Playing The Peoples' Army in VGAP4

September 2000. | Suggestions welcome | More VGAP4 tips | Back to main Race page

  • Overview
  • Using special racial abilities
  • Using special ship devices
  • Recommended colonisation strategy
    		•
    The following info is mostly compiled from emails by Jon Nunn; I haven't played the Peeps myself, though I am playing in a game with them. I have yet to scrap with their ships.
    Latest additions in red (September 2000)
    Overview

    The Peoples' Army, or "Peeps" as I call them, are a collection of native races who have thrown off the yoke of normal races' colonial oppression and banded together as a "race" in their own right. This should make for some good role playing.

    They are the first third party race to be created for the game and approved by Tim. Only the Fed and Borg were available before the Stormers were released. Their creator has a home page for them at http://www.mindsync.com/deagol/vgap4/rc801f.htm, where you can probably find further information on them.

    Warning to Hosts: as of July 2000, the Peeps were generally considered unbalanced and overpowered. This is not what the creator or Tim intended, and if there are real problems, they will probably be fixed in time; but if you are thinking of Hosting a game with them in, and the race pack does not seem to have been updated since I wrote this, be aware of comments like the following ones culled from the mailing list.

    By September 2000, several people had played complete games with them and sent fairly comprehensive and informed reports to the mailing list. See further comments at the end of this page.

    From: Daniel S. Subj: Bug and Balance Issue Sent: Tuesday, July 11 2000

    "Balance - Starting with a people's army and the given 78 or so engines. On turn 2 I am able to make 36 or so luxury cruisers." [These have a Gambling Deck which generates "free money."] "Once I load em up with colonists and turn on the gambling deck I am able to make 14400 mc a turn starting as early a turn 3. This number increases as you buy more hulls and cheap 1mc engines." [A typical racial income would be say 700mc / turn by turn 3.]

    Reply from Deneb: "Thank you for once again supporting my belief that the peeps are FAR too strong. For heaven sakes, they have better cloakers than cloaking races" [he is referring to the fact that Cloaking in VGAP4 is all about probabilities. A cloaking device merely reduces your chances of being seen by 50%. Eagle eyed Beta testers sotted that the stats which govern this probability mean that Peeps ships actually have a lower chance of being scanned (ie, decloaked) than Stormer ships specifically intended for cloaking] "while also covering other ground with the rest of their massive fleet! Is there any peep defenders out there? If not, does anyone want to start w/balance suggestions, assuming that their creator reads this list."

    From: David Ouimet To: Subject: Re: Bug and Balance Issue Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000

    "I reviewed the Peep's once, and decided unless they received a major overhaul they would not be in any game I host. Their non-ship stats are good (strong but not insane) but when backed up by their ships it's too much. Unfortunately I don't have the time to work on an overhaul suggestion of this degree right now."

    There is also a strong emotive issue concerning the fact that Peeps have a cloaking, hyperjumping minelayer at hull tech 2, which many folk resent.

    My own view on the Peeps is that, it's a brilliant concept for a race, though they are having teething problems. The race's creator (Martin Pedersen) has gone to some lengths to gather feedback and rebalance the race. I am sure an updated race pack will be published eventually which will address these issues, which but at the moment, Martin has temporarily disappeared (I think his employer sent him off abroad and he's out of contact with the Net for a few months). Martin also created the Orchestrator scripting tool for VGAP4, a major programming effort and one which shows his dedication to perfection. The majority of balance issues can probably be sorted out by simply e.g. changing the warp signature of their cloakers and maybe putting some kind of restriction on gambling ships. I think he's tried to make a race who have "a bit of everything", but unfortunately the special ship devices either work or do not work, so it is difficult to give a race a "bit" of everything without making them overpowerful.

    When the Peeps were released a typical comment was: "This is NOT a newbie race. (Too many decisions on what ships too build for this.)"

