Gratuitous Space Battles Tutorial and FAQ

1. What are the "keep moving" orders?

By clicking on a ship in the deployment area, the "Add Order" tab appears. By clicking on this, you are given a wide range of orders to choose from -- one of which is the "keep moving" order.



2. How do you access the "formation" and "escort" order?

This, again, is found by clicking on the "Add Order" tab on the left side of the deployment screen.

This is where it all starts - the deployment screen of the tutorial mission.

3. Once you click out of stats in a battle can you go back? From the stats I clicked on deployment and I can't seem to get back.

No. If you accidentally click Fleet HQ or deployment, you can't go back to stats. No worries. You can still play the battle again!

4. How good are the tutorial Cruisers? Can you think of an initial improvement I can make to get myself started?

Yes. Take off two engines and put in two EMP Shields. Consider adding an EMP Cannon. If you are harassed by Fighters in a mission, add a Cruiser Defence Laser. That will get you started.

5. Where can I access the GSB manual?

This is a standard question I put here. You can click directly on the manual from the main menu.

BUT if you are playing other games, a lot of times there are viruses on sites that claim to let you download game manuals. The safest and easiest way is at the Steam site. You cannot access the manual from your library section, but you can through the "store section" once you search for, find and go to that particular game.

6. Using the Honor Points, what do you suggest I unlock first? Is it fairly easy to unlock a large majority of the items? With a bit of effort, will I be able to unlock everything?

I would suggest some of the modules, then the races, then the rest of the modules, then finally the hulls. Don't save for a rainy day. You will have plenty of Honor Points. Just spend, spend, spend! Yes, you will be able to unlock everything fairly easily. After I finally got the hang of modifying my Cruisers with EMP Shields, etc., I had in excess of 100,000 Honor Points in no time.

7. Do I get additional Honor Points for playing on Hard and Expert after I beat the game on Normal?

Yes! It's a completely different ball of wax! Hover the mouse over the Normal icon to see how many Honor Points you have achieved there. Once you beat the mission on Hard, a completely different number is given by that tab!

8. What are some good resources to learn more about Gratuitous Space Battles?

I actually started reading the manual on this one. Baby steps! I got to about page 6 or 7 before veering in other directions and experiencing more actual game-time experience.

I truly enjoyed this tutorial video on Youtube. It has a Part 1 and Part 2 to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlm4RRRNU00

Just type in "Gratuitous Space Battles Tutorial" and it is the top entry. Because of this tutorial, I understand the stats page much better and it was great seeing a visual depiction of putting a ship together.

9. Can I take the Tutorial Cruiser, replace some of the components and then save it?

Yes. Go to the pre-battle deployment screen (NOT THE SHIP DESIGN SECTION) and right click on the Tutorial Cruiser. From here you will be given the option to edit and change around the components.

10. Where can I start learning intel about all of those strange-looking alien ships?

Initially, let me comment that all of the races have the same "basic" configuration of Fighters, Frigates and Cruisers. They are just fixed up with different hulls and different weapons. You have much in common with the enemy! You just look different than them, so they feel you must be destroyed!

Once you unlock the races, you can look at all of the the various ships -- that is, the initial hulls. In the stats section after the battle, you can hover the cursor over the alien ships and it will give you the names of these ships/hulls. This is not the most important information you can obtain, though. The difference in the hulls is mainly the number of hardpoints and standard module slots. What is even more important is the type of weapons utilized.

You can slow down the battle and visually inspect the weapon systems on the ships and their discharging "ammo." A weapon system chosen for a Federation hull will look different when placed on an alien ship. The DISCHARGE from identical weapon systems for different races will appear the same. That is, Cruiser Laser Beams will appear red for all races.

Even better, after the battle, go to the Strategic Analysis - Damage Per Weapon section. This will give you some real meat-and-potato information about the enemy fleet. This will list ALL weapons attached to their ships! Booya! Deselect all but ONE enemy weapon, and it will give you precise stats of the damage caused by this one weapon. Very helpful!


This is a diagram of damage done by the enemy's Frigate Small Beam Laser. (All other weapons have been deselected.) The purple area shows the percentage of potential damage of missed shots. The green area shows the amount of potential damage reflected from shields. The red area indicates the percentage of damage done to the hull by this weapon. From this type of info, you can figure out if certain weapons are targeting your shields or hull and how successful your defenses are to it.

Note: Stats on the exact, same weapons system are slightly different for the various races. Go figure.

11. If you fill two slots with armor on your ship, is this redundant? Or does it make the ship stronger?

It definitely makes the ship stronger! That being said, armor does not have that many hit points. Once the shields are gone, the armor isn't going to last long. Consider an extra shield before providing an extra layer of armor.

12. Can missiles go through shields? Do laser beams go through shields? Or must the entire shield be destroyed before attacking the actual ship? How do you destroy enemy shields?

Missiles attack shields. They don't go through them. If enough missiles and other weapons deplete the shields before they recharge, the shields will be permanently down and the missiles will continue to attack the armor and hull.

Laser beams don't go through shields. They also attack shields BUT if the lasers are not strong enough, they will ALL bounce off of the shield - ZERO damage. If the shield penetration number of a laser equals or is higher than the shield resistance, the shield will be further damaged. Careful viewing of the battle will show whether lasers are bouncing off of or attacking the shield.

Fighters can fly past the shield, though, and attack the hull and armor even though the shields are at full strength.

13. What are the best weapons for attacking/destroying shields?

Hmmmm. That's an essay question ready for debate. As mentioned above, lasers may or may not have an impact on shields, depending on the shield resistance and shield penetration rating. Some lasers have twice the penetration rating possible. Just remember, the very first Cruiser Laser Beam listed (with the classic red beam) will not penetrate top shields. The second laser listed (Cruiser Proton Beam) may or may not attack the shield, depending on the shield strength -- and if you are fighting the Empire, who have a shield bonus, it's not going to work well. Fusion beam, more of the same. The Cruiser Laser, though, on the far right of the top column for Federation, will burn right through shields.

Missiles are the no-brain solution to attacking shields. I personally like the Fast Missile Launcher. The sooner the missiles reach their target, the sooner another missile can fire.

Plasma will also burn through shields. Plasma weapons usually have a shorter firing range, though.

14. Any particular strategies for destroying shields?

Errr, see above. I like massive amounts of Fast Missiles pounding away at the shields.

15. Is one ship type better than the other in taking down shields?

Fighters are worthless against shields -- although they can fly through them to attack the armor and hull. Cruisers and Frigates both have their fair share of anti-shield weaponry mentioned above.

16. I really don't want to read the manual. Anything, in particular, you found helpful?

Mass deployment of ship types is a good thing! In Deployment mode, right click on a particular ship (in the ship selection area) and you will be given the choice to mass deploy this type of ship by repetitive clicking in the deployment area.

17. Can you give a quick rundown of the pros and cons of different weapon types? What are the main weapon categories available?

Lasers appear to cause quicker destruction to the hull and armor, once the shield is down. Missiles are all-purpose destruction and have good range. Plasma has a shorter range and can attack all of the above. Blasters are like mega-machine guns for tearing things up once you get close and personal.

18. So ECM is considered a "weapon type"?

Yes, I would consider it a weapon type. It temporarily knocks down the offensive systems of the ship.

19. I read that you can basically win this game without those tiny Fighters helping you out. (But that they are much more important in the GSB Galactic Conquest campaign.) What is the basic philosophy of utilizing Fighters in battle?

You can use Fighters to protect your Cruisers and Frigates from enemy Fighters -- (using the protect command) -- or you can use anti-Fighter lasers on your Frigates and Cruisers. It's up to you! (I prefer Cruiser and Frigate lasers.) In certain situations, Fighters can eat through enemy armor. In other situations, they get slaughtered and are quite useless.

20. Can you select a mode to actually follow around one specific Fighter in combat?

Yes. Click on the "cross-hairs" symbol on the lower left of the battle screen and then click on a Fighter. Zoom in and watch the fast and furious (and short) life of one of your valiant Fighters.

21. So to basically destroy a Cruiser, it is necessary to break through both the shield and the armor. Is the hull a separate component to be destroyed? Or is armor a part of the hull? Or does that make no sense whatsoever?

The hull is separate from armor. The hull is actually composed of the different modules placed on your ship. As you see the hull deteriorate, you can also see the modules being destroyed -- if a ship is selected on the battle screen.

22. What is the basic philosophy behind using the escort command? Would an example be protecting your cruiser from certain types of attacks it is vulnerable to?

Escorts stay in the same general area of the ship they are escorting. (Duh.) The escort command may not always work as well as you might like. Fighters escorting a Cruiser may be a little too timid when danger approaches the area. The main thing that comes to mind is to keep Frigates from rushing off and killing themselves by exposing their thin armor on the front lines.

What I like even better than the escort command is the formation command. Keep Frigates in formation BEHIND your Cruisers to keep them from the brunt of enemy fire -- and load 'em up with the specialty weapons that truly float your space bubble.

23. Any basic deployment strategy you care to share?

I found this article from M.S. Smith, copied verbatim without permission, but credit duly given:

"The first basic rule of deployment is to concentrate your firepower. Deploying your ships in a wide, broad line might look cool, but it isn't always a good idea. It is advantageous to you to have more ships at a particular part of a battle than your enemy, so grouping most of your forces at one side of the battle usually works well. It works particularly well if you build one or two high-armor/shield cruisers and place them on the other side of the battlespace in order to bait the enemy ships on your flanks. By the time they defeat your heavy cruisers, you'll have mowed down half their fleet.

A second, related principle is to deploy ships which counter an opponent's ships as close to those ships as possible. For example, if the enemy deployment has a large amount of cruisers flanked by frigates, deploy your fighters so they're as close to the frigates as possible rather than near the cruisers.

