Robot Guide by Andreas Benne (last update: 07 / 12 / 2007) The Robots can build mega-bases without the danger of running out of resources. Other races always have to struggle with low minerals or low food or temperature limitations. The Robots don't. That's why they can get very dangerous. Here is the guide how to play them dangerously.

1) Introduction 2) Stats and Facts: 2a) Race features 2b) Ships 2c) Fighter 2d) Ground Units 2e) Structures 2f) Special ship devices 3) Tactics: 3a) How to build your economy 3b) How to attack your enemy 3c) Defending your space / How to use Nova Mines 3d) Robots and allies 3e) Enemy threats Thanks to Paul Honigmann for checking this guide because english is not my native language. Comments are welcome: vgaphost@saarlandoutpost.com

Some useful VGAP 4 links:

• www.planets4.com - the main page
• The official race stats
• PlanetsWiki - a Wikipedia-style planets page with a lot of info and stats.
• Klingon Command - Paul Honigmann's collection of resources.
• Ship Calculator - a useful tool for Planets from Andreas Benne
• Diplomat - the battle simulator from Paul Honigmann
• from the Wiki: The Robots
• from the Wiki: special building: Insectoid Nest
• from the Wiki: special building: Gun Zero

Before we start.... This guide is not for beginners. I will not explain common ship devices, common armament of ships or exotic techs in detail. All this is basic knowledge which you should know already, or at least you should know where to find the documentation. If you are looking for basic strategies, have a look at Klingon Command where you can find a lot of usefull stuff. I also won't list the Robot stats in detail. You can look at the official race stats or use Ship Calculator to display the data. ("raceview" will be enough for basic stuff) What host settings and maps do Robots prefer? Well, I am not sure. A popular opinion prefers small maps and rich planets. "Small maps" seems to be a good argument because the "Eye of Magadon" can easily cover large parts of the universe and "rich planets" are of course an argument for your growth. But on the other hand, on a small map the enemy can reach your homeworld early in the game. Perhaps faster than you expect if your "Eye of Magadon" forces the enemy to attack you.... The other argument, the rich planets, isn't an argument either. Well, YOU have the power to produce metals from thin air ! So where is the problem? The main problem on rare maps are rare Natives (rather than rare Tritanium) but I believe a Robot can play on every map and with every resource setting. "High food consumption" (host default) is a more important argument than every resource setting. It would be a great disadvantage if "high food consumption" is disabled by host because your attack strategy is based on destroying food.

I will not explain all the ship devices (only the Special Robot Devices). You can use Ship Calculator to check every ship for its device. A description is included. You can also look at the official race stats page. Don't forget to install the battle simulator Diplomat for weapon test.

General weapon tips: The midsize and heavy warships are the Instrumentality, Automa, Golem and the Vltava. They can all carry the large big weapons, up to 2000kt. If you are lucky and Amphibians are producing weapons for you, it is a good idea to mount one Ionic Gun Array and perhaps one TLA or LTLA on the ships. Use Gatlings if your have problems with the power output. If you do not have free weapons, you should consider to spend the money and mount one Ionic Gun Array on your biggest ships. The Instumentality can remain with "standard" configuration. "Standard" is something like "one or two Sandcaster" and "the rest Photon Torpedos or Pulsed Phaser Cannons". Maybe one Blaster Cannon is useful. That's general Large Weapon tactic for every race. The choice of Point Defense and Small Weapons is up to your personal beliefs. Nothing special here. Perhaps you should use the tech-10 Micro Missiles because you do not have a lot of Point Defense slots.

Large Deep Space Freighter + Alaska Class Refinery Ship + Merlin Class Alchemy Ship:

No need to explain anything. You know those ships, don't you ?

Small DSF:

You need this ship as scout because it is one of the fastest ships you have. In the beginning, use your fast engines to find tritanium and natives and to colonise the planets with 1000 Colos (10 mines). Later in the game, improve the sensor range twice (+100 and +200 exotic tech) to boost the range to 400ly and discover the universe. All other ships are too slow and too expensive for this job. Always use this ship as "double pack". That means one SDSF is towing another SDSF with slower engines or no engines at all. More important than the doubled cargo is the doubled beaming ability. Don't underestimate the ability to beam to (or from) two different planets during your move with 120 ly. Use command codes to beam again in the same turn at your target base where you end your turn.

