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Anfänger-Guide http://www.pbem-spiele.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=3918 |
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Autor: | sun-e [ 15.10.2014 21:23 ] |
Betreff des Beitrags: | Anfänger-Guide |
Ich habe einen netten, alten Guide für Anfänger gefunden, aber leider auf englisch. Code: DARKNESS OF SILVERFALL
a Guide for Players By : Peter Wheeldon Introduction One of the daunting tasks for a new player starting a Play By Mail (PBM) game is the process of learning AND absorbing the rules that you receive with your setup. All to often you find that in the first few turns you fail to recognise some of the more useful actions that can give you a good start and enable you to keep pace with the more experienced players. The purpose of this article is to provide new and old players some (what I consider) useful actions and hints that may improve your initial start in a game of Darkness of Silverfall (DOS). Also included for the beginning player is several turns of one game that I am playing. The Turn Sequence The first step in playing any PBM game is a clear understanding of the turn sequence. Each turn of DOS is divided into 7 phases. Each of these phases is described in the Players Manual and NOTE, that within each phase the order that they are written is the order of implementation. Irrespective of which way you write down your orders on your return sheet, they will always be implemented in a specific sequence. Phase 0 : Administration and error checking. Phase 1 : The order of some actions in this phase are important, mainly for Trading. A Cargo ship in a Transport that has just Warped to a Trading Planet can Release, Unload it's ore, Redock (possibly after purchasing fuel) and then the Transport can Warp back to a planet to get some more ore. Phase 2 - 4 : Movement and Combat is divided into 3 phases. FIRE comes first and is the only guaranteed way of inflicting damage before the opposing ship may move. All other movement commands (MOVE, ENGAGE, STRAFE, and PURSUE) will move a maximum of 1/3 their total movement range per phase, over a small distance this may mean the full distance in the first phase. Ships with MOVE orders are moved before any combat commands and can normally get out of fire range of enemies (unless they move into a new enemy ships fire range). For the remaining combat commands it is important to remember that the smaller faster ships implement their command first and that the check for an enemy ship within fire range is done at the start of the command. I.E. If two ships are on ENGAGE and are outside fire range then the smaller\faster ship will see no enemy ship and therefore move. However it's move may bring it into fire range of the second ship which will detect it and fire. Similarly, two ships on STRAFE command could have the same result except the second ship could then move back out of the first ships fire range. So it is quite possible for an attacking ship to be constantly hit without being able to return fire. Finally, Hyperdrive is implemented after FIRE in phase two so it is a useful command to try and save a ship (even though you will have no idea where the ship will go). Warpdrive is dangerous because the ship can be fired at by any ships on FIRE or ENGAGE command for phases 2 and 3, and then again in phase 4 at its new location. Phase 5 : Cloaking, Building of Ships and Planet Defences, and Alliances take place AFTER combat. The implications of this are firstly, new ships can not be damaged (though the Monitor or Battle Station building them may be destroyed in which case the ships are not built). A Cloaking ship is not hidden from enemy ships during combat and you can not break an alliance and attack in the same turn. Phase 6 : Special abilities that are gained from Points generally are implemented in this phase. There are a few exceptions that you will come across and in most cases there is no difference when the Ability is implemented. Phase 7 : Another administration phase. All commands have a validity check on them, and if it can not be implemented then it is cancelled. E.G. if a ship has a FIRE command and the enemy ship selected is initially outside fire range then the command is cancelled EVEN if the enemy ship then moves into fire range in the next phase. Economics As with all Empire style games, this one relies on economic growth to achieve victory. The economics are simple which means that it is easy for you to calculate your Income each turn. Credits can be obtained several ways : Planets - Each planet has a Population and Industry rating. These values are in the range 0 to 50,000. The value of Industry on a planet at the end of a turn is the amount of Credits that is added to your Empires total. Your Industry value is affected by several things. Firstly, the construction of Ships or Planetary Defences reduces your Industry. Generally there will only be a few planets where you will construct ships simply because of the initial cost of Monitors or Battle Stations. Those planets that are selected need to have a good industry base (>30,000) to be able to sustain building for several turns. Secondly, the Industry increases each turn by either 5% or 25% dependant on whether the Population is smaller or larger. If possible you need to "juggle" your Population, especially on your ship construction