Imperium: --------- Tips for playing better -- or -- "How to swim in a pool full of sharks" by Chris King ---------------------------------------- Imperium is a multiplayer strategic wargame for two to fifteen players. Each player starts out with a single city, a sysop con- figurable number of units, and a blank map. The object of the game is essentially to conquer the world. Victory conditons will proba- bly vary from bbs to bbs but in the end, "He who has the most cities will win". Caveat Aleator "Let the Player beware", since the setup of Imperium allows the sysop to have so much control over the way the game initializes and plays it's difficult to come up with any particular strategies or tactics that'll work even most of the time. One of the most important things that a player should do at the outset of a game, is check out the game setup: What are the costs of each units, how strong are they, how much damage can they take, how quickly do they move...these factors can (and do) vary widely between games. But even with such widely varying setups there are certain things that new and old players should consider and keep in mind while playing. One other consideration, while not 'fair' in the strictest sense, is a simple fact of the way the game operates... moving early. The player who moves before his enemies has the advantage of being able to eliminate units that could be later used against him during that day. So the early bird does capture more cities. General Strategies: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Early in the game (<10% cities) Concentrate on expansion. Avoid conflicts with your near neighbors and agree on borders. Fighting with your neigbors early on in the game wastes your units and theirs while allowing more distant empires to grow unchecked. Build armies on your frontiers and more costly units closer to the center of your empire. Post sentry units on the borders that you have established. Note: If you arrive late for a game and are about to be eaten by a vicious neighbor, run. Don't waste units trying to beat off the wolf, hold your cities as long as possible while pulling back units to safer(?) rear areas. Even if you eventually run out of places to go, you'll be much better set up to bloody the aggressors nose and hold off his chance of victory by fighting another day. Breakout (10-20% cities) Generally it's at this point in the game that alliances start to break down. You've discovered/captured all the cities you can within your established territory, it's time to go knocking on somebody elses door. Try to keep the number of actual people you are fighting down to a minimum (i.e. don't attack all of your former allies at once), who you decide to attack should depend first on your deployment of forces, secondly on the enemies local forces, thirdly on the resources (cities) in the region you're going to attack, and lastly on the terrain of the region. When you attack a neighbor, if at all possible you want to have the numbers on your side. Heavy units should move in first to soften up the territory for your armies and transports, but they shouldn't advance too far ahead or the openings they create will close up again before the armies arrive. Strike at cities first, units second. By depriving your enemy of cities (even if you can't hold them) you are eliminating his reinforcements and airfields. When attacking units (and this will vary depending on the game setup) go for the armies and transports first. Without these, the enemy can't take back cities. Attacking in this manner can often offset an imbalance in forces. Avoid attacking regions you haven't scouted thoroughly, you'll waste time and units hunting for the resources rather than quickly moving in and capturing them. When you initially capture cities you're going to want them producing quick turnaround items (armies would be best, but if tanks or fighters cost less...) since you don't want to waste time waiting for costlier items in cities that might be retaken. Build costlier units in areas that are back off the front lines and more secure from enemy attack. Try and use the terrain to your advantage. Block mountain passes with stacks of units; force your enemy to take longer routes by keeping sentries and blockades on the more direct routes (nothing like a couple of battleships in a channel to keep the tranports away). Plan your attack routes as carefully as the terrain warrants, sneak attacks and careful use of engineers and dredges can severely undermine your enemy's defenses. Consolidation (25-40% cities) This point in the game is similar in many respects to the early game. At this point there are generally three or four dominant empires in the world, the rest of the players having been either annihilated or squeezed down into insignificance. In most cases none of the major empires are allied with each other but there aren't any major offensives going on either. Balance of power might be another good description of this phase of the game, because that's essentially why the fighting isn't more severe, noone can risk the number of units it would take to really attack one of others. Your borders aren't too quiet but your empire is large enough to where small brush wars aren't a major problem either. What you need to do during