The Pickle's Guide to the Borg
by The Cucumber of Borg

Index:

1. Mentality
2. Planets
3. Ships
4. Defense
5. Offence
6. Allies?

1. Mentality of the Borg.
In order to be a good Borg you must be Borg in thought and in action. You do not need to play this race if you like spending 20 min. playing your turns. In a good game by turns 40-50 you should be sending over 1000 commands to the processor.

1.1 Thought:
The purpose of Borg is assimilation, so start assimilating-EVERYTHING. With assimilation comes power and knowledge. You gain the power of the worlds you conquer (assimilate) and the knowledge that these planets will be useless to anyone that could take them. Also having fresh homeworlds on enemy borders is a very good defensive / offensive staging points. Your empire will cover the map and probably border nearly every other race in the game. Therefore you will also have the most 'vision' of any other race.

1.2 Action:
Always keep in mind that the purpose for your race is assimilation. You will not be the first Race to put a 'Big' ship into space, and very likely you will lose ground before you ever start attacking. Don't worry about it. Your goal should be the final victory and not small goals. Learn how to use your HyperJump Probe from turn 1. Other races start with 2 ships and head for the 2 closest planets from their homeworld. You head for 1 close planet and 350ly to the center of the universe. The first 5 turns you need to build probes - transwarps or at least heavynova drives, x-rays or (I like putting H-blasters on mine). Put 7 clans/8 supplies on these and Jump at least 1 each up/down/left/right(assuming you don't start on the edge) and a few more to the center.

At this point bite the bullet and build 2 Fireclouds. load 1 up like 100col/100sup/put a few torps on it. - send it out planet hopping to the center or to a good cluster you have hit with the probes and assimilate on the way. Keep the second one running circles around your homeworld assimilating and carrying money/minerals home for more probes and Fireclouds. Then - continue building probes (I usually stop around 20-25 probes with a few more Fireclouds mixed in there to give way to the Cubes).

More on probes: Probes are probes are probes .. which means scouting/probing. It just so happens that Borg probes have the ability of making starbases, homeworlds and such. 1st jump... hit a planet/drop 1sup/1clan mission to beam up fuel/jump again. i.e.. turn #1. Jump turn #2 aim for a planet close. turn #3 drop 1cln/1sup, set mission to beam up fuel, set friendly code and direction. turn #4 repeat turns 2-3. (you are now 700+/-ly from your homeworld with two others started) head for the corners and the center - most of all just spread! when you 'see' other races.. stop that probe. Start planet hopping and spreading around that general area, and try to bring another probe around and flank their area or get behind them. Keep in mind this is going to happen quick.. in like the first 10-15 turns.

Usually no one will want a combat this early so peace treaty's and boundaries are good tactics to help your new 'baby planets' - even if this race is 1000ly away.. treat them like they are getting to close to your home. (Lie.) Also, If your probes are equipped with H-Blasters, they are good freighter interceptors and can take out planets with a few defense posts.

• We are not forgetting about our other probes spreading around are we?
• When you run out of colonists/supplies on your probes.. stop them for a few turns and restock with fresh colonists/supplies.

The main object is to assimilate the galaxy.. If you have 1/2 of the planets that's that's 250 planets.. IT IS POSSIBLE!! that means no less than 150 starbases/ 100 homeworlds/ 30-50 bases that can crank out a cube a day.. everything just seems to go your way from then on. and 150 starbases building probes gives you complete controll of the ship queue.

2. Planets
Only planets you don't need to inhabit are Amorphous. Even empty(no native) planets need to have 1 clan/maybe 1 supply - you never know when native life will appear.

Building: ok.. you dropped 1 clan/1 supply. But when you see the next turn you have 2 clans and 1 supply.. wish I had money.. (raise the tax level and wait another turn) the first 20 turn or so are tough.. build 5-10 factories then 1 turn of mines and repeat 2-3 turns of factories then a turn of mines.