planets, so that you can occasionally get a larger Population than Industry and hence boost Industry by 25% (at the cost of course of loosing 25% of your population). This will require ships that can collect population from planets where Population is not really needed. Trading - All planets can have any or all of 5 ores on them. These will either be in a stockpiled form (available immediately) or in resource form (stockpiled by mining). If you have a Planet with a reasonable population and good resource values, build mines. You only need 2 or 3 planets with 2 mines on them at any time to be able to keep a good supply of saleable ore. Each of the 5 trading Planets will each pay a certain value of Credits for each type of ore. Each Trading Planets price will vary between turns dependant on how much was sold the turn before and how much is currently in stockpile. Select planets to trade at that have the best price and the least number of ships above it so that you maximise your return. Points - The amount of damage a ship does in combat is multiplied by either 250 (damaging other players ships) or 500 (damaging DLS ships). This value is then added to your Points total. At the end of each turn your total Points are added to your Credits. Apart from the points being useful to obtain special abilities, they are also a constant source of income. Combat - DLS will pay 500 credits for each point of damage you inflict on another player (as well as the 250 points). This is probably the least effective income collection mechanism. Trading income is added to the players budget during phase 1 and the combat credits are added during phases 2,3 and 4. Planets and Points income is not added until the end of the turn. Orders that require income (Build Ship, Purchase Interceptors, Scan Player, Start Mine, Build Planet Defences) will not work if you do not have enough credits. All building, apart from Build Mine which takes place in phase 1, are implemented in phase 5 so credits you obtain from Trading and Combat can be used in your calculations for the current turn. Tactics Part of the enjoyment of any game is figuring out the little bonuses that you can get for using the rules to their best advantage. Some techniques become obvious as you play the game, others you may find out from other players and some you will stumble upon by mistake. Not giving too much away, here are some things that may help you in your game. This list is nowhere complete (I like to keep a few of my tactics up my sleeve), and I'm sure some players may question their relative advantages, but they may be of some use. There are two ways to win the game. Both require the player to be the first to hold, at the end of a turn, 15% (around 150) of all planets. Secondly, either all of the DLS Battle Stations need to have been destroyed or the Player with the 150 planets also has a Total Score of 5,000,000. The obvious conclusion from this is that the number of planets that you control dictates whether you win the game or not. So grab as many as you can each turn (of course without loosing to many to DLS or other players in the process). Secondly after turn 14 EVERYONE is going to start to be pulled towards the Black Hole, unless DLS's battle stations have been destroyed. So try and find them and if you do it is worthwhile telling the other players by use of the comments section in your returns so as a concerted effort can be made to destroy them. Points you receive for damaging other ships are important, but try to avoid attacking other players (it can be detrimental to your health) until it is necessary. Besides, you only get half the points you do for damage against DLS ships. Most DLS ships act independently, so it is easy to take them on. One tactic is to purposely plan not to totally destroy them, only damage them. DLS's actions (as controlled by the computer) are to defend ANY ship that is being attacked, so by not destroying them, others will come to their aid. MORE POINTS. Be careful, you might bight off more than you can chew. The advantage of points is obvious. More points, more income and more special abilities, some of which are exceptionally useful like Automatic Refueling of ALL ships each turn, increased Attack and Defence, increased Fire Range, Cloaking or Short and Long Range Missiles. Others tend not to be as useful but generally you will use all of them at least once in a game. Fuel is one of the biggest restraints in the game. Until you get the Special Ability, conserve your fuel. Only move a ship if you need to. Those ships you do move, make sure you have enough fuel left to get them back. There is nothing more infuriating as to go to a planet, find it has no fuel on it and not have enough to get to a fuel source. Bang, one ship out of action, paying 5000 credits fleet cost plus its maintenance cost each turn. When you do move to a planet that does have fuel, fill your ship up even if its only a small amount. It may make a difference later. Your Battle Station and Monitors (later in the game) build your ships. But new ships are built with NO FUEL. So the planets they are on will need good reserves. A possible tactic is to send Transports and Cargos WITH NO FUEL to Trading Planets so that they can buy it and bring it back. Besides, you don't need fuel for Warping. One of the biggest arguments that players have is "which ship is better", and unfortunately