The following tips have been submitted for temporary use until I write tips of my own. I do not neccessarily hold the opinions expressed by the authors. The tips published here have been formatted for HTML, and some have been edited for spelling and grammar by me, but are otherwise unchanged from their original form.

These tips are compiled from submissions by Kenneth Ho

Added 10-30-98

strategy:
--------

almost always, i play as the silicoids, in a medium galaxy, with about 30
planets thanks to Craig Fitzgerald's outstanding oreo program i found on
blaze's webp.   if anyone knows his email, please let me know
(klho@cord.edu).  i want to thank him for an awesome program. 

this is my general strategy for winning.  the basic, reliable  way to win
moo is to have a large production base you can defend.  it isn't
necessary to be the most productive in the game, but it is important to
be at least in the middle of everyone else.  

the most important weapon in the game is the planetary defense missile
(pdm as i call it).  without good base defense, you will very likely have
problems even if you have awesome ships and keep everyone pointing guns
at everyone else but you.

since the 'coids are horrible scientists even with the extra resources
they pull from no waste, i almost always put ALL research points in one
field.  my first field is weapons, and i stick with it until i get either
 merculites or stingers.  if i get mercs and i dont have a choice of a
better missile, i fight with it.  if i dont get mercs or stings, i rely
on diplomacy and luck to stay out of fighting.  if i dont get either merc
or sting, i get pulson.  

hoepfully, along the way, i get decent ground combat weapons, a range 2
energy weapon, and a decent bomb for all the time  and resources i spend
in weapons teach.

once i get a good pdm, i have a dangerous planetary offensive missle.  i
quickly research at least sublight (or get it from another race... more
later).  then, i build my first ship (excluding  colony or small laser
fighters <-i like these low tech guys that have saved my life in some of
the most exciting fights).

in tech, i invest every rp in trying to get a planetary shield.   once i
have a planet shield, either back to weapons if i was about to research a
better gun, or onto construction for kewl armor or armored skeletons.
once again, like weapon tech, the idea is to maximize base defense and
get some ground fighting tech along the way. 


mb
---
this is the general design of the missile boat.  a huge ship, often with
just battle comp 1, battle scanner, sublight, maneurver 2, and the max
number of mercs or stings or pulsons (whichever i have)(2 shot).  i strap
on the best range 2 energy weapon (ion, neutron, fusion, or even laser),
as many best range one's as possible, and at  least one bomb. i max out
all bays, first maxing missile, then range 2, then 1, then the bomb.  

i build four classes of these ships.  first class has one ship, other
three classes have 2 ships, for a fleeet of only 7 ships to start
conquering the galaxy.  as soon as a ship is made, fly her to a  strong
planet of the weakest race, and send all future missle boats (mb's) to
this planet till you've got it.  staying in the same place may allow you
to face their entire fleet on their turf,  which is desirable.  in a
lasting war, kill the fleet before the planet.  otherwise, a plane you
just took will go bye bye very quickly.  if you have a good scanner, send
your ships to any planet your enemy commits many ships towards its
defense.

if your enemy planet has merc or  faster, watch which of your flight
groups they  target.  as soon as they target you, lock a salvo on the
closest fleet of significant size and push r for a fast retreat.  because
a planet is severly limited in only being able to target a flight group
at a time, your other 4 flight groups will not be under fire at all. 
committ them to the enemy fleet or planet whichever is strong.  if a
planethas most of its missile bases gone, and there is a small fleet left
behind (50 or so fighter... 2 large ships, 1 badly damaged huge), keep
your mbs there for an energy weapon fight.  

because you have the bomb,  the comp will let you fire both long range
and short range weapon bay and still give you a chance to move two spaces
before the enemy fires.    the theory is group fire and big titanium-huge
armor.  few flight groups that have been pounded with mb salvos can
destroy a single 600hp mb with one volley.  but with your 10 or so mbs,
you could take out a 100 points of ship damage with a round of all your
weapons from all your ships when its your turn to fire.  and if you're
close to the planet, drop those bombs.  this can accelerate your advance
on enemy territory.  

