Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares/Hiring Leaders

From time to time you'll get opportunities to hire leaders who will enhance the performance of your economy or your military, or occasionally both. These characters are mercenaries - they work for anyone who will pay their fees, which come in 2 parts: a one-time hiring fee, usually quite large (rather like a transfer fee in football); and a salary per turn.

Choosing the right leaders can be major advantage, while getting the wrong ones can simpy drain your finances.

There are 2 main types of leader:

• Ship leaders, who improve the performance of their ships and even of whole fleets - but opnly if they aboard a ship. A ship can have at most 1 leader.
• Colony leaders, who can't be on ships. There are 2 types of colony leader: those who are only effective if assigned to a system, and those who are effective even of they are sitting around your Officer Pool (think of it as a lounge in your head office).

It's more useful to list the various advantages that various types of leader can bring, rather than try to list all the leaders. Since some leaders have more than 1 type of advantage, we'll also say what combinations are most common and which are most useful in various types of situation.

To complicate matters, some Colony Leaders also provide combat advantages and some Ship Leaders also provide non-combat advantages. These are known as "general" abilities.

Managing leaders

An empire can have at most 4 Colony Leaders and 4 Ship Leaders. If you don't hire a Leader when he / she first appears, he / she waits in your Officer Pool for about 30 turns. That has an important consequence - if you have 3 leaders of a type (Colony or Ship) and a 4th appears that you don't want, dismiss him / her immediately, because no more Leaders of that type will appear while there are no free slots in your Pool.

For governments other than Unification, the Officer Pool is a lounge in the Capitol, which is initially on your homeworld. If a non-Unification empire loses its Capitol, either by sabotage or because the homeworld is invaded or destroyed, no new leaders will appear until you build a new Capitol; you should in any case do this as fast as possible because your whole empire will suffer a morale penalty for as long as there's no Capitol. A Unification empire has no Capitol, and the Officer Pool is initially somewhere on the homeworld. Unfortunately the manual does not say what happens to leaders in the Officer Pool if the Capitol is destroyed or a Unification empire's homeworld is destroyed or captured, nor does it say where the new Officer Pool is if a Unification empire's homeworld is destroyed or captured.

Colony Leaders that need to be assigned to a system are ineffective until they arrive at that system. Leader assigned to the system containing your Officer Pool "arrive" instantly; Colony Leaders assigned to other systems take 5 turns to arrive. A system can have 1 Colony Leader, so if you assign a new Colony Leader to a system that already has a Leader, the incumbent has to return to the Officer Pool; and does so immediately, so the system is without a Leader for 5 turns.

Similar rules apply to Ship Leaders: if the ship is in the system containing your Officer Pool, he arrives instantly; otherwise he takes 5 turns. There's one other rule for Ship Leaders: in order to refit a ship that has a Leader, the Leader must first return to the Officer Pool.

Usually the best leaders appear later in the game and are really expensive.

General abilities

These are the ones that both Colony and Ship Leaders may have.

Assassin

Has a chance (small) of assassinating an enemy Spy every turn.

Improves with experience.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. And if you have several Assassin Leaders, enemy Spies die faster.

Commmando

Increases the strength of all ground combat units in the system where the Leader is stationed, including Marines in ships and Starbases etc.

Improves with experience.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool but not while travelling to his system / ship. And if you have several Commmando Leaders in the same system, each of them boosts your troops.

Diplomat

Improves other empires' attitudes towards yours, making them less likely to attack you and more likely to agree to your proposals.

Improves with experience.

Useless to Repulsive empires.

Famous

A Famous Leader increases the chances of other Leaders applying to join you and decreases their hiring cost and, in most cases their salary. Has no effect on the salaries of Leaders you've already hired.

Improves with experience.

In description of Leaders, Famous is described as "-nBC", i.e. by how much this Leader reduces the hiring fees of other Leaders.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. But if you have several Famous Leaders, only the most Famous affects the frequency and costs of new Leaders.

A very useful ability, especially if your empire is Repulsive and therefore would otherwise have a poor choice of Leaders.

Megawealth

Contributes a flat 10BC per turn. The cheaper Megawealth Leaders pay off their hiring fees in 8 turns.

This does not increase with experience.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. And if you have several Megawealth Leaders, each of them pays you 10BC per turn.

Researcher

Makes a flat-rate contribution (fairly small) to your research.

Improves with experience.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. And if you have several Researcher Leaders, each of them boosts your research.

Spymaster

Increases the effectiveness of all your Spies operating in other empires, i.e. on espionage and sabotage, not on defense.

Improves with experience.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. And if you have several Spymaster Leaders, each of them boosts your offensive Spies.

Tech knowledge

Gives 1 to 3 free techs when you hire the Leader. This is a one-time benefit.

Telepath

Increases the effectiveness of all your Spies operating in your empire, i.e. on defense but not on espionage and sabotage; protects all colonies in a system against Mind Control.

Improves with experience.

The spying boost works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. And if you have several Telepath Leaders, each of them boosts your defensive Spies.

The defense against Mind Control works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool but not while travelling to his / her system / ship; if in the Officer Pool, the Telepath protects the system containing the Officer Pool. Having several Telepath Leaders in the same system is wasteful.

Trader

Increases the cash income from Trade Treaties.

Improves with experience.

This ability works while the Leader is in the Officer Pool or travelling to his / her system / ship. And if you have several Trader Leaders, each of them boosts your income from Trade Treaties.

Useless to Repulsive empires.

Colony Leader abilities

All of these abilities work only while the Leader is working in a system, not while he / she is in the Officer Pool or travelling to a system.

Environmentalist

Reduces industrial pollution at all colonies in a system and so boosts your effective industrial production.

Useless for colonies whose populations are entirely Tolerant.

Farming

Boosts farming productivity of all colonies in the system, including for Natives and Android Farmers.

Improves with experience.

Useless for colonies whose populations are entirely Lithovore or Android, or where farming is impossible.

Finance

Increases the "normal" income of all colonies in the system, i.e. excluding income from gold, gems, Trade Treaties and sale sof surplus food.

Improves with experience.

Has little or no effect at colonies with a population below 8.

Instructor

Increases the rate at which all your Marines and all your other Leaders gain experience.

Improves with experience.

Possibly not a huge benefit, as its effects are gradual and improving technology makes Leader's abilities and Marine's experience less important as the game progresses.

Medicine

Increases the population growth of all colonies in the system; does not apply to Natives or Androids.

Science

Increases the productivity of scientists, i.e. population engaged in research, at all colonies in a system.

Improves with experience.

Spiritual

Increases the morale of non-Android population at all colonies in a system. This can be surprisingly powerful, see Strength through Joy for explanation and examples.

Improves with experience.

Useless for Unification empires.

Tactics

Improves ship's offensive ability (accuracy) and the strength of ground troops in the system.

Ship Leader Abilities

Loknar, the last Orion

If you beat Orion's Guardian, you get a powerful battleship commanded by Loknar, who has Galactic Lore and insanely high skill levels in the following abilities: Helmsman (benefits the whole fleet of which his ship is part); Ordnance; Weaponry; Fighter Pilot (benefits the whole fleet of which his ship is part, provided they carry fighters; Loknar's ship does not). Loknar's main weakness is that he is not a Navigator.