Targeting

Battle Plan Topics

General Combat Topics

For each attacking token, or group of ships of the same design in a fleet, and each round of battle, Stars! tries to pick the right target from all the other tokens in the battle. Each potential target is compared with the primary target type; for example; Any, Starbase, or Armed Ships. If no target is found, Stars! looks for targets matching the secondary target type, attacking the first matching target found. If no target is found, the attacking token disengages.

Cloaked tokens are targeted the same as all other tokens.

When picking targets, Stars! tries to avoid targeting tokens already targeted by another ship.

Starbases

Starbases use a primary target of Armed Ships and a secondary target of Any.

Targeting Examples

Primary target: Bombers/Freighters; Secondary target: Fuel Transports
Any enemy bombers and freighters are targeted first. Once they are gone, the attacker looks for and tries to destroy enemy Fuel Transports. This tactic is useful for crippling enemy battle groups while attempting to avoid their heavy guns.

Primary target: Armed Ships; Secondary target: None/Disengage
This would try to take out all enemy armed ships and the armed enemy starbase, leaving unarmed ships alone. This is useful if you plan on stealing cargo from the unarmed ships (assuming you survive).

Primary target: Armed Ships; Secondary target: Bombers/Freighters
This ignores anything that isn't armed, or a bomber or freighter. This prevents you from wasting shots on harmless ships.