Battles

Depending on whether you are attacking or defending, you will have different objectives during a battle. Table VII.1 shows the differences, including battle objectives, between the attacking side and the defending side. Each battlefield contains several locations of tactical significance. Each type is outlined below.

Points of Contention (POC) Points of Contention are the primary objectives on the battlefield (see Figure VII.12). Defending factions must prevent attackers from capturing their POC. Once attackers control all POC, they achieve victory and the battle ends. To capture a POC, move any ground unit onto it. The POC then lights up, segment by segment. When the POC has entirely lit up, your faction’s symbol appears on it, meaning you have captured it. Defending units can recapture a POC in the same manner. Aerial units cannot capture POC.

Refueling Stations Energy plays a large role in most battles. If a unit runs out of Energy, it is unable to move or fire. All battlefields contain refueling stations--methane springs for methane reactors and recharge pads for batteries (see Figures VII.17 and VII.18). These stations have great tactical significance because a unit with the appropriate type of power supply can increase its Energy by simply standing on the refueling station.

Equally important is understanding how your units arrive at and retreat from the battlefield.

Battle Spawn Location When you enter Battle Mode, the location of your units varies according to the specific circumstances through which you joined the battle. If you enter an ongoing battle, or enter a battle as the initiating attacker, your units appear (spawn) on the battlefield next to the portal through which you entered. Whenever you reinforce the battle through the in-battle reinforcement feature (see Section VI.B.4 [page 47]), your new units also spawn at this location. If the province you are in is attacked, your units spawn in the location you are standing. Whenever you reinforce the battle through the in-battle reinforcement feature, your new squad appears at a portal near friendly territory.

Retreating Your Units If ill prepared for an enemy assault, the prudent decision may be to retreat from battle. When engaged in a battle with your squad, you can click the "Retreat" button to quickly retreat (see Figure VII.19). All of your units will move to the portal through which you entered the battle (or the nearest portal if you were attacked). Once your entire squad has retreated from the battle, reinforcement options will appear in the top right of the A ction Window. You can either deploy new troops and reinforce the battle (see Section VI.B.4 [page 47]), or you can retreat completely from the conflict.

You can also manually retreat one or more units. To do so, move your units to any portal that leads to a faction-controlled province. When a unit reaches a portal, you receive a message via the "Incoming Message Indicator" (see Figure VII.20), notifying you that that unit is trying to escape from the battlefield. Click the "Incoming Message Indicator" and then "OK" to retreat the unit. Once one of your units retreat through a portal, your remaining units may only retreat from that battle through the same portal. There is no penalty to your units for retreating.

In-Battle Reinforcements If your squad leaves the battlefield, either by retreating or being destroyed, you can choose between reinforcing the battle with a fresh squad or retreating from the battle entirely. When the last unit of your squad is destroyed (or retreats), you will see a message in the top right corner of the Action Window that indicates the time remaining before you can reinforce the battle (see Figure VII.21). While waiting to reinforce, you can utilize the Unit Deployment Screen to configure your next squad. Unit deployment is discussed further in Section V.F

Once the timer reaches zero, you can reinforce the current battle with your new squad by clicking the "Reinforce" button. If you decide not to reinforce the battle, you can retreat by clicking the "Retreat" button.

Battlefield Commander For each battle, the hero with the highest Tactics on each side assumes the role of the Battlefield Commander (BC). Battlefield Commanders manage the flow of reinforcements into the battle. They can access the Battle Command Menu by clicking the "Acceptance" button (see Figure VII.22) or by pressing Ctrl+F7.The possible acceptance settings are

Auto-Accept When auto-accept is employed, any faction hero can join the fight if the maximum number of heroes (see Section VI.A.1.a [page 42]) is not exceeded. This setting is the default and is generally preferrable. Any hero on your Ignore List (see Section IV.C.1 [page 27]) is rejected regardless.

Auto-Reject When using the auto-reject setting, no members of your faction can join the fight. This choice is best when the battle is lost and you wish to prevent your allies from suffering the imminent defeat.

Manual Select Battlefield Commanders can screen heroes who wish to join the fight by selecting the manual select option. When manual select is chosen, the "Incoming Message Indicator" lights up whenever a hero asks for permission to join the battle. Click the "Incoming Message Indicator" to view the hero requesting entry and decide if he or she should be allowed into the fray. This setting can be used to keep troublesome or abusive heroes out of battles.

spoils of war

Initially, it is through battles that you and your position in the galaxy are defined. Combat yields many rewards for the victorious (see Figure VII.24). Except as noted, spoils are divided evenly among the members (units or heroes depending upon the spoil in question) of the winning side. If you disconnect from the game while in a battle, whether intentionally or not, you suffer a loss as if you had been defeated.

