The Solar Federation - Guide
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[edit] Overview
The Solar Federation - often referred to as 'The Feds' - is to some degrees 'the average' race of the game. The Feds need time to build their economy. But if they can, they will be able to swarm you with ships.
[edit] Strengths
- Fed Photon Torpedo Tubes: Aside from Racial Bonuses to Accuracy, Fed Photon Torpedoes will be able to punch through point defence fire half of the time (Even if the PTT was hit by PD it may still hit the enemy ship. A Fed PTT will nearly always hit (even ships with high evasive bonus) and Fed's PTT have a change of at least 60% of not beeing shoot down by enemy PD.
- Scotty Bonus: Federation ships with at least one High Guard are able to take advantage of the "Scotty Bonus" while in combat. Each tick in combat provides a 1% chance all system damage will be repaired, a 3% chance of 10% hull damage being repaired, a 5% chance of 20 points of shields being restored, and a 2% chance of all weapons damage being repaired. This only works if the ship has less than 90% system damage.
- Boarding Fed ships are highly resistant to Boarding actions. They cannot be boarded unless they have 50% hull or 50% system damage (even if a boarding laser is used). Fed High Guard have a huge advantage in defending boarding actions.
- Federation boarding parties are able to board enemy ships without hull or system damage and without a Boarding Laser.
[edit] Weaknesses
They have several weakness, some more or less evident.
- Gravitonic mines. Fed are very exposed to an HYP attack. They lack any defense against HYP races like The Evil Empire, The Rebels or The Solorian Unity so they have only two ways to overcome this weakness: Trade or capture a ship whit Gravitonic Mine Dropper or do an massive attack against any HYP race that are close. The HYP races use to have only one weakness that a Fed player could take advantage and that is, that they have a hard time protecting their empire from normal warp ships (and Feds have lots of them that are very cheap and fast).
- Economy. Their economy is stronger than in the past, thanks to the Fed Agrovator's change, but that change is a weakness that an enemy could use. Fed economy need to have a lot of bases to be at the same level (or higher) than the others and, as the number of farming worlds grow, they start to be more and more open to attacks because Fed cannot defense all of their farming words easily. Early in the game a Fed should have "some" farming worlds but, as the game goes on, a Fed player will likely build as many farming worlds as he can. This makes the Fed economy one of the biggest decentralized economies. A Fed will have a lot of important bases and anyone could defend this territory easy. In later turns, Fed players will waste a lot of resources to defend their territory or decide to be very aggresive and leave their bases relatively defenseless.
- Ground war. Any enemy troop with an rusty axe could kill hundred of fed troops with the latest phaser technology :). Accept it, most of the races beat the hell out of you in a ground battle even if the forces are at a ratio of 4:1 to your favour.
- Training. I recommend that a player fed does not build training bases until he could build 100 Training Centers or even 150. A Fed needs HG but for he must train crew and troops first to get them and this is incredibly slow if he does it with a normal number of Training Centers compared to other races. I use to wait until turn 15 to make a big training center when the cost in colonists/cash is right for my economy.
- Spy. One good way to waste your cash. Fed spy agents use to surrender to a small boy threatening them with a wood :). Sometimes one of your spies really achieves something, but do not expect it to happen very often.
- Scotty Bonus is a problem in some unexperienced fed players. Each time the ship hull is hit, some crew die. You win the combat (without ship damage) and you go for another combat withou looking that your ship have loose some of the crew. You must ever send some crew pods into your fleets to recover crew on ships. It's the same for all races but with federation is very common to end combats (that you win) with no damage in your ships (armor is the only damage). When you open your turn with 30 ships in your fleet, you do not see any red color in any damage column so it's very easy to forget to check the crew.
[edit] Starships
- cheap
- no hyperdrives
- no cloaking ships
[edit] Strategies
- Use swarms of medium-sized ships buffered by exotics for fleet combat in order to take full advantage of the Scotty Bonus.
