Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares/Strategies

These are the most common strategies for beating Master of Orion. Using these strategies will help you overpower your opponents, after which, you can win the game any way you please, by galactic senate, eliminating all opponents, or by destroying Antares (if enabled). These strategies mostly apply to the beginning of the game, during end game they all blend together. Your strategy will almost always be determined by your racial statistics. See ../Some effective race designs for some good races.

Blitz
This strategy is most often used by feudalistic governed, production type races. Telepathic and Warlord traits are extremely useful for blitzing, so much so that lack of either might doom a blitz strategy to failure. Starting with space- and/or ground-combat bonuses is also an advantage, although less so than Telepathic/Warlord. Blitzing involves quickly finding and assimilating an enemy culture, taking their planets as well as hopefully capturing some key technology in the process. The idea is to overwhelm enemy defenses before he has the time to research high level technology or build a proper fleet. This strategy works best in smaller galaxies, and with fewer enemies, but even in huge galaxies it can be successful if you can get to the enemy soon enough. The most important thing to remember is that you must be fast.

Research
Begin by concentrating only on the vital techs. The two easiest research paths to choose from for a Blitz are Fighters or Missiles. Blitzing with Beam ships is harder to pull off, as both heavily armed starbases and missile bases present formidable challenges to early-game beam-ship technology.
 * Fighters - Works best if your race is creative (you won't need to make difficult choices to get all the best fighter-upgrade-techs). The quickest of the two paths to research, using fighters only requires Fighter Bays to start. You should then move your entire population into production to build a space fleet and launch your attack. Once the Blitz is underway, you can look to quickly gain other techs that will improve fighter performance: Fusion Drives, Fusion Beams, Tritanium Armor, Battlepods. One of the main drawbacks of blitzing with fighters is that you won't be able to bombard a planet during the subsequent troop invasion. Your troops will have to be strong enough to win the ground battle unaided (or use Telepathy to mind-control the planet).
 * Missiles - This method is more research-intensive than fighters and thus takes longer to start, but advanced missile techs remain viable well into the mid-game. Getting Deuterium Fuel Cells is a great choice, as it will miniaturize your nuclear missiles, and allow you to more easily get to your enemy's planets. You can build ships and start raiding/blockading now, but it is doubtful you will be able to destroy an enemy Starbase with such missiles. So the next level should be to get Merculite Missiles and Battlepods (grabbing Reinforced Hull and Automated Factory in the process). This will allow you to use MIRV nukes and fit 50% more missiles into your design. Those are the only essential techs to capture their home planet. Further improve performance by researching Chemistry (missiles/armor) and Power (drives) tech sectors as necessary. If the enemy starts deploying ships with EMC-Jammers, then counter with Tachyon or Neutron Scanner.
 * Beams - Blitzing with beams is trickier than hit-and-run fighter/missile tactics, since a beam-fleet will need to stay in-system and duke it out to the death. But it can work well for research-oriented races and/or races with the Creative or +50 attack picks. To start, research up the Physics tech tree to get Battle Scanner (or Tachyon Communications for "+50 attack" races). This brings miniaturization as well as enables Armor-piercing, Auto-Fire, No Range-Dissipation and Continuous weapon modifications for lasers. Now build a cruiser with Extended Fuel Tanks, Battle-Scanner and 1 Hv,AP,CO,NR,AF + 3 Pd,AP,CO,NR,AF laser cannons (or drop the B-S and add another Hv,AP,NR,AF laser canon for "+50 attack" races) and launch your attack. This ship can solo lone starbases having titanium armor and no armor mods. For tougher starbases and/or Missile Bases/Fighter garrisons, help defend the cruiser using several destroyer escorts with as many Pd,AP,CO,NR,AF laser cannons as you can fit in. Further improve ship performance by researching Space Academy and Battle Pods (which allows an additional Hv laser cannon on each cruiser) then research up the Force Fields tech tree till Class III Shield, so as to upgrade your fleet with Hv,AP,AF Mass Drivers and shields. For the mid-game, research deep into the Power tech tree: Fusion Bomb, Ion Pulse Cannon, Anti-matter Drive, Transporters. Once your Hv AP NR AF laser tech becomes obsolete, you can switch over your main weapon to AF Ion Cannons, and get much the same effect (ie. works vs heavily armored ships/bases but doesn't work vs planets, so add some bombs to your DDs for clearing planetary defenses or design an additional Planetary-Assault ship). Trade/capture/steal some better armor. That should keep your beam fleet pretty much invincible against anything that doesn't have Class-V shields or better well into the mid-game.

Blitzing works best against aliens that don't have Dauntless Guidance System, as avoiding enemy missile fire can be a problem till you get better drives. In this case, use a nimble Scout to hang back in system and wait for the attack to hit home while your other slower ships retreat to safety. Once the enemy has researched Warp Dissipater, you might need to radically alter your own ship designs or risk taking heavy losses.