Cat's Paw

The Cat's Paw is not a good warship. It is your minelayer and sweeper (sweeping by detonating novas). You should build it as cheap as possible. Devices: Barbitic Mine Dropper

Q Tanker:

The main function is his stealth and his fighter refuel ability. His sensor profile is only 5. It cannot be detected most of the time. The ship also reduces the sensor profile of Robot ships (and wings?) inside the 100-ly area. The ship refuels your wings up to 100 ly away. The wing is refueled if it travels "some distance" inside the 100-ly range. "Some distance" has to be at least 10 or 20 ly for my feeling. If you want to be on the safe side, the wing should start or stop its travel inside the 100-ly range.

Pawn Class:

Probably the first ship in the game that you need because of its food-to-supply-converter. Also a good transporter because of 4 pod bays. You can also use the cheaper LDSF with 2 pod bays, thats up to you. It may also be an early game warship but the tech-4 Cybernaut is usually better. Another use for the ship is the creation of a 4 Mil. base near enemy space. You need 3 Pawn's to carry 10 pods with 4 Mil. Colos. You could also use a Golem or Valtava (10 pod bays) but the Pawn's are more inconspicuous. A Golem or Valtava will definatly raise your enemys attention (where 3 Pawn's will not) and the purpose of the base is to stay undetected and steal away enemy Colonists as long as possible (see steal colonists). Devices: Soil Sterilizer / Bioscanner / Scalar Wave Damper / Food to Supply Converter

Cybernaut:

Good medium sized war ship which is faster than all the rest and not as expensive as your bigger ones. The Cybernaut is probably powerful enough to intercept and engage the attacking "sweet spot ships" (see Gun Zero). You should use the best parts and some exotics to boost its power. You can also use it to resupply your minelaying (recharging) Cat Paws in your minebelt.

Instrumentality:

Your main attack ship except in very large battles when you already have over 5 Instrumentalitys in the enemy territory. You need about 5 Instrumentalitys to destroy the enemy food fast enough. The ship has the best scanner in the fleet. That's another reason why this is your main warship. You may want to increase the scanner range with exotic tech because the standard 290 ly is not a very high value compared to other races (perhaps you did it already because of the SDSF, see above). This ship can also act as a limited resupply ship because the Eye of Madagon creates fuel and ord which can be useful to supply a Cat's Paw in enemy space. Don't forget to take a resupply pod with repair units with you because your built-in repair cargo only holds enough units to repair 68% of hull damage. Because your shield is not very powerful and your armor is your main protection you should also take an outfit pod with armor units with you (or even more repair units in the resupply pod). You can also use Cybernauts intead of Instrumentalities for the battles. They are faster but do not have the "Eye". The choice depends on the special case. Devices: Soil Sterilizer / Eye of Madagon

Automa:

Don't build it except if you need the special devices or you have Ghips who build engines for you. A Instrumentality or a Cybernaut is usualy more worth the money. The main reason is the 2 additional engines for the Automa. Don't forget to take a resupply pod with repair units with you because your built-in repair cargo only holds enough units to repair 43% of hull damage. Because your shield is not very powerful and your armor is your main protection you should also take an outfit pod with armor units with you (or even more repair units in the resupply pod). Devices: Native Dust Off / Boarding Laser

Golem:

Can carry 1200 fighters. That's more than the lower tech ships but 1200 fighters are way too few if your are facing a fighter race. Costs about 4 times an Instrumentality and has about 4 times the firepower. You are probably better building 4 Instrumentalitys. In large fleets, you should use it as flying command and resupply station because of its 10 pod bays. Don't forget that the Instrumentality and the Automa need their 2 pod bays for the resuply and the outfit pod. Having a ship in the fleet with 10 podbays is a good idea. Don't forget to take a resupply pod with repair units with you because your built-in repair cargo only holds enough units to repair 82% of hull damage. Because your armor is your main protection you should also take an outfit pod with armor units with you (or even more repair units in the resupply pod).

