Eleven times a dead man, two times a slave, and only once a survivor fighting to a bitter end — why would Bots do so poorly in the championships? Maybe it is how they set their feet in the starting blocks.

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Championship Analysis

To investigate some early-game strategies, I turned to the top Robot fleet commanders for inspiration. I began with the premise that the first twenty-five turns of a game would set you up for the rest. If you could not produce a fleet of forty to sixty starships prior to Turn 25, you would most likely fail to make an impact on the game. This is fairly standard for most VGAP races.

The following table is the result of my analysis of the Zodiac and Faction championships. It highlights the results of twenty-five turns of gameplay, and it answers the following questions: How many pre-limit ships are typically constructed in a high level competition? On which ships do commanders focus? What are their first three builds? What Bot-specific strategies did they use? How was their overall performance?

First 25 Turns of each Championship Match

ERA	WAR	END STATUS	TURN 25 SHIPS	FLEET COMPOSITION	FIRST THREE BUILDS	STRATEGY
Zodiac
	Scorpius	dead	35	0 golem 1 instrumentality 1 automa 5 cat’s paw	Cat’s Paw Cat’s Paw Cat’s Paw	full defence
	Taurus	dead	41	2 golem 2 instrumentality 4 automa 8 cat’s paw	Pawn L. Freighter L. Freighter	Pawn Gambit Plus
	Saggitarius	enslaved	40	4 golem 15 instrumentality 0 automa 4 cat’s paw	L. Freighter Q-tanker Instrumentality	mix freighters and offence
	Aries	dead	43	3 golem 7 instrumentality 0 automa 11 cat’s paw	L. Freighter L. Freighter L. Freighter	Triple Freighter
	Capricorn	enslaved	24	0 golem 7 instrumentality 3 automa 5 cat’s paw	Cat’s Paw Cat’s Paw L. Freighter	mix freighters and defence
	Leo	surviving	39	1 golem 7 instrumentality 0 automa 4 cat’s paws	L. Freighter L. Freighter Q-tanker	economy focus
	Gemini	dead	36	0 golem 0 instrumentality 9 automa 7 cat’s paw	Pawn M. Freighter L. Freighter	Pawn Gambit Plus
	Aquarius	dead	42	2 golem 2 instrumentality 7 automa 8 cat’s paw	L. Freighter M. Freighter M. Freighter	economy focus
	Cancer	dead	40	7 golem 1 instrumentality automa 7 cat’s paw	Pawn L. Freighter L. Freighter	Pawn Gambit
	Pisces	dead	22	1 golem 4 instrumentality 1 automa 6 cat’s paw	L. Freighter L. Freighter Cat’s Paw	mix freighters and defence
	Libra	dead	46	6 golem 0 instrumentality 9 automa 12 cat’s paw	Pawn L. Freighter Cat’s Paw	Pawn Gambit*
	Virgo	dead	46	1 golem 1 instrumentality 2 automa 12 cat’s paw	Pawn M. Freighter M. Freighter	Pawn Gambit*
Faction
	Cognitum	dead	39	4 golem 0 instrumentality 10 automa 5 cat’s paw	L. Freighter L. Freighter L. Freighter	Triple Freighter
	Ingenii	dead	41	6 golem 0 instrumentality 4 automa 6 cat’s paw	L. Freighter Cat’s Paw L. Freighter	mix freighters and defence

The above table shows several strong beginnings, but only two stand out. In the Saggitarius War, Bigburtie’s turn-25 ship list contained an impressive fifteen medium carriers. He managed this by using heavy nova drive engines on all vessels. Without reviewing the entire game, I believe this fleet failed because it was unable to move quickly and efficiently. This is a common occurrence with Robot fleets, and every commander needs to address it. Dedicated towing ships are a necessity.

To solve the issue of mobility, Commander Elvon in the Libra War created a fleet with a mixture of low and high tech engines. His collection of warships was the strongest of all builds, and he also used the famous Pawn Gambit (see below). It is interesting to note that he executed the Gambit incorrectly, so it is possible he could have performed even better if the bioscanner had been recycled earlier.

Note the bold-faced strategies: the Pawn Gambit, Pawn Gambit Plus, and Triple Freighter. I tried these strategies to determine their effectiveness and added one more: the Blunt Instrument. In the following section, I will discuss these options and show my results.

