Category Archives: Strategy

Oct 20

Strategies – Attacking Larger Empires

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Quickly moving up the list of top players in Starpires will often require taking down empires who are more powerful than you are.  Defeating a more powerful empire through brute force will simply end in disaster and requires utilizing a bit of strategy.

Know your enemy

Gathering intelligence on an opponent before attacking.  Find out if they have defense pacts with other empires, and what the makeup is of their defending forces.  Take advantage of the strengths and weakness of different military units.  For example heavy cruisers will absolutely demolish defense stations but are not very effective against either ground troops or fighters.

Hint: If you have access to it under research, a spy satellite is a useful tool in helping to spy on a larger empire.

Wear them down with Guerilla Attacks

Guerilla attacks are very useful for wearing down the military forces of a larger opponent in preparation to invade them.  You can’t capture planets through guerilla attacks, but since they occur with no warning an empire can’t call on their allies to help protect them.  Also the smaller your force is relative to your opponent the more effective each individual military unit will be.

Gas their troops

If the are reliant on a large number of troops to defend their empire, launching chemical strikes (assuming you’ve researched the technology) to kill them off is a good strategy to weaken their defenses.

Take advantage of technology

There are a number of useful technologies which you can research that can aid your attacking forces temporarily.  Jam their communications to prevent them for calling on allies to help defend against an invasion.  Set off an EMP Blast, that will disable a large percentage (~50%) of their defense stations.  Provide an Adrenaline Boost to your military units to temporarily increase their attack strength.

Talk with your allies and coordinate attacks against a larger empire.  2 or 3 smaller empires can take down a significantly larger opponent if they work together.
Sep 08

Military Units in Starpires

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In Starpires will need a military to both defend your empire and attack other empires. Each type of military unit has different strengths and weaknesses so you will need an appropriate mix to defeat an opponent. Each turn there is an upkeep cost to maintain your military in optimal condition.

 

Troops - Basic ground forces. You will need them to both defend and capture planets during an attack and they require generals to lead them into battle.  Very ineffective at attacking space based military units such as cruisers, carriers and command ships.  They are also prone to deserting your military if your military moral becomes to low.

Weaknesses: Chemical strikes, low military moral

Upkeep: 5 credits + food

 

generals - starpires space strategy game

Generals - Command your troops and make them more effective fighting force. You will need 1 general per 50 troops to lead them on attacks. If you have too few generals your troops moral maybe effected. Generals have very little fighting capability themselves.

Upkeep: 50 credits + food

 

Fighters - Equally effective against almost all forces but are primarily an offensive weapon with very weak defensive capabilities.. You will need 1 carrier per 100 fighters to transport them on attack missions.

Weaknesses: Defense stations

Upkeep: 12 credits

 

cruisers - starpires space strategy game

Heavy Cruisers - Very effective at taking out defense stations.

Weaknesses: Command ships

Upkeep: 80 credits

 

Defense Station - Defense stations are only defensive and can not be sent out on attacks.  They are heavily armored and very effective against many types of military units. Your best bet for defending your empire.

Weaknesses: Heavy cruisers

Upkeep: 12 credits

 

Carriers

You need one for every 100 fighters to be able to take them into combat, but don’t have much firepower themselves.

Weaknesses: Heavy cruisers, command ships

Upkeep: 100 credits

 

Command Ships - This heavily armored capital ship is extremely effective at taking on heavy cruiser and other command ships. It has the added benefit of significantly increasing the effectiveness of heavy cruisers under it’s command. Has almost no ground attack capabilities and is vulnerable to fighters.

Weaknesses: Fighters

Upkeep: 400 credits

 

Covert Agents - Allow you to take covert actions against other empires. The more you have the higher the chance of success in both completing operations and countering operations against you.

Upkeep: 100 credits

Aug 30

Civilian Mood and Calming and Upset Population

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There is a fairly complex economic model underlying the game play of Starpires, with many variables that can be adjusted creating various effects.  One of the more influential components is the mood of your civilian population.  100% is totally peaceful, while 0% is all out civil war.

 

 

What does it effect?
  • Production of many planet types is effected by your populations mood, unhappy workers are less productive workers.
  • Immigration to and from your empire.  Unhappy people will quickly leave your empire for greener pastures, reducing tax revenue.
  • If your civilian mood gets low enough <30% your empire may fall into civil war with entire planets revolting and leaving your empire.

 

What effects it?
  • Tax rate, the lower taxes are the happier people are.
  • The more government planets you have the easier it is to keep a population in line.
  • Failure to pay planetary upkeep or provide food to your population
  • Heavily polluted air can upset your people.
  • Your population can turn on your government if they see you making repeated unprovoked attacks on much smaller empires.
  • Other things such as foreign operations to destabilize your government.

 

Quick fixes…
  • Lower your tax rate significantly for a short period of time.
  • Overpay or over feed your population when at the start of your turn, using the manual payment option.  Make them fat and happy.
  • Acquire more government planets.
Aug 29

The Art of War – Invasions, Guerilla Attacks, Nukes

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Other than maintaining your own empire one of the most important aspects of Starpires is attacking others.  There are currently four different types of military attacks that you can perform on another empire, in addition to all lots of special operations (in another post).

Each turn you may launch a single attack against an opposing empire.

Launch an invasion

Invading another empire is the primary attack type where you send a fleet to attack and attempt to capture planets from your opponent.

