan the objects (not the Monsters) on the map. 15.30 WHAT'S SO FUNNY? PART I (MIRAK) You are to pick up the ambassador. Q: How do I find the ambassador? A: DeepScan. Q: How do I beam him up? A: Transporter Panel. 15.31 WHAT'S SO FUNNY? PART II (MIRAK) Be sure to save the game before this mission. You are to escort the ambassador to the diplomatic conference. Q: There are so many planets, How do I choose? A: Hail all 5 planets, and just pick one. The choice has no noticeable consequences. If you are unhappy with the outcome, reload saved game to pick another choice. 15.32 THE WHEEL OF PAIN (MIRAK) Be sure to save the game before this mission. You are dispatched to investigate a freighter. Q: How do I investigate the freighter? A: Pay attention to your Comm Panel, and DeepScan the freighter. Q: What is the Alien ship doing? A: There will be another enemy vessel on the map. Hail it, but don't fight it. If he has nothing to say, hail it against after he opens fire. Q: Yes or No? A: when posed the question, use your best judgement. If it turns out the wrong way, you can always reload the game. But be prepared to fight some more ships after you answer. Q: and the planet? A: Bombard it to reduce its marine level, and capture it. 15.33 THE GATES OF HELL (MIRAK) You are to investigate a star system. Q: I am pinned down from both sides, help? A: At the beginning of the mission, go to yellow alert and head toward the planet at full speed. Do not be concerned with the enemy ships. They will engage each other once you run through the blockade. Q: What kind of clue will I find on the planet? A: DeepScan the planet, then transport the Survey Team. When they come back, pay attention to what they are saying. and Use the Comm Panel accordingly. 15.34 MASSACRE (MIRAK) You are sent as the advance team of an invasion. Q: How do I fight the base? A: You don't. The defender ships will come out and engage you. Destroy it (or at least wound it) but stay out of the way of the base's phaser 4's. Q: Where is the freighter going? A: It's going toward the map border on the East (on the 2D tactical map). Intercept and neutralize. If you wish you may position you self on its path even before the ship is launched. Q: still, what about the base? A: Don't worry about it, your allies will take care of it. 15.35 BATTLE OF CLAW'S EDGE (MIRAK) You are defending your planet. Q: There are so many Lyran ships, what do I do? A: Just Fight and enjoy the carnage. 15.36 IN SEARCH OF... (MIRAK) Be sure to save the game before this mission. Q: That is a big monster! I can't win? A: In this mission you don't have to fire anything. Just use the Comm panel and start talking. If you screw up badly, reload the game from Saved Games. Eventually you will get the correct responses. Q: And which one is the Alien Homeworld? A: Use DeepScan on each planet at close range. 15.37 WHITE WEDDING (MIRAK) You are part of the final showdown against Lyrans. Q: How do I find the admiral? A: Read he objective carefully, the Admiral will be in the Flagship. The flagship is easily recognizable in the game. Q: How do I beam the admiral aboard? A: Crack open a shield of the flagship, and beam Admiral through Transporter Panel. (Infiltration Team Icon.) Q: I have him, then what? A: Do as the mission objective states. But DO NOT rejoin your ranks yet. You may be in for a surprise if you do. 16 Dynaverse Online Play A little history... Flipside.com was supposed to have hosted the Dynaverse servers, but backed out just as the game went gold. Interplay had to scramble to get servers online. Won.net was enlisted as the substitute. Later, the registration changed yet again to Gamespy. Some information here have been summarized from the SFC Dynaverse FAQ by K'tujHegh. 16.1 BEFORE YOU START PLEASE patch your SFC2 to the latest version so you can get online. Register at the specified registration service if you haven't done so. Once you've done that, sign in and you'll see the Dynaverse server list. You then choose a server to join. Different servers may have slightly different rules and setup. Some servers permit or prohibit certain races. Other servers can change ship availability, supply costs, ship costs, mission chances, and more. Read the description, and make your choice. You can join multiple servers using the SAME username and password. You can pick a difference race per server. You can play on as many servers as you want. Each one is unique and the progress is saved separately (until the admin decides to restart the campaign). 16.2 INTRO TO DYNAVERSE You start by logging in to a Dynaverse server. You begin with a frigate in the race you've chosen. Each server can have different rules and different prices. You also get 50 prestige pts to start. If a server you had been playing on is asking you for a login and password again, the server admin had "reset" the campaign and everyone had to start over. You can only join "one" empire per server. To play more than one side on a single server, you need to use multiple accounts. Once you've logged into a Dynaverse server, you will see a map just like a single player campaign map. Except this time, if you right click on the map, you may notice other players in certain hexes. If you right-click it, you will see the following information: Empire: Prestige: ####(available)/#### (Career total) Ship #1 Ship #2 (if they have more then one) Ship #3 (if they have more then two) An example would be: Commander Chang (355) Empire: Federation Prestige: 357 / 2355 (Destroyer) USS Tucson The Glicko rating is basically a measure of how well you handle battles and how are the odds in those battles. If you can beat big ships with small ships, your Glicko rating would be quite high. If you can only beat small ships, your Glicko rating would be quite low. When you first sign on, you are in the "General" channel and you can chat with all other players. You can also join specific channels. Some other commands are: /list: Lists chat channels available. Those that you have joined have an asterisk (*) in front. /join [ channel ] : Joins a channel ( example: "/join federation" ) /leave [ channel ] : Leaves a channel ( example: /leave General" ) /w [name] : whisper to name You can zoom the map in and out, move the map around, and choose your movements, just like the single player campaign. Except this time, there may be other REAL human players, who may be on your side, or on the other side... And there will still be AI ships around. If you have friends online and on the same server at the same time, use chat and invite them over. Tell them what hex you're in (the hex number, in x,y format) and see if they will come over. 16.3 THE "DRAFT" If you are in or near a sector where a battle just started, you can be "drafted" into a mission. You can't "dodge" the draft (legally, that is, there are way to "refuse" it, but it's considered bad manners online). Basically, it's a mission you need to play with others. 16.4 BUYING SHIPS Dynaverse II has slightly different procedure for buying ships. The ships are actually up for bid. You need to place a bid on the ship you want. You may end up paying "above" market rates for a specific ship if everybody wants it. After you place the bid, you can move to a different hex. If you win, the ship will join your fleet. Older ships are cheaper. Newer ships, when first introduced, are more expensive than normal. 16.5 SOME DO'S AND DON'TS Do use the "chat" feature, it adds to the atmosphere. Do help people on your side, it makes the game easier for everyone. Do ask for help if you need it Do give rookies a break (i.e. those with low prestige totals). You were once a rookie. Do have fun out there. ---------- Do NOT refuse a draft, it's consider rude Do NOT forfeit, as it both hurts your prestige pts and makes your side lose Do NOT insult anybody. Actions speak louder than words. Do NOT try the dirty tractor tricks (push other ships into asteroids or planets or out of the map) Do NOT try to capture an enemy ship commanded by a human (you can crash the game) 16.6 MODIFYING THE CAMPAIGN NW has some tips if you want to edit the missions and the campaigns a bit. See https://www3.telus.net/NuclearWessels/sfc/mods.html 16.7 PARTING COMMENTS The rest of online Dynaverse is just like the single player campaigns. Have fun out there. Perhaps you CAN make a difference! 17 SFC ships Each empire has multiple classes of ships, from freighters to frigates, from destroyers to dreadnoughts. 17.1 SHIP CLASSES OVERVIEW The civilian / auxiliary ship classes are * Small Freighters * Large Freighters The warship classes, from smallest to largest, are * Fighters / Attack-Shuttles * Interceptor (INT) * Gunboat (a.k.a. Fast Patrol ship, pseudo-fighter) (PF) * Police Corvette (POL) * Frigates (FF) * War Destroyer (DW) * Destroyer (DD) * Light Cruiser (CL) * War Cruiser (CW) * Heavy Cruiser (CA) * Battlecruiser (BC/BCH) * Dreadnought (DN) * Battleship (BB) In general, police corvette have 1 heavy weapon, frigates have 2, destroyers have 3-4, cruisers have 4, dreadnoughts have 6, and battleships have 10 (8 fore, 2 aft) Note: Carriers (CV, which stands for "cruiser, aviation") can be converted from all classes of ships. Most carriers are cruiser sized (usually called "strike carrier") and converted from cruisers. "Fleet Carriers" are converted from dreadnoughts. "Battle carriers" are converted from battle cruisers. Light carriers are converted from light cruisers. Small carriers converted from frigates or destroyers are "Escort Carriers". 17.2 FREIGHTERS That is discussed in the next section, in 18. 17.3 WARTIME CONSTRUCTION In wartime, the smaller ships are easier to build as their stardocks are easier to build. The larger ship hulls are needed for certain specialized variants. When the losses start to mount, shipyards must somehow increase production of larger ships. Thus, the "war destroyers" and "war cruisers" are born. A "war destroyer" is basically a frigate expanded to have the power and weapons of a destroyer. It has less overall volume than a destroyer, but can be built in a frigate shipyard. A "war cruiser", similarly, is a destroyer or light cruiser built- up to full cruiser, but can be built in destroyer/light-cruiser shipyards. Each race has its own solutions to the wartime construction problem. For example, the Federation did not have a "war cruiser". Its "new light cruiser" (NCL) design, using some of destroyer's parts, essentially served as that design. The Federation also had a competition between the FFB (battle frigate) and the DW (war destroyer) and the DW was ultimately chosen. There are many other variants to each class. Some races chose to build "leader" version of certain classes to act as 'squadron leaders' when operating in a group. For example, a squadron of Klingon F-5 frigates will be lead by a F-5L. For a list of variants, see 17.5. A battlecruiser is essentially a ship with the maximum amount of firepower one can pack onto a cruiser hull. It can be built in a regular cruiser shipyard. Eventually no more dreadnoughts were made. They have been replaced by battlecruisers. 17.4 CARRIERS, FIGHTERS, INTERCEPTORS, AND GUNBOATS Carriers are special ships designed to carry smaller vessels into battle. Smaller vessels include fighters, interceptors (half- sized gunboats), and gunboats (sometimes called Fast Patrol ships, of PFs, and occasionally, Pseudo-Fighters). Carriers were converted from regular dreadnoughts, cruisers, destroyers, and so on. Some retained their regular armament. Fighters are basically armed shuttles that carry drones and perhaps some pre-charged heavy weapons. Each 'squadron' is launched together and can be ordered to attack target or defend you. Interceptor and PF are individual entities and can be used to attack many targets. They have shields and thus are harder to kill, but one or two drone hits should kill one. If the carrier is destroyed, so are all the units it carried into battle. For example, if you destroy a carrier, all its fighters (or PFs, if it's a PF tender) also blow up. 17.5 VARIANTS All races operate multiple variants of ships. In general, the most of a specific type that race builds, the more likely different variants will be produced. For example, a destroyer can be built as normal, drone, battle (heavy), escort, and more. In general, the cruiser has the most variants. Here are some common suffixes used to denote the variants A Aegis, a variant of Escort B Battle (extra heavy), EX: FFB = battle frigate, almost a destroyer C Command, has flag bridge, slightly more weapons, EX: CC = command cruiser D Drone, lots of drone launchers, EX: NCD (new drone cruiser, drone version of NCL) E Escort, phaser heavy, few/no heavy weapons, EX: DDE = destroyer escort G Commando (except Federation), Guided/G-Rack refit (Federation) H Heavy, EX: DNH = heavy dreadnought L Light or Leader R Survey T Transport V Carrier, carries PFs, INTs, or fighter-shuttles The Feds chose to use a C PREFIX for their commando ships. 