this phase is highly dependent on the way that the game was setup, but there are several common elements that'll need to be done no matter what the game. Clear out the little guys; build up your heavy units; keep your borders supplied with units; and harass your enemies. You've been nice to your little neighbors (or serfs) for probably 2-3 months now, but you're going to need those cities for the final crunch. So, be diplomatic, be forceful, and mow them down. It's not nice, but then whoever said ruling the world was nice? Don't waste a lot of units on this, regional cities plus a few tranports should suffice; the use of nuclear weapons isn't called for (and sets an extremely dangerous precedent). Depending on your empire and the type of map you're playing on this is also the time to be building up your navy, tanks, fighters, missiles, and engineers. If it's a wet world or a world with signifcant oceans battleships, carriers, and cruisers are needed to police your portion of it. Tanks are going to be necessary to provide both the 'home guard' and the extra push on the fronts. Fighters are your eyes abroad, the more you have the more you can afford to harass your enemies with (if you can afford to drop five fighters into an enemy transport, you can bet it'll be worth it). Missiles, as I'll discuss later, are not something to be used without a lot of forethought, but a stockpile can certainly act as a very effective deterrent. Engineers at this point are best used for city construction; if you can do it, turn your inner empire into a metropolis of cities. The extra resources will be the key to your victory. It's unlikely that your borders with the other large empires are going to be quiet. More than likely the situation will have devolved into a trench war where neither side of the border has yet built up the necessary forces to make a real break in the other side's lines. There isn't an easy solution to this, you need to keep the border supplied with units to prevent the other empire from taking your cities and it'd certainly be nice if you could grab some of his besides. Possible ideas are: sneak attacks behind the lines (a single transport, or a few armies let through a new pass) to force your enemy to pull forces back from the front; use of fighters and ships to damage the reinforcements; and the old pull back, outflank, and strike at rear of the enemy trick (very dangerous but an effective way to breakout of a stalemate). Harass your neighboring empires, strike at transports and carriers, fly fighters way behind his lines, keep the other players from knowing exactly what you're going to do. If they're on their toes and they aren't on yours; try to keep up a certain level of worry among your opponents (by leaving ships off their coasts, tanks in their homeland, etc) but don't go too far. An overscared/annoyed enemy is likely as not to drop missile in your backyard. While you can take this as a compliment to your strategy it does put a crimp in your budget. Final Conflict ( >40% cities) At this point one of three things has happened: all but one of the other contenders have taken out and you and your opponent can probably look forward to a couple of weeks (at least) of bludgeoning each other to death; you have twice as many cities as your remaining two-three opponents, but they are unified against you; or you have a decisive lead over the remainder of a still fighting world. (One on one for the world). In the first case, you might consider offering your opponent a draw. Two reasonably balanced opponents could spend quite literally months trying to capture a majority of the world; which if you like that kind of mental/physical/electronic exercise is all well and good but you might ask the sysop to open another door of Imperium so someone else can play. If your opponent is fundamentally opposed to sharing the world with your ilk, then your only choices are to give it your all or lay down and die. Assuming the former, you and your opponent will simply start smashing away at each other, the types and kinds of attacks and units to use and when and how to use them will depend entirely on the game setup. And since you've been playing this game for several months you'll be far better able to judge how to conduct this offensive than I. (The United Forces against Tyranny). Yep, that's you the Tyrant. This is a real difficult situation to win, while you have numeric and production superiority over any one of your opponents, together they are equal to or superior to you. A great deal depends on the position of the empires, the setup of the game, and the stability of the opposing alliance, but there are several strategies you might try: Annihilate one of the opposing players; hold your borders and build; or attempt to dominate one aspect of the game. In the first case, annihilating one of the other players, you need to strike as quickly as possible, not to conquer but to simply destroy one of the other players (see I told you that missile stockpile would come in handy). Depeding on the geography obliterate the border between your empire and theirs, take out all their ports, bio-strike their units. The important thing here is the shock value that it'll have on the rest of the alliance. There is the possibility of taking some