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How to REALLY win at Galactic Frontiers
This is a follow-up essay to my previous one. Read the other one
first for basic information.
There is a bug in this game. If you repeatedly stall a fleet of ships,
tossing more in after them and stalling them too, eventually the game will
lose track of some of the ships.
Let�s say you�re in the Custom mode. You have only your home planet.
You begin advancing on a second (unconquered) planet. You get worried you
don�t have enough ships yet, and so you start stalling the ones on the way,
while sending more after them. Eventually the game will lose track of
some of your ships.
Try this: send two ships from your home planet. Send two more.
Send two more. Keep stalling them, up to turn six. Then, send yet more
ships after those. You will find that 2 plus 2 plus 2 plus 2 will equal four,
not eight. So you wind up landing four ships on the unconquered planet,
instead of eight!
The lesson from this bug is, don�t keep stalling ships in flight or
some will be lost in space, forever.
�Edit/Undo task force� seems to be erratic. It sometimes does
nothing. Other times it pulls back some ships, but not all of them. Still
other times it pulls back all my ships.
Another problem, probably not a bug, is flying directly through a sun
on your way to a planet. I have found that ships sometimes get turned to
toast and sometimes they don�t. It�s erratic. It would be nice if this game
would tell me if my ships get toasted, instead of just having them
disappear forever.
Another notice problem occurs with black holes. This isn�t a bug,
it�s just poor game design. If your ships get lost in a black hole, they
disappear from the game. Unfortunately, no note appears saying: �Contact
has been lost with the ships travelling from Naos to Uranus.� (Or
whatever.) The ships just disappear.
A good note to pay attention to regards a planet�s likelihood to rebel.
If a planet is listed as �likely� or �possible� to rebel, I immediately
lower the tax rate, often down to �light�. This gives me a lot less
problems with rebellions, and I can raise the tax rate back up the very
next turn.
Currently I am playing a four-player game. I raise the build rate for
the Simians from 95 to 105 percent. I raise the build rate for the
Amphibians from 95 to 100. Nonetheless I am consistently winning this
game.
To give my opponents a better chance of winning, I don�t use radar.
It�s a waste of money, in my opinion. But I let my enemies use radar, and I
don�t require them to inform me if they detect the presence of my fleet on
another planet. (I still like being able to hide my fleets in space, though.)
However, here�s a question: does radar work? I�ve experimented with
building a few radar stations and didn�t get anything from them. There
needs to be a button that allows me to send out radar signals and get a
report.
Another way to give your opponents an advantage is to let the game
center you on the map. This means that when the game starts, you don�t
know quite where you are. It�s a bit disorienting to have the map readjust
later, but I�ve found I can handle it. Note that this is how the game is set
up, without adjustment, in �Options/Exploration�. So this will be
happening to you automatically unless you turn it off.
What should you do when your planet catches the plague? In my
previous essay I said that you should dismantle the planet�s industry to
zero. This will give you more starships, which you can use to build the
planet�s class. (Class isn�t affected by plague.) However, there is another
approach. You can attack other planets with your plague-infected fleet!
This will usually spread the plague. But it�s a great way to ransack enemy
planets.
Try this next time you get the plague:
1. Dismantle all the plague planet�s industry.
2. THEN dismantle the plague planet�s class.
3. This process will give you more starships.
4. Lower the plague planet�s tax rate to light, since you have no
industry there any more.
5. Attack an enemy planet with your plague-infected fleet.
6. If you conquer the enemy planet, plunder it. First dismantle the
industry, then plunder the planet�s class.
7. Now, despite having a plague-ridden fleet, you can attack still
other enemy planets.
8. On your original plague-ridden planet, plunder the planet�s class
again. Fly those ships off to attack other planets as well.
Note: Let�s say you plunder the plague planet�s class, and then
dismantle its industry. You will not get as many starships. This is
because as soon as the planet�s class falls below 1 (one), its industry will
automatically drop to zero. So, the lesson is: Always dismantle all the
industry, then start in on the planet�s class. You�ll get more starships
that way.