Lastly, remember to account for differences in ship speed when deploying. Placing all your frigates and cruisers together virtually guarantees that your frigates will reach the enemy by themselves. The cruisers can't keep up. Instead, place the frigates near the back of your line and the cruisers at the front. This way they'll reach the front line at around the same time."

Editor's comment: OR use the formation command! Booya!

24. Is there a basic rock-paper-scissors type of strategy as between Fighters, Frigates and Cruisers?

Hmmm. Not hard and fast, no.

Fighters can attack other Fighters with about a 50-50 chance of survival. Frigates are vulnerable to Fighters if they don't have anti-Fighter lasers on them. The same with Cruisers. Cruisers may be immune to Fighter attacks if their armor is powerful enough -- until it's further weakened by enemy fire.

Frigates are not much good at fighting Fighters unless they have the anti-Fighter lasers. Frigates need to keep their distance from Cruisers or they will get blasted. A Frigate properly set up with long-range weapons can be effective against Cruisers.

Cruisers can blast Frigates because of their superior fire power once they get in range. Cruisers can "eventually" whack down enemy Fighters with an anti-Fighter laser onboard.

Not a very straight forward paper-rock-scissors!

25. Are ships more vulnerable from attacks from the flanks and rear?

Naah, I don't believe so. Those weapon turrets have a wide turn radius!

26. Does it help to be facing a ship to target it? Are some weapons mult-directional?

The turrets can pivot in whichever direction. Space has no "up." Direction really has no bearing -- except if you want to head in the direction of an enemy ship to get within firing range.

27. In this regard, I noticed some of my cruisers at times would be facing away from the battle. Are they trying to escape because they are heavily damaged?

Yep. They are running away because they are about to get blown up. Their weapon systems are severely or totally damaged.

28. I realize I can set a priority on what ship types to attack first. What is the overall strategy for attack order?

For Frigates and Cruisers, TOTALLY DELETE the Attack Fighter command. Defence Lasers will automatically target Fighters as they are probably the only thing in range. Your other weapons cannot hit the fast-flying Fighters. In technical terms, the "tracking speed" is too slow to hit these Fighters. This tracking speed is given when you click on any of the weapon systems.

The Cruiser Defense Laser has a tracking speed of 3.7, compared to 1.02 for the Cruiser Beam Laser. If the Attack Fighter command is not deleted, the weapons with low tracking speed will still "try" to hit these Fighters -- instead of attacking the larger ships that are easily hit.

For your Frigates and Cruisers, put enemy Frigates on the highest priority, perhaps 100 percent, then enemy Cruisers at around 50 percent.

29. If after a battle you go directly to Fleet HQ, can you still get to the stats section for that game?

No! But don't worry. You can always play again.

30. Any short cut for speeding up battle besides clicking ten times?

Yes. Hold down the + key. No need to hit "shift."

31. How can I utilize the range of ships into my strategy?

Well, it's actually range of weapons -- not range of ships. My first couple of play-throughs, my weapons of choice were the long-range Cruiser Beam Laser (the very first choice) because of its long range, plus the Fast Missile Launcher. Other weapons may have more "kick," but you need to get within range to use them. Experiment and see what works for you. Not to be redundant, I finally figured out that Cruiser Beam Laser didn't do crap against most shields.

32. Can I check the stats of a ship in battle?

Oh, yes! Just click on one of your ships during combat and, bingo, you will see all kinds of great info to the bottom right. Hint: You can even click on an individual weapons module on this lower-right display and get even further info. Click through your weapons to display their range of attack on the battle screen.

33. How about checking the stats of any enemy ship?

Unfortunately, you don't have access to this info until after the battle in the stats section.

34. Any way to go faster that 4x during the battle?

No!

35. So red lights are lasers during the battle?

Yes! To be precise, they are Cruiser Beam Lasers. Other lasers have different colors. Check out the weapons section of this tutorial to see more info.

36. Why are there swords in front of the first 12 missions but "infinite symbols" on the next two missions?

The "infinite symbol" missions are just endless raiders that you must fend off. It never ends.

37. Can I get honor points on these missions?

No!

38. During the battles, there is a small HUD to the lower left. At the top right of the HUD is a number representing "show damage level for each hit." What exactly does that mean?

All of the numbers shown when damage is done to shields, hulls and armor, you can see the amount of damage displayed on the screen. I have after-images of the myriad of green numbers you see when Fighters are chewing through a ship's hull. If you want to turn this feature on or off, click this button of "show damage level for each hit."

39. On the deployment screen, can you overlap and put ships on top of the other?

Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. It's different for each ship. When Cruisers explode, they may damage other ships, but I haven't ever noticed anything serious in this regard. I still like to keep my ships in a very tight formation.

40. It seems like there are four different size/shapes of ships on the attacking race. Is it still the basic Cruiser, Frigate, Fighter setup for all enemy races?

Yes. The hull designs can vary a bit, but just from the size you can guesstimate which class they are.

41. What are the star-shaped missiles?

EMPs -- electromagnetic pulses. Great for shutting down enemy weapon systems. They're -- awesome. What's doubly awesome is you can put an EMP Cannon in any module slot. It doesn't have to be a hardpoint.

Also, the smaller, fast, star-shaped missiles are plasma projectiles.

42. Can you have auto-resolution of the battles?

No!

43. When you unlock a race, do you then have more modules to unlock?

No! Same amount of modules! So you don't need to hold back on spending those honor points. Spend, spend, spend!

44. So will all modules work for all races?

Overall, yes. There are a very few "specialty" modules for certain races. What makes things a bit different is the weapon systems have slightly different stats for the exact, same weapon. Nothing too serious, though.

45. If I move to another computer, do I keep my honor points, et cetera?

No. You start over again. But I kind of like that, so you have the possibility of starting fresh with a new race.

46. Is there a place to compare my personal stats to other players' stats?

Not that I know of.

47. The Challenges tab is not highlighted on my main menu. What's the scoop?

Just go to the Online tab and sign up for online challenges. Bingo!

48. So if you lose all of your armor, can you still survive?

Yes! After the armor is gone, then you still have the hull left. You can see this illustrated by clicking on a ship during combat. The lower-right control panel shows your armor being eroded away but the hull is still intact.

49. Can you lose armor even if your shield is intact?

Yes. The main way this happens is Fighters passing through the shield and then firing their weapons. Overall, though, your ship is intact until the shields fail.

50. So some shots penetrate an intact shield?

Well, if your shield is intact, then "shots," a/k/a missiles and lasers, will not damage the armor, hull and modules of your ship. UNLESS they get a lucky shot -- which happens about two percent of the time. That's why a pack of Fighters will get "hundreds" of "no effect" messages -- and then the armor and hull suddenly disintegrate within seconds.

Update: Actually, what may happen is that with multiple Fighters, a number of simultaneous hits may "coincidentally" hit at the same time, overwhelming the damage absorption of the armor. This may take a while to occur, so your armor will hold up perfectly until this happens and then disintegrate.

There is NO DOUBT about the fact that an extra layer of armor will keep your armor/hull safer, since it is lessly likely "that many" Fighter hits will occur spontaneously to overwhelm the armor's damage absorption.

51. Can you run out of missiles?

No. If you notice your missiles aren't firing, it's because they have been damaged, destroyed or are out of range of enemy ships.

52. I was looking at the control panel of my cruiser during the battle in the lower-right corner and I noticed that my armor was being stripped completely away in just seconds. Am I doing something totally wrong?

No. Not at all. Armor doesn't have many hit points. It just has a higher resistance to attacks than the hull. That's why enemy Fighters will chew through your hull ASAP, but this can be prevented with armor with a high-enough damage absorption.

53. At the end of your game, you are told what your least effective weapon is. Would it be a good idea to delete this weapon and replace it? Or is this stat perhaps misleading because, for example, Fighters destroyed by a certain weapon give a lower percentage of total damage?

True. The Cruiser Defence Laser will only knock out a small percentage of total armor during the battle, since Fighters are so small, but they are just as important as any other weapon onboard. Use a bit of caution when looking at this stat.

54. During a battle it looks like the ship is suffering from an electrical shock. What is this an indication of?

This is from the EMP weapon that can go through your shields and armor. It will short-circuit your offensive weapons. It will not affect your shields and armor.

55. Each time you have a battle with the exact, same troops, will the results be exactly the same? Do the enemy forces change their characteristics between battles?

The results will not be exactly the same each time a battle is fought -- even with the same ships in the same deployment. This is probably because of random number generators utilized in the game. For example, there is only a two-percent chance of a lucky hit. Each time a battle is played, this random two-percent could occur at a different time.

On initial inspection, all weapons on enemy Frigates and Cruisers appear to be the same each time a battle is fought. As a side note, it appears all similar ships are configured exactly the same. (At least on the Emerald Nebula mission.)

56. How about on the expert missions, is the configuration the same each time a battle is fought?

It appears they are exactly the same.

57. Are Tutorial Fighters good at defensive work against enemy Fighters? In other words, the pre-setup laser beams they are equipped with are the right weapons?

I have a whole section on this now! The Laser Cannons are just fine for the Fighters when attacking Frigates and Cruisers. The Pulse Lasers are slightly better for dogfights. The armor is worth the cost if your goal is for your Fighters to be in dogfights with other Fighters. For "swarming raids" against Frigates and Cruisers, the armor is worthless against their more powerful weapons and is a waste of credits.

You can swap out the default Power Generator II with the basic Power Generator to save a few credits!

58. I noticed that the mission is lost EVEN IF you still have Fighters in action. In fact, after the announcement is made that the battle is lost, the Fighters will continue to destroy enemy ships! Can you fight a mission with ONLY Fighters?

Yes! As a matter of fact, over 10,000 Honor Points can be earned in the Battle of Mexallon II simply by deploying a number of Tutorial Fighters. The battle ends when your fleet falls below ten percent of total hit points. When Cruisers and Frigates are also deployed, the total percentage of hit points for Fighters alone is so low you will be defaulted to failure with only Fighters left -- even if you would actually have won the battle!

