Round 13 Race Overview

[Banned]

Some people have asked me what race is best, what races should be in their buddypack and similar, so I've decided to whip up this little review of races for everyone. This is not the definitive guide to Round 13 ship stats, you will always have to think and adapt during a Planetarion round to succeed.

Round 13: General
The stats this round do not use the round-robin targeting system that Round 11 and Round 12 did. This has advantage and disadvantages. The advantage is that you can do more about your own and your alliance's defensive situation. The disadvantage is that you're not going to be guaranteed targets all round long.

Stealing
Stealing is the new feature of Round 13 combat. Ships of type Steal all have initiative after Astropods. This means that when defending, Astropods will steal roids (and they will be transported to home planets) before Steal ships fire. But when Stealers fire, they leave no salvage and they run home with their shiney new ships (they are immediately added to your fleet). Stolen ships don't fire later in combat. EMPed ships can be stolen (as opposed to what any bcalc might say).



Terran
Terran have big, bulky ships with high armor and reasonably low damage. This makes attacking easier and hurts their defense.

Offense
Terran are slow starters. At best you can get DE out by about the fifth day, at which point there's already ~30 ticks of attacking headstart on you. Alternatively you can wait until BS before committing your resources. Early DE should be able to hit everyone but Xan, because no one has any other motivation to build anti-DE yet. DE attacks will soon require anti-FR back-up, however. Another option is to BS rush. The Leviathan has low damage, which can be a problem early on, but it is also very easy to flak. Until Xandathrii get Peacekeepers you should be able to get roids very reliably with a BS fleet.

Most of all, expect to take some losses. Your main asset is your armor, it's cheap and plentiful. Check your scans carefully and calculate roidcost before giving up.

Defense
In alliance defense a Terran's assets are its small ships. Harpies, Phoenixes, Gryphons and Drakes will all earn you defense points. Of these, Harpies and Drakes are possible loss defenses while Phoenixes and Gryphons provide zero-loss defenses. Eventually Chimeras will become important as you're called on to defend against other Terran. This last fact could be enough to justify keeping a reasonable DE fleet available at all times.

Why Terran are best
Huge ships that are easily flakked and difficult to stop. Off-class defense against early attack options (Phoenix, Gryphon and to an extent, Drake). Play on the strengths and make sure your attack fleet is as active as possible. And when it isn't available, fake it. Terran are also forgiving; if you make a mistake you don't get punished too hard for it.

Why Terran are worst
Bad damage. Worse damage. Worst damage. While you can get off cheaply on some defenses, your damage is bad and the poor initiative compounds this.



Cathaar
Cathaar's strength is a larger factor in these stats: they have EMP against every class. Unfortunately this means they don't have much kill power. Early on the Beetle/Mosquito fleet should provide a good start, it may even be worth continuing use with Viper back-up. In the long term, however, it is probably best to migrate to CR. Rushing directly to CR is also a very real possibility, especially with the proliferation of Spiders, Assassins and Vsharrak that is bound to happen early on.

Offense
A Cathaar's fleet is simple: Manipulate the number of EMP ships that fire upon your biggest worry upwards as you notice more of them. When you're worrying about FI, build more Beetles. If you're worried about Dragons, build more BW. Consider teaming up with pack and/or alliance mates of all races. An EMP fleet is a powerful thing, but it can be manipulated to collapse under the correct pressure (for example Phoenixes against a CO-fleet). If you can team up for bigger targets you're also going to be able to gain more XP.

Defense
Remember to build your fleet to harmonize with your pack-mates, you're vulnerable to FI and FR early on and DE, CR and BS throughout the round. It's better to get yourself proper backup instead of building the weak killships available to Cath. All EMP ships apart from Scorpions and Roaches will be valued alliance defense and all EMP ships will be valued galaxy defense.

Why Cathaar are best
Lossless attacks are a good possibility, even if the target gets defense. If you want to penny pinch and get the most out of your fleet offensively, Cathaar may be right for you.

