Orbiter's Ramblings

its just that, not meant as anything other than a discussion.

first, i'd like to introduce you to a concept i'll refer to allot.

the rule of one thousand.

it makes long term estimation easy, as many things can change in the long term of sim country, that is 2+ years. any kind of ruff estimate is just that, and going into enth detail is pointless, when figuring the long term detail, how ever ruff estimates can certainly effect our direction.

so, here it is.

one rl day is 6 GM
one rl year, is 365 days, 2190 GM
half of that is 1095 GM or 6 months, you could figure it the other way, but the point is, 6 RL months is close enough to one thousand, that any GM profit can be converted to a 6 RL profit.

a country that makes 7B profit a GM, will make 7T profit in 6 GMs.

this also help estimate costs, a military upkeep of 35B a GM, will cost you 35T in 6 real life months to maintain.

now their are ways to manipulate this.

second their is the backward rule. the backwards rule, is... if every one in simcountry is doing it one way, the GM WILL create "easter eggs," of hidden fees, and costs to go along with it. or basically, if every one is doing it, the GM will try to stop them.

so if every one does one thing, doing the opposite is the best thing to do!

hey, it works! but it really works when you change like one thing at a time, and pay attention to various effects. and read everything you can, some one might say something you had no clue could even be done!

manipulating military

many ways to manipulate your military ranking, but i was always a no gimmick type guy. so i'd figure what i wanted for garisons, and air defence, and go from their. i could always maintain my military at 50% the cost of others, by keeping gov salaries low.

by keeping goverment salaries low, it lowers the biggest cost of the military, that is the soldiers and officers. ofcourse i had to lower corp salaries to match, but the lower production was greatly outwieghed by the savings in military, gov, education and health savings.

also, make sure to buy 120Q military supplies and services, this will further reduce your military costs.

a good garrison trick

put up garrisons of just light tanks and light artillery. and buy high quality ammo, the monthly use of ammo by your garrisons will draw allot of supplies, drawing high Q ammo through your supply units, raising the supply units, and all ammo transfer quality.

you could even buy cheap LQ ammo for your d batts, add them to you garrison, and eventually the HQ LT/LA ammo will increase your gar Q. works wonders with NDM

buy HQ weapons, only.

thanks for sharing your knowledge josias these are the types of tips that the newer players need and appreciate. Im very glad to see vets like your self helping others and giving back to the game. i think it will be good for the game in the long run.

thanks muchly jack

i'm wanting to talk more about salary manipulation

because their is more to it than that.

first off, i say go low salaries, i have to first say that the GM recommended is 300-500 for corp salaries. corps are most productive, according to them, and most players go high salaries, the 300-500 range.

my theme is 100/120 for gov and corps.

if you looke at a corp, the 2 highest costs, are wages, and material. by lowering your salaries, it will save cost, both in salaries, and material cost. if you are spending allot on raw material, this could improve your over all profit, by reducing cost over the lost production. by following this concept, naturally, your gov sals of 100 compaired to 226/300 greatly reduces military cost, maening the lower production is out weighed by the lower cost in gov, health, and education.

you replace higher corp taxes for the lower population income tax.

its just another way to go.

their is a trade off, your welfare index will be a bit lower, you'll have less population contributions to health, education, and income tax. also lower contributions to the investment fund.

High Tech Seniors, the bulkiest pay range is HTS. they are the meat and potatoes of your economy. Over all, they command the largest percentage of the salaries. and because of their high pay rate, account for the largest portion of the very things i mention above. so by building allot of AQU, WQU, Solid missile fuel, and shuttle corps. they use TONS of HTS, building these corps can some what compensate for the lower salaries, or augment a high sal country

Also, they will help with country supplies

my current test is to see if lowering the life expectancy of my population, means i'll need a higher education priority for things like Exectuives. because they are older anyways, shorter life spans would mean a shorter career. thats the theory anyways.

kinda trying to feel out the effects of a low health index, in relation to my education needs.