17.6 POLICE CORVETTES (POL) The police corvettes are the smallest standalone vessels operated by a fleet. Sometimes, they are just called "police ships". Klingons prefer the term "gunboats". They may lack heavy weapons altogether, though some may have a single heavy weapon. They can barely deter a pirate vessel. Don't expect one to survive in a real battle. Think of them as SMALL frigates, similar in size to PF's. Some races built police flagships (leaders). In general, the Feds build the best police corvette. Everybody else has shields that are too thin. 17.7 FRIGATES (FF) In general, frigates are very weak, and tend to blow up quickly in presence of cruisers or larger ships. Cruisers with high crunch power can blow up a frigate in a single alpha strike. Frigates are in perpetual need of power because their available power is quite small and any further use of power requires a large decrease in speed. To get an extra point of power, a cruiser slow by 1 (movement cost of 1), while a frigate need to slow by 3 (movement cost of 0.33). A frigate usually has only a single heavy weapon. If there are several sizes of the weapon, a frigate would have the smallest one (with lowest effective range). With little power available, ECM, overload, and so on require very careful consideration. EM is more efficient than ECM in most cases. Fighting with frigates requires a LOT of maneuvers, as neither side can deal a "killing" blow. When you fly frigates, you want the ones with the LEAST energy usage. The drone frigates are probably the best. With a scatter- pack you have the potential to kill larger ships. For those frigates with low crunch power, use your maneuvers and keep your range open. You need to play like a Klingon to survive. 17.8 WAR DESTROYER (DW) A war destroyer is a frigate built-up to destroyer capability. It is a destroyer missing a few parts. It has 2 heavy weapons and movement cost of 0.5 like a destroyer. 17.9 DESTROYER (DD) Destroyer, being the next size up, has slightly less of the power problem. However, it can still be quite acute. It loses 2 in speed for every point of power (movement cost of 0.5). In general, destroyers have two heavy weapons. There are some exceptions (the Fed DD had four photons, just like the Fed CA, but no power to arm them, the DDG fixed that). Destroyers have enough power to start using EW and shield reinforcements sparingly. A large or heavy destroyer is VERY close in size and capability to a light cruiser. So much so, some navies chose not to build light cruisers. Destroyers still relies on maneuver, but a bit less than frigates. 17.10 LIGHT CRUISER (CL) In general, light cruisers have 3 or 4 heavy weapons like a CA, but have less shields, phasers, and other equipment. Some CL's have movement cost of 1 just like a CA. Most CL's have only forward facing weapons. There are one or two exceptions: the Fed Miranda-class cruiser has a rear-facing photon torpedo. (This is to fit in with the USS Reliant in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) Cruisers have power to spare for EW, but not that much in a CL. 17.11 WAR CRUISER (CW) A war cruiser is a destroyer or light cruiser built-up to full cruiser firepower. It would have 4 heavy weapons and movement cost of 1, but slightly fewer weapons than a full cruiser. In general it should "drive" just like a cruiser. 17.12 HEAVY CRUISER (CA) A heavy cruiser usually has 4 heavy weapons, and movement cost of 1. There are some exceptions like the Klingon D-7T, which has 5 photon torpedoes (yes, photons). A heavy cruiser is your average ship and can use all the tactics discussed. Power can be a little tight in certain situations. CA/CW should have some power left over to be able to move at decent speed (24 or higher) and arm all weapons. 17.13 BATTLECRUISER (BCH) A battlecruiser has 6 heavy weapons like the dreadnought, but still has movement cost of 1. They eventually replaced the dreadnought on the production line. BCH is a bit tight on power as losing speed here doesn't yield as much power as it would on a DN, while it has all those DN-class weapons to charge. That's why the Feds build all the different variations on the BCH trying to come up with a design that doesn't suck up too much power. Consider disabling one or two of the heavy weapons after the initial pass so you get more power to maneuver. That way, the BCH should fly just like a cruiser with a few extra weapons. 17.14 DREADNOUGHT (DN) A dreadnought has 6 heavy weapons, and movement cost of 1.5. A DN usually has globs of power to spare. By reducing speed by 1, a DN can spare 1.5 pts of power. A DN should exploit this by charging those energy-intensive systems like tractors, ECM, and so on. A DN's maneuverability is pretty bad, and it can't make an HET safely, so you probably shouldn't. Instead, use your superior firepower to pound smaller ships into scrap. You can probably kill a frigate in a single pass. You have enough transporters to capture small ships in one pass also. 17.15 BATTLESHIP (BB) A battleship has 10 heavy weapons (8 fore, 2 aft) and movement cost of 2. Some may carry PFs or fighters for additional firepower. Even bigger than the DN, a BB have a lot of power to spare, and extremely heavy shields. Of course, it also turns like a pig. Every point reduced in speed spares 2 pts of power, and that's a lot. Requires a LOT of crunch power to get through one of those shields. However, it CAN be killed given a bit of patience and sufficient firepower. Don't even THINK about using an HET in a BB. Instead, use your superior firepower to kill ONE enemy ship at a time, esp. those that can get past your shields (and frigates/destroyers probably can't). Battleships are vulnerable to seeking weapons such as scatter- packs and plasma torpedoes due to their high crunch power. Be ready with those defenses. 18 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. They also get slightly heavier shielding. However, they are still quite weak and have lousy acceleration just like a freighter. Historical note: The idea originated in World War I, when the German U-boats ruled the seas. At that time, it was customary for 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 submarine 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. In a scenario, most freighters will not exceed speed 10 or 15, except Q-ships. However, this is not always true. 18.1 FEDERATION F-Lux Luxury Liner F-Pres Presidental Liner F-LMDr Large Merchant Ship (Drone refit) F-LMPh Large Merchant Ship (Phaser refit) F-LMQ Large Merchant Ship (Q-Ship) F-MMDr Medium Merchant Ship (Drone refit) F-MMPh Medium Merchant Ship (Phaser refit) F-MMQ Medium Merchant Ship (Q-Ship) F-SMDr Small Merchant Ship (Drone refit) F-SMPh Small Merchant Ship (Phaser refit) F-FSML Small Freighter F-FLRG Large Freighter F-FSPh Small Phaser-Armed Freighter F-FLPh Large Phaser-Armed Freighter F-FSDr Small Drone-Armed Freighter F-FLDr Large Drone-Armed Freighter F-FQS Small Q Ship F-FQL Large Q Ship F-AxCVL Auxiliary Small Carrier F-AxCVA Auxiliary Large Carrier The Feds have a full range of freighters. The "merchant" ships are civilian-owned. Starfleet owns others. 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. 18.2 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. 18.3 OTHER FREIGHTERS Everybody else operate freighters like the Mirak... They don't do special variants like the Feds. The only difference would be in armament. Hydrans would have Fusion- and phaser-armed freighters, Klingons would have Drone-, disruptor, or phaser-armed freighters, and so on. 19 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. In general, the Feds have the most variants of ANY "empire". 19.1 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. Feds have relatively few weapons in the rear arc. The "R" refit helped a little, but not enough, and not all ships have that refit. Protect your front and rear shields, as you really need them. 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. To do that, you're going to need power, but your power is spent overloading photon. Photons 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. 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. Photons are susceptible to ECM. You need ECCM to counter any enemy ECM. Charge at least 1 ECCM to make sure you counter any enemy ECM. 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. Feds have average number of transporters and boarding parties. Against AI this is not a major problem, but against humans this can be. Your ship's maneuverability is average, so you won't be able to outturn any one. Use HETs only for emergencies (such as enemy on your tail). In general, the Fed ship is designed to take the alpha strike of enemy, and STILL reply with a devastating alpha strike. 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. 19.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Freighters are discussed in their own section, as you'll never "command" one. 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. 19.2.1 Frigates and War Destroyers 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. Photons cause the same damage at any range if it hits, which is good. This gives the Fed frigate a lot of crunch power, and possibly one of the most balanced frigates. Can't really beat the Mirak for crunch power (with scatter-pack) though. The Feds are also the only ones to operate a police carrier. It's not much of an improvement over the police ship. Two fighters don't add much firepower to a tiny ship. Fed frigates are actually pretty "standard". Try to get the drone frigate, as that needs the least amount of power. Fed frigates also have good shields, not just the front. This makes them more survivable against larger ships in big battles. Otherwise, just follow the standard frigate tactics (see 16.6). 19.2.2 Destroyers and Light Cruisers 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. This allow them to move VERY fast and still fire all weapons. 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 Fed Miranda-class cruiser has a rear-facing photon torpedo. This is to fit in with the USS Reliant in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 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. 19.2.3 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 refit) HEAVY_CRUISER F-GSC Galactic Survey Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-GSC+ Galactic Survey Cruiser (plus HEAVY_CRUISER refit) F-CAD Heavy Drone Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-CAD+ Heavy Drone Cruiser (plus refit) HEAVY_CRUISER F-CADR Heavy Drone Cruiser (R refit) HEAVY_CRUISER F-CB Heavy Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-BCG Battlecruiser (Kirov Class) HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER F-BCF Battlecruiser (Bismarck Class) HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER F-BCJ Battlecruiser (New Jersey Class) HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER F-BCE Battlecruiser Excelsior Class HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER F-CFS Fire Support Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER F-CFS+ Fire Support Cruiser (plus refit) HEAVY_CRUISER F-CVS Strike Carrier CARRIER F-CVS+ Strike Carrier (plus refit) CARRIER 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 BCH. 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 BCH. The BCH, 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 different variations are needed to solve the power problems. The drone version is probably the best. The carriers have their secondary hulls converted to hangar bays from the original variant. Most retained their original armaments. 