Production
Begin producing outpost ships to quickly find/locate the enemy and make a path to their territory. If you have Warlord skill, each settled outpost will also increase your CP limit. As soon as you locate an alien civilization, start building your military fleet (see ../Warship design/). If you don't have Telepathy skill, you will also need to build some transports. Using transports often results in target-out-of-range difficulties since they don't get extended fuel pods. Sometimes it is necessary to settle an outpost directly within the target system itself, to make it possible for transports to reach. Adding extended fuel pods to your own warship designs ensures they will be able to reach their targets.
 * Fighters - Your initial ship designs should simply fill the hull with nothing but Fighter Bays (if you launch your attack early enough, your ships will be hard enough to kill even without defenses). A fleet of 4 such Destroyers (8 FB total, 8 CP used) or 2 Cruisers + 1 Destroyer (10 FB total, 8 CP used) should be able to handle any enemy Starbase they are likely to encounter in the early game (10 FB can take out a lone Starbase outfitted with Battlescanners, Tritanum Armor, Reinforced Hull and Heavy Armor). Cruisers outfitted with Extended Fuel Pods also make excellent early-game carrier ships for blitzing. Once you research Battlepods you can consider either adding more Fighter Bays or defensive systems (priority on more FB till the enemy starts developing an effective counter).
 * Missiles - Similar to fighters, but you likely won't be able to make a fleet that can effectively take out an enemy starbase till you have mirved nukes (ie. researched to Merculite-level in the chemistry tree). Hence why blitzing with missiles is slower than using fighters. An added advantage of building missile-ships is you will be able to attack and kill space monsters easily using a swarm of frigates armed with battlepods and 2 mirved nukes.
 * Beams - Your ships need high attack ratings to be effective, so having Space Academy helps. You will probably find it works best to specialize ships designs dedicated solely to either Hv AF beams (for the long-range kill power) or normal/Pd-beams (for shooting down missiles/fighters). Destroyer escorts are much more fragile than cruisers, but you may need to make due early on for your first conquests (they can be built w/o a starbase). With Battle Pods, you should be able to fit 3-4 Hv primary weapons or a heck of a lot of Pd-firepower into each cruiser, though interestingly using battleships without BPs can also be an option. As alien tech improves, you will need to modify your own designs to compensate and your older beam ships will occasionally need to be refitted with upgrades at a friendly starbase to remain effective. Thus staying ahead of the tech curve is much more important for Beam-blitzers than for the other two blitz strategies. Once you start encountering planetary shielding, add a dedicated Planetary Assault ship to your fleet designed to take out the defenses using bombs.

Assimilation
Once you have a route, move your military fleet and transports into orbit, and begin the invasion. Do your best not to harm the populace, just take out the defenses. Usually taking their home planet is the key to decisively weakening alien resistance. Early enough and most races won't be able to recover from that loss. Beware of newly conquered planets being liberated by rebels (not a problem for Telepathic races)! Now that you have a "slave empire" of captured enemy planets, you might be able to use the alien's racial quirks to improve your own empire's efficiency. Relocate captured alien colonists to best use their skill where needed. Then start filling in the gaps in your own tech tree, and improve your fleet for your next conquest. See ../Planning and winning wars/ for more information.

Expansion
This strategy is most often used by tolerant, subterranean or aquatic races and is complimented by rapid population growth. It is best used against tech heavy races, and does not work very well in multiplayer games. The expansion strategy is simply colonize everything. It works best in large galaxies where you can go a long time without even meeting other races. Given the time to set up, an entrenched expansionist empire can be nearly undefeatable as it will literally outnumber all the other players in every respect.

Research
Research necessary techs to quickly create colony ships. Automated Factories, Pollution Processor and Soil Enrichment is usually enough to be able to pump them out every 10 turns or so. If it is still taking too long, go for robo-miners.

Research Laboratory is an indespensible must-research and must-build technology for expansion and production strategies. Each Research Lab (which can be built in as little as 4 turns) provides a flat 5 research points even with NO population allocated to research. Given enough colonies this allows for competitive levels of research while having every single unit of population focus on Production and/or Farming.

Colonization
Have your home planet start pumping out colony ships. Colonize the best planets first, but once you run out, colonize the bad ones too. When your second planet reaches its max population, (or near to it) consider building a missile ship to defend your sprawling empire.

Defense
For defense against the Antaran attacks in the early to mid-games: on systems with gas giants and/or asteroids, build outposts for each non-colonizable area in a system well in advance of the Antaran attack. The Antarans will attack those outposts buying you time.

End Game
Soon, you will be able to make a colony ship in just five or six turns. Don't stop colonizing. Have a second planet build a defensive fleet, and climb the tech tree with your remaining colonies. Given enough time, an expansionist empire can "out-tech" nearly any other race, and have the production power to use it. Begin plans for crushing your enemy, or just elect yourself ruler of the galaxy.

Research Strategy
The Research strategy is useful for races obviously geared towards technology; usually either creative, democracy or having research bonuses. It is very effective vs. the computer and very difficult against human players because expansionist and blitz races can easily overpower them early on. The important thing to the technologist, is time. It works best in Pre-Warp games, the larger the galaxy the better; as it will keep alien empires off your back until you can reach the point where your superior technology will give you an edge.