Why Cathaar are worst
Inviting target. As Cathaar you make a very inviting target. Your fleet (and therefore value) is likely to be large because of your low losses, but this also means you can expect to be hit by people who want to or can outflak your defense fleet. Remember: with pod 'size' this round you can often attack successfully against planets you won't be able to defend yourself against.



Xandathrii
Xandathrii leave little room for mistakes. Sleeping in or getting a calc wrong can easily cost you your fleet. But you can also do most damage. Much like Cathaar, playing Xandathrii is an issue of the correct application of force, but with Xandathrii you can do lasting damage. Xandathrii are the most versatile race, able to tailor their fleet against any threat. Unfortunately certain configurations leave them open to other attacks. When playing Xandathrii, agree what resource you're trying to get a surplus of with your galmates so you can coordinate balance.

Offense
While Xandathrii has trouble roiding with a single-class fleet due to targeting restrictions, dual-class fleets can often solve this. This makes Xandathrii perfect for cooperations. Early on FI fleets can give you the jump, with Vsharrak and Lyvidians probably being the best to focus on. Eventually all Xandathrii will have to choose between focusing on Pulsars, that help flak Daggers, or Fireblades that fire before both the Pegasus and Lancer. If they branch into CO, cooperation with Cath and Zik becomes a strong option.

Defense
Defense is a Xandathrii's strong point. You can tailor your fleet to be almost unhittable and you can defend your galaxy and alliance all day long. The Fireblade, Sentinel and Vsharrak are all key ships early on, and are all likely to be zero-loss defenses. When Terran BS start showing up, the XPK will be very important; the problem is timing the research to coinside. Keep in touch with some Terrans and make sure you know when they start their Siege Weapons; you shouldn't be far after them.

Why Xandathrii are best
Xandathrii have the potential to do most damage ship-wise, both offensively and defensively. You also have the most versatile fleet possibilities. The ETA 8 Structure Killer is also an advantage. Xandathrii also offer great opportunities for faking.

Why Xandathrii are worst
One mistake can ruin your current position, whether you're at the beginning of the round or the end. Keeping a Xandathrii planet healthy requires attention to detail and quick wit.



Zikonian
With their ability to steal, but weakness against Astropods, Zikonian are put in a unique position. They have a clear disadvantage at keeping roids, but can earn ships by stealing instead. Zikonian also have the hands down best Astropod: the Privateer. Zikonian will require creativity to play, but done right I'm certain that they can prove successful. For Zikonian Distorters are probably worth their weight in gold (or Eonium, I suppose), especially on the lower, less competative tiers. Some people say that you need a strong alliance at your back to play Zikonian. I think you need creativity, skill and conviction that these are enough.

Offense
Zikonians can gain an early advantage with their strong CO. Not only can they pile through most moderate defenses, but they can steal valuable FI. With Zik FI almost as cheap as Xan, they can provide adequate cover for a batch of stolen Daggers. In addition, a Zik with Daggers can threaten both FI and CO, opening up good faking options. I think FR will be the Zikonian offensive work-horse, however. With the ability to steal more FR and CO (read: pod-class ships) the Thief and Buccaneer will probably provide the mainstay for most purchased fleets. If they can their hands on DE, the Clipper is excellent flak, and again provides a good opportunity to fake (especially against other Zik) and Terrans without Syrens. CR are probably the easiest to steal, considering that the Corsair is the only ETA 7 alliance defense against them. Whenever they run out of other anti-CR, they're going to accept the Corsairs with pleasure. While Marauders aren't the best cover possible for Hornets, they do provide an opportunity to steal Scarabs (or even Black Widows, see notes about faking...). Pirates are wonderful flak for Leviathans, and again, make it easier to fake (as they're cheaper than Terran BS).

Defense
While DCs might revile you for your lack of real defense ships, all 3 of the Zikonian 'normal' type ships are valuable defensive assets. Zikonians will probably be called on to defend other Zikonians, so that whole attacking fleets may be stolen, especially early on. Remember that you can earn short term rewards by participating in defenses (if attackers can be coerced to land) that can outdo what you would earn by getting roids.

