(NOTE: If you're an LRM spammer and you're looking to win the game within the first 20 minutes, and need to know the location of the enemy home planet then ignore the following)

After playing more of the game, I'm even more convinced that scouting in the INITIAL PHASES of the game is completely irrelevant. Instead, my goal is to capture all the immediate surrounding planets as quickly as possible.

The first ships I build are colonizers. The number of colonizers I build depends on how many surrounding planets are around my base planet. They need time to build up antimatter, so build these ships first. I also build the most powerful capital ship (not mother) and light frigates.

Within the first 5 to 6 minutes of the game, I have built the largest fleet possible allowed by the initial crew points. I then invade a planet (any planet). I lose very few frigates since I'm attacking with a relatively large initial fleet.

With this method, I can capture 3 surrounding planets in less than 15 minutes while keeping my casualties very low.

In the early phase of the game, there is no need to waste time or resources on scout ships if your goal is to simply capture the surrounding planets in a hurry.

This is with game speed set on FAST.

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