General Stategy for each race?

[ironyfree]

Is there a place that goes over strategy for each race? I've found some things here in the guides section, but none of them seem very in depth.

Also, is there a way to just observe a game? I'd like to watch people who actually know what they are doing.

Thanks

[GoaFan77]

TEC: Best economy, efficient units, can either go for an early rush (especially TEC Rebels) or after the early period of expansion try to win a war of attrition (especially TEC Loyalists).

Advent: Powerful capitalships and support cruisers that synergize with each other, allowing the sum of an advent fleet to be greater than themselves. They have very good culture, especially Loyalists but you'll probably go for a standard military victory.

Vasari: Frigates/Cruisers are overall inferior to other races, but they have unique "High Tech" toys like phase gates and phase missiles which allows them to become extremely powerful late game.

Probably the best way to watch experienced players without going online yourself is to ask for a replay of a PVP game, download it and watch it. Sadly you cannot observe games in progress.

[Delnar_Ersike]

AFAIK, there is no way to spectate a game in progress, but you can watch recorded games.

General strategy is also quite different depending on whether you're playing singleplayer/co-op against fair AI, singleplayer/co-op against cheating AI, or multiplayer. Singeplayer against fair AI gives you a lot more leeway to play how you want, seeing as the AI isn't that good at conquering planets, even if it can put up a fight. Against cheating AI, you will likely have to start exploiting AI vulnerabilities in order to win, so the general strategy changes. As for multiplayer, [experienced] humans play completely differently than computers, so unless you're surrounded by allies, you will likely be funneled down one or two specific strategies; in some cases, it won't actually be your strategy that decides the match outcome, it will be your tactics, ie. how well you can micromanage specific units and repair platforms.

Normally though, you'll want to take advantage of a faction's advantages and try to mitigate its disadvantages.

TEC units are often very cost-effective and their research trees allow them to turn into an economic juggernaut later into the game. Their ship and building abilities (outside of missile barrage, starbase red button, and the buggedly imbalanced Corsev) aren't as good as the other factions', so towards the endgame, TEC players will need to emphasize on macro over micro. Loyalists will want to make use of their awesome corvettes and defender's advantage techs; if you make it to the lategame, twin starbases both equipped with merchant docks are crucial. Novalith spam is useful in both singleplayer and multiplayer: in singleplayer, Novaliths are a planet bombing tool, but in multiplayer, opponents will build starbase modules to protect planets from your Novaliths, so they become more of an income denying tool instead. Rebels should be very aggressive to take advantage of their attacker's advantage techs and/or take advantage of Truce Among Rogues for rapid expansion.

Advent units are usually quite cost effective, though TEC units still outshine them in that department; instead, Advent units' abilities work extremely well together. In the right hands, a small Advent fleet can defeat larger non-Advent fleets with ease. However, a lot of Advent's best units (eg. Illuminator) are unlocked much later than the TEC and Vasari counterparts, and Advent is often much more tech-dependant than the other two races. For Advent, it's often about surviving until you unlock key techs, only afterwards can you really shine. Don't confuse this with being passive though: Disciple Vessels are the most cost-effective light frigates in the game (more cost-effective than TEC's Cobalts), so harassing your opponent with them is important to give you some breathing room. Once the Advent death machine is rolling, you may often want to turn autocast off for most abilities and trigger them yourself, seeing as Advent fleets rely on ability synergy so much; as a result, Advent games are often a lot more micro-intensive when players start fielding larger fleets. The Advent Loyalist Titan is incredibly powerful, so Loyalist players should try to get it out as soon as possible. Rebels' cornerstone reanimation/reincarnation techs mean they should use offense as the best defense even more, since losing raiding ships isn't as expensive as it might be for Loyalists.

Vasari units are often quite powerful, but very expensive, so they are the least cost-effective units out of all three races; individual ship survival should be a higher priority than for the other two factions, so repair platforms combined with well-managed retreats are vital. They are also the hardest faction to boom with, since their trade port unlocks the latest out of the three races. Instead, they should take full advantage of two key racial specialties to make up for their lousy earlygame economy: the fact that scouts capture neutral extractors and the fact that starbases can move. The former means Vasari players should have a much easier time capturing neutral extractors, while the latter means that earlygame Vasari battles, both offensive and defensive, should involve starbases as much as possible. Starbases are the key to Vasari offensives: since they can move, you can construct them anywhere in the gravity well, then have them engage enemy fleets anywhere within the well. Though they do start losing their significance once enemy fleets start fielding more bombers and/or a few Ogrevs, you should still be making use of offensive starbases throughout the entire game. Keep in mind though that trade income is a lot more lucrative than tax income on medium or larger maps, so the population module isn't as good as you might think. Loyalists don't involve a lot of specialized tactics unless you want to go for the nomad approach (Stripped the Core); even if you do, you will still need to rely on traditional strategy and tactics until you get the necessary techs unlocked. Rebels should take full advantage of starbase mobilization, the tech that lets starbases phase jump. Though starbases can only jump to wells with phase stabilization, this shouldn't be an issue if you have a Kostura Cannon, since it adds a phase stabilizer node to any planet it targets. In fact, the combination of a Kostura Cannon and phase gates allows lategame Vasari players to have the most mobile fleets, letting you bypass choke points and defensive positions with ease. Both Loyalist and Rebel Titans are amazing, so you should try to get them out as soon as possible.

[ratburn367]

Tec rebel and loyalist are identical when it comes to early game power. In fact, I would give the edge to loyalists simply because of their op vette and more worthwhile tech tree.

[GoaFan77]

Originally posted by Delta:

Tec rebel and loyalist are identical when it comes to early game power. In fact, I would give the edge to loyalists simply because of their op vette and more worthwhile tech tree.

Rebels have Truce Amongst Rogues though, which allows them to expand much more rapidly if you can pull it off.

[ratburn367]

That is not early game.

[GoaFan77]

Originally posted by Delta:

That is not early game.

It's early enough if you rush it. In PVP only eco players can really pull it off but it can still be a powerful tool.

[ironyfree]

Thanks for all the tips! Any idea where I can download or request pvp matches?

[Not John Malkovich]

Something else to consider is fleet combinations. Rather than fielding a small number of each type of frigate / cruiser / capital, you will usually want to pick something that balances off against what your opponents are likely to have. No combination is invincible, of course, but there are marked advantages.
An easy to understand, basic combo is bombers (from light carriers), heavy cruisers (kodiaks), and antifighter frigates (gardas). The bombers are good against starbases, capitals, and heavy cruisers. Flaks clean up any fighters or corvettes that threaten your bombers. Heavys clean up a number of other ship types. You can ride that combo to victory against serveral AI players, and as it is not race-dependent they can all do it to some extent.

[Not John Malkovich]

Fleet combos depend a lot of how long the game has gone; early on not everyone will have access to the ships (or counters) needed due to research reqs. Same applies for some of the techs above - if that TEC player doesn't have the starbase self destruct yet, or at least isn't likely to have it, you might move in a few capital ships to take out a relatively early starbase. But if it is later on, and you think they have the self destruct button armed, you've got to be MUCH more cautious as the self destruct can wipe a huge number of ships, earning you a game over in the process.

[athelasloraiel]

how about a separate topix with PVP uploads so people can watch it and learn?

than k you for all info, game is awsome.