Don't underestimate the Madonnzila Class Carrier. Some people say that it's "not a real carrier". Hmmpph. A T-rex-Madonnzila-T-rex combo WILL destroy any carrier in the game. If the Engine Shield Bonus is at least 50%, the third T-rex won't be needed in most cases. It depends on the carrier you're fighting. The cost of the fighters for the Madonnzila shouldn't be a problem either, thanks to the Lizards hissing ability. If you play your cards right, you should have plenty of planets near your homeworld with natives that produce 2000-6000 mc every turn.
Build lots of starbases. Since your ships are relatively weak, you're going to have to spice up your defense with strong bases. Even a large fleet won't survive against a cluster of maxxed out starbases and T-rexes.
Minefields. Well, duh... Before laying a huge minefield, lay lots of overlapping minefields. Then lay a huge one.
Don't play in games where the default settings have been changed to your disadvantage(100% mining rate, no hissing, rob cloaked ships is on etc.)
Keep your colonists and natives happy. So start hissing!!! Unfortunately, it doesn't always help. I had a planet with 5 million colonists and 15 million Insectoid Representives which was being hissed by about 11 ships. The tax rate for the colonists was 0 and for the natives it was only 5 points past red. Then suddenly, 2.5 million colonists died and the natives happy points dropped to 69 from 89. Could it be a bug? Here's one possible answer:
The happiness change of hissing happens BEFORE taxation:
so in my case starting happiness =89
hissing: 11 ships X 5 =55
total 144 happiness
Max allowed 100 so real happiness 100
Taxation: X% tax gives -31 happiness
new happiness 69:
In other words, I must keep my natives happiness at least as many points
below 100 as I have ships hissing.
If you _KNOW_ your T-rexes and Madonnzilas won't stand a chance against your
enemies ships, then fill those LCC's with colonists and use your 30:1 ground
attack advantage to its full potential to put your enemy on the defensive.
Always use your ground attack if nothing else.
Start your offensives with ground attacks. A good first attack would be
you taking about 10 enemy planets in one turn.
Ally with a carrier race. Imagine a very close Lizard-Empire alliance...
The Lizards mining advantage will help the Empire churn out Gorbies the
same speed you build T-rexes. Any Lizard-owned tech 10 carrier is a ship other
races fear.
Keep Lokis at important starbases to fend off the cowardly Privateers,
Birdmen and Fascists.
Strengthen starbases by supporting them with T-rexes. This way if a carrier
attacks, your T-rex will eliminate its shields so your base can destroy it
with ease.
Don't always count on two T-rexes destroying a Nova. In one of my
games, a Nova took out two of them and was 97% damaged.
Most prominently the Falcon sticks out as a perfect ship to quickly bring
120 colonist clans to the front for a measly 100 kt of fuel roundtrip. Meet
with a cloaker and swap the colonists for bounty money, transfer up to 50kt
of extra fuel you brought, too.
The Cygnus is a good little ship on it's own and adds value with the 50%
higher survival rate. The fact that it can't cloak isn't a serious drawback
if it comes to lurking for enemy scouts or taking out badly defended enemy
outposts along the borders or for a low price mass assault to give the enemy
fleet lots of targets to hunt down in their space (good against the evil empire).
Also a fair transporter for high-end replacement torpedoes (with only one tube)
and mine layer at home. Prefer it over the Vendetta as guard ship as it will
not betray you by getting conquered, it's cheaper on the moly and needs an
engine less.
The Iron Lady faces the same problem the Vendetta has, it is easily captured
way before it would explode. Not a must-have but a cheaper mine-sweeper than
a T-Rex anytime and can lay mines in turn, too. Tow a low-engine T-Rex with it.
As to combining abilities, a combination of two or three RGAs followed by
Lizard ground attack is a very evil weapon.
Scout out the planets cloaked, lay some mines to keep rescue attempts out
and strike with Falcons which carry replacement colonists to refresh your
cargo load of nasty Lizard warriors. This works particularily well against
Borg planets that you'd otherwise would be unable to conquer alone.
Free fighters and access to the Rush carrier are goodies you shouldn't turn
down, as well as Rebels on your arctic planets or in your border area with
the evil empire, providing you with what you need unseen by the dark sense.
In turn give the Rebels Reptiles and Saurians to approach for RGAs unseen,
mine their low concentration minerals, cool their desert planets and hiss at
their overtaxed natives.