Why Zikonian are best
Zikonian are best because they can steal every other race's strengths. They also have great pods and offer the opportunity to play PA in an entirely new way.

Why Zikonian are worst
They're effectively unable to defend their roids and their normal ships are 'nothing special'. In addition they risk getting high value early on which can lead to difficulties finding targets and gaining XP.



Combos
This round has plenty of rich combos, and there's much to be gained by working together. Here are some ideas:

Ter/Cath DE/CR - Covers most classes, but can be flooded off by FI or FR.

Ter/Xan FR/DE - Covers all FR/DE targeting ships, but some later than others.

Ter/Zik DE - Requires the Zik to have stolen Demeters, and is doubly powerful with stolen Lancers. Targets all DE targeting clasess, but some late.

Cath/Xan FI/CO - Covers all the smaller classes. Requires the Cath to have a reasonably sized Spider fleet to make up for the Xan's investment in Arrows and FBs.

Cath/Xan FI/CR - An oddball combo that covers most classes, but remains weak to FI flooding. However, if the Cath sends without Spiders, the Xan can recall safely from FI floods. Unfortunately the Cath remains typically vulnerable to FR flood, though the dangerous Scarab/FR combo is negated. Messy, but not easy to correctly defend against.

Cath/Xan FR/CR - *drool*

Cath/Zik CO - This combo wins the award for being most obvious.

Cath/Zik FR/CR - Works a bit like the one for Cath/Xan.

Xan/Zik FR -

Zik/Anyone - Zik can basically team up with anyone once they've stolen the correct pods.

This is by no means comprehensive, but covers the basics.

[Chika]

This is an excellent analysis. Ziks don't seem all that bad, but anyone player shorter than 2 rounds may be turned off by the fact that Zik's "can't defend thier roids". I thought roids were a key part of the game. And if you can't defend them?
Yes, Zik is an excellent choice.

[MAdnRisKy]

very useful guide Jester, you struck a good balance between explaining things in a fashion easy to understand and giving people a good heads up into what to expect and what to use, without giving away everything to leave some room for players with nouse to use this to better their position

[Doorsdown]

nice.. this should help alot of people

[Ultimate Newbie]

Yeah mate, cheers for typing up an excellent description like that

I've been doing number cruching, and coming to similar conclusions (i havent finished yet, but i will soon. Prolly :P ).

So we will be able to compare numbers as well as general descriptions in short order.


Its all good mate

[demiGOD]

Jester with his excellent driver skills. Very helpful and informative

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Banned again.

[TheRat]

Originally Posted by Banned

Some people have asked me what race is best, what races should be in their buddypack and similar, so I've decided to whip up this little review of races for everyone. This is not the definitive guide to Round 13 ship stats, you will always have to think and adapt during a Planetarion round to succeed.

A most excellent posts as always. However, there are a few issues regarding cathaar I disagree on/have a different aproach to.

Originally Posted by Banned

CathaarRushing directly to CR is also a very real possibility, especially with the proliferation of Spiders, Assassins and Vsharrak that is bound to happen early on.

In my opinion, rushing for CR has become to obvious the past 6 months, so people WILL have anti-cr the first 200-300 ticks. This means that the cost of rushing is no longer worth it. By doing so, you lose a load of resources to lack of HCT, a load of ticks to lack of ETA etc. We both saw how effective advanced core extratction was as the first done research, and this would not be possible if rushing for CR. Another fact is that the beetle is powerful enough to make up for the horde of fi we will see early on.

Originally Posted by Banned

Defense
Remember to build your fleet to harmonize with your pack-mates, you're vulnerable to FI and FR early on and DE, CR and BS throughout the round.

I find your analysis here a bit wied. From what Ive seen, Cath will be exceptionally strong against FI early round, since most strategic players will have a horde of beetle. Later round, you will "wtfpwn" BS with the best ships in the game, *drumroll* BW. CR should not be an issue either, as any late-round cat without a decent load of scarab should be shot on sight.

Originally Posted by Banned

Cath/Zik CO - This combo wins the award for being most obvious.

