quote:
Originally posted by Jason2:
In my current game: Large universe, Clusters, not all warp points connected, with the mod-pack included:
The Earth Alliance is opening up warp points and maintaining vast fleets. They beat me to it's creation (I was researching weapons etc. to make sure I was ready once I opened a warp point) and through scouts I have established that they have opened around 5 or 6 different warp points to other clusters... very aggressive, and getting very big!
Jason2
I recently concluded a game where I had all warp points connected. In that case, what I did was research weapons tech moderately (up to phased polaron beams/telekinetic projectors/etc.) to match everyone else in the early game, and then poured as much as I could to Stellar Manipulation.
Once I got the condenser at Stellar Manipulation level 3, I closed off all warp points leading to anyone else, to buy time to build a decent fleet with good weapons (your trade will definitely take a hit and you'll lose contact with other races, depending on what points you close, so be sure your economic house is in order). When I became sufficiently prepared, I took my Explorer Group (one frigate w/ resonator, one frigate w/ condenser, one destroyer w/ a repair bay, and a frigate w/ cloak, sensors, and long range scanners), teamed it with my attack fleet, and then jumped into the home system of whichever AI I wanted real estate from, and then closed the point behind me (and incidentally, bypassing all their minefields they have on their warp points). Once in, move to the other warp points in the system to close them (with proper minesweeping to protect your investment), and thus cut off reinforcement. Once the system became mine totally, then I'd open a point connecting it to my empire, and repeat the process.
The key is to get Stellar Manipulation first, or failing that, kill off any other empire that has it. Of course, I wouldn't suggest going straight for Stellar Manipulation level 7 and neglect weapons, shields, etc, but since Stellar Manipulation can be used as a great force multiplier, it may be worth it to research up to level 3, and then pour everything you got into weapons, shields, etc. Carefully take the measure of your enemies to determine what research paths to go on (which should be pretty elementary by now). With higher levels of Stellar Manipulation, you can keep your shipyards and staging areas further back from the front, and thus protect them better. Once you're ready, just warp them in to your area of operations.