    Fast Growth rate, better advancement ratios than Fed but much less than Stormers.
    Income and mining are both slighty below normal, but they are naturally happy.
    They know a little about both sides of the force.
    Very poor personal defense skills, not exactly the best of pilots either.
    Horibble natural spy and psi rates, half normal PC rate, question leaderships, fairly bad public relations, and less lawful than normal.
    They like Lerchin Spices best.
    Ground Units: A unit that produces equivalent of one mine a turn, but costs 10X as much cash initally (but no supply), but requires no maintance. It might also only double a mines production. A very good unit for attacking fighters, but nothing else, and an excellent ground attack tank.
    Fighters: As the cost goes up the accuracy ratings and armor goes down??? I'd be tempted to stick with just the light ones on the theory that by staying alive longer they do more damage.
    Using special racial abilities
    Using special ship devices
    Recommended colonisation strategy
    Climate: They like Fed worlds the best.
    Strategy suggestions
    ... Hull tech is a low priority... Generator tech is an extremely high priority for this race. Severe power shortages until they get high generator tech. - Jon Nunn
    Miscellaneous notes
    Jon E-mailed the creator suggesting that he increase most of the crew sizes of the low and mid tech ships.

    I tend to be biased against 3rd party races, because I am suspicious that they will not be well balanced. It is too tempting for 3rd party programmers to make a killer race. However Martin Pedersen (their creator) was at pains to maintain game balance. And the final judgement has to be Tim's, who stated: "I made a very few changes to the ship list handed in. I made the Glory ship far more expensive. I weakened the armor of the 3rd fighter."

    A typical comment from the mailing list was:

    "I thought the race had way too much at first look," [because they have 40 hulls and 2 superweapons, big, small, medium, flexible, carriers, stations, battleships, can cloak, can hyperjump, can build fighters in space, every thing] "but I noticed the race does have some major weak points. Most ships have a soft spot a mile wide. The ground combat skills are somewhat weak. Most ships have very few point defence systems. Many of the ships appear to not be able to put out the power levels that their weapon loadouts might need."

    Martin Pedersen posted the following background to the race:

    The special ship devices are intended as follows: Exodus (an offensive terraformer) can trigger volcanos (raising temperature.. Tim replaced it with Crystal Inferno Device, which is not functional, but does that same thing), trigger earthquakes (causing sabotage), raise the hyperdimensional frequency (possibly causing planet to explode), and sterilize the soil (opposite of soil reformer, actually reducing the horticulture rating for the planet). The recruitment center acts like the Quietus, but draws its 'assimilation' from the interstellar merchants and other travellers, meaning that it effectively pulls them out of thin air. Really thin air. The idea is that at this point in the struggle, the 'race' has proven itself to the other natives, and generates a following.

    ...I find it humorous that the crew actually lose combat ability with training.

    ...I really never considered the soft spot to be very critical (pun intended), as you are hanging on by a rather thin thread when you get to the point where that matters. In simulating some pitched battles, I saw a few Inquisitions go down on the second hit after their armor had depleted. I justify their ship mass and expense as a sign of their inexperience, and their soft spots also reflect that. The point defenses seemed to be something that Tim wanted to be rather limited, since you can only have a maximum of 10 on even the largest ships. I usually view them as anti-fighter, rather than anti-weapon, so I probably just figgured that they would throw their own fighters at incoming wings as their defense.

    ...[The race] actually evolved from an earlier posting about a race of dopplegangers that infiltrated the natives and posed as charismatic leaders, inciting them to revolt. The dopplegangers would also excel at spying (since they can morph to resemble other races), but they would have to use their spying to steal ship plans, as they had no fleet of their own. I realized that there was really no need for the dopplegangers (but I ain't saying they aren't behind it either.. who knows..), and I ditched the 'no hulls of their own' idea as I think that the ship is a major selling point for a race. So I went from 0 to 40 hulls. I actually made an oversight in the race stats. Their spy rating reads 3 but it should be higher. How high I don't know, and I didn't catch it in time for the first version of the race pack.