if anyone is interested, it takes 20 merc planet bases (pbs), 14 sting
pbs and 10 pulson pbs to take out an mb.  so if the enemy has less than
these numbers, you could fire a salvo, be locked on, fire another, fall
back, suffer 585 point of damage, take out another 3 pbs or 6 large
ships, and retreat with no losses. remember, hiding behind an asteroid
field destroys a lot of eemy missiles before they can touch you. 
remember, if the enemy has missile fighters or good engines, in addition
to their pbs numbers above, they can destroy a very expensive and
valuable mb if you're not careful.

also, merc or better is fast.  you'll have to tell one group to retreat
asap if the planet targets it.  i oftne offer them the s-pack 5 rockets. 
these are hyper v speed, can never touch me cuz they're so slow and im
fighting with weapons twice as fast.  i would exchange, but the comp is
actually smart enough not to trade for this powerful defense-mainly
missile


general rules for missile boats are that the fleet is to almost always
travel together.  remember: group attack is the theory. leave the one
least tech advanced (least firepower, oldest) ship behind for base
defense of a recently conquered plaent until that planet gets a shield.
(after i get a planet, first priority is to get a shield up, then sprout
ppl for further advance on enemy territory, then fact, then 9 or so pbs,
then teach time )

because the best defense is a good offense (and if you're only fighting
one race at a time in a sector of the galaxy), send all the other ships
against the next planet of that race.  try and take out the enemy fleet
before you hit the planet.  this is especially true if you're fighintg
the klacks or alks.  they are infamous for those annoying and brave
squadrons of over 1000 bombers or missile fighters and are very annoying
(that's why its best to fight the weakest fleet/race first).  

kill and hunt down their fleet.  you'll find that that the mb is an
awesome ship.  2 huge ships firing 20 stingers each at an enemy flight
group can destroy anywhere from 100 fighter to 10 large ships.  the mb
really is something to fear and behold.  its awesome firepower and hit
and run strategy make it one of the longest lasting ship in the games i
play.

i pick the weakest race first, a race with the fewest planets usually
(which most often has the worst tech).  fighting the weak is a strategy a
lot of people employ.  from the weak, just one key tech, robot 3 or a
ground combat tech, and the coids are a lot stronger.  

from this race, you probably have a better battle comp, or energy weapon,
bomb, maybe even missile.  no matter what, its time to build the fifth
ship class.  this is the most technologically advanced and most
numerous.  i sometimes have all my rich planets and homeworlds (Any
planet with a base size of 100) crank these suckers out until either
inflation kills me or i see that flight group is overgunned.  in some
games, i have 11 or 20 ships in this class.  

occassionaly, i build a sixth class, but only if there have already been
comets in the game already.  when i first developed this strategy, it was
annyoying to build six classes, then alliances come, i cant make any
fast scouts to scan ally planets (of course, who would pull a warship off
the frontline to scan a friendly?), explore new planets i can reach now,
cant move my missile boats to a comet planet in time... have to scrap a
2,000 bc ship or 4,000 bc ships...... 5 is generally best. onto the next
race.

with every race you take (or genocide) you're catapulted in tech, and it
shows. i usually am last in tech for most of the game before the mb, and
i can only research one field efficienlty at a time cuz 'coids are
horrible at tech.  but in taking a race with a bad pdm or bat planet
shielding or ground fighting, im in good position to take on number one,
whetehr to take his/her planet, or destroy their orbital fleet for bomber
attacks (more later) 

by now, after capturing a bunch of strong planets (a productive planet
the aliens have held for a long time with many missile bases, not a
'sucker' like a poor 10 pop world everyeon kills and dies for), expanidng
your empire, and committing genocide on 2 races in 10 years... everyone
does not like you.  they may even swing their guns from their enemies and
point them all at you! in cases like this, its not a bad idea to commit
the entire missile boat fleet to an attack on the race everyone hates. 
all of a sudden, hatred and tension turn into requests for alliances.  