Writer: Armin Lenz
Serpent Class Escort
Neutronic Fuel Carrier
Reptile Class Destroyer
Lizard Class Cruiser
Eros Class Research Vessel
Large Deep Space Freighter
Vendetta Class Frigate
Saurian Class Light Cruiser
Loki Class Destroyer
Madonnzila Class Carrier
T-rex Class Battleship
I equip them with Heavy Blasters or Heavy Phasers and Mark 7s or Mark 8s,
depending on the amount of money and minerals I have. You should consider
building one or two with Disruptors and Gamma Bombs in case you have a chance
to capture a damaged ship. They're also great for capturing MBRs.
Raceplus
Here's what the docs say:
The Lizards have had a new ability added to their
T-Rex and Madonnzila class warships. This ability only
functions on these ships and only when they are under
Lizard control. This new ability is linked to their new
development of what has been termed the Chameleon Device.
This ability isn't that valuable, although if executed properly, it will
really take your opponent by surprise. If your enemy finds out the ID of
the "fake" ship, then the Chameleon Device is almost useless. I'm not sure
how Echoview(for example) reacts to the fact that a ship changes hulls.
If you're at war with an inexperienced player, then simply disguise a T-rex
or Madonnzila as a LDSF and fly around. Also, if you're at war with a cloaking race,
disguise a T-rex or Madonnzila(they must be fairly low-mass) as a Loki and
set a waypoint to a planet that's >2 months away. Your enemy might try a
cloaked intercept (the ship is not actually cloaked), resulting in you
blowing up the ship(unless it's a Darkwing).
ATTENTION!!
J.P. v. Bolhuis
Allies
The Feds
The best "torpedo" race ally. The Feds will probably want to ally
with you because the only way they can defend themselves from your ground
attack is minefields, which aren't very effective against your LCCs.
With 3 more fighter bays, the Madonnzila in hands of the Feds is just as
strong(maybe even stronger) as an Instrumentality. They are an ideal ally
for _you_ because they are the only race that is immune to the
Loki's Tachyon Device and they have more powerful ships.The Romulans
The Romulans don't have much to offer. The Resolute is a nice ship for
ground attack, mainly because it doesn't consume fuel while cloaking.The Fascists
The Fascists are fine allies. The Saber and D19 are the only ships you
should want from them. Unfortunately, pillaging kills the population, but
it doesn't destroy defence posts. The Privateers
I find that the Privateers and Lizards together are almost unstoppable. The
Privateers take out the Borg(the Gorns worst enemy), the Gorn don't attack
the Privateers(as the Gorn are the Pirates worst enemy) and together they
make short work of any other races. The Gorn can use LCC's to take out Fed
Loki's, and the pirates can rob them dry. The Pirates can capture, and the
gorn can clone. The pirates capture enemy ships, and the gorn capture enemy
planets. Keep in mind that the Gorn have Loki's, cloakers, and
all their ships can beat the privateer equivelant in a fight.(Biomenaced@aol.com) The Borg
This alliance would be VERY beneficial for both of you. Your ground attack is
basically useless against their populated planets, and your ships don't
stand a chance against theirs, at least after the beginning of the game.
A Lizard Cube is something to fear. The Borgs would also benefit from the
alliance; they don't have any decent medium sized warships.The Crystals
Other than web mines and the Emerald, the Crystals aren't
very good allies. They would love a LCC for laying unexpected web mines.
The Crystals have one other advantage: They have the onyx, this ship is
the only ship other than the Fed bohemian that can heat planets. To
make it stop heating, simply add one Eros per Onyx and it will
automaticaly stop at 50 degrees.
Secondly they can also use the T-Rex, it is much cheaper than their
Diamond Flame.
Thirdly they cannot clone, you can. Clone for them (they pay of course)
and keep a copy yourself (you pay of course) if you come across an
interesting ship.
Be careful about giving away a LCC to soon in the game. Alliances may
shift, as my Lizard neighbour noticed, when 2 LCC's full of torps and 3
MBR appeared behind his front line planets.
So only give away LCCs when you two have a definite plan. Rather give
away a T-rex then a LCC when trading for an Onyx. Tubeless cloakers are
also fairly useful. The crystals will want such ships for information
gathering. Say a tubeless Saurian with heavy disruptors or something.
The Evil Empire
-nothing yet-
The Robots
-nothing yet-
The Rebels
Of course any ship the Rebels gains value in the hands of the Lizards
and if it is good in general for the Rebels, it is good in the same capacity
for the Lizards as well.The Colonies of Man
Like any carrier race, a very useful ally. The Colonies don't have any decent
torpedo ships and their economy isn't that strong either. In other words,
give them LCCs, Lokis and hiss and cool their planets. Ask for a Cobol or
Virgo in return. Their minesweeping ability will really help you because
you only have one ship that has >5 beams.
