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Collective Consciousness Introduction I personally use VGA Planets Assistant (VPA), and this Guide is based on Host 3.22.023. I don’t think that there have been significant changes, especially concerning the Cyborg. If you like the Cyborg, you are not alone. However, I do not claim to be an expert at VGAP, and your using anything I say is, of course, at your own risk. The Cyborg Race Description The Cyborg are a half humanoid and half machine race. The Cyborgs have many small scout ships and probes. These come in very handy in finding their enemy's home world. The Cyborg battleship is the size of two Birdmen battleships. All damaged Cyborg ships can stop and repair themselves at a rate of 10% per turn. The Cyborg are able to assimilate natives into colonists. The assimilation rate can be configured by the host from 0% to 100% They own one of the most feared weapons ever seen in the Echo Cluster, the Firecloud Class Warp Chunneler, a ship that can deliver a fleet of combat vessels to any point in space. The Cyborgs have some of the most powerful starships, the Cyborg Cube ships. The Cyborg ships are able to repair in space at a rate of 10% per month. A Cyborg ship that is repairing cannot move. When a Cyborg ship destroys an enemy ship the hull debris and fuel is beam aboard in the form of minerals. Cyborg colonists that are placed on a planet that has native population will be assimilated into Cyborg colonists. The natives are converted to Cyborg at a rate of one native for every Cyborg on the planet. Player Mindset Once you survive, though, you have some of the most powerful ships in the game. You can move anywhere in the Cluster. You can exterminate anybody you please. So the Borg have some good pros, and really bad cons. Settings Hyper Drive Ships: YES Firecloud Warp Chunnel: YES Cyborg Assimilation Rate: 100% Ships with one engine can tow: YES Climate Limits Population: ??? Ship Cloning: YES Advantages Assimilation HYP Probes Chunneling Cube Ships Debris Beam-In Cloning Repair Self mission Disadvantages No Medium Warships Early Game strength Ship Costs Ship List B200 Probe (Beams: 2 Cargo: 15) Watcher Scout: (Beams: 2 Cargo: 50 Fuel: 270) Iron Slave: (Beams: 1 Bays: 2 Mass: 60) B41 Explorer (Beams: 4) B222 Destroyer (Beams: 7) Quietus (Beams: 4 Tubes: 1) Firecloud Class Cruiser (Beams: 6 Tubes: 2) Biocide Class Carrier (Beams:10 Bays: 10) Annihilation Class Dreadnought: (Beams:10 Tubes: 10) Ship Armament/Engines HYP Probes Fireclouds Cubes Freighters SDSF (Small Deep Space Freighter) MDSF (Medium Deep Space Freighter) LDSF (Large Deep Space Freighter) STSF (Super Transport Space Freighter (or something like that)) All in all, remember to use the small/medium for colonzie, and LDSF/STSF for minerals major colonist transport. And guard them- a Swift Heart or less with X-Rays and your ship is toast. HYP Probes What they are Strategies for using the HYP Probes Money Carrier Spy Freighter Hunter Escape Pod All in all, a multi-purpose ship. They help the Borg grow, and without them, the Borg wouldn’t exist. The Chunnel The Firecloud In order to use the Borg’s BEST ability, you must build Firecloud Class Cruisers. They aren’t armed well, but that isn’t their function. They initiate a warp chunnel, allowing you to send ships anywhere. Chunneling How chunneling works (emphasis mine): Once the Chunnel is generated the Chunneling Firecloud moves into the Chunnel. This causes the Chunnel to collapse. As the Chunnel collapses it pushes the Firecloud (and any other starships that were in the same point in space as the Firecloud) along in front of it as it collapses. This movement expends uses no fuel on the Chunneling starship(s), since they are being pushed along by the collapsing Chunnel (subspace temporal rift). Needless to say, traveling through a high energy rift comprised of tachyon particles can have an adverse effect on your starship systems. **Any starship completing a Chunnel will exit subspace with its shielding systems inoperative.