EMPEROR OF THE FADING SUNS
NOVA
The New Start
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EMPEROR OF THE FADING SUNS NOVA The New Start |
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Last updated: March 8, 2000
The About Nova page describes the rationale behind the changes we made in Nova. This page gives you some hints for playing Nova.
The contents of this page apply to Nova version 2.3. Some points may not be applicable to earlier versions.
The initial tax rate in Nova is 12%. To raise the loyalty of your cities from their initial 75% to 100% (recommended), you need to reduce your tax rate to 3%. (Each 1% cut in tax rate gives a 3% rise in loyalty, so, to raise loyalty by 25%, you need to cut taxes by 9%.) You can do this by dragging the tax rate slider all the way to the left (0%) and then clicking three times on the right-arrow.
You should raise your tithe skim rate to the maximum possible. The only penalty for doing so may be that the Church will like you less, but I've never noticed a significant difference.
With these settings, you will be running a serious deficit budget. (Remember that Labs cost you 500 Fb per turn, which is not shown in the House Screen.) You need to sell resources to the Agora to make ends meet. At the beginning of the game, you need few gems, exotica, trace and energy, so sell these. Consider building more gem mines if you have gem sites available. If you have difficulty transporting these basic resources to the Agora (or just can't be bothered), consider building processing plants near the Agora. The first-level processing plants (Chemicals and Electronics) are the least profitable, and the third-level plants (Wetware and Cyclotron) are the most profitable.
With standard unit pay and no house traits, your units have a 15%, 5% or 1% chance of routing, depending on whether they are on their own, with an Officer or with a Noble. So it's a good idea to include an Officer or Noble in every major stack. Note that, once a unit takes damage, it checks for routing at the end of each fire phase for the remainder of the battle, so routing is not as unlikely as the figures above might suggest.
In standard EFS, there was a very strong reason not to create mixed foot/mechanized stacks. Since Direct attacks couldn't hit foot units and Close attacks couldn't hit mechanized (tread, wheel, hover and crawler), creating a pure stack of one or the other meant that a lot of the enemy's firepower would be wasted.
In Nova, Direct attacks can hit foot units and Close attacks can hit mechanized. So there is now no reason not to combine foot and mechanized units, at least as far as combat is concerned. But it may slow their movement.
Many types of mechanized units (particularly artillery) are vulnerable to attack by Assassins and Doppelgangers. Units with close accuracy of 2 cannot hit an unspotted Doppelganger at all. Units with close accuracy of 1 (emplaced guns, SP artillery and SP AA) cannot hit an unspotted Assassin either. If the enemy has these units available, you should ensure that your stacks contain some units with higher close accuracy. Infantry and Close Assault Tanks are best for this.
It is still disadvantageous to attack or defend with a mixture of ground and air units, as this allows the enemy to use both his AA attack and his ground attacks. In general, it's best to use aircraft on their own. Of course, there may be times where the requirements of the situation call for a mixed ground/air stack.
Since hover units can now be hit by both AA and ground fire, there's no reason to avoid stacking them with either air or ground units.
Since air units can only be hit AA and Psychic attacks, be sure to include some AA or Psychic strength in each stack. Otherwise the whole stack can be destroyed by a single air unit. The following ground units have no AA or Psychic strength at all, so are particularly vulnerable to air attack: Light Artillery, Howitzer, PTS units, Patriots, Chemical Martyrs, Special Forces and Engineers. In addition, the following personnel units cannot hit air units, but can't be hit by them either: Nobles, Blademasters, Officers, Spies, Assassins and Doppelgangers.
Another result of the above changes to Direct and Close fire is that rank has become more important. First of all, here's a brief explanation of how rank works.
Each unit type has a rank (a number 0-10), which represents how close to the front line it stands in combat. You can find the ranks for Nova units in the Nova Unit Chart.Units with lower rank are selected as targets before units with higher rank. However, units never attempt to fire at a target type that they cannot affect. Units will not double up against a single target unless there are no more targets available. Once a unit is destroyed, targets are reselected for subsequent attacks in the same phase.