and, if they are the strongest race, even destroying a large number of
ships may not necessarily start a war.  i once destroyed about 50 medium
meklar ships.  but since that was such a small precentage of their fleet,
they didn't care.  but everyone liked me.  this might be a strategy to
explore.  


the missile boat has a long life.  by the end of the game 200 to 300
turns later, my first or second ship i ever built is still alive and can
still do a lot of damage.  these guys are never really outteched by
virtue of sheer, brute firepower.  and the best engine at the time of
production actually keeps em competitive 300 turns laster!

when you think about it, this is a decent strategy.  dont keep building
ships that are going to be outclassed, have to be scrapped, lose money,
take ships out of the middle of battle, would be destroyed... blah blah. 
these ships are technological simpl, developed from defense research
initiatives.  they're really simple.  no shields, no armor, no specials
that i have to wait for/research.  sometimes, they fight with 20 mercs,
heavy laser, laser, and a nuclear bomb! and these fleets actually win! 

once you kill the weakest species, you probably have a more sophisticated
comp, better energy weapon, and myabe a better missile or planet shield!
by the end of the game, a missile boat you design probably would be so
strong, it would carry the equivalent firepower of all your first 10 mbs
put together with all the tech you have won.   thats the goal i have when
i fight in orion.  sometimes, i either make this ship the sixth class or
scrap my very first ship (hance, ponly 1 ship in the first class while
everyone else has 2) and buiild this new technologically advanced ship.


occassionally, when i can't ground fight a race but am at war with them,
i build my  sixth class of ship, the bomber.  this is a medium size ship
with scanner, best engine, and best bombs (or energy weapon if thats more
destructive), thats it.  with a fleet of 100 bombers flying together with
the mb fleet, the enemy usually first targets the bombers.  good.  with
teh scanner on board and with a 6 class assault fleet, you can tell the
bombers to retreat without suffereing one loss.  your enemies have spent
a lot of missiles and time and groudn in an unproductive attack, and your
mbs are closer for the kill.  in almost every game in which i fight the
buls, i leave them for last and commit bombers to them.  (I Hate fighting
buls)


my games rarely last more than 300(?) or so turns.  im sure some are
laughing that it takes me that long, but i finish the game usually at
robot 3, zotrium, planet 40, sublight, megabolt cannon.  for me, im
happy.  a good game, is a game you can finish quickly in 4-6 hours.  ok,
i play on medium with an only-number-edited number of planets, five
races, as the coids.


some other strategies i use.  i always think its exciting when a race 3-6
times my tech level declares war on me.  for instance, the klack declare
war on me.  i've seen what their darn fleet of 1000 bombers have Done to
enemy planets, and i have to strike or die.  i pull all my ships from
where they are, send em into a nebula, they are about to wage the first
battle on klack soil, a planet in the nebula for a fight. ever think a
purple fleet could sneek in there? hehe


 a planet inside a nebula has no shields! nebulas slow transports down
(sometimes doubling etas) but can accelerate starships!  no matter where
you are, watch for nebulas.  they can be achilles heels, or lifelines and
a means of striking a massive blow at enemy prodcution.  ive often
noticed that planets in nebulas are productive and at least 50 or so. 
never seen a 10 radiated.  thats pretty big and significant.

as soon as you contact a race, check the report on them.  even if you
dont have spies, you can tell what wars they're currently in, what
alliances they currently have, and leadership type.  all this without
the cost (money or hostility) of spies.  as a side note, i wish there was
enough room in the war section of the report to tell me which of 5 races
they're fighting.  there's only room for 3.  and a 'war screen' showing
me everyone at once and who they're fighitng would be pretty kewl.  as
most say, moo1 is a complex game the stimulates people to sometimes
scratch their heads.  also, a chance in the diplomacy converstation
screen to 'Make peace with another race (i want you to work with another
race you're killing in fighting this more dangerous race i'm scared of)'
option would be kewl.  do i hear version 1.4 coming out?!! (Ed. Note: this
was included in Moo2).

