I usaly try to build 2-3 scouts right off, then set up my crystal and mineral extracters. After that I try to get my cap. ship factory up and get a cap ship up. By the time all thats done my scouts have found at least a few decent starting areas for me to expand to. (Forgot to mention I set them on auto explore). As soon as I can I usally build between 3-5 light frigates, group them with the cap. ship and send them to the first fight. While there in route I build a Colony ship and usally send it in when there is a single ship left.

I still tend to have resource issues at times but I've yet to find a better way of doing things. I would love to hear what others think as well.

Perhaps I'm wrong in this, but when I was playing the game I found the opposite to be the case: capships seemed like overly expensive units that weren't worth the resources and popcap. I'd get the freebie capship, but rarely more than that - in fact if the freebie died I rarely replaced it.

Anybody else out there agree?

I find a balance is needed alot of the time to be most effective, i like using cap ships, but i normally dont build lots, i like to keep balanced, as a more repair ships tend to keep my fleet alive longer than that extra cap ship, especially if you think how many heavy cruisers you could build for same supply.

True long term cap ship's are good, but for a quick investment i find more frigates and cruisers more useful for a fleet over cap ships, especially if your vasari with dark armarda, can give you a fleet for free, and use it, once it's gone another one will be sent and replace it rapidly, making them far more expendible than the cap ships.

Back to the original post, i tend to do similar to ravendreams tho i normally won't build more than 2 scout ships before getting the cap ship up and running. and i normally send it straight into a fight till my frigates are built and ready, as they're more than capable of soloing militia on most planets.

The way I start:
0) build collectors, crystal first
1) Build 2-3 scouts
2) build cap ship factory -> build the cap ship with colonize ability.
3) build civil research lab.
4) go for the easiest fight withe cap ship and get that asteroid to make you some crystals.,,
......................
x) build like mad, and try to grab as many planets as you can

other tips: when going against pirates or opponents build divers, never go with a single type of ships... you'll get shredded to pieces...

My best combo... capital ships/ 20-40 missiles/ 20-40 flacks(never go without flacks)/10-20 heavy frigates

. . . isn't there a million of these threads . . . ?

Anyway, I prefer to start out with the "attack" cap ship (name slips me at the moment). I let it sit out front and rake in the experience by killing pirates. Which, btw, in early game, let the pirates attack you. The experience is vital and in the beginning they aren't more than annoyance.

Other people like the colony caps, but I prefer to just send a colony frigate.

Possibly, if so then the search feature is broken.

Appreciate the input guys.

I haven't got hard proof, but in my experiences, it's shared.

I'll look for proof on this later; but hopefully speculation is good enough for now.

My start is different.

1) Build cap ship factory (Get your cap ship factory first to get your cap ship sooner. I take advantage of the fact that the first cap ship is free, and that it is my best bet to capture asteroids even sooner. This will result in getting the mines on your asteroid or second planet much earlier, and will make up for building the mines on your home world slightly later than usual.)
Build 2 scouts
Upgrade population limit of home planet (Your home planet is almost solely responsible for your credit income early game; adding 40% extra population should result in a 40% increase in your credit income!)

2) Build Capitol ship, preferably one that has an awesome lv 6 ability (this will be the ship most likely to get to level 6+). I like to build a carrier cap ship, but any one with a good 6+ ability is equally valid.
Build a colony frigate
Build mines at home world (DO THIS AS SOON AS OR BEFORE CAP FACTORY IS DONE).
Scout! (Capture neutral asteroid mines if vasari)

3) Send Cap ship to first asteroid to wipe out pirates
Send colony ship to just outside gravity well where it can instantly be sent to the asteroid. (SEND IT AS SOON AS THERE IS ONLY ONE PIRATE LEFT IN THE SYSTEM)
Keep scouting!!!
Start making light frigates (set the rally point on your cap ship or otherwise where the frigates will be needed later.)

4) Acquire your first asteroid and have it make all of the mines.
Upgrade the pop capacity of the asteroid!!! (This will result in MUCH LESS NEGATIVE credit income.)
If you only have one asteroid nearby and the other planets require civic research to acquire (ie: ice or volcanic worlds), get TWO (2) civic research labs NOW. Otherwise, this can wait.


At this point specific species dependent strategies diverge. For vasari, I like to get a military lab at my asteroid and start pumping assailants. For TEC, I like to get 2 millitary labs and start getting LRMs. For Advent I get 1 millitary lab and then 2 more at my third planet.

In any event, this strategy should work for all three species initially and should result in maximizing credit/resource income in the first 10 minutes of the game or so. If anyone has any better ideas or wishes to improve upon this one please post.


With regard to capitol ships versus frigates, I tend to agree with much of what has been said already. I will use vasari as an example as I play with them most often.

you do not get nearly as much bang for the buck with cap ships at lower levels. Specifically, 5 enforcers is much better than one cap ship. However, as the game progresses it becomes necessary to have bigger and bigger tanks within your fleet. For this reason (because large battleships can "TANK"), it becomes necessary to build several larger battleships later on. Also, as fleets get larger, and because even though experience is divided evenly among cap ships, each progressive level of experience requires exponentially more experience to acquire (the idea being to maximize the number of LEVELS your cap ships have together), it is worth it to build several more capitol ships. I like to have around 6 in a large fleet. I usually have 6 battleship tanks and 1 carrier cap ship)

Furthermore, cap ship abilities, though difficult to quantify in credit value, can sometimes be quantified to a degree. The Vasari carrier cap's ability to "replicate forces" allows it to make 3 identical copies of any frigate in your fleet every couple of minutes. If used to permanently add 3 enforcers to your fleet every couple of minutes, this ability more than makes up for the cost of your cap ship after 2 uses, especially if your cap ship was free! Mind you, the ship has to be level 6 for this to work, and so in the end I must agree that cap ships are only worth their buck if allowed to level up greatly; however, one must also consider the psychological affect having many more cap ships than your enemy has on them (they may "think" that they will lose, and retreat, but only if they are inexperienced)



~Arcturus

italia559...why do u prefer to build a carrier cap ship ?

Getting that free cap ship at start is a must.

On small maps its probably better to get the best combat version of a cap ship for your race, as you will encounter the enemy quickly. On medium/large maps I prefer the cap ships that can colonize planets like the Vasari Giant Egg.

I prefer medium/large maps, so I usually scrap my capital ship yard right after my first cap pops out. Its gives me a small return on resources very useful early in the game. I wont be building a second cap ship for a very long time anyways.

Combat-wise I use cap ships mainly serve three roles:

1. Some of the capital ships basically suck in combat, but have GREAT fleet support abilities. I keep them as far away from the main battle as possible, just close enough to be useful.

2. Many opponents will go through great lengths to kill your capital ships. If they want to focus fire and chase my capital down across the gravity well while the rest of my fleet pounds on them, fine by me.

3. Anti-capital hitmen. The heavy hitting battleship equivalents the three races get typically excel at taking down enemy capital ships. I'll let them go toe-to-toe with the enemy big-boys, sometimes with heavy cruiser backing. Meanwhile my light support units like frigates and carriers can rip at the rest of the enemy fleet.

Thanks for the helpful pointers everyone. I now see why the AI just wiped my proverbial floor in my first game.

Click the rally point icon, scroll to the top of the empire tree at the left, click on your chosen fleet herald icon. I think it also works clicking on the top of the fleet herald in the main view.

You can also set a rally point to a particular ship in the main view and the empire tree.

QFT - if you're tec or vasari, please stop attempting mass cap rush.