Vltava:

See Golem. Either use a Vltava or a Golem in your larger fleets and load additional repair units and armor untis in the pod bays. Perhaps some fuel dradles may also be usefull. Don't forget to take a resupply pod with repair units with you because your built-in repair cargo only holds enough units to repair 23% of hull damage. Because your armor is your main protection you should also take an outfit pod with armor units with you (or even more repair units in the resupply pod). Devices: Mobile Figher Factory 1+2+3 / Soil Sterilizer / Laser Mining Drill / Jumpgate Builder

All fighters are very bad against ships. Use ships against ships and fighters against fighters. Rutzie and Foxdire are shot down by Sand Casters even if you buy the sand shield exotic tech. 

R1 Rutzie: The cheap T1 fighter is your first choice to engage enemy fighters. Use it in large numbers and large wings. One very large wing seems to be better than several small wings. You should spend at least the same amount of money for the T1 fighters that your enemy is spending also. With this amount of T1 fighters you can defend against Crystal, Empire and Solorian wings but you will have no success in destroying CoM T3 Wings.
R2 Foxdire: Your only fighter with missiles. However it does not change anything. This fighter is of no use.
R27 Raider: The T3 Fighter is equipped with a sand shield which protects him against Sand Casters. You don't need to buy the exotic tech. It has a extreme large fuel tank (200). At speed 80, the large fueltank allows you to travel 3 turns at speed 80 without refueling. The normal auto-refuel-function will refuel 10% = 20 units every turn so that you have a max range of 240. (This is only true if you don't mix the wing with other figters who reduce the total amount of fuel in the tank). Although these stats sounds good, the fighter is not worth the money. The only reason to build it is the travel range of 240 ly, but because your "Q Tanker" has the ability to refuel fighters you better use T1 fighters with some "Q Tanker's"

some tactics:

You should use fighters against big enemy wings but your fighters need a long time for the fight. If you are facing a fighter race, use large amounts of cheap T1 "Rutzie" fighters and keep your ships away from the battle or they will be destroyed. Even if you set your ships to "2nd wave" they will be destoyed long before you kill the enemy wings. I usualy put 1000 T1 in one wing and let them fly alone at speed 80 togeter with a QTanker for refuling. 5,000 to 10,000 T1 fighter can do significant damage to enemy wings. Keep your ships away from the battle and of course be aware of laser mines with your free flying fighters.

Note: Fighter combat changed a bit in spring 2006. I did some quick checks with mixed fighters against a CoM T3 wing but did not notice any significant change. When facing 50 T3 CoM Fighter (5000 mc), counter them with at least 3 wings of 1000 T1 fighters (5500 mc each). You will loose about 50% of your fighters. Do not use ships.

[ Host 196 New: Fighters only fire at one of three enemy fighters types, instead of the old way where the fighters would fire at all three of the enemy fighters. This removed the DISADVATAGE of mixing fighters types in a wing. There is a 60% type-1, 25% type-2, and 15% type-3 will be fired at. If there are no type 1’s left type 2’s will be fired at. ]

The Fuel Dradle mines for fuel 10 kt ore each per turn (yields 5 kt)
The Robot Cannon. Take some with you if you plan a ground assault.
The Robot Tank. Too expensive most of the time.

Insectoid Nests can house 100,000 Insectoid natives. If the Insectoid Nests are turned on, the natives in these nests use Tritanium to build new Robots (1000 Colonists per kt of Tritanium). Each native produces 1 Robot. Natives in your base with an active Insectoid Nest will be converted into new Insectoid natives. Reptilians will be converted into 2 Insectoids. Humanoids, Bovinoids and Avians will be converted to 4 Insectoids each. Amphibian and Ghipsoldal can be converted to 1 Insectoid each, however this would be a bad idea because they produce large weapons and engines for you. Amorphous, Siliconoids and Chupanoids are all immune to this conversion process. Enemy prisoners can be converted into Insectoids at a rate of 5 prisoners yielding 1 new Insectoid. Robot and Crystal Prisoners are immune to conversion. Insectoid nests can mine up to 500 kt of fuel from the planet's core per turn. 2000 Insectoids can mine 1 kt of Neutronium and produce 20 MC and 40 Ord. This results in max 10,000 MC and 20,000 Ord per turn.

