Here, I'd like to make public a few of my VGAP experiences made while playing. Basically these consist of bits and pieces and none of the bits intends to cover anything in its entirety. Most of all, it's for myself, to sort my memories and experience, thus it may have worked for the author, but might not work in another game. Mostly I'll focus on playing with PHost and PList, both 2.4 and 3.0, but there are certainly also parts that are easily valid for THost, the standard hosting programme, still most widely used. Special thanks here to Tilman Springborn, who contributed quite some parts of this and who is always willing to discuss one or another VGAP issue with me and frequently makes me look into some details.
Bm T F Mass Carg En Fuel Crew Tl Tri Dur Mol MC Sp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LUMBERJACK CLASS SCOUT 1 0 0 5 10 1 140 35 1 10 5 10 100
If you cannot build anything, build a Lumberjack. At least it can hisss. With mediocre up to good engines it is usable as money transporter or up to a point as fuel transporter. Can be dedicatedly recycled after the ship limit.
SIRIUS CYBERNETICS FREIGHTER 0 0 0 30 250 1 150 10 1 15 25 10 75Small frighter, nothing else.
DEAD PARROT CLASS FUEL CARRIER 0 0 0 5 2 2 900 10 3 45 39 33 158Strong tower and fuel transporter. Ideal in combination with a Hansa.
COBRA CLASS GUNSHIP 4 2 0 70 170 1 260 44 3 75 50 35 350Cheap mine layer and "probe collector". Maybe usable as heavy scout.
FOUNDATION CLASS FREIGHTER 0 0 0 50 600 2 260 20 4 30 60 10 150Medium freighter. With good engines usable independently.
MIRANDA CLASS RESEARCH VESSEL 3 0 0 90 120 1 180 88 5 30 30 30 270 &Can do many things at once. Cool, hiss, transport small cargos...
GEMINI CLASS TRANSPORT 10 0 1 80 400 1 550 270 5 180 80 40 350The most precious are its 10 beams; in case of doubt the mine sweeper of your choice (as it's the cheapest with most beams). Otherwise can be (mis-)used as transporter, maybe paired with a Foundation.
DIMETRODON CLASS DESTROYER 1 6 0 180 100 1 274 172 5 75 50 150 150"Pre-Killer". Don't load too many torps. Good torps, good engine and medium to bad beams. Make sure you always keep in mind that this ship is not meant to survive - the Godzilla is meant to survive and it's this ship's task to ensure this in fights against heavy ships.
CONSTITUTION CLASS FRIGATE 6 3 0 180 150 2 260 334 6 100 125 75 770 TThe better choice than the Cobra. Fights better, has anti-cloak, can tow. Built in masses!
TALARIAN CLASS MERCHANTMAN 0 0 0 80 1000 3 530 25 6 45 90 15 256The medium freighter. Built only, if neccessary, otherwise built Hansas.
RAPTOR CLASS LANDING VESSEL 3 3 0 140 300 2 260 190 6 260 90 150 900 CThe combat drop ship. Firepower suffices at most for self defence. But it has a large cargo room. Build with Bistromatics as it uses too much fuel otherwise. Could be build with bad or even without weapons - it is used to drop ground troups, not to fight other ships.
HANSA CLASS LARGE TRANSPORT 0 0 0 110 1500 4 760 35 7 60 120 20 400The work horse in your freighter fleet.
MIRACULIX CLASS REFINERY SHIP 3 0 0 260 1200 6 600 170 7 200 200 400 1800 RefTask is clear and it is urgently needed.
ALLOSAURUS CLASS CRUISER 5 8 0 350 100 5 350 334 7 150 315 535 3100 CYour tower. Task: Infiltrate enemy fleets and tow out ships to their doom by your battle ships. It uses fuel beyond imagination. Thus build only with Bistromatics. Build with the best of weapons or without any at all.
T-REX CLASS HEAVY CARRIER 6 0 10 500 260 5 600 1030 9 515 515 270 2600Wether useful or not depends upon your enemies. Against other, equally-sized carriers it is inferior. It's use lies in the elimination of enemy torp cruisers. As you have to buy fighters, it is pretty expensive - but that's what you have hisss for.