It also wins an award for being damn effective for the Zik, as Ive seen several times during the beta ;-)


-TheRat

[Banned]

Originally Posted by TheRat

I find your analysis here a bit wied. From what Ive seen, Cath will be exceptionally strong against FI early round, since most strategic players will have a horde of beetle. Later round, you will "wtfpwn" BS with the best ships in the game, *drumroll* BW. CR should not be an issue either, as any late-round cat without a decent load of scarab should be shot on sight.

Remember that this round a planet you can attack without losses can attack you and steal full cap.

[TheRat]

Originally Posted by Banned

Remember that this round a planet you can attack without losses can attack you and steal full cap.

Sure, but the weaknesses you mentioned were imho the strongest part of a cat.

[Biggin]

this is an excellent and informative post. even though some may agree or disagree, it's always nice to have another opinion from someone who understands game. thanks for the hard work.

[Banned]

Originally Posted by TheRat

Sure, but the weaknesses you mentioned were imho the strongest part of a cat.

We'll agree to disagree then. But I think it's worth noting that it takes almost 2x value Beetles to stop a Vsh/Dagg attack.

One thing I forgot to touch on earlier re: CR Rush. I agree that it may be better to stick with CO a bit early. It also means you can get a great head start on Jumpgate tech and HCTs. The problem is, of course, that you can only defend against 2 classes.

[Xeno]

Originally Posted by Banned

Remember that this round a planet you can attack without losses can attack you and steal full cap.

Do you care to elaborate? I've been out of the game for a few rounds, and I don't get the point here.

Other than that: Nice rundown. Thanks for sharing!


Xeno

[Banned]

Originally Posted by Xeno

Do you care to elaborate? I've been out of the game for a few rounds, and I don't get the point here.

The combat engine distributes damage by number of each ship present, for example if one side has N Black Widows and the other has M Dragons and M Leviathans, it works out like follows:

N * 125 / 2

damage to Dragons and

N * 125 / 2

damage to Leviathans. The /2 here is actually * M/(M+M), which we shall see is useful later.

However, since 1 Leviathan has ~50% more armor than 1 Dragon, it's much easier to freeze all Dragons than to freeze all Leviathans. To figure out how to freeze* all of a certain ship, do as follows:

Say we are interested in freezing all Leviathans in a BS fleet. We must first determine the number of BS available to fire upon. Assuming X Wyvern, Y Dragons and Z Leviathans, = B Battleships, where X > Y > Z (not an unreasonable assumption).

At this point we need to do Z * 950 damage to Leviathans to stop all of them.

Refering to our earlier formulas for distrubuting damage, we get:

Instead of dividing by 2, we can multiply by (Z/B) (essentially what we did earlier).

So you need (N * 125 * Z)/B damage. Now, since we know Z and B, the number of BW becomes available to us.

Or the simple version:

You need enough Black Widows to stop B Leviathans. So if someone attacks with 50 BS, you need to have enough firepower to stop 50 Leviathans to stop all their Levs, regardless of whether they're actually attacking with 20 or 40. Now, obviously there's going to be enough damage to stop all Wyverns and Dragons if you have this much firepower available. Therefore it's easier to stop all Wyverns/Dragons in a fleet than to stop all Leviathans** in the same fleet.

Therefore, the cheaper your flak is, regardless of price per armor, the more pods you can simulate are coming. This situation is reasonably extreme with Daggers and Vsharrak Fighters, which cost under half that of the pod.

* Or kill, or steal. Works out the same either way.

** That is, you'll still stop all their other ships, but their Leviathans will go unstopped.

[demiGOD]

Originally Posted by Xeno

Do you care to elaborate? I've been out of the game for a few rounds, and I don't get the point here.

Other than that: Nice rundown. Thanks for sharing!


Xeno

Everything that Banned said and this: do not underestimate the power of the DarK SidE!!!

[x-dANGEr]

Nice! BUt, i would like to know what race owns Cath??

Terr Owns Zik ??
Cath Owns Xan ???
etc....