Example: I have 6 Foot units in a battle and my opponent has 5. All the units have a Close attack. In the Close Attack Phase, each of his units will be targetted by 1 of mine, except his lowest ranking unit, which will be targetted by 2 of mine. Each of my units will be targetted by 1 of his, except my highest ranking unit, which will not be targetted at all. If one of my units is destroyed in the first attack of the phase (and none of his are destroyed), then my highest ranking unit will be targetted in subsequent attacks of this phase.
Example: I have 5 units in a battle, all of which have an AA attack. My opponent has 2 Air units and 2 Foot units. In the Air Attack Phase, 3 of my units will attack his higher ranking Air unit and 2 will attack his lower ranking Air unit. The Foot units will be ignored in this phase, regardless of their rank.
Cannon Fodder and Late Fire Killers. To quote Dag Stålhandske, who proposed the Combined Arms change: "This means that, if you are numerically superior, some of your highest rank units will never be shot at. Therefore, as long as you are numerically superior, it might be worthwhile to have many high defense/low rank units to form a shield against enemy fire to protect high rank/low defense units. Given ideal circumstances this tactic can be very cost-efficient. Of course, in a game against thinking opponents (the AI certainly does not qualify) you cannot always count on being numerically superior or having the exact type of units you need available." Dag calls this tactic "Cannon Fodder and Late Fire Killers" (CFLFK).
If you want to research proscribed technologies relatively safely, here's a way to do it:
There's another useful trick if you want to research a technology with a proscribed prerequisite, but which is not itself proscribed:
Special Forces, Cybercorps, Rangers, Trackers, Marauders and undercover units eat no food. This is useful, when playing with Universal Warehouse off, as it lets them operate on a hostile planet, without the need for food supplies.
Submarines (including Hunter-Killer Subs) can only be hit by Destroyers, Hunter-Killer Subs and ASW Gunships. Ordinary subs cannot hit each other, as they lack the necessary sonar equipment.
Of the units with anti-submarine capability, Destroyers are the least effective. In a straight fight between a Destroyer and an ordinary sub, the sub has the edge. Subs are also very hard to spot (a minimum spot rating of 6 is required). A Destroyer has only this minimum, and so can only spot a sub in an adjacent hex in 2 cases out of 5. Usually it will have to run blindly into the sub's hex before it knows the sub is there.
Hunter-Killers are a lot better, especially for fighting ordinary subs, who cannot hit back. With a spot rating of 7, they can see a sub in an adjacent hex in 4 cases out of 5.
ASW Gunships are great against subs, because the subs have no AA capability at all. The Gunship can attack over and over, as long as it has movement points remaining, with no risk to itself. ASW Gunships also have a spot rating of 7, so can see a sub in an adjacent hex in 4 cases out of 5.
The best way to find subs is with a Spy on board a Naval Transport. A Spy can always see a sub up to 2 hexes away, and sometimes at 3 hexes.
Assassins and Doppelgangers have the ability to assassinate personnel units. (SEALS also have this ability, but it is too weak to be of much use.) A personnel unit is any ground unit with a rank of 6 or more, primarily Nobles, Officers, Clergy and undercover units.
Usually personnel units are the last units in a stack to be targetted, making them difficult to kill unless the whole stack is defeated. An Assassin, however, will selectively target any personnel units, in the Close Combat phase of an attack. If he has a choice between a Noble and another personnel unit, the Assassin will target the Noble.
As usual, units will not double up against a single target unless there are no other targets. This means that, when attacking a stack containing a single Noble, there's no point in sending in more than one Assassin at a time (unless you think you can defeat the whole stack), because the second one will target some unit other than the Noble. However, it's useful to have more than one Assassin available. If the first one only injures the Noble, you can send in another one afterwards to finish the job.
A Doppelganger has the same ability as an Assassin, but is even stronger. In addition, it can act as a Noble's double: any Assassin attacking a stack which contains a Noble and a Doppelganger will target the Doppelganger in preference to the Noble. In this case, it would make sense to attack with two Assassins, because the first will target the Doppelganger while the second targets the Noble. The more Doppelgangers the stack contains, the more Assassins will be needed to get through to the Noble.