if you're fighting humans or saks or psilons, cehck to see if they are
honorable something, or pacifist something.  if they are, you're in luck.
 threaten them almost every chance you get.  no matter how often you
threaten them, they almost never declare war on you, they give you tech
far beyond current levels (for almost anyone), loads of money (often more
than what you can proudce in 1.5 years), and they calll off their ship
attacks on you.  awesome man.  this strategy also works on races that
have only one or 2 planets, or have virtually no population to count in
the status screen.

pacificists are even better.  you can vote against them (for a race you
fear/want to befriend), steal frmo them, and even land troops on their
worlds.  for this last one, they will declare war on you, but 2 or 3
yeasr later.  by that time, you've got their planet.  if you threatened
them recently, for about 15 or so turns, even if they have you severly
outnmubered or outgunned and your planet can be easily taken, they won't
attack you! they fear you even if they're at war with you! want a good,
real reason? welll, how's this: like a fleet sent on an attack after a
non agression, this fleet was sent after a statement that 'they dont want
to offend you, will call back attacking ships'.  this 'invulnerability'
only last a 15 or so turns.  so use this time wisely and get those pbs up
fast.

one word of caustion: if the pacifists or honorables have much more power
than you in the status screen and/or are in charge of the game (destroyed
many other planets, killed a lot of enemies quickly, or have thousands of
ships), this strategy will backfire, the ywill declare war on you, and
you'll regret it.


conquer all the weaks first.  leave the most dangerous (and/or buls)
last.  by the time the dust clears, 4 races are gone, you've 'assimilated
them' and its just you and number one, go stragith after their fleet. 
you've got to kill their fleet before they can declare war on you.  when
they're finially sick of you killing their pilots and they declare war,
send your ships to their weakest planet, which likely is war-torn, no
bases, few factoreis, a planet Everyone (execpt you) was fighting for. 
in group bombardment, the old mb fleet with only nuke bombs or fusuon
bombs can kill 10-15 million in a turn, and take out a planet in 2 or
three turns.  and the enemy has sent 60 million transports  to a planet
with no colony established.  they're gone.

occassionally, the 'scorched  earth tactic' is handy. like others have
said, this involves you takiing out weak planets.  enemies continuallly
send 60, then 30, then 15 transports to a world they'll starve and freeze
on (with no colony), their home planet is weak, they Have to invest in
eco... which means fewer ships, slower tech development, fewer mbs,
maybe even more successful spies in light of decreased enemy
productivity.  i would recommend you save this tactic if you're going one
on one with the last race.  believe me, everyone else will do a good
enough job of killing each other.  just watch and let them do what they
do best, killing each other.


ok, every now and then, a race develops shielding that renders my mb
fleet useless.  to this end, you still can take out massive  numbers of
ships, and fight other races.  hopefully, you will keep the enemy at bay
while you 'start over' with researching a new missile.  you might find a
better missile from a weak race you take.  

if not, unless you want the game to last a hundred more years in trying
to develop a better missile,win in the vote (honestly, dont you feel
guilty killing so many so quickly?), or research populsion.  get to sub
space teleporter.  build a medium bomber with scanner (for first attack),
and teleporter (which is so small and cheap!), stap on the best bomb or
energy weapon or spore.  send a few hundred bombers to a planet.  (a fwe
hundred meiums is puny compare to 10-15 huge ships).  you could just set
planets that have made mbs to anything but ship prod.  bombers come out
automatically.  i call this, clearing the counter.  with whatever remains
of you mb fleet, take out fighter defense, floats those bombers around
the screen avoiding missiles, decloak right behind the planet (away from
ships that went for your previpous location/mb fleet), drop those bombs
or spores, and they die.  no matter what shielding they got (almost), a
fusion or antimatter bomb can wipe out an entire well-defended empire
rather quickly.