So let�s say your plague-ridden fleet is rampaging through the
galaxy. You can actually get a lot of mileage out of it. Each time you take
a new planet, dismantle it�s industry and then plunder it�s class.
Remember to plunder the planet�s class some more next turn. This process
will generate lots of starships, and there�s another treat too: when your
enemies attack and take the planets you plunder, they get worthless
planets. Not only do they catch the plague, but since you�ve plundered that
planet its class is something like 0.4. The planet has no industry, and it�s
class is worthless.
Plague fleets can be a lot of fun. The only problem is, you will want
to keep track of which planets your plague fleet has visited. Those
planets will have plague for about ten turns. If you foolishly attack them
with good ships before the plague passes, you will give the plague back to
yourself!
Here�s a tip: Use nearby planets, occupied by native forces, as free
sentinels. They can�t attack you. Until they are conquered by the enemy
you don�t need any forts on your home planet. (Or any ships either.)
Now we come to the point of this whole essay: how to REALLY win in
Galactic Frontiers. You start off with a home planet. As soon as you see
those nearby planets, occupied by native forces, your instinct is to attack
them. Don�t. Instead, begin piling up ships on your home planet. When you
have about ten of them, send them all off to the (unconquered) planet that
is farthest away from you. Don�t leave any ships or forts behind on your
home planet. (But remember to increase its industry as high as you can, so
your home planet is cranking out lots of ships.)
Am I sending you on a wild goose chase? What idiot would leave his
home planet undefended while going to the farthest star? Let�s go over
the facts again: the planets nearest you, occupied by native forces, are
serving as sentinels. Until they get overrun by the enemy, you don�t need
to worry. Let them just sit there and live on their pitiful little planets.
Meanwhile, your nice big fleet is in search of an enemy home planet.
The first planet you conquer will probably not be it. But in just a few
turns you will have found and conquered another home planet! Yes! It will
either be the planet of Insecta, the Simians, or the Amphibians. Now you
will have two home planets, yours and one of your enemies�.
What if your original home planet suddenly finds itself facing an
enemy? Not to worry. Your original home planet is busy cranking out lots
of ships each turn. (By which I mean, of course, about two ships per turn.)
Just build a fort if you get scared. Build another fort if you�re still
scared, and a third fort as soon as you can. Your home planet can easily
take care of yourself. Let it. Meanwhile, your big attack fleet will have
gotten you a second home planet. For a number of turns your job will be to
continuously feed this second home planet. With luck, you will soon own
more planets around your second home planet than your first! But don�t
worry, many of those native forces planets surrounding your home planet
are not only small, they�re easily conquered later.
Now what do you do, with two home planets? Why, you go for a
third! Yep, that�s your job. To locate and conquer all four home planets, as
quickly as possible.
You�ll find yourself losing some planets with this strategy. The key
is to let the little class one planets go, while keeping your grip on the
class two and class three planets. Of course, your grip should be tightest
on those tasty home planets. There�s only four of them in the entire
galaxy.
You will notice that if all your opponents are computer-controlled,
they pick the same boring strategy each game. They hang on to their home
planet while conquering the ones nearby. They aren�t smart enough to skip
the nearby planets and go for enemy home planets. Plus, they often have
an addiction to building forts. Their home planet will almost always be
defended by three forts and three ships. That�s no match for your growing
attack fleet, that you can build by skipping the little planets and shooting
for home planets.
Another problem with having only computer opponents is that they
can never �throw the long bomb�. They are utterly unable to do something
screwy, like plundering all their planets and sending everything they have
at your home planet. They just predictably build, and conquer nearby
planets. You�ll never hear from them until their tidy little strategy has
stretched all the way to you, planet by planet.
So, as a human player, welcome to human tactics: Avoid dinky
planets and go for big planets and home planets. If a plague strikes, use it
to build a big plague-ridden fleet that ravages its way across the galaxy,
leaving wasted planets in its wake and giving your enemies the Galactic
equivalent of AIDS. It�s fun to pee on your neighbor, especially if you have
the plague! And it�s fun too to wipe out his home planet early in the game
when he�s not expecting it.
30
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