raid buy transfer

you can transfer considerably more into a country, than you can buy, instead of buying

in a pinch, you can take over a bunch of C3s, and buy a ton of stuff, and transfer

a better way, with some planning, you can set up stock piles of ammo in your countries. and slowly fill in your defense, to match your country size, and ability. if something happens, you can manually sell weapons from your ceo, (that you can stock pile with out upkeep or manpower cost,) then transfer to the countries in danger.

i like to keep my odd ball stuff in my main country, attack destroyers, and attack torpedoes, seal units, these things can make a nasty surprise for some one, but it doesn't always work, so i only need one set for my entire empire, things like that i'll put in my main. and plan on transferring them as needed

shuttles bypass spending space entirely, and allow you to barrow defense from another planet, if you're on another planet. this can be signifcant, its bailed me out at least once!

scouting

when determining what to put into your garisons. pick you most likely enemy, for lack of an actual enemy, locate the most military powerful country near you.

when looking at that countries home page, their are some things to note. note the financial rank, and the war rank. consider it in comparison to yours.

click on that countries employment link, and at the bottom, it will display the soldiers and officers of the country. if their war rank is lower, (better,) than yours, and you have the same sized military, they have a heavier defense. if they have the same sized army, but higher, (worse,) war rank, they have a heavier offense. by relative comparisons, you can gauge the relative strengths of 2 countries.

also something to note, is how many unemployed MLM and LLWs works they have, as well as their education priorities. it will give you an idea of what they are doing. and what they can do, if needed, allot of unemployed MLM, means that they can dramatically increase their military.

next, click on their capital, and send 2 long range radar planes. they will never know. this will tell you what they have up for garrisons. and clue you into what they are expecting to get hit by. which is also likely they believe that is the strongest attack, and will attack you the same way. make sure to check 3-4 of every target type, cities, bases, forts, factories, towns, and counties.

this doesn't always play true, more experienced war players will have a variety of offensive and defensive options, how ever it is still info to know.

this is also a good time to check the world map, and figure out the range, how you can shorten that to your advantage, or visa versa.

by looking at their deployed air defense, likely, because of upgrades, their reserves will not really match. same with garrisons, fresh garrisons hurt a country, but after a while they settle in. if your target doesn't have garrisons already set up, you can consider that into your calculations. that they will probably set them up, but they will be poorly set up. although, again, vets will not be so transparent.

garrisons

allot can be said, because it also invites an offensive discussion. how ever to simplify...

if you have allot of state corps, when in a sudden dire state, you can set all your corps to 10% hiring. This will reek havoc on your country. it will be difficult to rebuild. how ever, it will take like, what 5ish? hits to equal the war index damage, than before. this works because when a factory is destroyed, it kills a percent of the people in it, if the corp is at 10% hiring, you're talking 10% the pop damage. and you can put minimal garrisons into them, to block painting, and give your opponent a head ache.

also, it will free up allot of officers and such, allowing you to just amass a huge army. again, this will destroy your country, even if you win.

Light Tanks, and Light Artillery, LT/LA tear apart their offensive versions, HT/HA. Make 10-15% of the weapons in your garrisons LT/LA, will rob your opponent of cheap ground assault.

DMB, Defensive Missile Batts, are the only garrison weapon that shoot the main ground offensive weapon, Mid Range Missile Batts, MRMB

AAMB, Anti-aircraft missile batts, are the only weapon that shoots the main air unit, Precision Bombers, PB

MIB, Missile interceptor batteries, greatly reduce the effectiveness of navies, slowing them down long enough for your DMB to hurt them. And drain ammo. They also, combined with DMB, do a number on MRMB.

Nuke defense can be shot by Stealth Bombers, so 10 NDB per garrison, with 50+ missiles, in your capital, cities, and all miltiary bases, and airports.

you can set up garrisons with just LT/LA, and one of each the other d-set batts, and when war comes, you can change the blue print, and it will adjust all the garrisons.

factories are the most likely to be sneak attacked, those and bases/airports. putting in some DMB/MIB in peace time would be prudent

the more units you have, the slower their war page will load

set up, your air defense, and upgrade them. also, set up your supply units, and don't cheap out on ammo. but don't upgrade supply units ammo, its a money pit, and yes, use light tanks for your supply units, with max q ammo, it will eventually upgrade your entire army.

