BOTF Guide - by Callidice

BOTF Strategy Guide

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Amazing
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BOTF Guide - by Callidice

Post by Amazing »

Birth of the federation. A strategy guide.



“The elements of the art of war are first, the measurement of space; second, the
estimation of quantities; third, calculations; fourth, comparisons; and fifth,
chances of victory.â€
Last edited by Amazing on Sat May 24, 2008 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BOTF Guide (Page 2 of 2)- by Callidice

Post by Amazing »

System 1. Mertens.

I made first contact with the Ferengi in this sector and immediately went crazy,
the first thing I sent to Mertens which is 5 sectors distant from Sol was a
heavy destroyer and hot on its heels 2 colony ships and a pair of troop
transports.

Why?

Because Mertens is a dream dream dream of a system. Its huge, with a maximum
population potential of 435, the growth rate is massive, with a 4½ % growth
rate, and it contains dream planets (Find all this at the bottom of the screen,
move the cursor over the planets for details). Two large terran planets (No need
for terraforming there), an oceanic planet (allows a special structure), a
barren plant (Allows a special structure) and an arctic planet ( Yup, allows a
special structure). … and its got Dilithium!! The heavy destroyer is there to
zap any opportunistic Ferengi colony or scout ships (And I know they’re on their
way), The transports to build a starbase. Mertens could be the America to Sol’s
Europe, an industrial powerhouse, a military and economic colossus!

Wow! What are these special structures?

An aquaculture center for my Oceanic planet gives me loads of food allowing me
to free population units to work elsewhere.
Wind turbines for my barren planet gives me 50 units of energy.
Charge collectors for my Arctic planet give me another 100 units of energy
Yippee yippee yippe ayayyyay!!!

Ok ok ok, what next?

When my colony ships and transports arrive the first thing I do is use one to
colonise, that way the system’s mine, the Ferengi can’t scoop it out from under
my nose, the remaining colony ship I set to terraforming at leisure the planets
that need it. There’s no real rush now, the territory is mine, and short of
declaring war there’s nothing the big-eared brigade can do about it. The troops
are ordered to build an outpost and back home in Solarean (One of my initial
colonies) another troop ship, freshly built, is already en route to Mertens, its
mission is to join the troops in construction of a starbase when the outpost’s
finished. If nothing drastic happens in the meantime then the system will be
heavily protected in short order.

I take a turn. Whoopee ‘This system is now Federation territory’ Great stuff,
the people are happy, now I’m going to send the Ferengi a non-aggression
proposal which they’ll probably sign, this will keep them away from Mertens and
make my people even happier, a double whammy!

Cool.

Yup, the outpost is nearly finished, time to go into the Mertens system and
start building goodies.

I double click on the system and go into the build list screen, the row of
buttons on the left hand side gives me access to all areas of Mertens
production, all available structures, the energy structure portfolio, the full
monty. The first thing I add to the build list on the right is an aquaculture
center (Which I buy), this is going to cost me 300 credits and gives Mertenfolk
an extra 50 units of food. This population is going to balloon rapidly as the
game progresses. I have about 30,000 credits, The aquaculture center is a one
off purchase and it doesn’t use any energy, money well spent. Then I add my
energy producing structures to the list, the wind turbines and charge
collectors. In the following two turns I will buy both of these facilities, it’s
going to cost me 200 for the turbines and 500 for the collectors but give me 150
units of permanent energy to play around with.

A turn, I buy the turbines, there is a message from the Ferengi. ‘You are
expanding close to our borders blah blah blah’ I ignore it. Outpost completed. I
order the troops to start construction of a starbase, when this is finished any
interlopers are going to need heavy guns indeed to start messing with my
Mertonians, until then they are vulnerable and the Heavy destroyer remains.

A turn, I buy the charge collectors. The Ferengi sign my non-aggression treaty.
Suckers. The people are happy as pigs in shit.

