Pax Imperia II Tips
===================

After "Dungeon Keeper" - the second Power Words are about the strategy
game "Pax Imperia II" (These PWs are released 4.1.1998, after playing this
game for several days. Thanx to Andreas for hardware). This game is ... let`s say very
similar to "Master of Orion II". If youīve played that before it is not too difficult to
start your own Empire. The realtime-mode is not too bad, slow it down at the
beginning or in important phases. For those who never saw Orion: you can create
your own galactic empire with colonizing planets, doing research, conquering
worlds and managing your empire. It is a complex strategic and economic
simulation where you often have to think about all aspects at once, in short- and
longterm- plans.  I played only the German version, so I am not shure about some
original names. By the way, the German translation of this game has many funny or
just stupid mistakes. (ever seen "Schlitze" in a spaceship? ;-).

Here is one strategy (there are many ways to win) and some common tips:
-I don`t play custom races. My created race are the Elarians. They are
 a proud race of scientists (science +5 in the attributes) and constructors
 (construction +5) of mighty spacefleets. Doing Spionage or sabotage is
 against their honor (spionage -5). They don`t need that because of their
 superior technologigal knowledge (weapons, shield, ship & colonial research
 "high+1"). Alcyone, the home planet of the Quantum Empire is well kown for its
great cities and impressive buildings, for the Elarians are a rich race (finace +1).
- Staring your empire: better test your staring position. If you have
  many opponents, check out that no one is directly nearby. Start on the edge
  of the map.

Important is to find several green planets (very fast population growth)
in range of the start-position. Build at once another transporter and send
the other off at once (Speed = 0). The research should go 100% on research
buildings (750 points, 3750 points) & then on construction. Build these
buildings very fast on your planet & start all yur new planets with
research. This is a very important phase. After some time (hope to have no
encounter yet) you can start researching some weapons & shields & basic spaceship
equipment like fast tactical engines. But do most research on weapons & shields at
the beginning for they are the most important at that time. When you
have some destroyers (donīt resesarch or use rockets -> trash) you should research
very fast for better colonizing units (Class C). Never build a ship with old
weapons when you found new technology, e.g. the waveshield.

- The Elarians don`t like spionage, so don`t pay any money for it (0%).

- Planets: at the beginning is finding & chosing the right planets very
  important. Green is top, best with high wealth, orange is OK when having
  more than 10 population with at least 3 wealth. Donīt build colonies on
  red planets in the beginning, they have no population growth. This
  and efficient research are the keys for your superiority in the
  virtual galaxy.

- When you found in the beginning of your game a green planet with a
  high wealth & population then start with building buildings and later with a
  wharf in the orbit to build fast transporters for more colonisation.

- Research in mid-game: try to skip useless things like the tactical
  drives with defense bonus (takes too long to research). I donīt research any
  warpdrives for more than 2 jump range, because I never needed them. But: to get the
  biggest ship fast you need to research the neutronium (in the field of
  shields) and some other warp-engines & fundamental research. Try fast to
  develop the biggest ships. While waiting for research (Speed = 5) donīt
  forget to look from time to time after your colonies that they always buld what
  you want.

- Computer-research: very stupid. Never stressed on a special field like
  ("How do I get the best shield in the galaxy?"), it just goes through all topics
  with 750 points, then all with 3750 and so on. The Elarians are much more effective.

- Computer-constructing: again stupid. You should be more clever &
  specialize planets for research, finance-centers (many of them in the mid-game to
  finance your future fleets!) or planets with fast contructing. Donīt build some
  constructing buildings at the beginning, time is too short, just start directly with
  science or finace. Donīt ever build a spionage-building (in this partuculary
  strategy).

- Weapons-research: donīt waste any time on rockets and do not research
  at the beginning too much in planetary bombs (firestorm is quite enough). But
  get fast some good long-range weapons (Durg-Cannon) and then some nice mid-range
  weapons.