GODZILLA CLASS BATTLESHIP 10 12 0 600 200 6 770 800 10 800 270 580 6000By the 150\% bonus a very strong ship which holds out long. Fights against enemy heavy battle ships mostly result in mutual destruction, so you have to go in first with a Dimetrodon. Godzillas are expensive, but with tech 10 most efficient. You cannot have enough of those.
FERENGI CLASS TRADING VESSEL 0 0 0 150 2600 5 1400 70 10 78 156 26 625A whole Godzilla fits into it
MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP 5 0 0 390 3000 10 1040 150 10 400 600 300 2310 AlBuild base, build Merlin, build many Godzillas.
The following is by far not concise and based on quite in-adequate experience with that race as it was a rather unusual game where two alliances faced eachother.
In general, as always: first focus on economy, and then on building combat vessels. You get stronger as the game goes and are in trouble, if forced to focus on combat too early. In the beginning mainly focus on building cheap Bridgekeepers, frighters and probes. The Bridgekeepers are handy with good engines (Improbs or Bistros) but can be build without any weapons, Probes can go with any kind of engine, depending on the resources available, freighters need the usual mix of good and bad engines. Make sure, you have a few battle-ready cubes, at least Eliminators better Erasers when the ship limit hits.
One of the main problems is, that the Empire is a slow race and you are near to helpless agains aggressive, fast races. Same goes for the Tholian. My advice is to run the risk and refrain from building combat vessels in the early beginning as they are crap anyway. Thus economy, that is freighters come first.
Very soon one should build one or two Wayland Probes and jump around your HW. As it can do 4 jumps in a row, it is very well suited for that purpose. That determines your path of exploration. In the meantime devellop your immediate neighbourhood of the homeworld. Avoid any conflict!
The first real combat vessel is the Draklor (it is better than it sounds). The Victory is a real strain on the enemie's budget to beat it, at least early in the game - but it's also a strain on your monetary budget.
In order to be able to lay and sweep mines, build a few Lancets. Apollos are not worth much with respect to laying mines.
Quite nice, if nothing else can be build. Is a good money transporter later in the game and a good explorer early in the game. It's cargo room of 120 allows for small transport tasks, too. Gets a gambling device at level 2, but this is of little interest, but a nice addition. Its large fuel tank and small weight allows its use as small, short-range fuel transporter.
Don't build it, except nothing else can be build. Then build it with the least engines and recycle it later when a good ship of yours is at the edge of the queue.
Depends. The question is, wether the mineral costs are outweighed by the money gain, starting from turn t+3. Can produce 320MC per turn with its gambling device. With Bistromatics it can be used as a tower for large frighters.
Not strictly neccessary. But a nice, cheap tower for large frighters, especially due to its low mass. Gets level two tow at level two, but well...
Important and build a few. A good ship for trade with its advanced refinery option. Even though many ships gain a RamScoop at higher levels, you will still need fuel, at least in some places - and if it is only to keep your home economy running where the RamScoop battleships are not present. But also helps attack fleets, that have not risen to a self sustaining fuel economy regarding experience. It pays off to train at least one to L4, to gain the terraforming ability to heat arctic planets to 50 degrees.
The workhorse of your fleet. Build at least a hand full. The Ramscoop is worth a lot. Build with Bistromatics. It provides your mine cover, is a good tower, fleet tender and with its RamScoop also perpetual fuel-carrier. Combined with Hansas or Talarians they make up a usable transportation combination. But its main uses are fuel generation and mine protection, thus give it at least Arkons, better Katalys, or if you have a lot of cash, Selphy.
Your fighter builder. With 6 beams and a full complement of fighters it is also nicely usable for minesweeping. Handy comes the repair facility at L2, so any attack fleet should contain one of these for three purposes: building fighters, supplying fighters and repairing battle ships.
Your accademy ship. Build at least one or two, can be without engines and weapons. Train them at a good supply planet (>200 supplies / turn) and use them to train your battleships; that pays off!
Versatile medium-sized battle-cruiser with a small fuel tank. Gains planet imunity at L3 - so it's nice to have at least one scout of this type in the mid-game. Build a few of these.
The freighter of your choice. Build with or without engines. In the latter case make sure, you have a tower (Dead Parat, Virgo, Foundation, Aries) at hand.
The big brother of the Gemini with a mass of more than 100kT, so in heavily mined area it is better to use this as a fleet tender than a Gemini. Good fighter building capacity and a fully stocked Sagitarius has a nice sweep capacity.
