Admiral's Advice: Defeating a Single Opponent

small/medium map with medium asteroid groupings, 1vs1: Fighters, particularly bombers, are a must in the early game. Whoever manages the early game well will win. Go from fighters to frigates and the game should be over before anyone has destroyers.

small/medium map with large asteroid groupings, 1vs1: This is a bit of a longer game, because you can't easily hit a resource operation early on. Build corvettes in case your opponent tries fighters. You don't need a second resourcing operation until after your first pop-cap upgrade, so building corvettes is an effective way to limit any early game conflict. Don't ever build fighters, because you simply can't take on the mothership that early. Go from corvettes to destroyers, and mix in some platforms. Don't build as many platforms as you would in a longer game, though, because mobility becomes more important on smaller maps (its true, even if it sounds counter-intuitive). This game should end with destroyers.

Large map with medium asteroid groupings, 1vs1: Corvettes are an absolute must in this game. You have no choice but to expand to a second resource operation in the early game, but the map is too large for a bomber assault on your opponent. By the time they would arrive at your opponent's resource operation, any reasonable opponent would already have defenses in place. Use your corvettes to guard your second resourcing operation until you can position platforms there. Use platforms alone to guard your mothership. No one can succeed in the early game on such a map, so optimizing research and build capacity is essential. Get a decent fleet of destroyers and then a lot of battlecruisers. This game is moderately defensive. Use whatever offensive strategy seems useful at the time to defeat your opponent. Resource operations are vulnerable in the late game, so building a late game fast strike force of bombers can be very effective, and they double as anti-subsystem ships.

Large map with large asteroid groupings, 1vs1: This is the ultimate defensive game (in 1vs1). The first resourcing operation you have can last you for a while, but all you want to build is platforms in the beginning. Move them to the next place you want to resource from once you start building resourcers to harvest there, and make sure you always have the necessary forces to defend every place you hold. Hyperspace inhibitors are very important, and you should position your ships with inhibitors in a manner that prevents the enemy from getting anywhere near your mothership. Large fleet conflicts are bound to happen, so make sure you have your big ships as upgraded as possible. Finally, make sure you can destroy subsystems. Battlecruisers are helpless without them, and destroying your opponent's mothership ion cannon will often give you the win. Turn your mothership into a mobile weapons platform, and use it as an offensive weapon. Just stay away from your opponent's mothership with your own until their cannon is destroyed.

Admiral's Advice: Defeating the Vaygr

OK guys, if you're Hiigaran and you want to kill a vaygr CPU (or a whole map full of them), here's all you need to do:

Resourcing comes first: Your goal in this game is really to be the resourcing king, killing the other players is just added fun. Don't even think of attacking a CPU until you've played for at least an hour and a half. Don't worry, your game should be over by two hours.

Pick and choose: Don't build all types of units. Recognize what roles you need filled (anti-fighter, anti-frigate, anti-capital) and pick one type of ship that can handle that role. Only research upgrades for those ships. Don't bother with the rest of the tech tree, its just a waste of money, especially early on.

Play defensive: What do you want early on? Would you rather have 8 flak frigates or 48 gun turrets? Which will defend your base better? Turrets are a must for a Hiigaran player mostly because they don't affect your population cap much. In the late game, all the frigates in the world don't have a chance against a wall of 20-40 ion turrets. You shouldn't build any units except resourcers and turrets until your first population cap upgrade, and then you should go straight to ion destroyers and ion turrets.. after you build 1 carrier, of course. Let the carrier take over your harvesting operation, salvage harvesting and platform controllers from the mothership and replace them by more useful modules.

Reasearch, reseach, research: How do you win? Is it by getting that battlecruiser out 45 minutes into the game? Of course not. If you rush for battlecruisers, or any other particular unit, you'll neglect other upgrades that are absolutely essential to your survival. You want to establish a pattern of research that gives you good results. Typically this means researching harvesting upgrades first and asap, defensive upgrades next, then fire upgrades, and finally new ships. Only deviate from this routine when you can up your population cap, when the ion destroyer becomes researchable, and when the shipyard/battlecruiser become researchable.

All you really need is the Mothership: This strategy is unique to this mod. In the late game, the fully upgraded mothership can kill every single thing on the map all by itself. If you have other units at this point, well thats just a bonus for you! The AI is not smart enough to target the mothership ion cannon with its anti-subsystem fighters, so no worries for you.

Remember, its a CPU: AI is AI. Its not going to outwit you, so don't worry about it coming up with some ingeneous plan to kill you off. The best AI players build a disproportionate number of marine frigates and start a perpetual frigate assault against you. This is one reason platforms are useful, they can't be captured! If you make it to the late game, following these strategies, you've won!

Battlescars:

Admiral's log 1-25-2006: Wave after wave of frigates advanced on the mothership. For a time we thought we had the upper hand, and command authorized a counter-assault. This mistake nearly cost us the campaign. The enemy had anticipated our advance and managed to board and disable the mothership. At the same time our other enemies, in an unholy alliance, advanced on our mining and production center. Our crew aboard the shipyard managed to finish a second battlecruiser just before the shipyard went up in a blaze of glory, but this brief glimpse of hope was short lived. The enemy fired on our virgin battlecruiser with all their might and managed to bring it down before we could bring its might to bear.

I watched in horror from the disabled Pride of Hiigara as our crews rushed to restore control. Even as the bulk of our production and mining facilities were demolished, power was restored to the mothership, and I advanced with our remaining battlecruiser upon the remains of the fleet. At this point, the campaign seemed all but lost. What could the Pride of Hiigara and one battlecruiser do against the full might of our enemies?

More than they ever imagined.

With our backs to the wall the battle became a dance. The battlecruiser advanced while the mothership retreated, and then positions would change as the mothership advanced, giving the battlecruiser some respite. Even as our hull breached on many decks, we witnessed the last vessel of the enemy's assault force crumble into ruin. Knowing our enemies possessed greater fleets in reserve, we took the opportunity to slip into deep space.

With few resources, the recovery period was long. There was no chance of rebuilding our mighty fleet, so surprise remained our greatest ally. We had alluded our enemies' sensors, so we were able to advance directly into the heart of their territory from above. Perhaps thinking we had turned tail and run, the enemy was not prepaired for our assault. With nothing but the Pride of Hiigara and a battlecruiser, I was able to bring victory out of nearly complete defeat.