[Alneyan]

- The defender fires first indeed. There will be problems to determine who is the defender if two fleets, with the same speed, moves to the same sector at the same moment. In this case, it is random. Being the defender gives a strong advantage when the attacker warps through a wormhole; otherwise, the defending fleet will not be in firing range, and so who fires first depends on the speed of the two fleets. (Being the defender may be very useful when the two fleets are so big they take the whole battle area, but I have yet to see such a battle)

- Weapons are fired in the same order as they are in your ships, provided they can be used (a ship will not fire its Shield Depleting weapon if no enemy has shielding for example). Point Defence Cannons are fired when an enemy moves in their range, and so aren't fired along with the other weapons.

- In a fleet, ships will fire according to their id number. So, your oldest ships will act first, and your newest warships Last (at least, it is the common opinion about this as of yet). So you cannot change the order of the ships in a fleet. Formations can matter, but I am no expert on formations and ship strategies, so I cannot tell you anything more on this one.

- When you have the Talisman, the only purpose for Combat Sensors is to act as a backup. If your Talisman is destroyed, but your ship still has Combat Sensors, it will be able to have a chance to score a few more hits. Since the Talisman is a big component (50 hitpoints), it is more likely to be hit than most other components, and so you may find a ship with a broken Talisman but a few weapons still running. Besides this, Combat Sensors are useless on a Talisman equipped ship.

- Torpedoes deliver very little damage per turn and per kt, and they have no bonus to accuracy in the stock game, so it is not advised to use them. Shield Depleters are useful if your opponents are fond of shields, and the APB is a very good weapon when it reaches level VII or VIII. You will seldom be able to hit at range 8 though if your target has all the components helpful for defence, and adequate training. The Wave Motion Gun can also be useful given its range (8) and its bonus to accuracy (+30%), which makes this weapon able to deliver some damage at maximum range. It only fires every *three* turns though, and deals less damage per turn per kt than the APB (for example). Still, if you do not expect your ship to survive for more than one turn, and would prefer to deal as much damage as possible, the WMG is useful then. If you can afford the research to get it.

- Some players like to build BSY (Base Space Yards) early on, whereas others put all their efforts towards research and colonisation. So there is no definitive answer here I believe. For what it is worth, the only use I make of BSY in the early game is to be built while my homeworld recovers from the first 11 turns of Emergency Build.

To counter Boarding Parties, you may want to use Security Stations or the Self Destruct Device, depending on how many Boarders you are facing (if there is only one per ship, the Security Station is likely your best bet). Shielding may help as well, if they do not use Shield Depleters (since they already have the PPB).

And PDC will do wonders against their own seekers. Be careful of them using fighters to overcome your defences though; if they have too many resources on their hands, fighters may be a nice way to put these extra resources to good use (a few fighters aren't too powerful; a few thousand of them are another matter).

[ July 16, 2004, 14:00: Message edited by: Alneyan ]