Light carrier capable to kill any base. Universally deployable and also good use as "pre-killer" in some cases before the Atlantia or Carillon does the kill against heavy battleships. Train it to L2 in order to gain the RamScoop. Don't go below 100 fighters, better keep them stocked at full capacity or they are not worth their money.
Medium cruiser. Uses are to soften up large carries and, especially useful, trained to L4, its anticloak capability. Thus build at least one or two and train them. Don't train them much, if you use them to soften up an enemy battle ship. You'll need two of these AND an Atlantia to kill a DeathStar.
Larger and more powerful than the Borallus with RamScoop from the start. Nice as it needs a large battleship to kill it. A Carillon and a base will kill nearly any heavy battleship save DeathStar and Exterminator.
You need them.
The large freighter. You'll need some. Can be build without engines.
Some general remarks: Your fuel troubles are small compared to other nations. For you it is especially easy to remove all fuel from border planets - and still harvest them normally, using RamScoop ships. You have an Accademy ship, use this to your advantage to train your battle ships to give them the edge over your enemies - you will need it. Leave the Savvys at places with many supplies in order to allow them to accumulate constantly experience. Use your Virgos for laying mines while flying maximum distances to generate enough fuel for your attack and support fleets. If nothing can be build, build a Rising Star as it's a nice, small freighter, far better than the Sirius, and even later in the game, and it can be a nice trading ship. Make sure, you have at least one or two Atlantia before the ship limit hits.
In the early game, before the ship limit, it's not strictly neccessary to go for the best beams available, Phasors or ElectronRams will do, but of course, the better the more powerful. But always go for Bistromatic Engines for all ships and Selphy, if you build Topsids and Kataly for your Virgos. Rising Star can do with Improbs, Freighters, Merlins, Savvy can do without engines at all. After the ship limit build everything at maximum tech.
Shipname Player 7 Bm T F Mass Carg En Fuel Crew Tl Tri Dur Mol MC Sp -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIRIUS CYBERNETICS FREIGHTER 0 0 0 30 250 1 150 10 1 15 25 10 75Small freighter. More often than not too small.
FLINTSTONE CLASS SCOUT 2 1 0 90 40 1 180 25 1 20 15 5 60Not to underestimate. Decent engine, any beam and a Kataly tube. Two or three can lay jointly with a Ruby many, small overlapping mine fields. Nicely usable for those "eggs".
DEAD PARROT CLASS FUEL CARRIER 0 0 0 5 2 2 900 10 3 45 39 33 158Fuel transporter and tower for heavy freighters, e.g. Ferengi.
RUBY CLASS DESTROYER 3 3 0 150 280 1 260 126 3 50 50 100 350The small, armed freighter - and that's how it should be treated: do not use for combat but as supply vessel for new torps and a tender for Flintstones or usable for laying of medium-sized web fields. ATTENTION! Cannot tow!
FOUNDATION CLASS FREIGHTER 0 0 0 50 600 2 260 20 4 30 60 10 150The small transport which due to its two engines is capable of tow. In emergency also use for tow-capture of enemy fuelless ships.
HELLFIRE CLASS FRIGATE 5 0 0 180 60 1 270 139 5 40 15 5 290 *Provides cozily warm planets - and inhospitable planets for anyone else.
TALARIAN CLASS MERCHANTMAN 0 0 0 80 1000 3 530 25 6 45 90 15 256Medium freighter. Leave out in favour of a Hansa, if possible.
EMERALD CLASS CRUISER 7 4 0 305 490 2 530 261 6 100 80 260 800The large, armed transport. Can do anything the Ruby is capable of, but a larger. Can tow capture due to its decent amount of crew also fuelless enemy ships. Weaponry is of this vessel is rather meant as self defence and with good beams to clear enemy mine fields.
NEBULA CLASS LIGHT CRUISER 8 6 0 380 100 2 280 271 7 100 260 300 1030The first real combat vessel in the Tholian ship list. Slight backdraw is its small cargo room of only 100. Use as border patrol, planet buster (w/o base) and as sacrificial ship in major combats.
HANSA CLASS LARGE TRANSPORT 0 0 0 110 1500 4 760 35 7 60 120 20 400Backbone of your economy. Build!!!