Special techniques are needed to capture hexes which cannot be attacked by land (coastal hexes and offshore cities). First you need to destroy or retreat all the defending combat units. You can do this by attacking with the following units:
Once all combat units have been removed, if the hex still contains an enemy non-combat unit you can capture it with a hover unit or by landing any spaceship in the hex (but you can't land a spaceship in an offshore city). Non-lander spaceships on the ground can be captured by hover units, but not by landing a spaceship in the hex. (Lander spaceships on the ground fight as combat units.)
If the hex is a completely empty city, you can capture it with a hover unit, a spaceship (except an offshore city) or a loaded naval transport (the passenger may be a combat or non-combat unit).
When combat is prohibited on Byzantium (no-one has declared themselves Emperor), you can capture empty cities with hover units or loaded naval transports, but not with spaceships. The only way to make an amphibious assault on a hex containing combat or non-combat units is to attack with SEALs.
When invading a well-defended enemy planet, careful planning is required to overcome the orbital stacking limit. The problem is that passenger units take up stacking space in orbit, which doesn't leave space for many warships to defend the transports. Here's a sequence which lets you quickly build up some powerful ground forces on the enemy planet, while maintaining a powerful battle fleet in orbit for protection and bombardment:
Turn 1 — Jump some Invasion Landers into the target system, loaded with Marauders. Drop the Marauders. Jump your battle fleet (as many Cruisers and Dreadnoughts as possible) into the system, to defend the empty Landers.
Turn 2 — Jump a transport (Bulk Hauler, Carrier or Invasion lander) into the system, loaded with tough troops -- you may have to clear some space in orbit first. Transfer the troops to a Lander and land them. Repeat with more transports full of troops. Note that each Lander can make two landings this turn.
Subsequent turns — Continue shipping in troops. Send transports back for more. If you can capture some Starports (or ship in Engineers and build them), then ship in some gems and start recruiting Vau Mercenaries. Or build Genetic Warrior Legions in Labs. (These units only take 1 turn to build.)
The EFS manual gave you very little information about the uses of the many units included in the game, but left you to study a mass of numbers in the chart provided. Nova has a unit chart too, and you will probably want to refer to it, but the following list will, I hope, make your life a little easier, by giving you a rough guide to the uses of each unit. Note that many units in Nova are very different from standard EFS.
Units marked * require one or more proscribed technologies.
All space units are built in Starports.
Capital Ships (Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Dreadnought*). These ships form your main fighting forces in space. The smaller ships are useful early in the game, when you have few ships and stacking restrictions are less likely to be important. Later in the game, you will want to build the bigger ships, so you can pack more strength into the limited stacking space, but the smaller ships will still be useful as scouts and escorts. The smaller ships are also more cost-effective against an opponent using light ships (see below), because the heavy guns of the bigger ships are wasted on such tiny craft. Cruisers and Dreadnoughts are essential if you require a planetary bombardment capability.
Starbases (Starbase, Meson Starbase*). These are approximately equivalent in strength to a Destroyer and a Dreadnought respectively, but without the jump capability. Consequently they only cost about 40% as much, making them highly cost-effective for defending a single planet.
Light Ships (Space Torpedo Bomber, Martyr Torpedo Bomber*, Space Fighter, Cyber Fighter*). In terms of capabilities and costs, these lie somewhere between capital ships and starbases. They have no jump capability, but they can be transported from one planet to another. Of course, by the time you've counted in the cost of the transport ship, they're not so cost-effective. But they have one big advantage over capital ships: they can jump (on board a transport) and then unload and attack in the same turn, making them great as raiders. They're probably not so useful as part of your main battle fleet, though there is a theory that it's useful to include a few of them in your battle fleet, as they can draw the fire of your opponent's big guns, and then use their high agility to evade it. Generally, torpedo bombers are most effective against capital ships, while fighters are most effective against other light ships. Martyr Torpedo Bombers, because of their low agility, need to be used as late fire killers, with Fighters as cannon fodder (Fighters are the only spaceships with low enough rank). Providing they are used in this way, they can wreak havoc on enemy capital ships. Little can be said about the capabilities of the highly experimental Cyber Fighter.
