1. Planet Optimization
   
   
2. Using Trigonometry to Intercept Enemies
   
   
3. Fleet Splitting, How-to and Countermeasures
   
   
4. Reverse Engineering
   
   
5. Cloaked Scouts
   
   
6. Governor & Admiral Scripting Tips & Tricks
   
   
7. Miscellaneous Tips & Tricks
   
   
8. Attacking Tips & Tricks

Fleet splitting is a technique to save a fleet that is at risk from an enemy fleet. Basically you break your fleet into individual ships or into smaller fleets and then send them in different directions thus salvaging at least a portion of your fleet. There are various methods for both splitting your fleet and for counteracting an opponent splitting.

Many of these methods can be used in concert with each other. Try to be inventive.

Disband your fleet(or make several smaller fleets) and then assign a scout admiral to them with the command to scout all systems within an outrageously large area. One possible pitfall with this is if you already have scouts at most of the systems in the galaxy the ships may just freeze in place since there is nothing left to scout. So those of you that like to have large numbers of scouts(cloaked or regular) should take care before using this method. The biggest advantage of this method is the speed with which you can do it. If you have the admiral pre-made you can literally do it in less than a minute.

With this method you manually set the destination of each of your ships or sub-fleets. The advantage of this is you can get them all retreating in the same general direction to facilitate later regrouping. Picking each of the planets in a nearby system is a particular effective way of doing this. In the first turn set all of their destinations seperately and then on the second turn set them all to go to the same destination, regrouping is automatic. The disadvantages of this is that it can take a long time to seperate all of your ships and send them in different directions. Also, if all of your ships are heading in the same basic direction it becomes easier for your enemy to hunt them down. One possible advantage is if all of your ships are headed in the same direction you know any pursuit will head in that direction which will enable you to set up a trap. Here is a trap I did once that I am particularly proud of. It takes 7 turns to culminate so be patient. On the first turn I realize that spawnofbattle is rather irritated with me for some reason and is coming to forcibly evict my small fleet from its new digs. So I decide to go ahead and split my fleet up to make sure I can salvage at least a portion of my ships.

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Here you can see that spawnofbattle is concentrating on retaking this system so normally I would be in the clear. Unfortunately azazel has shown up, you can see his fleet hanging out above my fleeing ships.

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The next several turns show me gradually moving away from azazel(sorry about perspective changes but I am trying to give good clear shots). I am not sure why he continued to pursue me but on turn 431 you can see my interceptor fleet enter the shot. On turn 433 my interceptor fleet is actually within azazel’s scanner range but it is no surprise that he misses it considering the large numbe of fleets within that small volume of space. On turn 434 i managed to eliminate his fleet rather easily.

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In the interest of full disclosure, while this was a nice little victory for me ultimately Azazel and his compatriots beat my allies and myself quite handily. 🙁

This method uses a little known aspect of game mechanics. If your fleet is being chased by an enemy fleet if you split your fleet up the enemy will follow whatever ship or fleet has the most units(assuming they do not adjust their orders). A way to exploit this is to break your ship into many small fleets and then make one of them slightly bigger than the others. Then send this slightly bigger fleet in the opposite direction of all your other fleets. This should allow you to create a good seperation distance between your ships and your opponent. Make sure to send your smaller fleets in slightly different directions. If your opponent adjusts to your tactic you are setting yourself up to lose a lot of ships if they end up in the same spot in space. Also, I am uncertain if ships being located in the same spot in space would trigger the code for following the biggest group of ships. It seems reasonable that it would. Here is an example of The Phantom performing this maneuver masterfully in Team Galaxy 27.

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Do you see the seperation he achieved? I had to zoom out something like 8 levels to see all of his fleets. He basically put the majority of his fleet out of our reach. Additionally he grouped all of his fastest ships in the largest fleet so while before the split we were overtaking his fleet after the split he started pulling away. In this manner he managed to save his entire fleet. This is exactly what you are trying to achieve with fleet splitting. I hope that you are realizing the many underhanded possibilities that exist here.

If you create a fleet and remove all but one ship you can create a fleet with only a single ship in it. This can create some interesting possibilities when your enemy is also splitting in an attempt to destroy your fleet in detail. Which brings us to countermeasures.

When your enemy splits his fleets you are not helpless. You can also split your fleet and pursue him. Once again we run into a little known fact of game mechanics. When your enemy splits his fleet it will not update on your galaxy map UNLESS you update your movement orders. What does this mean? If you suspect your enemy will soon split his fleet if you constantly update your movement orders you will eventually see your enemies fleet devolve into either multiple fleets or multiple ships. You can then do the same with your fleet. In Team Galaxy 27 Bunny Conqueror with Raffnix’s assistance did exactly this when BLM attempted to save his fleet. Here is the set-up.

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And then the subsequent turns.

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Well you get the idea. Sufficed to say the vast majority of BLM’s fleet was destroyed. Our team ended up with so many battle reports it was kind of ridiculous. But it was worth it. 😉

Now lets say that Bunny’s fleet and BLM’s fleet were close in strength but BLM, realizing that he would ultimately lose, split his fleet. Then if he was to create a bunch of single ship fleets(as detailed above) and a few strong fleets he would have been able to target Bunny’s individual ships and defeat them in detail. This was certainly not the case here. Bunny’s fleet was much stronger than BLM’s and the eventual outcome was never in doubt but it certainly is something to keep in mind if you find yourself in a similar situation. If you are facing a capable opponent they can also consolidate their ships and target your stronger fleets but then you can also in turn further subdivide. The possible permutations are nearly endless.

Obviously the biggest disadvantage to this method is that it is very labor intensive. Each ship needs to be directed individually but sometimes it is the best option.

This guide has been created by uncountednose. See the forum contact information.