Right, I now have Mertens with 150 available energy and a host of energy powered
structures that I can build/buy (Building is impractical at this stage,
everything has to be bought)

Here’s the shopping list.
A Trade center. Cost 500. Energy requirement 20. Benefit +50% credits.
Federation replicator. Cost 500. Energy 10. Benefit +50 food.
Subatomic stimulators. Cost 600. Energy requirement 80. Benefit +150 research
Starfleet shipyard. Cost 500. Energy 25. Benefit builds ships (irrelevant at the
moment here) extends ships range (Very relevant, but the starbase will perform
the same function)
Planetary shields. Cost 500. Energy 50 Benefit planetary defence.
Private farms. Cost 1500. Energy 80. Benefit +20 food +1 Morale.
Orbital battery. Cost 500. Energy 50. Benefit Planetary defence.
Dilithium refinery. Cost 500. Energy 30. Benefit (See below)
Bunker network. Cost 300. Energy 10. Benefit Planetary defence.
Genesis research lab. Cost 2500. Energy 100. Benefit +100 biotech research +1
Morale.

(A Brief note on Dilithium.
The more Dilithium rich systems you can get the better. The game allows you to
build ships only according to the amount of dilithium resources you have. For
example, if I have four dilithium refineries in operation throughout my empire
yet am engaged in construction of shipping in eight separate colony shipyards
then I will only be allowed to built ships in four of those shipyards at any one
time, the other four will be kept on hold until the first four are built. If I
have three shipyards (like at the start) and only one dilithium plant then it
won’t matter that all three ships are due to be built in a turn, they will have
to wait in the ‘available dilithium’ queue. Hence, more dilithium, swifter ship
construction.)

Ok, here goes.
My instinctive purchases for this system (Which add up to 150 energy
requirement) after every turn are as follows and I’ll try and explain why.
Dilithium refinery
Federation replicator
Trade center
Subatomic stimulators
Bunker network

Dilithium Refinery. I’m at the start of the game remember? I have three systems
and only one (my home system Sol) has dilithium, this isn’t always the case but
I’m trying to build ships in all three systems and I need to speed up
production.
Federation Replicator. This (along with the aquaculture center) will give my
fledgling Goliath a huge food resource right from the start, I can then take all
population units out of the farms and put them to work in the factories speeding
up production within the system.
Trade Center. I’m spending a lot of cash on this colony. The trade center will
repay me as a long term investment as the colony grows.
Subatomic stimulators. It’s going to be a while before any meaningful research
can be produced. My initial three starsystems will need to be engaged with
internal security, otherwise I can kiss goodbye to all the structures built here
as the Obsidian order blows them up. The stimulators can keep the research
ticking along until my intelligence is strong enough to allow a few population
units into laboratories.

Bunker network. I’m getting a reasonable income now and have only 10 energy
units left to play with. Why leave them idle? There’s nothing else I can buy.

These structures have taken me several turns to buy (You can only buy one item
per system per turn) The structures are all powered (Find them in energy, on the
left side of the system window) The Starbase is finished, my destroyer has other
business, and the population of Mertens has started to grow (4.5% every turn) I
now turn my attention to the systems basic industrial structures. These are
found under ‘production’ on the left hand side of the window. My starting point
is 3 class 1 farms and a single class 1 industrial structure.

In very little time in this colony, the food production bar has started to fill
as the population grows. I can now see that there is a huge glut of food for the
available population (A bit like the US) No problem, I’m going to take one unit
out into the labour pool and then reassign it to my one industrial structure
below (this will increase the general build rate), then I’m going to fill the
queue with basic structure construction. As the populace swells, the idle are
added by default to food production, if there are insufficient structures for
them to operate then they lounge in the unemployed bar at the bottom of the
window, my job, as an efficient governor is to make sure that nobody in this
system ever starves or is ever idle.

I now have to put my forecast hat on and make an executive decision (based on
final colony size) about how many industrial structures/food structures etc I’ll
need for the future.
With such a massive colony this is going to be a lot. In the later stages of the
game I’m going to be expecting a turbo-charged Sol beating performance from
these people so I need to keep an eye on them.

I start with industry structures (Never upgrading initially, I prefer to build
the basic model then upgrade when I have all I want/need) As a very very loose
rule I build approx: 20 for a large system 15 for a medium and 10 for a small.
Farms are next with approx: 8 for large, 6 for medium and 4 for small. For
energy it would be 12 for large, 8 for medium and 6 for small. With intelligence
and research structures I would mirror energy. So, what do I do with Mertens?

