Strategies and Tactics

General Strategies

Starting a New Game

Most info from: [1]

Early game strategy:

These first 5 happen really fast and the 6th and 7th as fast as I can do it.

1. Build Crystal Harvester
2. Build Cap Ship Hangar
3. Buy 100 crystal on black market (200 if I want a non-colony cap ship)
4. Improve planet infrastructure
5. Build 2 Metal Harvesters
6. Build Cap Ship
7. Build scout ships (as many as is necessary to scout surrounding planets) and 3 normal frigates
8. Send scouts out (set them to a nearby system and then set to auto explore
9. Build colony ship (if cap isn't colony ship)
10. Start assault on neighbouring planet
11. Max out fleet logistics with more frigates (for more difficult planets)

After this, start investing in Civics Labs. Always upgrade infrastructure on your planets as soon as possible.

Continue capturing planets and be sure to leave at least 2 slots open on EVERY planet (but your homeworld) to build at least 2 trade ports (homeworlds gets 1).

Notes:

Your first cap ship is free and can clear your starting astroid by itself, so you want to get your cap ship factory first.

After your first cap ship is done just scuttle the factory. It's taking up 4 logistics and lets be honest, you're probably not going to be getting another cap ship for a while. If you're rich enough to afford paying for the research, spending 3000 credits on a single ship, and losing 50(?) fleet cap, then you can probably afford to re-build a cap ship factory too. Not to mention scuttling it gets you just a little more resources, and frees up 4 more logistics for trade centers or what have you.

For more detailed starts for each race, see below.

General Tactics

Enemy Fleet Kill Order

If you find yourself in a toe-to-toe with an enemy fleet, you have two options. You can let the fleet AI determine which ships attack which enemies, or you can micro-manage the attack order. If you have the time and attention to spare, micro-managing is strongly recommended. In general, your focus fire kill order should be:

1. Long-ranged attack vessels. These ships deal huge damage, but are remarkably fragile. Take them out first to drastically cut the enemy fleet's damage output.
2. Anti-fighter escorts (if you are heavily using Bombers). If you aren't using Bombers you can safely ignore these ships.
3. Capital Ships. Cap ships represent large expenditures of enemy resources. Take them out first to deal a painful blow to the enemy's economy and fleet strength.
4. Support Ships. These ships significantly extend the life of other enemy vessels, by healing shields and/or hull points. Taking them out will expedite the other ship's demise.
5. Titans. They should be your first target. These ship have the deadliest weapon (e. g. Ragnarov's rail gun) and supporting abilities (e. g. Ankylon's mass protective abilities) their faction have to offer. And so, by destroying them you will deal a deadly blow into enemy's morale, economic and fleet strength. Usually after a titan's destruction, enemy fleet will be issued to retreat by their player because a loss of their super weapon (depending on whom you fight).
6. Auto-attack. After these priority targets have been eliminated, allow the fleet AI to take over. With their heavy hitters and support ships removed, mopping up the remainder of the fleet no longer demands your attention.

Countering Long-Ranged Attackers

Long-range attack vessels (the Advent Illuminator, TEC LRM, and Vasari Kanrak) are like snipers in a FPS. They will sit well outside the attacking range of most other ships, decimating their opponents. Yet with some of the lowest Shields, Hull Points, and Armor of any ship in any fleet. A few excellent counters to long range attack vessels are:

• Send Bombers and Fighters after the long range ships. Long range vessels cannot retaliate against the Bombers, so unless the enemy fleet is protecting their long range attack group with an anti-fighter escort, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Fighters are rumored to receive bonus damage against the light armor of the long range ships.
• Focus your own long range attack vessels on the enemy fleet's. If you focus on them, while their attack power is diffused throughout your fleet, you can take them out first.
• Close on them and take them out first. You ships will be vulnerable while closing in on them, but the decrease in fleet damage after they have been destroyed makes the trade off worthwhile.

Basic Counters

Ship	Counters in order of effectiveness
Light Frigate	LRM Frigate
LRM Frigate	Fighters, Flak Frigates
Fighters	Flak Frigates
Bomber	Fighters, Flak Frigates
Flak Frigate	Light Frigate
Structures	Bomber, LRM (esp. Advent)
Capital Ships	Bomber, LRM (esp. Advent)

The Advent LRM (Illuminator Vessel) is much more effective against heavy targets due to its Anti-Capital damage. (fixed in Patch 1.04) Heavy Cruisers are useful against any ship due to their "Composite" type damage, though they cannot target strikecraft.

Race Specific Strategies

Advent

Build Orders

TEC

Build Orders

Vasari

Build Orders