** The Chunnel, in effect, strips the starship(s) of their shields for that turn. By the next turn the shielding systems will be functioning again. And now the how to: How to Initiate a Chunnel For ID numbers 1 to 99 place leading zeros in front of the number. I.E. 001, 023, 099. Chunneling happens as part of the movement phase of the host. It is the last segment of the movement phase. So it is possible for starships to move TO the Firecloud before it Chunnels and then move with it, shutting down the warp systems during the Chunnel. Cloaked starships moving through a Chunnel will remain cloaked. A ship belonging to a race other than the race of the Firecloud opening a chunnel at the same point in space as the Firecloud must have a warp speed of 0, be cloaked, out of fuel or have a friendly code that matches the friendly code of the ship opening the chunnel to enter the chunnel (way point setting does not matter). The chunnel ship's race can enter the chunnel at any warp speed as can cloaked ships or ships with matching friendly code belonging to all races. If fleet of enemy ships that warp onto a planet that is hiding a Firecloud with its chunnel engaged only the enemy ships with a warp speed of 0 will enter the chunnel. The only ships that can move onto a planet with a warp speed of 0 are ships that are being towed. None of the ships that moved their under their own power will enter the chunnel, but any ships that they are towing will. A pair Fireclouds can not use a chunnel if ANYSHIP with fuel locks a tow beam on it, the warp speed and waypoint setting of the ship locking the beam does not matter. Minimum range of chunnel: 100 LY So look at the benefits. You can go ANYWHERE, for 50kts of fuel. You can chunnel as many ships as you want. Your cubes ships need this, since they suck gas only a little less than a Gorbie. The bad sides are that you come out with shields down. Fireclouds can’t fight, so your enemy will definitely hunt your FCs down. Any ship that puts a tow lock on your FC nullifies the chunnel. But the uses and benefits in maneuvering outweigh the cons. Chunnel Points Easy, simple, and that way, your key planets are linked through the possibility of a chunnel. You can move cubes around effectively to protect or advance. Planets and Bases Planets Colonization Take a SDSF, and fill it with 40 supplies, and 30 clans. Put some money if you think you need it. On no native planets, put one clan down. Just to take the planet. On native planets, dump the colonists. Next turn, you have double, and you pick up a full ship again. Of course, you are beaming down supplies. Cash if you think you need it. Not a lot of supplies or cash, but just enough to get the planet up and running. The cash you’ll get from assimilating natives. Re-Read how to use the kinds of frieghters you have. Managing your planets Planetary Strategies What if the enemy is invading? Do the same, but leave the amount of colonists on the planet. It’s not like you don’t have enough. Riot them. Have them chop up all those beautiful mines and factories to prevent their capture. If hopeless, do it to all your planets. Use your escape pod (HYP probe) to run if you even want to try. Bases Where to build them Defense Upgrading Some ideas: Be flexible- the Borg lost in Star Trek because they just came in guns blazing, smashing everything. The crafty humans wiped their butts all over the Sol System. Learn from that. Other Races- Allies and Enemies Other races inhabit the Echo Cluster, and depending on their leaders, they may be friendly or hostile to you. With the Borg, they are NEVER indifferent. The Solar Federation As allies: They are good ones. They can super-refit your cubes, which is very handy. They have the KittyHawk, a medium carrier. They also collect 200% taxes from the natives they make contact with. Very helpful to you in the game, when you are done assimilating and all you have are colonists left to tax. The Feds have good torp ships, something you lack. They have Lokis, which will decloak the Fascists, Privs and everyone else (save the Birds and Lizards). They also have terraformers, which are handy for those assimilated cold or hot planets. As enemies: The Feds are not very powerful in the first part of the game, like you.
