Starting Tips/guide

I usaly try to build 2-3 scouts right off, then set up my crystal and mineral extracters. After that I try to get my cap. ship factory up and get a cap ship up. By the time all thats done my scouts have found at least a few decent starting areas for me to expand to. (Forgot to mention I set them on auto explore). As soon as I can I usally build between 3-5 light frigates, group them with the cap. ship and send them to the first fight. While there in route I build a Colony ship and usally send it in when there is a single ship left.

I still tend to have resource issues at times but I've yet to find a better way of doing things. I would love to hear what others think as well.

Your first capship is free, you want to get it as soon as possible. That will help a lot against creeps.

After that, remember Cap ships are super expensive, but they are by a longshot the best bang for your buck. So you want to get your first capship immediately, then immediately start thinking about when you want to get your next one. (Probably sooner than later)

Capships have neat abilities but don't think of them as rare hero units that support your massive army. Capships are the backbone of your fighting force that have large numbers of smaller craft to support THEM.

That was a big realization that helped me be effective. Use capships as your primary weapon, with smaller craft in support. Not the other way around.


Just to get some perspective, a single capship can solo most creep camps. (not recommended because it takes forever, but possible)

Get your capships up and running, and you will find the game is more friendly to you in every regard.

Perhaps I'm wrong in this, but when I was playing the game I found the opposite to be the case: capships seemed like overly expensive units that weren't worth the resources and popcap. I'd get the freebie capship, but rarely more than that - in fact if the freebie died I rarely replaced it.

Anybody else out there agree?

I'm half way in between.

In terms of pure DPS and HP, a new cap ship is on the very expensive end of the spectrum compared to nearly anything else, when considering the resource (both to build and to upgrade logisitics) and supply costs. Plus, their extremely slow sublight movement speed makes them unresponsive, strategically.

However, it's hard to quantify the value of their special abilities and their level ups (they become very DPS and HP efficient with levels). Plus, they arguably benefit the most from research upgrades and their "battleship effect" of delivering full DPS down to the last HP point makes them highly attractive.

In the end, I find myself trying to get more caps earlier rather than later, just because I personally feel like I'm "wasting" potential experience points if I kill enemy ships without caps in the fight.

Anyone know if battle experience for kills is shared between caps or is simply a flat value for all caps present? In other words, if a heavy cruiser is worth 500 exp for a kill when 1 cap ship is in the fight, would two caps get 250 exp each or the full 500 exp for the same kill?

I find a balance is needed alot of the time to be most effective, i like using cap ships, but i normally dont build lots, i like to keep balanced, as a more repair ships tend to keep my fleet alive longer than that extra cap ship, especially if you think how many heavy cruisers you could build for same supply.

True long term cap ship's are good, but for a quick investment i find more frigates and cruisers more useful for a fleet over cap ships, especially if your vasari with dark armarda, can give you a fleet for free, and use it, once it's gone another one will be sent and replace it rapidly, making them far more expendible than the cap ships.

Back to the original post, i tend to do similar to ravendreams tho i normally won't build more than 2 scout ships before getting the cap ship up and running. and i normally send it straight into a fight till my frigates are built and ready, as they're more than capable of soloing militia on most planets.

Yeah a level 10 battleship is going to rip apart significantly more "supporting" ships than the cost of the battleship itself. You won't really benefit from Capital ships unless you keep them alive long enough to level up.

That isn't saying that the rest of the fleet is there to support it. IMHO a great fleet will be a combination of frigates, cruisers and capital ships that compliment each other and counter the enemy. Each situation is different. There is no hard and fast rule.

As for starting off, I always find it a mad rush to capture resources and build up planets while expanding my fleet and research at the same time! Then making sure you don't over spend so you get clobbered when a pirate raid is impending.

It's a very fine balancing act. Remember there are at least 4 resources you need to consider. Do I have enough money, metal, crystal and pop cap. That's even a simplistic view.

The way I start:
0) build collectors, crystal first
1) Build 2-3 scouts
2) build cap ship factory -> build the cap ship with colonize ability.
3) build civil research lab.
4) go for the easiest fight withe cap ship and get that asteroid to make you some crystals.,,
......................
x) build like mad, and try to grab as many planets as you can

other tips: when going against pirates or opponents build divers, never go with a single type of ships... you'll get shredded to pieces...

My best combo... capital ships/ 20-40 missiles/ 20-40 flacks(never go without flacks)/10-20 heavy frigates

I had no idea the first cap ship was free...that will help me out big time. i was wondering how the NPCs got their caps so quick.

At wha tpoint do you guys start upgrading the population aspects of the planets? (forgot the name for it)

As Vasari, what is the best cap ship for your first?

. . . isn't there a million of these threads . . . ?

Anyway, I prefer to start out with the "attack" cap ship (name slips me at the moment). I let it sit out front and rake in the experience by killing pirates. Which, btw, in early game, let the pirates attack you. The experience is vital and in the beginning they aren't more than annoyance.

