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"Strategy is the most important department of the art of war, and strategical skill is the highest and rarest function of military genius." --GEORGE S. HILLARD This section of the manual will give some useful tips and strategies for playing Empire Deluxe. These tips are by no means definitive and you will undoubtedly develop many of your own techniques in the course of playing the game. BASIC GAMECertain underlying strategies apply to the playing of all versions of Empire Deluxe. Many of the tips that are presented in this section may also be used in playing the standard and advanced versions of the game. A successful strategy in playing Empire Deluxe can best be described in three words; Expand, Expand, Expand. There are two basic elements to expansion; exploration and conquest. Your production should always be selected with these elements in mind. Since exploration is not a concern in the basic game, you should concentrate on conquest. In the beginning of a basic game, you should produce an Army to capture any cities that exist on the same continent as you. Always capture the closest cities first and expand outward from there. If there is another player on the same continent as you, you should produce nothing but Armies until you have wiped him off the continent. If you feel you are going to lose this conflict, produce a Transport as quickly as possible and flee to an uncontested continent. You should start production on a Transport as soon as possible, usually after you have captured your second or third city. This is so that you may start expanding onto other continents. If your starting continent is not too large, you should have your first Transport done about the same time you are finished conquering that continent. Most of your initial cities should be used to produce Armies to load onto the Transport. Try to stick with your production decisions until the selected unit is produced. Changing a city's production in mid stride is wasteful. Once you have gotten off your home continent, you should choose carefully how you wish to go about conquering the rest of the map. Continents with many cities on them are always preferable to continents with only a few cities. Continents with no cities are a waist of time. Try to pick uncontested continents to attack first as these will be easier to take and defend. However, should an opponent unwisely leave an easily accessible area unprotected, you should consider it your duty to point out his strategic blunder. Always have the first city you conquer on a multi-city continent produce more Armies to insure conquest of the remaining cities. Two basic approaches can be used with success in the initial stages of expansion. The first is the "Johnnie Appleseed" approach. In this strategy, your Transports capture one city on each continent they come to and allow the captured city to produce Armies to capture the rest. This strategy works well if your opponents start at a distance from you, as it allows rapid expansion. The draw back is that your continents will not have as much time to consolidate if your opposition becomes aggressive early on. The second strategy is to drop all of the Armies on a given Transport off at one time and take the continent as quickly a possible. This form of expansion is not quit as quick as the "Johnnie Appleseed" approach, but allows for more rapid consolidation of territory. This strategy is good when your opposition starts the game close to you. Depending on the layout of the map, you may find it useful to use variations on both techniques. One tricky part to expansion is keeping a proper balance of Armies and Transports. You should always try to have enough Armies available to fill your Transports to their maximum limit of six. You should also be careful not to produce so many Armies that you do not have enough Transports to conduct your conquests efficiently. If forced to choose, it is better to side with the former than the latter. You should begin producing your fighting navy -- Destroyers, Cruisers and Battleships -- as soon as possible. The capital ships take a long time to produce so the earlier the better. The first player to have capital ships will have free reign of the oceans for as long as the other players don't have any. One nasty trick is to produce a Destroyer very early in the game and use it to hunt down and sink enemy Transports. This tactic can sometimes cripple the opposition during the early portions of the game. It is also nice to have one if your opponent decides to do the same thing. Once fighting ships appear on the map, Transports should never go unescorted. See all the units on the map are visible it is difficult if not impossible for a Transport to flee from enemy ships and they are very vulnerable in battle. Remember, losing a Transport may also result in the loss of up to six Armies. Enemy Transports should always be your primary naval targets and you can bet they will also be your enemy's as well. Do not engage the enemy's fighting navy unless you have decisive odds, are protecting your Transport fleet or can do a lot of damage to your opponents Transport fleet. Crippled ships should never be used in battle unless absolutely necessary. Repair your ships as often as possible. You never know when they might be needed and repairing ships is easier than replacing them. Capital ships are very powerful and take a long time to produce. This