MIRACULIX CLASS REFINERY SHIP 3 0 0 260 1200 6 600 170 7 200 200 400 1800 RefShips need fuel in vast amounts. The Miraculix will fix this.
SAPHIRE CLASS BATTLECRUISER 9 8 0 500 120 3 512 600 8 396 266 256 1546Heavy torpedoe cruiser. If you need torps rather than fighters for a ship that goes in first, this is your first choice. With 500kT of mass it can take quite some punch.
SILICON AVATAR CLASS CARRIER 9 0 13 450 150 3 791 541 9 150 520 530 1034The carrier in your fleet. Can deal with most cruisers and any base.
DIAMOND FLAME CLASS BATTLESHIP 12 11 0 600 190 4 1091 1035 10 260 450 690 2056The Tholian's battleship. Slightly under-armed in comparison to other battleships. Use in a fleet jointly with a Sapphire or Silicon Avatar. Those combinations cat take on nearly any ship.
MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP 5 0 0 390 3000 10 1040 150 10 400 600 300 2310 AlShips and torpedoes for web fields require minerals. The Merlin will produce these.
FERENGI CLASS TRADING VESSEL 0 0 0 150 2600 5 1400 70 10 78 156 26 625Use for the big freight orders.
The ships, based on PList 3.0 with some hints concerning plist 3.1.
Definitions:
few means in the context of fleet composition 1..≤4 depending upon your style and needs.
fuel usage: for full, standard combat capability (torps + supplies) and averagely fueled ships.
The scout of your choice. With a fuel capacity of 270kT it is suitable for long range scout operations as well as inteligence reports on enemy fleets in planet orbits in the combat area. Any engines from Enerpsis onward are suitable, Improbs are the best choice, you might consider a Bistro engine for the long range type.
Big bonus: it's anticloak imunity on higher levels. It will ensure an information flow even in the presence of anticloakers. With PList 3.1 you'll have to take care for the advanced anticloak or glory device, though.
Beams don't matter much for this ship. Possibly use Kill-o-zaps or Disruptors in order to catch an odd freighter.
Build it whenever there's no other reasonable build. They are also good money transports later on, you cannot have too many. Train a few in order to have the anticloak imunity - after the ship limit.
fuel usage: depends upon amount of fuel carried: 3...30kt / 100 LY
With 150kT of fuel and 50kT of cargo and 1 torp tube they are a 2nd line or home are ship. Their cloak capability will allow for smaller surprise mine fields, though. Their weight will allow to use them as money transport in the home area, doubling as defencive home guard, laying mine barriers also works with them reasonably.
With 480kT of fuel, 80kT cargo and 180kT of mass this is a heavy scout ship that is nicely suitable to terrorize the enemy in his home area. The mass of the ship leads to a high fuel consumption, so build it with good engines and good torps as you'll want to make good usage of the limited cargo space.
Build a few of them
Fuel usage: roughly 60kt/100LY
With 4 beams and 5 tubes, 80kt cargo and 260kt mass it's a reasonable fighter, quite a bit stronger than the B'rel. Biggest backdraw: it gains cloak only at higher levels. Might be worth to train it to that level. Will work against weak to mediocre non-base planets. Is worth building, if you need a ship to sacrifice and have a 2nd ship or planet do the kill. Will damage a Draklor sufficiently in order to avoid its Imperial Assault. Cloaked intercept at higher levels will make this surely much more attractive. It's small fuel tank of 150kt makes it available only for short-range missions. Build a few at most.
Didn't build it. Cheaper and weaker than the Superhawk and only cloak-capable at higher levels. Possibly usable as a re-supply ship for your Superhawk(s).
With 150kt cargo and 6 beams, 8 fighter bays at 280kt mass it's a very formidable battle cruiser. It's well worth to have a few of them, equipped with at least 80 fighters, though 50...60 is the absolute minimum. It features a nice list of features that come available at higher levels, like advanced cloak (no fuel usage for cloak), full weaponry and with plist 3.1 it even gains a hardened cloak, giving it the capability to cloak at any damage level.
It's a ship with a nice punch, well worth training, but also very easily trained in combat. Beats a Draklor in most cases, especially, if trained. If you have one, you might want to have a 2nd in order to resupply the firsth with fighters. Good PBP builds.
