"Pre-Defined Race Strategies" from 1.1a Help File 1996

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Stars! comes with six predefined races. You can use these as they are, or customize them even further. Each predefined race has specific strengths and weaknesses for different playing styles and strategies.

Antethereals

Advantages:

Reproduces fairly fast. Research is cheaper than for most races. Efficient in production and remote mining operations. Able to lay vast mine fields from the very start.

Disadvantages

Tiny survival range--you won't find many planets you can colonize. Can't use advanced war-related technology. Unable to use penetrating scanners and engine technology is sometimes unreliable.

Strategies

  1. Research for defensive hull types, long range weapons, propulsion (fast engines), construction (large cargo capacity).
  2. Auto-build factories, then mines, then factories, until you find a better production strategy.
  3. Explore as fast as possible.
  4. Lay lots of overlapping small mine fields. Remote detonate them when unsuspecting enemies get within their confines.
  5. Build remote miners and freighters.
  6. Put ramscoops on the freighters to optimize fuel use and maximize speed.
  7. Concentrate on remote mining.
  8. You can't be an Antethereal and follow a 'green' strategy. Strip mine planets you can't colonize, using freighters to transport the minerals to your populated worlds. Be sure to assign the mining fleet itself as a waypoint, so freighters will follow the fleet. Put attack scout in orbit with remote miners, preventing easy colonization from opponents and an attack on your miner. Don't place the scout in the same fleet as the miner, though. Attach armed escorts to your freighters to protect them from attack as well.
  9. On habitable planets, use remote miners for a few turns before colonizing, dumping all the mined minerals on the planet surface so the colonists have a large supply immediately available.
  10. Win by out-researching your opponents.
  11. Since you'll concentrate on remote mining, invest in construction to build the biggest, most efficient remote miners possible.
  12. Build very advanced, long range weapons.
  13. Avoid direct confrontations, building only as many warships as you need for defense.

Humanoids

Has the potential to do well in any size of universe.

Advantages:

High growth rate, a pretty good habitable range. Lots of ships to start the game with. No serious disadvantages.

Disadvantages

They have no serious advantages, either. And they're dull.

Strategies

Try to determine the attributes of your opponents and adjust to counter them. You can adapt to compete against almost any kind of opponent.

Insectoids

Large or better universe. You'll need time to increase your population size and develop powerful weapons.

Advantages:

Immune to temperature. Good fighters, with top of the line warships and superior battle initiative. Cheap research for energy and weapons. Better than average with factories. Able to build cheaper starbases. Shields regenerate during battle.

Disadvantages

Need to find planets with gravity and radiation on the further ends of the spectrum. Limited to a few types of armor and even those are at half strength. Engine technology is sometimes unreliable. Has no chance to build freighter transport routes cheaply. Terraforming research is expensive.

Strategies

Your best chance is probably to out-produce and aggressively attack your opponents. Build fast warships and colonizers. You colonize slowly so build remote miners and search for nearby planets with plentiful mineral contents. Be aggressive with your neighbors, and their neighbors: what you can't colonize, take away.

Nucleotids

Medium to large universe. This will give them time to grow and develop technology before encountering other races.

Advantages:

Can live on almost any planet. Excellent at robotic mining. Good at fighting and building starbases. Able to sneak up on opponents and steal valuable minerals.

Disadvantages

Very low growth rate. Below average in building and using factories and mines. Abysmal at performing research.

Strategies

Expand as fast as your population growth will let you. Avoid conflict for as long as possible. Concentrate on expansion.

Rabbitoids

Has the potential to do well in any size of universe.

Advantages:

None of the other pre-made races grow faster (only the humanoids come close). Wide habitability range, as well as the ability to eventually terraform each environmental variable up to 30% makes proliferation highly likely. Although you are average at how many resources you create per person, your high growth rate will help increase the rate at which you create resources. They are efficient with factories and terraforming planets. They start with Tech 5 in propulsion and construction giving them high speed engines and advanced hulls at the start of the game. In larger games their superior stargate technology gives them a definite edge in fleet deployment.

Disadvantages

Slightly below average miners. Unable to build penetrating scanners.

Strategies

Breed, breed, breed. With your habitable range, and terraforming advantages, you can inhabit a large portion of the universe.

Silicanoids

Does better in a medium universe, even better in a large to huge universe, at any level of game.

Advantages:

Immune to all environmental attributes, which means you can colonize any planet. Produces resources quickly. Has access to additional ram scoop engines. All engines use less fuel. The ultra flexible and powerful meta morph hull is available only to your race.

Disadvantages Low growth rate, which means you can't colonize at too fast of a rate. Poor research hampers a quick and explosive start.

Strategies

  1. Don't waste your time on scouts. Build mini-colony ships, fill them up, and colonize all the planets you find (make sure to colonize the more mineral-rich planets first). Don't pull people off planets faster than you can grow them, though. Otherwise you'll have thinly populated worlds ripe for takeover. If the universe is large, you'll have many planets colonized by the time you encounter your opponents.
  2. No need for remote mining, since you can colonize anything.
  3. Auto-build factories, then mines, then factories, until you find a better production strategy.
  4. Build starbases whenever you have enough resources.
  5. Build big bombers to clear your opponent's planets.
  6. Build defensive fleets and park them near your starbases, holding off bombing raids.