So I'm still playing my first game, as United Empire, I did a little fighting with Cravers, then they disapeard from known space, the two starsystems they had had no population and no ships, so me and Siphon started to carve up their empire, by sieging the star systems, I had destroyed sevral craver fleets and thought mabye they were dead and gone, suddenly, 4 fleets show up of cravers, and now they have MISSLES. my fleet got devestated, I manage to run away with my hero to saftey, but damn I have no idea were they came from. Now both me and Siphon are on the defence.

It's a bug with hissho (and also cravers i guess), they can pop fleets out of nowhere, and you're in danger because they'll do it again!

see http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?905-Impossible-AI-fleet-sizes

It is a known bug.

I've seen a few references to this "bug" but I have to wonder ... is it really a bug? I ask because about 100 turns into the game you can have an economy that fields brand new fleets every few turns simply buy buying out ships. Build the lengthy system upgrade that reduces buyout by 30% and then up your tax rate (a properly managed empire should be able to sustain at least 50% without any penalty). I make thousands of dust a turn at that point and can buy 19 point fleets every few turns. Then POOF I create a fleet from the hangar and stomp on some aliens. I imagine the computer does much the same - and in periods of crisis maybe even raise the tax rate higher so they can do it more often for a short period.



If you're ever, ever planning an invasion - even if it's for one turn - you should have multiple offensive fleets and a few defensive fleets on standby very close. I've found the best tactic is to hit two (maybe three) adjacent systems at the same time while using secondary fleets to engage the enemy anytime something crops up. If the enemy suddenly fields a fleet from the hangar I take one of my defensive fleets and move them up to engage. It's been working for me so far. Also - missiles are crazy overpowered.