They know this, but they know you stink early too. If you can get your economy rolling
quick, you can run the Feds over. They will have many empty hulls, for super-refit later
on. They will throw a combo of ships at you. Their Thor is deadly- 8 The Lizard Alliance As allies: Very good. They can mine at 200%, which they can give you the minerals you desperately need for your cubes. They can give you cloakers, Lokis, and a terraformer. Their HISSS mission is nice- they can HISS your planets, and squeeze that last bit of taxes out. As enemies: You frighten them. They have a ground attack of 30:1, but that is useless
with 6 million colonists. They can cloak, so interlocking minefields are the key to
stopping their cloakers from attacking planets. Their ships lack many beams, so sweeping
for them is pretty much limited. Their Madonzilla and T-Rexes are their ships of choice
when fighting your cubes. They’ll use a Rex-Madon-Rex combo to get your cubes. They
can produce these ships rapidly since their economy is The Empire of the Birds As allies: OK. They have cloakers, and their Resolute is very nice. They’d like your Cubes to back their fleet up, since DarkWings aren’t the strongest around. They have a cloaking carrier for you, very handy. They have cloaking torp ships for surprise minefields. Other than that, not much. As enemies: They can be devastating to you. Their economy is not great, but that doesn’t mean he can’t eliminate you. Their Resolute and DarkWing don’t use fuel to cloak, so they’ll wait at your chunnel points with cloak on and warp 0. Move your chunnel points. Or setup a chunnel point, and have the real chunneler somewhere else. Then move your fleet to the real chunneler. He won’t move, because he can’t intercept cloaked and he won’t know where you are going. Send in your cubes and attack mercilessly. They’ll use their DarkWings since that’s all they have. And that isn’t much. The Fascist Empire As allies: Very little use to you. They have 3 cloakers, which you can get from the Bird Men (or similar ship designs). They have Glory Devices, ships which are like suicide runners. They can blow up when they detect a cloaker, or he can send them as missles toward ships, planets, etc. The Gds turn Amorphous worms into supplies when exploded. Very handy to clear the planets out. They can pillage your people, and split the cash with you. They get more- Cubes, FCs, and HYP probes. Fascists are immune to ATT/NUK codes. As enemies: A hassle. They can cloak, and pillage your people. They can’t be attacked by planets, so unless you have a cube there, they can play cat and mouse. They’ll throw GDs at your ships. GD’s do about 10-11% damage to a Biocide. Carry supplies with you, to heal the damage, and use your repair-self mission. They’ll use Glories with their Victorious (tech 10 ship) to get you. Zig zag your ships to evade the Glories, and run him over. His ships are no match for yours. (I know, I played the Fascists vs. the Borg. I got clobbered. Though I gave him a bloody nose.) The Privateer Bands As allies: VERY useful. They have gravitronic ships, which travel at twice the speed you can do. The MBR is the best of these grav ships. Nice fuel tank, so your cubes can get towed from l62 lys away. You can clone for the Privs, and they could always use FCs. They lack heavy ships, what they get for those, they steal. Their ships cloak on top of it all, so you can have a fast surprise mine layer. As enemies: The Worst for you. You lack heavy anti-cloaking equipment. So they will steal your cubes blind. There are so MANY Priv tactics, I recommend going on the Web and looking at some VGAP sites and reading up. I won’t list any here- there is just too many. So how do you combat them? Top off your fuel tanks. Use minefields like crazy. Have mission to beam up fuel (he robs, you beam, you have fuel, he’s uncloaked, he gets slaughtered). Again, read up on Priv tactics. Use more mines, and see if you can get some anti cloaking equipment (Lokis, GDs, web mines, etc). Ride in Ion storms- that goes for any cloaking race (except the Birds- Resolutes and Dwings don’t decloak in them (ion storms)). Watch your back. The Crystal Confederation As allies: OK. They can cover your butt from cloakers with their web fields. Their
Thunders is an okay carrier, and they’d like your cubes. You’d like their
Emerald or Rubies, which are very good torp ships. They have a terraformer, but it heats
to 100 degrees. They cannot clone, so they need you for that. Web mines are the best
selling point. They make 10% damage as a normal mine, but suck gas. When they (a ship)
hits a web mine, they lose 50kts of gas or 1/6 of their fuel (which ever is more). Sitting
in a field, a ship loses 25kts of fuel. The effect is cumulative, 2 fields, 50kts of fuel.
3- 75kts of fuel. Colonies can’t sweep them (webs), so you As enemies: A nuisance. Get them while they are small. The Crystal economy is bad, and
they need the money planets. Find them, and knock them out. Put heavy beams on your ships,
and sweep as you go. Don’t go far into a field and risk the chance of hitting a mine.
Once you are in a web, he’ll increase the size or make an overlapping web field,
sucking more gas. Ouch. Be patient. Sweep thoroughly, and hit his money planets.
