[starbase ogg]

Using a frontline StarBase

by Erik Lauer

These pages are maintained by Frank Niessink.
Last updated on 26 feb 1996.
A front line SB can be a huge asset in a fairly even game. Generally the SB is most effective at a planet close to the path between the two homeworlds. So in a FED ROM game, ind and can are likely planets to be near, in a FED ORI game bet and pol are good choices. Generally the SB should try to defend that planet, stay alive, protect teamates nearby, and perhaps occasionally move up to support actions on the enemy front. If your team is having trouble getting kills, the SB can try to give away kills -- but if there is no such problem, the SB should give more attention to the other tasks. A base which lets a friendly carrier get killed because it is trying to give away kills is probably not much of an asset -- carriers like to know their base is trying to protect them.

Where to go For the rest of this, lets assume you are not the SB, since enemies generally don't like taking where the base is, expect more enemy takes at the other planets. If your role involves defending those planets, when you res in and you are looking for a place to go (i.e. nothing obvious), and one of the other front planets is undefended, you should probably fly there. Otherwise the SB can be a good place -- it can sling you up faster, and it should be in a central place (the center is a good place to start if you are unsure -- it is close to both wings).

Base under attack If your SB gets ogged, your team still needs to continue to bomb and take -- that way the longer the other team continues to ogg the base, the further they fall behind. If the other team commits everyone to the base ogg, probably your team needs two people (one who bombs, the other picks up and takes as fast as possible) who are not defending the base. If you are not one of those two, and you are just ressing in, you should fly directly towards your base. If you arrive between oggs, your base can slingshot you forward (pushing your base back). You can slow down as your base does this (saving fuel, and letting your base tractor and pressor longer). If there is no one else, and the base needs to run, you can lock on the base after you fly through it -- you will turn around and fly towards it, the base can keep pressoring you. From this position you are not only helping the base run, but you are directly in the way of oggers. Remember the base only needs one person to pressor off of, so if this is already done, go up and engage enemies. If you engage enemies before they reach the base, it takes them longer to get there (if they rush, you can buttorp them), giving your base more time to run, repair and recover wtemp. If they don't ogg, going forward should help do most tasks anyway. Between waves, the base probably wants to keep running, and might want to pressor of someone. Others should dock to refuel / repair / possibly beam up, and consider if there is some other task they should be doing. If your base is wtemped, it will need others to fire and det for it, if need be stay docked on the base during the ogg (yes you will explode on it, but detting torps and killing oggers is very important), remember you regen enough fuel to continuously phaser while docked on the base.

Picking off the base Picking armies off the base to take is great of course. Often it is not worth the effort to refit and choose a better taking ship type; if you just quickly beam off, then fly to the destination (with base pressors), the time saved often makes for a better chance of taking. If you can see this won't provide an open planet, consider refitting. When you refit on the base, put up your shields -- some damage may come your way (say a ship uncloaks, gets one phaser off, and explodes), and you don't want to die, lose your kills and do an extra 100 to the base. If you are going to take a planet with base support, and plan to basically stay cloaked (say a big firefight to take an agri), an AS is usually best. The AS carries the most, cloaks the longest, takes the most damage to kill, and bombs (when need be) the best. If you are taking an agri, generally it is good to carry 6 not 5, so if the planet pops 1 while you are beaming you still take. If the base is guarding a pile, but not under fire, generally you should dock on the base to get the armies -- the base can get the armies from the pile, and this allows the base to tractor and pressor you to save time. However if there are armies lying around on nearby planets (not guarded by SB), and you don't really need to dock (i.e. if you are out of fuel, you need to dock), pick off those planets first so they don't get bombed. If you carry, but nothing seems to be open, sometimes it is good to drop on the base, and go get more armies. Generally if there are places to drop, it is better to drop than to shuttle though -- the base might blow up with the armies, the armies used won't have that problem.