(give them to me plz. :P )

[Ultimate Newbie]

Cath owns cath

The best anti-CR (read: cathaar main attacking fleet), are Scarabs - due to their high effeiciency and the fact that they arent targegeted at all (iirc) by the Cathaar Cruisers.

This contrats with the Xan Bomber, who come under fire from the efficient Roaches (making them less useful), though those that arent stunned will blow nice holes in the cath CR.

[Avenged]

good effort

[Melesse]

Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

Nice! BUt, i would like to know what race owns Cath??

Terr Owns Zik ??
Cath Owns Xan ???
etc....

(give them to me plz. :P )

Every single race is good against cath if you flak them enough? Is that enough for what you're asking

And just about everyone owns Zik....until the Zik start picking up ships from gal defense...

I think I may disagree with you Rat, sure you're going to have loads of Black Widows and Beetles but the fact that you can't kill worth anything means you're still going to have constant incoming from people twice your size. Unless you're in a stellar galaxy, or have a great alliance, Cath roids are always going to be below the rest of the races. Sure, you're going to make up for it a little in XP, cause you're the most effective offensively, but it's going to be hard to grow losing roids every day.

Also I believe that Cath CO is going to be very effective for the first 100-200 ticks, since Beetles are great, and every early ship that targets CO are fighters (except Zik and Terran, and can still hit Zik until they get enough FR). Still, they're going to lose their utility quickly, but they should cover the gap between the beginning and CR.

Melesse

[Clogg]

Crystalclear analyse. Thank you!

[LukeyLove]

yeah gw makes an interesting read

[Gate]

Rat... from my PoV, I see caths late round being quite easy to attack with BS or CR, even by someone the same size. If you were to split your resources roughly equally between anti FI/CO/FR/etc/etc (though I don't see this happening. I can see some caths ignoring the viper and relying on ally/galdef against DE; or building a disproportionate number of roach or beetle for xan roidings etc), then a cath of the same size is likely to spend atleast twice as much on CR as you do on scarabs (as they are likely to use roach and scorps as anti FR and CO respectively, plus there will be pods and perhaps some tarants), and you'd still end up stunning way under half their pods. Therefore, CR attack=free roids, and I don't see how that's going to dissuade an attacker.

It's just that cath targets should be quite easy for a DC to cover against CR/BS, their scarabs should stop many roach, allowing bombers to blow holes in CR, and their widows should stop many wyverns/dragons, reducing losses amongst defending gryphons and XPKs.

Though I didn't play any of the betas, this is just my initial conjecture from a bit of stats-scanning; I'm likely to be very wrong.

[Squishy]

thh caths are gonna see a fair lot of fi incoming. They will have to branch out and buy terants as well as beetles to deter the ziks. Once zik have been capping the fi incoming on gal and alliance they will have a nice fat fi fleet and this will keep on growing as eary on they will be investing in co and the more co they have the more fi they have. Once the ziks have build enough co and fr this will be about the time cath CR becomse a problem. So the zik will invest in some fighters mainly corsairs. And any cath who cant whipe out a hefty number of fi will become a target for the fr/fi combo. So that as long as your fleet is suficiantly flaked (which it should be with all the xan fi/fr you have capped) If they try to stop you without their kill ships their gonna be in serious trouble.

Bassiclay im not sure if what i wrote makes a lot of sense but caths are gonna need kill ships to seriously deter ziks form attacking them other wise the gains are just to good to miss

[Melesse]

I don't think Cath kill ships are worth building, with the exception of the Tarant, and only b/c that's the best flak for the CR pods.

On the other hand, if you don't build defense and concentrate on a VLCF (Very Large Cruiser Fleet) you could easily take larger planets and run your XP score into the stratosphere. If you're active, and don't mind losing roids, it might be worthwhile.

Melesse

[Goatsemaster]

Originally Posted by Melesse

I don't think Cath kill ships are worth building, with the exception of the Tarant, and only b/c that's the best flak for the CR pods.

I think that when you get Beetle incoming you're going to get owned.

