The Personal Logs of Buck-da-Buccaneer
hacked from his on-board computers at GREAT personal risk by Joseph Harris
There's been a lot of discussion lately in the VGA Forum about the Privateers and the tactics to use when playing them (or against them)
I've recently been playing as the Pirates, and have decided to divulge my info here to the Tourney members. (I break out in hives now when I see Conrad's name in the Forum... :)
I'll deal mainly with PLAYING the Pirates. Mainly because I'm having an absolute -BLAST- right now in my game on Wild-at-Heart BBS, where the competition is tough, smart, and persistant.
First Rule: (Sage advice here..) Before you can play the Pirates well, you MUST play a game AGAINST them. Without this experience, you will stumble and make obvious mistakes that will ultimately lead to your quick demise. Rememeber, most players, myself included, will go gunning after the Pirates from TURN ONE if we know they're being played competently. The Pirates are by far the most dangerous race in this game, and should be eliminated early if you hope to stand a chance against them. (Again, this assumes the Pirate player knows what he or she is doing.)
Second Rule: Devote yourself to playing the Pirates, and playing them well. This demands a time sacrifice. If you're a player who likes to slam out his turn in 20 minutes, then the Privateers are NOT for you. They demand a VERY close attention to detail, and a level of planning on a par with playing a game of chess against a Grand Master. The Pirates must WORK for their successes, and if you're not up to it, PASS and play a less demanding race.
Now for the juicy stuff. I won't bother with expansion and colonization except to say that in the early stages of a game, you should be building nothing but Meteors, and leaving them Cloaked -ALWAYS- Remember what I said in Rule number 1. If the other players find you too early, they WILL eliminate you. When you get your second starbase, devote it to building BR4s with at least tech 6 beams. (Preferably tech 10) The reason for this is obvious. In the long run, the enemies you face will be handing you Mine Fields on an ever increasing pace. The BR4 GUNSHIP is aptly named. She has 5 beam weapons. There are other ships in your arsenal that have more beams, and you may be tempted to build those instead to increase your ability to sweep mine fields, but DON'T! The BR4 has the enhanced Gravitonic Accelerator and she cloaks, which means she'll be pulling double duty later in the game by robbing and hauling other ships around. Your third starbase should be devoted to building LADY ROYALE CLASS CRUISERS. Now I know what your thinking, and Conrad- you hold your water for a minute, and you'll all find out why I've stepped into the Insanity Zone. The Lady Royale, you're all thinking, is useless to the Privateers. She can't cloak, only has 4 beams, and only has one torp tube! Well, SO WHAT! This ship is NEVER to face combat. Build her with the worst engines you want and she'll steal more ships than all your Meteors combined.
Right- OBVIOUSLY! (at least, that's what Conrad's saying)
Look at the Lady Royale's stats -real- careful like and you'll get a hint at what I'm refering to:
Lady Royale Class Cruiser (P,CM)
# Beam Weapons: 4 Fuel Tanks: 670 Hull Cost: 250 # Tor/Ftr Tubes: 1/0 # Engines: 2 Durianium: 52 Mass: 130 Tech Level: 5 Tritanium: 61 Cargo Room: 160 Crew Size: 270 Molybdenium: 83
That's right. Look at those big whopping fuel tanks! Just two of these babies can swipe all the fuel off of a Cyborg Cube ship (1260 fuel)! Three could take a Gorbie!
But she'd be pasted by the enemy ship before she got the chance! (Right Conrad?) WRONG! That's why you're building at least two BR4s to cruise around with this Lady. Every Lady should have her very own Sacrificial BR4s cruising the space lanes with her.
I'll stop discussing the Lady Royale now, and get to the tactics of Intercepting and Robbing enemy ships, even when in Deep Space, and even if moving in short, random hops.
INCEPT_1.ZIP is a util available on both the Tim Continuum and here on Sharenet. It automatically projects the course of all enemy ships, and tells you where they'll be (exact XY coordinates) on the next turn. That's your Intercept-While-Cloaked tool.
Before this util, I'd set up a test game using the VGA Planets Campaign Editor, put an enemy ship at the exact coordinates of the REAL enemy ship, and then adjust it's waypoint until I viewed a matching heading on the ship. Then just move the ship at it's current warp setting and voila! My Test game just told me where the enemy ship would be in my REAL game on it's next turn. (barring the enemy player changing course on that turn, which WILL happen, but not very often.)
... ...Privateer overheard saying, "...I think I'll take that one."
More on those Damn Privateers!