19.2.4 Dreadnoughts F-DN Dreadnought F-DN+ Dreadnought (plus refit) F-SCS Space Control Ship F-DNG Improved Dreadnought F-DNH Heavy Dreadnought F-DNF Plasma Dreadnought F-CVA Heavy Carrier F-CVA+ Heavy Carrier (plus refit) F-BB Battleship 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. Same number of photons (6), but more drone launchers and phasers. Fed BB basically is one huge photon shooter... 8 tubes forward, 2 rear, and a TON of phasers. It even carries a few fighters. 19.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES The Feds borders just about EVERYBODY, so they have to be prepared to fight everybody. Feds are usually allied with Mirak, Gorn, and Hydrans. They fight with everybody else. 19.3.1 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 Klingon launch a scatter-pack, consider using your photons in proximity mode to kill it. If you get it, you would have taken out most of his reloads. With the R-refit, you are less vulnerable to scatter packs. Consider giving one back as your own surprise. 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. You can also try the "Starcastle" as a defensive maneuver. 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. 19.3.2 Romulans Hunting cloaked Romulans is difficult, as is dodging plasma torpedoes. Keep your speed up, 24 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. Get closer when he's cloaked, stay away when he's not. 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 except the very large ones. The danger is eating them on a downed shield. 19.3.3 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. And your photons have more crunch power than his disruptors. Just watch out for those ESGs. 19.3.4 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. 19.3.5 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. 19.3.6 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. 19.3.7 Monsters There's nothing special about killing monsters with Feds. Just use all the weapons, a scatter-pack if you can build one. 20 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. Playing Klingons are generally quite difficult on the "timed" missions, as you don't have time to wear down the enemy. You have to exploit the scatter-pack to draw away enemy phasers and maybe even get a few hits in. Klingons needed a lot of refits as those disruptors don't quite deliver the crunch power. In general, there are two, the B-refit which added drone launchers, and K-refit, which improved phasers. Klingon command ships (C variant) that received the K-refit are re-designated as L variant. So a D-7C that received the K refit is known as D-7L. Klingons have a lot of transporters so capture and/or H&R are good firepower supplements. Your marines CAN turn the tide of a battle. 20.1 PRIMARY KLINGON TACTICS Klingons invented the "saber dance" tactic. You need to maneuver a bit and keep as far as possible. You may be able to get some hits with a scatter-pack, but you probably don't have enough launchers to provide a lot of reloads. Most of your opponents have ADDs or phasers. Still, it may be enough to surprise an opponent. Klingons also like the oblique pass, as they have generally FA (or even FH/FX) arcs. 20.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Freighters are discussed in their own section, as you'll never "command" one. Klingon ships have several refits. The B refit added B-class drone launchers. The K-refit enhanced firepower, replacing Ph-2's with Ph-1's. The few Klingon ships with cloaking devices are designated Y variants. 20.2.1 Frigates and Destroyers The problem with Klingon frigates is they have PAPER-THIN rear shields, except the F-5C/F-5L/F-6. Even the regular F-5 is too vulnerable in the rear hemisphere to other frigates. Don't even get me started about the E-3 and E-4... That's probably why Klingons built so many different versions. Survival in frigates is more about LUCK than anything else. Upgrade to a bigger ship IMMEDIATELY. You may be able to win against another frigate, but any one with a bit of crunch power will break through your wimpy shields. Upgrade! F-5 is sort of a destroyer... F-6 is sometimes called a "frignought" as it has a lot more weapon and power than a typical frigate, comparable to destroyers or even light cruisers. The G2 were not used in combat. They are police ships, pure and simple. K-G2 Police Gunboat FRIGATE K-G2C Police Gunboat Leader FRIGATE K-E3 Escort FRIGATE K-E3E Carrier Escort FRIGATE K-E3Y Bird of Prey FRIGATE K-E4 Escort FRIGATE K-E4B Escort (B-refit) FRIGATE K-E4D Drone Escort FRIGATE K-E4E Carrier Escort FRIGATE K-E4EB Carrier Escort (B-refit) FRIGATE K-E4G Commando Escort SPECIAL K-E4GB Commando Escort (B-refit) SPECIAL K-E4K Escort (K-refit) FRIGATE K-E4Y Cloaking Escort FRIGATE K-E6 Battle Escort FRIGATE K-F5 Frigate FRIGATE K-F5B Frigate (B-refit) DESTROYER K-F5C Frigate Leader DESTROYER K-F5G Commando Frigate SPECIAL K-F5GB Commando Frigate (B- SPECIAL refit) K-F5S Scout SPECIAL K-F5SB Scout (B-refit) SPECIAL K-F5K Frigate (K-refit) DESTROYER K-F5L Frigate Leader DESTROYER K-F5V Light Carrier CARRIER K-F5VK Light Carrier (K-refit) CARRIER K-F5W War Destroyer DESTROYER K-F5Y Cloaking Frigate DESTROYER K-FWC War Destroyer Leader DESTROYER K-FWK War Destroyer DESTROYER K-FWL War Destroyer Leader DESTROYER K-F6 Battle Frigate DESTROYER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 20.2.2 Light Cruiser Klingons don't believe in "light" cruisers until the war started. Their "light" cruiser before the war was the D-6 series, the predecessor of the D-7 series. The D-6 is short on weapons and was mainly used to create "variant" ships and being exported to the Romulans. When the war came along, the Kozenko Design Bureau created the D- 5 "war cruiser" from scratch. It is basically a slightly shrunk D- 7, and quite a bit easier to build. The D-5 also has excellent disruptor and phaser arcs to execute the saber dance. Strangely, the D-5's are counted as "war destroyers", not war cruisers, in SFC2. It is considered equivalent to a light cruiser. K-D5 War Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D5C War Command Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D5D War Drone Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D5E Escort Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D5G War Commando Cruiser SPECIAL K-D5K War Cruiser (K-refit) WAR_DESTROYER K-D5L War Command Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D5S Scout Cruiser SPECIAL K-D5V Light Carrier CARRIER K-D5W New Heavy Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D5Y War Cloaking Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-AD5 Escort Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-DWC New Command Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER K-D6 Battlecruiser LIGHT_CRUISER K-D6B Battlecruiser (B- LIGHT_CRUISER refit) K-D6D Drone Battlecruiser LIGHT_CRUISER K-D6DB Drone Battlecruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (B-refit) K-D6G Commando Cruiser SPECIAL K-D6GB Commando Cruiser (B- SPECIAL refit) K-D6K Battlecruiser (K- LIGHT_CRUISER refit) K-D6S Heavy Scout Cruiser SPECIAL K-D6SB Heavy Scout Cruiser SPECIAL (B-refit) K-D6V Carrier CARRIER K-D6VK Carrier (K-refit) CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 20.2.3 Heavy Cruiser Klingons love their D-7 so much, they have a lot of different variants of it. Use the turn mode and firepower to wear the enemy down. The D-7C with the K refit is known as D-7L. The D-7W is equivalent to the Fed CB. The D-7T is a SFC2 only creation, in order to fit with the Star Trek: The Motion Picture about Klingons firing photons and had a rear launcher. K-D7 Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER K-D7B Battlecruiser (B- HEAVY_CRUISER refit) K-D7C Command Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER K-D7D Drone Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER K-D7E Survey Cruiser SPECIAL K-D7EB Survey Cruiser (B- SPECIAL refit) K-D7K Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER K-D7L Command Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER K-D7W Heavy Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER K-D7V Strike Carrier CARRIER K-D7VK Strike Carrier (K- CARRIER refit) K-D7T Battlecruiser Ktinga HEAVY_CRUISER Class K-C7 Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER K-C7V Battle Carrier CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. The D-7D is a much superior ship to the D-6D. The D-7D retained all of its disruptors, losing only some phasers in exchange for the drone racks. C-7 is excellent ship with a LOT of ADD/AMD and great disruptor arcs. Also, check out its turn mode... 20.2.4 Dreadnoughts Klingons are the most fanatical about their battleship, the B-10. They manage to deploy the first battleship among all the galactic powers. Even during the construction, design specs changed. The second was redesigned as carrier (B-10V). The Klingons managed to build THREE battleships during the General War, nearly bankrupting the Klingon Empire. While contracts were drawn to export one of these to the Romulans, and plans were drawn up for an improved B-11, the total BB production run stopped at three. The BB is basically a very large dreadnought, so behave that way. Klingons are also unique to have built a "light" dreadnought class, as well as having two variants of the main dreadnought class. The C8 and the C9 are designed for different borders. One is designed for the Federation border while the other was designed for the Hydran/Mirak border. Their armament differs slightly. They are pretty good with power and weapons, but they have relatively weak rear shields. Some ships may have the K-designation, but they were BUILT that way, so there was no "non-K" version of the ship. Examples include the C-10K and the B-11K. K-C5 Light Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT K-C5B Light Dreadnought (B- DREADNOUGHT refit) K-C5K Light Dreadnought (K- DREADNOUGHT refit) K-C8 Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT K-C8B Dreadnought (B-refit) DREADNOUGHT K-C8K Dreadnought (K-refit) DREADNOUGHT K-C8V Heavy Carrier CARRIER K-C8VK Heavy Carrier (K-refit) CARRIER K-C9 Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT K-C9B Dreadnought (B-refit) DREADNOUGHT K-C9K Dreadnought (K-refit) DREADNOUGHT K-C10K Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT K-B10 Battleship BATTLESHIP K-B10K Battleship (K-refit) BATTLESHIP K-B10V Superheavy Carrier CARRIER K-B11K Super Battleship BATTLESHIP 20.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES Here's some discussion on fighting special enemies. 20.3.1 Federation The "flatheads" build solid ships, and prefer overruns. You can wear them down by saber-dancing. Use ECM to make their photons miss, and stay out of overload range. Then hit them during their reload cycle. Use your drones to tie up their phasers. A scatter-pack may gain you some hits as well. However, you may be a bit short on scatter- packs. Exploit their lousy firing arcs with oblique passes. 20.3.2 Mirak The "furballs" have nicely powered ships, but not as solid as the "flatheads". The drones aren't THAT dangerous as most Klingon ships have ADDs. Add the tractors and the side-phasers and your ship is pretty well insulated from drones. You don't even need to worry about anchors as you don't ever plan to use a weasel. Just stay out of tractor range and wear them down. Mirak generally has a lot of marines so this can be a problem doing H&R or captures. Mirak non-drone firepower tends to have pretty horrendous arcs, like LS/RS. Exploit that. 20.3.3 Hydrans The "snakes"... Can be a problem. Their ships are quite tough, with a LOT of forward shielding. They also have fighters to supplement their firepower. Try to kill the fighters first. Their fighters can do you a lot of harm by creating down-shields that the mothership can exploit with hellbore. Their fighters should pull ahead of the ship. Save your phasers and AMD/ADD for the fighters. Use drones on the fighters too. Stay away from the ship and kill the fighters. After the fighters on gone, do your normal saber-dance against the Hydran ship. Stay out of fusion beam range. The snakes have "two-turn" weapons. Charge in during his recharge cycle and use H&R raids on his heavy weapons. His hellbore (if he has any) don't do much damage at long range compared to your disruptors. 