Galaxy: Military Strategy guide: PART 2

From: Jacco van Weert <weertj@euronet.nl>

Date: Mon, 04 Dec 1995 00:00:00 +0000

<HTML>
<H2>Galaxy military strategy guide: PART 2</H2>

<I>Written by Jacco van Weert</I><BR>
<BR>
EMail: <A HREF="mailto:weertj@euronet.nl">weertj@euronet.nl</A>

<HR>

Instead of given huge piles of dry military attack and defend examples I now describe
a few examples extracted from real galaxy games.<BR>
Of course the analyse is from my point of view, and is as accurate as far as I can
see it. When people who know more are reading this text, please let me know in case
of any errors.
<BR>
I will be covering succesfull offensives, but also the ones that weren't so
succesfull :(...
<HR>

<H2>2: Tales from the battlefield</H3>

<H3>Galaxy Elric: The FORMOS Offensive</H3>
<H3><I>*** Early stage offensive ***</I></H3>

<HR>
<H4>Introduction</H4>

Galaxy Elric was my first Galaxy game playing the Zargons, 26 players, map size
120x120.

Map of the Battlefield (not on scale, handmade :(

<PRE>
0								 50
--------------------------------------------------------------------
	^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Republic Of Avalon area

*z1

*z2

z3          z4(HP)                                 o
       *           *                                    o

+f8

+f10(HP)
                                  +f9(HP)

+f11

o13       o14       +f12              o    o

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Daernyithi area
--------------------------------------------------------------------
</PRE>

<H4>The involved forces</H4>

<UL>
<LI>In the north we have the Republic of Avalon area, allied with the Zargons.
    But to far away to directly interfere. For the offensive the Republic of
    Avalon however supplied about 100 drones as deflector support.
<LI>Zargons occupy the planets z1,z2,z3 and z4(Zargon HomePlanet).

<LI>FORMOS occupy the planets f8,f9(HomePlanet),f10(FORMOS HomePlanet) and
    in the south two fresh colonies f11 and f12.

<LI>Daernyithi occuping the far southern area, will also supply drone support
    for the FORMOS.
</UL>

<H4>History</H4>

Already in the first turns on the game FORMOS had captured f9 and f8 from the
Eatworms in one single blow. A very cunning move and it make the galaxy tremble.
Because it was my first game I was very afraid FORMOS would push further to the
north. So an agreement was signed that FORMOS would not go futher north than
planet 7.<BR>
FORMOS captured the planets f11 and f12, after this f9 and f8 where colonized.
Especially f8 was the moment to keep an more closely eye on the FORMOS. At the
same time suddenly the FORMOS Techlevels increased at alarming rate. I suspect
that FORMOS was preparing for an offensive.<BR>

<H5>Zargons</H5>

Because it was my first game my first ship design was a complete disaster, a mass
49 ship with speed 8 (Ruyter).... much too slow.<BR>
In this stage of the game 2 ZOC's where defined;<BR>
<UL>
<LI>z1 - z4, of course the most important, it was only light defended by the slow
    Ruyter and a number of small ships ((power)deflectors).
<LI>5 - 7, named the OrionBelt by Avalon, not occupied but is a very strategic
    area. Defended by 1 Ruyter and some smaller ships.
</UL>
You see the Zargon frontlines where very lightly defended. The OrionBelt was
even better defended because this was the logical place where the FORMOS could
strike.

<H5>FORMOS</H5>

Unknown

<H4>PHASE 1: Recce and the FORMOS attack</H4>

At the Zargon Homeplanet drones where build to probe the FORMOS planets. At the
same time when the probing took place, a FORMOS division attacked planet 7,
from planet f8.
Because of the tense situation I already send the OrionBelt Division to that
planet. This battle was won by the OrionBelt Division, the FORMOS losses where
however low. The most important result was the fact that it was now absolutly
neccessary to quickyl start the offensive because FORMOS started the war.
Later on I understood that the FORMOS attack was in fact a mistake. Diplomatic
negotiations where going on, but my mind was already made up.

<H4>PHASE 2: The directives for the offensive</H4>

The drones showed that the FORMOS homeplanet(f10) was not that well defended.
However the report of planet f8 was the reason of some panic at the Zargon
military staff. At that planet a mass 300-400 battlestation was stationed, at
this stage it could withstand everything I could throw at it.<BR>
<BR>
<B>The Directives</B>

<UL>
<LI>FORMOS must think that the main attack is aimed at planet f8.

<UL>
     To archieve this only planet f8 and f9 are constantly probed.
  </UL>

<LI>The battlestation must be pinned down at planet f8.

<UL>
    The constant probing was done by armed probes and mass 24 ships, the risk
    had to be made.
  </UL>

<LI>The main attack will hit the FORMOS Homeplanet(f10).

<UL>
    The main attack was performed by a new to be build 2nd-ShockStarDivision.
    The ships were send directly to their target. In the last turn the Deflectors
    were build which could reach the target in one turn. The Republic of Avalon
    supplied some extra Deflectors.
  </UL>

</UL>

<H4>PHASE 3: The start of the offensive</H4>

The 2nd-ShockStarDivision was send to planet f10 and captured it. Daernyithi was
aware of the attack and reacted by sending deflector support for the FORMOS, how
they arrived one turn too late and by that time peace between Zargon and Daernyithi
was declared.

<H4>PHASE 4: Huge blunder of the Zargons</H4>

I made a stupid mistake when I forgot to probe planet f8, so I didn't know if the
FORMOS battlestation was still there. At the same time I saw on the map a '-' which
I thought was the BS moving towards the FORMOS HomePlanet to recapture it. I
totally draw the wrong conclusion and sended the OrionBelt division to planet f8.
<B>KABOOM!!!</B>... (dark voice) "The battlestation was still there".<BR>
At the same time a high-shield Zargonian ship attacked f9 but was blown to pieces.
However it did quite some damage and managed to further pin down more FORMOS forces.

<H4>PHASE 5: Spitsroeden lopen</H4>

Now the situation was bad, when FORMOS would send the BS through the OrionBelt
to the Zargon core-planets, there was nothing to stop it.<BR>
The 2nd-ShockStarDivision was send to planet f8 to eliminate the BS. At the same
the Zargonian factories produced a new OrionBelt Division which was stationed
at planet 5.<BR>
After fierce fighting at planet f8 the BS and other FORMOS structures where
destroyed.

<H4>PHASE 6: Drive through</H4>

The 2nd-ShockStarDivision now was send to f9, and that concluded the FORMOS
offensive. The last two FORMOS planets in the south weren't a threat.<BR>
I made the mistake to boast this victory by using global messages, this
scared the other races and quickly an Anti-Zargon-Club was formed. The Zargons
were of course still allied with Avalon and Daernythi was slowly becoming also
an ally.<BR>
It was important to <B>hold</B> the captured planets, so the FORMOS offensive
was followed by the <B>ZEF-action</B>

<H4>PHASE 7: ZEF-action Prelude</H4>

The ex-FORMOS planets formed a new ZOC, and the 2nd-ShockStarDivision was
controlling it. However to keep the neighbours out, the frontline had to be set
outside this new ZOC. Therefore the Expeditional Army was build, two
ZEF-Divisions (Zargon Expeditional Force) where build (Main ships only mass 49).
The first was send to the outer OrionBelt perimeter and the second far far south
to a planet (ZEF) just between the Daernythi and Gobi empire. Before that probes
and especially armed probes where send to the new neighbours to keep them something
to think about and to keep them from attacking me.