PC/CD Gamer UK 44/PCGAMER44.bin/walkthru/fragile.txt

Text File | 1997-01-27 | 12KB | 211 lines

Fragile Allegiance - Playing Guide

For a good fight, start right
You wonÆt get very far without solid foundations. Remember the Chinese proverb
about doubling the amount of rice on every square on the chess-board until you
have veritable paddy-fields by square 30? ThatÆs probably relevant here,
somehow.
In less oriental verbiage, use your working capital wisely. Your initial money
should instantly be put to work generating more funds. At the start, this means
getting your mines up and running. Later on, excess funds can be put to work
developing those mighty fleets and securing new territories. Remember, Fragile
Allegiance is a financial game - your credits arenÆt worth the plastic their encoded
into if theyÆre not begetting more credits.
So while you might hate the Mauna (and who wouldnÆt? Particularly their
mothers...) and have your heart set on pulverising them each new level, itÆs
important to get the show running smoothly first. Build a successful mining
operation that pulls in the most credits possible. Other races, individual asteroids
and even your own workers are expendable, provided you get the maximum
return.

Back to basics
No matter what ore it contains or where it is on the map, itÆs best to develop your
first asteroid as your main centre of operations. After all, itÆs likely to be in the
middle of your eventual sphere of influence. Also, with careful conquest, it will be
buffered from alien attacks by your surrounding empire. Defend it to the hilt, all
the same.
Obviously, your first asteroid will need life support, power storage generators,
mines and so on. It should also have a missile silo, satellite silo, weapons factory,
ship yard and control centre. Put them all to work as soon as you get them (for
instance, start building scout ships and looking for new asteroids straight away).
Use this one asteroid to keep all your ore. This saves confusion when the any-old-
ore Traders, or indeed the federal transporter, come sauntering into range, asking
for an asteroid to visit. YouÆll soon have multiple space rocks, so itÆs best to set
yourself up as a TescoÆs rather than one hundred Mr Singhs.
Initially, youÆll need to move your ore with your transporter. Later on, though,
youÆll be thrilled to purchase the ore teleporter blue-prints from Sci-Tek, so itÆs
all done for you. Wealthy is wise.
A gravity nullifier is money well spent on your first asteroid, since it stops rogue
asteroids wiping out your work in one catastrophic collision (just ask the
dinosaurs).

Support Life
Keeping your colonists alive is vital, what with the unreliability of robots. If we
could do without them, believe me IÆd know!
When you first arrive on an asteroid the transporter automatically builds a CPU.
Before you race to build mines, pop down an air processor, a food production
plant and hydration facilities. This will keep your people fed from the off.
The alternative is to build an Environmental Control Centre. These produce a
small amount of food, water air and power - enough for emergencies. Build an
ECC if youÆre strapped for cash (because youÆre running a tight operation where
most of your money is always invested - good work) or if you only need to stay on
the asteroid long enough to rip out the small supplies of precious Traxium and
Nexos youÆve found.

Social Securities
People being, all too sadly, people, you might need to add security centres,
medical centres and radiation filters. Stick them all on your first asteroid, just in
case. Later on you can play the situation by ear. DonÆt bother building Resi-
blocks - they just attract hundreds of migrant workers, overpopulation and the
general skull-duggery that encourages.

Mr Buy Right
YouÆll get most of your advanced goods from Sci-Tek, by purchasing the blue-
prints. This is all to the good, Sci-Tek is virtually TetraCorpÆs brother company,
but remember that no-one uses and abuses like a sibling. Spend wisely, always
considering the return youÆll get.
There are a few goodies youÆll want as soon as possible. Topping the list is the
Seismic Penetrator, which enables you to mine the most valuable ores. (You need
these ores to build certain equipment, and for general credit balance
enhancement.)
The MK2 Mine and MK2 Deep Bore Mine will double the speed of your mining
facilities. Do we need to talk cash flow here, or have you been paying attention?
Anti-missile pods. These stop you getting bombarded early on, and are thus vital.
If you find youÆre off to a flying start, Sci-Tek have lots of other ways of
liberating your funds. The following are useful luxuries:
Repair facility - You can set these to look after your best colonies while you go
off to desecrate pastures new.
Asteroid engines - Glorified ram-raiding for the extra-terrestrial masses.
Shield x50 multiplier - Extra protection for your fleets.
Construction droids - Help you build your mighty fleets even more quickly.
Ore teleporter - Did you buy Fragile Allegiance to play a coalman? Enough said.
Anti-virus missile - donÆt buy these from
Sci-Tek, buy a couple from a trader. YouÆll save credits since the blue-print is
very expensive, considering youÆre unlikely to need very many at once.
One final word to the wise. DonÆt spend all your money at Sci-Tek. There are
often better ways of spending your money, particularly at the start of the game.
Having said that, if you can get a piece of kit like the MK2 mines relatively early
on, you will (if left alone) score a devastating advantage long term.

Hitting Hard
If youÆre going to play an overtly aggressive game, you need to do so from the
start. As soon as youÆve built your construction facilities, start creating small
strong fleets of scouts and assault craft. As these are assembling, gather as much
information on the aliens as you can using scout ships and spy satellites. A few
tips:
1. DonÆt bother with Combat Eagles at the start of the game. TheyÆre too
expensive and they consume a lot of ore. Concentrate on your scouts and assault
craft.
2. DonÆt waste expensive weapons on your first plucky yet weedy fighters. Photon
cannons and napalm orbs will do just fine. Costly guns wonÆt significantly reduce
the chances of their weedy owners exploding.
3. Build fleets of 20-30 cheap craft. These should be able to tackle most early
alien colonies. YouÆll know when your enemies have begun to build better
defences, as these fleets will be annihilated in seconds.
4. Remember you will soon have to start funding expensive craft like Combat
Eagles and Destructors - as soon as your weaker fleets begin to fall. Plan
accordingly. ItÆs a good idea to buy the x50 shield from Sci-Tek to protect your
investment.

