Forum :: Strategy :: Some basic technique/skill/strat tips

 differ

Joined: Apr 5, 2007
Posts: 11

 differ

Joined: Apr 5, 2007
Posts: 11

 philhassey

Joined: Nov 30, 2006
Posts: 765
Location: Zarcon

Oh, and your AI cheats. When going in single player, I didn't take any planets, and the enemy didn't take any planets. The enemy sent all its ships at me, and took my homeplanet. That's not normally possible, and I think you need a better way to control difficulty than simply giving the AI more ships at the beginning/more powerful ships.

 gremlin

Joined: Feb 7, 2007
Posts: 48

Strategy:

1) Don't try to bluff. If the person you're trying to bluff isn't smart enough, you're screwed and so is that person.

Depends how good you are at bluffing :) I think out right lying to people is silly as they might well call it on you, but often it can be an advantage to look weaker/stronger than you really are. Also, sometimes even good players will defend pointlessly, so sending a massive attack that would cost you both the game can often force them to run even though you may not really want to suicide yourself ;)

2) If two people are fighting in end game FFA, if their total production (production - war costs) is less than yours, wait it out.

Or even if they're not fighting. if you get more than half the map make them do the first move. its gonna require all their ships to break through your defence and you can steal all their planets with small fleets whilst they die on your defences.

3) Team games with 3 teams is just like 3 people FFA. Try not to attack other teams unless you can take them both on at once.

4) If you try to turtle and a standoff occurs, you're screwed. Try not to have this happen.

5) If two people waste their ships on each other in endgames, backstab them both while considering point 2.

This is not always true, especially in 4 way end games. Unless those two players are exactly equal and have reduced each other to mere handfuls of ships its still gonna cost you some ships. If there is a 4th player who is stronger or equal to you, it gives him a small window where he has an advantage over you in numbers, plus you now have 2 other people attacking you, so if the 4th guy attacks quickly he'll have a great chance to win.

6) As regarding neutrals:

a) Neutrals mean you gain the production number on the planet over 50 seconds. If there's a planet with 70 prod and 20 defenders, if someone is attacking you and you don't think you can survive for approx 14 seconds, don't take it.

b) If you're directly fighting against someone else and there's a 0 neutral nearby, take it.

c) 0 prod planets are only for comic relief. If you see a 0 prod with 0 ships def, don't take it. It makes you look bigger, and you waste 1 ship.

Very useful planets if you want to keep ships out of the way from the fighting. Don't underestimate the 0s :)

d) If someone takes a planet that you barely take, you just got negative production. If it's startgames, the amount of neg production is the prod / number of players. If there's one player who's clearly larger than everyone else and everyone is going to fight that person, there are two cases. If that player got that planet, it's direct neg prod: a 73 prod nabbed by the biggest player is -73 prod for you. If some other player got it, it's ok.

7) Turtling is your friend. As long as you're quite sure you won't fall incredibly behind, wait for the others to attack each other and backstab everyone.

Boring boring boring :P If you're strong enough to attack, you might as well do it. The earlier you take out another player and gain their planets the cheaper it is.

The problem with waiting is that once the small players get a few hundred ships they can cause havok later on. And if you let them get into the thousands they stand a very good chance of winning. Most standoff games are eventually won by players who were small enough to avoid fighting most of the game.

8) If you can beat nemesis in rebellion (single player) consistently w/ Flt Adm, you're better than me. Don't bother reading the stuff below.

Technique:

Endgames 1 vs. 1

If the person you're going against sucks/is using a 100% attack on your planets, use the 10% flood. Do not use the 10% flood against bots.

This will only work if they're using 100% from all their planets at once with no direction. 10% is normally such small fleets that someone can send 100 from their back planets and have enough regained ships to defend by the time your ships get there. Meanwhile they're attacking with 10 times the ships you are, as most of your ships are stuck in the air travelling long distances or sitting on far away planets doing nothing. As soon as you do that flood you'll end up with vast ammounts of ships in the air with no control over them. If he then switches to 60% or so at the front lines he'll absolutely thrash you every time. I've never seen anyone win with that 10% "flood" tactic unless they already had a -massive- ship advantage.

If someone is using 10% against you, and you're bigger, use the 10% defense. Else just anti-10%.

If someone is smaller than you, just defend. Don't attack. Unless they suck really bad.

In a one on one this can be true, but the attack will gain ground over time if he's good enough. see thirdparty's post on "put your ships in enemy territory". In a larger game defending just wastes ships. dont let smaller players hammer away on you, as you'll be losing ships whilst others are gaining them. Instead just destroy them :)

Also, read carn's post "Don't Defend". Carn is probably the best galcon player around, so it's worth a read :)



If you're going against the nemesis bot, you're probably screwed. I can barely beat it (sometimes) so you should go talk to someone better than me, like lara.

If you find you're struggling real bad in a section, you probably have about 1 k waiting on a nearby planet. Bring that 1 k into the fray and you just won that section.

If you think you can max out the number of ships on the board and you're bigger than the other player, pack 500 k and send the ships running around the board (don't land them). It's a forced truce, as the 500 k will fill up the ship limit.

Midgames

Use 100% unless you're sure you can take on everyone else. Don't use 10%.

Take neutrals if you think a standoff is imminent. However, take into account the first sentence of 6a.

Start

Avoid all contact unless you can take out your neighbor easily for lots of prod.

Don't be biggest. I once gave up about 3 free planets (10 - 20) just to avoid this happening. Then when everyone suicided on the biggest guy, I took the planets and backstabbed everyone.

Being biggest makes you a target, but a lot of people wait so long before finally doing anything that its worth the advantage you get. What I do is get as big as possible, then  if all the players attack me at once I pick one player who I see as more of a threat and wipe them out whilst giving my planets to someone else so that they then become a target. Sure, you're not winning anymore, but you got to choose who  died and who becomes the next target for everyone. Big advantage :)

 gremlin

Joined: Feb 7, 2007
Posts: 48

 differ

Joined: Apr 5, 2007
Posts: 11

 gremlin

Joined: Feb 7, 2007
Posts: 48