Transports (Freighter, Bulk Hauler, Space Carrier, Battle Carrier). Freighters can carry 2 units. The other transports can carry 4. Note the useful ability to transfer cargo in space (by dragging the cargo directly from one transport to another). This allows you to ferry a unit across several jump routes in a single turn. All types of transport can carry light ships into battle, but the carriers are designed specially for this purpose. They have much better armor and armament than Freighters and Bulk Haulers (which have no armament at all). Also, light ships can fight while still on board a carrier, and they receive a +3 agility bonus for starting the battle unspotted. On the other hand, carriers are poor value for transporting ground-based units, because their movement allowance of 1 makes it inefficient for them to land on planets.
Landers (Assault Lander, Invasion Lander). The Assault Lander (capacity 2) is generally used when you need to land units outside cities, whether this is to make an assault or just to land an Engineer at a potential city site. The larger Invasion Lander (capacity 4) is designed for full-scale invasions of enemy-held planets, when you need to pack the largest possible invasion force into orbit. It is also a lot tougher than the Assault Lander.
Stealth Ship. Stealth Ships cannot normally be spotted, so use them for secretly spying on other players' ship movements. Note that they will be spotted and attacked if they are in a stack which is attacked, so you should usually avoid stacking them with other ships.
In terms of raw combat strength, foot units come in the following order (approximately): Militia, Patriots, Trackers, Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Dervishes, Partisans, Special Forces, Fanatics, Powered Armor Legion, Vau Mercenaries, Chemical Martyrs, Genetic Warriors, Chem Shock Legion, Assault Legion, Marauders, Xyll Warbeasts, Cybercorps, Rangers, DNA Assault Legion, Guards.
Militia Legion. These units can be built in any city, but they're very weak. You will probably only build them at the start of the game, when you're short of Forts and Factories for building stronger units. If you just want garrison units for static defence, then build Light Artillery or Howitzers: they're much better value.
Infantry Legion. Though a considerable improvement on Militia, regular Infantry is also pretty weak. However, Infantry Legions require no technology and only take 1 turn to build, so they're worth building early in the game, when your Forts may have nothing better to build.
Heavy Infantry Legion. Like regular Infantry, Heavy Infantry takes only 1 turn to build, so it's useful if you need to build an army quickly. Significantly stronger than regular Infantry, and requiring relatively little technology, you will probably want to develop Heavy Infantry early on. Unfortunately, they move no faster than regular Infantry (4 mp).
Powered Armor Units (Powered Armor Legion, Assault Legion, DNA Assault Legion*). These are the mainstream advanced infantry types, in increasing order of ability and technology. Their powered armor, which requires c-steel and monopols, makes them as fast as other advanced infantry types (6 mp), despite their heavy equipment. DNA Assault Legion is the most powerful unit that players can build.
Special Forces. Special Forces are somewhere between Heavy Infantry and Powered Armor Legion in strength and technology. Their long training (5 turns in a Fort) gives them much better spotting and camo skills. Because they use no heavy equipment, they are faster (6 mp) than Heavy Infantry but have no AA capability, making them vulnerable to air attack when alone.
Cybercorps*. Based on Special Forces, but much more advanced, Cybercorps use Wetware technology to give them the highest agility and spotting ability of any foot units. They also have excellent movement (8 mp), camo and accuracy.
Trackers. Trackers have high movement (8 mp), spotting and camo, but very weak combat strength. They are intended for exploration and reconnaissance, not for combat.
Fanatics*. Fanatics are high on firepower, especially at close range, and low on defense. This is problematic since they have low rank. However, they take only 1 turn to build, which is quick for a unit of this strength. Use them against an opponent with little indirect and direct fire, or with a good shield of Patriots. Built in Churches.
Dervishes*. Dervishes are specialized units with a very high Psychic attack, which makes them most cost-effective against high-armor units, as armor is useless against Psychic attack. They're particularly good against wetware-enhanced units (Cybercorps and Doppelgangers), as these have very low Psy defence, and they're pretty good against aircraft. They can also be used as late fire killers. Their main requirement is gems. Built in Churches.
Chem Shock Legion*. Combat drugs give Chem Shock troops (Grimsons) the strength to use unpowered battle armor, and a heightened metabolic rate which makes them significantly more effective than a Powered Armor Legion. Consider building them if you have a good supply of chemicals, but remember that they can only be 'built' in Hospitals.
