Tips for new commanders

[Tapsa]

After playing the game for a few days (and loving every minute of it), I've come up with some basic strategies that greatly increase the chances of success, at least for me. I decided to share these strategies as tips for new commanders who find this game hard or can't seem to beat any of the harder maps. Hope you find these helpful in your career as Space War Commander:

* Speed is essential. Your base is a ticking time bomb, so you don't have much time to sit around and build up your forces. You have to move quickly, or you'll end up without a starbase
* Your base is doing a fine job in destroying itself, so don't let your enemies help it. Send fleets to meet your enemies away from your base. Try to destroy every attacking ship before it reaches your base.
* Always have a Scavenger in every fleet. These guys can rack up some serious profits in the course of the game.
* A single Scavenger can easily take out an approaching bomber by itself (bombers only attack starbases) and pick up 5$ while doing it. So send Scavengers to meet approaching bombers.
* Destroyers are excellent in defense, but don't send them to attack that base on the other side of the map. The game might be over before they reach their target.
* Capture planets and mines with an Interceptor. If the enemies send ships to claim it, send a Scavenger as reinforcement. If the enemy ships are two hard for this group, add a cruiser for strength.
* Don't forget your trade fleet. On some maps you can do without freighters, but on others there might be very lucrative trading opportunities.
* Remember: Each level is different. Examine the level and especially its trade potential before you start. Usually I play a map for a minute, figure out that what I thought as a good plan doesn't work because of other races/pirates/etc. and retry with a with a better plan. Of course that might not work either, but that's why I like this game so much, you really have to build a unique strategy for each map

Feel free to add your own hints and tips to this thread.

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

Some very nice info Tapsa, thank you.

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

Oh and don't forget the mighty assassin, perhaps one of the quickest and most lethal ships in all of outer space. Assassin can easily kill any ship except the destroyer, which will require 2 assassins and a scavenger.

[jessica]

I have really been under-utilizing the Scavenger, and I see that this was a mistake. They are awesome! I tried some of Tapsa's suggestions and beat 3 galaxies in one day, today. I try to have one in every fleet now, even with the Freighters. Sometimes, the Freighters get attacked and you can make $ from that, especially if small things are attacking them. Just have a Scavenger in the fleet. Right now, I am using the Cruiser+Scavenger combo for defense. A lone scavenger can take out a bomber, but only if it has a lot of time. When those bombers are close (as in the Close Quarters galaxy, I think)...more firepower is necessary. I am a little worried about using the Assassin on defense because its so expensive. I've beaten a galaxy after loosing a cruiser...but I try to avoid the big ships now because it's so devastating when you lose one. I guess, I am conservative

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

Wow great job jessica, three galaxies in one day. I can see you are seriously hooked on this game also (fun isn't it). I guess you beat #5 OK? That was one of the harder earlier rounds. It is good to be conservative and very important to protect your base, however in the latter rounds you will have to invest in the more expensive ships. I think it is around #14 to 16 that opponents reddog and keeper starbases appear and they send nothing but destroyers. Reddog to occupy bases and keeper to attack your base. Good thing is they are very slow, so you will have some additional time to trade, occupy bases or hit them with some scavengers, which by the way are great for racking up money especially against the swarm opponent. But let me not get a head of myself as It sounds as though you are advancing very rapidly commander jessica.

[Tapsa]

Interceptors are the best ships to take planets/asteroids with, as they are cheap and fast. For combat, I mostly build assasins, as they have the best price/firepower ratio. And also they are very fast. Of course they are fragile compared to the cruiser, but a single assasin take out any one ship, except a destroyer. And of course I usually have scavenger along for the salvaging. Three assasins should be able to destroy a destroyer without losses, especially if they have a Scanvenger along with them. Cruisers are good when I build fleets for starbase assaults, and need extra ships to spread out the damage, so the bombers can do their job.

Always remember to watch your battles and disengage any ships that have less hitpoints than the enemy fleet is likely to do in a single volley. I very rarely lose ships, unless it's a final attack to an enemy base, when casualties are acceptable, as long as the target is destroyed.

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

Once again Tapsa you are spot on, disengaging is a very important concept. To disengage right click on the ship you don't want to lose and it can stay with the pack or you can also move it somewhere else and let it heal. The key though is you have to remember to reengage your ship because it cannot attack when it is disengaged.

[ChuckNorris]

I am glad I'm not the only one who takes a few tries to beat a level. It took me like 4 times to beat Starvation. I usually start by doing something simple like taking the planets and not trading at all, just to see what would happen. Then, I add new ideas on future tries as I see what I really need to do to win.

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

That is one of the things that makes this game so fun. When you hit a roadblock perseverance must prevail.

[Kruztee]

Assassin can easily kill any ship except the destroyer,

I'm not sure that this is true. I could have sworn that I have seen assassins getting beaten by up by cruisers in one-on-one situations. The high defense value of the cruisers can help it to get lucky against the fragile but tough assassin.