    ...I got alot of heat for having two ships with super weapons.  They are likely to be the first to go if it turns out that the resistance is too powerful.  The natives have always been the underdogs anyways, but I thought it would be interesting to see what they would do without a boot on their collective throats.  They are not, however, new to space travel.  They have been using public space ports and smuggling cantinas for ages.  ... If you look at all natives as incompetent, it makes it hard to believe that they would have high tech anything.  If you look at the fact that alien bases routinely harbor natives, you can being to see that ambitious natives could find prosperity by stealing information such as ship plans, device plans, base locations, etc.  A few generations of such espionage, combined with straightforward spoils of war from their recent overthrow, gives a wealth of resources for their fleets.  The problem I faced personally with this is that I didn't want to just steal other people's ship designs and say "here is their fleet".  I think a major selling point of a race is the ships themselves, so I made all new ships, most of the based roughly on other ships in terms of size and capacities, and incorporated many of the aquired plans for ship devices.  Some say I got carried away.   So, I think that the race is fairly justified in it's capacities.  As with any race pack, many many hours of play-testing will be needed to refine it.  Any race pack will always have one absolutely balanced opponent.  Itself.  Since the coming of the Cyborg [the 2nd race pack], I doubt anyone has been playing a single-race game in earnest, but pitting a race against itself is a good way to expose some new tactics.  I defend the expansive ship list because it allows people to decide their own tactics.  I keep seeing thing on par with "I only use ship A and B until I get ship C.  Then in the end game I use only ships D and E.  Therefor the race only needs 5 ships."  It may be that some ships prove themselves a nuissance, and will get nixed.  An adage I learned in re-developing software is "never take away a feature".  The fastest (but not the best) way to find out just how important that feature is that you think noone ever uses anymore is to remove it and update a few people.  I don't intend to be heavy-handed with the race pack.  What Tim chooses to overrule is out of my hands, but I don't see sweeping changes being made (except corrections such as upping their spy rating to the intended level).  If the race becomes too estranged from their original premise, I would rather pull it that see it enslaved once more.
    Recommended ship equipment by Jon Nunn
    Note: the recommended weaponry here was calculated before we realised that it is often better to use fewer weapon types, so all shots arrive together. This gives a better chance of some getting through the enemy's point defense. It also predates the September 2000 Host mod whereby attack bonuses raising "to hit" odds >100%, improve your chances of penetrating point defense. So whilst illustrative and informative to read, it's probably not the best choices now.
    Tech 1:
    Beacon Lighter Freighter: redundant, in all respects identical to the small deep space freighter.
    Siren Light Tanker: redudant, in all respects identical to the neutronic fuel tanker.
    Emissary Scout: With 20 fighters quite strong for a scout once they can be built. Very fuel efficient, excellent at finding planets. It also has the mysterious Reticulan Light Beam. Difficult to hit, but <10% of surviving 2 shots once shields and armor are down. 20 fighters, 1 FTL-1, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Micro Missile Launcher -> -5 E/sec -> 4 seconds til short of energy
    Rebellion Skirmisher: A more powerful version of the scout with the same weakness, but without the devices. 20 fighters, 1 FTL-1, 1 Mercury Rockets (only enough ammo for 10 shots), 6 Plasma Guns, 1 Quad Laser, 1 FireStorm 3000 -> +4 surplus energy / second
    Tech 2:
    Valor Light Cruiser: Many weapons for a tech 2 ship, nice bonuses, but no point defenses and likely to explode after the 4th hit. 1 FTL-5, 3 Plasma Guns, 5 Pulsed Laser -> -5 E/sec -> 6 sec til short of energy
