Hints & Tips from The Dreadlord Manual

• Cloaking races such as the Lizards or Birdman would be a wise race choice. Cloaking ships have the advantages of usually being low-tech, as well as forcing you to become a better player. Cloakers can also get away with low-tech engines easier than most other ships.
• The Robots would also be a wise choice, especially in a short game.

• Bring your defence posts to 101: guaranteed to not be detected by a sensor sweep.
• Maximise your factories: supplies can be sold for money and are needed to colonize. Free fighter races also need supplies to build fighters.
• Optimise your mines: this will let you get a quick start on colonizing as well as in defence/small raids. Be careful not to overmine or you will upset native populations.
• Optimise your tax rate: you can usually increase taxes to the first level of "They are angry at you" without any adverse effects. Money is needed to get a quick start in the game.

• Do not bring your starbase defence level to 200 right away. Doing so will waste 1800mc, and 180 duranium, a precious commodity early in the game.
• Do not maximise starbase fighters immediately (60). This will waste more money than you can spare this early in the game. If you are a free-fighter race (Robots, Rebels, and Colonies) you should bring your fighters up to 60 with caution, always making sure that you will have enough minerals for the ships you will soon be producing.
• As minerals become more common (later in the game), colonisation less important and the threat of attack more menacing, you will likely want to raise your Home World defence as much as you can.

• Do not totally neglect defending your HW (Home World): During the early turns, while building ships, increase your planetary defence posts, starbase defense strength, and add fighters. Work toward getting the number of fighters on your starbase to 60 (max.) and the planetary defence to max. within 20 to 25 turns. This is your last line of defence. Always make sure your defence posts are 100+ so that your planet's industrial activity is guaranteed to be shielded from long range sensor sweeps. Obviously, if your HW is closer to your enemies, defence will be more important sooner.

• Use small Capital Ships for defence: One of the other tools for defending your starbases should be several low-cost ships with beam weapons and torpedoes. When a carrier attacks a small ship, the small ship will usually get to fire off two salvoes of beam weapons and two salvoes of torp’s before it is destroyed. If a small ship has 4 beams and 2 torp launchers, it will shoot down 8 fighters and do a little damage to the carrier. Several of these expendable capital ships may weaken the carrier sufficiently that the starbase to survive. Use TECH 1 engines with 1kt of fuel on board. Put X-RAY LASERS on board, and use the most explosive torpedo that you can afford but load only 2 or 3 torp’s per tube.

• Plan for most games to last about 40 to 60 turns. The first major battles will likely occur around turn 20 to 30 with a couple races knocked out. Turns 30 to 50 usually see a few more players knocked out with the game winding down after turn 50.
• Prepare your strategy. Even before you begin the game, review your race's advantages, and plan a strategy that you will use. Then, be sure to stick to your strategy. You will likely have to wait until you know who your neighbour’s are before you can get too specific about your strategy.
• Also, be sure to leave room for change in your strategy. Do not leave it so open-ended that you fight an undisciplined war, but do leave room for change. This is easy to forget as you progress in playing ability.
• Try to always have a 7 turn plan. Be aware of the cost in mega-credits and minerals for the fleet you are building so that you will not be caught short.
• Once you own more planets, take a look at the mining surveys and calculate the number on minerals you will have in 7 turns, 14 turns and 21 turns. By looking ahead you can see where your weakness in minerals is, and when you might run out. You will also see which ships you will and will not be able to build.
• As your resources improve you can plan a fleet replacement and purchase the ships you truly desire. Whatever your strategy is, plan for 7, 14 and 21 turns ahead and ensure you have the resources in supplies, factories, minerals and megacredits to fulfill it.

Note
The authors of The Dreadlord Manual from which this beginners guide is formed feel that to win in VGA Planets you should read up on tactical warfare. Strategy by B.H. Liddel Hart and How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander are but two of the many excellent books available at your local library. Field Marshal Rommel's tactics with the Afrika Corps in North Africa can be used here with astounding results.