59. So on the expert missions, are the ships of the same strength and specs, etc. as similar ships in normal and hard battles, but they just have a higher credit limit to deploy? Just curious because it seems that my Fighters didn't do much damage against the armor in my first expert battle. Perhaps they can just afford better armor?

The program doesn't "cheat," that I can tell. A Cruiser with X number of weapons and defenses will play exactly the same in normal, hard and expert. Besides weapons, some defensive modules, it is not possible to tell some of the modules deployed by the enemy ships. Perhaps they added another layer of armor.

60. Can you determine exactly what the specs are of the various enemy ships after the battle?

You will be given a list of which Fighters, Cruisers or Frigates were involved in the battle and the individual hull types. More importantly, you will be given a list of weapons that the enemy used. You can then explore the stats of the damage caused by these individual weapons.

These stats will give an indication of whether they were effective against armor or shields and their miss percentage.

You will NOT be given a list of which defensive modules were deployed, engine type, generator type, etc.

One stat I wish was given is which weapon did what percentage of damage compared to entire hit points. The only glimpse of this type of data is for your own weapons. The first thing the stat page tells you is which weapons were the most and least effective. This is judged by hit points, so the Cruiser Defence Laser will always be categorized as the least effective.

61. In the stats section, if you float your cursor over the enemy ships, they will tell you the hull type and class of ship. In the very first mission after the tutorial, you take on the Alliance fleet, including a large yet thin, narrow ship called the Dreadnought. Going to the build-a-ship section, I could not find this hull type. Where are the Dreadnoughts? Can we build them if we fight as the Alliance?





For some reason this is labeled as a Dreadnought in the stat section, but going through the build-a-ship hull section, this is actually an Alliance Python Cruiser. Mystery solved -- there is no fourth class of ships!

62. In the stats section, after hitting the Switch Stats button, it shows the modules of the individual ships. If they are in red, does that mean the component was destroyed?

Yeppers. If a ship was destroyed, all components are shown in red. If a component is only partially damaged, such as armor, it will be partially red. Undamaged parts are displayed in technicolor!



In the example above, this Cruiser is in good shape. Only one of two armor platings has been destroyed, with slight damage to the second piece of armor. The rocket launcher is also slightly damaged.

Notice all but one of the "Targets Engaged" are also in red. That means these ships have been totally destroyed. A single Fighter squadron survived, with slight damage.

63. I notice there are Tribe hulls to choose from in ship design. But you can't use these until you buy the DLC (downloadable content) packages?

If you have these hulls showing, I believe that means you already own the DLC content. I didn't realize I had this!

64. Do two engines make you go faster?

Yes! Although you can get by with one (or zero) engines for Cruisers, you may want to get your short-range weapons in action sooner and include an extra engine.

65. I tried to put two lasers on a Fighter design. I couldn't seem to get enough power to make them operate. Is it possible to outfit a Fighter with two lasers?

Not with the Federation or most other races. You can with the Rebel Bomber -- sort of a larger hybrid Fighter. But it won't do you much good. It is a bit slower and is more susceptible to enemy fire. You can also put two missile-type weapons on some Fighters -- but that again won't do you much good. The missile-type weapons fire too slowly for the collective effect of a Fighter horde to destroy Frigate and Cruiser armor.

Stick with the simple, single-laser system. Consider taking off the armor to increase speed and decrease costs.

66. Any reason to have more power than what is used/needed?

No. This is wasted resources. Try to have as little excess power generated as possible.

67. Just a thought. Since it seems battles have a slightly different outcome every time you engage the enemy, even with the exact same configuration, does this make it more difficult to analyze attempted improvements in your fleet?

In some situations, yes. I had a horrible time analyzing the Fighter's Laser Cannon versus the Fighter's Pulse Laser when attacking Frigates and Cruisers. This is because it takes multiple simultaneous hits to break through enemy armor. The randomness of when this would "eventually" happen highly skewed the results.

When analyzing whether Fighters equipped with Laser Canons were better in dogfights versus those armed with Pulse Cannons, it was very easy to figure out. The results were quite similar on multiple tests.

Overall, randomness will cause only slightly different results, and with the enemy fleet remaining the same, improved strategies can logically be sought out and deployed.

68. If a Fighter squadron is shown as damaged in the stats section, that would mean a certain percentage of the Fighters in that squadron were destroyed?

That makes sense!

69. I initially thought the unlocked modules would dramatically increase your capabilities, like leveling up in an RPG. It seems that the modules, although a bit more effective, are not exponentially better. They just give you more options to adapt to different situations?

I would agree with that sentiment. It's not like leveling up from Level 1 to Level 15 in Diablo!

70. Is it possible to beat any of the expert missions with just the "tutorial" ships?

Yes. I was able to beat the first mission, Defending Sirius, on expert level with just the tutorial ships. It was very close, though.

71. Would both of these defensive strategies be effective? 1. Just assign Fighters to certain Cruisers. 2. Just move the attack priority for your Fighters to 100 percent vs. other Fighters.

They are both legitimate strategies. I prefer Cruiser Defence Laser modules.

72. Any way to keep EMP blasts from frying your electronics?

Sure! EMP Shields! Two are even better!

73. What is the difference between shield resistance and shield strength?

I have discussed shield resistance before. Shield strength is the number of hit points for the shield.

74. So weapons firing look the same for each race?

Yes!

75. Why is my armor only 97-percent effective?

If you have duplicate modules of the same type, the effectiveness goes down. Three modules of the same type would lower the efficiency even more.

76. If you are having problems getting through shields, any suggestions?

Yes. Missiles and Plasma weapons.

77. How come the Fighters chew through some armor and can't penetrate others?

Number one, the number of Fighters. Number two, the amount and type of armor. Number three, the type of weapon the Fighter has. Number four, the randomness factor if multiple hits are taken on the armor at the same time -- overwhelming the armor resistance number.

78. Is there a difference between beams and lasers? I know there are laser beams. Some websites acted as if they made a distinction between the two.

I haven't figured this out yet.

79. Is shield penetration a different way of saying "shield damage"?

No, no, no! I am going to make a whole section on this! The shield penetration number must be EQUAL to the shield resistance number to cause damage. If it's the shield penetration number is lower, then NONE of the laser's destructive power will penetrate the shield. It will all bounce off! All is for nought!

80. So the same thing with armor. If the "armor penetration" number is lower than the "damage absorbable" number of the armor, zero damage is done?

Hmmmm. That would make sense. But some of this armor is rated 117 damage absorbable, and I don't see any weapons that have a higher armor penetration number than that. I need to check on that.

Answer: It takes multiple hits in a short amount of time to overcome the damage absorption number. That's why multiple Fighters with low armor penetration numbers can destroy the armor.

81. What can you tell me about plasma?

I have been playing around with plasma all night long trying to figure out its advantages. It's similar to missiles in that it will penetrate and destroy basically all shields and armor. The damage numbers are lower than missiles, so it seems like a second-class weapon. The only thing I can figure is that plasma is not affected by anti-missile turrets and scrambler systems, giving it that advantage.

In the test runs swapping out plasma and missile systems, the missiles were more successful.

82. I noticed that one of the anomalies is "All ships require engines to get to the battle." I don't understand. I thought all ships had engines.

Well, actually, you don't have to put those engines on the ships, if you want them to just sit there. I just got 200 more Honor Points on the tutorial mission from dropping an engine. Ha!

83. What is shield stability?

This only comes into effect with certain weapons that affect the stability, temporarily turning off shields. I haven't noticed it being a major factor in the game. I could be mistaken, though!

85. Realization: During the battle, if you click on one of your ships, you will get a readout in the bottom right. On the weapons systems, if you are wondering what the white dot is in the upper left, that means the weapon is currently tracking a target. The indicator on the bottom of the weapon indicates the process of the weapon recharging.

86. Realization: A good way to test weapons of one type is on the tutorial mission. Since there aren't as many distractions, it is easy to learn in this situation. Just load up a cruiser with one weapon type and see what happens.

87. Can you time missions? This way, you may notice you were able to last a bit longer with one weapon type versus another.

No. There is a chart in the stats section that shows damage over time and hit points over time, but it doesn't give the precise time of the mission.

88. Do multiple EMP Shields help improve protection from EMP attacks over a single EMP Shield?

Yes! Most definitely! Although you will still get hit by EMPs, the length of attack will be shortened to a manageable amount of time. The more EMP Shields, the better!

89. Realization: Alliance ships are kind of like the Zerg. There are plenty of them, but they are rather weak. At least that's the scuttlebutt on the street. I would like to do more research on that.

90. Note: Multiphasic shields suck. Perhaps there is some use for them in some situation, but I haven't found it yet!

Further note on the subject: Basically, if one shield has a high resistance, this resistance is transferred to the other shields. Because of this, it is possible to have a single shield with a high resistance, then perhaps a Fast Recharge Shield to work in conjunction with it. This may make it worthwhile to utilize a "cheap' secondary shield.

91. Note: If you are at the deployment screen, and don't want to lose your current deployment but want to leave the deployment screen for a while, go ahead and start the battle and then hit the "surrender" button. If you hit the "back" button, the current deployment will be lost.

92. Note: If you are happy with your best score and think you might try to "tinker" with the current deployment at a later time, don't forget to save the deployment for future use!

93. Which defenses work best in which situations?

If I haven't mentioned this before, armor is basically to protect yourself from Fighters. If you don't have enemy Fighters in a mission, consider using no armor. It has very few hit points. It's the damage absorbable number that makes it attractive, but this absorption only helps against smaller weapons like those carried in Fighters.

Consider Reflective Shields over Fast Recharge Shields. The resistance of 27 may be what it takes to neutralize an enemy's laser attack.

Utilize Hi-Speed Point Defenses and Guidance Scrambler Beams when there is heavy missile activity.