Fuel usage: roughly 60kt/100LY
With 320kT cargo space, 340kt of mass and 12 beams and 1 tube it's a very nice mine tender and mine dropper. Build it with good beams and tubes. At L1 (L2 for plist 3.1) it gains cloak capability. Very handy if combined with a full cargo room of Katalys or Selphy or should heavy sweeping in enemy area be advised. Train it up to this level before sending it into a combat area. With max. 340kt of fuel it is mobile, but not suitable for the remote operations as it lacks advanced cloak.
Fuel usage: roughly 70kt/100LY
With 290kt cargo, 470kt hull mass and 8 beams, 10 tubes it's a very formidable fighter. It features most (all) cloak capabilities available at different levels, starting with advanced cloak right from the start. At L4 it is imune to anticloak and for plist 3.1 a bad surprise for all advanced anticloak ships who are unlucky to decloak it.
Train it by fighting inferior ships. Cloaked intercept allows you to choose fights and pick ships of a stack individually with severy K'K. Kills any non-base planet and low-population bases. At L3 and L4 it also can take on the higher population bases. Do a sim with estimated planet experience, though. Have a few before the ship limit. Take 105 supplies in order to repair a mine hit. Good PBP builds.
With 600kt of fuel and advanced cloak you also easily infiltrate enemy teritory and wait there for a surprise attack or mine field drop, suitable for those heavy-hitter long-range operations.
Fuel usage: roughly 80kt/100LY
The crown of your shiplist. Advanced cloak from the start, full weaponry later on. Train it by killing enemies. A L2 D'D will kill nearly any base. You can't have too many of these babies. Build at least one or two before the ship limit. In case of doubt be cheap on the beams. Especially for PList 3.1 it might work with Desintegrators for those D'D who take down enemy bases. Take 95 supplies in order to repair a mine hit.
Early after the ship limit or - if you already own a decent other D'D even before - it might be worth to build a Desintegrator/Disruptor/Inpotron & Photon capture D'D (do the sims beforhand concerning beam type). It is capable of capturing such nice feature-rich ships as Draklors, Carracks etc. for your benefit. Very handy, if at the right time at the right place. Accompany such ship always by a true combat ship with a lower FC (intercept your photon D'D with the Selphy D'D or alike). Bring plenty of supplies to such occasion. Two trained D'D will take out any ship in the game, even a fully loaded DeathStar.
Fuel usage: roughly 100kt/100LY
Build a few. They are a slightly more expensive, cloak-capable Foundation. Good, if you want need to bring resources to a combat or otherwise sensitive area. Don't rely on them for your logistics, though! Use normal freighters for your logistics as you would do with any non-cloaking race. Might be worth to train it to L2 in order to gain advanced cloak.
Build as usual. Don't try to be too stealthy with your economy, only apply the usual precautions as planet hopping etc. Take into account that you probably don't have any of the cloaking ships around as towers after the ship limit: build a sufficient amount of freighters flying on their own power. You'll need fuel on the front lines as your battle ships are thirsty - as ususal.
The single biggest strength of the Romulan is its nearly universal cloak capability - for several reasons:
In the combat area have - besides your battleships in order to do the kill - a hand full of Archeopterixes. Use them to orbit planets your enemy is likely to stop by. It will allow you to target the orbiting ships with your battle ships using the intercept attack. Use your battle ships in small groups in order to take out a whole stack of enemy units at once and only suffer losses where a 1:1 combat of your ship vs. an enemy ship cannot be one.
If you attack a planet / base without the knowlege of possibly (minor) ship resistance, go with two battle ships. Sent one cloaked, with PE and a low FC, the other uncloaked, with PE and a high FC. Ships will be attacked by your cloaked battle ship while the uncloaked will attack the planet most probably undamaged.
Your cloaking battleships have only few engines. This is nice with respect to money and resources during the building phase. On the other hand you'll have little opportunities to tow enemy ships and destroy them, so don't count on this tactic. It will only work for enemy destroyers and small cruisers. Rather have observers and use intercept attacks (see above).
There are a number of ships which come in handy:
As a Romulan you are likely to find friends pretty easily. You have a couple of nice ships that are useful for allies and there are also some ships around which come in handy for you.
Wenn es noch weitere Fragen gibt, nicht zögern, mir eine Mail zu schreiben.