The Insectoid Nest can steal away 3% of the colonists (killing an additional 4.5%) of other races with bases within range (including allies) and make new Insectoids at a rate of 4 for every enemy colonist taken, generating 1 MC per 10 colonists stolen. Crystals, Robots and Solorian are not abducted. Cyborg colonists yield only 1/2 Insectoid. The range of the abducton starts very low (around 100ly) and will raise to 400ly max at turn 60. You will get a message in base log about the range. The concrete formula is [r = MIN( 100ly+Turn_Number*5ly , SQR(Colonists+Insectoids)/5 )]. You do not need a scan of the enemy base.

function: shoots on all ships over 100 kt in range 250 ly (one shot at every ship) You need a current scan of the ship for the GZ to fire cost: 30.000 mc needs 11 Colonists to work uses 100 ord per shot hull mass: damage: hit probability: 100-899kt 90-11% 13% 900-1499kt 11% 40% 1500-1700kt 11% 65% >1700kt 49% 65%

From 100 to 900 kt, the damage will go down from 90% to 11%. Over 900 kt, the damage rises again.
Ships with cloaking device can only be targeted if their sensor profile is higher than 400 points.
Looking at the table above, you can see that it is "best" for your enemy to attack you with ships that have a hull mass between 900 and 1500kt. This is sometimes called the "Sweet Spot Range". Your enemy will probably try to use his "Sweet Spot Ships" to get through your mines and your Cybernaut is a good choice to counter them (see shiplist above)

Note: Ship Calculator can calculate the damage from a GZ hit and also the amount of repair units required to repair 1% of damage.

These are only the most important devices. You can use Ship Calculator to check every ship for its device. A description is included.

It destroys 30% of food out to a range of 250 LY on bases and ships and kills amorphous worms on planets below the ship. Some of the food is converted to fuel and ord and transported back to the ship. You do not need to scan the base before. It also works on allies. You do not always get a message that the device is working, but in fact it is always working if a food store is in range.

Food To Supply Converter:

All the food on the ship is turned into supplies. One food unit is turned into one supply unit. The command codes BUF (beam up food) and BDS (beam down supplies) are useful.

The Robots have some problems in the beginnging of the game and are very powerful in the end. They may be called "slow starter" but they are in fact not slower than other "slow" races as long as you do not make any mistakes. Perhaps the Robots are not a race for beginners because you cannot afford mistakes in the beginning or you will never get strong in the end.

After 30 or 40 turns, the Robots can be a very powerful race. They do not rely on food and metals on the planets. They can produce all that they need out of thin air. They do not need food. That is a big advantage because it allows you to build more and more Robots and cities up to the limit of 500 cities. Those cities alone produce 50,000 MC each turn. The devices on the Merlin and Alaska provide you with metals and fuel. As much metals and fuel as you want to. Try to find Amphibians. You need the heavy weapons they build for you and they fit perfectly in your midsize and large ships. Bovinoids are useful because 10,000 of them double the factory output and you need a lot of supplies later in the game (see "the first goal"). Ghips are always good to have, that's a general rule for every race. Keep in mind that you must not throw those Natives on your Homeworld or other worlds with Insectoid Nests (or they will be converted to Insects). Buy Kerria Crystal Artifacts in the beginning when the price is low. You need them to train your High Guards. You need the same amount that other races need food to train their High Guard. The formula is [SQRT( Food * Sqrt( Delta Troops to Guard ) )]. Ship Calculator can calculate the amount of food for you. You may also want to buy Emotion Chips to prevent crime and to boost happiness but you probably have too little money in the early game, so you are forced to wait until later. You will be able to build the first 10 or 20 cities very fast. Max out the farms! You don't need the food but you can use the food-to-supplies converter on the Pawn to make additional supplies because you will have a lack of supplies in this state of the game (in other words: don't waste money with too many factories when you can have supplies for free). Build enough factories to produce the supplies that you need now but keep in mind that you have to go to 4000 factories later in the game. Colonise the surrounding planets. You need Tritanium for growth and food for the converter. Use free flying pods or the Small Deep Space Freighter with your starting FTL-5 Engines. Colonise with 1000 Colonists. That's enough for 10 mines and 1 farm. Don't forget money for the mines, farms and the Pod Launcher. You need at least 100 MC and 15 supplies per planet (you need additional money to send the metals home with pods.) Use the freighters to collect supplies and food from the surface and bring it home to your food-to-supplies-converter. After a couple of turns, use Pawn Class ships (or pods) to spread out your colonists with the goal to max out the farms on the surrounding planets. Especially in rare games it is vital that you develop hull-tech-10 (ship "Merlin") as fast as possible because the tritanium on your homeworld and the surrounding planets will not last very long (except if you are lucky and you find a 20,000 kt Tritanium-Planet beneath your homeworld). If you ran almost out of Tritanium you should shut down your "Insetctoid Nests" so that you have some tritanium left for your ships. (The ships do not need Tr but the engines and the parts do). This is the most dangerous phase for the Robots. You should not develop engines beyond "Impulse" drive and should keep the other techs to a minimum. Try to keep Large-Weapon-Tech on level 2 (Sandcaster) or 3 (Disrupter) for a long time. Don't go for Micro Sancaster as PD now, it's too expensive.