Starbases: ANY AND EVERY PLANET THAT HAD NATIVE LIFE CAN BE A STARBASE
This does not mean that it has to be a producing starbase.. Starbase's are the Borg's main line of defense, and each starbase should have max fighters/defenses/max planetary defenses. Therefore Borg territories defend themselves. Sure anyone can kill a homeworld/starbase but, try to keep up an assault taking 10-12 planets where each one kills 2-3 of your ships.. and remember the base fully loaded only cost us 1 clan and 1 supply to start and built itself..

• We are not forgetting about our other probes spreading around are we?
• When you run out of colonists/supplies on your probes.. stop them for a few turns and restock with fresh colonists/supplies

Look at your temp of the planet. If the planet is artic or desert it is going to be useless after assimilation. So max factories/mines and reap the benefits before they all disappear.

Native Bonuses
Try to build a starbase by adjusting mines to pull the minerals you need before total assimilation. Don't worry about building it to be an all around starbase.

HINT
Remember probes can be useful here...Amphibian planets-build a probe with tech 1-4 drives and Heavy phasers then jump it to a *good* starbase to be recycled/same with Glipsodials. You always need Mark 8 torps handy over the universe. You can build a quietus with tube and drop descent minefields around it.

Clusters
These must be used wisely. Basically, it takes 3-4 support planets for each producing starbase. Hopefully you will be able to get at least 3 descent temperature planets and a couple of trash planets you can build mines on. You will only need 1 good starbase in each cluster. Use the other planets/starbases as support planets.

Support planets
Build only 50 mines and 25 factories on these planets if they are good temperature (40-60 deg.) during and after assimilation this will let you keep your taxes high enough to be of use to your *good* starbase. Cubes cost a lot of money and Tons of minerals.

Bad temperature: use as a mining facility.

Don't get the native life to mad at you until you have close to 1mill colonists. then jack it up higher and higher until they are gone.. usually aim for sending them into a riot on the turn they will be completely gone.

Remember: a planet with 400+ defense posts 200 starbase defense and 60 fighters defends itself against medium and large ships unless they come in force and then you of course would have to chunnel a few supporting Cubes in to remove the threat. Once one of your planets is taken .. don't bother re-taking it immediately, it's worthless to you and anyone else .. send a probe in a few turns to re-take it after they are gone.

• We are not forgetting about our other probes spreading around are we?
• When you run out of colonists/supplies on your probes.. stop them for a few turns and restock with fresh colonists/supplies.

3. Ships
There are a lot of ad-on's out there that change the roll of ships in the game. I will just touch on the basic ship list here. IMHO .. The Borg only have 4 ships: B200 Probe, Firecloud Chunnel, Biocide Carrier, and the Annihilation class Battleship. Every once and a while you may need a LDSF or a Quietus class cruiser.

3.1 B200 Probe.
If you haven't been able to tell yet, this is my favorite ship. No you can't take out a Gorbie with them ( I did try once though.. chuckle ). Use these probes for colonization/ transferring money/ moving engines/beams to starbases for re-fitting on Cubes( I can't tell you how many times I've built a starbase on a Glipsodial planet out in the middle of nowhere and built a probe and shot 10,000 mc and a transwarp drive back to my good planets.. likewise on Amphibian planets with 2 heavy phasers. My favorite tactic is to name them Annihilation class battleships and jump about 20 of them in on an enemy when I start my attack. (Makes Newbie players shit their pants and plays havoc on informer after the ship queue is full). Also will size up the enemy planets by letting me know how many Defenses they have prior to my fleet arriving. Cheap to build and you should be able to fill up the ship queue quick with them denying opponents the chance to build up. Read your docs about how to HyperJump.

3.2 Quietus Class Cruiser
I only build these on Siliconoid planets that are out in the boondocks of close to enemy lines so I can make some descent minefields.

3.3 Firecloud Chunnel Ship
These are a must around your universe.. build these with anything you can put on them.. I usually make them with at least mark 8's so they are effective mine layers.. but never get into avoidable combat with them. Remember that it takes 3 to make an effective gate path.. i.e. Build one on your good bases with stardrive 1's /no weapons/tubes as a permanent jump in point. Make your jump out's at least 1 planet away from your main bases .. that way you don't take Merlin's/freighters or ships that just come off of the construction line along with you. Read your docs about how to chunnel.

