Battle

Battle Tactics

Hints & Tips

Tap on target to fire

Note that weapons will not always lock on (especially with fast moving targets such as Ventrogh ships).

Your ship computer will try to make an allowance for the speed and direction of the enemy ship or target.

Avoid collisions

Try to avoid collisions with enemy ships as the damage is random and can be serious. Sometimes hard to avoid due to the misleading impression of speed in space.

Hide the HUD if desired

This gives clearer vision and prevents accidently clicking HUD buttons, BUT see note on staying alive below!

Staying Alive

Keep an eye on your warp gauge

Without warp/turbo you cannot escape. If low then turbo away immediately for a short distance and allow ship time to auto-repair/recharge. Don’t go too far if you do not want to lose contact with the enemy/target.

(Turbo not warp since warp may not always engage if pointing at planet etc. and also warp will cause a huge distance to be travelled – almost certainly causing your ship computer to lose contact with the enemy/target)

Escape shuttle

If your ship becomes too heavily damaged and is in danger of exploding, an alarm will sound and a Deploy Escape Shuttle button will appear. Press this immediately – you only have seconds to survive.

Fit shuttle emergency reserve boost

Just a few good or lucky enemy shots can damage your shuttle’s warp/turbo and you cannot escape. Reserve boost only lasts a few seconds but is often a life-saver.

Enemy Space

Dendax, Ventrogh and Krokalia are heavily defended by Ground to Air guided missiles and frequent enemy patrols.

When approaching you are almost certain to suffer missile attacks. You have 2 choices:

Turbo for some distance and hope that the missiles lose lock on your ship (about 1400GM seems to work by most reports). This may not be practical depending on your mission.
Take the hit! Make sure your shield is up and this may not be as bad as it sounds - SpaceGuard ships are well shielded and auto-repair quickly. It is your decision, your risk!

Krokalian Battle Cruiser (K-cruiser)

Krokalian battle cruisers have massive fire power and strength and if encountered you need to have a strategy.

To destroy one you will have to fire more than 1 or 2 full salvos so you will have to find time for your ship to auto-recharge without being hit yourself.

There are 2 recognised choices:

Slip Stream method.

They are generally fitted with 8 – 10 photon cannons BUT all of these face forward or to the side.

If your engines are undamaged then dare-devil pilots often slip in close behind – right behind the K-cruiser engines and stay there! The K-cruiser will twist and turn to try to get its weapons to bear – you must react quickly to avoid being hit, allow your weapons to recharge and keep firing into his engines.

Works best with the DeltaLancer as it has the greatest speed.

To counter this MkII K-cruisers are fitted with rear shuriken mine launchers.

Hit and Run method - probably the safest option.

Dart in to range and fire all weapons as quickly as possible.

Turn away and turbo a short distance to be out of range and allow weapons to auto-recharge.

Keep repeating – you will need to fire several full salvos.

Works best with the Astra Battle Trekker since it easily has the highest fire power.

Beware the MkIII K-cruiser which is fitted with a Wasp missile launcher to extend its fire range and counter this method.

Enemy Haven

If ordered to attack, for example, ships under construction in an enemy haven you have drawn the short straw!

First they will be in enemy space (see above re Ground to Air missiles), then since weapons cannot fire through the shield, you must fly inside in order to destroy the targets.

Inside you will probably encounter enemy patrols and OPR’s (Orbital Photon Repeaters – see section above).

Recommended strategy:

First deal with the missiles (see above). As missiles approach, turbo a short distance to lose the missiles lock on your ship. This may need to be repeated several times to shake off all missiles – remember to raise shields if you are going to take a hit.
Try to ensure that your ship is in good condition before entering the haven.
After entering first priority is to take out all OPRs! If you can do this you should be clear to deal with patrols and whatever the target is.

Krokalian Control Station (Krokalian Battle Station)

These are highly valued by the enemy as they control all local enemy activity and so are protected by on-board Wasp missile launchers and frequent patrols. They are generally situated in low orbit around Krokalia, Dendax or Ventrogh (placed in low orbit to avoid SpaceGuard ships which cannot travel in planet atmospheres).

This means that to attack one you must use your shuttle, but this has little fire power and battle capability.

Recommended strategy:

Fit Signum missiles to your shuttle before departure from dock (auto-fitted by dock control).
Approach planet and deal with Ground to Air missiles (see above).
Enter orbit and deploy shuttle.
Approach target station to within 400GM (the max range of a Signum), press Arm Missile and tap on target. Do not waste Signums on other targets.
Shuttles are small and manoeuvrable – try to deal with patrols by frequent heading changes.

Krokalian control stations are strong, massive and hard to completely destroy. You will have done well to destroy/disable half of one.