Intermediate Tactics
From a Strategic Discussions forum post make by Monroe on Sept. 23rd, 2005.
Basic Tactics Advanced Tactics
Tactic: Disguised Fleet Attack (aka Fake Attack)
Description: Similar to Fake Defense, send a fleet of one class disguised as a fleet of another class. For example, sending a bunch of FR that have the same number of ships as your DE's, then later send your DE's faked as BS (for terrans). Defender will think the first wave is DEs and send anti DE, defender will think second wave is BS and send anti BS, therefore your DE will get through unharmed. Counter: Fleet scans can tell the difference, as long as you don't get blocked. Otherwise calc your home fleet against the attackers potential attack fleets. Using the above example, if you have pretty good BS defense, but terrible DE defense, simply assume both incomming fleets are DE and defend accordingly. Otherwise massive overkill on def ussually works, but is rarely a good option.
Tactic: Mutli Race Attack
Description: This tactic involves finding a friend of another race to attack with. Because races have different advantages and weaknesses, combining two races together can sometimes be a very powerful attack fleet which is nearly impossible to defend against. One classic example would be cath and zik CR/BS combo attack. Essentially the caths freeze the attackers, and the zik's clean up. Another great example is the 1-2 punch of zik and terran BS attacks, they target most classes and are hard to stop. Essentially any two races can combine at some level, but which combos are best depends on the current ship stats. Counter: If the attack is done right there is no good counter, other then overwhelming defense. If you are lucky you can find a ship that the attackers don't target, and that does target the attackers, but if the attackers are smart, this isn't really an option.
Tactic: Defense Specialization (aka Fleet Swapping)
Description: If you have alot of anti CR, and your mate(s) have alot of anti BA, and you have BA incs and they have CR incs, you send your fleet to defend a mate, they send their fleet(s) to defend you. It is especially effective if also combined with fake defence, ie you fake another anti CR fleet to another of your gal mates, thus potentially covering two incs with only half the ships . Counter: The obvious counter if you think your target is likely to swap in-gal def or has a previous tendency to do so, is to send both a CR fleet and a BA fleet at him - that way if he defends his gal mate he leaves himself wide open.
Tactic: Liquid Assets (Defense)
Description: This tactic is fairly straightforward. As your planet grows your fleet can become unbalanced in terms of it's ability to kill various classes of ships. You may choose to focus on an attack fleet and in so doing leave yourself vulnerable to attacks from classes of ships your attack fleet doesn't target. With the liquid assets the concept is to save up a reserve of funds to be used if you are attacked. That way you can buy the exact defense you need and have it show up the same tick the attacker lands suprising him with unexpected defense. Counter: Planet scan all your targets before launching and again before landing, if he has a lot of resources when you launch, and few when you land, odds are he built a bunch of ships. Notes: This tactic is most effective for zik's who can have an extremely unbalanced fleet late in the game due to stealing. In addition make sure you have production as an engineering priority so that you can build ships fast enough to have them available in time (production time of 7 or less). Lastly this defense has the downside of if you build the ships expecting him to run because it will be messy for both sides don't count on it, he may not use the counter and so land anyway.
