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STAR TREK: ARMADA II
Federation Strategy Guide


Creation date: 22/9/03
Author: BerserkBoy (dictionary_000@hotmail.com)


LEGAL INFORMATION

I, BerserkBoy, do not own Star Trek: Armada II or any of the characters, ships,
or places therein, and receive no profit from my use of these items.

It is not permitted for this FAQ to be posted other than on GameFAQs.com,
unless permission is given by me for you to do so.

VERSION HISTORY

Version 1.0- 22/9/03: created original components of guide.
Version 1.1- 24/9/03: added RACES to section of hints.

WHAT IS STAR TREK: ARMADA II?

Star Trek: Armada II is a RTS game made by Activision. It involves all our
favorite ships and stations from the Star Trek television programs fighting to
the death in a variety of locales. If anyone has played Age of Empires games or
Starcraft before, you will find it very easy to slide into this game and become
proficient. The controls and ideas are extremely easy to master, and the
strategies are not that complex.

BASICS OF THE GAME

In Star Trek: Armada II, you can play as one of six interstellar races:
Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Borg, or Species 8472. You can
harness a variety of ships and special weapons to bring you to victory over up
to seven other opponents.

Many of the tactics and twists of the game revolve around the basic resources:
Dilithium, Metal, Latinum, Crew, and Officers. Dilithium is a reactive
substance mainly used in starship construction, and is mined from blue,
cracking moons on the playing field. Metal is used mostly for research and
station construction, and is mined from planets using orbital mining stations.
Latinum is a medium of exchange commonly transported as gold, and is used for
research and trade. Crew are the people you can assign to ships and stations,
and accumulate steadily as long as you possess a Starbase or a planet. Officers
function like the population limit in the Age of Empires games, and you can
have an absolute maximum of 999.

There are a variety of nebulas that dot playing fields, and also phenomena like
wormholes, black holes, and asteroid belts.

Most ships are capable of warp drive, which allows much faster travel to
another point on the map; however, this lowers shields and reduces sensor
range, so you have to choose when you want to use it.

Many ships possess special weapons which either increase the power or
effectiveness of your own ships, or damage and destroy others.

WHY CHOOSE TO PLAY AS THE FEDERATION?

First of all: What is the Federation? Answer: The Federation is the United
Federation of Planets, an interstellar political and military body in the Alpha
Quadrant of the galaxy, with headquarters on Earth. Its aim is to explore and
bring peace to all the planets they can. It consists of many different races,
and is highly advanced in technology.

I play as the Federation because of their unique strengths. They may not
capture ships like the Klingons, or cloak like Romulans and Cardassians, but
they have some pretty excellent advantages.

Firstly, the Federation only use Latinum for trading purposes. This is a good
thing, so that you can't become dependent on the least available resource on
any map (like Klingons, for instance, who are useless without Latinum). Also,
the Federation may not be the most powerful (pure weapons-wise) but their
special weapons are hugely effective, especially things like Anti-matter Mines
or the Chain Reaction Pulsar. They also have a neat special building that
messes with the temporal flow of reality, which helps when someone's invading
your base.

That being said, the Federation has to watch out for people who are deadly in
the later stages of a game, like the Borg. Federation has to gain an early
upper hand with players like that, or the Borg will just build Tactical Fusion
Cubes (even one will do), and lay waste to everything, unless you can set up a
crazy trap for it.

LIST OF FEDERATION ASSETS

SHIPS- COMBAT

Venture Class= this is the smallest and weakest combat craft the Federation
have. An excellent scouting vessel, it hardly ever hits anything with its puny
pulse phaser, and never should be sent into combat.

Saber Class= a moderately successful combat ship; Sabers will do for early
stage fighters if you need to save resources.

Defiant Class= my personal favorite combat ship for the first fifteen minutes
of a game. Once you research Anti-Matter Mines, its special weapon, they can
swarm and destroy groups of larger and much more powerful vessels. I once held
off about twenty Venator Class battleships in groups with about fourteen
Defiants.

Akira Class= the hands down best middle stage ship in the game. Very powerful
in groups, and once they have the Chain Reaction Pulsar (a special torpedo that
hits multiple targets), they are devastating. Very fast and a great fleet
defense or assault unit.

Intrepid Class= I have a friend who's sad to see Voyager sunk so low. These are
not your best choice for front line combat. Great for group scouting missions,
and can hold off some forces long enough to get some Akiras over to the trouble
spot. Don't waste too much money on these.

Iwo Jima Class= a handy-dandy little tool if you really need to save on
officers and material. The Federation's signature assault transport does have
its uses, but needs cover fire to perform its duty. These are specially
designed to capture enemy ships and stations, but will get ripped apart if
nothing's guarding them.

Steamrunner Class= these are a good buy, though slightly expensive. Equipped
with long range artillery torpedoes, these are my weapons of choice for
assaulting those devastating Stabases, Nexuses, and Mothers. They are ideal for
taking out stationary units, but need to have heavy cover and Engine Overload
researched to be really effective.

Aegian Class= nice vessels in a pinch, and the Shield Enhancer special weapon
makes your forces last much longer. Build these to guard trading convoys or
raiding parties, also to support heavy battleships.