war, is war.  if a race is dying, threaten threaten threaten, spy spy
spy.  take all their tech before another race in orbit wipes them out of
existence.  if you're 1 turn away from killing them, talk to them.  offer
to make peace.  the likely wont accept, but try.  if the ydo make peace,
you've got a lot of money in reserve you wouldn't normally get. (you
know, 1.4 should have a feature where if you land and take a planet, you
get their reserve). threaten them again, you get more money, or you get
some tech you wouldn't have normally gotten (esp if that planet has
suffered fact loss from mb might).  

and, a last word on scanners.  scnaners are kewl.  as a coid, i dont
think i ever put one rp in computers.  when i do get scanners, its in the
middile of the game.  i usually use my eyesight and lcuk     to pick out
enemy fleets and estimate etas.  something is to be said for low-tech
races that manage to stay alive in the face of 1000 klack bombers, 9 huge
mek ships, and changeliglings loose throughout the empire.  ok, one last
recommendation for 1.4.  scanners shouldn't detect cloaked ships, or the
designers should make an advanced cloaking device not even adv planetary
scnaners can see. (Ed. note: ships cloaked are invis. to scanners in Moo2)

ok, thats my contrib.  thanks for taking the time to read this. hope it
wasn't too boring.  thanks to blaze for making an aweomse web page to a
game i sometimes am embarrassed to play (cuz of its age, i play it all
the time, its slower than todays's games), and thanks blaze for putting
in the effort on an awesome page.  if you have any comments, i encourage
you to post to blaze's forum [maybe you can make a link here] (Ed. note: 
OK!-Msg. Board link), or email me at klho@cord.edu
id love to hear praise and criticisms (but mostly praise hehe).


happy gaming! 
Kenneth Ho


More Strats (By Kenneth Ho)

One Ship Rule: If you're fighting an enemy in orbit of your planet, and
you've reduced the attack fleet to one ship (or he just started with one
ship), retreat.  no matter if its a bomber, spore ship, or huge
dreadnaught.  most attack groups of only one ship cannot do significant
damage.  allow him that win.

the enemy will send 50% of its nearest planet's pop, possibly 5 or 50
million troops.  with the fleet you just had fighting with the enemy,
return him to that planet's orbit (after the fight).  raise a planetary
base if possible or sprout some new soldiers on that planet.  the enemy
troops will suffer massive casualties, in the air.  those that reach the
ground will be way outnumbered and killed before they can hurt you with
more than five or so casualties.  now that planet has a weaker pop, and
the prod is off.  expect no more ships or bases or a big increase in pop
to come from that planet.  attack, and fight their troops who are now
only 50% strong.  

here's an example.  i once fought the saks this way.  i had 10 missile
boats.  i left one behind to defend a recently conquered planet (which
had a pop of 86) Denubius, while my 9 other ships hit the nearest sak
colony, Klystron.  they sent in one medium fusion beam ship.  my mb could
have easily taken it, but i retreated.  that year, they killed fice on
the ground and about 5 transports of the 20 i tried to land on my planet.
 but the saks suffered casualties many times greater, in a very morale
striking fashion.  they sent in 65 million troops.  

by now, i had broken their defenses and obtained a scan.  from two other
planets, i sent in troops to take klystron.   for the record, i did not
bomb.

a lot more of the 65 million got through than i expected.  in fact, 30
landed, which was not the plan.  i wanted to kill em all in the air, than
on the ground at risk to me.  but i had now effectively halved their
ground assault and doubled mine.  a force of  70 million landed on
klystron to face their 70 (instead of 130), and won! the thrity that
landed on denubius   faced about 100 million troops and fell, though they
put up a good fight.  

the plan was to kill 65 million enemy soldiers (in the air), without
putting any of my soldiers at risk. Firing missiles and torpedos at enemy
troop transports  in the air is twenty times better than watching them
land on Your planet, popping out of their ship, and watching them shoot
at your men.  Killing em in the air is better than killing em on the
ground.

this way (by accident) was still effective.  i halved their ground force
and doubled mine.  i broke their army into two (involving my ships and
missile bases in the fighting), faced em on two fronts (both of which i
won the advantage), kept my planet, took another of theirs, and suffered
much less casualties than i otherwise would have.  

