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- * <F4><C3> COMBAT
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- + <F2><C1>
- + Empires have waged war since the beginning of time. The chaos may abate,
- - allowing periods of calm when you can forge new alliances, but at times
- - you must bow to the inevitable and lead your people into battle.
- +
- + Battles are divided into two parts, space battles and ground battles
- - (see below). Space battles occur when one fleet attacks another fleet
- - or a planet which is guarded by space bases or planetary guns. Ground
- - battles occur if the attacking fleet has tanks and, in its attack
- - against the planet, has managed to get through the space defences
- - (defending fleet, space bases and planetary guns). If there are no
- - defences on a planet, that planet is automatically taken over by the
- - attacker without a battle taking place.
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- * <Pspace_kis.bmp>
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- + If you do not want to fight the battles yourself, you can simulate them.
- - To do this, you need to access the options screen by pressing either the
- - 'Escape' or '0' key, access the 'Game' options menu and change the
- - 'Simulate space battles' or 'Simulate ground battles' option to off.
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- + Before you attack an enemy, you should make sure you have a good chance
- - of winning. Inventions like the enhanced radar let you examine the size
- - of enemy fleets in your radar range. Spy satellites, when deployed in
- - orbit around an enemy planet, can provide information about the tanks
- - and buildings on the planet's surface.
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- + When you are ready to attack, left click on your fleet to select it and
- - right click on the target. Your ships will move towards the enemy, with
- - a red arrow showing the route.
- +
- + <SUBTOPIC>
- + <F3><C5>SPACE BATTLE <F2><C1>
- +
- + When a space battle starts, the time is paused. During this time you are
- - able to choose the formation of your fleet using the icons displayed on
- - the right side of the screen. Left click on an icon to select the
- - desired formation. When you have chosen your formation, left click one
- - of the time icons to start the battle. Your ships will attack the
- - enemy according to the strategy you have chosen.
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- * <Pspace_felallas.bmp>
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- + <C5>Composition of your fleet:<C1>
- + Your fleets can consist of the following units:
- + Large ships: destroyers, corvettes, cruisers and battleships.
- + Small ships: fighters
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- + <SUBTOPIC>
- + Giving orders to large ships:
- - Left click on a ship to select it. To select multiple ships, left click
- - and hold on an empty area then move the mouse to create a selection box.
- - All the ships inside the box will be selected. Holding down the shift key
- - and selecting a ship can also add it to your current selection.
- +
- + When a ship is selected during a battle, various icons will appear on the
- - right side of the screen. These icons represent equipment fitted to your
- - ships such as lasers and missiles. All weapons have different recharge
- - rates which are displayed on the icon. You may want to hold back weapons
- - with long recharge rates for special situations by switching them off.
- - To disable a weapon, left click on its icon. Disabled weapons have a red
- - sign on their icons. To enable a weapon, left click on its icon or right
- - click on its icon and select a target.
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- + Giving orders to your fighters:
- - Left click on an empty area and the small information window will change
- - into the battle status window. The battle status window lists the ships,
- - fighters and firepower of each side in the battle. You can alter the
- - attacking or defensive strategy of your fighters using the slider at the
- - bottom of this window. Left click and hold the small box on the slider,
- - then move the mouse to adjust it to the desired level. If you divide your
- - fleet into two groups and attack the enemy, the attacking fighters will
- - also form two groups, dividing the enemy targets between them. The
- - fighters assigned to defend will stay with your ships, and protect them
- - from enemy ships.
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- * <Pspace_figh_info.bmp>
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- + During battles it is a good idea to occasionally pause time and take
- - a view of the battlefield. You are still able to assign new orders to
- - your ships, or use your more powerful weapons (by enabling their
- - firepower) against a particuarly strong enemy. There are some default
- - camera views which you can activate with the icons around the radar or
- - you can zoom in and rotate the camera to see the enemy ships close up.
- - A special "fighters eye" view can be activated by pressing the C key
- - as long as you have fighters remaining.
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- + <C5>Retreat:<C1> It is sometimes better to retreat from a battle than
- - risk losing. You can retreat by left clicking on the retreat icon at
- - the bottom right of the screen. If you use the retreat option, ships
- - may be destroyed by enemy fire, space debris or collide with another
- - object as they try to get away.