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Principles of Robots

Before reviewing the four strategies, it was necessary to describe the founding principles of my Bot gameplay. These principles were the fundamental beliefs on which I chose to base my approach to commanding the Robotic Imperium. They feed all my development choices.

1. As with all races, money is a top priority and often limits production. Carrier races require supplies for alchemy and not as a substitute for a lack of funds.
2. Due to a desperate need for mega credits, Robot commanders should prioritise building bases on planets with Siliconoid and Humanoid natives. The former allow high tech torpedoes, while the latter are prime locations to pump out heavy carriers. If Siliconoids are unavailable, Ghipsoldals will do. Each of these native populations will save you 4,500 MCs.
3. If a Robot leader wants to overpower the enemy with minefields, as many Cat’s Paw Class Destroyers as possible must be equipped with Mark 7 or higher torpedo launchers.
4. The Pawn Class Baseship is a powerful economic tool because it directs your freighters to the most beneficial planets. With one scan, you will know the location and quantity of all natives, and planetary temperatures will be revealed. This information provides a significant speed boost to colonisation. Since the best planets are often more than eighty-one light years from your homeworld, advanced bioscanners are exceptionally helpful in the early phase of the game. Later on, the Pawn can also be used to target enemy economic hubs.
5. A slow moving fleet will most likely fail to influence the game. In Planets, aggression builds momentum. It is the attacking players rather than those defending who dictate battle, earn/steal priority points, and conquer new resources while the enemy loses them. A Robot fleet must not consist of only carriers with low tech engines; instead, towers and some carriers with warp 9 capability are necessary. You are not going to win if you move at a snail’s pace.
6. Build a Merlin Class Alchemy Ship before any heavy carriers. When gathering the duranium and mega credits for this vessel, you may feel very anxious that you are not building warships, especially since you need some of it for freighters and transwarp drive engines. Get a hold of yourself and focus on the task. Robots require large quantities of duranium and a Merlin is your only option.
7. Aside from replacing minelayers, the Robots have no efficient use for priority points. No hull is a cheap PP purchase, and no Bot ship gained the 2023 PP bonus. Prioritising mass production of starbases will have lesser results than focusing on shipbuilding.
8. The Bots are not a late game race. Come midgame, they had better be ready to advance and never stop.

Game setup:

I ran twenty-five-turn games to test four early-game strategies. Each used a different build focus, but all used the same game setup, including the following items: Standard rules, rectangular map, computer controlled opponents, and normal economics. On my first turn, I built three hundred fifty mines and two hundred fifty factories. Colonists were not taxed on the first turn and were then taxed for maximum growth. When sending colonisers, no ship ever took more than three hundred mega credits from the homeworld, and I focused on building one hundred factories on new colonies before any mining facilities. Unless under attack, defence posts and torpedoes were not constructed.

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Pawn Gambit

The Pawn Gambit is a first-turn strategy for the Robotic Imperium. This strategy is an attempt to quickly find where the best natives are located and target them for colonisation. The player builds a low tech Pawn Class Baseship on the first turn, immediately uses its advanced bioscanners, and recycles it on the same turn. The bioscan functions at one hundred percent accuracy and success rate. On turn 3, the player can see all native populations and planet temperatutes within two hundred light years of the Pawn. After garnering this information, the player is able to skip the scouting phase and send freighters directly to the planets with the most potential. Furthermore, the player is able to see if crossing gaps is worth it.

The downfall of the Gambit is the loss of a build at a crucial point in the game. Your turn-2 ship can be exponentially influential to your development. On top of this, it is entirely possible that the bioscan information is useless. You risk a lot on the hope you will find good natives.

In this match, I set out to test the Pawn Gambit. The effort revealed a Ghipsoldal planet, a Humanoid one, and a few which might be solid sources of money. Disappointingly, the money was too far away, there were no Siliconoids, and there was only a single planet for producing heavy carriers.

Due to the Ghipsoldals, my freighters and Cat’s Paws had tech-10 engines, and I was able to expand quickly. However, a shortage of money kept me from producing alchemy ships until Turn 14 and carriers until Turn 19. In this case, I’m not certain if the Gambit paid off. The Pawn’s bioscan showed me nearby natives, but it also deceived me into thinking I had sources of credits. The result was a fleet of many Cat’s Paws and few carriers.