(excuse me for sounding a little boastful but i was very excited about
some new ways of fighting on the ground than traditional, "keep em out of
your space and keep the fighitng in exclusively in their's" technique)



ive always thought highly of the missile boat, a ship that the player can
construct from technology necessary for planetary defense.  except for
engines, you don't have to invest anything really toward ship design. 
the design is the max number of missiles (2 shot), the best range 2
weapon, best 1 range weapon, and any bomb.  this allows you excellent
flex.  you can move one space closer to the target planet, fire missiles,
shoot both range weapons at enemy ships (its still your move now!), and
either fall back one space behind an asteroid cluster, or move even
closer to the planet, or retreat.  

if you didn't have the bomb, after you fired your energy weapons, the
enemy can advance or pounce on you, moving a fleet of 100 fighters close
enough to detroy you.  ok, this may not seem a big deal, but in a hundred
battle scenes with six flight groups of missile boats, this does make a
big difference and moves your game much faster.

ok, the new modification i would like to offer is to replace the bomb
with a torpedo when you reach it.  when its a turn to fire the torp, you
have this flex.  if its not, you don't have the flex.  in battle, ive
found the torp to be a worthy replacement and a much wiser choice of
money and design than the bomb.  im not throwing the bomb and the flex it
offers you out the window, but i am offering a better replacement which
is more useful.  

as a side not, i notice the mrrs are almost always the first to develop
the torp even if everyone else is within reach of the torp.  ive never
seen the alks develop the torps.  they always leapfrog it.  the meks also
like the torp.  


ive read some players like exchanging tech.  i disagree with this
strategy.  no matter what you give them, it will always come back to
haunt you.  the meks may not make full use of the inert stabilizer you
give them, but they could exchange or lose it  to the klacks.  in their
hands, you're in deep trouble.  also, jus tgiving them any tech cccan
catapult them in a tech field, and bring them closer to a weapon mor
epowerful than yours.  once again, your exchange would come back to haunt
you.  and, as everyone knows, the comp always trades up, and you always
have to trade down.  when you look at the exchange in tech points, man,
you're undertraded by a margin of 5-10 times.  thats enuf for me not to
trade, even if the enemy is killing me by the tens of millions.  because,
if i give them that tech, later, i may pay for it in the hundreds of
millions from them or another race.  



i always use the silicoids.  perhaps this is a bug unique to coids, but
when there is a rebellion, i never see the funny looking 6 eyed robot
reporter say, 'imperial troops have vanquished the rebels from endoria'. 
my planet (similiar to the gaia bug) can reach max pop, and be stuck on
eco forever!!! 

moreover, lets say i have a rebellion of 50 million.  i send in 49
million.  1 million rebels remain, but the rebel planet pop doesn't
change!  that planet is still at a full 100 million coids even though 49
just died on that planet.  i send in 2 million and reatke the planet.  as
far as the comp is concerned.  that rebellion just costr me one soldier
on the rebellion planet instead of 50.  if i quelled the rebellion in one
wave, i would have lost all 50 million.  again, this may be unique to
coids.

as a side note, another bug ive discovered with coids in 1.3 is that they
can transport to a system 14 parsecs away if they have a scout in orbit
of your planet.  yes, im sure alliances are not involved.  that was the
first thing i checked with ALT GALAXY.  

this may be related to the use of an editor, but when i play agains tthe
coids as the coids, the bad coids always research how to land on tundras,
radiated, improved eco... they still can take a radiated 3 turns into the
game, but the idea that they are spending valuable resources in
researching tech they are born with, that enemies can steal (!), is
frustrating.  id love to see another patch come out just for the coids.