The one and only real problem: finding Insectoids

Robots must find (or convert) more Insectoids than those 300.000 or 500.000 you may find on your Homeworld. Period ! This requirement may be a problem in games with only few natives. In those rare games you have to steal colonists from enemy bases with your Insectoid Nests. You MUST put all your efforts in finding a planet beneath a big enemy base and build a Insectoid Nest. The required maximum distance to the enemy base is based on the turn number and your amount of colonists. See Insect Nests for details. As soon as you have the stealing running, you will earn tons of money and tons of Insectiods. Make sure you have enough ships with podbays ready to transport the goods away from the dangerous area. You only need to defend this stealing-colony for about 5 turns because you then have enough money and Insects to grow somwhere else.

cash cow: Insectoid Fuel-To-Money System

If the game is not a very rare one, you should use the Insect-Fuel-To-Money System very early. In rare games you probably don't have enough Insects because the "stealing colonists" from the enemy is more important and you need all the Insects for the "colonist stealing" that you can spare.

Insect Nests are able to produce 10,000 MC and 20,000 Ord per turn (see Insect Nests). You need planets with neutronium and 100,000 to 1 Mio. Insects. Neutronium will probably not be the problem but Insects will be. If you have more than 700,000 or 800,000 Insects at your homeworld and you don't need any for a "colonist stealing base", you should put some Insects on other neutronium-rich planets. Start with about 200,000 Insects and 2 Insect Nests. You will drill 200 kt neutronium ore from the planet and get 2,000 MC and 4,000 ORD each turn. You also get 200,000 Colos each turn if there is Tritanium on the planet. Build cities from the money to boost income. Bring more Insects if possible to reach 1 Mio. Insects to max out the MC production. Build a fighter plant and a air attack base and build 1000 T1 Fighters each turn for 5000 MC. Use a SDSF to bring the rest of the money to your shipyards each turn or use the Government Center to transfer it to the central bank. Don't build a Gun Zero.... it will attact the enemy and you don't want this base to be destroyed ! Build the GZ on a nearby planet instead.

The first goal:

Once you build the first Merlin and activate its Alchemy device, things get better and you are on the way to get really powerful. Each Merlin will produce 675 kt Tritanium out of 2700 supplies. That means your Insect Nests can build 675.000 new Robots each turn. Don't forget that you need 700 additional supplies to build the cities for the new Colos and that you also need some more supplies for other things (Ord, other worlds). So you need about 4000 factories and you need 8,000,000 Colos to keep the factories running. That will give you a growth of almost 7 new cities each turn. You will reach hull-tech-10 long before you reach 8 Mil Colonists, so you are unable to build 4000 factories on one planet alone (Well, you can build them but not all of them will work). You have to ship out Colonists to other worlds around your homebase. Colonise planets with 1 Mil Colos each and build 1000-1400 factories. This way you only need 2 or 3 additional planets to produce 4000 supplies. Be aware that you need money and supplies to build the factories on the other worlds. Start building those external factories long before you reach hull-tech-10. Without the capacity to produce 4000 supplies each turn, it makes no sense to build a Merlin (to put it another way: it makes no sense to spend all the money to reach tech 10 to build a Merlin without producing 4000 supplies each turn).