- +
- + <C5>Ship information:<C1> Selecting a ship and left clicking on the
- - small information window in the bottom left corner will bring up a
- - detailed ship information window. The ship's hull strength, shield
- - strength and its weapons are listed. The ship's crew can have several
- - levels of experience, from novice to veteran, which are also shown in
- - this window. The experience level depends on how many battles they have
- - survived. Crews with higher experience levels are more accurate with their
- - weapons and inflict more damage upon the enemy. It is worth remembering
- - that the ships' hulls have different strengths at the front and rear. If a
- - shot hits a weaker part of the hull the ship will take more damage.
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- * <Pspace_info.bmp>
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- + <SUBTOPIC>
- + <C5>Attacking planets:<C1>When you attack a planet, you have several lines of
- - defense to cut through before you can land the ground forces that your fleet
- - is carrying,
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- + <C5>- Space fleets defending the planet.<C1> If a fleet is near the planet
- - you are attacking they will automatically join battle before you can
- - land your forces. The same applies to your own fleets - if you leave a
- - fleet near one of your planets, it will defend that planet when it is
- - attacked.
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- + <C5>- Space bases defending the planet.<C1> If you have produced a space
- - base (see production) on a planet, it will be placed in orbit.
- - Space bases are extremely effective at stopping invaders.
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- + <C5>- Planetary guns and shields.<C1> These buildings are constructed on the
- - planet surface and are used during space battles as an extra line of defense.
- - The guns fire shots from the ground into orbit and can be protected by the
- - shields.
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- + Once you have defeated these defenses, the ground battle can start.
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- + <SUBTOPIC>
- + <F3><C5>GROUND BATTLE <F2><C1>
- +
- + Ground battles are fought on planet surfaces. As with space battles,
- - when you first enter a ground battle the game is paused, allowing you to plan
- - your attack. Using the radar in the bottom right of the screen, you can see
- - the defenses and tanks on the planet, represented as different colored dots.
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- + <C5>White<C1> dots are functional buildings.
- + <C5>Grey<C1> dots are non-functional buildings.
- + <C5>Small red<C1> dots are enemy tanks.
- + <C5>Big red<C1> dots are enemy defense buildings.
- + <C5>Green<C1> dots are your tanks.
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- + To win the Ground Battle and occupy the planet you need to destroy
- - all the enemy tanks and defense buildings. The first step is to land your
- - forces on the planet surface.
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- + <SUBTOPIC>
- + <C5>Landing your forces<C1>
- + You can only land your forces on flat areas outside the red borders.
- - To land your forces move the mouse cursor to a suitable area outside
- - the red zone and left click. A tank carrier will place one tank on
- - the planets surface at that location. You can then repeat the procedure
- - until all your forces are in place. If you want to land all your forces
- - at one location, move the mouse cursor to where you want them to land
- - and then right click.
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- * <Pground_kis.bmp>
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- + <C5>Tank Information <C1>
- + To select a tank, move the mouse cursor over the desired tank and left
- - click. Information regarding the tank will appear in the small information
- - window at the bottom left of the screen. The name, owner, damage level,
- - maximum speed, and turret type of the tank are displayed.
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- + <C5>Moving your Tanks<C1>
- + Left click on a tank then right click on the desired destination. Some
- - tanks cannot cross certain types of terrain and will try to move
- - around the obstacle to its destination. To select multiple tanks, left click
- - and hold on an empty area then move the mouse to create a selection box.
- - All the tanks inside the box will be selected. Holding down the shift key
- - and selecting a tank can also add it to your current selection.
- +
- + <SUBTOPIC>
- + <C5>Attacking <C1>
- + Select the tanks you want to use, then right click on the target. If a
- - tank has more than one weapon fitted it will attack using the weapon
- - with the greatest range. If you hold down CTRL when you left click on
- - a target the tank will move closer to the target and use all its weapons.
- - This does, however, increase the risk of the tank being destroyed by
- - return fire.
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- * <Pground_tanks.bmp>
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- + <C5>Special Weapons<C1>
- + When you select a tank that has any special weapons fitted to it icons
- - are displayed at the bottom of the screen. The weapon can be activated
- - by Left clicking on the icon.
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- + <C5>Starting the Battle<C1>
- + To start the battle, move the mouse cursor over any of the time icons
- - then left click. You can pause the battle at any time
- - by left clicking the pause icon. Alternatively you can use the 1, 2 or
- - 3 keys to select the speed and space bar to pause.
- +
- + <C5>Retreating<C1>
- + If the enemy are destroying too many of your tanks, you are able to
- - retreat from the battle. To do this, move the mouse cursor
- - over the retreat icon then left click. In order for your tanks to
- - retreat, they will need to find a safe area from where the tank
- - carriers can safely retrieve your tanks.
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