 

• Unless Home Worlds are close together, you should first build an LDSF (Large Deep Space Freighter) for colonizing. After building this, you may have to rest a few turns to let your duranium stores build up again.
• In the case that Home Worlds are close together, you may want to build a suitable capital ship or two first. If possible, build one with a large cargo capacity (350 or more) so that it can act as a freighter. When Home Worlds are close together, you do not want to risk losing a valuable freighter to a scout with only 2 X-Rays. If you cannot build a capital ship that can act as a freighter, always be sure to escort your ships.
• If you are playing in a game where many of the planets you find will not be worthwhile, you may want to build an MDSF (Medium Deep Space Freighter) so that you can scout out the good planets. Once the MDSF's job of scouting has been finished, it can be colonized or put to use in small cargo transport. If you plan to colonize it you may choose to build a Smallie (Small Deep Space Freighter) instead.
• For the first seven turns you should likely build the cheapest craft with the highest number of cargo holds. This is usually the Large Deep Space Freighter. Consider using the Large Deep Space Freighter for colonization, and the Medium Deep Space Freighter for mineral movement at this early stage in the game. Do not forget that you may have a capital ship that will function in the role of colonization or mineral movement more effectively than these two freighters.
• Be sure to equip your first ships with tech 10 engines so that they can remain out of sight of the races that have HYPerdrive ships (Cyborg, Empire, Rebels). These ships can be aimed at your planets (see section on the HYPerdrive) to capture undefended freighters from you in less time than it takes to send a capital ship to save your freighter.
• You will also have to make sure that you produce enough capital ships to defend a minor exploratory attack on your growing empire. Unless you're planning a sudden surprise attack, stay away from large expensive ships that will hinder your colonization. Large expensive ships also have the disadvantage that they can only be in one place at a time. An attack may strike just far enough away from your large expensive ship that you could be wiped out, even if you currently own the most powerful ship in the game. Take note, Cyborg.
• Whatever ship you select, KNOW what role you will use it for and build it with the weapons that will be most effective in that role (taking into account your resources, too, of course). Having 7 similar ships is easier to plan with than having 7 non-standard designs of the same ship. When you start building BATTLE GROUPS keep them standard as well. A BATTLE GROUP is a collection of ships that complement each other in fulfilling a single role.
• ALL ships are designed for a specific purpose, and when used for that purpose are very effective. Do not ignore any particular ship because it is traditionally not used, or seems to be too wimpy (Whoops … Ed!) . Even the most useless seeming ships can sometimes have valuable purposes in your empire.
• From turns 7 to 14 you should start building your main capital ships. If you empire is running smoothly, you should be able to produce almost one every turn, so that by turn 14 you have a fleet of at least 7 capital ships.
• Between turns 21 and 28 you should have developed an effective fleet.

It is important to remember that this is just basic strategy. If you are daring and plan to win, you will have to be more innovative than this, have enemies that play poorly, or just be very lucky. If you are registered, put tech 10 engines (the TransWarp) on all of your ships. This is the most fuel efficient, will allow you to easily chase down enemies, and let you spend less time in space while en-route to your destination.

There are two primary theories to weapons. One is to use the most powerful weapon you can (ex. Mark 8), and the other is to use the most efficient weapon (ex. Mark 4). The best solution is a combination of both. The reasoning behind the biggest BANG theory is that if your ship survives because you spent more on weapons, then the extra money was worth it. The reasoning behind the most efficient weapon theory is that by using cheaper weapons, you can produce so many more ships that it's worth losing a few more battles. The best solution has to be tailored to your particular circumstances (enemy, abundance of minerals, abundance of mega-credits, race) as well as to your playing style.