use the map control to move cities, and other vunrable targets away from dangerous borders. if you factories don't have garrisons, move them away, if they do, spread them out. spread our your bases, and with your forts, spread them out, with a focus on the most dangerous borders. i like to put tiny garrisons in my towns and countries, and spread those out, to help block movement, make them fight for each bloody inch, 10 HJ is suppose to be enough, although that sometimes doesn't work.

you must do the map controls before war

defensive units, are actually very good, they work for unpainting, and cost more to destroy than to build. setting up some near a dangerous border, can help slow down a ground assault. and if you know the stacking order, you can have them on the map on top of your offensive units, so they wouldn't be able to shoot your offensive units with out hunting for them on the list.

renaming all your units, and targets to the same name, can confuse your opponent, and make it difficult for them to understand what your doing.

randomly set up odd ball garrisons, like every 7ish cities, or forts, get a garrison with just AAMB and Nuke d. try to make it an unpredictable pattern, that way if they aren't paying attention, you'll do allot of damage, even if they are, you'll take a chunk out of their reserves. if they stop and scout each target, thats still a victory, its taking them allot longer to take you out.

set your black outs, so that you can be online for wars

i think thats most of a basic defense, but i could be missing something

i remembered that i forgot something, but i forgot

their is some random military stuff that needs to be said.

if you run out of military services, all but one of your supply units will stop, even if you can see the supply unit, and it has in it the weapons and ammo you need to resupply, and win.

makes sure to have plenty of mulitary supplies, and services, make sure to have at least 65 games months of each, at minimum 120Q, to save on military upkeep. do not contract these to yourself

trucks, set your purchase goal to 5M trucks, and buy 1-10K a GM, depending on how much you can afford, and every so often, just purchase a bunch. you'll want 2M min, in case of war. 10M isn't really outrageous. 5K trucks per game month, should be 5M trucks in 6 RL months.

aircraft fuel, and gasoline, same as trucks, make sure to keep a good stock pile, 500M tons of AF, and 200M tons of Gasoline, should be enough, and that is over and above your 65 months stockpile.

further war preparation

When talking a country, their are 3 main parts

Air Defense
Painting
Garrisons/Targets

Air defense is interceptor wings, and helicopter wings. interceptors shoot at things in the sky, helicopters shot at thing on the ground, or sea.

Their are for main types of assualt.

Ground
Navy
Air
Missile

Using ground, MRMB combined with OAAMB Offensive Anti-Aircraft Missiles, are used against an undefended, or weak target, to "attack defense," repeatedly, until the helicopters fail to respond. When this attack is made, the DH will shoot at the harder to hit MRMB, while the OAAMB have there way with the DH

This allows for ground, missile, and some of the navy weapons to attack with our the countries air defense, even if the interceptors are still available.

For air, PB combined with Fighters, a BF unit, do the same thing. The interceptors will shot the stalwart PB, while the fighter knock the ints out of the sky. Do this until the interceptors no longer respond. After, you can use units of just PB to strip him of his garrisons.

Considering that the 2 main offensive weapons, that hurt your air d, are MRMB, and PB, most vets will stock pile large numbers of one or both of these. So large numbers of AAMB, DMB, are necessary for any defense.

Once the DH are down, using units with a MRMB mix with Heavy Tanks, and Heavy Artillery, HT/HA, you can "attack target," the DMB and MIB will focus on the harder to hit MRMB, while the HT/HA destroy the target. Thats why its neccissary to have a small amount of LT/LA in each garrison, make your opponent take 2 shots, instead of one, and it'll double the damage he takes.

MRMB only, or MRMB with anti-tank, can counter that, but that doesn't really mean much, as the already mentions DMB, and MIB would tear them up. But MRMB/ATMB will fair a little better.

The biggest concern is the extremely hard to hit PB, and SB, heavy AAMB, will only go so far. Having your own SB to hit their largest air unit, usually PB or BF units, will help. But you'll need your own BF units to thin the heard. The point of this is to keep your own air defense up, and make him shoot through it. Its good to keep a few undeployed, for later.

currently i'd recommend keeping up some air defense during peacetime, and max up grading, you can add more later, and still have a strong quality.