20.3.4 ISC ISC ship is very good all around, esp. the heavier ships. Many have rear I-torps that guard their rear arcs. The PPD can wipe out your weapons if it finds your down shield. Those G- and S- torps can really do you harm also. Keep the speed high (24-26) and reserve phasers for point- defense. Try to kill ONE ship at a time. You will have a very hard time killing the heavy ships. Scatter-packs should be used liberally. ISC is not that drone-proof. Saber-dancing CAN work against the ISC but not that well as they can chase you all over the map with plasma torps and PPDs. 20.3.5 Romulans and Lyrans Romulans and Lyrans are traditionally friendlies (or "enemy of my enemy") and thus you usually don't fight against them. Romulans with cloak can be difficult to kill. Keep the speed high. If the Romulan cloaks, move in to point-blank and do an overrun from the side and exit to the rear. Have scatter-pack ready to deploy the second he decloaks. Lyrans need their ESG to do full damage. Thus saber-dancing can wear them down. 20.3.6 Gorn Usually a Klingon ship will never encounter a Gorn ship as the Gorn is on the OTHER side of the Federation (on the Romulan side). Gorn ships are generally slow to turn but have good firing arcs for their plasma torpedoes. Stay away, keep speed high, and wear them down. 20.3.7 Orions Orions can be armed with just about anything. 20.3.8 Monsters Klingons have slightly harder time dealing with monsters, as their drone launch rate is generally quite low (except for the drone variants like D-6D or D-7D), but no harder than the Feds. Most monsters do not have shields (except SGs) so the lower "crunch power" of the Klingons does not matter that much. 21 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. The ships are also nicely shielded and can take a lot of damage. They also have a lot of "marines" onboard (accounts for increased combat prowess) and shuttles. However, they lack transporters (too much bulk to beam?). 21.1 PRIMARY GORN TACTICS Gorn invented the "anchor" tactic. They live and die by it. The "split arc" of Gorn plasma launchers (half left and half right) can also be used to do the "plasma string" and oblique pass. Gorns have a lot of shuttles, use them. Consider conducting H&R raids on enemy tractors and phasers to give yourself an advantage on phaser and torpedo exchange. Charge suicide shuttles and drop them at overruns. You have enough shuttles. 21.2 DISCUSSION BY CLASS 21.2.1 Frigates and Destroyers Gorn frigates tend to be quite solidly built (similar to Fed frigates), but lack weapons and shields. It only has 3 phasers and 1 plas-F. The plas-F takes so long to charge, by the time it does, the enemy would have already taken your plas-F offline. Go minimum speed at beginning to gain time to arm, THEN keep speed up to stay away from the enemy ship to recharge. Upgrade to DD or BDD ASAP. The destroyer is somewhat more interesting as it has better torpedoes and better shields. To be honest, the DD is NOT really heavy enough to be a DD. The BDD is more like it. G-FF Police Frigate FRIGATE G-FF+ Police Frigate (plus refit) FRIGATE G-SC Scout SPECIAL G-SCF Scout (improved) SPECIAL G-PFT PF Tender (frigate) CARRIER G-DD Destroyer DESTROYER G-DD+ Destroyer (plus refit) DESTROYER G-DDF Fleet Destroyer DESTROYER G-DDL Destroyer Leader DESTROYER G-DDL+ Destroyer Leader (plus refit) DESTROYER G-DDG Commando Destroyer SPECIAL G-DDG+ Commando Destroyer (plus SPECIAL refit) G-BDD Battle Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER G-BDD+ Battle Destroyer (plus refit) WAR_DESTROYER G-BDL Battle Destroyer Leader WAR_DESTROYER G-BDL+ Battle Destroyer Leader (plus WAR_DESTROYER refit) G-BDG Battle Commando Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER G-BDG+ Battle Commando Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER (plus refit) G-BDP Battle Destroyer PF Tender CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 21.2.2 Heavy Destroyers and Light Cruisers Gorn never did make light cruisers. Instead, they made "heavy destroyer". The CS and CM are heavier versions of the HDD. They have firing arcs to use the oblique pass. HDD has problem with rear arc coverage. G-LSC Large Scout SPECIAL G-HDS Heavy Destroyer Scout SPECIAL G-HDS+ Heavy Destroyer Scout (plus SPECIAL refit) G-HDD Heavy Destroyer LIGHT_CRUISER G-HDD+ Heavy Destroyer (plus refit) LIGHT_CRUISER G-HDC Heavy Commando Destroyer SPECIAL G-HDC+ Heavy Commando Destroyer (plus SPECIAL refit) G-CDD Heavy Command Destroyer LIGHT_CRUISER G-HDP Heavy Destroyer PF Tender CARRIER G-MCC Medium Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-CS Strike Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-CM Medium Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 21.2.3 Heavy Cruisers and Battlecruisers Gorn cruisers were built from light, then heavy cruiser hulls. The plus refit added some phasers, few more batteries for reserve power, and improved shields. Later, many received F-refit which increased the number of plas-F launchers to supplement their close-in firepower against PFs. CL is really a CA with slightly less equipment and hull... same armaments. So watch out. G-SR Survey Cruiser SPECIAL G-SRF Survey Cruiser SPECIAL G-CL Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER G-CL+ Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER G-CLF Light Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-COM Light Commando Cruiser SPECIAL G-COM+ Light Commando Cruiser SPECIAL G-COMF Light Commando Cruiser SPECIAL G-CA Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-CA+ Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-CC Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-CC+ Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-CCF Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-BC Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-BF Fast Battlecruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER G-CCH Heavy Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER G-BCH Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 21.2.4 Dreadnoughts DNF is DN with extra F-torpedoes. DNT is DN with extra G-torpedoes (need more firepower). DNs have type-R torps, which is always fearsome. G-DNE Early Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT G-DNL Light Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT G-DN Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT G-DNF Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT G-DNT Plasma Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT G-DNP PF Dreadnought CARRIER G-DNH Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT G-BB Battleship BATTLESHIP 21.3 FIGHTING YOUR ENEMIES Here's some discussion on fighting special enemies. 21.3.1 Romulans The traditional enemy, you want to force the Rommie to give up the initiative by cloaking, then you can do what you want with him. 21.3.2 ISC ISC ship is very good all around, esp. the heavier ships. Many have rear I-torps that guard their rear arcs. The PPD can wipe out your weapons and engines if it finds your down shield. Those G- and S-torps can really do you harm also. Keep the speed high (24-26) and reserve phasers for point- defense. Try to kill ONE ship at a time. You will have a very hard time killing the heavy ships. 21.3.3 Lyrans To be completed, wrong side of galaxy. 21.3.4 Federation, Mirak, Hydrans Gorns usually don't fight the Feds as they're allies (after that little initial misunderstanding). Still, if you must fight one, draw out his photons, then see if you can get him to give up the initiative by using his wild weasels, THEN take him with torpedoes. Mirak and Hydrans are on the wrong front, and are nominal allies. To kill Mirak, you need to slow him down and the best way is to force him to weasel, or anchor. Your phaser arcs should be sufficient for drone defense. Hydrans would want to get close to you, so underload your torpedoes and fly all around him, killing his fighters, then himself. 21.3.5 Orions Orions can be armed with just about anything. 21.3.6 Monsters Gorn don't have particular difficulties against monsters. Use enveloping torpedoes except against astro-miners and sungliders. 22 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 you. Hydran ships often carry a couple fighters as fire support. As Hydrans don't use drones, their fighters rely on mini-Hellbore, mini-Fusion, and phasers to do damage. As a result, Hydrans tend to lose ALL fighters during a fight, and that can be a significant drain on your prestige pts. Try to find the variants that have little or NO fighters onboard, or try NOT to launch them unless you really need them. Replacing 100-200 pts of fighters per battle is NOT fun. This is even worse under AI control. In SFB history, the Klingons and the Lyrans once conquered the Hydran Kingdom. However, the invaders managed to miss a few colonies, and it was from these few colonies, and through some outside help (from the Feds and Mirak) did the Hydrans regained their territory. They are mortal enemies with the Klingons and Lyrans, and by extension, are friendly to the Feds and Mirak (and Gorn). The Hydrans only have a "plus refit", which improved shields and added one or two more phasers. Hydran ships, however, tend to have a LOT of ph-2's. Only later ships and heavier ships get ph- 1's. Some of that was addressed by the refit. Hydrans are in general very short on transporters. Even their heavy cruisers only have like 2 or 3 transporters, compare to 4 or more of other races. Capturing other ships can be difficult. Also, the fighters can blow up the ships you intend to capture. 22.1 PRIMARY HYDRAN TACTICS Hydran ships fall into two distinct camps: the "chargers" armed with Fusion Beams, and the "shooters" armed with Hellbores. As a result, they have very different tactics. Eventually Hydrans made the "hybrid" ships that carries both, but that's another story. The "chargers" basically use the overrun by charging in with fusion beams on overload, and fire all weapons at point-blank. It is not subtle, and it works. At the minimum, it creates a down- shield, which can be exploited by the Hellbore-armed ships and perhaps fighters. The Hellbore-armed "shooter" ships exploit the down-shields or the lowest shields from a distance. Hellbore as a heavy weapon is relatively weak, so you need something else to weaken or down a shield so you can use Hellbore to do internals. The Hellbore versions also have slightly more power. Hellbore is great to exploit the Mizia concept. [See 6.10] The hybrid ships can do both. Indeed, the "hybrid" ships should use the charge tactic to beat down an enemy shield with fusion beams and such, then use the hellbore to exploit the down shield. If you got a "specialized" ship (i.e. all hellbore or all fusion beam), pick fighters that will complement your weapons. If you get a "hybrid" ship, get hellbore fighters. An overloaded Hellbore is also a very strong overrun weapon. At point-blank range a salvo of 4 hellbore (can't miss) do significant amount of damage, esp. with a down shield. If you only have one or two, don't bother with Hellbore overrun. In a fleet battle, fusion-armed ships should collaborate with hellbore-armed ships. The AI ships tend to send their fighters to "charge", thus losing them. Give AI control of the fighter-less ships (or at least the one with the least fighters) to lessen the "drain" of prestige. One special maneuver is the "Hydran Anchor" performed with fusion ships. Allocate full power to tractors, speed, and reinforcements, none to weapons. Anchor the other guy, and EmerDecel. Take his alpha strike on the reinforced shields. Set speed zero, charge suicide overload. By the time the enemy charges enough to break your tractor, your suicide overload should be ready. Pound enemy ship into scrap. 22.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Hydran ships are ALL short on transporter. Use assault shuttles when you need to capture targets, and recall the fighters so you don't blow up the target first. Hydran ships tend to have Ph-2's instead of the more powerful ph- 1's. Some of the shortcomings were addressed by the refit. 