Early Research
See research order here, which basically entails unlocking robo-miners before planetary supercomputer. Employ the production stockpile technique so that you maximize research yet still buy/build your researched structures quickly.

Colonies
Ideally we want to colonize all the planets in a star system, because we want lots of scientists. But prioritize high population Normal-G planets (5 pop or more), since those offer the best payback vs effort regarding scientists. Even mineral-poor, toxic and high/low gravity are all fine if they can fit enough scientists to make colonizing/building a lone research lab worth the effort (science being the priority; research is not affected by gravity). Use the 1-pop Housing Colony technique to grow your population if you aren't creative. Don't worry about building colony ships till you have robo-miners. Then, with your colonies concentrating on research, have your home planet buy/build colony ships to settle all the biggest planets within range. Make sure to build missile bases on all your planets. Do not overextend beyond what you can protect.

Work towards terraforming all your planets to maximize scientist populations and keep them from starving, all the while researching like mad.

Battlefleet from Hell
With your research quickly moving up the Physics and/or Chemistry tech trees, you can stay ahead of the technology curve with high-level miniaturized weapons. Leverage your superior tech advantage to beat down your opponent's hopelessly outdated ships.

Creative Technology Blitz
This variant on the Technology Blitz aims to make the best use of the Creative race attribute. To do that, it obviously has to do as much research as possible, so any racial research bonuses are handy.

Like the Technology Blitz, time is important. Ideally, you won't get attacked by anyone else until you have built on all useful planets in your home system; at least one Rich/Ultra-Rich planet in another system; have researched Missile Bases; and have researched Merculite Missiles (which come with Pollution Processors). From a pre-warp start, that'll take 40 or 50 turns. It therefore works best in large or huge galaxies.

Research
If starting Pre-warp, research the following, stopping only to build the relevant structures and colony bases: Research Lab; Automated Factories; Freighters; Hydroponic Farm; Extended Fuel Tanks; Colony Ship.

Then build a couple of scouts. If nearby planets are rubbish, research Deuterium Fuel Cells, or build Outpost Ships. Then it's time for Merculite Missiles (Missile Bases got researched along the way to Automated Factories); then either the three steps to Robo-Miners or the two to Supercomputers (former can be done first as it picks up Spaceport and Fighter Garrison along the way).

Next it's time for warship tech: go for Mass Drivers first (see below), then probably for Graviton Beam, which has the side effect of providing the Gravity Generator. But you may want to delay warship research to deal with specific issues in your empire: maybe Radiation Shield for radiated planets (also provides Class III ship shield); or Stock Exchange for money; or Soil Enrichment for food; or Atmosphere Renewer/Pulson Missile for production/extra defence.

Colonize
Colonise your home system first. When your scouts find a Rich or Ultra-rich planet, colonise it ASAP -- even if it's toxic or [for Ultra-rich planets] the wrong gravity. Transport at least one colonist to the new planet and/or buy its Automated Factory. Repeat. Build Missile bases on planets near other empires -- they're cheap to build and will discourage attacks for quite a while.

Eventually, Rich and Ultra-rich planets will become shipbuilding centres; the others will become research planets.

Warships
Research Mass Drivers, possibly before Robo-Miners, and probably before Supercomputers. Your first warships should be destroyers (battle pods, heavy armour, reinforced hull, 1 Heavy Mass Driver, 3 standard Mass Drivers) and cruisers (same specials, two extra Mass Drivers of each type). Several of these can kill most space monsters and also make enemy warships think again. Next build battleships with Graviton beams, and structural analysers if you have them; after that Titans with your best current weapons and automated repair units.

Production
This strategy is similar to the blitz, but not quite the same. It is used by high production races, with non-feudal governments, races that have the ability to research fairly quickly. It is the most average of the strategies, moving through the game at a good pace and relying on production bonuses to get a fleet up faster than the technologists, and better equipped than the blitzers.

This strategy is most often used by races with good production bonuses and the unification government, like the Klackon.

Research
Start by researching some good production technologies. Automated Factories, Hydroponic Farms, Soil Enrichment, and Pollution Processor will do nicely. Colonize the biggest richest planet you can find, which is probably barren/radiated. Use freighters to feed it.

Take advantage of your ability to build Research Laboratories and Supercomputers quickly and produce as many as possible, freeing up more of your population for production rather than research.

Expand
Expand your empire with colony ships, but make sure you keep some scientists at all times, falling behind in technology will often be fatal. Use your production advantage to construct the maximum number of ships your command points will allow (the Warlord ability is useful here), and constantly build new ships and refit your existing ships to the most advanced technologies available to you.

End Game
You should now have a good sized empire, with decent technology. It will be flexible since you can switch from scientists to speedy shipbuilders quickly. You can continue to expand or begin production of a fleet. Graviton beam or higher is recommended as your weapon of choice.