So, how should I deal with other races?
This part should probably be up for debate the most. I'd like to collect hints here about how to deal with races as allies, as enemies, and what you might want to trade for.
1) The Feds
As allies: There's no such thing as a useless ally, but the Feds don't offer much which you might be interested in. They will want your Cobol, your Virgo and your fighter building services, but except for maybe the Loki in narrow cases, they have little of interest to you in return.
+ If you have problems with Fascists or Privateers, get Lokis from the Feds ASAP. They are able to make a big difference.
+ In the late game, the Feds are great for refitting your Virgos and Cobols, and for financing the Mine Wars.
+ Before you trade away a Virgo to them, make sure you are 100% sure of your alliance. Fed-manned Virgos are monsters.
As enemies: A Virgo will defeat any of their ships, so you're fairly comfortable. Especially in the early game, you should have no problems taking them out. In the end game, they are much harder to crack.
- Fight with multiple Virgos. Single Virgos can efficiently be dealt with by a Missouri followed by a Kittyhawk, but multiple carriers pose a real problem to them. Create pairs of Transwarp-Virgos and Warp6-Virgos and give the Warp6-Virgos smaller Friendly Codes, so that they fight first.
- Don't attack over long ranges. With their financial power, the Feds can put out minefields which even your fighter minesweep can't fully remove. Move your attack groups to 4 LYs away from your target, and then adjust your Friendly Codes so that your mine-damaged ships come last. Use the supplies you find on the conquered worlds to fix your minehit damages.
2) The Lizards
As allies: Wonderful. Best ally. They offer cloakers, ground attack, hissers and hi-speed mining - even Lokis. They will want your fighterbuilding capabilities as well as Cobols and Virgos. The Lizards are immensely powerful early on, but get gradually weaker the longer the game lasts.
+ With their Lizard Class Cruisers, they can scout out your attack targets first, and can pull big obstacles like Gorbies into your waiting forces for a 1:1 trade against a Virgo.
+ During your campaigns, you'll sometimes conquer enemy bases with lots of hulls of small ships with beams (e.g. Terraformer hulls). Give them to the Lizard and let them hiss over your money planets. Likewise, if you built Lady Lucks, they are also best passed on to the Lizard for hissing duty.
+ Patriots are noticeably better in the hands of a Lizard. The 150% damage level bonus can make a real difference.
+ Offer to operate Geminis over their mineral-rich planets. They can minerals out fast, you can put them to a good use.
+ Again, only trade away Virgos if you are sure of your alliance. Lizard-Virgos are bad news.
As enemies: In the early game, pray that you can deflect their ire. Bribe, lie, steal, and use any trick in the book not to become their first target, because if you do, you will lose. The later in the game it is, the better your chances.
- Make sure to have as many colonists and defense posts as possible on important planets like bases. Keep in mind that every 20 defense posts mitigate some of the Lizard ground attack advantage. You must not lose bases to them (easier said than done)
- Try your hardest to gain the initiative and take the fight to the Lizard's territory where their ground attack doesn't come to pass. Do not attempt a passive/static defense, it will fail.
- Don't attack planets predictably like pearls on a string. Instead, bypass the initial front and try to get into the Lizard's rear. Position yourself so that you have a vast number of possible targets. Zig and zag around.
- Keep your Cobols safe, don't let them attack planets. They will be picked off by LCCs waiting to tow them to their demise. Keep them in deep space, defended by Virgos, or let them enter warp wells with warp1 if you're short on carriers.
- Confiscate any drop of fuel you find on conquered worlds. Virgos have gigantic fuel tanks. Convert supplies to cash and take them along if you're not sure you'll be able to keep the planet. Use the cash to have Cobols build torps.
- Have your Cobols lay minefields around planets you attack. Having LCC tows end in a mine hit feels great.
3) The Birds
As Allies: So-so. Their cloaking ability is helpful, so you will want to trade for cloakers. If you manage to convince them to let go of a Resolute, you scored a prize. Birds tend to be a bit short on fuel, so they will definitely want a Cobol, and they have no carriers worth speaking of, so they will drool for a Virgo.
+ Since Birds tend to first infiltrate the enemy, they will be able to tell you exactly where to strike with how much force. Use this knowledge.
+ Your minesweep ability will enable the Bird to operate freely. I once played a game where all I did to help a Bird was to offer a 400-fighter Gemini for minesweeping purposes which he towed around. It was tremendous.