22.2.1 Frigates Hydran frigates are very fragile, and REALLY needs power. The Hellbore-version have so little crunch-power, you need phasers just to make a dent in the enemy's shields. And with only ph-2's, you need to be very close. The fusion-armed version is a bit better, but still not enough power to overload AND fly at good speed. You CAN fire fusion beams at range 8, but it doesn't do that much damage. It has gotten so divisive that Hydrans have to produce "combo" class that has both fusion beam and hellbore as "leaders". Then they tend to make 3 versions of that... equal, more Hellbore, more Fusion. The Gendarme has 2 fighters as firepower supplements. Don't expect them to kill the enemy for you. Perhaps this is where the Feds get the idea for the "police carrier"? Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. You can't survive for long in a frigate. The DWF/DWH/DWL triumvirate is basically built up versions of Hunter, Cuirassier, and Crusader, respectively, to a war destroyer. The EH (all phasers) has less power problems, but less crunch power. The CVE only carries 4 fighters, and thus are not that interesting. H-GEN Gendarme Police Ship FRIGATE (Fu) H-GEN+ Gendarme Police Ship (plus FRIGATE (Fu) refit) H-SC Scout SPECIAL H-HN Hunter Frigate FRIGATE (Fu) H-HNG Commando Hunter Frigate SPECIAL H-CU Cuirassier Frigate FRIGATE (He) H-CRU Crusader Frigate Leader FRIGATE (both) H-EH Escort Hunter Frigate FRIGATE (phaser) H-DWF War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER (Fu) H-DWH Rhino Hunter War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER (He) H-DWL Lion Hunter Destroyer Leader WAR_DESTROYER (Both) H-CVE Scythian Escort Carrier CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 22.2.2 Destroyers and light cruisers Again, the Hydrans divide the ships to 3 classes... fusion, hellbore, leader (both). There are a few "escort" versions, but those are pretty rare, as most Hydran ships are "casual" carriers that carries a few fighters. The three destroyer leaders carry both Hellbores and Fusion Beams. The three variants started from slightly different starting points. Warrior is the best of the 3, as it carries 2 Fu, 2 Hb, 1 more phaser, and 2 fighters. Hydrans quickly realized that their destroyers were too small to survive in heavier engagements. So they quickly moved to "light cruiser" and later expanded them into "medium cruisers". The medium cruisers all mount mixed weaponry, but usually they are still "leaning" toward one side. Some have more Hellbores, others have more Fusion Beams. Tartar and Apache do not carry fighters, thus loses a bit of the punch. The fusion-armed cruisers are more powerful up close, but you really want a "mixed" ship. In general, you beat down a shield with the fusion beams and/or phasers, then use hellbore to strip the other ship by exploiting "hit any down shield" feature. When the enemy is severely damaged, you start closing in and kill it with overloaded hellbores and fusion beams. The escort variants can carry up to 4 fighters. They are meant to protect the carrier(s). H-LN Lancer Destroyer DESTROYER (Fu) H-LN+ Lancer Destroyer (plus-refit) DESTROYER (Fu) H-LNG Commando Lancer SPECIAL H-LNG+ Commando Lancer (plus-refit) SPECIAL H-KN Knight Destroyer DESTROYER (He) H-KN+ Knight Destroyer (plus-refit) DESTROYER (He) H-DE Destroyer Escort DESTROYER (Ph) H-DE+ Destroyer Escort (plus-refit) DESTROYER (Ph) H-CNT Count Destroyer Leader DESTROYER (Both) H-ERL Earl Destroyer Leader DESTROYER (Both) H-WAR Warrior Destroyer Leader DESTROYER (Both) H-SR Outrider Survey Ship DESTROYER H-SR+ Outrider Survey Ship (plus-refit) DESTROYER H-HR Horseman War Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Fu) H-HR+ Horseman War Cruiser (plus-refit) LIGHT_CRUISER (Fu) H-TR Traveler Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (He) H-TR+ Traveler Light Cruiser (plus- LIGHT_CRUISER (He) refit) H-NSC Chasseur New Scout Cruiser SPECIAL H-NSC+ Chasseur New Scout Cruiser (plus- SPECIAL refit) H-CAT Cataphract Commando Cruiser SPECIAL H-NEC New Escort Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Ph) H-NEC+ New Escort Cruiser (plus-refit) LIGHT_CRUISER (Ph) H-BAR Baron Light Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Both) H-MNG Mongol Medium Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Both) H-COM Comanche Medium Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Both) H-TAR Tartar Medium Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Both) H-APA Apache Medium Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER (Both) NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 22.2.3 Heavy Cruisers There are basically three classes of heavy cruisers: new heavy (built up from the medium cruisers), the regular heavy cruisers, and the heavy battlecruisers. Even in these large ships, the division between fusion and hellbore continues. All these ships mount a mix of them, most classes lean to one side or the other. Hydran cruisers are quite solidly built and have the power to move and fight properly. Almost all of them carry some fighters (the carriers obviously carry more). H-MHK Mohawk New Heavy Cruiser (Fu) NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER H-CHY Cheyenne New Heavy Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER H-IRQ Iroquois New Heavy Cruiser (He) NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER H-SUI Sioux New Command Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER H-UH Uhlan Carrier CARRIER H-UH+ Uhlan Carrier (plus refit) CARRIER H-NVL Trooper New Light Carrier CARRIER H-NVL+ Trooper New Light Carrier (plus CARRIER refit) H-COS Cossack Medium Carrier CARRIER H-RN Ranger Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER H-RN+ Ranger Cruiser (plus refit) HEAVY_CRUISER H-LC Lord Commander Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER H-DG Dragoon Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER H-DG+ Dragoon Cruiser (plus refit) HEAVY_CRUISER H-LM Lord Marshal Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER H-LB Lord Bishop Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER H-D7H Modified Klingon Battlecruiser SPECIAL H-CHA Lord Admiral Command Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER H-CHC Lord Cardinal Heavy Command HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER Cruiser H-OV Overlord Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER H-OS Overseer Battle Carrier CARRIER H-CAV Cavalier Heavy Carrier CARRIER H-CAV+ Cavalier Heavy Carrier (plus CARRIER refit) NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. A footnote... The D7H is a captured Klingon D-7 converted to Hydran technology. It doesn't fly that well, and is mainly to make Klingons look bad. Overseer is the 'carrier' conversion of Overlord. 22.2.4 Dreadnoughts and Battleships H-PAL Paladin Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT H-PAL+ Paladin Dreadnought (plus DREADNOUGHT refit) H-PAH Paladin Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT H-IC Iron Chancellor CVA CARRIER H-IC+ Iron Chancellor CVA (plus CARRIER refit) H-ID Iron Duke Fleet Carrier CARRIER H-MNR Monarch Battleship BATTLESHIP H-MNV Monarch-V Heavy Carrier BATTLESHIP / CARRIER The Paladin DN is a very decent ship if a bit weak in crunch power, but up close you can always use the fusion beams. The "heavy" version added more phasers. The "Iron Duke" is basically an expanded "Iron Chancellor" with a few more power, and retained some heavy weapons (4 Hellbores). They can't call it a battle carrier (that's for a battlecruiser converted to carrier), so it's called a "fleet carrier". These big ships can carry up to 4 groups of 4 fighters each, for total of 16 fighters. Each fighter is equipped with ph-G's and perhaps Hellbores. As a group, they can be quite dangerous. 22.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES Here's some discussion on fighting special enemies. 22.3.1 Federation / Mirak / Gorn These are normally your allies, so you wouldn't be fighting them. However, it's nice to know your enemy's weaknesses. The Feds usually have lousy maneuverability and their crunch power doesn't QUITE measure up to your fusion beams. After you give him a good alpha strike pull back and use hellbore to exploit the down shield, while stay away from his prox photons. Mirak has a LOT of drones, but you should have ph-G for defense. Reserve them and the tractors and you should be drone-proof. Then it's just a matter of killing a drone-less Mirak. Keep your speed at the same speed as the drones. The fighters defend themselves quite well against drone swarms and will defend you also. Gorn has lousy maneuverability and your phasers can make a dent in those plasmas. Keep your speed up and reserve those ph-Gs for point-defense. Fly like a Klingon, dance at long-range and "plink" them to death. Think of them as clumsier Romulans. 22.3.2 ISC You should fight ISC like Romulans. To be completed. 22.3.3 Romulans Hydrans against Romulans can be a tough fight, as Hydrans usually don't fight Rommies. (Wrong front.) The fighters can be quite useful to surround cloaked ships so they get a beating while trying to decloak. Then the Rommie gets a rude choice... Shoot the torpedo at the fighters while you swoop in, or shoot the torpedo at you and get plinked by the fighters. Keep your speed up and watch for those torpedoes. You have enough phaser power to reduce the impact, but you will take damage. When the enemy is recharging, get in there and give them a licking at point-blank range. Use your fighters to keep them busy while you recharge. 22.3.4 Lyrans Lyrans with their ESG can be bad for the fighters. Set fighters to harass and use Hellbores to bring down the ESG. Then close in for the point-blank fusion beam fusillade. At close range your fusion beams beat his disruptors. Consider launching the fighters AFTER you made your first pass. 22.3.5 Orions Orions can be armed with just about anything. 22.3.6 Monsters Hydrans typically have problem with the plasma-armed monsters (who doesn't?). Other monsters are pretty easy to kill with fighters' help. 23 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 can reach. ISC ships are pretty decent. 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. Smaller ISC ships gets plasma torpedoes instead, and usually in smaller calibers than other plasma powers. ISC ships tend to be the most expensive of all, even MORE expensive than the Feds, mainly due to those rear plas-I launchers of the Z variants. ISC is vulnerable to drone swarms. Reserve phasers and tractors for drone defense. ISC is vulnerable to the rear, esp. against attrition units like fighters and PFs. They then embarked on a massive refit program that added plas-I launchers to many of their larger ships as Z- refit. The smaller ships get the W-refit which added rear-arc phasers. ISC does not operate plas-R. Only the Gorn and the Romulans operate plas-R launchers. 23.1 PRIMARY TACTIC Your tactics depend on which ship you got. If you got an all-plasma ship, you can fly like a Romulan or a Gorn, but with better rear-arc firepower (if you got one of those Z-variant ships). If you got a PPD ship, go passive and strip the front shields from the approaching enemy ships, then feed them the torpedoes. 23.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS When ISC started their War of Pacification, they quickly discovered that their ships aren't really THAT superior to the other ships once the "surprise" wore off. They then went on a hurried ship improvement program, and ended up with FOUR of them: the P refit, the W refit, Y refit, and the Z refit. The P-refit replaced half of the heavy plasma launchers with PPDs. The plasma long-range firepower really isn't that good, so some were converted to the P variant to improve long-range firepower. The W-refit added some phasers for rear-arc coverage. This is mainly for the smaller ships who need to tackle rear-arc threats and can't receive the Z refit. The Y-refit updated plas-G launchers to plas-S. This improved firepower quite a bit. The Z refit, only for larger ships, added the rear plas-I launchers. This significantly increased the BPV of the ships, at least on paper. In reality, the plas-I launchers have severe tactical limitations against ship-sized targets. ISC ships, in general, are EXPENSIVE. A light cruiser is 1000, and a full-fledged cruiser is 1700-2000. 