Attack! Attack! No stop!
There is a logical order which you should follow if youÆre to overcome your
enemies.
It is not:
1. Stumble across an alien outpost.
2. Launch everything youÆve got at it.

It is:
1. Stumble across an alien outpost.
2. Employ agents to gather vital information about the colony.
3. Get the same agents to tamper with defences and retaliation facilities.
4. Now bombard the defences with a rain of missile death.
5. Finally, send in your fleets to destroy any remaining buildings and to mop up
alien craft survivors.

Rock Rockets
Missiles are a vital part of war in Fragile Allegiance, but remember that they are
inherently awful. Missiles are clumsy and just as explosive on empty moon rock
as on the buildings you actually wanted them to hit. Save your missiles for heavily
colonised asteroids. These are likely to be protected with anti-missile turrets.
Check first with a spy satellite. The aliens will laugh into their tentacles at the site
of half a million credits worth of fireworks lighting the sky.
To wipe the sorry excuse for a smile from their faces:
1. Always launch from several different silos
at once.
2. Launch lots of cheap missiles as well as a few expensive ones. ItÆs the shoaling
strategy - your cheap missiles act as decoys and soak up some of the defences.
3. Consider freezing the asteroid with the Stasis missile. This will enable you to
launch loads of missiles, almost at your leisure. Missiles arriving at a frozen
asteroid hang in the air until stasis runs out. Then they all come crashing down.
How dÆya like that, Mr QuÆrdo Manuau-Squeeg?

Fleeter Fleets
ItÆs obvious, but many people forget all about repairing their fleets. If you want to
get the best out of them, itÆs much cheaper to keep your craft in good repair. Get
the blue-prints for the Repair Facility from Sci-Tek.
To repair Scout Ships, Assault Craft and Combat Eagles, land them in the
hangars.
Medium and large ships need a Space Dock in orbit. As the craft fly around the
asteroid, the Space Dock and Repair Facility mend the craft.
It may take months to return all your craft to full working order, but thatÆs still
quicker then building them all from scratch. Build a second Repair Facility if
youÆre rushed for time.


Know thy neighbour
There is no such thing as community. What a wonderful TetraCorp employee Mrs
T. would have made. Below is a summary of Fragile AllegianceÆs rational self-
seekers, and some tips on dealing with them rationally for your gain.

Supervisors
DonÆt prevaricate; these guys are worth the cost. Employing supervisors will
enable you to concentrate your efforts on conquest, rather than day-to-day colony
management.
There is a strict correlation between the price paid for a supervisor and his or her
quality. Get the best you can. I can personally recommend Makepeace Fox,
Thomas Lorca and Andreas Perrers as about the best in the business.
Keep your supervisors well paid, or theyÆll turn nasty, which will cost you a lot
more in the long run.

Traders
Important for obtaining specialist items and medicines like Vir-Attack and Bio-
Fort, traders are also vitally important if youÆre to make money. ItÆs tempting to
sell your ore to the Federal Transporter, but laziness costs. Compare the prices
theyÆre offering with the transporter, and keep notes every time it visits to follow
trends in price. Traxium and Nexos are the most important money-spinners, and
also the most volatile.
I wouldnÆt let Traxium go for less than 60,000 credits and IÆd ask near 200,000
for Nexos.
The luxury goods, tools, machinery and other goods the traders bring can be
bought and sold for profit, but to make money takes some effort on your part. You
may prefer to just stick to ores. If you are tempted to play the markets, do it in
style. YouÆll only get worthwhile rewards from big risks, so send back those ten
fur coats and order ten thousand. Apart from the Anti-Virus missile, buy weapons
blue-prints from Sci-Tek and make your own. ItÆs far cheaper in the long term.

Agents
DonÆt skimp on agents - always employ them before going to war to collect as
much tactical information on your enemies as possible. Agents should usually be
your first line of attack in battle, since their covert sabotage missions can save you
big bucks on missiles. TheyÆre even handy in peacetime, just to let you know what
your rivals are up to.
The best agents can all but destroy a colony single handed. TheyÆre expensive
though, and best employed tactically to take out a critical asteroid when fighting
on several fronts.
Personally, I recommend Vyvyan Beauregard and Scot Mandelson.

Aliens
Make as many non-aggression pacts with your rival cultures as possible. You can
always break them (and so can they) but youÆll still be fairly certain that youÆll not
be attacked by two or three cultures at once. Years of experience in the
Fragmented Sectors has made me very cynical when it comes to aliens. They
break down simply as follows:
The Mauna - Kill them. TheyÆre aggressive, nasty and theyÆll try to get you first.
The Artemians and the Mikotaj - Not as lethal as the Mauna, theyÆll still cause
headaches with random, senseless and profit-impairing war-mongering. Best
destroyed after youÆve got rid of the Mauna.
The Braccatians - Fine unless provoked, when theyÆll fight back with a
vengeance. So donÆt provoke them. Until you can destroy them.
The Acheans and the Regelians - Easy going neighbours, they should be putty in
your hands.