94. Does the Alliance Cruiser hull have a built-in weapon? It seemed to be shooting a blue beam at me when I got up close.

No. I don't think so. If you look closer, it is probably a weapons module placed on the ship.

95. Not considering any other factors, which gives more damage per second/minute? Lasers or missiles?

Lasers, but lasers "can" be totally stymied by shields. The goal is to have enough missiles to take down shields quickly and leave the remaining lasers to quickly destroy the remaining hull.

96. Note: If you haven't figured this out yet and you are copying the Tutorial Cruiser as a start to your new Cruisers, it has three engines in it and you only need one for your new designs! (Or less!)

97. So the only difference between the races is they start out with different hulls?

No! They also have different weapons to choose from! Each race may have a specialty module or two, like the Tribe has a special "Tribal Repair System." The Tribe has double hit points for its hull, and that is a major difference. Overall, at 700,000 Honor Points, I still haven't truly distinguished strong differences between the races.

101. Any way to go faster than 4X speed?

Nope!

102. How about auto-resolve battle?

Nope!

105. I notice on my second computer, I start with zero Honor Points, which is great, since I want to start from scratch with a different race. Is there any way to delete this game and start again from zero? Last time I deleted my game from Steam and reloaded, it kept my Honor Points and other information intact.

Not that I have figured out yet. Maybe I should ask Cliffski.

106. Do all races have EMP?

Yes!

107. Do all races have the same defensive modules?

At least as far as Cruisers, yes. One of the races has one extra module. I will check that the same is true for Frigates and Fighters also.

109. Alliance forces seem to like the EMP weapon. Do they use it more than others?

Not sure, but they do use it. I was too distracted by the heavy missile bombardment by the Rebels to pay too much attention to this!

111. Again, precisely what do the numbers represent in the upper right and left of the screen?

Hit points!

112. When the EMP hits a ship, do their shields stay up?

Yes. Just their offensive weapons go offline.

113. So if a missile hits a shield and disappears, does that mean it did no damage?

No. If you slow down the action and watch carefully, you will see a number with a minus sign in front of it appear where the missile hit. This is taking energy (hit points) away from the shield. If you get the shield down to zero, the shield will be permanently disabled.

115. Are Rebel ships cheaper? There seem to be a lot of them.

I don't believe so. Maybe because their Frigates look kind of big like Cruisers.

117. Realization: Fast missiles work quite well for two different reasons. 1. They are faster and less likely to get shot down. 2. The next missile is not launched until the first missile reaches its final destination. So the faster the better!

118. I know the Tribe has giganto ships. Are the other races fairly similar in hard points for weapons placement for Cruisers, Frigates and Fighters?

There is a bit of variety, but I stick with my theme that the races are not "that' dissimilar. I will report later on as I uncover the nuances of each particular race.

119. Realization: One reason to have more than one engine in a cruiser is to reach Frigates faster...but I still like that extra slot for something more sexy.

120. Do Frigate weapons have longer-range weapons than Cruisers?

Nothing that exciting. They have some long-range missiles. Nothing to write home about at the moment, but I will keep an eye out for this as I keep exploring GSB.

121. Do any of the races have longer range weapons than others?

122. Realization: Weapons also have minimum ranges. The Tribe ships seemed to rush my Cruisers so close that some of my weapons could not fire on them!

123. Realization: Looking at stats, it's obvious the hull has many more hit points than armor -- although armor can "absorb" damage and you can have an armor repair module.

124. Since missile shots directly drain hit points away from the shield, is there anything you can do about that fact?

Well, missile shots are going to drain hit points from shields -- period. Nothing you can directly do about that fact. BUT you can have multiple shields with higher recharge rates. Additionally you can set up Hi-Speed Point Defenses to shoot down some missiles before they reach the shield. Guidance Scrambler Systems also work great.

125. Can any other weapon harm shields or go through them besides missiles?

Missiles don't go through shields -- they damage them! Plasma weapons will also damage shields. EMP missiles will go through shields to turn off their offensive weapons.

126. This is kind of a repeat question. Besides EMP, are some weapons totally unaffected by shields?

I would say no. Shields must come down before Frigate and Cruiser weapons damage the armor and hull.

Update: Actually, plasma weapons can damage armor and the hull even when the shield is intact!

127. So will radar painter make all shots or more shots hit their target?

128. Realization: If you just have three slots to deal with, consider three shields and zero armor.

129. Realization: During a battle, you can click on a ship to see its details to the bottom right. On top of this, you can click on an individual WEAPON SYSTEM on the bottom-right panel and you can see the minimum and maximum distance of that weapon system displayed on the battle map. Additionally, and this is pretty cool, you can see the number of hits, percentage of hits, and what damage they have caused to the armor and shields of enemy ships. Awesome!

The stats displayed for this particular Cruiser Beam Laser is 15 of 18 hits (83%), with 34 damage to shields, 197 damage to armor and 160 damage to the hull. The minimum and maximum attack range is also displayed on the battle screen.

130. Realization: On the deployment screen, if you click on a ship, all of the ship's modules will be displayed to the bottom left. If you click on one of the small modules illustrated, a complete read-out of the module's stats will be shown. Cool!

Forget exactly what modules are available on your saved ships? Just click on them to get a quick reminder. Alternatively, right click on the ship and click "edit" to get a larger view.

131. What will Nanobot Repair Systems repair?

They will basically repair all modules, including armor. This will usually kick in after the shields are gone and direct enemy fire is hitting the ship. Unfortunately, it won't do a darn thing for hull damage.

The half green/half red module shows the armor being repaired by the nanobots. Unfortuately, the armor is being damaged more quickly than it is being repaired. The nanobots will keep your weapon systems online for a bit longer, though. During a close battle, this can make a big difference!

132. Are Imperial Fighters meaner than others? They chew right through my Federation ships.

Errrr, yes and no. The issue is that there are more Fighters or cheaper armor. Imperial Fighters are cheap and fast though! Check out the Fighter sections!

134. Should some modules only be used to save credits?

Basically, yes. This can especially be true of things like generators, engines and crew modules. On weapons, this is a more complex question. For example, at first blush, you will notice some weapons have more damage at greater range for a similar price. But when you look at the stats more closely, you will notice the more powerful weapon has a lower shield penetration rating, making it unable to damage some shields that the "inferior" weapon can.

135. Unless I am imagining things, it sure seems that the Empire ships blow up much more quickly than Rebel ships.

It may be that you were thinking the Empire Frigates were Cruisers. They look kind of big unless you have a Cruiser right next to them. In hindsight, I am not convinced they are more delicate than Rebel ships.

136. It also seems that Rebel ships use a lot more missiles than other races and they die slowly.

Lots of missiles, yes. The part about dying slowly, not so sure about that compared to other races.

137. Are there always more hit points for the enemy race on the expert level versus hard?

No. I thought I was imaging things, but sometimes the expert mission is easier than the hard. For example, in the Multari Gas Giant, there are 20,577 hit points for the enemy and only 15,777 for the expert.

139. Note: On limited supply missions, you can figure out why you cannot deploy a certain ship by clicking on it in the deployment panel, and seeing which module is highlighted in red. The module(s) highlighted in red have reached their maximum and can no longer be deployed. How I handled this is right clicking on this ship to go to edit mode and swapping out that module, then placing the ship on the deployment screen. Rinse and repeat.

Notice the red modules highlighted for this limited supply mission. No more fast recharge shields for this battle!!

140. On the deployment screen, what are all of those white circles around the ship? Is that the "attack order" distance or the minimum and maximum attack range?

This is a screenshot of a cruiser with only one weapon system.


This is a screenshot of a cruiser with two weapon systems.

Well, it's complicated, kind of. A white ring around a ship on the deployment screen represents the minimum range of that particular weapon system, NOT the maximum range. If there are two weapon systems on a ship, two white rings will be presented, etc.

Once the Attack Fighters/Frigates/Cruisers tab is chosen, another ring will appear displaying the desired attacked distance. If you were to drag the desired attack range to 480 or 616, it would exactly correspond with the minimum attack distances displayed in the example below.


This displays a Cruiser with two weapon systems and a desired attack range of a ridiculous 1400 units. That's why the outer circle is so large. Drag the distance between a smaller and larger number and the outer circle will shrink and expand accordingly.

141. So what is a good strategy for setting the desired attack distance for your ships?

Look at the maximum distance of your weapons. You MUST (or should, not trying to be bossy) set the attack distance at a number LESS THAN that maximum distance. If you screw up here, your engines will turn off and sit there beyond your weapon range going la, la, la while an enemy ship is blasting you to pieces.

142. What's the scoop with shield stability?

Sorry if this is a repeat. That only comes into play when the enemy utilizes weapons that affect shield stability. Otherwise, it will always be 100 percent.

143. What are the weapons that affect shield stability?

144. Realization: Fighters will attack the ships closest to them -- unless they are specifically ordered to attack a different ship type. Because of this, just placing Frigates slightly behind your Cruisers with the Formation command can provide them quite a bit of safety.

145. What is the relationship in cost of an "average" Frigate to an "average" Cruiser? In other words, how many Frigates equals one Cruiser? (Generally speaking, of course!)

146. If you broke it down just by hardpoints, would you pay more per hardpoint for the Cruiser versus Frigate? It seems you might, since you have a thicker hull protecting these hardpoints. Kind of. Even though weapons can be knocked out of commission before the hull.

148. If you set up 21 hardpoints on Federation Frigates versus 21 hardpoints on another race's Frigates, would the cost be about the same?

Basically, yes. The Swarm, though, gets a discount on their ships, though. Go figure!

149. Rebels seem to use more missiles. What do other races prefer?

Well, that could have just been on that mission. If you see lots of missiles coming your way -- in any mission -- just use the appropriate countermeasures as you see fit. Mix and match!

