Elysium:R9.5 Xan Strategy

 Originally posted by Tatu 

Round 8

I was Xandathrii last round. My fleet was based on fighters and corvettes only. I had only few Broadswords - never got to use them though.

The biggest advantage of Xandathrii is ETA 7 attack fleet. Also your alliance/friends appreciate low ETA defense the Xandathrii can provide.

Another interesting feature is cloaked fleets, which make it easy to fake attacks and defenses.

Xandathrii attack fleets were feared to defend against because it always meant heavy casualties. (on both sides, but still)

Xandathrii planets were not popular targets before military scans were available, because no-one liked to attack without knowing what ships the target had. This gives Xandathrii time to focus on attacking and growing in the beginning.

The tech tree is completed fast to point when you can have Vultures. No need to research for other ships. You are all ready for battle shortly after protection, whereas other races are still going for FR and bigger ships.

All this allows Xandathrii to grow fast in the beginning. If you can outgrow others in the begining, you will be high in the food chain later on.

I was part of a battlegroup which only had other Xandathrii players. When we hit a galaxy the defense was always light and poorly organized. Thanks to low ETA and the fact military scans couldn't reveal what exactly was being send to each target.

Round 9

The PA crew didn't realize the potential of Xandathrii in round 8. They had to make the race weaker.

• Popular ships costs went up about 15%. Pulsars got 26% more expensive.
• Arrowheads lost 11% of their firepower.
• Sentinels lost 20% armor.
• Vultures lost 9% armor.
• Research/Construction times are longer.

Except the battles to be even more costly. I used to rely on target running their fleets, which they did often.

Does all this make Xandathrii worse race than others? Not in my opinion. The races are just more balanced now. Your success doesn't depend on what race you choose. Only skill, activity and politics decide.

Xandathrii is still playable. It is essential to be very active in the beginning and grow faster than others. If you cannot make it, you are better off with some other race - like Terrans.

 Originally posted by Kjeldoran 

Being Xan is a playstyle, like all other races. As a XAN you can't be arsed bout a few losses now and then and your most important strategy is major bluffing with a fleet doin huge dmg.

I'll setlle once again for ints/corvettes only with some broadswords to handle the rest of the ships. Only dissadvantage I heared about is that they made XAn abit more expensive.

 Originally posted by MiX 

Big advantage of Xan is that you can attack ppl with only Vultures and there still is a huge chance that they'll run (you need 1 real fleet ofc) because of low ETA they are not able to get enuf deffence against the "real fleet" and they'll run rather then taking the risk that you send a fake fleet.

Big disadvantage is that lateron in the game all ships of other races are superior to Xan ships so you really need to be alot bigger then your target if you don't want to lose bigtime. This makes alot of targets unavailable for Xan players especially Terran players with loads of Pegasus.