As Enemies: You are most likely going to win, but it's going to be unpleasant. The only way to defeat the Bird is a nasty war of attrition forced into the Bird's home cluster. It will however leave your economy in your home cluster crippled, so you will come out battered no matter what.
- Sometimes you will have a Virgo lurking on your homebase with enough fighers (~60) to take out a Bird's Dark Wing. If you do and have other typical Bird targets like a Gemini or Merlin on your world, set all ships to Warp 1 and let them intercept each other, with the Virgo having the smallest friendly code. This might result in 2 killed Bird ships. Think about changing your intercept speed to warp6 next time, in case he tries again, this time outside the warp well ;)
- Change the friendly codes on your planets regularly (Randmax, how I miss you...)
- Anything from the enemy tips against the Lizard applies.
4) The Fascist
As Allies: Pretty good. Cloakers are useful, POPpers are very useful, and their pillage ability is also very helpful. Again, your Cobols and Virgos will be very sought after.
+ With your expansion game, you will have your share of anamorphous planets to use as pillage targets. Invite him over.
+ The POP ability of the fascist ships can help you win central battles, especially when the enemy isn't aware of your cooperation. Soften up the bulk of the enemy fleet, and then send your Virgos in for the kill.
As Enemies: Compared to fights against the Lizards and Birds, the Fascists are susceptible to Lokis. Just like the other cloakers, they have no real way of dealing with your Virgos without using multiple-ships setups, so you're favored in a war of attrition.
- Make sure to have your bases covered with enough colonists and defense posts. It's easily forgotten that the fascist is getting ground attack bonuses, too.
- Trade for Lokis quickly, if you have a Fed or Liz around.
- Anything from the enemy tips against the Lizard applies.
5) The Privateers
As Allies: A great match, second best ally. Enemies without Lokis are stuck between a rock and a hard place: You are favored in open attrition battles in deep space while the Privateers can rob enemies blind who don't leave their planets. And your fighter minesweep makes sure that the battle theater is free of hostile mines. To top it off, your Virgos help giving the Privs the military power punch they are lacking to break hard targets, and even for tricks they're useful since Virgos have bottomless fuel tanks. I've seen a single Virgo rob an entire enemy battlegroup dry. Negotiate with the Privs early, and don't forget to remind them that with your Cobols, you are no good target for them in the first place.
+ Get yourself Meteor Class Blockade Runners (MBRs) or enlist their help to speed up your expansion.
+ With MBR help, it's generally very easy to break through a front and hit only weakly protected planets in the enemy's core territory. Be advised however that the fighter minesweep only extends to 100LY, so if you use MBRs to fly maximum range (up to 162 LY), you might rush into unsweeped minefields there. And an MBR with a minehit is gone.
+ Have some clans on your ships, so that if you do break through, have your Priv ally ROB enemy ships on a target planet and follow up with attacking Virgos, you have enough colonists to drop so that the enemy can't clan-drop and save his behind by "Beam up Fuel" afterwards. This will leave them dry, and you reap great rewards.
As Enemies: Unpleasant. Protect your Virgos at all costs and try to trade for Lokis ASAP. Do NOT commit Virgos on attacks without having a big minefield active and having them full to the rim with fuel. Preferably try to use low-ID Virgos.
- Don't let the Priv tow a Virgo of yours far away to a wolfpack in deep space (hence the mines).
- Most non-base planets can be taken by Patriots, too. Consider using them instead, losing them isn't that much of a deal. Preferably while attacking 5-6 planets at the same time.
- Never fly with visible bearing in a straight line. Zig-zag often.
- Change the weight of your Virgos continuously, by shifting fuel around. You do not want the Privateer able to do a dead man's pull to 0 fuel right into a wolf pack (I've seen this happening all too often)
6) The Borg
Allies: Always nice to have the Borg as allies, but it usually means ending as second in a winning alliance at best. It supercharges your expansion with Firecloud capability, and you enable the Borg to prefer Biocide carriers over Annihilation torpships due to your fighterbuilding capacities.
+ Get these Fireclouds. Multiples. If you have to, clone them, otherwise give the Borg one of your bases to build them for you. Can't have too many of those.
+ Make sure to put good beams on your ships. Once a coalition between Borg and Colonies is uncovered, the Crystals become everyone's best friend. They will receive gigantic aid to webmine the universe into oblivion. And if you only have X-Rays, this can become embarrassing quickly, Cobols notwithstanding.