    Ambassor Light Destroyer: Don't use this in combat unless you want your opponent to have it!
    Dirk Light Submarine: A Hyper-jumping cloak ship that's very difficult to detect even with the cloak off! Also drops mines (likely to be dropped in a "cloaked mode" and activated later.) Would be prone to capture except for the huge soft spot. 1 Keplan 450, 1 Turbo Thruster, 3 Plasma Gun -> 5 surplus
    Propaganda Luxary Cruiser: Same devices as the scout plus it produces money, boosts crew happiness, steals crew, and makes all friendly ships crews happy too. Easy to capture via bording in combat. Build lots without weapons for money. <Leave weapons off so it's not used against you.>
    Tech 3:
    Perservence Imporved Freighter: redundant, in all respects idenctial to the medium deep space freighter
    Oppresion Light Frigate: This isn't a Light Frigate, instead this is a Light Destroyer. Very nice attack and defense bonus, but very limited ordance, no point defenses, and very large soft spot (20%). Would be prone to capture if the soft spot were smaller. 3 FTL-5, 2 Mass Drivers (enough ammo for 20 rounds), 9 Plasma Guns, 3 Pulsed Laser -> -5 E/sec -> 48 sec til short
    Revolution Light Carrier: Arrgh, a cloaking carrier! OTOH, it's fighter count is very low for a carrier, the warp sign is too high to completley disappear, and prone to both capture and premature explosions. 80 fighters, 2 FTL-4, 1 GF 7000, 3 Photon Torpedos, 1 sandcastor, 10 plasma guns, 3 micro missle launcher, 1 intercept -> 9 surplus
    Defiance Weapons Platform: Very cheap, includes self destruct switch that enemy weapons can also hit. Max speed > 0 but no engines??? Don't understand the attack bonus of a stationary target either. 2 GF 7000, 3 Part Cannon, 1 Sand Castor, 12 Plasma Guns, 1 Xeon Beam, 5 Pulsed Laser, 4 Micro Missle Lauchers, 2 Intercepts -> -6 E/ sec -> 66 2/3 sec til short
    Tech 4:
    Honor Improved Cruiser: I'd call this a Light Cruiser instead of Improved. Long fuel range, nice weapons for your opponent when he captures it. Don't build.
    Victory Improved Destroyer: Don't build unless you want your oppoent to have it! Spontanous explosion is the only thing that might keep it from being captured. Odd speed too.
    Drusus Improved Submarine: Only thing that keeps it from being captured is the large soft spot. A replacement candidate for the Dirk except it's still slighty visible with cloak on. 3 FTL-5, 8 plasma guns -> 10 surplus.
    Tolerance Light Terraformer: Unarmed. Why does it take a generator?
    Tech 5:
    Fortitude Improved Tanker: Makes the standard fuel carrier obsolete.
    Freedom Improved Frigate: Another one of the Don't build unless you want your opponent to have it! ships.
    Sacrifice Improved Battlestation: How does it move and what use is Gravitonic Accel without engines? It's usefulness is somewhat limited by the 50% soft spot. 2 GF 7000, 40 fighters, 1 Pulsed Phasor Cannon, 3 Photon Torpedos, 2 Sandcastors, 11 Plasma Guns, 1 Xeon Beam, 4 Micro Missle Lauchers, 2 Intercepts -> 27 surplus
    Academy of Advanced Defense: No engines, but max speed above 0, and non-standard engine-drag??? Best ship so far though. 2 GF 7000, 1 Firestorm 3000, 900 fighters, 3 Photon Torpedo Cannons, 2 Gatling Phasors, 1 Sandcastor, 17 Plasma Guns, 1 Xeon Beam, 6 Micro Missile Lauchers, 3 Interceptors -> 13 surplus
    <at this point we have exactly 2 ships with large enough crews to prevent easy capture>
    Tech 6:
    Constition Advanced Feighter: This is 50% better than the Standard large freighter. What's the point of the generator though?
    Justice Advanced Cruiser: Yes, the fuel range makes it qualify as a Cruiser, but no it's not advanced, maybe heavy though. Don't build this. It's a race for opponents to kill the crew before hiting the soft spot.
    Cleansing Advanced Destroyer: This looks like a standard Cruiser to me. Don't build this, very easy to capture.
    Claymore Advanced Submarine: At last, a mobile ship with enough crew to prevent early capture (athough due to its heavy weight it still can be captured.) makes the previous sub obsolete. Includes all three types of mine layers and a mine sweep array. Very difficult to detect even with the cloak off. <weapons depend upon if going after freighters and escorts or real ships>
    Tech 7:
    Absolution Advanced Frigate: Very nice shields, very good weapons, but somewhat prone to premature explosions and capture. 6 Transwarps, NO generators, 4 Phonton Torpedo Lauchers, 2 Gatling Phasors, 2 Sandcastors, 18 Plasma Guns, 2 Meson Guns, 4 Micro Missle Lauchers -> 12 surplus.
    Liberty Light Battleship: Weapon mounts designed for Ionic Array, but less crew than the Frigate, and more likely to blow up. I wouldn't build this.
    Haven Advanced Battlestation: Replaces the previous stationary objects. How can it move at 90 without engines? Forget about killing the power generators. If the defender doesn't carry a good number of passengers, this can be boarded. 1 GF 7000, 1 Firestorm, 800 fighters, 4 Phonton Torpedo Lauchers, 1 Turbo Arrays, 1 Sandcaster, 8 Plasma Guns, 4 Micro Missile Lauchers -> 13 surplus
    Martryr Glory Ship, the glory device is triggered the first time it's hit after armor is gone. No weapons.
    Tech 8:
    Atonement Improved Battleship: Basically the weapons of the Haven Battlestation that moves without the fighters and ship building capibility. Subject to premature explosions and capture. 4 Transwarps, NO generators, 5 Photon Torpeods, 1 Turbo Arrays, 3 Sandcastors, 11 Plasma Guns, 1 Meson, 4 Micro Missile Lauchers -> 3 surplus
    Crusade Improved Carrier: This isn't really a carrier, but more like a cruiser with 3 fighter bays. Much better crew size and soft spot than most People's ships. Can build all 3 types of fighters. 216 fighters, 4 FTL- 2, 2 GF 7000, 2 Photon Torpedo Lauchers, 2 Firestorms, 10 Plasma Guns, 6 Micro Missile Launchers, 2 Interceptors -> 8 surplus
    Genesis Improved Terraformer: Nice terraformer, but no weapons. Why does it need generators? Also includes Bioscanner.
    Anthem Intelligence Probe: No weapons, just a Bioscanner and Long Range Mine Detector. shouldn't this be a tech 1 or 2 ship?
    Tech 9:
    Righteous Advanced Battleship: Replaces previous Battleship. Very good ship, slighty more prone to premature explosions. 9 FTL-5, 2 GF 7000, 7 Photon Torpedos, 4 Large Turbo Array, 3 Sand Castors, 20 Pulsed Laser, 4 Micro Missile Laucher, 2 Intercptors -> 8 surplus
    Independence Cruise Carrier: Not really a carrier; fighter bays too small. The entertainment (Gambling Deck, Holodeck, Pyramid Lounge, and Show Lounge) seems overdone. Build this first without anything, fill with passengers and use the revenue to build the weapons, enegines, and generators. Keep out of combat though, after shields are gone, a Ion Cannon will quickly hit the soft spot. In an emergency max out everything. Energy consumption not a problem, it will probably explode first.
    Automous Elite Batlesation: Replaces the Haven Advanced One. Yet another ship that moves without engines. 100 fighters, 3 GF 7000, 3 Phonton Torpedo Lauchers, 1 Turbo Arrays, 2 Sandcastors, 18 Plasma Guns, 2 Xeon Beams, 6 Micro Missle Lauchers, 4 Interceptors -> 12 surplus
    Exodus Advanced Terraformer: A Hostile one. Not really intended for combat, if the soft spot were smaller could be captured.
    Tech 10:
    Liberation Elite Freighter, simular to the super transport ship, but more space allocated to carge, less to ordance and repair, and slower.
    Inquisition Elite Battleship: Only 80 fighters; I guess that you don't escort it, but instead fire the Nemesios Torpedo when the last of the 80 fighters are blown up or if the shields are down. 80 fighters, 12 Transwarp, 5 GF 7000, 1 Nemesis Torpedo [enough for about 5-8 shots depending upon point defense and torpedo ammo usage), 10 Photon Torpedo Lauchers, 9 Large Turbo Arrays, 1 Turbo Array, 25 Pulsed Laser, 3 Xeon, 2 Meson, 10 Intercepts -> 4 surplus
    Off World Colony: A very true statement, Assumption vC-K, vC/2-K figures C is max speed of engine and not of the hull. Build this before you run low on minerals. Build your own escorts. 600 fighters, 30 Trylium Thrusters, 1 GF 7000, 1 Firestorm, 1 Anti-Matter Maul, 6 Photon Torpedo Lauchers, 2 Large Turbo Arrays, 2 SandCastors, 25 Pulsed laser, 3 Xeons, 2 Mesons, 5 Micro Missile Lauchers, 5 Interceptors -> 14 surplus
    Amnesty Recruitment Center, moves at 110 without engines??? Looks like a resupply base. 2 Firestorm, 40 fighters, 1 Sandcastor, 1 Mass Driver, 8 Plasma Guns, 2 Micro Missle Lauchers -> 13 surplus