the best way to end a war is to fight your enemies enemy.  for example,
the bad klacks are killing my people from orbit.  since my ships are too
weak and few to force them out of my space, i take my fleets and hit the
alks (the trick is to risk a war with a weak race you can take if they
declare war).  i destroy many alk ships and bomb their planet.  since
they had so many ships and i did not kill more than 9 million of a 40
million planet, the alks did not declare war.

all of a sudden, the klacks are willing to end a war 20 turns old, that
they can win! their troops are shot down in the air, and im at peace. 
the alks did not respond with war.  if they did, i coudl have taken them
now that i can send more ships against the alks and i have 2000 bc frmo
the klacks as reparations.

Thanks go to my friend Mike for these tips.

If you put a sub space teleporter on your ship, there's no need to put any manuverability or a high-energy focus on it.

Don't spit into the wind.

Torpedos are worthless- unless you can put one on a small or medium ship and put 100+ in a stack.

If you can defeat the Guardian, you can take on anyone else.

Don't use the death ray- It's just an overpriced, oversized toy.

On harder difficulty levels, you will most likely start out with a smaller fleet. This will get you into at least one or two wars because the enemies think you are easy pickings. Try to get out of the wars as quickly as you can and keep the other races happy. Try to keep a nice sized fleet around - at least half as big as the largest fleet in the galaxy - and do not include colony ships and scouts in the equation.

Early in any game, a few missle bases will keep most fleets away. I would suggest that you have one missle base for every 10 or 15 million colonists.

Through diplomatic channels, try to keep everyone at war with everyone else but you. This will take a strain on their economies and keep them too busy to mess with you. Just don't start wars with anyone you're allied with, or you'll be drawn into it.

The quickest way to build up your population is to colonize as fast as you can and transport colonists from your well-developed colonies to the new one. This way, instead of having one planet growing slowly, you can have several planets growing quickly.

Try to be the largest empire, population- and production-wise. This will give you more people that can work on science and building up a space fleet.

Shields on your ship are not important and should not be used unless the following conditions exist:
-With your strongest shield, you can completely stop the enemy's strongest beam weapons (or at least give it only 1 damage point if it hits its hardest
-The shield is so cheap and space-efficient that you can put it on with all the weapons you have already loaded.
Shields should be the last thing you put on, if at all.

ECM generators should only be used on bombers or if the enemy has a lot of missle-throwing ships.

The ultimate ship is a small ship with pulse phasors and a sub-space teleporter. Put 1000 in a stack and watch 'em blow away the enemy fleet.

The easiest way to win in hard or impossible games is to do this: -Select the Silicoids in a Huge galaxy with only one opponent. -Colonize as quickly as you can, but be sure to remember to research a lot and get the new planets up and running ASAP. -When you meet the other race, attempt to surround them with colonies so they can't colonize anywhere while keeping them friendly through diplomatic channels. -After you are done colonizing, build up your science until you have an advantage in weapons, construction and computers (But be sure to research in all the other fields, too). -When you have a large advantage in science, begin building up a large and technologicly advanced fleet , but keep them from the borders to keep the other race in line. -When your fleet is bigger, go in for the kill

Always and at all times keep your spies doing something, weather it be blowing up factories or stealing technology. If you're about to attack a planet with missle bases, have your spies blow them up first. The first type of technology you should steal should ALWAYS be computers, because that will help your spies take other technologies.

If you get all the advanced techs, then immediatly make ALL of your colonies into ship-builders.

When you attack an enemy's planet take several things into consideration: Mineral rich or poor, Artifact, Fertile, etc. If you take over an enemy's rich planets then his industry will be hurt. If you nail his artifact planets, then their science will take a blow. Also, look for the planet which is their staging area for attacks. If your fleet is big enough, attacking that planet and destroying all of the ships there will strike a major blow against their space fleet.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page