- If confronted with an enemy ground assault, don't be afraid to pod off your citizens and run away before the enemy blockades your base.
- The Medium Deep Space Freighter is a weapon against HYP races. A weapon, are you mad? Yes, this Freighter is one evil weapon against a HYP race. You know that a ship is going to attack one planet? You can send a large fleet to fight against the enemy fleet but sometimes you can pod of all your colonists to minimize the damage when he destroys that base and you can prepare a trap. A Medium Deep Space Freighter with only one I-25 Impulse costs 200 MC. Build a lot of them and load them with 3.000 troops or 10 HG + 2990 troops. As Fed you can board the enemy fleet using only those little ships. I have seen three of my little Freighters boarding and capturing an enemy Deliverance without problems. You lose the base but you have moved your Freighters at 6 or 7 LY and the next turn heading back to the planet at top speed, you can board their ships before a combat can occur. At a cost of 200 MC per Freighter, the size of the trap is merely limited by the number of troops available. Do not laughs very hight :D.
- The Fed Agrovators (assault unit) produces 1 food and 10 mc per farm at a base. Use these to your advantage to increase your income and growth. Your starting frieghters can carry one pod and tow another of up to 100 mass. Have an Assault Pod dock with the freighter and tow 100 agrovators to a colony. Bring enough resources for farms, factories, government center and a city or two.
[edit] PTT Sooner than Later
Being without strong starting ships or defense vs fast (HYP)attack races you should always race to have PTT ships to defend your HW. This can be done by turn 10 with 1 000 000 starting colonists, and 5000 starting mc. You have only yourself to blame if you do not have many Nocturn with PTT and ORD onboard at turn 10. Most game will have more starting colonists and money, making possible to have PTT ships before turn 10.
You can see an ingame example 1-1 fed vs Empire(EE Blitzkrieg vs Fed) (2007 Host 199).
EE Blitzkrieg vs Fed
EE Blitzkrieg vs Fed Federation Captain Log Detail info turn by turn (1-10) Wiki
Federation Captain Log Detail info turn by turn (1-10). (Drewhead)
[edit] Enemies
[edit] Privateers
- They will bleed the Feds dry with their hit and run tactics, stealing your food and fuel (Fed ships have small fuel tanks).
- Even though they cannot board your ships, if they are not heavily damaged, you still have to take care of there Lady Royales that are capabale of simply removing the crew of your ships.
- Make sure to lay lots of Barbitic Minefields. They can cause heavy damage on Meteor Class Blockade Runners jumping in and trying to fly away with high warp speed.
- If a Meteor ends its turn in one or more of your minefields, simply detonate it and finish it off. If you lay you minefields wisely, you can even detonate more than one at a time.
[edit] HYP Races
- You have no defence against hyperspace-capable ships. This makes you very susceptible to Evil Empire ground assault (especially in the beginning) if you do not get a defensive fleet early and PTT Nocturns by turn 10 or sooner.
[edit] Robots
- Their minefields, Insectoid Nest, Gun Zero and Eye of Madagon make them a dangerous enemy.
- Against Gun Zeros use Nocturne Class Destroyers with PTTs and Micro Sand Casters + Flake Cannons as Point Defense. Do not think that the Nocturne is a bad ship, I have seen five Nocturnes killing a Instrumentality fully loaded with fighters without any problems and sixteen destroying three Instrumentalitys with their fighters. The key is to use a lot of ships firing PTT at the same time. PTT is a great weapon in the hands of the Feds and the Nocturne has +50 attack bonus so Holo Decoys do not much harm to its accuracy.
- A Medium Deep Space Freighter with an Outfit Pod will carry a pod with ordnance, repair units or Fuel for the Nocturnes.
[edit] See also
- Stuff concerning the Solar Federation
- [1] Offical Race Guide
- [2] Race Guide by Paul Honigmann