    Anti-Peeps tactics

    Ships have an alarmingly high percentage chance of exploding at first glance, at second it's to compensate for all the extra weapons they have. The obvious anti-Peep strategy is to use sandcastors to bring the shields down, 1 Heavy laser to remove the armor, and a bunch of pulsed lasers, to hit the giant soft spots. - Jon Nunn

    His ship analysis, above, also implies that Peeps ships are easy to capture.

    Free money: Peeps tend to build lots of their gambling ships (the Propaganda) to generate free cash. So Spy on them, set to Steal Ship Plans. The probability of stealing these particular ship plans is high, because it will be his most common ship.

    Comments from playtesters (September 2000, after fairly thorough playtesting)

    From: "Samuel J. Hagadorn" <samhagadorn@janrix.com> To: <vgap4@vgaplanets.com> Subject: People's Army Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000

    I've been playing the People's Army in one "live" 10 player test game now for almost 50 turns.  They do not appear to be as unbalanced as some feared when they were released.  In fact, they are a lot of fun to play!  They do have a ship that will do just about everything except make fuel or fight.

    The things that seem to give them balance are this lack of fuel, the mile wide soft spots, and their low crew.  The lack of the Alaska (or a similar craft) severely limits movement of big ships and fleets.  This is a big strategic limitation.  It is easy to burn all your fuel early on and have nothing left for late game.  The Critical Hits on the People's ships hurt their combat worthiness.  Taking the Feds as an average race, the Peeps ships are anywhere from 100 to 500 percent more likely to just evaporate in combat.  Take another race like the 'borg and the difference is even greater.  The low crew make their ships extremely vulnerable to races like the Stormers stealing their ships. These two tactical problems make me very nervous any time I put my ships into a combat zone.  These three vulnerabilities taken together make the Stormers the focus of People's diplomacy.  The Stormers will either be a very valuable ally or a hellish enemy.  In the first place, the Stormers can provide Alaskas to overcome the crippling lack of fuel.  Secondly, as an ally you don't have to worry about all of your ships being highjacked.  You can provide the Stormers with the ships to jump start their economy.  Good strategic fit.

    The three grave vulnerabilities I've talked about, one strategic, and two tactical that serve to balance out the People's Army's otherwise overwhelmingly versatile ship list.  The People's Army's strength is a great economy and versatile ship list.  Overall, the People's Army seems pretty well balanced. 

    Currently the biggest drawback to their enjoyability is the learning curve.  They have so many ships with so many abilities / drawbacks, their complexity is overwhelming initially.  If I were going to do anything to them, it would be to get rid of some of the needless, redundant ships like the freighters to make them a little less overwhelming to learn to play.

        Once again, over all a fun race to play.  Thanks to Martin Pederson for giving them to us!   Sam Hagadorn

    Response From: "David Ouimet" <davidpo@oz.net> To: <vgap4@vgaplanets.com> Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 13:03:25 -0700

    I have been playing a few fast test games with the Peeps and found they perform to my expectations. You just have to ignore 90% of the ship list if you don't want your ships to be captured in every fight.

    I have more or less a standard series of first moves atm and it runs about like this:

    When it comes to a fight though you're fairly limited. Luckily with 20+ Luxury cruisers cranking out some 10,000 MC a turn its easy enough to max out your tech level by turn 20. With that in mind, my fleets look about like this:

    The only drawback I found was you had to play for a ship being captured in large fights. So unlike other races I would not engage in a fight I was not sure I would win. Having a high soft spot I actually found good, in the rare situation were I would be losing a fight my ships would tend to blow up before getting captured about 1 in 3 depending on the fight.

    Between the cheap cost of mine fields and the fact that I completely out teched all other races besides the Borg I found them way too easy to stomp everyone.       The fuel concerns are justified, but I did not find them to be major as acquiring a fuelling ship was normally not a problem and in most games I was able to mine more than enough fuel.

    Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 To: vgap4@vgaplanets.com From: Armin Trott <armin@nikita.org>

    Since the early beginning, the Peeps have been a very unpopular race. As a good host, I chose to play the must unrequested race: the Peeps. But a few weeks or months later, people started to post in the mailing list, that the Peeps were too strong and things changed a lot. Borgs are still the most wanted race, with Feds and Peeps sharing the 2nd position.

    Now I have played more than 40 turns as Peeps in a daily hosted game. What I do not like so much is the huge shiplist. If the creator (?) of that race says that you should ignore 90% of the shiplist, I wonder why he has made the shiplist so big. It's a hard job to compare all the spec's and to decide what ship to build.

    When it comes to game balance and experiences in early test games, I would say: don't value your experiences too highly. Most of us are bloody beginners. If you found it easy to crush another race, it is rather likely that your enemy has made some major mistakes, than that his race was too weak. And if it was the other way round, before you call that other race too strong, think about what you might have done wrong.

    [Dave Powell]: this [guide] looks fine to me. It is difficult to talk about the combat as basically I haven't seen any! I'm surprised peolpe haven't looked upon the Rebellion as a better freighter than anything else 110 speed, 6 pod bays, works for me! With some mobile self defence (fighters) thrown in.

    The huge soft spots and crappy crew levels are one of those things that are actively dissuading me from seeking out combat with anything but crappy ground bases or freighters. They are not a good Cowper race (though he'd build a lot more Propaganda's than I have - they are very efficient at raising cash. I just think it's too boring to do it that way, just a personal preference).