23.2.1 Frigates and Destroyers ISC frigates are about your "average" frigate, but seem to have VERY little crew. It is EASY to capture one if you have 3 or more transporters. The FFE isn't that bad as it's an extremely fast "phaser boat". The pl-D isn't that useful against non-drone races, but the phasers cycle fast and do lots of damage. You should consider upgrade to CL quickly. The DDG has more "crunch power" and thus is the most desirable one here. I-POL Police Corvette FRIGATE I-POLW Police Corvette (war refit) FRIGATE I-EFF Early Frigate FRIGATE I-FF Frigate FRIGATE I-FFW Frigate (war refit) FRIGATE I-FLG Police Flagship FRIGATE I-FLGW Police Flagship (war refit) FRIGATE I-FFE Escort Frigate FRIGATE I-FFL Frigate Leader FRIGATE I-CDD Commando Destroyer SPECIAL I-CDDW Commando Destroyer (war refit) SPECIAL I-EDD Early Destroyer DESTROYER I-DE Destroyer Escort DESTROYER I-SC Scout SPECIAL I-SCW Scout (war refit) SPECIAL I-DD Destroyer DESTROYER I-DDW Destroyer (war refit) DESTROYER I-DDZ Destroyer (Z refit) DESTROYER I-DDL Destroyer Leader DESTROYER I-DDLZ Destroyer Leader (Z refit) DESTROYER I-DDG Plasma G Destroyer DESTROYER I-DDGZ Plasma G Destroyer (Z refit) DESTROYER I-CVE Escort Carrier CARRIER I-CVEZ Escort Carrier (Z refit) CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 23.2.2 Light Cruisers ISC light cruisers are pretty decent ships, if not too spectacular. They are comparable to Gorn and Romulan ships in terms of plasma power. They also have excellent shields. I think the Light cruiser, CL, is quite well built, and it has 2 S-torps making it quite flexible. The CLZ has the rear I-torps which are even more useful. If you want faster firepower, try underloading to plas-G or even plas-F. Those phasers can pretty hard-hitting. The CM has PPD and 2 G-torps, a good combination. CS only had PPD, not a good combination IMHO. The CPF and CPFW are the ISC "war cruisers" that were built up to heavy cruiser specs. However, they appear to be over-rated, as they don't seem to have that much firepower. I-ECL Early Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CL Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CLW Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CLY Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CLZ Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CM Medium Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CMP Medium Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CMZ Medium Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CSP Strike Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CSZ Strike Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CLG Commando Cruiser SPECIAL I-CLGZ Commando Cruiser SPECIAL I-CE Escort Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-HSC Heavy Scout SPECIAL I-HSCZ Heavy Scout SPECIAL I-ESR Early Survey Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-SR Survey Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-SRW Survey Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-SRZ Survey Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER I-CPF Constabulary Flagship NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER I-CPFW Constabulary Flagship NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER I-CVL Light Carrier CARRIER I-CVLZ Light Carrier CARRIER I-CVLP Light Strike Carrier CARRIER I-CVLS Light Strike Carrier CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 23.2.3 Heavy Cruisers and Battlecruisers ISC went through several iterations trying to find the right balance of firepower to combat the other galactic powers on the War of Pacification. Their Starcruiser class has no less than 7 variations (not variants, but improved models). And these ships are EXPENSIVE... In the 2000 or more range, which are as expensive as some BCH's. The armored cruiser is an odd duck as it actually carries hull armor in addition to shields, making it the only ship to carry internal armor besides older Romulan ships. I-ECA Early Star Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CA Star Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CAW Star Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CAP Star Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CAY Star Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CAZ Star Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CAA Armored Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CAAZ Armored Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-ECC Early Flagship Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER I-CC Flagship Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER I-CCY Flagship Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER I-CCZ Flagship Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER I-CV Fleet Carrier CARRIER I-CVZ Fleet Carrier CARRIER I-CVS Strike Carrier CARRIER I-CVSZ Strike Carrier CARRIER 23.2.4 Dreadnoughts The DN/DNZ has only PPDs, so the DNT replaced half of the PPDs with plas-S launchers for more tactical flexibility. I-EDN Early Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT I-DN Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT I-DNZ Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT I-DNT Torpedo Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT I-CVA Heavy Carrier CARRIER I-CVAZ Heavy Carrier CARRIER I-BB Battleship BATTLESHIP I-BBZ Battleship BATTLESHIP 23.3 FIGHTING SPECIFIC RACES 23.3.1 Klingon Get close to Klingon and unload the plasma torpedoes. Use PPD to strip his shields so the plasma can punch through. Let him come to you. He can eat the rear I-torps if he want to come behind you. 23.3.2 Romulan Romulans will fire a few shots, then hide under cloak. You have to rely on phasers... Overrun them while they're cloaked, and POUND them at point-blank with phasers. While damage is reduced, you CAN still take down a shield and do some internals. Repeat. Have weasel ready in case they catch you reloading. Use pseudos to encourage the Romulans to stay cloaked. 23.3.3 Mirak With plenty of ph-3s and tractors, you should be drone-proof. Just feed the Mirak as much plasma as it takes. Don't get caught by a Mirak anchor. 23.3.4 Hydrans For the fusion beam ships, stay away. Take out the fighters with phasers and rear-I-torps. Then shoot the ships from a distance of about 10, "cross the T" so you can shoot both front and rear torps. Rotate 180 and shoot the other side also. 23.3.5 Federation Add power to ECM to make his photons miss. Then pound them with your higher-shock value plasmas. If he want to overrun, stay out of overload range and feed him front/rear torpedoes. If he wants to use proximity photons, your PPDs will fry him. 23.3.6 Gorn Plasma vs. plasma can be ugly. Use Gorn's lack of maneuverability against them. Use high speed and both front-rear torpedoes to your best effect. Try to get behind one and STAY there. H&R /the heavy torpedoes. 23.3.7 Lyrans Stay out of ESG range. Consider turning off the PPD as you need to maneuver and PPD shots aren't that easy to make. Use plasma (both front and back). Keep the speed up. 23.3.8 Orions Orions can be armed with just about anything. 23.3.9 Monsters Normal ISC tactics works against monsters. Shielded ones eats normal torpedoes, while unshielded ones eat enveloping torpedoes. 24 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 ESG was designed to counter the Mirak drones. Lyran ships were notoriously short on power. Several of the refits added power, then more power. Some Lyran ships carry 2 or more INTs as firepower supplements, without being designated a "carrier". Beware of these "casual PF tenders". 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. 24.1 GENERAL LYRAN TACTICS Lyrans love the overrun so they can put their ESG to work. Lyran ships tend to have FA arc firepower so they can do the oblique pass, but their ESG needs overrun. Consider leaving the ESG off and do multiple oblique battle passes (like the Klingons), then suddenly reverse course with HET and overrun the enemy with ESG popped. 24.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Lyran ships have two refits, the plus refit, which improved shields, and P refit, which improved phasers. There's occasionally the F variant, which is the P variant carrying 2 INTs. 24.2.1 Frigates and War Destroyers L-MP Military Police Ship FRIGATE L-MP+ Military Police Ship FRIGATE L-FF Cheetah Frigate FRIGATE L-FF+ Cheetah Frigate FRIGATE L-FFP Cheetah Frigate FRIGATE L-SC Ocelot Scout SPECIAL L-SC+ Ocelot Scout SPECIAL L-DW AlleyCat War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER L-DW+ AlleyCat War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER L-DWP AlleyCat War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER L-DWF AlleyCat War Destroyer WAR_DESTROYER L-DWS War Destroyer Scout SPECIAL L-DWSP War Destroyer Scout SPECIAL L-DWSF War Destroyer Scout SPECIAL L-DWL War Destroyer Leader WAR_DESTROYER L-DWLP War Destroyer Leader WAR_DESTROYER L-PFT PF Tender CARRIER L-PFW War PF Tender CARRIER L-PFWP War PF Tender CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 24.2.2 Destroyers and Light Cruisers Again, power refits dominated the picture. You need to get close to use the ESG, and for that, you need speed. L-DD Leopard Destroyer DESTROYER L-DD+ Leopard Destroyer DESTROYER L-DDP Leopard Destroyer DESTROYER L-DDF Leopard Destroyer DESTROYER L-DDG Commando Destroyer SPECIAL L-DDG+ Commando Destroyer SPECIAL L-CW Jaguar War Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CW+ Jaguar War Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CWP Jaguar War Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CWF Jaguar War Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CWL War Cruiser Leader LIGHT_CRUISER L-CWLP War Cruiser Leader LIGHT_CRUISER L-CWLF War Cruiser Leader LIGHT_CRUISER L-NCA King Jaguar New Heavy Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER L-NCAL New Command Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER L-CWG Commando War Cruiser SPECIAL L-CWG+ Commando War Cruiser SPECIAL NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 24.2.3 Heavy Cruisers and Battlecruisers Lyrans are one of the few races that actually pushed their survey ships into combat duty. Note that the Wildcat got reclassified as BCH when it received the refits. That makes it one of the lightest BCH's around. Beware of its limitations. The EGO is ALL ESG, no disruptors. Not that useful if you ask me. L-CL Panther Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CL+ Panther Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CLP Panther Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CLF Panther Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER L-CA Tiger Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-CA+ Tiger Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-CAP Tiger Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-CAF Tiger Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-CC Bengal Tiger Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-CC+ Bengal Tiger Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-SR Prairie Cat Survey Ship HEAVY_CRUISER L-SR+ Prairie Cat Survey Ship HEAVY_CRUISER L-BC Wildcat Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-BCPP Wildcat Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER L-BCPF Wildcat Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER L-BCP+ Wildcat Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER L-BCF+ Wildcat Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER L-CCH Java Tiger Heavy Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-EGO ESG Global Operations Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER L-BCH Hellcat Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER L-BCHP Hellcat Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER L-BCHF Hellcat Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER 24.2.4 Dreadnoughts Dreadnoughts aren't that special, just bigger and tougher Lyran ships. L-DN Lion Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT L-DNP+ Lion Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT L-DNF+ Lion Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT L-DNPP Lion Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT L-DNPF Lion Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT L-DNH Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT L-BB Cave Lion Battleship BATTLESHIP L-BBF Cave Lion Battleship BATTLESHIP 24.