Fleet-to-fleet Combat

More about Combat

Playing Stars!

To attack an opponent's fleet, do the following:

1.        Choose your fleet's battle plan from the dropdown in the Fleet Composition tile. To open the Battle Plans dialog and learn the contents of a plan, or change or create a plan, choose Battle Plans... in the dropdown.

2.        Set a waypoint at the enemy fleet. If the enemy fleet is in orbit of a planet, you may want to explicitly target the fleet so you'll chase it if it leaves the planet. Just right-click on the blue diamond in the Fleet Waypoints tile and choose the enemy fleet from the list that displays.

Your fleet will either reach and engange the enemy, or, if you're tackling another fleet, they will chase the enemy until you decide to break off pursuit. If you do attack, you receive a message the following year describing the outcome of the battle. If you wish you can replay the battle using the Battle VCR. If you lose track of the enemy you'll receive a message saying that your fleet's waypoint has been set to their last known location. When you receive a message about a battle the Goto button in the messages pane will select the location of the battle in the Scanner pane and the text of the button will change to View. Pressing View displays the Battle VCR, allowing you to watch a reconstruction of the battle. Use the VCR to learn how the enemy attacks, and how your attack was successful or failed.

The outcome is determined by the battle plans and ship components used by your and your opponent(s).

To learn about specific weapons, armor, shields and engines, study the Technology Browser (press F2). To learn how  to research and design your offensive technology, read about how to perform research or how to use the Research dialog; then read about ship design.

Battle Orders don't Interfere with Waypoint Tasks

By default, new armed fleets start out with attack orders. Since these orders are always in effect, your armed fleets can also be assigned any waypoint task suitable for that fleet.

Firing in Passing

If a ship moves in the direction of its primary target but is still out of range, it will try and fire on any target within range. The primary target is specified in the Battle Plans dialog.