+ Give your poorest-government natives to the Borg. Anything below Tribal is more productive in Borgish hands.
Enemies: Kill him fast. Right out of the gate - because in the early game you can. You want to have multiple Virgos ravaging his planets between turns 20-30, and you want him in full retreat by turn 30. Be relentless and pursue fleeing freighters. Do NOT let him recover in the corner of the map.
- Generally, a Virgo will defeat an Annihilation in most cases. He will always lose against a Biocide.
- Use Virgos in 2-teams at least, 3 or 4 are even better. You do NOT want to have a single Virgo die bloodying a Biocide without having the next Virgo finishing him off.
- Before going to hunt, load Virgos with a bigger fighter complement than usual (normally 100 fighers per Virgo are enough to go, against Borg you'd prefer ~140). They tend to have much tougher planetary defenses than other races and will make you bleed more fighters than usual.
7) The Crystals
Allies: He doesn't really have much to offer to the Colonies, other than that he won't be an enemy. No fancy ship, no ability you can use... the only real advantage is that if the Crys is a safe ally, you can skimp on beams.
+ Again, attrition warfare favors you. Webmines allow you to intercept enemies in deep space
+ Often enough, big enemy warship groups caught in webs huddle together with only 1-2 big ships holding fuel, and the others only receiving 1 fuel each for minesweeping. In this case, intercepting with 1-2 Virgos can suddenly render entire fleets fuelless and prone to towcapture.
+ You can save critical Duranium and Molybdenum by going all-Xray on the beams, unless you have it in abundance.
Enemies: Rare. You generally want to attack other targets, and it's even more rare that the Crys goes on the offensive all by himself - in this case he usually has Cloakers.
- Get Lokis and minefields quickly if you learn of Crys cloakers.
- Obviously, beef up your beams.
- Always couple Virgos with Cobols. You want the Cobols to tow them and use the Virgos' huge fuel tanks as reserve. Have surplus supplies in your cargo to repair minehits.
- Avoid doing standalone attacks with Patriots. They will be caught and lost in no time.
8) The Empire
Allies: What for? Yes, they can give you Dark Sense info, but there's really almost nothing you can gain here. And if you can reach a planet unchecked with an SSD for an Imperial Assault, you could have just sent a Virgo instead, too. The partnership will be one-sided, since he'll need your Fuel and Cobols, and he'll also want your fighterbuilding capacity.
+ Get the Dark Sense info and write down the locations of the enemy bases. Create a battlegroup with Virgos and Cobols and go there. This, and the planets around, are what you need to destroy. Do it.
+ Still, for mere Dark Sense info, you don't need to ally. Trade for it.
Enemies: Normally the EE should be weaker than you militarywise, so there's not much to worry about UNLESS he has other allies to help him (e.g. cloakers or MBR-Support).
- You want more Transwarp Virgos than usual, to make sure that you can do proper Intercepts on SSDs.
- Beware of MBR-towed SSDs. They can be a real danger.
- If the situation forces you on the defense, fuel denial is key. Drain every drop off planets you lose against the advancing Empire.
9) The Robots
Allies: What for? You are almost identical, except that they have the minelay bonus for your minesweep. They have the better middle and large carriers, and you have the Cobol.
+ Yes, flying in friendly minefields is nice. Captain Obvious to the rescue.
Enemies: For real? You both want to do a mirror match? Your superior logistics should have resulted in a numerical advantage for you, while the Golem has higher fighting capacity (so this is one war of attrition you might actually lose). This battle will be decided by outside factors, like allies and placement.
- Try to see if you can enlist the help of the Crystals. Robot ships have notoriously few beam weapons and generally rely on their minelaying bonus to deal with foreign minefields. That, however, makes him vulnerable to web mines.
10) The Rebels
Allies: What for? Your only minor possible gain is the Falcon, but is that worth allying for? Other than that, you're almost carbon copies of each other.
Enemies: Another mirror match. Not much to be said.
- Make sure to put torps on your Cobols, even if you know you'll only use them to tow SDFs around in your backyard. The Rebels will try to HYP Falcons over for Rebel Ground Attacks, so it's useful if you're prepared, should such an aggressive HYP end on one of your infrastructure ships.
- If you happen to find a Falcon with your LDSF, keep in mind that you can tow him to another ship of yours. However, don't make the mistake to tow him to a planet with strong defense posts - the Rebel is immune to planetary attacks! You'll lose your LDSF!
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