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Cataclysm Multiplayer Strategy

Somtaaw

Getting Started: Find the enemy! Build a dozen or so extra Recon ships, and deploy them in groups of four to six straight out in all directions from the Command Ship. Avoid sending out lone Recon ships, as they're likely to be destroyed before they do any useful surveillance. Park some Recon ships near the enemy. Don't scout with Acolytes or other Fighters. Recon ships are faster and have one-third greater visual range.

Build and maintain at least eight Workers and, when local resources are exhausted, one Processor.

Upgrades: Build your Hangar Module first so that you can research the Fighter Drive upgrade. Then build your Engineering Module, research your Support Units, and build a Support Unit now and then to keep up the maximum size of your fleet. Don't build all your modules or Support Units at once — you won't have enough RUs to defend yourself or launch a proper recon effort.

Upgrade the Weapons Module after Engineering.

Remember to upgrade to Frigate Drive and then Destroyer Drive so that you can build a Carrier (a Carrier lets you increase your fleet size after you've run out of Support Units).

Managing Strike Craft: Deploy strike craft in large groups. Attack undefended Capital Ships, Workers and Processors in Sphere formation, but otherwise you'll want to rely on Claw, which makes you relatively hard to target and helps you concentrate more firepower on fast-moving craft. Don't attack in a sphere around ships with multiple guns like the Multibeam Frigate and Command Ships. Deploy guard escorts in sphere formation. To keep your ships sorted out in battle, band-box select them all and then manage the various types of ships from the listing at the upper right.

If you're being swarmed by the enemy and are struggling to build up your numbers, keep your fighter craft docked until you have enough of a force to effectively launch your defense.

Resources: Maintain at least eight Workers, with one Processor supporting them. Be sure to guard Workers and your Ore Processor with strike craft! To keep your resourcing units together, set your Ore Processor to "guard" a Worker.

Attack enemy Ore Processors and Workers hard and fast. If you can knock out a Worker early, you'll be at a considerable advantage. As soon as possible, stake out the biggest resource pockets with Ion Cannon Frigates and a strike-craft escort.

Analyze your position and where your enemies are. If you have easy access to a large crystal field, research Salvaging and then Crystal Processing early. If there's early competition for the crystals, go instead for heavy weapons and blow up the crystals to deny them to your opponent.

Capital Ship Tactics: When attacking enemy capital ships with your own, first send a squadron of fighters ahead in a claw formation set to evasive tactics, then deploy your capital ships behind them in a Wall, which offers good firing coverage and yet keeps your ships from shooting each other. Have your Wall concentrate fire on one capital ship at a time, rather than selecting the whole group. Picking off ships one by one, rather than spreading out damage, reduces the amount of overall return fire you'll take. Note that Wall isn't a good formation for strike craft.

Be sure to get the Infection Vaccine upgrade before sending your Ramming Frigates after the Beast!

Command Ships: Keep 10 to 15 Fighters next to your Command Ship at all times. With the Command Ship's support, they will be able to defeat three or four times as many enemy Fighters.

When defending the Command Ship late in the game, keep a Heavy Cruiser and a couple of Ramming Frigates close by as well. As early as possible, determine where the brunt of the attack is coming from, and have your Super Capital Ships face the assault; otherwise, they may get clobbered while they're trying to turn around. Order up an extra batch of Workers and make sure you have the Repair upgrade — you'll need them to repair your ships to withstand a hard siege.

Attack an enemy Command Ship with Multibeam Frigates and Heavy Cruisers, and be sure to have a sizeable escort of Fighters.

Swing your capital ships around and below the Command Ship and direct fire against modules. If you deprive the enemy of Support Units, they won't be in the game long.

Beast

Getting Started: Same as Somtaaw, but your first move in the game should be to research Support Systems. Speed up the first few upgrades by using the System Manager to set Emergency Power Allocation on Research. This will take down the health of your Command Ship, but it will be some time before you're threatened and meanwhile you'll regenerate. Don't forget to continuously research throughout the game, and mutate ships as upgrades become available!

Upgrades: Generally, research Support Systems first and then Fighter Drive. Build Support Units as needed to keep your maximum fleet size up. If you're playing with computer opponents, get the Infection Beam upgrade next, allow an Acolyte to reach the Command Ship, infect it and retire it. If you're playing a human opponent, it's probably best to go for the Plasma Bomb upgrade before the Infection Beam.

Strike Craft: Same as Somtaaw. Also, have a flight of 20 Fighters supported by 10 Bombers on hand at all times.

Resources: Same as Somtaaw.

Capital Ship Tactics: Same as Somtaaw.

Command Ships: Same as Somtaaw, but attack the Command Ship from above instead of below. Hyperspace strategy: Make sure you have the Infection Beam, then get a lot of RUs to pay for the jump and move your Command Ship in close to your rival, go into the Systems manager and redirect power to infection, infect as many of the defending ships as you can and retire them to get their technology.