20 Interceptor wings
10 Helicopter wings
5 Stealth bomber wings

set to max upgrade. focus more on the weapons than the ammo. if need be, you can dismantle them, double the number of weapons, and recreate twice as many, while still maintain a very good quality. although it will send you into negitive ammo (because your supply units will try to bring the ammo levels in each unit up to the default, not because you don't actually have ammo,) so double check to make sure you have the right ammo quality set in your purchase strats. buy the best quality you can afford.

I also recommend keeping up some offensive units, with the same ideas.

2 BF units
2 PB units
5 MRMB only units
5 MRMB/OAAMB units

because of cost and relative size, you'll get more value by building your airforce first

to say it again, buy LT and LTA of max q for your supply units, as your country back purchases ammo, it'll average with the HQ of the supply units, before being put into your units.

this way, you can double the number of existing units, and still maintain a high quality. how ever, this takes time to prepare, which is actually pretty cool, if you think about it, prepared defenses gain large bonuses.

somebody else is free to add some navy stuff, thats kinda the area i lack in, shrug, but next i'll probably do some tactics stuff.

First thing to know, is effective ranges. for bombers, and all (O) missile batts, about the mid range, is the most effective.

main thing about that, fighters, max range is 3k, the mid range, 1500, is their most effective. planning on using BF units at the 1200-1500 range will make your BF units their most efficient.

to make the best use of this, you can declare war on a C3, at the approriate range to you enemy, drop and RDU, Rapid Deployment Unit, and when it finishes setting up, it will create an offensive airbase in that location, that you can create air units on.

this allows a couple of things. if they are outside your 3k fighter range, you can drop RDUs, and fight from a closer range. if your countries are 2200 away from each other, and you set up RDUs at the 1200-1500 range, you'll have an advatage shooting at the closer range, while the bad guy is stuck at a less efficient range.

These remote bases can be shot, set them up with enough time, to put garrisons into them before war starts. you can also build air defense around those. if you finish the c3 off, and take it over, you can air drop RDUs from other countries you own, and fed up to have an advanced assault zone, that has some modest defense. to prevent the bad guy from easily stripping you of your attack force.

air units create on a remote base can be dismantled at their remote location, but they can not be airlifted to another location. if you want to air lift from the remote location, you'll first need to create the units at home, and then airlift them.

RDU's can extend your range past 10KM, and if their are C3s avaible next to your target, will allow you ground assault, at a range, that might even be out of PB range, (or even out of SB range,)

Further, RDUs that have been made into units, (awaiting airdrop,) sit ontop of all other units, covering them up. they limit visibility in your country, making it more difficult for your opponent to scout by using LRD. Special Forces, SF, do the same thing.

so you can set up some RDUs and SF units, and hide units under them, for upgrading, so that your opponent wont be aware that you might have 10 fully upgraded BF units. Their is a way to still get this info, but its harder, and more time consuming. make it difficult for the bad guys to know what you got.

you can do something similar, if you figure out the stacking order of units. by putting the heavier defended units ontop of the lesser ones. if you set up say, 20 defense ground units, and 100 offensive ground units. You can airlift around your own country, to get the d units to stack ontop of the o units. then from the list of ground units, (in the war menu, military units, land units,) you can use the boxes to check 1-2 d units, and 5-10 o units, and option at the bottom to "move all selected units to a single location," if you have the stacking order right, the d units will sit on top the o units, and block their visibility.

i forget which way it goes, but i think its older units sit on top the new units, or visa versa, when airlifting, it creates a new unit with the same name, weapons, ammo, and supplies, and dismantles the old, adjusting the stacking order. or you could just plan ahead, what you need and build them in the right order.

an aside point, when some one decs you, their is a 48 hour waiting period, much of what i've said, isn't practical to set up, or figure out in that time, some of what i've said is meant for that 48 hour period. its best to be prepared, and as much set up done, in peace time, as you can afford.

it really stinks, when your fighting for your life, and you go to set up units, just to find out you've ran out of trucks. a little preparation will save your a$$

sneak attacks, and bases

each country get 2 sneak attacks per GM. you can take over a C3, transfer in cruise batts, and missiles, and make your sneak attack.