• You will often want to send a small scout ahead of you so that it can find good planets and you can plan ahead for them. For example, if your scout has found a planet that can generate a lot of money is only a bit farther on, you may want to hold off on colonizing the in-between planets so that you can tax this high-revenue planet sooner.
• You will want to put 100 clans on most planets that you colonize. The reason for this is that 100 clans can sustain enough mines for most planets as well as build 100 factories. Over 100 clans, you can not build 1 factory for every clan. For most races the best colonizing freighter is the LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER.
• Remember to include about 25 supplies and 100mc for every 100 colonists. If resources are scarce, you can go to 10 supplies and 50mc. Planets that have natives (other than Amorphous ones) can generate their own money, and you do not have to supply these with mega-credits to get started.
• Try to make the warps between planets in one turn so that you will not be seen. This is especially important if everyone knows that you are a rookie. If you are experienced, they may assume that you believe you are strong enough to repel an attack.
• When you have a ship over an unowned planet do a mineral survey. To do this, select the ship that is over the unowned planet (in VGA Planets for DOS press F4 and then F5). You can now unload some colonists onto the planet. If there are natives (other than Amorphous ones) you need only to unload supplies and colonists and your freighter can move to the next planet in the same turn.
• If there are no natives, your ship will have to wait there until next turn when you own the planet so that you can give it some mega-credits. The reason it does not need mega-credits if there are natives is that you can tax the natives and the planet will generate its own mega-credits.
• You may have to stay in orbit, even if there are natives on the planet. Your ship may be short on fuel, in which case, you can gamble that there will be enough fuel on the planet's surface to get you to the next planet. To gamble like this, set your mission to Gather Neutronium and before you leave the planet's orbit, your ship will automatically beam up all the neutronium on the surface. You may be forced to wait at the planet until another ship can refuel you or until you have mined some neutronium from the planet.

• When colonizing, do not neglect planetary defence posts on newly-owned planets. There are three primary types of defence--capital ships, planetary defence, and mines, usually in that order of importance. Of the three, planetary defence will be the most important defence against small scouts with 2 x-ray beams that wander into your territory looking for unguarded planets.
• In order to prevent small scouts from taking over your precious new planets and destroying many of the factories and mines as well as stealing any money on the planet you need about 13 defence posts. It is generally safe to let a planet go without 13 defence posts for the first few turns that you own it. After that, you will want a minimum of 13 defence posts to defend from small scouts or small HYPerdrive ship attacks. The 13 defence posts should be increased by a couple every turn. Don't build mines until you have max’d out the number of factories you can build (unless you urgently need some minerals).
• By the time you have about 25-50 mines built (if you have decided that the planet is worthy of that many) you should have your planetary defence to max., or almost there.

• Do not think that you will never have to build another STARBASE.
• If someone attacks and destroys your Home World, you will need another base to survive in the game.
• A STARBASE can also be used as added defence for a valuable planet.
• You may find that your Home World starbase is overwhelmed by the need for new ships in your empire.
• You may need ships to be produced nearer to your enemy's heartland.
• Maybe you need a supply of torpedoes or fighters closer to the action.
• Moving minerals from far away to your Home World is also very wasteful of fuel.
• A starbase nearer to high-production planets will save fuel and effort.
• Once the 500 ship limit is reached, he with the most starbases has the best chance to win.
• Do not build a starbase simply for the sake of building a starbase, though. Whenever you build a new starbase, have a specific purpose for it in mind that is part of your over-all strategy.
• You may need to build a Large Deep Space Freighter, to transport any materials and colonists required to the chosen planet. To defend the new starbase you will need one to three capital ships, at least until it has full defence posts and max. fighters. For building a starbase you need 900 mega-credits, 402 tritanium, 120 duranium, 340 molybdenum & colonists.
• A Large Deep Space Freighter or a couple of capital ships with a lot of cargo holds can deliver these minerals. The ships can also be used to deliver additional colonists and minerals after the starbase is started. You will also need supplies and more mega-credits to build factories, mines, and defence posts.
• Do not leave only 100 clans on your starbase. A cloaking race (especially the Lizards) may find this out and beam colonists of their own down. Suddenly, they'll have your starbase for free! You will need at least 500 clans to be fairly safe. Before you can feel really secure, you should have several thousand clans on your starbase.

• With hyper-drive potentially in the hands of any race you can be attacked from a 1000 light years away only a few days after the start of the game. Get your HW (Home World) defence posts above 100, keep your ships hidden and don't lay a minefield until it is absolutely necessary (minefields can be detected from a large distance away). Every day check to see if any other ships are orbiting any of your planets.
• Always be watching for any sign that your enemy (or your ally) is planning an attack.
• Always be thinking about how you would attack if you were your enemy.
• Prepare your defence for this. You can second-guess yourself forever. For every tactic there is a counter-tactic for which there is a way around by using a different tactic. Choose the type of attack you expect and prepare for it. Do your best to prepare for every possibility, though.

• Always plan out your attacks.
• Avoid an all-out battle of attrition.
• Use your forces with daring and stealth.