[Ultimate Newbie]

I've returned to this thread to compare my experiences with what you (Banned/Jester) predicted would happen. As i am a Xan, i'll focus on them.

Originally Posted by Banned

Xandathrii
Xandathrii leave little room for mistakes. Sleeping in or getting a calc wrong can easily cost you your fleet. But you can also do most damage. Much like Cathaar, playing Xandathrii is an issue of the correct application of force, but with Xandathrii you can do lasting damage.

Thankfully, i havent tested this part out yet. I have been surprised, actually, at how little damage i have taken this round considering the fragility of my fleet. This is often because my defender either fleets, or gets sufficient defence to warrant a recall - but the instances of landing on def has been few and far between. On the three occasions that i have, once i killed all the Cutlasses before they could fire (i'm quite Vsh heavy) and got free roids - the other two i suffered reletively light losses from Tarantuals. :\

Xandathrii are the most versatile race, able to tailor their fleet against any threat. Unfortunately certain configurations leave them open to other attacks.

This is very true, i think. I've specialised in defending against the smaller classes of ships - FI/CO/FR as my ships are the most destructive and also the fastest in the universe and thus of most benefit for defensive purposes (though i tend to keep loosing my Sents :\). However, i am completely vulnerable to CR/BA attacks - of which i get one every second night. So far, the pattern has been ((Last amount of CR incoming) + 500) + (0.5 * Terran BA incoming of 100 + (100*number of instances)) :\ . Its up to 2.5k CR and 300 Battleships now .

I still think that Xans are very vulnerable to Cathaar CR attacks. Any CR Cath who says he cant get through on a Xan is a muppet and prolly should be shot . its a nightmare to defend against.

Offense
While Xandathrii has trouble roiding with a single-class fleet due to targeting restrictions, dual-class fleets can often solve this.

I dont believe that this is true. All round i have attacked with FI only and it has been amazingly successful - of my 12 or so attacks, i have had to recall 3 due to excessive defence (one of them, though, was me just sending 5k assorted Fi that i had at base to retal someone yesterday - so it shouldnt really be considered an attack ). Losses have been very light (see above) and i am ranked some 200 in Value (though not as high in score as i only attack people around my own size or so).

This makes Xandathrii perfect for cooperations.

tbh, i havent really felt the need to co-operate much - and in the two instances that i have they were with other FI Xans . But that might just be me and my target selection :\ .

Eventually all Xandathrii will have to choose between focusing on Pulsars, that help flak Daggers, or Fireblades that fire before both the Pegasus and Lancer.

I went out and got 2500 Fireblades really early - and they have left home thrice (twice as a fake in-gal def fleet, both of which resulted in a recall \o/). Tbh, the rareity of DE fleets make building Fireblades (and Pulsars) next to irrelevent. imo other races can do it alot better - fireblades in my experience can kill bugger all :\.

If they branch into CO, cooperation with Cath and Zik becomes a strong option.

Again, i havent felt the need to co-operate with CO - not only because Xans have no CO pods (and thus fleetvalue is wasted roids), but also because of the effectiveness of my FI fleet. That, and the focus of Caths on CR fleets, and Ziks on FR and BA fleets :\.

[quote]Defense
Defense is a Xandathrii's strong point. You can tailor your fleet to be almost unhittable [quote]

hahahaha! see CR incoming above .

and you can defend your galaxy and alliance all day long. The Fireblade, Sentinel and Vsharrak are all key ships early on, and are all likely to be zero-loss defenses.

I have found the Arrowhead to be extremely useful for defence - infact, they are my only ships that are never home . they completely own Xan FR incoming (Lancers dont seem to be too popular), and they make so many Zik FR fleets recall i would almost call them zero loss defence ships as well. Granted, i tend to have more than most xans, but i find it hard to overstate their effectiveness to my alliance this round.