if you destroy all of their offensive military bases, they can not launch cruise, or convential missiles at you. if you destroy their strat bases, and airports, they can not use nukes. (i don't think that will stop nuke subs, tho, not entirely sure on that one)

it is 2 your advantage to use C3s to knock out their strat bases/airports, in the few hours before war starts, (near the end of the 48 waiting period.) Helis, and Garrisons can completely prevent this, so if your opponent, (or yourself,) have set up proper defenses, this tactic is useless.

these bases will recover each game month, so you may have to repeat the process, but once war has actually started, you can use non-sneak attack methods.

doing allot of construction damage, that is destroying targets in the enemy country, will slow down their repair rate, if they don't have a large stock pile of construction on hand.

you can not sneak attack fleets, but the same concept holds true, you can "attack target," on a fleet, and completely disable it, until the next game month. this is valuable, if your opponent has amassed most of his offense into a navy, he will be rather dangerous, how ever, you can delay his onslaught.

while i'm talking about disabling fleets, attack destroyers, and seal units, do a number on fleets, if you can get them closer enough. this works, because most players decline to buy defensive destroyers. precision bombers, and cruise missiles also work well for disabling fleets

back to sneaks, and bases

if your ally is getting pummeled by nukes, you can sneak their enemies strat bases/airports.

i also like to identify the enemy o bases, knowing that is where the ground units are produced. and knowing that the last one can not be completely destroyed, (you can not prevent them from making new units,) i pick on that is out of the way, like on the far side of the country, and shoot the rest. that way, as i paint, and destroy his un-painters, his new units will be formed away from my main push, and it will even allow me to corral his new units into a corner, making it difficult to unpaint. (Jan gets credit for this one,)

Precision Bombers

in the air, Precision Bombers, are the best. Infact, they are the best overall weapon. They do allot of damage, and have allot of staying power. After you've destroyed their interceptors, use air units of just PB, to strip their targets of garrisons.

for destroying targets, bombers are good against cities, and factories, bases, and fleets. against forts, they use allot of ammo. be ready for a pure bomber assault to cost allot in ammo.

if you also clear the DH, after the interceptors, you can clear garrisons with PB, then use cruise, conventional, or ground to finish of targets. its much cheaper that way, but it takes longer, to switch weapons, and time can be a fleeting resource.

bombers do not hit tanks, artillery, jeeps or armoured vehicles. neither the offensive or defensive versions. if they have LT/LA in the garrisons, and your trying to save PB ammo, you'll need a second attack of Anti-tank, or MRMB to clear the LT/LA out of the garrison, before your HT/HA will be good. Or just use cruise

once the interceptors are down, you can use navies, Navy Fighter Planes, NFP, with 1 cruise missile ship, CMS, to draw out the helis, and let your NFP destroy them. thats the easy way, or you can select the DH units from the list and hit them with fighters. The new updated lists make this allot easy, but the navy way is still quick and easy. the advatage to targeting the DH, is you destroy the unit, and any spare ammo. reducing their ability to resupply. but then that might be assets you don't have to destroy, and your just blowing up things you would own later. play it, as it comes, you know?

Heavy Jeep Assault

This is really more of a joke, but it is a tactic i've used successfully several times.

Create allot of HJ units, allot. and when war starts roll them over the border. When you make an attack, you'll loose your unit. But the idea, is to run them out of ammo, so that their Helis can not resupply.

When doing this, make sure to put several purchases out for defensive heli missiles, that way, your competing with the bad guy trying to restock his DHM.

check the quality of his supply units, if they are poor or mid-range quality, this will have a dramatic effect on the resupply. So a heavy wave of jeeps can reduce the effectiveness of the bad guys DHM.

how ever, most the time, this is only works as a surprise, considering that it is easily countered, with ground units (counter attack,) and transferring HQ ammo from another country, or use of space shuttles.

If a country is close range, I.E. border country, or under 1000, you must have a ground unit with in 35 of the target, as a spotter, or your airforce will operate at 25% effectiveness.

SF are perfect for this

i recommend maintaining 20 Military Tranport Units in peace time, and keep a reserve of 5K MTA in your ceo