I’m going to start with 15 industry structures in the queue (Not the full
compliment I want but I know that the population will exceed the food supply
before all these structures are completed) I will purchase the first and
possibly the second industrial structure as I know the food supply for the
population will be ample for several turns and I can re-deploy food producers to
industry. I will then add 8 farms and the intell and research structures in the
numbers above. All of these structures will be class 1. As the population grows
and the structures are built they will start to fill them and progression is
smooth. It takes a large amount of skill and experience to predict at a glance
if the population will outstrip the food supply before they start building the
farms, you will get a feel for this. I will need to monitor this system closely
as things progress. Assuming the population are on the breadline as the last of
the industry structures is built and farms go into production I know I’ve done
my job well, when every basic structure I want is built then I can start with my
upgrades, buying them if I’m wealthy and watching as the good people of Mertens
progress confidently through construction of class 2 to class 8 and 9
structures, I can build orbital batteries, shipyards and everything else that
these hardworking colonists deserve. I can defend them well, treat them well and
they’ll help me to conquer the galaxy.

At the endgame.
Many many turns later. My Mertonians have a huge population almost exclusively
working in class 9 intelligence. They’ve contributed to so much bombing,
stealing poisoning and general mayhem within the Ferengi alliance that words
just fail me. The system is hideously well armed with more than twenty orbital
batteries (With a potential power source of course) before using their
remarkable talents in intelligence they manned the laboratories and my Defiants
(many built here) arrogantly patrol the galaxy as a testament to their
endeavour. Wasn’t it worth it at the start?


System 2. Catulan.

Colony 2 is Catulan, right next door to Sol it has a population potential of
just over 100 A crap growth rate 0.5%, no planets allowing special structures
(All are volcanic) nothing zilch.

What do I do with Catulan?

I terraform it and colonise when I’ve got nothing better to do. I then go into
the system and fill the build list with basic structures and then forget about
it, unless the people starve they can just keep building while I ponce around
the galaxy taking care of more important matters. When the queue is empty I
upgrade. End of story.

Lastly.
You will get a feel for colonies. Remember, all empires have access to different
structures. The Roms and Cardassians can build Phoenix facilities which enhance
intelligence (as if they need it) You will have to decide what is important for
your strategic objectives. As the Federation I know that I can easily dominate
the game with Defiant class ships so research is paramount. The only way to get
a real feel for this is to play and make mistakes. The more colonies the better,
the domination game is, after all, based on how much you control so no system
within your grasp should be ignored. Priorities may be different depending on
the location of the newly acquired colony. A colony far away from Sol on the
fringes of enemy space may be far more useful (If outposts/starbases are
impractical) with energy used for a shipyard extending your range and with such
an isolated colony I may forego the replicators and stimulators to build
batteries and shields. Money permitting I would build all and power whatever was
needed at the time.

And that’s system management.




Random events

I used to always play with random events set to ‘on’, partly because I wanted
the game to be as hard as I could get it and partly because I loved dealing with
a Borg invasion. I changed my mind as I ‘ll explain in a while. Firstly what
happens when this device is enabled? Accident, accidents and more accidents +
weird entities from outside the galaxy wandering around damaging systems and
destroying starships.

What kind of accidents?

Various, they include colonies getting plague and dying in their millions,
earthquakes that destroy structures and kill millions, energy meltdowns that
destroy powerplants, comets hitting planets and killing millions. Red Giants
going nova and obliterating an entire system, Renegade members of your own
intelligence trying to assassinate allies, sub-space anomalies that disable all
warp drives for several turns, planets undergoing climate change (sometimes
quite handy), strange viral infections that eat into ship’s hulls, I’m sure
there are more I’ve only ever had the viral thing once. Most of these accidents
are a pain but they do liven the game up a bit.

And the weird entities?

The Calamarain. A Gaseous lifeform that floats around, quite tough and needs
several powerful ships to destroy it. The Chodak Dreadnought, a bloody great
ship whose purpose is far from clear. Combat drones, deadly for most ships but
can be taken by a single Defiant. A Husnock Raider, another ship from an extinct
race wandering around looking for ships to fire on. Gomtuu, that sentient
suicidal ship, ignore it and it will ignore you. Tarrellian ship, kill it
quickly, it wipes out systems. And of course, the Borg Cubes which you need to
send a major task force after unless you want to lose your empire colony after
colony after colony.