Ranger Legion*. Rangers use neumonic camouflage to give them a camo rating second only to Doppelgangers. Because fusion cell radiation kills the cloaking organisms on the surface of the armor, cloaking armor has to be unpowered, making this a job for Grimsons. Rangers also have very good movement and spotting, and their combat effectiveness is not far short of a DNA Assault Legion. If you need a high camo combat unit, and you can afford the high cost, build Rangers.
Genetic Warrior Legion*. Superhuman monsters, grown in laboratory vats, Genetic Warriors have no need of fusion cells or drugs to let them use battle armor. They have little attack strength (they're too stupid to use advanced weapons), but their tough defense and low rank makes them useful for protecting more vulnerable units, especially late fire killers. They can also be built (grown) very quickly (1 turn in a Lab).
Xyll Warbeasts*. Xyll warbeasts are tough critters. They're the fastest foot units in the game, and have a powerful Psychic attack. They require lots of biochems, and very little else.
Vau Mercenaries*. With Vau Psychology, you can employ Vau Mercenaries. These take only one turn to 'build' in a starport and have no production cost, except for a 1 gem bribe to Vau officials. On the other hand, they demand a very high rate of pay. This makes them useful for short campaigns, but far too costly to keep as a standing army.
Patriots. Patriots can be built in any city, and make good cannon fodder. Don't use them by themselves, as they have very little firepower. Use them in a stack with other units, where their low rank means that they will draw the enemy's fire, and their highish armor means they have a chance to survive it.
Chemical Martyrs*. Built in Labs. Chemical Martyrs are good late fire killers.
Marauder Legion. Marauders are primarily ground units which have the ability to "drop" from orbit without a transport. This means that a space transport loaded with Marauders can jump into a hostile system and unload the Marauders, who can then drop down to the planet below and immediately attack on the ground. All in one turn! As an added bonus, Marauders can fight in space. When you first build a Marauder, it will be a Marauder (Foot), i.e. a normal foot unit. To prepare it for use in space, move it to a Spaceport and use it as an input unit to build a Marauder (Space). This is a space unit, which operates like a Space Fighter in all ways. To make a "drop", just move it from orbit to a ground hex, and then "disband" it. This converts it back into a Marauder (Foot), so it can move and fight on the ground, like any other foot unit. Before it can make another drop, you have to "refit" it, i.e. convert it back into a Marauder (Space) unit in a Starport. To stop a Marauder from burning up when it drops into a planet's atmosphere, it has a heat-absorbing ablative shield, which is consumed in the process. Hence, when refitting a Marauder, you must pay the cost of replacing this shield (20 chemicals, but you get back 10 of these the next time you disband it, since the shield is not entirely consumed). Refitting takes 1 turn. (Note: each time you refit a Marauder, it returns to 100% health and Green experience level.)
In terms of raw combat strength, mechanized units come in approximately the following order (units of equal strength are bracketed together): (Anti-Aircraft Gun, Light Artillery), (Medium Tank, SP Artillery, SP Anti-Air, Scout Tank), Hover Scout Tank, Howitzer, Battle Tank, (Close Assault Tank, Rocket Artillery), Hover Tank, Hover AA, Assault Gun, Pestulator Artillery, Mega Tank.
Except for emplaced guns, all mechanized units are built in Factories.
Emplaced Guns (Anti-Aircraft Gun, Light Artillery, Howitzer). These are purely defensive units. They can be built in any city, but cannot move or attack (but they can be transported). They are, of course, a lot cheaper than mobile units, and require no technology. The Howitzer is about twice the strength and cost of Light Artillery, but has the same maintenance cost, making it better value in the long run.
Basic Armored Vehicles (Medium Tank, SP Artillery, SP Anti-Air, Scout Tank). These units require no technology. The Scout Tank is about the same strength as a Medium Tank, but has higher movement and better spotting.
Battle Tank. A more powerful general-purpose tank.
Mega Tank*. The most powerful mechanized unit that players can build.
Hover Units (Hover Tank, Hover AA, Hover Scout Tank). Hover units have very high movement, and the ability to move on sea as well as land. Besides SEALs, they are the only land units which can make amphibious assaults (attack from an ocean hex to a land hex), and the only units which can capture an offshore city containing a cargo pod. They can engage naval warships, though they are not cost-effective in this role. Their disadvantage (besides the cost and technology required) is that they can be hit by both ground and AA attacks.