  • An invasion is the only attack type which allows you to capture planets from an opponent.
  • You much have overwhelming military strength for your invasion to succeed, and it must include at least some ground forces (troops) in order to capture planets.
  • If the opposing empire has defense pacts with other empires, up to 3 of their allies may send forces to help repel your invasion.
  • If your invasion is repelled, you are likely to take very heavy military losses.  This is why is sometimes is advisable to send only some of your military forces if you are unsure about the strength of your opponent, or who they have as allies.

  • You can’t send defense stations to attack an opposing empire, they are defensive only.
  • Troops require generals to lead them into combat (min. 1 general per 50 troops) and fighters require carriers to transport them (min. 1 carrier per 100 fighters)
  • All military unit types have different strength and weaknesses, for example troops are nearly useless against space based military units such as cruisers and command ships.  Heavy cruisers are great against defense stations, but there weakness is fighters.
  • You are awarded points for a successful invasion based on the size of the empire you invaded.  Conversely your opponent will get points based off of your size if they repel the invasion.

 

 Guerilla Attacks

This surprise attack on the opponent that allows no warning, so the victim empire has no time to call on their allies to help defend them.  Unlike an invasion where the key is to have overwelming military odds in your favor a guerilla attack is most effective against a larger military force.  Thus it is great for wearing down a more powerful empire in preparation for an invasion.

  • You can not capture planets during a guerilla attack, just kill off their forces and lower military moral.
  • Attack success is based in large part on the size of the two forces.  The larger their force and the smaller your force the better the chance of success and the less chance some of your forces are captured (giving away your identify)
  • A guerilla attack is most successful against a larger force, so your attacking force may actually be more destructive if you only send a portion of your military.
  • Your opponents military moral will be lowered if the attack is successful.
  • You will be awarded points for a successful guerilla attack based on how much of your opponents military you destroy.

 

Chemical Attacks (Research required)
Chemical attacks allow you to launch chemical warhead tipped missiles at an opponent killing off both their civilians and unprotected troops.
  • Chemical strikes are not available to your empire at the start of the game but can be researched.  Research planets will then produce chemical warheads each turn which can be launched at an opposing empire.
  • The use of WMD’s is looked down upon by the galactic council, so their unprovoked use maybe met with penalties including (civilian revolt, sanctions, or retaliatory strikes)
  • You are limited in the number of chemical warheads you can launch against an opponent in a single attack based on their empire size.

 

Nuclear Attack (Research required)
Nuclear warhead tipped missiles can turn an opposing empires planets into uninhabitable rocks.  Pretty much all the same rules apply to nuclear strikes as chemical ones.

 

Other attack questions:

 

Why am I penalized for attacking another empire?

 

The galactic council or your own population will penalize you for unprovoked attacks on significantly smaller empires.  No one likes  a bully, beating up on the little guy.  An attack is considered unprovoked if the opposing empire has not attacked you within the past 40 turns.

 

Why is an empire under protection?

 

You can’t attack empires currently under protection.  An empire is under protection for their first 10 turns of the game.  An empire may also be placed under protection by the galactic council for a period of time if they have sustained significant planetary losses due to invasions.
Aug 15

Planet Types and Strategy

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There are 10 types of planets which you can colonize in Starpires, each of which helps your empire different ways. Providing credits, growing food, giving your people a place to live, etc. What planet types you decide to colonize is one of the main strategies to building your empire.
Food Planet

Food planets produce the food needed both by your civilian population and troops. You can view your current food productions and empire food requirements on your turn summary. Food production maybe effected by factors pollution and unrest.  You can buy and sell food in the global market, but it’s generally much more expensive than it would be for you to grow it yourself.

Urban Planet

Urban planets give your population a place to live. Initially urban planets will hold up to 200,000 people, but the closer they are to maximum capacity the slower your population will grow.  The more people you have the more tax revenues you bring in.  Tax revenues are a great source of income, but it can take longer to build a population base than to build revenues through other means.

Research Planet

Research planets produce research credits that can be used to upgrade or buy new technology under the research tab.  They also have other future benefits such as producing chemical and nuclear weapons (once they are researched)

Mining planets most stable of all planets, produce a steady stream of credits regardless of factors like population unrest. They don’t generate as many credits as say a tourism planet, but their stability can be a life saver in hard times.

Supply Planet

Supply planets produce military units much cheaper than you can buy them. You can change what types of units they produce with the “Edit” link next to where you buy/sell the planets.

Tourism Planet

Tourism planets bring in more credits per turn than mining planets, but are heavily effected by civilian unrest. No one wants to visit an empire in civil war. Relying solely on tourism as your empires main source of income is a dangerous strategy.

Anti Pollution Planet

Anti-pollution planets help keep pollution under control. Will be needed if you have lots of petroleum planets or a high population density. You can view your empires air quality on the right side bar. If your air gets too polluted your population may revolt, your food planets will grow less food, along with other effects.

Government Planet

Government planets help to keep your population in line. Too few of them, and your population can go into unrest quite easily.  If you find your populations civilian mood going down, a few more of these might help.

Education Planet

Great schools attract people and will help to grow your population much faster that just relying on new people to be born.  If you want to jump start your population growth (particularly early in the game) education planets are a great way to do it.

Petroleum planets can produce the most credits of any planet type, but are affected by supply and demand (the ratio of petroleum planets vs other planets in your empire). They also create a lot of pollution, so if you have a lot of them you will need some anti-pollution planets.