AI War:Wanderer's Strategy Tips
If you've found this page, it's because you've wandered to my User Page and clicked the link or cheated and got here via Recent Changes. It's not quite ready for public consumption yet and is a work in progress. However, you're welcome to hit the discussion page as much as you like. As it being a personal opinion page I'd prefer it not to get heavy edits unless I go off on some drunken tangent and curse out the pink elephants or something like that. :)
--GUDare 03:13, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
Newbie Tips
Getting started, when generating a new board, start at AI 5/5. Just trust me on this. I played SC heavily PvP and PvE and it still took a while to get used to all the moving parts. Under ships, set it to Simple. Game Options to Normal/Normal. For AI Options, include Human Resistance Fighters, and don't turn on any AI Plots. All those options are there to spice up the game, and right now it's plenty spicy for a brand new player.
Next, when you're cruising the map, find yourself a nice corner of a Standard galaxy. Why standard? That's really the best map until you're looking to perform particular strategies and can decide which alternate maps really fit your preference.
When you're selecting a starter bonus ship for your fleet, avoid anything with special needs or strange mechanisms at first. If it has to describe to you what it does and you can't see how that works at a glance, then that's not the ship you want at first. Excellent starting ships: Spire Stealth Battleship, Blade Spawner, MLRS, Zenith Bombard, Sniper/Sentinel Frigate, Shredder, Cutlass, Raptor. They've got enough 'special' to give them a special feeling without feeling like you need to do something special to make them work.
Once you're booted up, dial back on the super-powered ships. The Mercenaries aren't there for your standard play, they're really just a resource burner for late game. Starships are very expensive and don't have the firepower compared to your fleet ships. You'll always start out with five fleet ships. Scouts, Fighters, Bombers, Missile Frigates, and your 'special ship' that you selected during map selection.
CTRLs Menu
Inside the CTRLs menu there's a LOT of options. In particular, there's a few here you'll want to pay attention to.
Auto-FRD Engineers means they'll wander around the planet fixing/building anything they can reach, including helping with ship building. You'll want that on. Auto-FRD Military sets all military to defend all the time. Believe it or not, you'll want that OFF until you really realize what that does. Sometimes you just don't want all of your military wandering around and getting in local fights if you're saving a particular subgroup for a special mission. Reclaimed Ships Rally to Rally Post. This isn't something you'll use immediately but you might unlock parasites or the like later. Turn this on, it'll help later if you get them. Group move keeps your fleet together on long journeys. I find it handy to leave this on and simply hold G when giving orders if I want to break the fleet up. Under most circumstances my fleet travels as a huge pack to their targets and I don't want them straggling into a major problem.
In the Planet Specific tab, while on your homeworld, immediately set yourself to Auto Build MK I Engineers to 10. This will always keep 10 engineers on this planet (as long as you haven't used up your ship cap) for assistance in building. Also set Alert When # Enemy Units Present to 1. This will alert you any time you have an enemy on your homeworld.
Combat
The Fleet ball is your friend. You CAN micro, but really... there's no reason to, unless you have some specialty ships. Snipers and other long range ships should be kept on a separate key so they can be maneuvered independently of the fleet ball maneuvers, who usually end up at knife-range. The more firepower you bring to bear on any particular target the less damage you'll take destroying it.
That said, kiting your enemy if you have both speed AND range on them can be very effective. Again, separate hot key, away from the main fleetball. Raptors, Rebel Colonists, and similar ships are good for this.
