Battle Plans dialog

More Stars! Dialogs

The Battle Plans dialog allows you to view or change the battle plans for a selected fleet. You can open the Battle plans dialog using the Commands (Battle Plans...) menu command or through the Waypoint Task tile.

Plan

Click on this dropdown to list and select from existing battle plans. Stars! provides several pre-defined battle plans to get you started. To learn the contents of a plan, select it from the list. Then look at the options chosen for target, tactics, and, if you're in a multi-player game, the victim. You can modify, rename or delete an existing plan, or copy it and use it as the basis for a new plan.

Default Plans

New fleets are given a battle plan of Default. This plan sets up a default attack strategy if the fleet is armed, and a default flight strategy is the fleet is unarmed. You can't rename or delete the Default plan, but you can modify it.

Tactics

Choose tactics to use on primary and secondary targets. A tactic applies to the entire fleet.

♦        Disengage -- Attempt to run away as soon as possible. Seven squares of movement on the battle board are required to leave the battle. As movement ranges from ½ square to 2 ½ squares per round it can take from 3 to 14 rounds to disengage.

♦        Disengage if challenged – Behaves like Maximize damage until the token takes damage and then it behaves like Disengage.

♦        Minimize damage to self – Attempt to move to the location from which this token can do the most damage to its target while taking the least damage from your enemies.

♦        Maximize net damage – Attempt to get in range of the target class with all of your ship's weapons, then move in such a way as to always do some damage while maximizing damage_done/damage_taken.

♦        Maximize damage ratio – Attempts to get in range of at least one ship of the target class and move in such a way as to do some damage while maximizing damage_done/damage_taken.

♦        Maximize damage – Attempts to get in range of at least one ship of the target class with all your ships weapons, then tries to maximize the damage done. This tactic does not care about damage taken.

♦        Dump Cargo -- Jettison cargo at the start of battle.

Maximize Damage Ratio will not necessarily close to what may be considered the best location for you ship's weapons if it is carrying both short and long range weapons. For example, if you design a cruiser that carries range 6 missiles and a range 2 beam weapon, odds are that you will never get closer than range 6 in the battle. This is an advantage if when you want to use the short range weapons strictly as a deterrent against fast ships that try to get in close and destroy you with their short range weapons. If you do want to get closer and bring all weapons to bear, use Maximize Net Damage or Maximize Damage tactics.

Targeting Options

You can specify both primary and secondary targets. If no target matching the primary target description is found, the fleet looks for the secondary target. Possible targets are:

♦        None/Disengage -- Don't look for a target, just attempt to disengage.

♦        Any -- Target any opponent's fleet you encounter.

♦        Starbase -- Target the opponent's starbase whether it is armed or unarmed.

♦        Armed Ships -- Target any ship or starbase carrying weapons (does not include bombers). Preference is given to the strongest tokens this token is likely to be able to hurt.

♦        Bombers/Freighters -- Target Bombers and Freighters only.

♦        Unarmed Ships -- Target any ship not carrying weapons or bombs.

♦        Fuel Transports -- Target Fuel Transports only.

♦        Freighters -- Target Unarmed Freighters only.

Specifying the Right Target

Make sure your battle plan reflects what you really want your ships to do. For example, if you specify a target of Any and the closest ship happens to be an unarmed freighter instead of the enemy's battleships, you will waste a round destroying an easy target while the opponent's battleships pound you into space dust. In this case, choosing a target of Armed Ships would be much more appropriate.

Specifying which Players to Attack

Attack Who specifies which players are targeted using this plan. In a multi-player game, the categories listed are defined in the Player Relations dialog. In a solo game everyone is your enemy, and this field is disabled.

Learn more about Combat in these topics:

The Basics of Combat

The Guts of Combat