3.4 Biocide Class Carrier
Cheaper to build but more expensive to outfit than the Annihilation this ship is the mop up guy of your fleet or a good stand alone battleship. For campaign purposes .. I usually supply it with 100 fighters/100 clans/50 supplies.

3.5 Annihilation Class Battleship
If the Firecloud is the backbone of the empire, this is the muscle. If you don't have at least 20 of these build by the time the Queue is full. You have got a fight on your hands. Depending on where you are planning on using these ships depends on the beams you want to put on them.. I usually opt for H-blasters on all of my ships, with the exception that if I'm at war with crystals and web mines are sweepable at a reduced rate-use Heavy Phasers, likewise if your main enemy is the Empire-use x-ray lasers. Regular mine fields don't bother cubes to much - Just keep switching out towing ships and repairing others. I don't suggest using anything less than transwarp drives as most of the games I play in have engine shield bonuses.

4. Defense
The best defense is a good offense. Let your planets be their own defense. Keep Fireclouds around so that your fleets are mobile. And use minefields to keep those pesky cloakers at bay. If you spread out like I suggest you should have 1/2 to 3/4's of the map by mid game-so you are going to be attacked in bunches of places by everyone at the same time. So make alliances where you can and chunnel others to fight your enemy while you build. After mid-game alliances don't matter. You should be strong enough to lose a couple of dead areas and be glad you don't have to cycle through them playing your turns.

• We are not forgetting about our other probes spreading around are we?
• When you run out of colonists/supplies on your probes.. stop them for a few turns and restock with fresh colonists/supplies.

5. Offense Fleets
The more ships in a battle group the merrier. On average.. this group will take out almost anything in it's path. In attack order:

• ACB - Annihilation class battleship - 100 torps/100clans/50 supplies
• BCC - Biocide class carrier - 100 fighters/100 clans/50 supplies
• ACB - 100 torps/100 clans/50 supplies
• ACB - 100 torps/100 clans/50 supplies - 5500mc(1 full extra load of torps)
• BCC - 100 fighters/100 clans/50 supplies Firecloud. - 290 clans

More ships than this and you will have to bring along a refinery ship. Why all of the clans? - let's say you take a good planet.. Bovinoid unity - and only lose 1 ship against, say 2 darkwings and a well defended planet. Stay there a turn/refuel drop 690 clans.. pick them back up the next day and continue onward.. Wow.. you got another planet in 2 days that will take him at least 2 tech 10's to take out and then the native population will be screwed.. worthless planet.. and no fuel .. cubes are great for stripping fuel from planets. Plus you could chunnel in a couple of SDSF's full of colonist and waste the planet in a couple of turns.

When you can gather battle groups like this one and space them out, you have instant fleets where ever you have Fireclouds parked. Also if needed you can add reinforcements or double/triple any of your battle groups at will with Fireclouds in tow.

note..
Start out with the Firecloud toating fuel.. transfer the fuel to other ships in the group when you get close to enemy lines and start towing it. An intercepting ship gets a shock when it can't attack the Firecloud that's fuel-less (and they will try to intercept it.) Add fuel only when you need to chunnel and sitting over a planet where the enemy can't intercept it.

6. Allies
Choose them wisely. The Rebel's have a much better HyperJump ship. And Everyone want's MBR's but remember everyone must be assimilated in the long run. Either Physically or Spiritually you are the big guy on the block (cube) and don't let them forget it. If they ask what you can give them.. CLANS .. as many as they want .. anywhere they have a worthless insectoid anarchy desert planet for example. Don't give away Fireclouds .. these are the mainstay of your race.. if you can't out maneuver your enemies you are worthless. Now -- Go kick some Echo Cluster Butt.

I didn't forget to tell you about spreading probes around and taking every planet available on the map?