Experience All units of the winning side gain experience points based upon enemy unit experience and the value of the province in which the battle occurs.

Additionally, destroyed units from either side lose a very small percentage of their experience. A portion of the experience that destroyed units lose is awarded to the units that destroyed them. The remaining portion is divided among those units' allies. Note that units on the losing side also gain experience for their kills in battle.

Remember that because experience awards are based upon the experience of your opponents' units, it is possible to win a battle and/or destroy many enemy units and gain very little experience.

Battlefield Commander : The Battlefield Commander gains a +10% experience point bonus.

Relative Difficulty : If the sum of unit levels of the winning side is greater than the sum of unit levels of the losing side, the winners' experience point gains are reduced proportionately. For example, if you defeat someone half your strength, you get half of the experience you would have received if they were the same strength as you.

Time Involved : Heroes who arrive late to a battle receive reduced, or even zero experience. This policy is to encourage heroes to earn their advancement themselves and not overly rely on others. Furthermore, the experience each unit receives is dependent upon how long that unit remains alive in the battle.

Initiating a Battle : For their bravery, there is a small experience bonus given to heroes who initiate battles.

Whenever one of your units achieves a new level, you receive experience points equal to the level the unit reached squared. For example, if your Infantry unit advances from level 9 to level 10, you receive 10*10 = 100 experience points in the Infantry Division.

Record and Prestige All battle participants gain either one win or one loss, as appropriate. Additionally, the winners gain prestige and the defeated lose prestige. The amount of prestige won or lost is based upon the prestige of your opponent. For example, a very prestigious (and presumably powerful) hero gains little, if any, prestige for defeating an undecorated opponent.

Territory and Tribute The winning faction gains control of the province in which the battle occurred. If multiple allied factions comprise the winning team, the first faction to attack the province gains the territory. The controlling faction extracts tribute (money and resources) from each province and distributes this wealth (after deducting taxes) to all of its members every 15 minutes of real time. Note that heroes who have not been actively fighting against other factions receive a smaller portion of their faction's tribute. Besides tribute, capturing provinces can also yield strategic advantages.

aliens sims traning

The preceding sections about combat have concentrated on player-versus-player combat for provinces. Battles against aliens (with and/or against other players) and simulated battles are also possible.

Aliens A seemingly endless supply of aliens (see Figure VII.25, on the next page) pours from the subterranean realm, conquering any faction-owned provinces that are not constantly inhabited. Provincial battles against aliens are very similar to those against other players except prestige is neither gained nor lost.

For reasons only their dark minds can fathom, the aliens respond proportionately to threats. Should another hero join your battle against the aliens, more of the foul creatures will rise from their subterranean homes to deal with the greater threat. The quantity and difficulty of aliens you face increase as you travel further from your own capital. Battles against aliens in the subterranean lairs tend to be more difficult than surface battles. Often, aliens not seen above ground lurk in these dank lairs. These underground regions cannot be conquered.

Simulated Battles Combat in the Simulation Center (Sim) is excellent for testing new unit designs and strategies. You can also utilize the Sim for analyzing unfamiliar provinces before an attack. To participate in a simulated battle, simply go to the Sim (with units deployed) and click the province to use as the simulated terrain. Only one instance of a simulated combat for a specific province is possible at a time throughout the entire planet. Heroes do not need to be from the same faction to fight a simulated battle against each other.

The first hero to enter a province in the Sim is the leader of that simulated combat and can ban disruptive heroes as seen fit. All heroes must then walk to either the blue (defender) or red (attacker) areas of the simulated map. The leader then begins the combat. Nothing is won or lost in simulated combat and, because simulated units are used, your actual units are not damaged.

Combat Training Battles Battles in the Combat Training Facility (CTF) are designed to let you experiment with different chassis without having to buy them. Instead of using your own units, a variety of pre-made units with various chassis are provided. You can even experiment with some chassis you may not be able to purchase because of the Influence requirement (see Section V.A [page 34]). Unlike battles in the Sim, CTF combat is performed alone and against computer-controlled units.

Cadet Combat Field The Cadet Combat Field (CCF) allows low ranking players from every faction on the planet to engage in a large battle. Each CCF battle has several POC. All combatants entering the CCF are designated as attackers and must fight against all other factions in capturing the POC.