major damage of your own at this point, but we're hoping that the other empires are after your empire not simply your head. While conducting the strike you also need to make a push to keep the other players occupied, either with minimal troop landings on their shores, or a heavy push along their borders. When all the dust dies down, go back to the beginning of this section and re-evaluate the situation. In the second case, we are assuming that you have a production advantage over your opponents and that you have nothing to lose by heavily fortifying your borders while continuing to build up your forces. The choice of forces is important, but armies, tanks, (and transports, depending) are going to be absolutely necessary. When you've managed to achieve a significant edge in total forces (and score which is dependent not only on the quantity of forces, but their strength), 20-30% is a good measure, break down the walls and go hunting. In the third case, dominating an aspect of the game, assumes that you have an advantage due to geography or good planning in one aspect of the game or another (in this case I'm using aspect to refer to either air, land, or sea). I've seen many victories pulled out by players who were able to use their navies to control the oceans were able to hold off enemies with greater city resources by denying them any access to the water. Land domination works in a similar manner, using tanks (in large quantities) to cruise by enemy cities on a daily basis killing off new units before the enemy had a chance to utilize them. Air superiority is a bit trickier since fighters have a limited range, but in combination with a good network of cities and carriers fighters can keep you informed as to all your enemies movements as well as giving you a long range attack arm. General Tactics: (or making better use of your units) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armies: ~~~~~~~ Your victory in the end will more than likely depend on your abililty to deliver armies swiftly and numerously to your fronts than on any other single factor. Armies are the only units that can capture cities. So, no matter how powerful all your other forces are, if you don't have enough armies in the right places, your empire can't grow. If you don't grow you're gonna die. As a general rule armies should number 40-60% of your total forces. Fighters: ~~~~~~~~~ Fighters serve two vital purposes, scouting and support. In the early portion of the game your fighters will spot out the nearest free cities much faster than your armies can. This frees up your armies for doing things like taking the cities, which then increases the territory that your fighters can cover. When attacking an enemy your fighters can provide key information with respect to enemy unit locations and types and can be used to soften up areas for your incoming forces. Or if you're in trouble and losing ground your fighters can provide support by harassing the enemy and thinning his forces and by scouting out the locations of incoming attacks. Tanks: ~~~~~~ Generally the strongest land unit, tanks are best used for both front line offense and behind the lines defense. Leaving one tank in the backfield for each city might be a bit much but a 3:2 ratio will ensure that your cities, if not completely safe from a sneak attack, can at least hold off and slow down the enemy long enough for you to divert some forces from elsewhere to assist in the attack. When using tanks on the front lines to soften up the territory for your armies, it is vitally important not to let the tanks outrun the armies by more than a day or two. Any longer than this and the enemy will have time to rebuild / reinforce the cities / territory before your armies arrive. Destroyers: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Destroyers are usually your fastest ships, both in terms of production time and in terms of speed. They also tend to be one of the weakest attack craft. The best use for destroyers in the early game is to scout out the coastlines around the world out of range of your fighters; locating all the other empires; and seeing what other ships inhabit the sea. Later on in the game, Destroyers make good escort ships for Transports, good coastal patrol boats, and reasonable enemy transport hunters. Submarines: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Subs are considered to be high offense/low defense ships. Which means that they hit hard but can't take much damage. This generally makes them highly effective coastal defenses against transports and scouting destroyers, but against larger ships they are usually outclassed both in speed and power. The decision on whether to build more destroyers than subs should be based on cost and strength, if subs cost about the same as destroyers you should as a rule keep about twice as many on hand. They're, without a doubt, your most cost effective coastal defense. Troop Transports: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Worth their weight in gold, these ships are (if the game needs them). No matter how many armies you have, if you can't get them to where you need them (quickly) then you're not going to conquer the world. Tranports are not generally considered attack ships (check the setup), and shouldn't be used to