combination makes them very valuable units in the game. You should never use them in a haphazard manner. Victory will often lie with the side who possess the biggest fighting fleet. If your opponent has amassed a fleet of capital ships you cannot hope to match, you may try building a lot of destroyers. Destroyers can outmaneuver the capital ships and allow you to race past his fighting fleet and sink his Transports. All the capital ships in the world won't do him any good if he can't move his Armies off his continents. Once you have taken the uncontested continents, you will then have to turn towards the contested ones. Your strategy here will have to change. Taking continents with only a few cities on them will be easier than continents with many cities on them. Likewise they are harder to defend. What took one Transport full of troops to take will now take several, as your oppositions forces will have to be overwhelmed as well as their cities. Using capital ships to shore bombard the enemy continent just prior to and during your invasion can work quite well. Your success rate will be higher than using Armies to do it and repairing ships is usually easier than creating new Armies. Placing a capital ship in a city to attack enemy units can work as long as your opponent does not amass more than two units on the city at one time. Be careful with this tactic, as a ship in a city dies when that city is captured. When you attack an enemy continent, the cities should be your primary objective. When you take them, you rob your opponent of necessary production and reduce his reinforcements while increasing your own. Always produce Armies on a contested continent until you are assured of victory. It is important that you amass sufficient forces to take a continent once you decide to invade it. Doing otherwise is usually a waist. There are a few exceptions, however. A single Transport filled with Armies can cause a lot of damage to the opposition if used properly. Attacking an important continent with a small force will make your opponent divert necessary resources to secure the continent or risk losing it. Running an Army loaded Transport into an unprotected enemy city that is producing or repairing a capital ship can do much to curtail that players amassing of a fighting fleet. A good offensive strategy will win you the game, a good defensive one will keep you from losing. Don't over extend yourself. Try to keep a few Armies on each conquered continent as a reserve. This reserve can be used to retake cities captured by the enemy and can be used as emergency reinforcements for nearby invasions. A good fighting fleet, however, will always be your best defense. Always keep an eye on the enemy fleet. Incoming capital ships and/or Transports often signifies an invasion and enemy Destroyers can often sneak in behind your lines and sink Transports if not watched. Always try to keep a definable front. Do not let the opposition possess continents behind your lines. Doing so will allow you to concentrate your forces on the front lines and not require you to try to protect every city you own at the same time. If you find that your defensive land forces are being wiped out by enemy shore bombardment, retreat away from the shore. If you cannot, attack the ship before it attacks you. The Army will still probably die, but it will cause more damage in return. Another trick is to use cities to hide units in that are in danger of attack from Destroyers or capital ships. Since these ships cannot attack the city, units in them are invulnerable, but beware the loaded Transport. Always attack where the enemy is weak and defend where he is strong. STANDARD GAMEThe advent of hidden movement and unexplored terrain in the standard game allows for many new and different strategies. You will now have to concentrate on exploration and scouting, as well as conquest, in order to win the game. If you start the game from a city that has other cities visible from it you will want to produce an Army immediately. Otherwise, it may be prudent to produce a Fighter first and then start producing Armies. The Fighter will be able to explore your starting continent rapidly and find other continents to invade later, when your Transports come on line. Fighters make the best scouts but Destroyers can also be useful, especially if the continents on that map are far enough apart that Fighters cannot often reach them. Capital ships should never be use to explore unless they have nothing better to do. Although, a Carrier loaded with Fighters can explore a lot of territory rapidly. Since Submarines are hard to spot, they can be very useful in exploring enemy protected territory. Always try to have a good idea of the layout of an enemy continent before invading it. Invading a continent blind can lead to disaster. Fighters are useful for keeping tabs on enemy troop and fleet movements. Their speed makes them hard to catch and their quick production time makes them less than desirable targets and easy enough to replace. Hidden movement will allow you to sneak forces into areas that before you would have to muscle into. This allows you to accomplish things with smaller forces than before. It also means you will have to watch out for your opposition doing the same thing. Setting Fighters and Destroyers on patrol can warn you of incursions by enemy fleets and Submarines. Armies patrolling your shoreline can also be very beneficial. Try to keep