150. Are enemy Cruisers set up different in the same mission? Separate missions?

Would double Guidance Scrambler Systems on a ship divert even more missiles?

Yes. Slow down the battle and zoom in. You can actually see the Scramblers shooting at the missiles and causing them to go all fuzzy.

Do Guidance Scramblers help protect you from Plasma weapons?

I don't believe so. At least they don't curve as distinctly as the missiles do. I will try to double-check this.

Realization: It seems ships will not retreat until after they are severely damaged. If you set an attack distance of 800 and enemy ships come within 400, your ships WILL NOT retreat under this circumstance. Bummer!

Any area effect weapons in this game?

No....and I have looked! I will double-check if the nuclear missile that leaves behind radiation affects more than one ship.

Note: Be sure your engine and power source are NOT heavier/more expensive than need be if you are NOT concerned about speed.

Are Fighters any more effective in cooperative mode?

Not that I have noticed.

Naah, it's easy. With the slightest bit of effort, your Frigates will be runneth over with Honor Points. You don't even really need to know what you're doing. I guess that can be a good or bad thing.

That being said, let me say just beating the missions on normal difficulty is NOT a bit challenging. The goal and beauty of the game is accumulating massive amounts of Honor Points by using less than the total credits available in each mission.

But let's say you are just learning and getting the feel of things and you want to unlock all of those cool-looking modules and a few spare hulls -- RIGHT NOW -- using the least amount of brain cells as possible. Perhaps you recently had a lobotomy. That's not a problem!

You may even want to unlock a few alien races.

Just simply go to the deployment screen of the different maps and plop out a few Tutorial Cruisers, Tutorial Frigates and Tutorial Fighters. Leave about 4,000 to 6,000 Honor Points available so that you will be aptly rewarded if you win the battle. Bingo! Start the battle and the odds are you will win! Repeat and rinse for the different missions.

Note: There are a few exceptions to this. The missions that have Anomalies that don't allow shields are tougher to beat. To win these missions, it is necessary to swap out your shields with extra armor. Not exactly brain surgery -- or rocket science!

Note 2: If you don't want to create a ship from scratch, go to the deployment screen, right click on a tutorial ship, choose edit, and from there modify a component or two. Be sure to rename and save this new ship design so it can now be deployed.

Do the same thing for a few of the hard missions and you will get a few more points. And, yes, you can get Honor Points separately for all three levels of difficulty. For example, you can earn 5,000 points on each of the medium, hard and expert settings of the first battle map, Defending Sirius.

Before you know it, just utilizing Tutorial Cruisers, Frigates and Fighters, you can unlock ALL of the modules, a number of races, and even a few hulls! You are off and running!

Note 3: It may help a bit to group your ships together. Combined attacks will more quickly destroy enemy vessels.

1. Play the tutorial and Defending Sirius missions a bit until you get a feel of what is happening and why. With less ships, it is easy to figure out what is going on.

2. Go to the deployment screen and RIGHT click on one of the Tutorial ships. (I focused on the Cruiser because it has a lot to play around with.) From here you can edit the ships, making small adjustments to see what the effects are. Even better, change ALL WEAPONS to one weapons type to see the effect of these weapons and what their shortcomings are. For instance, with only laser beams, it is impossible to destroy an enemy cruiser through their shields! You must mix it up with a few missiles!

3. Figure out what the discharging of different weapons look like and you can see the results thereof. A big breakthrough for me personally was figuring out that the star-shaped objects were EMP projectiles that would give the ship an electrical short-circuit. The graphics were quite clear on this!

All offensive weapons would go offline when the EMP would hit and my defenseless Cruiser would take a nose dive. Besides this one issue, the Cruisers seemed to be holding their own. From here, I figured out I could put EMP Shields on the Cruisers. I then figured out that putting two EMP Shields worked even better. Three EMP Shields worked even better.

From here, I figured, hey, if short-circuiting my ships hurt, why not return the favor? I then added one EMP Cannon to each of my cruisers. This works especially well against Alliance forces.

Extra hint: The Tutorial Cruiser comes with three engines. You only need one! Of course, you may travel a bit slower, but what's the hurry! This made room for two EMP Shields.

You may notice less issues being attacked by EMPs with other races, and you may want to use those slots for other defenses. For example, against the Rebels, who are extremely missile happy, you may want some anti-missile defenses instead.

4. On missions where enemy Fighters buzz your Cruisers, you need to get rid of them! You have noticed that once there is an opening, they will chew through your defenses like termites chewing through wood. Not good. But how to get rid of them?

One simple and effective way is to add a Cruiser Defence Laser to each of your Cruisers. If you forget the name, part of the description will remind you that this Laser is particularly effective against enemy Fighters.

You can also assign Fighters to protect your Cruisers. That is effective also, but burns up a few Honor Points!

1. Although usually my strategy is to destroy Frigates first and then Cruisers, occasionally it works to change this around.



In this scenario, the Frigates are only armed with lasers that cannot break through my shields, so the best strategy was to attack the Cruisers first. (By the way, I discovered this by accident -- ha!)

2. For Cruisers and Frigates, right click on the Fighter Orders to delete them -- unless you have a Frigate totally devoted to their destruction. The Cruiser Defence Lasers will automatically target them. You need your other weapons focused on the larger targets.

3. Place an EMP Cannon and EMP Shield on each of your Cruisers. The EMP Cannon does NOT require a hardpoint (weapon) slot!

I have placed a number of thoughts under the 800,000 Honor Points section. Sorry this is a bit jumbled!

Also, a lot more tips are contained in the Q & A. This site is sooo free form, man...grrroooovy!

When first starting out on the battle screen, it is quite confusing what exactly is going on. Are those beams coming from my ship or attacking my ship? Sometimes it is necessary to truly slow down the action to start taking in what is going on.

I am new at space battles, so it took me a week to get this totally figured out. It will take you a few seconds, hopefully.

Let's start out with a simple concept: laser beams. You know, those solid beams of light that we all love more than Venusian pie.

Slow down the action enough to see what is happening when your beams are hitting enemy shields. If you see the beam being reflected back, you may need to make an adjustment to your strategy. Not necessarily, though, because you may be waiting for those lasers to tear apart the hull AFTER the shields are taken down by other weapons.


Although Cruiser Beam Lasers (the red ones) have higher damage and longer range than the other beams, its shield penetration of 20 wasn't capable of penetrating this Empire shield. (Notice it bouncing off of the shield.) This battle was lost, even though I had twice the hit points at this point of the battle.

With lasers and shields, it's an all-or-nothing affair. If the laser's SHIELD PENETRATION is not equal to or higher than the SHIELD RESISTANCE NO DAMAGE WILL BE DONE TO THE SHIELD.


Notice the shield resistance is 27. That means neither the Cruiser Beam Laser nor Cruiser Proton Beam can damage this shield!


This Fast Recharge Shield with shield resistance of 24 will protect you from the Cruiser Beam Laser but not the Cruiser Proton Beam.


This Cruiser Beam Laser (first choice on the weapons page) has plenty of bang and reach, but it can't penetrate either of the two shields shown above with a mere shield penetration of 20. Boo! And this was my initial laser of choice!


This Cruiser Proton Beam (second choice on the weapons page) will damage the Fast Recharge Shield (equalling its shield resistance of 24) but not the Reflective Shield. Its shield resistance of 27 is too high!


The Fusion Beam (third choice on the weapons page) is another example of a laser/beam that will not penetrate most shields.

Shields must be destroyed before they are penetrated. The description of "shield penetration" is really a misnomer. Shields aren't penetrated. They hold a protective ring around the ship until they are completely destroyed.

Until the shield is destroyed, the hull and armor will be unharmed. Errr, that is, with a few exceptions.

One exception to this is Fighters flying within the shield radius.

Another exception is the concept of the "lucky hit." I am not sure exactly how this works, but I will update when I figure out whether it applies to shields, armor and/or hulls.

The third exception is EMP Cannons. Although this is not considered damage, it will shut down the offensive weapon capability for a period of time.

The last exception I can think of are plasma weapons. They appear to attack both the shield and armor at the same time -- even while the shield is still up. Took me a few weeks to figure that out!

For Cruisers, every single missile and plasma weapon will help destroy shields. It's that simple. The Cruiser Laser will also destroy shields, but are pathetic weapons against armor.


The Cruiser Laser (far right on the top line of weapons) works great against shields -- once you get within range. Unfortunately, check out the armor penetration stat. This laser is pretty tame once the shields are down.


Just because missiles stop at the shield doesn't mean no damage is being done. The missiles are taking hit points away from the shield -- as shown by the blue numbers floating from the edge of the shield. Those missiles that went past the shield actually missed the entire ship and did no damage.

Try to balance your attack between enough missiles and plasma weapons to quickly destroy the shields, with enough laser weapons available to quickly tear apart the hull once it is vulnerable. Finding just the right mix will bring extremely gratifying destruction to the alien brutes.

In initial battles, it's all a bit confusing. Who's doing what to whom? How did they do it? Why did they do it? How are we supposed to figure it all out? I will try to take it a step at a time to help unravel it all.

Fighters appear as little mosquitoes on the screen, buzzing around the enemy -- or your own -- Frigates and Cruisers. They may look harmless, but they are constantly chipping away at the ship armor. A thousand little cuts of death.

Take the Tutorial Fighter that comes pre-set up for you. They work just fine. *If you want to take a look at the components of this Fighter, go to the deployment screen and RIGHT click on the Tutorial Fighter. Now hit the edit key.

(*See the next section on how to improve them.)



You will be shown a layout of the Fighter. Click on the different components to see the description to the left. Click on the turret located in the middle of the ship and the stats of the Fighter Laser Beam is displayed. On this screen, you can also change components out. It will be necessary to rename the ship, though, and then save it.



Simple but effective. The Fighter can go through the shields of enemy ships and go directly for the armor and hull. A few squadrons of Fighters can destroy an entire enemy fleet if they have not taken adequate countermeasures.