• Avoid a two fronted war by having one enemy at a time. Negotiate with the others for an alliance or truce so that you can use your forces on a single enemy. In this way you can concentrate your forces against one opponent. If possible, use your ally to help destroy the enemy. Two against one is always better than one on one. Working in a team is even better. With your resources pooled you will be more effective.
• If my race cannot build fighters cheaply (i.e. just use 3 TRI, 2 MOLY and 5 supply, no mega-credits) then I will build ships that carry torpedoes. Unless I can do a quick kill on their starbase, I will avoid conflict with races that can build fighters cheaply. Instead, I will aid another race by providing some ships/credits to do my "dirty work" for me. This is similar to the strategy the Byzantine (500ad) and the British Empires (18th century) followed.
• Be ruthless and aggressive to effectively carry out your plans of universal domination. An opponent who isn't completely destroyed can rebuild. Spare no one. The U.S. Navy in World War II had a motto--"HUNT THEM, FIND THEM, SINK THEM!".
• Even if your opponent has a fleet stronger and larger than yours, never despair. All the great Generals in human history won their battles with forces that were greatly outnumbered and outgunned. How? They concentrated their forces and struck at their enemy's weakest areas. Attacking where least expected and with more forces than your opponent has in that area will allow you to survive, and eventually turn the tide. Never do what your opponent expects you to and never be where he thinks you are. In any situation, determine what is most the most obvious course of action to follow and what is LEAST obvious. In most cases, do the least obvious.
• Always mystify, mislead, and surprise your enemy.
• Never underestimate any player. Always be sure to correctly estimate the effects of your attack on your enemy.

• It is usually best to try and avoid head to head conflicts involving the loss of ships. Attack the resources that supply, build, and fuel these ships. By avoiding battles against large ships you can commit your resources to smaller capital ships and have economy of force.
• Remember to try and do the unexpected, but at the same time be sure to keep in mind that certain operations are simply more worthwhile than others. In order of importance, here are the primary targets.

Home World:	Whenever possible ALWAYS destroy your opponent's HOME WORLD. As well as being his source for building ships, mega-credits, supplies, and colonists a blow here can also knock him out of the game. Psychologically the loss of the Home World can cause a player to give up and stop playing.
The Battlefield:	If you can take control of the battlefield, you can call the shots. Bully the enemy if you can. The safety that freedom of movement generates will usually pay for itself.
Planets:	By capturing enemy planets you deny him observation posts. This can be done by unloading colonists onto the planet for ground war. Watch enemy movements with cloaking ships, as well as from a distance. See if you can find his primary planets. Attack a couple of these over a spread-out area can weaken the enemy greatly. Attacking lesser planets that the enemy is using primarily for the 100 supplies per turn it generates can also force him to either spend a lot of money on a minefield (which you will just sweep), force him to spread out his forces, or force him to lose these planets. If he decides to sacrifice these lesser planets, you can use them as FORWARD SUPPLY BASES.
Freighters:	Destroying enemy freighters denies the enemy the minerals needed at his starbase.
Capital Ships:	Destroy enemy capital ships ONLY when your losses are minimal and his losses are maximum or when it gives you a commanding control over the battlefield.

• Time your attacks carefully. Timing can make the difference between success and failure.
• Before you attack know what your target has for defence. If you are attacking ships that are in space, check to see what you will be attacking by using `L' and `V'. After you have identified the enemy ships, use the program PROSIM.EXE (with SIM.EXE) to see if you will be successful in a conflict. Determine which ships and in which order you will send your ships in to attack. Set the ship's mission to INTERCEPT or KILL and input the PRIMARY ENEMY. The ship with the lowest ID # will attack first. To change the order of attack change the friendly code. For example ship A is to attack second and ship B first. Set ship A code to 2xx and B to 1xx. Read the document "HOSTxx.ZIP" for more info.
• When attacking or defending, do not waste your forces piecemeal. If you want a target, then commit enough ships to be successful.
• It is a waste of resources to send 3 ships and lose them, even if the target is destroyed. Send 6. That way, although you still lose three ships, you have 3 left to control the area. Remember, you must have sufficient ships to win, as well as to repel any counter attack. Know what your target defences are, and then use the best combination of weapons against it. You will lose ships in an attack, anticipate this.
• Carriers are the most efficient way of attacking a starbase, but only when used as part of a Battle Group (see The Dreadlord Manual for further details).

