Military Battles

1. Units Types and Attributes

Important: The Appendix contains the full Unit Index.

There are 3 main types of units in the game: Infantry, Tanks and Spaceships.

Each type of unit is created by a different facility. Infantry Units are trained in the Barracks. Tanks are trained in the Automobile Factory. Spaceships are trained in the Starport and the Orbital Station. These facilities are unique per colony.

There are also three other unit types:

Turtles are freighters, which are mainly used to move stuff from one place to another. Their big hulks also mean they can be used quite effectively to shield other units.

Star Destroyers are huge spaceships with enormous firepower versus planets. They assist ground troops in assaulting enemy bases.

Colony Ships are extremely specialized starships that contain everything necessary to create a new colony. You are given 1 such ship early in the game, to help you expand your empire.

Units may have these special attributes:

Defender: These units are placed first in the line of defense. As such, they absorb hits to save others.

Star Traveler: These units are able to travel to the Centauri star system.

Different troops have different speeds. This is reflected in their requiring different times for the same task.

Higher level buildings train units faster. What's more, the Military and Space Academy influences offer bonuses to unit training time. Therefore, if you want to build armies faster you need to upgrade your existing buildings, increase the above influences or create more colonies.

2. Troop Movement

Your troops can do the following:

Raid a dungeon: Attack dungeons on the available planets to gain resources and other useful materials. Use the "Dungeon Raid" icon on your colony screen to launch a raid armada.


You can make 1 dungeon raid per colony at any given time and that must be on the colony's planet. For example, colonies on Mars can only make dungeon attacks on Mars.

Reinforce another colony: You can send units to your own colonies or those of your alliance members. If the target colony does not produce enough food to sustain the troops, they cannot stay there and will simply return. To send reinforcements use the "Reinforcements" action in the Troop Manager tab in the Strategy Center.

Raid another colony: Go to the planetary surface to pick a suitable target.


Possible candidates are those with a red flag, which indicate a player with PvP turned on.


Click on Raid to assign enough troops and.. good luck! If successful, you will steal resources or other valuables from the colony.


Note that you always receive a full battle report when you are the defender. If you are the attacker, then at least one of your units must survive to bring back information. If there are no survivors from the attacking army, you get no report at all.

3. PvP

PvP stands for Player versus Player.

All characters have a PvP status flag that can be either on or off. When your PvP status is on, your colonies may be attacked by other players!

You can change your PvP status on or off, but have in mind the following:

* Your PvP status turns automatically on every time you scout other players or send your army against their colonies. There is a 72-hour cooldown period before you can turn it off again after each such action.

* Your PvP status turns also automatically on if you reinforce (or are reinforced by) a player with PvP on who is in a cooldown period. You get a 72-hour cooldown yourself if this happens! This prevents non-pvp players from safely reinforcing aggressors.

* Colonies on planets marked as "PvP" are not subject to the PvP status flag at all. You can always be attacked (and possibly lose a colony) on such dangerous planets.

* Turning your PvP off will not stop enemy armies already on their way towards your colonies.

Important: If you do not log in the game for more than 15 days, your PvP flag will be automatically turned to on.

Eligible Targets
When looking for a target to attack, then to determine which one is eligible for attack, the following rules apply:

Rule 1: Have maximum 5 level difference than you. e.g. If you are 20 Level, you can attack anyone from level 15 up to 25.

Rule 2: Have 30 or more levels. That means that as soon as someone hits the 30th level, from then on "Rule 1" does not protect him any more!

Rule 3: Have been inactive for more than 20 days. That means that if your account is marked as inactive, at which point the system automatically raises your PvP flag, you will also be eligible for attacks (of any kind).

4. Skills

All governors have a Defense Skill and an Attack Skill which help during battle with other players. The effects of these skills apply to each individual unit attack during a battle, irrespective of which player is attacker and which is defender.

* If the Attack skill of the player commanding the unit which deals damage is higher than the Defense skill of the player commanding the unit which receives the damage, then the damage is increased [remains the same/ decreased].

* If the Attack skill of the player commanding the unit which deals damage is equal to the Defense skill of the player commanding the unit which receives the damage, then the damage remains the same.

* If the Attack skill of the player commanding the unit which deals damage is lower than the Defense skill of the player commanding the unit which receives the damage, then the damage is decreased.

You need to actively practice these skills in the battlefield in order to raise them. So, to raise your Attack skill you need to raid other player colonies and to raise your Defense skill you need to defend against opposing armies.

5. Espionage

It would be good to know something about an enemy colony before a battle. You can attempt to do that by spending some Research Points to scout it.

To scout a colony, locate your target on the planetary map.


Click "Scout" and spend an amount of RP to attempt an infiltration.


Each colony has an Intelligence Level. To successfully scout a colony you need to spend at least 200 RPs per the target's Intelligence Level.

A successful scout report contains details about the resources, buildings, units and items present in the target colony.

You do not know the IL of the target, so think carefully before spending your RPs.

The higher the intelligence level of the target colony the more likely it is that your spies will be spotted. This means that you might get a full (or not) report but the colony's governor will also be notified for your actions!

6. Combat Phases

Important: The following is for advanced players, who want to know more about how combat works.