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES Here's some discussion on fighting special enemies. 24.3.1 Klingon, Romulan These are normally your allies, so you wouldn't be fighting them. However, it's nice to know your enemy's weaknesses. To be completed. 24.3.2 ISC Consider turning ESG off except when you are able to arrange an overrun. To be completed. 24.3.3 Mirak ESG is a great drone defense tool. When combined with your phasers and tractors, you should be nearly drone proof. Definitely go for overruns. 24.3.4 Hydrans Lyran fighting Hydrans tend to use ESG as fighter defense, which may not be a good idea. Fighters usually won't approach close enough. If you set ESG to higher radius, it's less effective. ESG also interacts with Hellbore, thus giving you an 'extra' set of shields. 24.3.5 Federation You probably won't fight the Feds as they're on the other side of Mirak, but you need to be prepared. Feds like overrun with photons, so your ESG makes a good match. If he goes for maneuver, fly like a Klingon and pound him from a distance. 24.3.6 Orions Orions can be armed with just about anything. 24.3.7 Monsters Nothing too special with the Lyrans against monsters. Overrun when you can. 25 Mirak Mirak loves 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. Mirak have good number of transporters and captures with Mirak is relatively easy. 25.1 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. However, maintaining enough drones in their supplies can be difficult. In long battles against enemies equipped to fight swarms, Mirak can be depleted. Mirak ships tend to have front center-line firepower. This means you need to do either over run or battle pass. However, remember, drones are 360 degree weapons. Mirak ships need less power due to the drones, so exploit all that speed. Mirak ship has equal turn modes to a Lyran ship, and not quite as good as a Klingon ship. Mirak ships have slightly below average shields. 25.2 COMMENTS BY CLASS Freighters are discussed in their own section, as you'll never "command" one. 25.2.1 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 (Refit) FRIGATE Z-DF Drone Frigate FRIGATE Z-DF+ Drone Frigate (Refit) FRIGATE Z-FH Heavy Frigate FRIGATE Z-FH+ Heavy Frigate (Refit) FRIGATE Z-EFF Escort Frigate FRIGATE Z-AFF Aegis Escort Frigate FRIGATE Z-SF Scout Frigate SPECIAL Z-SF+ Scout Frigate (Refit) SPECIAL Z-SDF Scout Drone Frigate SPECIAL Z-SDF+ Scout Drone Frigate (Refit) SPECIAL 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 flagship has more shields at the expense of firepower. The frigate doesn't have enough direct firepower. Once it is out of drones it must disengage. The FFKs (sometimes called the "Killer" variant) 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" (not in SFC though), 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. 25.2.2 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 Destroyer SPECIAL 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. 25.2.3 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 (Refit) LIGHT_CRUISER 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 (Refit) LIGHT_CRUISER Z-MCC Medium Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER Z-MCG Medium Commando Cruiser SPECIAL 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 (Refit) HEAVY_CRUISER 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 as good as the Klingon's arcs. 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 (and reloads). Add your own swarm, and there will be 30+ drones at the same time. Not even multiple ESG fields can protect the Lyrans from that kind of swarm. 25.2.4 Dreadnoughts Z-DN Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT Z-DN+ Dreadnought (Refit) DREADNOUGHT 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. 25.3 FIGHTING OTHER RACES 25.3.1 Klingons Klingons operate ADDs, so to kill Klingons you need REALLY big swarms, and use the anchor so he can't weasel. Get in close so his ADDs have no time to shoot. 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. 25.3.2 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 and drones 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 goes down, the missiles from the scatter pack 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. 25.3.3 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 5-10 between you and the enemy for room to maneuver except when he's cloaked. THEN do overruns. Don't forget the "flash bulb" tactic. 25.3.4 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. 25.3.5 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. 25.3.6 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. Gorns are slow and cumbersome. Drone swarms work wonders on the Gorn. Stay away so you don't get anchored. 25.3.7 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. You probably don't even need a scatter pack. On the weaker monsters (the small ones), or space shell, you can close in and use overloaded weapons, thus save the drones for later. 26 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. 26.1 OLD GEN ROMULAN SHIP TACTICS The old gen Romulan ships have lousy hull, lousy turn mode, and lousy power. However, they have good shields, some armor, and very heavy weapons for their size. And of course, they have the cloak, and the NSM. Consider your battles as "samurai duels"... Like those Japanese samurai epics, ONE volley will determine who win or lose. This means you HAVE to look for THE shot. Spend your pseudo in the most opportune moment. One mistake, and you're doomed. Use the NSM in the underrun to force the enemy to turn a certain direction to help you disengage. Older Rom ships do NOT have the power to do the Gorn anchor, so don't do it. 26.2 KLINGON TRANSFER SHIPS The KR ships are decent ships... They traded shields and some weapons for maneuverability and survivability. You can now go for a bit more maneuver battles. Oblique pass and underrun are now possibilities. One possible tactic is the underrun feint. Do your battle turn, fire pseudos and cloak. The enemy ship fires his weapons and turn away. You then immediately decloak and feed him the REAL torpedoes. 26.3 THE NEW GEN ROM SHIPS The Hawk series are built for the oblique pass, and lots of maneuvers. Hawk series has good plasma arcs and wide phaser arcs. Maintain high speed, do the oblique attack, and kill those enemies. 26.4 COMMENTS BY CLASS 26.4.1 Frigates Romulan frigates and destroyers have 3 distinct generations. The Snipe-class is the old gen, the K-series (Klingon conversions) are the mid-gen, and the SeaHawk/Skyhawk are the late-gen. The Snipe series is pretty bad. You really want the K's ASAP. The Skyhawk and Seahawk are modular ships that can be converted into variants in minimal amount of time provided that the proper modules are available and yard space is available for the swap. R-SNP Snipe-P Police Ship FRIGATE R-SNP+ Snipe-P Police Ship FRIGATE R-SNA Snipe-A Frigate FRIGATE R-SNAR Snipe-A Frigate FRIGATE R-SNB Snipe-B Battle Frigate FRIGATE R-SEA SeaHawk-A Frigate FRIGATE R-SEC SeaHawk-C Scout Frigate FRIGATE R-SEG SeaHawk-G Commando Frigate FRIGATE R-SEL SeaHawk-L Frigate Leader FRIGATE R-K4RB Escort FRIGATE R-K4R Escort FRIGATE R-K5L Frigate Leader DESTROYER R-K5S Scout SPECIAL R-K5R Frigate DESTROYER R-SKA SkyHawk-A Destroyer DESTROYER R-SKC SkyHawk-C PF Tender CARRIER R-SKF SkyHawk-F Scout DESTROYER R-SKG SkyHawk-G Commando Destroyer DESTROYER R-SKL SkyHawk-L Destroyer Leader DESTROYER R-K5RB Frigate DESTROYER R-K5SB Scout SPECIAL R-K5LB Frigate Leader DESTROYER R-KFR Battle Frigate DESTROYER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 26.4.2 Light Cruisers Like the destroyers and frigates, you'll find 3 generation of ships here... Battlehawk and Warbird are the old gen, the KD's are the converted Klingon D-6's and D-7's, and the new modular SparrowHawk-series are the new gen. Note the one oddball here: Warbird. It is TECHNICALLY a cruiser, but it's really a frigate with a tremendous punch (type-R plasma). Of course, it can't move much, being a sublight ship. Battlehawk is actually a pretty good destroyer, being able to move at a decent speed while cloaked AND charge weapons.. The SparrowHawk is a modular cruiser that can be converted to different variants by swapping out certain modules. Some modules contain weapons and power, some contain commando barracks, some contain hangar modules, and so on. They are better than most war cruisers. R-WB+ Warbird Cruiser FRIGATE R-SPA SparrowHawk-A Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-SPA+ SparrowHawk-A Light Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-SPC SparrowHawk-C Scout Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-SPC+ SparrowHawk-C Scout Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-SPE SparrowHawk-E PF Tender CARRIER R-SPG SparrowHawk-G Commando Cruiser SPECIAL R-SPG+ SparrowHawk-G Commando Cruiser SPECIAL R-SPJ SparrowHawk-J Assault Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-SPL SparrowHawk-L Light Command LIGHT_CRUISER Cruiser R-SPL+ SparrowHawk-L Light Command LIGHT_CRUISER Cruiser R-SPZ SparrowHawk-Z Acceleration Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-CH ChickenHawk PF Tender CARRIER R-BH BattleHawk Destroyer DESTROYER R-BHR BattleHawk Destroyer DESTROYER R-COH Commando Hawk SPECIAL R-COHR Commando Hawk SPECIAL R-KDR Cruiser WAR_DESTROYER R-KDP PF Tender CARRIER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 26.4.3 Heavy Cruisers and Battlecruisers Again, the Romulans have 3 generation of ships. The War Eagle is the Warbird with warp engines, and it made do. The K series are the Klingon conversions, and there were quite a few of those. When the Romulans finally got their own cruisers online, they made great ones. The Superhawk, Firehawk, Regalhawk, Royalhawk, and Novahawk are very fine samples of cruisers... They are definitely a match to any other cruisers in the galaxy. While their original design was modular, the frame must be hard-welded (i.e. no swapping modules) to account for possible shock. They have great forward centerline firepower and a lot of power for other uses. Romulans see their plas-R as their "ultimate weapon", and they tried to get as many of them into battle as possible. Killerhawk was the result. It has more firepower and shields than some dreadnoughts, not to mention battlecruisers. R-WE War Eagle Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-WER War Eagle Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-SE Scout Eagle LIGHT_CRUISER R-SER Scout Eagle LIGHT_CRUISER R-CE Commando Eagle SPECIAL R-KE King Eagle Command Cruiser LIGHT_CRUISER R-KR Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KRB Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KRC Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KRCS Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KRE Exploration Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KREB Exploration Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KRG Commando Cruiser SPECIAL R-KRGB Commando Cruiser SPECIAL R-KRP PF Tender CARRIER R-K7R Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-K7RB Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-SUA SuperHawk-A Command Cruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-FHA FireHawk-A Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER R-FHK FireHawk-K Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER R-RGK RegalHawk-K Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER R-RHK RoyalHawk-K Command Cruiser NEW_HEAVY_CRUISER R-NHK NovaHawk-K Command Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER R-KCR Heavy Battlecruiser HEAVY_CRUISER R-KHK KillerHawk Super-Heavy Cruiser HEAVY_BATTLECRUISER NOTE -- the ships marked "SPECIAL" cannot be purchased for your use. 26.4.4 Dreadnoughts Romulan dreadnoughts comes in 2 classes... Klingon-conversion, and home-grown. The K9's are converted from Klingon C9's, while Condor is home grown. With the R-torps, these dreadnoughts are some of the best this galaxy has seen. The ROC is a REALLY optimized Condor that's pushed to near-heavy dreadnought class. Romulans had plans for a B-10 conversion, but no hull was actually delivered by the Klingons (who were too busy making their own). Romulans also were never really rich enough to build their own BB, but they had designed the King Condor. R-KVL King Vulture Early DN DREADNOUGHT R-K9R Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R-K9RB Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R-K9RH Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R-CON Condor Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R-CON+ Condor Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R-PRA Praetor Heavy Dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R-ROC Romulan Optimized Condor DREADNOUGHT R-K10R Battleship BATTLESHIP R-KCN King Condor Battleship BATTLESHIP 26.5 FIGHTING OTHER RACES 26.5.1 Federation Feds will tend to keep away from you as they know your power of plasma. They will seek to draw your plasma, then come back for an overrun. Confuse them with pseudos (NOT necessarily the first shot) and downloading. 