Results:

• 28 planets
• 44 starships + 2 captured
• ships destroyed by attacking Lizards: 2 CPs (TW+XR+M7), 2 MDSF (TW)
• 3 starbases
• 22 priority points
• 459 fighters constructed
• 1 Serpent (HD8+PB, captured, no time to clone)
• 1 Eros (HD6+PB, captured, no time to clone)
• 13 Cat’s Paws (TW+XR+M7, 100 torps, several out attacking, created 7+ large minefields to help defend against attacking Lizards)
• 1 Automa (QD7+XR)
• 7 Golems (SD1 or ND5+XR)
• 4 LDSF (TW)
• 1 LDSF (TW, captured)
• 10 MDSF (TW)
• 1 Merlin (SD1+XR)
• 1 Refinery (SD1+XR)
• 2 Q-tankers (SD1+XR)
• 1 Q-tanker (TW+XR)
• 2 Pawns (TW+XR)
• 1 Pawn (SD1+XR)
• 1 Pawn (SD1, recycled)

In summary, I managed to construct seven heavy carriers, one medium carrier, eighteen towers, fifteen minelayers, and two alchemy ships. This fleet was defensively strong and proved itself by fending off invading Lizards, but poor resource availability and a lack of Bovinoid natives caused me to struggle to construct extra starbases. Sadly, my first carrier build was not realised until Turn 19, and I failed to produce enough carriers to put me in a winning position. While this fleet could probably keep a Bot commander alive, I was not convinced it would give a competitive edge.

Regardless of a poor start, I ended up with one of the largest fleets of all tests, which proved the Pawn Gambit to be a legitimate option for Bot players. Fifty ships was a possibility if native and mineral rates had gone my way. However, a large number of hulls does not insure victory, as a Bot fleet must include a larger percentage of heavy and medium carriers.

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Pawn Gambit Plus

In my second game, I tested a variation of the Pawn Gambit, where Pawn Class Baseships were employed as fast-moving explorers and towers. Instead of recycling the first build, it was equipped with transwarp drive engines and sent to discover the unknown. Its movement expanded my vision and captured wandering enemy scouts. As indicated in the table above, this strategy was also attempted in some of the championship matches.

As expected, the Pawn drained a significant chunk of duranium, but it was not enough to prevent a string of follow-up freighters. The early bioscan revealed several useful native populations, including Siliconoids, Humanoids, Ghipsoldals, and Bovinoids. All looked hopeful until the gamble showed its ugly side.

While the bioscanner uncovered large troves of natives, it did not reveal the governments and left me with a collection of uncivilised taxpayers. Money quickly became scarce, delaying base and carrier production. It took me until Turn 16 to produce my second warship, so I was a sitting duck for as long as the first game.

Results:

• 27 planets
• 40 starships + 1 captured
• 4 starbases
• 23 priority points
• 32 fighters constructed
• 3 B200 probes (TW+Dis, captured and cloned)
• 7 Cat’s Paws (QD7+XR+M7, only 20-30 torps to help defend against a couple of ships)
• 10 Golems (SD1 or ND5+XR)
• 3 LDSF (TW)
• 12 MDSF (TW)
• 2 Merlins (SD1+XR)
• 1 Refinery (SD1+XR)
• 3 Pawns (TW)

Without properly preparing for credit drain, I still managed to produce a strong fleet — ten Golem Class Baseships is nothing to scoff at. In this case, I ended up with ten heavy carriers, zero medium carriers, three towers, seven minelayers, and three alchemy ships. Overall, I would have liked a faster fleet, some medium carriers, and a few more Cat’s Paws. I felt most of the limitations of my development were avoidable, so I still believe the Pawn Gambit Plus proved itself as a decent option.

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Triple Freighter

In this game, my homeworld was situated in a small grouping of six planets, so expansion options were few. The danger in starting in a small cluster was that I was forced to reveal my location and all my actions by sending freighters across large gaps. In this situation, my neighbours paid me no attention, but a real match would have required treaties with one or both neighbours.

Despite this limiting planet cluster, I was still able to churn out a solid fleet using the Triple Freighter/economic focus strategy. Take note that my first three builds did not precisely follow the usual plan and deviated with a medium freighter on the third build. I made this choice because I was concerned about exhausting my cluster’s duranium before finding more.

Another problem with my starting position was that it forced me to send freighters across gaps with the blind hope of finding good natives. Luckily, my Large Deep Space Freighter landed on a Siliconoid planet and established a major production facility. It could have easily harboured Amorphous natives and an extreme temperature.