there is no easy answer. Each of them have their specific uses and each player tends to find different uses that may not have originally been what they where intended for. I have my favorites and tend to stick with them. The main combat ships I buy are Small Cruisers (good attack and defence for the cost) or Super Battles (can dish it out and take a fair amount). One of the tactics I use in the middle to end of the game (mainly because of the cost of the ships) is to pick a central base that can protect a large number of planets, put some Cruisers, Battles and Repair Robots on it as reserves and then send out marauding fleets of 2-4 ships. If any of the marauders are damaged then I return them to my base (while sending out a replacement) and repair it. This way there is generally at least 1 ship able to continue the fight each turn. The combat points quickly rack up. Mobile fleets I make using Cruisers and Battles (for the same reason as above) and one or two Destroyers carrying Repair Robots. Suicidals are great one shot wonders and can be very useful when placed in Transports and Warped to specific points (like Battle Stations, where they can use the Fire command). But their main disadvantage is their Fire range, 15. Most other combat ships can blow them up without the suicidals being able to return fire. They become more useful when you receive the special ability that improves all your combat ships Fire Range. The ships that you can "customise" I tend to not use as they CAN NOT be repaired. But they still have advantages in some situations. Taking planets raises another problem with ships. Any ship can take a planet (as long as it is not cloaked), but experience has shown that there is no point in using your combat ships. One of the most useful commands is the Find Planet (FP) especially if there is no obvious planet within Comm Range. The FP command looks AT ALL planets within the ships movement/fuel range and then selects one of them to move to. The disadvantage however is that the ship will not fire at ANYTHING. This is a bit of a waste of a combat ship except if it will have nothing to fire at. Use your combat ships to take planets you KNOW of and use non combat ships on FP. Probes can be exceptionally useful because they are not limited in their movement range, they can Warp anywhere (and it doesn't use any fuel). After the first couple of turns build some probes to take planets that are to far away for your normal ships. They can Warp 5 times before they need to be repaired (assuming they do not get hit) so they should be able to take 4 planets and then come back to a Repair Robot. AN EXAMPLE START Setup After submitting my Player Details, several weeks later I receive a Setup. It contains the following information. Standings - Game hasn't started so they are no use. Trading Planets - Prices of Ores and Fuel are displayed. Planet Review - Owned Planets, Population and Industry. Fleet Review - None Listed Ship Review - Fleet 1 Super Battle, Light Cruiser, Corsair, Small Fighter, Small Tanker (not very useful) Small Transport, 2 Small Cargos and a Battle Station. Origin Planet and report of three other planets within communications range. First Turn I've got 9 available ships to use and can see 3 planets within range. First thoughts : 1. I want to take as many planets in the first turn as possible. 2. Try and start some trading going, it's good income. 3. I want to see more so I'll build a ship with good Communications. 4. I build ships at my home planet so I'll need fuel for them. 5. REMEMBER to uncloak any ships I want to take Planets with. Generally most player's Origin planets are about 150-200 units from the closest Trading Planet. For most ships this will take at least 6 moves for a return trip (and lots of fuel). If you use Warping it only takes 2 turns. To get Trading income every turn therefore will require 2 fleets (a Transport and several Cargo Ships). However at the start of the game there are more useful ships that you need. Combat ships are always useful and you will need something to repair them. So my construction is : 3 Small Cruisers (good combat/cost ratio) Communications Box (good comm radius) Repair Robot (just in case) Because I've built 5 ships, the industry on my Home Planet will drop by 6700 (3 Small Cruisers at 1500 each, Comm Box at 1100, and Repair Robot at 1100). This will mean that my population will die off at 25% at the end of the turn. This in itself is not a bad thing because if the population is bigger than the industry at the end of the turn then the industry will go up by 25% instead of 5% but lets try and minimise the damage, so I'll load 6699 population into my Battle Station this turn and put them back on the planet next turn. The net effect of this is that the 6699 population will not be subject to the 25% loss so I will save approximately 1670 from dying. My 2 Cargos will Load Ore, Dock into the Transport and then the Transport will Warp to a Trading Planet, but since I will only be warping, none of the ships need fuel, so I'll unload it all to my planet (that's an extra 850 available, plus I can also buy some at the trading planet and bring it back). I definitely want to take the 3 planets, so to maximise the chance I'll use Strafe commands for my 3 combat ships (Light Cruiser, Fighter, Corsair) The Super Battle I want to keep in case any DLS ships are in the area. I'll