Tactics: There is no method I've seen employed that will stop the Privateers from taking a ship they -really- want. Several tactics can make it more costly for the Pirate, or more time-consumming, but NOTHING can STOP you. Superior PATIENCE will win over TACTICS every time, so get used to waiting. Enemy mine fields will cost you more ships than anything else you may face, but since a fully tech 10 BR4 costs LESS than 1000 credits, you should have SCADS of ships by the time you hit the 500 ship limit. The primary enemy tactic to confound the Pirates is to only move their ships in short, random "hops". Let's give a recent example. A Cyborg player is determined to deny me his two prized Biocides. He's currently too low on fuel to sustain his push into my turf, so his advance has stalled out waiting for his Fuel Carriers to re-supply him. He sets his Biocides about 10ly from his planet. He never moves them more than 5 or 6ly in a turn, and always in a random direction. He's dropped a substantial mine field in the area, and this is a major cause for concern for my Meteor and BR4 captains.
First order of business: Get a cloaked ship to the planet he's cruising around. He may never make planet-fall, but he -might-, so cover this possibility. Second: Always target his current position with a cloaked ship. He may forget to move his ships one day, or he may not be able to upload his turn, and you'll bag his ship. It's unlikely this will happen, but it -might-... cover your ass. Third: Get a cloaked ship to all planets within 80ly of the planet he's orbiting. There's nothing worse than having the enemy up and vanish on you by hiding at a totally different planet. Fourth: If he's doing the "short-hop" routine, do the same. If he's consistantly moving 5ly, then target his current location, and then using the cursor keys move 5ly in all four of the major compass directions. (Obviously you'll need quite a few ships in the area, but you should have LOADS of ships to use.)
Eventually with this tactic, covering all the locations he can run to, and flooding the likely spots he may end up at, you WILL bag him. Patience is the key here. If you have enough ships then by all means, occasionally un-cloak and mine sweep. It costs you nothing to destroy a mine-field, but costs him plenty to restore it. Using the 4 methods I listed above it took me eight turns and 10 ships to bag those two Biocides. Mine fields are a bitch, however, those two Biocides immediately turned around and trashed two of his Annihilations, effectively putting a STOP on his assault into my turf. They were also equipped with Heavy Phasers, and wiped out all the mine fields he'd spent loads of cash and minerals on. So I consider the exchange well worth it. It totally changed the balance of power for the entire sector. (especially since I had stolen two Gorbies while I was playing tag with the Cyborgs) -When the Wolves Howl- Wolf Packs are your life-blood. The first rule of stealing ships is to never assemble your Wolf Pack at an enemy held planet. Your cloak may fail, or the enemy might be pulling the "Gather Fuel" gambit to prevent you from getting all his fuel. Enemy ships are at their most vulnerable when they're far from home, preferably 160+ light years from home! Second rule is to always assume the enemy ship is fully loaded with fuel. Even if it's obvious the ship is NOT fully loaded, assume it is anyway, and make sure you have enough ships to steal 200 tons MORE than the ship could POSSIBLY have in it's tanks. You may lose a ship or two on the way to the assembly point, and the extra breathing room means your carefully planned theft won't blow up in your face. Assemble your Wolf Packs with Meteors, and use the BR4s and BR5s to scout out enemy planets. NOW is where the Lady Royale comes into her own. Lady-Of-The-Night When assembling a Wolf Pack, use your BR4-Lady Combos. Hide them at one of your planets, or an unowned planet within 1 turn of where you want the wolf pack to be. If you know you're out of range of any enemy ships, then haul them out into the open. (In case you didn't figure it out, the Lady is being towed by a BR4) Now, here is an example in practice of what happens when you use the "Night-Bitch" gambit. (My own name for it.. believe me, after your enemy sees this happen for the first time he'll be so pissed off he'll call her a bitch too.. :) Let's say your victim, a Gorbie Class Battle Carrier is parked at his own starbase sucking up fighters. You have a cloaked Meteor at his base ready to haul him 80 ly PLUS to a point in space within easy reach of your BR4-Lady combo. (Always tow ships in excess of 80 light years, it makes it IMPOSSIBLE for the enemy ship to break the tow) Set your BR4-Lady combo to arrive in the same point in space as the victim on the next turn.
Now, the Gorbie hasn't been robbed yet, so he's pissed off and trashes the Lady Royale AND the BR4 towing it AND the Meteor towing HIM right?? WRONG! Actually, he only destroys the Meteor towing him. He can SEE the Lady Royale and the other BR4, BUT HE CAN NOT ATTACK THEM!!
SHIPS WITHOUT FUEL ARE IMMUNE TO ATTACK!