Other people like the colony caps, but I prefer to just send a colony frigate.

My start is

* All mining structures
* Three Scouts, set to auto-explore
* Cap Ship Factory, then the Colonizer cap ship
* Create fleet from cap ship
* Upgrade cap-ships conolize ability and create bombers
* Set rally point on fleet
* Send cap ship all by it self to the nearest most valuable planet. Even if they have like 6 ships they're not going to destroy your cap before help arrives.
* Create as many light frigate/disciples as I can and they will auto-join the fight.
* After building all your Light Frigates, save up and build 2 civilian labs, then queue whatever colonize tech you need.
* When your cap ship gets to destination, Sometimes the cap ship will auto-colonize the planet. If that happens then build a defense turret right out range of combat, then when it's finished send your ships close to it so the enemies come within range.
* Then repeat with two or three more planets, and go into a build/turtle mode.

Possibly, if so then the search feature is broken.

Appreciate the input guys.

I guess I just have this strange urge to see the whole playfield before I commit myself to an area. That and I like to have my scouts drop into other players zones off and on to see what they may be up to. Doesn't always do me that much good in the long run but gives me and idea to how there playing. That way if I loose the match I can at least walk away with an idea how I lost and what to do about it latter.

I haven't got hard proof, but in my experiences, it's shared.

I'll look for proof on this later; but hopefully speculation is good enough for now.

This is where I'm leaning, as well. I keep feeling like my newer caps take a lot more battles to get to even level 2 or 3, probably because my earlier caps are in the fight as well.

My start is different.

1) Build cap ship factory (Get your cap ship factory first to get your cap ship sooner. I take advantage of the fact that the first cap ship is free, and that it is my best bet to capture asteroids even sooner. This will result in getting the mines on your asteroid or second planet much earlier, and will make up for building the mines on your home world slightly later than usual.)
Build 2 scouts
Upgrade population limit of home planet (Your home planet is almost solely responsible for your credit income early game; adding 40% extra population should result in a 40% increase in your credit income!)

2) Build Capitol ship, preferably one that has an awesome lv 6 ability (this will be the ship most likely to get to level 6+). I like to build a carrier cap ship, but any one with a good 6+ ability is equally valid.
Build a colony frigate
Build mines at home world (DO THIS AS SOON AS OR BEFORE CAP FACTORY IS DONE).
Scout! (Capture neutral asteroid mines if vasari)

3) Send Cap ship to first asteroid to wipe out pirates
Send colony ship to just outside gravity well where it can instantly be sent to the asteroid. (SEND IT AS SOON AS THERE IS ONLY ONE PIRATE LEFT IN THE SYSTEM)
Keep scouting!!!
Start making light frigates (set the rally point on your cap ship or otherwise where the frigates will be needed later.)

4) Acquire your first asteroid and have it make all of the mines.
Upgrade the pop capacity of the asteroid!!! (This will result in MUCH LESS NEGATIVE credit income.)
If you only have one asteroid nearby and the other planets require civic research to acquire (ie: ice or volcanic worlds), get TWO (2) civic research labs NOW. Otherwise, this can wait.


At this point specific species dependent strategies diverge. For vasari, I like to get a military lab at my asteroid and start pumping assailants. For TEC, I like to get 2 millitary labs and start getting LRMs. For Advent I get 1 millitary lab and then 2 more at my third planet.

In any event, this strategy should work for all three species initially and should result in maximizing credit/resource income in the first 10 minutes of the game or so. If anyone has any better ideas or wishes to improve upon this one please post.


With regard to capitol ships versus frigates, I tend to agree with much of what has been said already. I will use vasari as an example as I play with them most often.

you do not get nearly as much bang for the buck with cap ships at lower levels. Specifically, 5 enforcers is much better than one cap ship. However, as the game progresses it becomes necessary to have bigger and bigger tanks within your fleet. For this reason (because large battleships can "TANK"), it becomes necessary to build several larger battleships later on. Also, as fleets get larger, and because even though experience is divided evenly among cap ships, each progressive level of experience requires exponentially more experience to acquire (the idea being to maximize the number of LEVELS your cap ships have together), it is worth it to build several more capitol ships. I like to have around 6 in a large fleet. I usually have 6 battleship tanks and 1 carrier cap ship)

Furthermore, cap ship abilities, though difficult to quantify in credit value, can sometimes be quantified to a degree. The Vasari carrier cap's ability to "replicate forces" allows it to make 3 identical copies of any frigate in your fleet every couple of minutes. If used to permanently add 3 enforcers to your fleet every couple of minutes, this ability more than makes up for the cost of your cap ship after 2 uses, especially if your cap ship was free! Mind you, the ship has to be level 6 for this to work, and so in the end I must agree that cap ships are only worth their buck if allowed to level up greatly; however, one must also consider the psychological affect having many more cap ships than your enemy has on them (they may "think" that they will lose, and retreat, but only if they are inexperienced)



~Arcturus

Since starting structures and ships have been covered I'll give my 2 cents on research. Note I'm referring to human vs AI.