put Find Planet (FP) commands on the Scout and Small Tanker (hoping they wont go to the planets that I've already targeted and that there are no DLS ships about). This has an added advantage. With the FP command it will randomly select any planet in Movement Range. The Scout and Tanker have BIG movement ranges so there is more chance they will not go to one of the planets I've already targeted. I'll build two mines on my home planet since I'll be trading and I'll need resources. My Battle Station will use an Engage command just in case anything comes within range and the Scout and Small Tanker Both need to be UNCLOAKED. That's about it for the first turn, apart from the Scan Ship (SS) and Scan Planet (SP) commands. Since they don't cost anything I may as well use them. They can be very useful because you may happen to find the location of a Battle Station or a Origin Planet (DLS or Player). So I'll just pick random numbers for both. The Messages Section can also be a lot of fun, you can say anything you like (well almost!) but be careful not to give to much information to other players, like you Home Planets location or your Player Number (they may try and scan you). Always remember "Anything you say will be taken down AND definitely will be used against you, eventually". Turn Two Standings - Simply shows me my value compared to the Best and Worst. Trading Planets - Shows the number of ships currently there. Planet Review - I own four planets. Fleet Review - Five Fleets with their Total Attack and Defence Factors. Ship Review - Detailing each of my 5 fleets and their vicinity. In the standings I'm not doing that well. My current Credits is about 1/3 the best, only 4 planets compared to a best of 8, I do have the same number of ships (15), and only 500 points (one of my ships Strafed a DLS Tanker) compared to 8000. From past experience however these figures are not really important at the start of the game. Unfortunately events did not occur as I had anticipated. Both the Scout and Tanker went to the same planet (which is highly unlikely ?), and one of the 3 planets I went for was also occupied by a DLS Small Tanker, so neither of us got it. My communications box has also revealed another 10 planets within a radius of 65 units, the problem being that there are also many DLS ships, 2 Dreadnoughts, a Battle Cruiser, 2 Super Destroyers and sundry other small ships. This presents a problem because any ships that I want to move this turn will have to be careful not to come within fire range of the DLS ships (especially the BIG ones). My tactics now will have to change. I can't afford to simply send single ships to planets because they will be blown to pieces. The 3 Small Cruisers I will send out to a planet (after loading fuel) while moving the Light Cruiser to another. The Super Battle will join up with the Fighter and Corsair at the planet DLS and I share (the Fighter already being there). The Scout and Small Tanker will both move to individual planets (hoping that they don't come within range of anything)! All my ships (including the Battle Station but excluding the Scout and Tanker) will have Engage Commands. The five ships I'll buy this time are a second Trading Fleet to help boost my income. 1 Small Tanker (can hold up to size 5) 4 Small Cargo (the 5th I'll buy later) I'll reload the Population back onto my Home Planet, my Cargos at the Trading Planet will Release, Unload Ore, Load Fuel, Dock and then the Transport will Warp back Home. Turn 3 Standings - Simply shows me my value compared to the Best and Worst. Trading Planets - Shows the number of ships currently there. Planet Review - I own five planets. Fleet Review - Five Fleets with their Total Attack and Defence Factors. Ship Review - Detailing each of my 5 fleets and their vicinity. Again not very promising. My Scout and Small Tanker were both destroyed. I put down the wrong planet number for my 3 Small Cruisers so they have wandered off in the wrong direction and another player has ships within my vicinity. My new Tactic will be PANIC. Conclusion The main reason that I got drawn into the game is highlighted by the introductory Story in the players manual. Unlike most games this one is not totally oriented towards all players vining against each other from the outset. There is significant merit in all players concentrating on DLS, and trying not to impose on each other. DLS has a huge advantage at the start in the number of ships at his command and HE HAS TO BE DEALT WITH. Space is Big, VERY BIG. There is plenty to do without stepping on anyones toes until the very endgame, and there is a good satisfaction in making use of the main advantage of PBM games in interaction with a number of players that you've never met. In conclusion, I rate this game very highly. It can provide the novice player great enjoyment by giving them sufficient time to absorb the rules before it starts to become complicated. It provides enough complexity to keep even the more experienced players on their toes. And it also caters to the more Militarily oriented Wargamer by being a tactical challenge. But don't take my word for it, TRY IT! |
Autor: | Cadan [ 30.03.2016 21:11 ] |
Betreff des Beitrags: | Re: Anfänger-Guide |
Cool, den werde ich nach den vielen, vielen Jahren Spielpause wohl brauchen. Ich freue mich auf die DoS- Partie! |
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