You see... you wiley Pirate you, you drained ALL the fuel from the Lady, and set it so the BR4 towing her would run out of fuel at the location of the Wolf Pack!! It's easy to do. Set your waypoint at the location of the assembly point, look at how much fuel is needed to tow the Lady there, and eliminate the excess. (If you need 68 tons to make the trip, put 68 tons on the BR4) Make sure if you're parked at a starbase that the starbase's mission is anything other than REFUEL or LOAD TORPS. If your Lady's ship weight changes, your BR4 will run out of fuel, and Starbase functions take place prior to movement.
... Damn Privateers!
More on those nasty Pirates!
NOW. Rememeber I told you to always have TWO BR4s escorting your Lady around? The other BR4 is still cloaked. He transfers 1 ton of fuel to the Lady and the empty BR4, and then set all three ships to ROB THAT SUCKER BLIND!
Hehehehehehehe Told you I wasn't insane! It would only take 3 Lady's to completely drain a Gorbie, and you've only lost a piddly little Meteor in the process. CHEAP when you consider a fully loaded Gorbie would cost about 25,000 credits!!
Imagine the possibility if you were towing, say, a REFINERY ship around to do this with instead of the "Night-Bitch" ! It's more expensive to build a Refer, but if you happen to STEAL one, by all means, use him in place of a Lady and you'll be able to rob the fuel off ANY enemy ship with only ONE vessel! Any beam totin' ship with large fuel tanks can be used in this manner!
If there are mine fields around, make sure you send LOTS of cloaked ships to the Wolf Packs point. If your cloaked escort BR4 gets nailed by a mine, you may not have a ship there to refuel the Lady, in which case she gets stolen by the ENEMY. If the BR4 towing your Lady gets destroyed by a mine, the Lady will still arrive at the Wolf Pack assembly point.
Your enemy will be pounding the keys in utter frustration at the fact that two apparently empty ships just robbed his ship blind.
What do you do if your Wolf Pack is out of position?
Daisy chains! Tow your victim from it's hiding place (say, a planet) to a waiting cloaked Meteor. Your towing ship gets pasted by the pissed off enemy, but the still-cloaked Meteor runs off with the ship on the next turn. An added bonus to this is now that the ship is out of orbit and in deep space (it's most vulnerable) It's ship weight CAN NOT INCREASE! Now you can use the empty-tow tactic to run your towing ship out of fuel at the Wolf Pack assembly point. The fewer ships you lose while towing enemy ships the better, and it only serves to frustrate the enemy again and again.
What if I don't get "Lucky" while chasing down an enemy "short-hopper"?
Sucker him. The Bait-n-Switch is a tried and true tactic. Empty a Meteor of all his fuel and leave him stranded in enemy space. This is a VERY tempting target for the enemy. If it just sits there for a few turns, and if he's really stupid, he may just make a play for it. Loading the ship with supplies will make it look like it's got fuel, and he might think he can bag an easy kill. I say he's stupid because of course you have half-a-dozen Meteors cloaked at the same location! If you're not worried about losing the ship, then by all means leave fuel on the ship and let it sit there on Mine Sweep. You can never afford to pass up the opportunity to leave ships on Mine Sweep!
A Better Bait-n-Switch: Use a Large Deep Space Freighter. Have it TOW a CLOAKED Meteor. (Conrad is just ITCHING to get me on this one) Provided you own the ship, YOU -CAN- TOW A SHIP AND HAVE IT REMAIN CLOAKED! I've done it. When the enemy intercepts and trashes your freighter, steal his ship.
Dealing with Enemy Assault Forces: This is what Privateers fear the most:
Pop-Quiz A$$hole: The enemy has just launched a major assault on your turf, what do you do?
Drool of course. Nothing better can happen to you than to have the enemy come AT you. It limits your exposure to movement (mine fields) and has an easily predictable course. (Read predictable as TARGETABLE) Using the methods above HIT HIS FLEET HARD! Tow in all your Lady's, and if you have a Refer, tow in one of those! Just remember that robbing occurs by ID# and plan accordingly. (Remember, it's a LOT easier to intercept in deep space than it used to be thanks to Interceptor v1.0 (INCEPT_1.ZIP) ) Have the ships that go into the heart of the enemy fleet and remain cloaked tow the lowest ID ships out of the heart of the fleet first. An example is given in the next message (It's quite lengthy)
... To find a cloaked MBR Tip 1437: "Target that explosion and FIRE!"