Every map is different, random being the most varied for obvious reasons. Each race has it's own tech and style of play, put this together with the varied recourses and confrontations and there is no set path to the top of the tech tree.

Whatever you are lacking, through some research at it. That is basically it.


Though shiny armor lvl 2 won't help early in the game when you are out numbered. Unless i have a very specific strategy (eg-returning armada) I put ship production first, once i am not in danger of being rolled over I will start working my way up the tech tree.


Once you are familiar with the game and a race, then you can develop strategies and know just what you want to research to get there. There is way to much randomness for anyone to come out with a step by step approach.

italia559...why do u prefer to build a carrier cap ship ?

1) Buy 300 crystal. (300 is the most you can buy without it delaying your start due to lack of credits)

2) build cap factory, crystal extractor and increase pop cap on homeworld simultaneously. Queue up your cap ship.

3) Build scout and then another scout when you have the money. Send scouts out as soon as they come out.

4) Queue up your two metal extractors when you have the money (you should hit 250 just before your crystal extractor finishes building) and then 250 again just before your cap factory finishes.

After that strategy differs depending on map.

Getting that free cap ship at start is a must.

On small maps its probably better to get the best combat version of a cap ship for your race, as you will encounter the enemy quickly. On medium/large maps I prefer the cap ships that can colonize planets like the Vasari Giant Egg.

I prefer medium/large maps, so I usually scrap my capital ship yard right after my first cap pops out. Its gives me a small return on resources very useful early in the game. I wont be building a second cap ship for a very long time anyways.

Combat-wise I use cap ships mainly serve three roles:

1. Some of the capital ships basically suck in combat, but have GREAT fleet support abilities. I keep them as far away from the main battle as possible, just close enough to be useful.

2. Many opponents will go through great lengths to kill your capital ships. If they want to focus fire and chase my capital down across the gravity well while the rest of my fleet pounds on them, fine by me.

3. Anti-capital hitmen. The heavy hitting battleship equivalents the three races get typically excel at taking down enemy capital ships. I'll let them go toe-to-toe with the enemy big-boys, sometimes with heavy cruiser backing. Meanwhile my light support units like frigates and carriers can rip at the rest of the enemy fleet.

First I want to clarify one of my statements. I said that the Vasari Carrier Cap's "Replicate Forces" ability allows you to permanently add 3 copies of a frigate to your fleet. A bit more testing proved that the ability only makes 3 temporary copies. This is still a powerful ability, especially when you can double your 3 enforcers to 6 enforcers early on, if only temporarily.


I prefer to get the Carrier cap ship because, though they are generally weaker than the "Big Tank" caps, they do more damage. If you get a carrier cap at the beginning of the game, and give it all fighter squadrons, then you can have around 3 fighter squadrons by the time you encounter your enemy. Fighters are one of the best counters to Assailants/Javelis LRMs/Illuminators and so having more of them (they do 200% damage to light frigates), results in taking down extra ships within your enemy's fleet faster.


Fighters suck against cap ships (Get bombers if you plan to target enemy cap ships), but (especially in small maps where games tend to be decided during the "everyone has long range frigates" stage) carriers will be more effective in taking out your enemies fleet than any other type of ship. Even in longer games when your opponent has heavy cruisers you can swap your fighters for bombers. This becomes a worthless strategy, however, if you opponent has a ton of flak frigates, defense vessels, etc, and so one must be exceedingly careful in the deployment of one's fighters/bombers. I tend to play games with 3+ players, and keep my fighters garrisoned if i'm up against swarms of Flak ships.


Additionally, cap ships with nice (passive and or area of effect) support abilities become much more useful in the late game (where having an extra 3 fighter squadrons doesn't give you much of an advantage). Primarily, I use carriers because I prefer to rush opponents to keep them on the defensive, and the carriers are (in my opinion) better vs. light frigates (like LRMs and Illums and Assailants) than any other cap ship.


Any other opinions on this are greatly appreciated. Please post.

Thanks for the helpful pointers everyone. I now see why the AI just wiped my proverbial floor in my first game.

How do you set a rally point on a fleet versus a location?

Click the rally point icon, scroll to the top of the empire tree at the left, click on your chosen fleet herald icon. I think it also works clicking on the top of the fleet herald in the main view.

You can also set a rally point to a particular ship in the main view and the empire tree.

And when you lose a frigate, you build another.
When you lose a level 10 battleship, you build a level 1 crappy one.

It's not worth making more than 2 caps except as advent. Tec and Vasari don't benefit from more than two.

QFT - if you're tec or vasari, please stop attempting mass cap rush.