Sounds like fun.

It is but sometimes it can wreck the game, and not for you.

How?

After the first few encounters when I was new to the game I never worried much
about Borg invasions, indeed welcomed them once I knew how many ships I needed
to take them out (a lot) There’s just one small problem, the AI in the game
isn’t too smart. There I am in the middle of a fantastic game, all the empires
well balanced and a lot of intrigue going on when wallop!! The Borg invade
Cardassia at the other end of the galaxy, well out of range. The computer
couldn’t fight them off because it’s stupid so the entire game was ruined as the
Borg wiped out the Cardassians and then moved on to the Ferengi leaving a string
of barren systems in their wake. They wiped out my opponents and effectively
spoiled the game. If the programme was such that they only invaded me then I’d
have random events on all the time. Answer your question?

Mmm I dunno, I still want to meet them.

I thought you might.

The endgame.

“nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuvering for advantageous
positions.â€
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BOTF Guide (Page 3 of 3)- by Callidice

Post by Amazing »

Minor race ship salvage.

Back to the original point. When you have allowed a space-faring minor to
develop fully before membership you could acquire valuable ships for the
scrapyard. The Acamarians can build up to nine or more raiders. It’s a credit
bonanza when you obtain these and scrap them.


Minor race list.

Acamarians. *
A Race formerly divided into feuding clans.
Acamarian Clan Hall: +100% Credits, +1 morale.

Andorians.
Once warlike insectoid race with peaceful intentions.
Andorian War College: +25 Ship Experience

Angosians.
A race who improved their troops through genetic conditioning.
Super-Soldier Academy: +50% Ground Combat (Only in Angosian system)

Antedeans.
A miserable bunch of Xenophobes.
Havesting Complex: +100% food.



Anticans.
Furry morons who hate the Selay.
Mustering Base: +50% Ground Defense.

Bajorans. * $
A spiritual race of great courage and loyalty.
Bajoran Jolanda Forum: +1 morale empire wide.

Bandi.
A primitive race skilled in architecture.
Architectural Center: +100% Construction Research

Benzites.
Advanced race, whose barren environment encourages industry.
Industrial Center: +50% Industry

Betazoids. $
Telepathic pacifists.
Counselling Academy: +50% Internal security.

Bolians. $
Masters of cosmetic alteration.
Cosmetology Center: +50% Espionage Total

Bynars.
Computer dependent race who communicate in Binary code.
Planetary Computer: +100% Computer Research

Caldonians. $
Tall humanoids with a love of research.
Research Think Tank: +25% Research empire wide

Chalnoth.
Miserable feuding warrior race.
Gladiatorial Arena: +100% Weapons Research

Edo. $
Primitive sybarites with draconian penalties for any crime.
Palace of Edo: +1 morale empire wide

Ktarians. * $
Cunning makers of addictive computer games.
Ktarian Game Studio: +50% sabotage.

Malcorians.
Cautious pre-warp scientific race.
Kinetics Laboratory: +100% Propulsion Research.



Mintakans.
Proto-Vulcans with a talent for agriculture.
Mintakan Farm: +100% Food

Mizarians.
Pacifists with a superiority complex.
Monument of Surrender: +5 morale

Nausicaans.
Proud warriors.
Recruitment Center, +40% Ground Combat

Pakleds. *
Thick as pigshit race who collect discarded technology.
Collection Facility: +100 Research (localised)

Selay
Antican hating nutcases.
Mustering Base: +50% Ground Defense.

Shelliac. *
Arrogant, unfriendly, vaguely humanoid species.
Bioengineering center : +100% biotech research.

Takarans.
Slightly sneaky researchers.
Physics Institute: +100% Energy Research

Talarians. *
Warlike but honourable race.
Defense Network: +100% Ground Defense

Tamarians. *
A race that communicates using metaphors.
Mythological Library: +300 Research.