Small Deep Space Freighter
Build these _constantly_ until the game reaches the ship limit. Only build
them when you don't have enough money or minerals to build a decent ship.
Equip them with tech 1 engines and colonize them at the approriate moment
to either get PBPs(before the ship limit), or earn yourself ship slots
by having more than 20 PBPs(after the shit limit has been reached). Read
Timo Kreike's
text about the ship queue.
Only build the SDSF for reasons mentioned above.
Other than hissing, this ship can be used as a simple money transporter.
But since it can't cloak, the Reptile is a better choice. Your enemy can
get lots of PBP's for free(when they attack) if you hiss with Serpents.
Build a few to refuel your ships at the edges of your empire. The usefulness
of this ship depends on how rich the game is.
It is a fair cloakable scout as long as it isn't used to confront well-armed
enemy ships or strong planets. As a hiss ship it has the advantage that it
has much better defensive abilities in case the tide of war is rolling into
Lizard space, it evacuates money, 50 clans and takes 120 kt of fuel away
from the enemy forces while preserving them for yourself or allies, unlike
exploded Serpents. You can also really annoy your opponent by dropping one
colonist every turn after he captures a planet of yours. It's also an excellent
way to find out the weapons on an enemy ship.
Unlike the Serpent it also has a value as a tow machine (with good engines),
also to tow out enemy freighters to capture or destroy them and against
lightly colonized enemy planets it can very well succeed in either combat or
ground attack, freeing up a more valuable ships for better targets.
The only advantage of the Serpent is the fact that there is nearly no time
where you can't build one to fill a slot and the bonus of hissing over a
small freighter, but it is a certain fatality if an attack occurs and gives
away free PBPs that way, wiping out the original advantage of it's construction.
The workhorse of your fleet. Fill them with colonists and send them to conquer
enemy starbases. It uses a LOT of fuel, so keep your frontier planets stocked
with neutronium. This ship should be equipped with Heavy Blasters(or Phasers)
and Mark 8s. You will need high tech beams because your enemy will probably
lay lots of minefields(you will get caught in them) to protect his/her
planets from your marauding LCCs.
I've read that some people build them with 1 laser and no
torpedo tubes to lower the mass of the ship so it travel longer distances
to ground attack. This is a little risky, since your newbie enemy might
call your bluff and blow your LCC away with a probe. It's a better
idea to play it safe and put AT LEAST Positron beams and Mark 4s
on your scaled down LCCs.
Climate controller. Trade them for some good ships. Build every other Eros
with transwarps and the other with tech 1 engines. This ship is cheaper than
a Serpent, so you might want to consider building them for Hissing. Eros's
are tech level 4, while Serpents are just 1, so if you have just made a starbase
that doesn't have much money, then build a Serpent instead. After you've
finished cooling the planet, you should replace the Eros's with Reptiles
because of reasons explained above.
My favourite freighter. The Medium and Small are too small, the Super Transport
is too big, but the LDSF feels just right.
Not enough crew, fuel capacity or cargo room to be worth attacking with,
but paired with a Loki it becomes a decent guard ship against a MBR for
example. Equip them with mark 4s or mark 7s.
The Lizards underestimated all-purpose ship. The 260kt fuel tank will
guarantee that you'll go a long way(it has a mass of 120 kt). The 150 kt
cargo bay is also enough to mount minor offensives. Before you send your
LCCs, use these ships to lay minefields, take out freighters and conquer
weak planets. Your LCCs will take out the more heavily populated planets.
There are a lot of different opinions about this ship.
Will decloak every ship within 10 ly. They _won't_ work against the Feds or you.
Have a T-rex tow one if you plan to attack a cloaking race. If you have
to tow it more than 81 lys, then don't give it any fuel. Your enemy might
try a "cloaked" intercept...
Build one for every three T-rexes you build. Depending on the HOST settings,
it will destroy any carrier if the carriers beams are uncharged and its shields
are down. 50 fighters should be enough if you're not fighting deep behind
enemy lines without a chance of getting more fighters.
Once you have enough minerals, then this is THE ship you should build. Make
hoards of T-rexes to secure success in battle.
Attack in this order:
T-rex
Madonnzila
T-rex
T-rex
Madonnzila
T-rex
T-rex
Madonnzila
T-rex
T-rex
etc.
I was told about the following bug very recently.
In Winplan all the opposing force needs to do is simply set their waypoint
to your ship suspected of being a chameleon device ship. Pressing the "V"
key brings up the display of what the ship is currently looking like
but below the image there is a button called "DATA". By pressing this
button
its true identity will be revealed. :( :( :( :( :(