Close Assault Tank. Has a high rank and powerful Close Combat attack, making it an effective late fire killer.
Self-Propelled Artillery (SP Artillery, Rocket Artillery, Assault Gun, Pestulator Artillery*). These units have stronger attacks than tanks, but weaker armor. They should be used in conjunction with other ground units, as their high rank means they can, to some extent, hide behind the other units, reducing their chance of being attacked.
Planet-to-Space Weapons (PTS Missile Launcher, PTS Laser Cannon, PTS Meson Cannon*). Cannot be transported.
All naval units are built in Factories. Only the Hunter-Killer Submarine requires any technology.
Naval Transport. Can carry up to 4 ground units. Has no armament at all.
Destroyer. A fast, light surface ship, with anti-submarine capability. Mainly used as an escort, or against undefended transports. Useful for reconnaissance, because of its high spotting ability. Can also be used for bombardment of weakly held coastal cities. When bombarding cities, bear in mind that the target ground units can fire back.
Battleship. Used for surface naval combat and bombardment of coastal cities. Has no anti-submarine capability. When bombarding cities, bear in mind that the target ground units can fire back.
Carrier. A mobile base for air units. Rarely needed. If you do build one, refer to the Truth about EFS to see how they work.
Submarine. High camo. Can only be hit by Destroyers, ASW Gunships and Hunter-Killer Subs. Powerful attack against surface ships. Slowest naval unit. Can attack on Byzantium II before an Emperor has been declared.
Hunter-Killer Submarine. Primary role is attacking other submarines. Can also attack surface ships, but it's not as good at this as a regular submarine. Can attack on Byzantium II before an Emperor has been declared. Also used for reconnaissance, because of its high spotting ability.
Air units are powerful and flexible, but expensive. Build them if you need their rapid movement capabilities, or if your enemy is weak in AA. It's usually best to use them on their own, not in conjunction with ground units.
All air units are built in Factories. The first 3 require no technology.
Divebomber. General-purpose bomber.
Atmos Fighter. Primary role is against enemy aircraft. Also has a small attack capability against ground and naval targets.
Strategic Bomber. Long-range bomber. Best against low-agility targets.
Anti-Submarine (ASW) Gunship. The only aircraft capable of attacking submarines. It's also effective against surface ships, but relatively weak against land targets. Also used for reconnaissance, because of its high spotting ability.
Morph Fighter* and Morph Divebomber*. High-tech equivalents of the basic aircraft. Very high camo and agility, which means that units with low AA accuracy will have difficulty hitting them.
Spy Plane*. Highest movement and spotting of any unit in the game makes it great for reconnaissance and exploration. But very expensive. One of these can explore a whole planet in about 5 turns.
Noble. You start the game with 5 Nobles, and can't build any more. You must have a Noble on Byzantium (or in orbit above it) in order to vote in an election or to be assigned a ministry. You're eliminated from the game if all your Nobles are killed. A Noble adds to the loyalty of units he's stacked with. He also has a powerful attack of his own (representing portable 'pestulator mortars').
Blademaster*. If you have Blademaster technology, you can convert your Nobles into Blademasters. Move a Noble to a Palace and select Blademaster from the Build Menu. Blademasters perform all the same functions as Nobles. They just move faster and have better combat ability, so they're less vulnerable to assassination.
Officer Corps. Adds to the loyalty of units it's stacked with. It's probably a good idea to include an Officer in every major stack.
Clergy. Takes a long time to 'build' (and only in a Church), but costs nothing to build, so you should build one in any Church which does not urgently need to build something else. Cannot be transported.
Undercover Units (Spy, SEAL, Assassin*, Doppelganger*). These units are likely to be of most use in a multiplayer game, as players struggle to kill each other's Nobles on Byzantium II. They have the following features in common:-
Each type of undercover unit has a different role:
Plague Bomb*. Invading a well-defended planet can be very difficult. An easier alternative is to devastate an enemy planet with a Plague Bomb. Land the bomb on the planet, and attack an enemy unit to trigger the bomb. (Due to various problems with the plague, I recommend playing with the Plague option switched off, which makes Plague Bombs ineffective.)
Vau Workers. Can be captured and converted to Engineers (put to forced labour) by disbanding them.