When Terran BS start showing up, the XPK will be very important;

Heh - i still havent researched Siege Weapons yet (!!) - once my Fleet Scans are available though i shall. Having said that, i do admit that peacekeepers are useful when i am organising def for Battleships - however the losses Xans suffer with these ships is very high, and with the popularity of Dragons and the almost invincible Levs combine to make the peacekeeper's usefulness decrease further. I have found that Terran Chimera and Cath BW are more effective in this regard. Peacekeepers tend to be the coup de grace once a terran has effectively already been stunned to hell - which isnt the most useful distribution of scarce fleet resources. :\

Why Xandathrii are best
Xandathrii have the potential to do most damage ship-wise, both offensively and defensively.

I have found that this is true - however most Xans have great vulnerability against CR/BA. An important factor is also their Initiative - firing before most killing things is a massive advantage for which i have found repeated use for (see killing def outright, above ). Furthermore, Xan FI Targeting is exceptional - the Vsh FI is high damage, low init ETA 7 that targets both Beetles and Cutlasses - (many) Ziks are utterly helpless before my FI fleet (at least those who havent stolen alot of Sentinels), and Caths dont have much of a hope unless they happen to have alot of Tarants. Sentinels are useful as they discourage the use of harpies/sents to be sent back at you to defend with, and combined with the Vsh provide very effective anti FI/CO cover. Considering the ETA's involved, most poeple's only hope is in-gal Tarants or Pegs (or ALOT of beetles/cutlasses/harpies/sents). heh.

Xandathrii also offer great opportunities for faking.

Even with the "cloaked" ships, i dont think that this is the case. The number of FR that a Xan has to build to be able to stage an attack where it looks like FR incoming but is actually FI, or vice versa, is immense. Furthmore, to make this faking look legit, it involves the production of TBT which kind of makes you a Zik magnet (Ziks drool over TBT heavy xans ). I dont think faking is important for Xans. Overwhelming your enemy at low ETA is their strength.

And, obviosuly, the reason why Xans are the best is because I went them ofc

Why Xandathrii are worst
One mistake can ruin your current position, whether you're at the beginning of the round or the end. Keeping a Xandathrii planet healthy requires attention to detail and quick wit.

Again, i havent experienced this myself, but hyperactivity does help .

[Makhil]

Originally Posted by Ultimate Newbie

i only attack people around my own size or so

I think you underestimate your own power. In this round, that is not enough to get you a high ranking, thus i think your choices are not the best. not losing ships is not an issue as well, especially cheap xans FI. Xans have the ability to roid much larger targets (Xans and Cats if you choose the FR/DE option) they are killers and can litteraly destroy an opponent's fleet fool enough not to run (if no def).

[MrPubes]

Right, nice read Ultimate Newbie.
I wrote sth like "My attacks work out nice, and i am pleased with my race choice" some time ago, you remember?
Right now, i am not.
I am unable to land big XP attacks, because all bigger targets would literally crush me.
Big Caths kill too much of my not too little Xan Fi Fleet (bloody Tarants :/) I am Value Rank Top50 as Xan.
Most big Ziks have too many Co/Tarants/Pegs, whatever, to hit with a Fi only fleet.
Other Xans...well...Sentinels are good killers.
I am stocking up on Fireblades now, to test if I can get through at big Terrans, seems like my only chance left.

Any hints? :/

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by MrPubes

Any hints? :/

Hmm, not really - as i havent experienced anything along those lines so far. My Zik target tonight was about 30% bigger than me in value, but he fled his fleet :\.

Damn piggybacker meant that i only got 60 of the 200 roids up for capture. The guy sent everything except the kitchen sink .

Edit: i'll do some kami attacks tomorrow and find out .

[MAdnRisKy]

tbt + lancer on xans like you sov with no or few blades = roids for me

been working very well thus far, an i have a tendancy to land anyway and kill as many arrows as is humanly possible. right now at 500k, I have 400 lancers..... that kills well over 3000 arrows.

[MrPubes]

Ok, now it happened what Ultimate Newbie said may never happen as a Xan.
I landed my Fi Fleet against 12k sentinels, i was to engaged at work to look at the Inet.
Lost my roid fleet nearly completely :/
Let's see if i can build up again....