Planetary and space attacks: A unit with planetary (or space) attack rating can hit opponents with planetary (or space) movement greater than 0 (zero).

So a Hover Tank may inflict damage to a Light Infantry or another Hover Tank but it cannot hit an Astral Eagle. A Star Destroyer can bombard planetary units but not space.

Rounds: Battles consist of rounds, during which units and buildings act. The combat is divided in 10 rounds. Each round each group of units inflict 10% of their attack to the opponents.

Initiative: Every unit and building involved in a battle has its own initiative number. This number defines when during the battle this unit makes its attack. Higher numbers act earlier than lower numbers.

Each unit acts on its initiative and deals damage to enemies in this order:

* Phase 1: Attack against the first line of enemy defense ("defender" units)
* Phase 2: Attack enemies with the same Initiative
* Phase 3: Attack other enemies

For example, 20 Stormcrows attack. They will first target any Turtles. If the Turtles die, the Stormcrows will hit any opposing Stormcrows and finally they will hit any Astral Eagles or Star Destroyers.

The attack power of each subsequent phase is reduced by the actions taken in the previous phase. So if you have an attack power of 2000 points and you spent 500 during phase 1, you will have 1500 during phase 2.

Multi-round battles: If there are units left at the end of a round, a new round begins with the remaining forces. There is a maximum limit of 10 rounds in a battle.

No targets: If the opponent has no suitable targets in any phase, the attacking unit proceeds immediately to the following phase.

Anti-air mode: If the attacking ground units have also a space attack mode (such as Devastator tanks), then if their opponent has no first line of defense on the ground they switch to anti-air mode to attack space units.

Ground forces: Ground (planetary) units play an important role in combat!

If at any time there are no ground attackers left, the battle is over. If the attacker has no Colony Ship and at any time there are no ground defenders, the battle is also over. However, if the attacker does have a Colony Ship (i.e. attempts to conquer the colony) then the battle continues even if the defender runs out of a planetary army.

Level difference: If there is a significant level difference between two players, the one with the higher level suffers reduced casualties in the pvp battle.

Examples:

* A force of Starship Troopers attack a colony with Heavy Infantry and Devastators. In phase 1 of the round, while the attacking STs are dealing damage to the Devastators, the defending Heavy Infantry deal damage to the attacking STs.

* A force of Star Troopers and Stormcrows attack a colony with Turtles and Heavy Infantry. At the end of the first round the Stormcrows have killed some of the Turtles and the STs have killed all the HIs. Even though there still remain some defending Turtles, the battle is over because the defender has no ground units left.

* A force of Star Troopers, Stormcrows and 1 Colony Ship attack a colony with Turtles and Heavy Infantry. At the end of the first round the Stormcrows have killed some of the Turtles and the STs have killed all the HIs. Even though the defender now has only Turtles (and zero ground units), the battle continues because of the Colony Ship. The Crows will keep attacking the remaining Turtles until they manage to eliminate them (in which case the colony may be conquered) or 10 rounds of battle have passed.

Looting: If some (or all) of the attacking army survives, then they raid the target colony and steal as much resources as they can carry. Turtles can help in this, as they are able to carry a lot of stuff!

Defensive / Offensive Buildings: The Barracks, Defensive Grid, Orbital Yard and Force Field Generator buildings contribute to the attack and defense of the colony during an incoming attack.

* The Barracks contributes its own attack to the planetary attack of any defending units in the colony. It also increases the planetary attack of defending units by some amount relative to its level.

* The Orbital Yard contributes its own attack to the space attack of any colony units. It also increases the space attack of defending units by some amount relative to its level.

* The Defense Grid acts as shield against planetary attacks. An attacker must first disable the Grid before being able to deal planetary damage to the defending forces. It also increases the planetary defense of defending units by some amount relative to its level.

* Similarly, the Force Field Generator acts as shield against space attacks. An attacker must first disable the Generator before being able to deal space damage to the defending forces. It also increases the space defense of defending units by some amount relative to its level.

Buildings attack on their initiative, but they cannot work on their own! Their planet or space attack is capped by the combined planet or space attack of the defending units.

7. Scrapyard

All colonies have a scrapyard that you can upgrade to reduce your PvP loses. If you have no scrapyard, when you lose units in a PvP planetary battle (not in Alpha Centauri or Dungeon Raids), then these units are gone forever! Units that are also lost while defending a colony end up in Scrapyard.

If you upgrade your Scrapyard then 90% of your casualties return as "damaged units" in the Scrapyard. You can then "Repair" them and re-deploy them in your colony for a fraction of their cost in both resources and time!

To repair units, the Scrapyard uses "Scraps". You can refill the Scrapyard with scraps by using "Supply Packs". For each Supply Pack you use, you get 350 Scraps, which can in turn be used to repair units of 350 upkeep value.

Depending on its level, the scrapyard has a maximum capacity in both Scraps and Unit Upkeep it can hold. It starts from 500 at Level 1 and goes up to 30000 for Level 15. If you lose in battle more units than your Scrapyard can hold, then the extra units are gone forever! So, make sure you have your Scrapyards at maximum level!

Tip: The math suggest that if you use the Scrapyard to repair your units it can be up to 80% cheaper in both Resources and Time than building them from scratch!!!