Bringing minerals to a starbase can be done with capital ships that have large cargo holds or freighters. Using a capital ship that cloaks is ideal, because no one can see what your route of travel is.

• If you are using a ship that doesn't cloak, try to travel from planet to planet in one turn. When in orbit around a planet your enemies cannot see you.
• When you cannot make a move in one turn, be sure to avoid telegraphing your moves. Don't move in a straight line from one planet to another. Zig Zag so your opponents are not sure of your destination.

• To protect your ships have them travel in a convoy. Set the to travel at the same speed, moving to EXACTLY the same location each turn. This is accomplished by having all the ships intercept the lead ship in the convoy.
• To travel to a distant cluster of planets have several freighters travel in a convoy with an escort. Their path should closely resemble a firecracker on the 1st of July. All the ships travel together for as long as possible and then suddenly the convoy breaks up with each ship traveling a very short distance to its assigned planet. Using several freighters, a large number of planets can be checked out quickly.
• If the distance between planets is too great to be done economically because of fuel concerns, have some escorts standing on station at certain locations. Sitting on station at warp 0, the escorts will not use valuable fuel. The convoys can then move to these stations for extra protection.
• If your resources are low, you can tow a ship and put StarDrive 1 engines on it. For example, a LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER with high tech engines could tow a capital ship that has only tech 1 engines. The cost of the capital ship then is minimized.
• Unless your capital ships are on convoy duty they should be in one of two locations.

1. At the starbase to maximize the defences or somewhere else standing by to face any enemy action.
2. In a strong, single strike force moving to attack the enemy.

• The heavier the ship, the more fuel it will burn. When selecting beam weapons, engines, torpedoes, torpedo launchers and fighters check the weight. A positron beam weighs 3 KT and a blaster 4 KT. Carrying 60 fighters will burn less fuel than 80 fighters. Having 150kt of fuel weighs less than 200kt fuel, therefore the ship will burn less.
• The biggest advantage to registering is that you will be able to build tech 10 engines, and move further and faster than before. A tech 7 engine is the minimum size engine that should be used on most ships. Lesser tech engines can be used on ships that are just staying and protecting the starbase.

• A SMALL SCOUT with high-tech engines can move rapidly and economically around the universe looking for enemy ships and planets. By leaving one colonist clan at each planet, this planet becomes an OBSERVATION POST on enemy activity. By leaving several colonists with supplies and mega-credits, some factories and eventually some mines can be built to provide fuel and supplies to ships operating far from your own territory. This planet is a FORWARD SUPPLY BASE.
• With colonists on the planet you can use `v' to look at other ships that come close. Also use `l' to list the ships if they are traveling in a convoy; then cycle through using `v' to see which ships are there. Depending on which version of PLANETS.EXE you have, you may have to use the small-case of `l' and `v'! (In WinPlan `l' and `v' are identical in function)

• A number of planets with good native races can win the game for you.

NATIVE RACES to look for:

AVIAN and INSECTOID are a good source for mega credits.
REPTILIAN help with mining.
BOVINOID make extra supplies.
GHIPSOLDAL gives TECH 10 engine technology when building a starbase.
AMPHIBIAN -- TECH 10 beams with starbase.
SILICONOID -- TECH 10 torp’s with starbase.
HUMANOID -- TECH 10 hulls with starbase.

A TECH 10 advantage race can save you 4500mc and is the only way that unregistered players can achieve anything beyond tech 6. Note that natives, just like you, grow (on planets with the right temperature!). Taxes have the same effects on them. A good government, though, can greatly increase the taxes you will earn.

• Also, note that on some planets it is not wise to build too many mines or factories, since that will decrease the maximum tax rate, which will in turn, decrease the amount you will earn.
• Remember, you can only mine a planet once, but the taxation factor is forever. For example, on an INSECTOID planet with 10 million natives that is earning 300mc a turn, building 100 factories and only 25 mines will likely lower the maximum tax rate by 1%. 1% will cost you 300mc a turn, or 900mc in 3 turns, or, the cost of 60 fighters in 20 turns. Serious business. Make sure you are certain that further development on a planet is what you want.