The second goal:

7 new cities a turn is good but you can improve it. You can try to double the production with a second Alchemy device. Whether you want to do that or not is up to you. Most of the time it is better to create a second base on a second planet with 8,000,000 Colos and 4,000 factories. Later in the game you probably want to have the second Alchemy device at your homeworld. You need about 7000 factories. To keep them running you need 24.5 Mil. Colonists. You will reach this number of Colonists on your homeworld sooner or later.

extend your universe:

Try to find new planets with a lot of Tritanium and Neutronium. You can use the "Insectoid Fuel-To-Money System" (see above)  to create a large base very fast. Just bring 1 Mio. Insects along with some money and supplies to the planet. Build 10 Insect Nests and 1000 factories and the base will grow very fast.

Be carefull with Jumpgates. This can be a double-edged sword. Never build them on top of a base. And never never never on top of your homeworld.

Never attack (or provoke) a enemy as long as you have not complete "the first goal" (see above) You can buy the Borlox Armor exotic tech before building a lot of heavy warships but if you only want to build some Instrumentalities or your first (and only) Automa, Golem or Valtava - you better buy the armor the standard way. Borlox Armor is too expensive and Borlox Armor does not help you after battles because it takes to long to repair the ships. You better take repair units with you to repair the ships because this works faster. (You should only buy this exotic tech if you really have enough money in the galactic bank) The exotic tech Shokazul Pulse may be an option for late game tactics if you can afford it. Robots should be played in a defensive way. That's because your ships are not fast enough to have success as a fast offensive strikeforce. You should better use your ability to destroy the enemy's money production with your Eye of Magadon on the Instrumentality. After three or four turns, the "Eye" has destroyed almost all food and your enemy has a problem. You can also use 4 "Eyes" to reach this result in one turn. Don't forget that you also have to be carefull with the device. It is a huge power to destroy food over a range of 250ly. An experienced player will react at once and try to destroy the Instrumentality. He will probably initiate a war against you and head to your homeworld. In the worst case he will make an alliance with some races with the goal of destroying you. So be careful. You should know what you are doing when you activate the device near enemy homeworlds.

Ship Attack:

The best way to attack is "not to attack". Just use some "Eyes" to destroy the enemy's food and wait that he is comes to destroy your Instrumentalities. Make sure your Nova Mines (and Gun Zeroes if possible) are in place to counter the attack. If the enemy is not coming after you, the player is probably not an advanced one. You should consider leaving him alone and proceed to the next enemy. Of course you should leave some "Eyes" in range of his worlds. After 10 to 20 turns, the Colonists will riot (lack of food), the population will go down and the cities cannot create money any more. Your enemy will probably shut down the cities to save food or his happiness will go down even faster. You may attack after 20 turns when his income is reduced to a minimum but the longer you wait the easier for you.

Steal Colonists:

Later in the game (turn >40) your Insectoid Nests reach the max range of 400 ly. You need 4 Mil. Colonists to reach 400 ly. Create a base in strategically good position and steal Colonists from enemy high population planets. You will steal 3% and the enemy will not get a message about it. Each enemy will be converted to 4 new Insectoids. If you have an enemy planet with 10 Mil. Colonists in range, you will steal away 300,000 Colos and convert these into 1,200,000 new Insects. You also get one MC for 10 stolen Colonists. That would be 30,000 MC in the example. Expect your enemy to detect you sooner or later because his growth will be reduced (additional 4,5% of his Colos are killed). He might wonder why he is not growing any more or why his population is going down.

This stealing function can be very lucrative. Imagine the most lucrative case when your enemy (or ally) has a base with 50,000,000 Colonists. You will steal 1,500,000 Colonists, convert them into 6,000,000 Insects and earn 150,000 MC - PER TURN !!! All this works up to a range of 400 ly. Don't forget that the Insects pay a lot of taxes. Try "Enslavement" and check the tax-income... Don't forget that the base with 50,000,000 Colos is not alone. There are probably some other high population bases around and your Insectiod Nest works on all of them !

Ground Attack:

I did not test it very much and cannot say a lot. Robots are neither good nor bad. They are more likely to be "bad". The Troop-to-HG rate is only "5" so you have to build a lot of Training Centers to train enough HG. Take some "Robot Cannons" for 80 mc each with you. This helps a lot. You will have a problem against a race which is specialised on ground attack. If you are attacked you should build Laser Cannons, but that's a general rule and not a robot special.