sufficient forces on the front line to warn of incoming invasions and discourage nuisance attacks. Assemble your strike forces behind the lines. This will allow you the surprise the opposition when you are ready. Carriers are best used to extend the range of your Fighters. Although they can meet with some success when used to sink enemy Transports, Carriers should not engage in combat Just like with Transports, try to keep your Carriers full. The best place for a Carrier is in the middle of a large surface fleet. Here they can use their Fighters to range out to spot enemy units. Carrier based Fighters can also be used to clear continents of enemy defenders that shore bombardment cannot reach. Fighters can be used for quick support of invasion forces, although using them too often in this capacity can be expensive. Submarines can be very useful in the game. They can be used to sneak behind enemy lines and wreak havoc on the enemy Transport fleet. They are useful in softening up enemy capital ships to increase your chance of victory with your own capital ships. If you find the enemy's surface fleet far superior to yours, Submarines may be the only type of fleet you will be able to successfully amass. If a Submarine is in danger of being attacked, attack with it first. Your chance of success will be higher. Conversely, if you are in danger of being attacked by a Submarine, attack it first. Remember, a submarine attacking a Battleship has a one in four chance of sinking it. Only a one in eight chance if the Battleship attacks it. Destroyers are great at spotting Submarines but not so great at sinking them. Fighters are cheaper and just as effective once the Submarine has been spotted. Cruisers are the best anti-submarine units. Try to come up with a production strategy early in the game and stick with it. Since cities now gain a production bonus for continued production of a unit, changing a city's production is wasteful. Being too rigid in this can also have its downfalls, however. Produce ships near enough to the front that they can reach it in a relatively short period of time, but not so close that their cities are vulnerable. A city that is on turn 59 of producing a Battleship is just as easy to take as one that is on turn 1. Produce Fighters in your back lines as these can be quickly shuffled up to the front. Use the path command to help facilitate this. ADVANCED GAMEThe advanced version of Empire Deluxe adds more complexity to the game. More careful and judicious use of forces and production will be necessary. Armor adds more versatility to land combat. Armor units are faster and more powerful than Infantry but suffers greatly from terrain. Try to use Armor in clear terrain as much as possible. When using Infantry against Armor use the terrain to your advantage. Try to stay in forests, rivers or mountains. If you are not waging a land battle, land units will always defend best in forests and mountains. Produce Infantry in the initial stages of conquest and expansion, as they can be produced quickly. Use Armor as your staple ground forces. They can fight as well as two Infantry, react faster and only count as one unit for support purposes. Airbase are useful as cheap Carriers and can extend the range of Bombers, as well as, Fighters. Continents without cities can now be useful for air unit staging areas. Placing an Airbase in a non-coastal square on a continent without any cities on it, makes it hard for the enemy to locate and difficult to kill. Bombers are one of the most powerful new units in the game. They are as effective at killing Armor as they are at killing Infantry. They are effective in softening up capital ships and are especially effective in killing Submarines. Their longer range makes them useful scouts. Hiding units in cities to protect them is dangerous with Bombers about. Fighters are best used to destroy enemy Bombers. Defending Bombers against Fighters is a difficult feat and will require your own force of Fighters. Their speed makes Fighters useful in patrol duties and keeping tabs on enemy troop and fleet movements. They are also good at exploring small areas in a short amount of time. Fleets protected by Fighter loaded Carriers become more important with Bombers on the prowl. Careful management of production is a must in the advanced game. Try to arrange your production strategy so that cities with specialization produce what they are specialized in. You will have to watch the effect the number of units you have on the map has on your production times. Long time producing units will suffer more from this than short time ones. You may find it necessary to disband unnecessary units. Disband out of the way land units first since they are difficult to relocate. Remember, an Army takes up just as much support as a Battleship. Build more powerful, long time producing units in favor of short time, less powerful ones. Chose cities that have poor production efficiencies or are in poor positions to stop production at, but remember that it is not the number of units you are producing that counts against support, only the number you have on the map. You may wish to discard the above techniques if you are engaged in a war that is causing a great deal of attrition on your part. Be careful not to produce long term units too near the front. A Bomber can destroy the production of a Battleship as easily as that of an Infantry.
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