He’ll use Flame/Thunder combos to take out your cubes. I use a Flame/Flame/Thunder
combo to toast a Gorbie. Wasn’t easy, since Crystal ships are not strong. If you need
Crystal knowledge, I can send you my The Evil Empire As allies: Not the greatest. They get 5 free fighters per base, per turn. Hardly enough to sustain a fighter fleet. Their economy is, bar none, the worst in the game. They have the Super Star Destroyer (SSD). It has an Imperial Assault mission, which lets you beam 10 clans to any planet, and it’s yours. Even Homeworlds. The ship cannot be attacked by ATT/NUK codes. They have the Gorbie, the ultimate weapon in the game, but you have your cubes. 5 free fighters doesn’t cut it for your Biocides. They can Dark Sense everyone (save the Rebels) and find out where your enemies key planets are. As enemies: A nuisance. As stated, their economy stinks. Their ships aren’t the best combat wise. But the Gorbie is a pain. However, you both won’t be able to produce your heavy hitters until later, and you can deal with a Gorbie by sending 2 Biocides at it. The first might win, but have the second around just in case. Their SSD is a pain, but lay surprise minefields and damage the ship. Some damage, no Imp Assault. The SSD won’t have a full fighter compliment of fighters, because they need the clans to perform the Assault. They will use their HYP probes to find your planets by Dark Sensing, and will go for your throat. Lay some fun traps for the Imps, since you can guess where he’ll be going. Once his Gorbies are neutralized, walk on him. The Robotic Imperium As allies: Their are pretty good. They have carriers, and one torp ship. They can make 4x the number of mines as anyone else. They can make fighters in space, which you can use to fill your Biocides. Their Golem is nice, and their Automa is one of the wickedest ships around. They’d like your FCs, and any torp ship you have. Their Pawn Baseship has a full bioscanner and will scan ALL planets within 200lys (host default). As enemies: A nuisance. Their ships are big and bad, but your cubes can nail them. Sweep the huge fields that they have. Be patient, just like you would fighting the Crystals. He’ll use his Golems and Automas to attack, but having a few cubes nearby will take care of that. They need Duranium like mad, so pull it from planets. Pull either Tritanium or Moly (or both) to prevent their fighter building too. Deprive them of their basic economic needs and assimilate the Bots. Read my guide (“Dittering Diodes: Autarch’s Guide to the Robots”) to get a basic grasp of the Bots. I’ll send it to you if you can find it in a web site. The Rebels As allies: They can give you free fighters to. They have the Falcon, a better HYP ship. They have decent torp ships (Cygnus, Tranquillity), and they’d like your cubes. They have a Rush, which is pretty good in itself. They are immune to the Dark Sense, and can use their Rebel Ground attack (RGA) to destroy enemy planets. They are immune to ATT/NUK codes. As enemies: A pain. Their RGA is effective (-50% HP), and you’ll soon find 6 million Borg rioting all over. They’ll use their Falcons to do that. Have a Quietus or something sitting in orbit and get them. Send in the Cubes, and hit them. Locate their fighter factories (Bovonoid planets with a Gemini in orbit) and get them. Pull the minerals needed (Tri and Moly) from the planets to stop fighter building. It’ll be bloody, a knock down-drag out fight. But you should come out on top if you hit him quick and sweep him away, before massive RGA can occur. Otherwise, he is a great economy killer, and can do you in fast. The Lost Colonies of Man As allies: They are good. They have the Cobol, which makes fuel as it goes along. The Aires converts minerals into fuel on a 1:1 ratio. They can build fighters in space. They can sweep minefields from very far away. The Cobol has a bioscanner too. They, with the Rebels, have the Patriot carrier, a torp nightmare. The little ship is nasty, with 6 bays. Nice little carrier for you. They have their Virgo, and basically, don’t need you, except for your FCs. And maybe HYP probes. As enemies: And since they don’t need you, expect war. Don’t waste time with
mines, you’ll lose them when they sweep with their fighters. They’ll be towing
their Virgos into battle with their Cobols. If you disable the Cobol, the Virgo becomes a
forlorn gun platform. They’ll send Patriots too, so beef up your defenses on your
planets. Get some decent torp ships and fight the Pats. Attack them with Cubes, in a big
push in. He’ll throw Virgos at you. Keep sending Cubes, because you I cannot stress enough to read up on your enemy. Look at and read his tactics. Play his race. Know thy enemy. Read some basic books on warfare strategy. They will help you immensely. They have for me. Use your minefields. And some info: I started the Federation League Of Admirals, a little group of Fed players, who talk about many interesting things. You might learn a thing or two. The Head Admiral is Donovan, and he’ll explain it to you. I trust you enjoyed the Guide, and please let me know what you thought. I welcome any questions, comments or complaints. I am more than willing to assist new players. My e-mail address is on the bottom. If you cannot reach me, my friend Derek will know where I am. He’ll tell you. Good luck in playing, and may we meet on the field of battle. And may I lose to the tactics I have taught you. Autarch, League Of Admirals |
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