Results:

• 25 planets
• 43 starships
• 14 priority points
• 3 starbases
• 181 fighters
• 4 Automa (SD1 or ND5+XR)
• 10 Cat’s Paws (QD7+XR+M7, 61 torpedoes)
• 1 Cat’s Paw (TW+XR+M7)
• 2 Pawns (TW+XR)
• 1 Q-tanker (ND5+XR)
• 7 Golems (SD1 or ND5+XR)
• 4 Instrumentalities (TW+XR)
• 1 Iron Slave (TW+XR)
• 3 LDSF (TW)
• 8 MDSF (TW)
• 1 Merlin (SD1+XR)
• 1 Refinery (SD1+XR)

My island empire constructed seven heavy carriers, eight medium carriers, seven towers, eleven minelayers, and two alchemy ships. With nothing but freighters, I was vulnerable for the first nine turns, but by Turn 10 I had my first Merlin, by turn 12 a Cat’s Paw, and by turn 13 steady carrier production. Unhindered by early-game attackers, this strategy enabled me to produce a solid forty-three ships and enough ammunition to put my ships into action. It is possible a more condensed planet cluster would have yielded forty-five to fifty starships, but overall the Triple Freighter method proved to be the most balanced of all four strategies.

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Blunt Instrument

This last strategy was designed to have a strong vessel exploring and threatening the outer edges of a neighbour’s territory. The primary goal of the Blunt Instrument was to capture scouts and budding development. On top of causing chaos, the secondary purpose of this strategy was to construct warp-9 Instumentality Class Baseships to tow heavy carriers.

The Instrumentality scout used a great deal of duranium from my homeworld, but it did not hinder my ability to construct freighters. Trouble came when I was unable to find the natives the Robots required, and I found myself missing my bioscanners. Eventually, I found Siliconoids, Humanoids, and money makers, but it took a few turns to pinpoint their locations and send a freighter. This delay in planet development also slowed down my warship production. It was not until Turn 14 that I built my second carrier, and this vessel was needed due to a growing number of Probes, Falcons, and Cygnuses dropping in on my territory and destroying a starbase.

Results:

• 20 planets
• 40 starships + 3 captured
• 6 starbases
• 40 priority points
• 273 fighters constructed (a few more than that as there was some combat)
• 1 B200 Probe (HD8+PB, captured, not enough MC to clone)
• 7 Cat’s Paws (QD7+XR+M7, no torpedoes)
• 1 Cat’s Paws (TW+XR+M4, would have been 2 more except the base was lost)
• 1 Falcon (HD8+PB, captured by Instrumentality, not enough MC to clone)
• 7 Golems (SD1 or ND5+XR)
• 6 Instrumentalities (TW+XR)
• 3 LDSF (TW)
• 1 LDSF (QD7, captured by Instrumentality)
• 10 MDSF (TW)
• 1 Merlin (SD1+XR)
• 1 Refinery (SD1+XR)
• 2 Pawn (HD6+XR)

This strategy created seven heavy carriers, six medium carriers, seven towers, eight minelayers, and two alchemy ships. While this effort did not produce as many ships as the Pawn Gambit, the Blunt Instrument was still a strong option. Upon arriving at Turn 25, I felt I was in position to attack, defend, and/or continue building. There was a good mixture of mobility, power, economics, and minefield control. Of all the strategies, this one allowed me to construct the most bases and earn the most priority points. In all, the results of this test provided an example of a competitive fleet and a model worth replicating.

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Final Computations

After testing all four starting strategies, I found my ship count was similar with each attempt, and each fleet had competitive potential. Players can take heart that the clustering of planets had little effect on the number of ships produced. Furthermore, I felt these tests revealed the Robot empire could be extremely vulnerable in the early game, and yet it was entirely capable of mounting a deadly defence and counterattack with surprising speed.

In the end, all four methods of growing an empire churned out a fleet deadly enough to make an impact on a match. There was, however, a slight yet significant difference. The Triple Freighter and Blunt Instrument methods produced fleets most capable of acting. While the paths of the Pawn Gambit and Pawn Gambit Plus had potential, they started the mid game with a lack of options.

The Robots want to start their sprint as the ship limit hits. If they wait too long, they will be overtaken by races more equipped to dominate in the late game. My suggestion is to set your feet in the starting blocks in a manner which will propel you with explosive energy.

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Thanks for reading. – TS

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