attack other craft unless you have an ocean full of them or no armies left to put on them. The most obvious use for transports is in moving armies/tanks/engineers across bodies of water that they can't cross in a timely manner (if at all); another use is in speed delivery. Depending on the setup, transports move 1.5-3 times faster than armies, you can move the troops down the coast a lot faster by boat than by foot. Cruisers: ~~~~~~~~~ Cruiser are medium class attack ships, on a good day they can eat three destroyers and a sub for breakfast. Cruisers tend to make the best hunter/killer ships in terms of cost; these are the ships you generally use in breakout to destroy your enemies reinforcements before they arrive, with two cruisers operating together you can generally take out a transport and its escort with a minimum of damage. Cruisiers tend to work best when played as open-water attack ships; generally being wasted in coast defense and overwhelmed when approaching enemy shores. Carriers: ~~~~~~~~~ When you go out to attack an enemy's homeland and you land your troopships, you're going to be in serious trouble if you can't provide suffucient air cover to defend and scout for your troops. Carriers provide mobil airfields that allow your fighters to range all over the world; allowing you to stage troop landings on shores before the enemy has even figured out where you came from. As a general rule, Carriers are high defense/low offense ships; attacking other ships with a carrier is in most cases just going to put the carrier in port a lot more. Battleships: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are the heavy guns in the fleet. High offense/high defense ships, Battleships let you take the war to the enemy's shore and harass his coastal defenses, destroy the ships being repaired in port and transports as they're loaded. Using a battleship or two to cruise a sea channel is generally one of the easiest ways to ensure that no transports are going to try and come that way. While destroyers are excellent coastal defense ships, and cruisers are open sea hunters, battleships are coastal offense ships. Cruise Missiles: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Probably the single most volatile unit on the board, cruise missiles can also be one the most varied and game-dependent units. Just flying one of these past an enemy city is generally considered suffucient cause to drop one on you, finding them in/near an enemy's city also a good reason to do all you can to destroy/take the units/city. Depending on how the missile warheads are set up a player can easily set an enemy back two weeks in just be dropping a medium radii neutron warhead in the right place. If the game is set up with larger more nasty weapons players can be COMPLETELY eliminated with two or three missiles. Is it any wonder that everyone is as paranoid about them in this game as they are in real life? The first person to use one of these in a game is usually the first person to be eliminated from the game, everyone else tends to jump all over them. If the need does arise when you need to use missiles look over the situation carefully before arming them, consider what do you really want to accomplish. Do you want to erradicate a player completely from the game and make certain that nobody moves through that territory again? Or would simply destroying all the units within a given region suffice? Or maybe destroying all the units and freeing all the cities? Generally the level of retaliation rises to at least the level of your attack, so be prepared when you give the gift that'll keep on giving. Engineers: ~~~~~~~~~~ When you need to cut a pass through mountains, fill in a swamp, ford a river, or build a new city you need an engineer. The 'Army Corp of Engineers' is responsible for handling all these tasks and will generally take several days to accomplish any one of them. Engineers are what might be termed no offense/low defense units, attacking with them is usually suicidal. They tend to move slowly, but they get the job done. If it takes an engineer 4 days to cut a pass or ford a river it will take him 2 days to fill a swamp (Half the time). To build a city an engineer needs a construction crew, and as is typical for government project it takes him as many days as he needs armies (So if an engineer need 5 armies to build a city, it's going to take him 5 days). Engineers aren't terribly useful in the early part of the game, when there are plenty of free cities and the terrain has yet to be fully mapped. They usually hit their high usage in terms of terrain modification during the breakout when the need to bypass the normal and obvious attack routes is most needed. During the consolidation when there tend to be a lot of loose armies floating around engineers can make good use of them while increasing a player's cities. Dredges: ~~~~~~~~ Dredges are the ship equivalents to engineers, though they aren't quite as versatile. Given a certain amount of time a dredge can cut a channel of water through a piece of land, given half that time and a dredge can cut through a swamp. Dredges see most of their use during the breakout, but those that survive that period of the game are often used by players to give water access to inland cities near coasts.