Trill. * $
Symbiotic race with accumulated wisdom.
Research Committee: +30% Research Empire Wide

Ullians. $
Telepathic race.
Psychohistorical Archive: +25% total intelligence

Vulcans. * $
Highly logical race with top reasearch abilities.
Vulcan Science Academy: +35% Research empire wide



Yridians. * $
Related to the Ferengi, untrustworthy peddlars of information.
Intelligence Service: +40% Espionage Total

Zakdorn.
Arrogant Tactical Geniuses
Military Academy: +100 Ship Experience


Key.
* = Space faring race with guaranteed dilithium and a shipyard.
$ = Race with an empire wide resource.

All scientific races, except the Pakleds and Tamarians, give a percentage to
general research. The remaining races only build localised structures.




AI empires. Planetary assaults and exploitation


If you are lucky enough to be right next to an AI empire at the start then get
in there and take it all as soon as you possibly can. There is one basic tip for
this.

Which is?

Large command vessels.

Is that it?

Yup. Let’s use an initial major system of the Ferengi alliance as an example. A
typical one would be Deriben with a population of 350, 7 orbital batteries and a
ground combat rating of 504. What would be the best and cheapest way of taking
this system? You can use major command ships to absorb most of the orbital
battery punishment without destroying the ships. With 7 powered batteries I
would assign about 8 ships and a minimum of 6 transports. This can be the best
way of gaining a major system in its entirety without significant ship loss.
There is another little trick which involves the use of scouts as the major
assault ships. Scouts are usually destroyed but seldom damage structures or kill
population, they also have one major advantage when used in the assault

Which is?

Systems acquired in this way often have an operational dilithium refinery
regardless of their dilithium status. It only seems to work with scouts. In
theory, an entire enemy AI empire if taken with scouts and troops could have
every system as a dilithium producer. A bug in the game no doubt. But while such
bugs exist one would be foolish not to exploit them if you urgently need
dilithium.

You should always allow your ships to recover from any damage before using them
for another assault. This can take several turns. It might be wise to have a
couple of planet-busting task forces in action, as one rests, the other
conquers.

(Note on planetary assaults. In case you hadn’t noticed by now, orbital
batteries engage the first ships in your assault list. So, if I attack the
system above but my troops are first in my deployment list, then I’m sunk. You
need to juggle with your deployment like a Rubik’s cube until you have your
assault task force set in the right order… I.e 9 ships and then 6 transports.
The batteries will subsequently attack the main ships - which is what you want.)

Empire elimination and morale boosting

Any experienced Multigamer will regard the AI empires like picking fruit off a
tree and so should you. As I’ve said. If you find them even remotely challenging
as opponents then you need more practice on the single-player mode. Once you
have wiped out an AI empire, your empire morale should go skyward giving you a
good push toward the next challenge.

The faster you can eliminate an AI empire the better. When you wipe them out
completely your empire gets a huge morale boost. A sneaky little tactic can then
be used to repeat this process. Say I have just conquered the entire Cardassian
union, my empire will all be very happy. I can then concentrate on one small
Cardassian system and do everything possible to decrease the morale in that
system (maybe by building forced labour farms or something similar) Hopefully
that system will then rebel and the Cardassians are re-born. I can then retake
the system, re-eliminate the Union and gain another major morale boost for my
entire empire.

Nearest AI empire rapid takeover strategy.

When playing multigame you should identify the location of the nearest AI empire
and concentrate every effort you can into their takeover and elimination, This
will usually give you three further production centres on top of the three you
start with but speed really is of the essence and this takes some practice.
Some empires have the advantage with this due to the nature of their ships. You
should follow a few simple methods, it’s not quite as easy as it sounds though.

An early non-aggression treaty with a neighbouring power usually shows you the
location of the centre of their empire, so now you know where it is, you can
concentrate on extending your range (starbases/shipyards/affiliations) so when
ready, you can blitzkrieg the home system and unchallenged, move the troops in.
You need to build a “conquest coreâ€
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Post by Seano »

omg................................. this guide must have talk a loooooooooooooooong timw, i thougt i knew everything about BOTF ur excellent guide actually learnt me a few new things thx m8
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Post by ruthlessferengi »

hey, isn't this already in the FAQ section?
Relevance is a post hoc phenomenon

На безптичье и жопа воробей...
Ancient Klingon Battlecry
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