Your minefields should not overlap another nova minefield center to prevent a chain reaction. Use Ship Calculator to calculate the best size of your minefields for a given amount of ord or a given distance that you want to cover with mines. Your ships are almost safe from your own detonating nova fields so you can lay them whereever your want and you can detonate them without danger. Your ships will only get 1% hull damage and 2% system damage. Build a lot of Gun Zeros to defend your space. One GZ alone is normally not a big problem for an enemy but 3 or more GZ are definitely a problem. Don't build a Gun Zero on a planet where you have Insect Nests. Planets with Nests are important for your Economy and planets with a Gun Zero will attract your enemys because they have to kill your GZ's before they try to kill anything else. It would be a good idea to build undercities because you cannot build a baseshield. Your colos will move from the cities into the undercities, which protect them much better from obital bombardement. If you are attacked by ground assault, build Laser Cannons and Robot Cannons (T2 ground unit) because your people are not very tough. However you better don't let your enemy develop a base on your planet because you are not very good in ground combat.

Nova Mines against jumping ships:

Lay two rows of minefields. Uncloak the inner row and cloak the outer row. The fields of the uncloaked row must overlap a litte bit, so that ships cannot cross the minefield belt in one turn at speed 12 (safe speed from beeing hit). The cloaked outer row has to overlap the inner row far enough so that a knocked out hyper jumper is still sitting in the cloaked field of the first cloaked row.

Keep some Cat's Paws in this area of space to replace the detonated minefields. You can replace the minefield in the same turn you detonate the old minefield. Those Cat's should also be ordered to recharge the fields.

Nova Mines against standard ships:

You can use the same tactic against non-jumping-ships. The cloaked first row is hard to detect and the enemy will probably fly right to the border of the uncloaked row to use its minesweeper or to slow down to 12 ly/turn. Even if he sweeps the minefield of the second row you can still detonate the first row and replace both minefields in the same turn with two Cat's Paw in range. The Cat's Paw is very cheap. Build enough to reach every important minefield in one turn.

Damage from detonating Nova Mines:

Don't underestimate the damage of one or two detonated nova mines. You don't only get hull damage, you also get system damage (Ship Calculator can calculate the actual damage and shows all required values). And don't forget that you are often facing only midsize-ships because your Gun Zeros (3 or more) keep the heavy warships away. And the hyperjumping ships are also small and midsize-ships most of the time. 

Two Examples:

The "Inamorata Class Strike Ship" of "The Scavenger Tribes". The ship has cloaking device and cannot hit your mines during normal movement because of the "mine immune" race feature of the Scavengers....BUT you CAN catch them very easily IF the ship is sitting inside your minefield.

The "Meteor Class Blockade Runner" of "The Privateers". The ship takes double damage from barbitic and nova barbitic mines (ship design). The robbing devices on the ship have a range of 50 ly. It should be no problem for you to lay some cloaked mines around important bases. Once the runner is sitting inside your cloaked nova field - he is lost!

Important rules you have to know (because used in the Explanation):

• warp engines fail with system damage > 50%
• hyp drive fails with system damage > 90%
• detonating nova mines disables hyp drive for one turn.

Explanation: 

• The Inamorata will repair hull and system damage at once (the same turn the field is detonated) and will show 75% system and 37% hull damage. 
• Next turn the Inamorata cannot move (system damage >50%) and will repair to 35% system damage and 17% hull damage. Now is the last chance for you to lay another minefield because you have to detonate it next turn.
• Next turn: You have to detonate another field now or the ship will flee. If you do detonate another field, the ship will be knocked out for anther 2 turns and it will use up all its repairs as long as it keeps up repairing the hull (and not only system damage)

• The Runner will repair hull and system damage at once (the same turn the field is detonated) and will show 152% system and 76% hull damage.
• Next turn the Runner cannot move (system damage >50%) and will repair to 112% system damage and 56% hull damage. If you detonate anoter minefield NOW, the ship will be destroyed because of hull damage.
• Next turn the ship cannot move either. It will repair down to 36% hull damage and 72% system damage. 
• Next turn the ship still cannot move but will be able to jump because hyp drive is working below 90% system damage. You need a active nova field (which you perhaps want to detonate) to prevent the ship from leaving. This turn it repairs almost down to 16% hull and 32% system damage but all the repair units will be gone first.
• Next turn the ship will escape with warp engines if you do not detonate another minefield.