Check out the following video to see the Fighters in action.

Incredibly, the Fighters are so fast, some Frigates and Cruisers are completely incapable of hitting them! Look at the stats at the end of the mission, you will see the Fighters avoid about 97% of enemy fire! Booya!

The Tutorial Fighter works fine, but it can be improved.

The Best Weapon
What makes the Tutorial Fighter worthwhile is the fact it comes prefabbed with the Fighter Laser Cannon -- (the first weapon listed on the weapons page) -- a very effective weapon for the Fighter.


The quick firing interval of 300 combined with the armor penetration of 8 will "eventually" penetrate the armor of most ships.

I thought the weapon selection was going to be a quick blurb, but just to confuse things, there is a second option, the Fighter Pulse Laser, a slightly more expensive laser.


The Pulse Laser has lower armor penetration but higher damage.

I was horribly confused that the Laser Cannon worked better on the Battle for Maxallon II and the Draconis Frontier, but in other situations the Pulse Laser was more productive. What the heck?

The reason? The Pulse Laser is more effective against enemy Fighters. On an online Challenge map, 61 Fighters with Pulse Lasers will easily destroy 64 Fighters with Laser Cannons.

Is the Laser Cannon more effective against Frigates and Cruisers? Yes! In terms of having a better chance of independently breaking through enemy armor, the standard Laser Cannon wins.

The randomness factor can drastically affect the results of battles when 100-plus Fighters are involved. Sometimes spontaneous hits would break through the armor with Pulse Lasers, but not as often as with the Laser Cannon.

Let me stop and explain that for a moment. A single Fighter cannot overcome the damage absorption present in armor. It is this HIGH damage absorption that separates the armor from the hull. The armor is actually very few hit points. Once the damage absorption is overwhelmed with damage hit points, it will vaporize in moments. In fact, the only reason I can think of to have armor is to protect the hull from enemy Fighters. Frigates and Cruisers will quickly blast through the armor.

But with a large sqadron of Fighters, multiple hits can occur simultaneously. Sometimes they are not "exactly" simultaneous so a squadron of Fighters will attack the armor hundreds of times with the "no effect" message occurring. Then suddenly, that "random" event of multiple hits occurs -- and the armor cracks. The hull is then eaten away by hundreds of blasts by the enemy Fighters. (I can sometimes see the afterimage of all of those green damage reports floating up from the screen. Maybe I have been playing a bit too much!)

I soon hope to have a separate section on defending your fleet from Fighter attacks, but let me say quickly that an additional layer of armor will slow down or totally stop the Fighters from penetrating the armor.

Fighters armed with missiles are totally useless for penetrating through unscathed enemy armor. The firing interval is just too great. If you can find other uses for them, please send me a note!

Armor Or No Armor?

Armor is a sizeable portion of a small Fighter's budget. With the same budget, it is better to have more Fighters WITHOUT armor than fewer Fighters with armor. It's that simple -- thankfully!

Well, hold on a sec. Nothing is as simple as it seems here. Yes. More Honor Points will be earned with a large mass of Fighters with NO ARMOR in "swarming attacks" than a group of Fighters with armor -- purchased with the same budget. The fewer number of Fighters just are not as effective against Frigates and Cruisers.

BUT if your goal is to go one-on-one against another group of Fighters -- purchased with the same budget -- the armored Fighters will fare slightly better than the ones without armor.

Nothing is quite as simple as it seems! Plan your strategies accordingly!

Fighter Engine I, II or III?

With each upgrade of the engine, a corresponding upgrade is necessary for the power generator.

Without armor, a basic Federation Falcon Fighter with Laser Cannon will run either 81, 86 or 98 units, depending on the engine chosen.

The corresponding speeds would be 2.0, 2.1 and 2.13.

For running "swarming raids" with massive Fighters, going the economy route works best.

For dog fights between Fighters, going the middle path of the Engine II for a mere price bump of 81 to 86 credits works best. What helps this choice is the fact that the same power generator will work for either Engine I or II -- keeping costs low.

However, having to upgrade to a more powerful generator for Engine III -- raising the price to 98 credits -- puts this Fighter out of contention in dog fights. They will be a clear loser when utilizing similar budgets!

The Best Race For Fighters

Errr, I mean species -- not like the Daytona 500, mind you!

Exploring the different races helped me realize how similar they can be. Although there may be slight variances in price and stats for similar modules for different races, none were memorable for the lasers available for the Fighters. The races performed exactly the same, except for the slight modifications to stats that came with each race's hulls.

What the contest came down to was a matter of price for the different hulls for the different races -- and the fact that one particular hull had a 14-percent speed boost to it.



Meet the Imperial Phalanx Fighter. Although other hulls are as cheap as 30 credits, the Phalanx comes in at a blue-light special price of 28 credits.

Even better, this Imperial Phalanx Fighter comes with a speed boost of 14 percent -- for a speed of 2.28 with a simple Engine I configuration --making it more difficult for other ships to target this speed demon.

For quick Honor Points in "swarming" missions, the Phalanx takes top honors!

There are two parts of defensive play: Defending yourself from Fighters and then everything else.

Maybe that's a bit simplistic, but that might be a somewhat reasonable statement.

The attack of enemy Fighters is the first thing that will occur during a battle -- and may be the last. If a few enemy Fighters are still hanging around when the main battle occurs, they will speed up the demise of your ship as the remaining Fighters quickly eat through your hull -- once the armor is damaged or destroyed.

First things first: The armor on your ship is what protects the hull from enemy Fighters. A second layer of armor may be what it takes to allow your Cruisers and Frigates to survive hordes of enemy Fighters. The larger number of Fighters, the more armor you will need.
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The first method to handle enemy Fighters is by having your own fleet of Fighters engage in dogfights. Be sure to equip your Fighters with Pulse Lasers (the second choice on the page besides Laser Cannons.) These will perform much better against Fighters equipped with Laser Cannons.

You have the option of assigning the Escort command to have them guard one of your ships or to assign a 100-percent priority for them to attack the enemy Fighters.


Click "Add Order" to the top left, then "Escort," then "Add Order" on the bottom of the screen.


You will now be given the ability to drag and drop a line onto the ship you want your Fighters to escort.


One squadron of Fighters is now escorting your ship, while the others zip off to engage in combat.

Whatever you do, DON'T USE THE FORMATION COMMAND FOR FIGHTERS! They will just stay in formation and get slaughtered when enemy Fighters arrive. Very ugly!

Another method that I personally prefer (for better or worse) is having each Cruiser in my fleet outfitted with a Cruiser Defence Laser or Cruiser Pulse Laser.


The high tracking speed of 3.7 makes this laser tailor-made for shooting down Fighters.


The Cruiser Pulse Laser (fifth choice on the weaons page) has a tracking speed of 2.6, also allowing it to shoot down Fighters. It can also come in handy if enemy Cruisers and Frigates come within range.


This Target Booster will making your tracking system even more accurate -- but I personally hate using up a module slot for this gizmo.

When there are huge numbers of enemy Fighters, you may want to consider having specialty Frigates loaded up with exclusively anti-Fighter missiles. Be sure to load up these Frigates with plenty of armor and to use the Escort command to keep them from running off and getting blown to s***.


The Frigate's anti-Fighter missiles have an incredibly high tracking speed of 12.5 -- but the firing interval is about twice as long. Hmmmm. Very interesting!!

One reason I prefer to have anti-Fighter modules versus a Fighter dogfight is that Fighters don't usually last long. But if an enemy Cruiser or Frigate has Fighters assigned to it via the Escort command, these Fighters can then chew on your hull during the last stages of the battle. No good!

That's about it! Good hunting!

Besides the difference in hulls, I have had a hard time determining the differences between the races. That's because there are SO MANY similarities. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything, so I began a slow, methodical check of the modules available to the different races.

A slow check of the different modules revealed EXACTLY the same specs and prices for each of the races:

Cruiser Weapons - First Row:

Cruiser Beam Laser: Yes
Cruiser Proton Beam: Yes
Cruiser Defence Laser: Yes
Cruiser Pulse Laser: Yes
Cruiser Laser: Yes

Cruiser Weapons - Second Row:

Cruiser Quantum Blaster: Yes
Decoy Missile Launcher: Yes
Fast Missile Launcher: Yes
Megaton Missile Launcher: Yes
Cruiser Missile Launcher: Yes
Multiple Warhead Missiles: Yes

Cruiser Weapons - Third Row:

Cruiser Rocket Launcher: Yes
Light Plasma Launcher: Yes
Cruiser Plasma Launcher: Yes
Heavy Plasma Launcher: Yes
Cruiser Target Painter: Yes
EMP Cannon: Yes

All of the above are available to all eight races.

Weapons Specific to Race:

Fusion Beam for Federation
Fusion Beam for Rebels
Alliance Beam Laser
Alliance Lightning Beam
Alliance Fusion Torpedo Launcher
Imperial Laser Beam
Nomadic Beam Laser
Nomadic Missile Launcher
Order's Cruiser Radiation Gun
Order's Cruiser Limpet Launcher
Order's Nuclear Missile Launcher
Order's Cruiser Firefly Rockets
Tribe's Cruiser Howitzer
Tribe's Cruiser Autocannon
Swarm Disruptor Beam

Conclusion: I took the time to confirm that all weapon modules similarly named have EXACTLY the same price and stats! I continued this exercise with defensive modules, engines and modules placed within the Other category.

THERE IS ONE EXCEPTION TO THIS THAT I HAVE FOUND SO FAR. It is a rare exception.

The Fusion Beam for the Federation and Rebels have different stats and a different price. Having noticed this early on, I was curious about other anomalies like this. That's why I spent so much time on EXTENSIVELY checking these modules.

What about Frigates?

After EXTENSIVE checking (trust me, please!) it was again discovered that all Frigates have exactly the same weapon modules -- all priced the same and with identical stats.

