Cluster Wars (formerly Empyrean Challenge)

[Chirpsithtra]

Thanks, as a relative novice player, this has been a very valuable thread! A few comments and questions. First of all, I don't understand the bringing of the alien population back to your HW and "re-educating" them. I left all the alien pop there and added some of my own, and they seem to get along fine, no rebel activity, etc. Am I missing something here? I have made many of these same blunders and others. One thing I have learned is, be flexible. I forgot to take unassembled structure to my colony-to-be, so I disassembled some of my ship structure to use, as I was lucky enough to have some excess space. Worked brilliantly. BTW I have ignored Power Plants up to now. There seems to be plenty of fuel available for the time being, it is METS and NONS of which I am running out. But I may pay the price for ignoring Power Plants later. Finally the alien ruins in the next system: believe me, it is tougher to take than you think. I have made two attempts and not yet managed to take it. You think that by the combat results that you need just a LITTLE bit more to accomplish the successful attack, but in reality the "up to half" population drafted for militia means that if you send too little in, it will defend with only what it needs to, so then when you send more in, it will defend with more. An experienced player told me that you will need 10 million combat factors to take that (smaller) alien colony. It may be less now that they are running out food and the pop is dying off at 30%/turn.