- Research in Space: donīt waste many points here at the beginning. A
  c-class colonizer is important and a level-3 wharf is good, but here are not too
  many important things. But in the mid-game you will encounter intelligent
  mines.
  To get rid of them research the mines & then the anti-mine-ship and
  build it in your bigger ships. Later, you might encounter mines this ship can`t see
  & so you must research better mines & the better anti-mine-ship.

- The Elarians conquer other worlds & protect these with their fleets
  which guard their systems (the guarding-symbol). They donīt ever need a
  planetary defense system, because parts their fleets (two ships) always protect
  their systems at the border to other territory. They are smart enough not to
  fight at too many places of the galaxy at once, they first finish a branch off
  & then go to another.  Because of their superior technology theyr ships
  win nearly every battle.

- And the computer can play very stupid, he has only three little
  spaceships, notices my big fleet & declares war. Talking about stupidity: the
  computer is not bad at automatic fighting, but has difficulties with good moving big fleets.
  Sometimes you have to move your ships to the right position & click again on
  automatic fight.

- Cracking the planetary defense system: can be difficult with even very
  modern ships, so take at least four big ones (4000) and some medium ships
  (2000) to attack a system with mines, rockets and battlestation.

- In the later mid-game you should start to research good fighters. The
  Elarians don`t have any problems fighting their opponent fleets, but have to be
  careful about fighter pods & battlestations on other planets. Now you should
  fast research all fighters & develop a carrier-ship with some weapons, but mostly
  eagles & co.

- Talking about weapons: the Elarians never use weapons on the left or
  right side on their ships, they attack always from the front, for they never flee.
  Weapons for the front are: long-range like gauss cannon and mid-range weapons like
  the quantum torpedoes. Important especially for attacking mined systems are the
  point-weapons for the around-defense of the ship. Here you should place mostly
  mid-range or short-range heavy weapons, but many different ones. Donīt let the
  computer automatically equip your ship!

- The computer places two fighting fleets in far-weapon-range. But it is
  better to move your ships very near to the enemy fleet & then switch back to
  automatic fight. Then the heavy short-range weapon can be used. With this tactics,
  the Elarians destroy ever four times bigger fleets.

- Attacking heavily guarded systems: the others launch their fighters
  and they come near, your fleet starts. Then press the stop-automatic-button
  and wait for your fleet destroying the fighters. Then start to attack the
  mines and the battlestation. With this easy tactics you save a lot of ships.

- In the mid-game you`ve got many nice planets (I hope for you), so you
  should look from time to time to find the best administrator for the fields
  like ship construction or research. This brings much more points, often 10%,
 
- Damage: in Pax Imperia II, the ships don`t just have hitpoints going
  to zero when being attacked, the enemy attacks can damage important systems as
  tactical engines (no moving), weapons or warp-engines. If your fleet
  doesn`t move or go through the wormhole, try to find out which ship is damaged
  and scrap it.

- Moving your damaged ships back to a construction bay repairs them
  faster. You should research fast the repairing-drone. For fast Hit Recovery (reminds
  me on Diablo...), put two reairing drones in one ship.

- You will see that having a good fleet will be expensive: after the
  first research & colonizing phase start with building specialized finance worlds. When
  having the class-C colonizer, you should also colonize on red worlds if they
  are rich (at least x4). This is a good trick to get many money, because you have
  five million colonists at once on this planet.

- In the end-game (I think you came so far ;-) your empire should attack
  the strongest opponent & build many tranceporters and move the front of your
  systems through the galaxy. With the InfiniShield(tm) and the Corona (great
  weapon) you can easily destroy any planetary defense system. But in the rush of
  building a big fleet look from time to time if you have enough money to finace
  it. If not, scrap the oldest and most damaged ships in the fleet menu.
  During the end-game, the Elarians have enough research points, so they only build
  finance worlds (change switch to "finance").

- When playing against 15 computer opponents, you will see they mostly
  work all together against you, even do research together!  But no problem -
  the superior Quantum Empire of the Elarians win all battles.