Again, one exception! The Tribe has one additional weapon module - the Rapid Fire Turret.

What about Fighters?

Ditto. All five weapons for Fighters are available for each of the eight races. The price and stats are all the same!

BUT the Swarm have an additional weapon -- the Fighter Fusion Gun.

The Nomads also have one additional weapon -- the Nomadic Dogfight Laser!

I couldn't with a clear conscience label this section "Module Differences," because this is really about confirming the module similarities between the races.

To keep from being redundant, after extensive checking, again, all Defensive, Engine and Other modules similarly named have the same price and stats. No exceptions! The only differences were that some races had additional modules to choose from.

Defenses

All eight races have the exact, same 21 defensive Cruiser modules.

The only additional module is the Swarm's Smart Bomb Pulse Generator, an added defense that will destroy all missiles with its green, radiating pulse. That's it! (It's actually pretty cool!)

Frigates have the same 13 defensive modules available for all races.

BUT Imperial Frigates have one additional defensive module - the Shield Support Beam. (Hey, I need to check that out!!)

Fighters all have similar defenses -- no exceptions!

What about engines?

Cruisers, Frigates and Fighters all have identical engines to choose from.

BUT the Nomads have one additional choice -- the Nomadic Frigate Engine.

The Other Category

For Cruisers, all eight races have EXACTLY the same 21 modules within the Other category -- with a single exception.

The Tribe has one additional module -- the Tribal Repair System.

For Frigates, all eight races have EXACTLY the same 7 modules -- with a few of the races having additional modules.

The Tribe has the Tribal Frigate Repair System - great for surviving Fighter attacks!

The Swarm has the Swarm Crew Nest.

The Nomads have the Nomadic Armored Powerplant. Woohoo!

For Fighters, all races have the same three power plants to choose from. The Swarm additionally has the Micro Target Booster available -- if you want to boost target speed by 0.1.

Well, there are plenty of players that are more up to speed on using Frigates than me. In GSB play on the standard maps, I rarely used them. On Galactic Conquest, though, there are plenty of situations where battles must be fought exclusively with Frigates -- or perhaps in conjunction with Fighters.

That's a different subject that I hope to expound on later, but let me just mention a few brief things about Frigates when playing the standard maps on GSB for Honor Points.

The goal here is to be able to use Frigates more effectively than Cruisers on a credit-per-credit basis on the GSB maps. I found this quite challenging.

Frigates are frail little things that blow up easily. It's hard to compare them to the pounding that the Cruisers can take. Plus most of their weapons are not as powerful.

There is (at least) one exception to this. The Anti-Fighter Launcher Missile is perfect for neutralizing the Fighter menace ASAP. With the 12.5 tracking speed (compared to 3.7 for the Cruiser Defense Laser) and a 19 damage rating, a specialized Frigate devoted exclusively to Fighter defense can be extremely effective.


This lone Frigate is loaded with anti-Fighter missiles -- allowing the Cruisers to focus on bigger and better things.

Absolutely, positively use the formation command to tie your Frigates to one of your Cruisers and place them -- take an educated guess at this -- at the BACK of your fleet! This should keep them relatively safe from the majority of destruction once intensive combat begins.

You may come up with other "specialty" uses for your Frigates. Whatever uses these might be, again, place them at the back of the fleet with the formation command to keep them in place.

They can also be used as a cheap diversion to prevent your main fleet from being overwhelmed with too many enemy ships. Place whatever weapons on them that will allow them to survive the longest.

Or you may just need a bit of extra help to win a mission with X number of Honor Points, and equipping a Frigate will save a few credits over one more Cruiser.

One more thought about Frigates. Again, their lasers and missiles are usually weaker than their Cruiser counterparts. Be sure that they meet minimum ARMOR/SHIELD PENETRATION requirements needed so that their offensive power is not for nought.

My experience with Cruisers is principally playing the standard maps of GSB for Honor Points. And, in my humble opinion, Cruisers rock'n'roll in this category. They can take a kickin' and keep on tickin'.

I don't feel this is the place to go into the nuances of every module you can gear up Cruisers with. Plenty of choices there, and I hope to go into more details later on.

Briefly (if I am capable of such) you can rack up hundreds of thousands of Honor Points just playing around with the basic configuations of the Tutorial Cruiser, swapping parts around, and seeing what happens.

I blasted through plenty of battles with a basic combo of three lasers (either of the first two choices - Beam Laser or Proton Beam), three Fast Missile Launchers, a Cruiser Defence Laser (to pop a few Fighters), an EMP Cannon, an EMP Shield or two, two or three "regular" shields, a plate of armor -- and then whatever else I wanted to play around with -- given the availability of modules.

Later on, I started thinking more defensively and would add a Guidance Scrambler system to each of my Cruisers. That worked well in many missions. Maybe throw in a Hi-Speed Point Defense.

Just remember: The Tutorial Cruiser comes with three engines. You only need one -- or less! Free up a few modules there!

Good luck!

1. Whether enemy Fighters are deployed in an offensive or defensive manner.
2. Whether your Fighters are being effective in chewing through enemy armor.
3. The effectiveness of enemy shields.

Cruiser Beam Laser

This tutorial Cruiser is loaded up with Cruiser Beam Lasers blazing away with their classic RED beams. A very effective, long-range laser. One of my personal favorites.

Cruiser Proton Beam

This can be identified by its "trademark" purple beam. Much cheaper than the standard Cruiser Beam Laser -- less range, slower firing interval, less damage. So why use it?? Because it has a MUCH HIGHER shield penetration (24 compared to 20) that will allow it to destroy the Fast Recharging Shield. That makes it a player!

Fusion Beam

This yellow Fusion Beam is somewhat comparable to the standard Cruiser Beam Laser. It has a slightly shorter range for the Federation and seemed to be an inferior choice.

BUT for the REBELS, the stats are different between the Beam Laser and Fusion Beam. The Fusion Beam has a bit more range (800 vs. 770), inflicts about the same amount of damage, has slightly higher shield penetration (than the Rebel Beam Laser), slightly higher armor penetration, costs less AND uses less power!!! Hmmmm. So for the Rebels, the Fusion Beam seems to be the superior choice!

Go figure. Guess one needs to pay attention when playing with different races.

To make things more complicated, the Fusion Beam has a shield penetration of 24 for the Federation and only 22 for the Rebels. That means in the first Defending Sirius mission, a few Cruisers armed with exclusively Fusion Beams for the Federation would kick butt -- but Fusion Beams exclusively used for the Rebels would be disastrous. The shield penetration of 22 cannot penetrate the enemy Cruisers and it is a disaster.

Cruiser Defence Laser

Simple and to the point -- this laser destroys enemy Fighters. Nuf said! Its high tracking speed and short range make it perfect for this job!

Cruiser Pulse Laser

This laser has a short range and a low shield penetration of 11. The stats look horrible! BUT its high tracking speed can swat down enemy Fighters quite effectively -- with much more versatility (and range) than Defence Lasers later in the battle. In fact, it seems to be a better choice over the Defence Laser for destroying Fighters -- AND the incredibly fast firing interval of 500 will chew through Frigates in seconds! Wow! This toy just may be your new bad boy of choice!

By coincidence, these Alliance Alligator Cruisers also only have Pulse Lasers in the tutorial mission. A stalemate develops as none of the ships can penetrate the other's shields.

Cruiser Laser

This short-range weapon appears to shoot short bursts -- like a machine gun. At close range it will tear through Frigates and shields, but has a low armor penetration of 15. Although occasional "lucky hits" or multiple spontaneous hits can ding this armor, most of the shots will result in "no effect."

Cruiser Quantum Blaster

I never used the Quantum Blaster very often -- as I much prefer a "gun battle" over a "knife fight." This short-range weapon is similar to the Cruiser Laser -- great against shields, not so effective versus armor.

EMP Cannon

Will go through armor and shields and cause an electrical shock to temporarily disrupt the weapons systems of enemy ships. Don't leave Andromeda without them!

Plasma Launcher

The twinkly little star-shaped plasma projectiles look quite similar to the EMP Cannon. At 4.0 speed, it is hard to see these lightning-fast chunks of metal flying through space. Slow things down to give them a look-and-see.

At first -- (and for quite a while) -- I just couldn't figure out why anyone would use plasma weapons. Yes, they attack both shields and armor, but missiles are more powerful, so why plasma?

For one, and I was shocked to figure this out, plasma weapons attack both shields and armor simultaneously! The shields can be up and you can still put a ding in enemy armor! Just a bit of damage could allow your Fighters to break through and chew through an enemy's hull in seconds! Ba-bing ba-bing!


Wow! Armor damage is inflicted by plasma even with the shields up!

Additionally, when enemy fleets have extensive missile defense, the plasma weapons will be unaffected!

To summarize, plasma weapons are a one-size-will-destroy-all type of weapon. You don't have to think about it much. Although at a slightly slower pace, it will destroy everything in its path.

If you know exactly who the enemy is, you may lean toward a choice of certain lasers or missiles. BUT in situations where you don't know what to expect, such as in Galactic Conquest or challenges, plasma makes much more sense to add into the mix!

Rocket Launcher


Tractor Beam

This is another way to destroy enemy Fighters. Slow them down with tractor beams and then destroy them with another weapon. Seems easier just to install a Cruiser Defence Laser.

(Note: I have a separate section on handling defense versus enemy Fighters!!)

I didn't put much effort into playing defense for the first 600,000 Honor Points. I was too busy blowing things up. (Nothing wrong with that, mind you!) But there is a time and a place for defensive measures. It can also be quite rewarding with tons of additional Honor Points!

Besides shields, armor and perhaps a few EMP Shields, that's about all I thought of the matter. After all, a good offense is a good-enough defense.