Dealing with the assault force:
Attacking fleet: 3 Biocides (ID#s : 101, 105, 110 ) 1 Annihilation (ID# : 467 ) 1 Neutronic Fuel Carrier (ID# : 103 ) 4 Firecloud Class Cruisers (ID#s : 109, 256, 358, 99)
Combined MAXIMUM Fuel tonnage: 7,700 tons (Whew!)
Time to impact on your favorite starbase: 2 turns from sighting the enemy.
Ships you have within intercept range:
2 BR4-Lady teams (4 BR4s, 2 Lady Royales) 1 Meteor-Neutronic Refinery team 6 Meteors 11 BR4s
Fuel tonnage we can steal in one turn: 5296 UH-OH! (Combined fuel tonnage minus 1 ton per ship)
(If those numbers look inflated, rest assured they're NOT. In the game I'm in I had 58 Meteors and 23 BR4s with 6 Lady Royales by the time I hit the 500 ship limit.. also remember, these ships move at 160ly per turn, so a privateer is almost ALWAYS within range of an enemy ship)
Set all your ships to the intercept point and pray he doesn't change course on you. You now have one turn to deal with the bad guys before they make dog-meat of your base.
By now he knows something is up. Several fuel-less ships are in the same location in space as he is, and if you've done this to him before, he'll already be crying into his Cheerios, because he should know by now there is no defense against this once a successful intercept has been made.
The first thing we can see is that we're not going to be able to steal all the fuel they could possibly have in one turn. Now these ships are all under their own power, and are burning fuel. WE HAVE TO ASSUME THE SHIPS ARE FULL! Never assume otherwise. You'll live longer. We're going to have to remove these ships as a threat, while taking minimal losses, and while stealing as many of their ships as possible.
First order of business: Determine ROB order. It proceeds from lowest to highest ID# Here it is: (Ship/Fuel) 1 FCloud / 440 2 Biocide/ 1260 3 Carrier/ 900 4 Biocide/ 1260 5 Fcloud / 440 6 Biocide/ 1260 7 FCloud / 440 8 FCloud / 440 9 Annihil/ 1260
Wish that damn fuel carrier wasn't there! Even with all of our ships ROBBING, it leaves 1 Biocide, 1 Annihilation, and two Fireclouds up, active, and fighting. Some of our ships will need to tow enemy ships, so we're likely to see at least another Firecloud added to the list of ships we missed, and possibly another Biocide.
OK. Here's the deal. I'd set five of the BR4s to tow the last 5 ships in that list above to timbucktoo. We're not going to be able to steal the fuel from those ships, so let's get them AWAY from here! A BR4 towing a Biocide won't get far, but it'll get it at LEAST one more turn out of our hair. DO NOT RUN THE SHIPS OUT OF FUEL! Make sure they have at least 5 tons to spare. If your enemy gets an empty BR4 it'll only be used against you eventually, so deny him the capture of an empty BR4, and make him fight it.
... Whatta ya mean we are out of fuel?! Where's the logistics officer?!
Dealing with the assualt: Part 2
The rest of this is all academic now. I'd reccomend towing the Fuel Carrier away with another BR4 with his primary enemy set. The last thing you need is fuel, so that ship should be toasted, or captured via combat.
Set your Night-Bitches and Neutronic Fuel Refinery to ROB and run. The Meteors should also be set on a generic ROB and run. Assign the 10 remaining BR4s to alternately ROB and TOW. Move those ships AWAY from their target! If your ROB fails, and one of those ships gets to the planet, you're toast. If you don't have a large enough intercept force (You got caught by surprise) at least get in there and break up his assault force. He won't know whether or not you've got a Wolf Pack in place, and you'll throw a MAJOR monkey wrench in his plans. Towing his ships out of reach of their target, while also robbing them, may leave them without enough fuel to reach a planet to gain more. (Always try to tow enemy ships to remote locations for just this reason)
Prioritize what you go after. Tonnage is king, so go for the biggest ships first.
That's it for the personal logs of Buck-da-Buccaneer. The rest of the transmission was garbled when the Black Ice around his system almost fried my brain.
In the future, I'll post a detailed "Fed Commander" log, but only if the users here would like to see one. The Night-Bitch Gambit is by far the most lethal tactic I've ever used, and it's all my own idea. You should have heard the language used on me when I first pulled that. <EVIL GRIN> Once a successful intercept is made, it's unstoppable. Period.
Let me know what you think of this... although Conrad is a bit harsh, his critiques are usually right-on, and improves the knowledge base, so I'd like to hear from everyone on this one.
Joe. (aka Buck-da-Buccaneer, Game 3, Wild-at-Heart BBS (916) 922-2552)
... Damn Privateers!