So I have played a few games and I'm starting to get the hang of how this game works but I'm still struggling with the space battles I still don't know what to pick when mobilizing my spacecraft I use the auto button. so I need a bit of help with mounting my spacecrafts and when you get into battle I don't know how to properly use the battle card system.

I usually like to Sabotage the enemy every round for -15% accuracy.

It's important to play the repair Engineering card when your ships take damage, though.

I'm rubbish at space battles, but Usually I just use whatever card I feel would work best for that situation.

The biggest aha-moment is that you can press the "actions" button while having a fleet selected and get all the available cards show. This gives you time to actually read them.

All cards have a card-type, and they block a card-type.

If your card gets blocked, it has no effect.

If you don't get blocked, the normal stuff happens.

If you manage to block your opponent, the normal stuff happens AND the stuff in the (block) section. This normally gives you a bonus to the cards bonus part while removing the negative side.



Example:

Nano-repair, type engineering, counters sabotage.

If your opponent plays something that counters engineering (like Adaptative Strategy), your card does nothing.

If your opponent plays a card that isn't a sabotage card, and doesn't counter engineering (this would be most of the other cards), your ships will regain up to 20% of their total hp, but do 10% less damage this phase.

If your opponent plays a s sabotage card (like Short circuit), his card won't have any effect, your ships will regain up to 30% of their total hp and you will still do normal damage (since -10% and + 10% cancels each other out).

Yeah, my most recent revelation was that the things in parentheses are added ON to the original effects, not a replacement. For example, I believe Nano-Repair's card says "-10% Damage Friendly Weapons (Block: +10%)" This means you'll end up doing your normal damage (minus 10%, plus 10%, so no difference), not doing 10% extra damage.

What happens if your card blocks your opponent (which gives you the "blocked" bonus) and your opponent counters your card (which cancels the main effect). Does it mean that you get the blocked bonus? It may be that no existing card pairs have this, but it seems possible, and once different modders release different new cards, it is sure to happen.

The best thing to do it just play cards that counter the most often used actions. the -accuracy, +armor defense card, offensive retreat, and repair. Whichever would hurt you the most, play the counter for it.

davea wrote:
What happens if your card blocks your opponent (which gives you the "blocked" bonus) and your opponent counters your card (which cancels the main effect). Does it mean that you get the blocked bonus? It may be that no existing card pairs have this, but it seems possible, and once different modders release different new cards, it is sure to happen.

This has actually happened to me before, and I kind of assumed both cards were canceled out and had no effect. I assume the only way to prove this would be to check the game code, though.

I only use one card : Target Locked On, which improve beam weapons...And my ships have only beam weapons. They whipe out every fleet in one phase...Without taking any damage (they are pretty well protected though).

What influences the order the ships are flying and which one is hit first?

How does the combat mechanism works concerning multiple ships with different systems?

What would for example happen if I have a heavily defended ship first and a rocket carrier last in the row?

Could one ship defense the others? For example if only one of my ships has the "anti-system" for a special weapon type?

If I tell you the truth about how it works, you might shake your head in disbelief. ^^

Say side one has the ships 1,2,3,4,5 and side two has A, B, C.



This is how they fire at them:



1=>A

2=>B

3=>C

4=>A

5=>B



No focus-firing, no splitting their fire for bigger ships. They always pick the next ship that is attacked by the least amount of ships to distribute it most evenly. If 1 has Lasers and A has Deflectors but B has no Deflectors 1 will still fire at A. It involves absolutely no intelligence on their part.

Focus fire only happens if you outnumber them.

Thank you.

So trying to manipulate the order is not really neccessary when combat works like this.

I hoped for sth like a "solid rock-Shield-Defender" protecting some light weight Rocket-Carriers with his massive defense-systems...

Ok, that leaves not much room for creative combinations of ships in a fleet, you can only mix in the hope that you do not loose all of them when you are not sure what systems the enemy uses...or when you are sure they all should be the same "killer-type" because the AI-Player normally uses only one type of ship-design.

In non equal combats, ship 1,2,3,4,5 vs Ship A,B,C, do Ships 4 and 5 concentrate their fire then on one ship (A or C)?

A little bit like the naval combat system of the Boardgame "Attack!" with Expansion...two rows of ships just passing and drive-by-shooting each other.

I hate modern manuals of computer-strategy-games, they just tell you the lousy basics and hide the intersting details bout math&mechanics

The only creative fighting I tested, is the "defense only fleet", that most of the time survives, because you only fight three rounds and there is often a draw.

You keep your ships and your hero earns EPs.