Once reaching the stage of the game where you start visualizing the type of weapons being thrown your way, it becomes quite obvious that the Rebels love missiles. Lots of missiles. And with seven different battle maps dealing with the Rebels, I started to give more thought to a way to handle all of those missiles coming your way.

Up to then, I was pretty lazy, just mass deploying the same ships with the same modules on board.

I started by placing a single Hi-Speed Point Defense module on each ship -- and it wasn't actually that effective. Although this would shoot down a few missiles, the ships at the front of the pack were getting hit by the brunt of the attacks and the Point Defenses at the back of the pack weren't being utilized.

It was time to create a defensive mastodon at the front of the pack. Check it out.



This Federation Buffalo Cruiser has four Hi-Speed Point Defense modules, three shields, two EMP Shields, a Guidance Scrambler Beam and a single layer of armor.

Where previously I needed nine Cruisers to win this mission, I easily got it down to seven, including this ship! The missiles just could not do enough damage to effectively attack the triple-shield defense on this ship!


The Buffalo Cruiser, jam-packed with defenses, leads the other offensive ships into victory. No losses were suffered in this battle!

This setup is not perfect and I am sure can be improved. It was a very expensive ship and in some situations was cost prohibitive to increase my Honor Points on some missions.

I also found it helpful just adding Scrambler Beams to all of my deployed Cruisers versus the Rebels.

That's it for now. Hope this helps inspire you to think more defensively on occasion!

There is a lot of info to take in, but these are my most recent revelations upon reaching 400,000 Honor Points.

1. The Empire (you know, the ones with the pinwheel, circular ships) have a special bonus -- extra shielding. Because of this, your lasers aren't worth poop against them. You have a choice between missiles or plasma.

2. I still use practically exclusively Cruisers. It takes so long to punch through their hull, they provide plenty of bang for your buck. Of course, there are a few missions where Fighter swarms alone will do the trick!

3. Missiles are mighty powerful weapons -- plus you don't have to worry about shield resistance. They will tear right into it. But the Empire and Rebels do have anti-missile capabilities. Ever notice your missiles curving away from enemy ships? That's NOT a good thing! They have anti-missile defenses onboard. To help counter this, up the ante by providing two additional components to your missile power: Cruiser Target Painter and Target Booster. The Target Booster is a way to add offensive power without using up another hardpoint. From the use of these modules, I earned tens of thousands of additional honor points.

Update: Actually, Target Booster is a way to increase your tracking speed and doesn't help that much when fighting Frigates and Cruisers. They are big enough that they are easy to hit. BUT Target Painter will definitely decrease your miss percentage -- which you can check out in the stats after the battle!

4. Sometimes pure offense can do the trick. After using the same Federation hull "forever" I switched over to another hull that provided more hardpoints for pure offensive punch. Sometimes brute force can be better than subtleties.

5. Not all enemy Fighters are created evil -- errr, I mean equal. Freudian slip there. Not sure of the particulars of why, but Empire Fighters are much more deadly to your armor and hull than Rebel Fighters. At least in the Multari Gas Giant battle. (Maybe because there were just so many of them!!??) Again, the exact mechanism of how the swarm of Fighters gets through your armor escapes me, but for Empire Fighters, (again, at least in the MGG battle) add a second layer of TOP-GRADE armor. This will make your Cruisers Fighter-proof until eventually weakened by other attacks.

I believe this is the mechanism of armor damage from Fighters. The armor is getting hit by multiple Fighters at one time. If the sum of all of these Fighter attacks at one time DOES NOT exceed the armor's damage absorption, it should stay intact and protect the hull. That's why the sum of two layers of armor TOTALLY protects from this damage.

Update: Perhaps Empire Fighters are not worse than other enemy Fighters. There were just so many of them in that mission that they may have overwhelmed the armor absorption from multiple, spontaneous hits. (Exactly!)

6. Finally found a good use of Frigates at the 400,000 level. They are always running off and getting themselves blown up. Keep them chained to your Cruisers with the Formation command. Keeps them in line! Against the Empire, I used Frigates with Disrupter Bomb Launchers to temporarily knock down their evil shields.

Well, once I reached 400,000, it was just a few hours later that evening I reached 500,000. Nothing new to report.

Let me comment on what I have NOT done to reach this level.

* I have only played the Federation and not the other races (on this computer at least.)
* I have almost exclusively used Cruisers. I finally used Frigates on one mission and tied them to my Cruisers with the Formation command. I have only used Fighters on quick "swarming" missions, but not in conjunction with Cruisers.
* I have barely used Plasma weapons at all. I still need to analyze their strong points.
* I have not figured out the other race's distinct advantages and disadvantages to any great extent. I do realize now the shield bonus for Empire which led to a more potent missile strategy.

This is what I have done:

* I am better at visually recognizing the different weapon systems. I see red beams and realize my shields are secure. I see purple beams and realize they have a higher shield penetration. I recognize when the enemy are using plasma weapons. (They look like smaller EMP shooting stars.)

Latest trick of the trade is using formations more with backup Frigates to hide behind the Cruisers. The Frigate's anti-fighter lasers are more effective and can free up valuable slots on your Cruisers.

Notice the enemies that rely more on armor and less on shields. Shift the balance between missiles and lasers depending on the time needed to burn through the shields. If you are getting hung up on shields, add more missiles. If you take down the shields quickly, add more lasers to quickly burn through the hull.

More thought is being applied to defense. Embarrassing but true, I just discovered how "awesome" the Guidance Scrambler Beam is, especially versus the missile-happy Rebels. Remember, there are seven Rebel missions, so putting a bit of thought into anti-missile defense will be of use.

Just adding the Scrambler to my usual Cruiser collage put me over the 700K point.

Also starting to play around with a defensive mothership riding the front of the pack, with extra shields, Hi-Speed Point Defenses, the Scrambler Beam, etc., but still working on the necessity of placing it all on one ship. But I definitely got more points playing around with these concepts.

This was tough and took quite a bit of work. Let me add a somewhat redundant list of some of the things that helped me reach it.

1. Squeezing the last few points by making sure you have the cheapest engine, armor, shields, power, crew modules, etc. Amazing how many extra points you can get this way!

2. Deciding whether you even need an engine or not.

3. Being more choosy about your hulls. You may want one more module on your ship to make it the super ship you always dreamed of. Or save a few credits by down-sizing a bit.

4. If there are no enemy Fighters, consider not using armor. It's expensive!

5. Although I usually mass deploy the same type of ships, start mixing and matching. If you only need three Cruiser Defense Lasers versus five, use that slot on a couple of ships for another type of weapon system. Etc., etc.

6. Don't forget cooperation!

7. Don't forget to delete the Attack Fighter command for your Cruisers!

8. Make sure the distance is appropriate. If your lasers only reach 700 yards and the default attack distance is 800, that's no good!

9. Decoys. If there are enemy Fighters, consider a Frigate with just anti-fighter weapons to survive the initial Fighter onslaught.

10. Play around with different horizontal and vertical placement of your ships. Sometimes a vertical column works better than a more "horizontal" layout.

11. Play around a bit with the priority of who to attack first - Frigates or Cruisers. Sometimes Frigates have mainly lasers that can't get past your shields.

12. Most of the races are pretty much the same. One significant difference is the Tribe with a 100-percent hull bonus, but weak armor and shields. Different strategies can be utilized because of this.

13. Related to the above point, Tribe ships like to rush your ships and blast your ship apart with short-range weapons. In this regard, you must become familiar with your own short-range weapons to counter these threats.

Consider utilizing rush tactics with Tribe ships.

14. Another major difference from the other races is the Swarm's Smart Bomb Pulse Generator. All missiles will be destroyed within this pulse's range. This calls for a complete change in strategy -- utilizing fewer missiles and preparing for the Swarm's rush. Implement a mix of short-range weapons when dealing with the Swarm.

15. It was between 700,000 and 800,000 that I realized the benefits of the Tractor Beams. They are actually more efficient than Cruiser Defense Lasers, in my humble opinion. Tractor beams can allow a large range of weapons to track down and destroy Fighters as they are held in their grip.

16. If you can win a mission with four Cruisers and not three, consider three Cruisers and a Frigate. Bingo! Yes, I know. Utterly brilliant!

17. Make use of specialty anti-Fighter Frigates hiding behind your Cruisers. This will free up some valuable hard points on your Cruisers. If the Fighters are programmed to attack Frigates first, you may need to use alternate methods.

18. Shields can be quite effective on Frigates to slow down Fighters. Why did I just figure that out now? Hmmmm. Consider using Armor Repair modules on your Frigates, if available! This can be a game winner!

19. Start mixing and matching the defense modules you kept ignoring previously while having fun blasting people. Scramblers are great, as are Hi-Speed Point Defenses. Armor repair and Nanobot Repair modules can also make or break a battle. Armor repair may be perfect to fend off Fighter swarms.

20. Again, don't forget EMP Shields and EMP Cannons.

21. One possible mix is Cruisers with Tractor Beams with an anti-Fighter Frigate backing them up.

22. Anti-Fighter Frigates that are positioned closer to your Cruisers may be a bit more accurate. Of course, you also want to keep them away from enemy Fighters.

23. Last but not least: When you are going through the missions again trying to increase your Honor Points, make notes of which ones you have been working on, especially if you are skipping around. After struggling for two nights eking out a few hundred or thousand points here and there, I discovered I hadn't replayed The Chaos Nebula recently, and immediately chalked up an additional 35,000 Honor Points! Booya!

Okay. Enough already! Get online and play some challenges and check out GSB Galactic Conquests!

Actually, I think I may play a little Darksiders now. Just got it for $10 on Steam!! Yea!

Besides the tutorial mission, the next two missions can be won by simply deploying a number of Cruisers. Of course, this is not maximum efficiency. How far can you go by this simplistic method before having to specialize a bit more than that?

The Tribe - strong hulls and good repair systems.

Want to show pic of missile damage to shield to help illustrate it.

Want whole section on how missile damage works.