Result:

• One minefield is enough to stop an Inamorata if you are able to attack the ship the next turn with one of your own warships. If you manage to detonate a second minefield in one of the next two turns, the Inamorata will be knocked out for a long time - probably for ever.
• One minefield will knock out a Runner for 4 turns. Two fields will either destroy the Runner or leave the ship dead in space because of missing repair units. Keep in mind that detonating minefields do not damage the hyper drive, they only prevent the hyper engines from working this one turn when the field is detonated.

One last conclusion:

I have to admit that you need a lot of minefields and a lot of Cat's Paws to lay new fields once an enemy is hit by your detonating nova field. But the Cat's Paw is cheap and Ord should not be a problem for you. And also don't underestimate the result concerning swarms of ships. If you are facing a swarm of small or medium ships you can knock out the whole fleet with only a few resources compared to the enemy fleet.

You don't have a major weakness so you do not need an ally to get strong. You cannot build alien ships (but you can fly them) and other races cannot build your ships. Your evil devices will work on your ally even if you turn off "attack". Some other races have to rely on allies but Robots don't. However trading something to get Ghips or Amphibian Natives will give you a big advantage and having a ally with Laser Mines can be very important against attacking cloakers or fast fighters (Especially CoM T3 fighters are a big problem).

invasion fleet:

Trying to intercept an enemy fleet you will not have great success because your ships are so slow. You are better waiting until they get to you. You are the second best race (best is Crystal) to defend against an invasion. Just build enough Gun Zeroes, enough Nova Mines, and patrol through your mines to destroy the slow moving attackers. However you should be very carefull with cloaking ships. They cannot be targeted by the GZ and you cannot lay laser mines to detect them. So the Birds, Stormers and Lizards are probably your worst case.

I don't want to say that it is a good idea just to sit behind your mines and wait for the enemy to come, but you can make it really hard for your enemies to reach the core of your planet systems. I played as and against Robot (and Crystal) and it really takes a lot of time and resources to get through a good Robot mine defense while your food is beeing destroyed and the only thing that you DO NOT have is TIME.

enemy fighter:

They can pass through your mines without danger and that is a problem if the enemy wing has a very high range (CoM and Rebel). Luckily your T1 fighters are cheap and good against enemy fighters. You have to counter the enemy with a lot of T1 fighters. You probably need more fighters than your carriers can hold so you have to use free flying wings (adding a Q Tanker to the fleet would be a good idea). Although your fighters are cheap, you have no chance against a larger CoM T3 Wing. Your fighters need too long to hit the enemy and the battle will be over without killing the CoM wing. In this case you had better use Micro Missiles on ships although your chances are still very bad....

big enemy ships:

You don't have to fear about big warships. You have big warships yourself and you can carry all the deadly weapons that exist in the universe. Your fighters are not very good against attacking ships but you should always load your hangars with T1 Fighters as a fighter defense.

large enemy swarms of ships:

This can be a problem if you send only few big warships against a large swarm of small ships. This is a general rule. Counter swarms with swarms. In your case, use big ships along with a lot of small ships. Cybernauts and Q-Tankers (with 6 Holo Decoys) are the right ships for the job. Don't underestimate Swarms. Scavenger or UEA Swarms can be very dangerous. Counter them with Nova Mines, not with warships if possible.

being in prison:

Your Colonists do work in enemy labor mines but they do not work in enemy labor camps (enemy gets no money). In both cases they do cause riots on your worlds !  Being in prison can be a pain and a problem because your slow ships need a lot of time to free your colonists again. Use troops on your ships and bases to prevent beeing captured as good as possibe. It is very important to protect your colonists-stealing-bases because you have a lot of colonists on those planets which may be an interesting ground assault target for your enemy. If the enemy manages to capture 3 or 5 million of your colonists you definitely have a big problem. You can buy emotion chips to boost your happiness and to reduce crime but this cannot compensate the negative effect of millions of prisoners. This can destroy your economy completly (income = zero) in about 10 turns.

• 10 / 08 / 2006 - guide almost done
• 10 / 14 / 2006 - spelling fixed
• 07 / 12 / 2007 - some updates and some new hints for rich games