General Strategy

This page is to introduce you to various strategic concepts, ideas, and approaches. What won't be covered are various specific strategies, such as the heavy cruiser rush, LRM spam, RA rush, and the like. Here is where you learn the nuts of bolts of strategy -- how to think, how to fight, how to win. By applying the ideas in here, you can (potentially) defeat any given "specific" strategy, depening on the skill levels of those involved, and luck.

Luck

Do not underestimate "luck". I'm putting it at the front for a reason, even though it is an element you can neither control nor eliminate. A wise player will attempt to miminize the role luck plays in his game, but the truly skilled will recognize that it is a force that you must account for. A scout might arrive just as the enemy forms his fleet up to launch an assault... or it could arrive the instant after the enemy has jumped, giving you no infrmation worth having.

Scouting

Scouting is important. Information is power. and is the key to defeating your opponent. Pay attention to the information you gather, as well. If you scout the enemies homeworld, and see 3 military labs within minutes of the game starting, its a pretty sure bet that he's going for a heavy cruiser rush -- a couple of light frigates and a capitol ship will likely shred through his defenses. By the same token, if he has a bunch of flak frigates built, it might be a good idea to back off your normal LRM spam and build light frigates instead.

When it comes to scouting, each of the three races has a scout ship. Each scout ship has a researched ability that lets you get long-term intel. In the case of the TEC, is a robotic probe that spys on the system for a prolonged period of time, while the Advent simply let their scouts get destroyed, and their presence lingers on (with the appropriate tech) to spy. The Vasari are really sneaky, however, and have a cloaking device!

Economy

Don't underestimate the power of a well-tuned economy. While the TEC are, hands down, the best as building an economic empire, all three races can develop truly outstanding economies in the hands of a skilled player. The only problem is balancing economy with military, and its a rather nasty balancing act. If you go to far economy, you're enemy will run all over you. If you go to far military, you will fall behind on your economy. Its a balancing act that takes a lot of practice to master.

Trade ports, refineries, military labs, civlian labs, and broadcast centers are all vital to your empire. Trade ports generate income, refineries generate resources, labs give you access to technology, and broadcast centers give you culture -- a 10% boost to the allegiance of every planet, which means you get more income from them, as well as protecting yourself against enemy culture.

Defenses

Defenses are not there to stop an attack in and of themselves. While they can do this against lighter forces -- especially early game, where "light" forces are all that are available -- they actually play three key roles. They handle raids, so your ships don't have to (both pirate raids and enemy players trying to pull you out of position). They act as a delaying force against even heavy enemy assault, forcing the enemy to take time to kill them, giving you time to get your forces in position. And, finally, they act as a force multiplier. Thats an important term. In essence, defenses (especially repair bays) allow your ships to be vastly more effective than they would be "unsupported". A capitol ship in range of a repair center can take out several times more frigates than it normally could, and if you have multiple overlapping repair centers your defenses can be [i]very[/i] tough to take out, for as long as their anti-matter reserves last.

To build a "strong" defense, I have two basic "templates" I use. One is for asteroids, the other for full scale planets. For a planet, I'll place the defenses on one side -- the "threatened" side, near the enemies incoming jump points -- of the planet. I'll place a lot of hangars, with 2-3 repair centers and a couple of gauss cannons on the edge of the formation. Add in planetary shields (or other racial tech) as appropriate. The enemy can bomb the planet easily, though the bomber and fighter squadrons will make that a painful idea, so make sure you either upgrade your planets HP or support with mobile ships. The advantage to this approach, though, is that your defense "node" is very, very difficult to take out -- and most players won't just let it sit there, they have to go take it out. If you bring your fleet in, the multiple overlapping repair centers can make your ships very, very "tough". Place your civilian buildings so they're "hugging" the planet, but in range of a repair center.

With asteroids, I shift things around a little. Since they're so small, I go ahead and build everything in a "ring" around them, with 4 gauss cannons guarding the "cardinal points" of a circle. You only get 2 or 3 hangars with this defense, but because you can actually cover the asteroid so easily with relatively few gauss cannons, its still a nasty little defense.

Countering defenses, however, can be as easy as ignoring them. Build a couple of flaks, stay out of range of cannons, and you can sneer at most defenses. Bring along a bomber fleet, and launch it after the enemies fighters have been suppressed, and the defenses will fall, quickly. Of course, this assumes the enemy just passively ignores you presence, and doesn't try any fancy footwork of his own, such as keeping his fighters and bombers docked in the hangars until the last moment. Which reveals the greatest weakness of my normal planetary defense -- kill the planet, ignore the defenses. You deny your opponent the ability to rebuild his defenses -- and even in the middle of combat, that is quite doable and difficult to prevent -- even as you remove all economic bonuses the planet may have given him. After all, when the planet goes down, logistics structures cease to function!