26.5.2 Gorn Battle with the Gorn tends to be long and drawn-out affairs. It's been called "plasma ballet", except the Gorn can only waddle. Use your superior turn mode to get away from his torpedoes while setting up your own. 26.5.3 ISC Those PPDs can be troublesome. The "weasel decloak" may be useful to get within the PPD's myopic zone. Otherwise, fight with the ISC is pretty even except for your cloaking device. 26.5.4 Mirak and Hydrans You probably won't fight the Mirak or the Hydrans as they're on the wrong front. For Mirak, reserve phasers and tractors for point defense, as their scatter pack can deliver MORE crunch power than your torpedoes. Their drones are usually slower than your plasmas, but they don't dissipate. So fire from less than range 10 if possible. For Hydrans, deal with the fighters first, if any. Then consider opening with an enveloping torpedo or two to sandpaper his shields. Stay away from the fusion beam ships and pound the hellbore ships. 26.5.5 Orions Orions can be armed with anything. 26.5.6 Klingons and Lyrans These are nominally your allies, so you probably won't fight them. Still, it's nice to know a few tricks. For Klingons, their low crunch power means they'll stay away. Download torpedo to get into range. Reserve tractors for drone defense. For Lyrans, you'll just have to do your plasma ballet and stay away from his ESGs. Do NOT cloak. Their ESG don't care if you're cloaked or not, but plasma goes right through. 26.5.7 Monsters Romulans and monsters... enveloping torpedoes all the way, except astro-miners (who are also equipped with plasma) and Sungliders (who has shields). 27 Orions As you can't play AS the Orions (the OP expansion will be covered by a separate guide) this section is mainly as a tactical briefing. 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. Orions don't operate heavy military ships. The largest military ship they have is a BCH, and there is only one of them per cartel, as the main cartel enforcer. Each local "branch" of the cartel own a CA as the local enforcer. Orion DN, CVA, and BB are in the master shiplist, and thus is listed below for comparison. They are listed as "conjectural". The smaller ships, such as CR, BR, LR, and DBR did the every-day raiding and mercenary activities. Trivia: the DoubleRaider was really two light raiders joined together like a Siamese twin. Some smaller shipyards can't build the larger hull, so they settle for this. It is tolerable but not that good. There are THREE variations to each class of ships, differing slightly on armament. Some Orion ships may have a cloaking device. Orion freighter, the "Slaver" and "Viking", may make an occasional appearance. 27.1 LIGHT UNITS DW Outlaw-class War Destroyer DWS War Destroyer Scout PR Patrol-class light raider LR Privateer-class light raider LR+ Improved LR LRS Scout LR 27.2 MEDIUM UNITS DCR Hellraiser-class Double Raider Cruiser DBR Plunderer-class Double Raider CR Raider-class cruiser (light) CR+ Raider-class cruiser (improved) AR Attack Raider-class light cruiser MR Medium Raider-class light cruiser BR Battle Raider-class war cruiser BRC Battle Raider-class, Commando BRH Master Assassin-class new heavy cruiser 27.3 HEAVY UNITS BC Heavy Marauder-class Battlecruiser BCH Executioner-class Heavy Battlecruiser BCV Executioner-class Battle Carrier CA Marauder-class heavy cruiser CA+ Marauder-class heavy cruiser, plus refit CV Marauder-class carrier HR Heavy Raider-class cruiser 27.4 CONJECTURAL SUPER-HEAVY UNITS DN Grandfather-class DN (conjectural) CVA Heavy Carrier (conjectural) BB Battleship (conjectural) [Great-grandfather-class?] 27.5 FREIGHTERS SLV Slaver-class freighter VIK Viking-class freighter 28 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. The larger they are, the slower than move. Average speed is about 12. The small monsters have been seen moving at speed 28 to 31. Monsters are unshielded except Sungliders (SG's). They have armor instead. That means you can hit them from ANY angle. Plasma users should use enveloping torpedoes, as that causes FAR more damage. On a shield you end up damaging shields, but on unshielded targets they do all internal damage. 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. 28.1 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. Don't even come with in range 10 of this monster. Use all seeking weapons you got, scatter-pack is good. Shuttles may be too slow. 28.2 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. 28.3 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. The larger they are, the more hellbores they have. Otherwise they are not too hard to kill, esp. with seeking weapons. LC's (along with MT's) can repair themselves slowly. 28.4 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. They usually don't move that fast, so you can dodge them. MT can also repair itself slowly (like Living Cages). 28.5 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). It also has shields instead of armor. Stay at long-range and overwhelm one of its shields, then go in and blast it into pieces. It can repair itself slowly. 28.6 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. 29 Bases Bases and planets are the places where you get your supplies in Dynaverse. Occasionally you'll bee to attack (or defend?) one so it's best to know. 29.1 STARBASE (SB) 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 for now. Then kill the PF's or fighters. Arm all the scatter packs you can and perform oblique pass with ECM and EM. Then start launching overwhelming salvoes of drones and seeking weapons. 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 not take long to kill the base. Some starbases carry PF or Fighter modules for added firepower. 29.2 BATTLESTATION (BATS) To be completed. 29.3 BASE STATION (BS) Base Stations are simple structures that is not that heavy armed, but they have enough phaser-4s to make a big dent in your shields. Against a fleet they won't last very long, but they can damage a single ship easily. Visually, they look like a tripod with a box on top. 29.4 MISC STATIONS Other than the big three, there are also smaller stations like science stations, listening stations, relay posts, stardocks, and so on. Those are usually NOT manned or minimally manned so they aren't that important. Science Station (SBS), unarmed, some shields Defense Platform (DEF), a couple phasers and 2 of the smaller heavy weapons Listening Post (LP), unarmed, unshielded Stardock (FRD) [Fleet Repair Dock], unarmed, shielded, lots of tractor beams 30 Fighters and Fast Patrol ships Please see your "ManualAdditions.doc" to see a full list of the fighters and PFs in the game. This is a summary only. 30.1 FIGHTERS In general, fighters come in 4 models, light, medium, heavy, and assault. The difference between light and medium is minimal. The "light" trades slightly less "armor" for slightly higher speed. Heavy fighters are designed for distance combat, and are usually armed with long-range weapons. Assault fighters are designed for close- in combat and are equipped with close-in weapons. As fighters are improved, new classes start to emerge. The new ones are faster, tougher, deadlier. There are two types of drone racks on a fighter: a drone I rack (containing type I drones), and drone IV rack (containing type IV drones). Type I drones are fast... speed 34. 30.1.1 Federation Fighter photon is limited to range 4 30.1.1.1 Class 1 Hawk-I: 2 ph3 Jay-I: 2 ph3 (more speed, slightly less armor) Vulture-I: 2 ph3, 1 photon (1 shot) Raven-I: 2 ph2, 2 ph3 30.1.1.2 Class 2 Hawk-II: 3 ph3 Jay-II: 2 ph3 (better phaser arcs than J-I) Vulture-II: 1 drone IV rack (4), 1 photon (2 shots) Raven-II: 3 ph3, 1 photon (2 shots), 1 ph3 (rear) 30.1.1.3 Class 3 Hawk-III: 1 phG, 1 drone I rack (2) Jay-III: 1 phG, 1 drone I rack (2) Vulture-III: 1 phG, 1 ph2, 1 photon (2 shots) Raven-III: 1 phG, 1 photon (2 shots), 1 drone I rack (4) 30.1.2 Klingons Fighter disruptor is limited to range 4. Trivia: the units are named after "Klingon chess" _klin zha_ pieces. For more info, see the novel "The Final Reflection" by John M. Ford. 30.1.2.1 Class 1 Swift I: 2 ph3 Fencer I: 2 ph3 Blockader I: 2 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (2) Lancer I: 1 ph2, 2 ph3, 1 disruptor (1 shot) 30.1.2.2 Class 2 Swift II: 3 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (1) Fencer II: 3 ph3, 1 disruptor (1 shot) Blockader II: 3 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (2) Lancer II: 1 ph2, 2 ph3, 1 disruptor (2 shots) 30.1.2.3 Class 3 Swift III: 3 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (2), 1 disruptor (1 shot) Fencer III: 3 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (2), 1 disruptor (1 shot) Blockader III: 2 ph3, 1 disruptor (3 shots) 1 drone I rack (2) Lancer III: 1 ph2, 2 disruptors (4 shot), 1 drone IV rack (2) 30.1.3 Hydrans Fighter hellbore is limited to range 8 (wow!) Fighter fusion beam is limited to range 2 30.1.3.1 Class 1 Killer Bee-I: 2 ph3 YellowJacket - I : 2 ph3 Hornet-I: 2 ph3, 1 Hellbore (2 shots) Wasp-I: 3 ph3, 1 Fusion (1 shot) 30.1.3.2 Class 2 Killer Bee-II: 1 phG YellowJacket-II: 1 phG, 1 Hellbore (1 shot) Hornet-II: 2 phG, 1 Hellbore (2 shots) Wasp-II: 1 ph2, 1 phG, 1 Fusion (2 shots) 30.1.3.3 Class 3 Killer Bee-III: 1 phG, 1 ph3 YellowJacket-III: 1 phG, 1 Hellbore (1 shot), 1 ph3 Hornet-III: 2 phG, 1 Hellbore (2 shots) Wasp-III: 1 ph2, 2 phG, 2 Fusion (2 shots) 30.1.4 ISC ISC has no fighter heavy weapons. Instead, they use phasers. They also feature phGs when their ships don't have them. Interesting, heh? 30.1.4.1 Class 1 Restitution I: 2 ph3 Writ I: 2 ph3 Tort I: 2 ph3, 1 ph2 Caveat I: 1 ph2, 3 ph3 30.1.4.2 Class 2 Restitution II: 3 ph3, 1 ph2 Writ II: 2 ph3, 1 ph2 Tort II: 3 ph2 Caveat II: 1 ph2, 3 ph3 30.1.4.3 Class 3 Restitution III: 1 phG, 1 ph2 Writ III: 1 phG, 2 ph3 Tort III: 1 phG, 3 ph2 Caveat III: 3 phG, 1 ph2 30.1.5 Mirak Fighter disruptor is limited to range 4 30.1.5.1 Class 1 Viszla I: 2 ph3 Saluki I: 2 ph3 Mastiff I: 3 ph3, 1 disruptor (2 shots) Basenji I: 1 ph2, 1 ph3, 2 disruptors (1 shot) 30.1.5.2 Class 2 Viszla II: 3 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (2) Saluki II: 2 ph3, 1 drone IV rack (2) Mastiff II: 1 ph3, 1 disruptor (2 shots), 1 drone IV rack (3) Basenji II: 1 ph2, 2 disruptors (1 shot), 1 drone IV rack (2) 30.1.5.3 Class 3 Viszla III: 3 ph3, 1 drone I rack (3) Saluki III: 3 ph3, 2 drone I rack (3) Mastiff III: 2 ph3, 2 drone I rack (4), 1 drone IV rack (2) Basenji III: 1 ph2, 2 disruptors (4 shots), 1 drone IV rack (2) 30.2 PFS Only Gorn, Lyran, and Romulan operate PFs in significant numbers. They come in 5 general classes: INT (interceptor), PF scout, PF, refitted PF, and PF Leader. 30.2.1 Gorn The INT is called Pterosaur, and the PF is called Pterodactyl. INT: 2 pl-F, 2 ph-1 PFS: 2 pl-F, 3 ph-1 PF: 4 pl-F, 3 ph-1 PF+: same as PF but improved shields PFL: same as PF but improved shields 30.2.2 Lyran Lyrans call their INT the Lynx, and the PF "Bobcat". INT: 1 dis1, 2 ph2, 2 ph3 PFS: 1 dis1, 2 ph2, 2 ph3 PF: 2 dis1, 2 ph2, 2 ph3 PF+: same as PF except improved shields PFE: 4 dis1, 1 ESG, 2 ph2, 2 ph3 (wow, that's a LOT of firepower!) 30.2.3 Romulan Romulan PF is named "Centurion". The INT is named (you guessed it), Decturion. INT: 2 pl-F, 1 ph1 CENS: 3 pl-F, 1 ph1 CEN: 5 pl-F, 1 ph1 CEN+: same as CEN, improved shields CENL: same as CEN, improved shields ---THE END---