Underdogs

Just wondering, have you ever won against a superior race? How. Was the enemy a complete moron? Did you use superior tactics/piloting skills? I'm interested, because, well, I suck, and I play as Canatharans, and they suck pretty bad too. So, just wondering about some ways to beat superior races.

BTW, does anyone play any levels other than A rock and a rock?

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Pull me out of the air crash
Pull me out of the lake.

Even though I hate to use such a poor game as Starcraft as an analogy, I believe one of the greatest keys is speed. You must follow certain personal guidelines which you beleive work for you, and follow them QUICKLY! Be a multi-tasker: Command your fleet, build your ships, and aggravate the enemy by picking off lone cruisers with a gunship. All at the same time. That'll keep 'im busy. Unfortunately, all my network experience is just with freinds over ethernet at my house, so my experience isn't that diverse.

Cantharans are the epiphany of speed. Their agility is the mark of a fast commander. If you find that you're not that fast, stick with Audemon. I also think that you may want to switch back to the Cantharans when you're ready. Starting out with them could be challenging.

Last point before I bore you all to death: BEAT THE GAME SOLO! I don't know how many times I've said this, but the experienced gained from playing solo is unlike anything you could learn over the net. It's a perfect training program: It combines tactics, ship building, complex ship maneuvering, and all that good stuff into a series of lessons, each getting progressively harder and more demanding. I stay sharp when I can't play net by practicing levels I've already beaten.

This post has been edited by Aithon : 04 January 2007 - 06:18 PM

sounds cool and neat, but i can't find anyone to play ares with, so i can't use the tactics i've learned. PS: how do you beat chapter 20? do you have to kill all those cantharan carriers too? GAWD! the gate ship was tough enough!

Hand me a juri juice! Quick!

When you're working as an underdog, the first thing to do is avoid direct confrontation. If your enemy ever goes into hyperspace and heads straight for your planet, go into hyperspace and go straight for their planet. If they capture a bunker station, you capture a bunker station. If they attack your bunker station, attack their bunker station. Wait until they make a mistake and build up your own forces. Whenever you are kicked out of one important area - your planet, your bunker - attack one of theirs rather than going down with the ship.

If you want a better underdog, try using the UNS humans - they're surprisingly robust. Just be VERY careful trying to pull the above tricks, because human gunships have half the hyperspace speed as ships in other races. Quite frankly, however, you can easily destroy Cantharans using Humans - the UNS gunships really own, and the Order gunships really suck... and the gunships of any race are the home of the true firepower. The Ishimans are tougher but still possible to beat.

I usually play on Scratching Post, Rock, or CTF.

I have found a great underdog "tactic" (well, not really a tactic, but it works.) The asteroid belt in "A rock and a Rock" is extremely useful for masking what you're doing. Just jump in there as soon as you have a fleet, preferably towards a bunker station, or to near a green asteroid. I've found that the jumping past green asteroids that works in "The Mothership Connection" can fool some computer ships. The asteroid field can actually be useful.

Aithon, I will not fall into the newbie/poor player cliche of playing auds, they can win against basically anyone with very little skill. Their cruisers are exactly the same as those of the Elejee, so you can see that they're quite powerful. I've gone away from cantharans and moved towards humans, they're much better, their advantage rating is artificially low. It's really the gunships that make the race, I beat ishimans as humans once.

BTW, I find that single player is fun, but it teaches you some of the wrong things, like actually taking over bunker stations is useful against the computer, but against people it's just dumb, because the rescources from the ATR could have been a gunship. Additionally, the computer is a moron, and most players aren't.

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Pull me out of the air crash
Pull me out of the lake.

(This message has been edited by Newt (edited 01-12-2000).)

I beat Ish as humans once (maybe as Gatori, sucky memory :frown: ).
Anybody who uses the Axis ratio in auds agains any other species is almost garantied to win. Of course, a total newbie vs Vegeta as Sals might work better.

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We will trade and collect your skulls.

I was able to beat the Salrilians with the Gaitori once, and my opponent wasn't any ametuer, either. All that you have to do is use one or two ships against them initialy to learn their strengths, then use a large force to attack, and constantly keep building it up. Gaitori Gunships and HVD's are the only ships worth buiilding, however, but they do quite a bit of damage.

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Long Live Apple! Long Live the Mac!

(This message has been edited by Macintosh Man (edited 01-18-2000).)

Yeah, I beat Ishimans as humans once, humans have a very decieving advantage rating thingie. They're actually really powerful. Of course, the other guy DID actually build a carrier, so it wasn't that hard to beat him. Anyone know any other Cantharan tactics, they're my fave race, but they suck so much....

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In the next world war,
In a jack-knifed Juggernaut,
I am born again.

Har Har Darkk, very funny. 😉

I've beaten the Salrilians several times as Ishimans. Well most Salrilians think that only Gunships are good, so they only build them. The Sal Gunship is more of a Squadron vessel than the usual Hunter vessel that is expected of Gunships- so in other words Ish Carriers usually work best against this lame tactic. Those people that use Sal Carriers are quite a bit more formidable. However, you got your trusty Gunships and HVD (i.e. Hunter vessels, ships strong against capitol ships such as carriers) for them. Again, the proof is in the tactics.

Another one I've won is Humans versus Salrilians. Not only did I devastate my opponent, but I also foiled his plan to capture my planet. Stick with conservative Human tactics (i.e. only Gunships) and you'll have a good chance to stay alive.

I've also won as Cantharans against Ishimans, Humans against Ishimans, Sals against Auds, Gaitori against Ish (although that doesn't count), and Cans against Sals. The Audemedons are the only ones that are truly unbalanced and (nearly) impossible to fight, but everyone else can be defeated using simple tactics and counter-tactics.

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-Vegeta <axis.n3.net>

Well, you are like the Ares version of Hercules.
Actualy, many races have carriers that are their main strength, such as Ishimans and Cantharans.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

Humans are a powerful race, in some ways more powerful than the Cantharans. Unfortunately, the fact that human gunships are the only human ships really worth building really limits their diversity. If your opponent is Ishimans or Cantharans and builds only carriers, you're really screwed. I actually don't suck with humans any more, beat Ishimans with them twice today (though I lost twice with cantharans...)

Anyone know any more cantharan tactics?

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In the next world war,
In a jack-knifed Juggernaut,
I am born again.

Kabe, you know what happens when you drink too much of that stuff. Even if it gives Muftak a workout carrying you home, I doubt Wuher'll give you any more. Now how about a nice Merenzane Gold?

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Commander Cicion, commander of Audemedon 6th fleet

"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo

Ish vs Sals? I think I will take you up on that one, Veg.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

I won Human vs. Sals once; mostly due to my opponant's incompetence, and the effectiveness of human gunships.

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"They're everywhere!"- hapless victim #203948

Incompetance, as in: all cruisers?
Or getting their HVD or carrier killed going it alone on a bunker?
I haven't yet met a person with that much incompetance.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

Due mainly to the fact that humans have a deceptively low advantage number, i've set up a website/survey with the intent of creating a better advantage numbering system.
Have a look at it: (url="http://"http://horigath.tripod.com/ares")http://horigath.tripod.com/ares(/url)

-Horigath

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(This message has been edited by horigath (edited 01-30-2000).)