Galaxy Class= ah, the original Enterprise (not quite). Definitely worth their
expense in crew and dilithium. Before, you get Sovereign Class ships, you
should be pumping these out like mad. Made very nice by the ability to split
into two pieces and fight. Nice for mass attacks.

Nebula Class= the Federation's science ship, it's kinda disappointing for such
an advanced civilization. The only weapons I ever use with it are the Shield
Disruptor (very good when taking on Starbases) and the Engineering Teams, who
repair ships faster than an eye-blink.

Sovereign Class= the ultimate assault weapon. Not as powerful as a Keldon or a
Tactical Cube, but they are hard-hitting, and the Corbomite Reflector enables
them to bash those bigger adversaries. With it turned on, torpedo and special
weapons fire gets reflected partially back at the person who fired it. Nasty
surprise.

NON-COMBAT

Construction Ship= obvious, don't you think? Oh, all right. This builds all
your stations, and is essential to build about six early on. (not late game,
though).

Mining Ship= uses a mining beam to collect latinum and dilithium from Latinum
nebulae and dilithium moons. Unarmed.

Cargo Ships= travel between two Trading Stations (any players, including yours)
and generate Latinum for you. Fast but weak.

Repair Ships= a must once you get them. This enables your fleets to continue on
to another battle without returning to base to repair and recrew.

Colony Ships= colonizes planets to provide crew for you.

STATIONS

Starbase= the center of your civilization. Builds the Construction, Mining,
Cargo, and Repair Ships.

Shipyard= builds Venture, Saber, Defiant, Colony, Akira, Intrepid, Iwo Jima,
and Steamrunner Class ships.

Sensor Array= once you've researched Tachyon Detection Grid, it detects Cloaked
ships within its LOS.

Pulse Phaser Cannon= stationary defense station. Not too strong, though good
for early grid pattern guarding.

Mining Station= build near a dilithium moon to start mining it for dilithium;
required to build Mining Ships.

Research Facility= researches Tachyon Detection Grid, Anti-Matter Mines, Chain
Reaction Pulsar, Engine Overload, Corbomite Reflector, and Shield Enhancer.
Required to build Colony, Akira, and Intrepid Class ships, also Science Station
and Advanced Shipyard

Science Station= researches Gemini Effect, Engineering Teams, Shield Disruptor,
and Point Defense Phaser. Required for Iwo Jima, Steamrunner, and Nebula Class
ships; also Vulcan Research Institute, Torpedo Turret, and Temporal Research
Facility.

Advanced Shipyard= builds Aegian, Galaxy, Nebula, and Sovereign Class ships.

Torpedo Turret= better and badder than Phaser Cannon. Build a few of these in
your base or on the front lines.

Temporal Research Facility= large building that can create a field of temporal
distortion, which stops all enemy activity within its radius. Once you can
spare the resources, build one in your base.

Orbital Processing Facility= build this above planets to mine them for metal.
Only one can orbit any planet at one time.

Trading Station= this allows you to build cargo ships, buy or sell resources,
and trade with other people.

Vulcan Research Institute= the final tech building for the Federation, this
upgrades ship systems like weapons and shields, also required to build
Sovereigns and Repair ships.

COMMAND MENUS, ETC.

Underneath each station/ship when you select it will be a rectangular command
menu, displaying several buttons. The Stop sign obviously halts the ship dead
in its tracks and stops it doing whatever it is currently doing, even
attacking. The funny chair symbol is Orders. Here, you can tell a ship to
repair and recrew by docking at a shipyard, patrol, attack, explore, engage on
a search and destroy mission (random), or even decommission. Then, there's
Transport, where you can transport crew from one ship/station to another.
Formations allows you to put combat ships into formations. AI is the
intelligence and readiness of individual craft. The levels of alerts are 1
(doesn't fire at anything, even if its 2 HP from death), 2 (fires if attacked),
and 3 (shoots at any enemies in sight). Movement comes next: Low (doesn't move
unless ordered), Medium (will move a certain distance, but returns to origin),
and High (follows all over the map if necessary). Last is Special Weapon
Autonomy, which tells the AI how often to use Special Weapons on their own. Low
(don't use at all, unless ordered), Medium (use till 50% energy, then stop),
and High (use until unable to) are the settings there.

BASIC STRATEGY (MULTIPLAYER)

For this section of the guide, I'm going to assume you start with a Starbase
and can already build ships. If not, you obviously build one before you do any
of this.

The first thing you want to do is click on the Venture Class ship you start out
with and click on the Orders button, then hit explore, and ignore it for the
rest of the game.

Next, start building 2 or 3 construction ships at your Starbase. Take one of
your pre-constructed ones and find a dilithium moon, then start building a
mining station near it. Take the other and build an Orbital Processing Facility
at the nearest planet. Your next construction ship should begin building a
Research Facility, and after that, the next ship builds a Shipyard. Once the
Mining Station finishes, build between 2-4 Mining Ships, depending on if you
have Latinum nearby (Mining Ships on Latinum always return to Starbases to
offload).

Build a few Defiants, then sit on your thumbs, and building any more resource
buildings if you can, until the Research Facility finishes (you'll learn to
hate the length of build time for that). Then, quickly build a Colony ship and
as many Akiras as you can, all the while looking for more dilithium moons and
planets. Never stop trying to get more resources. Colonize as many planets as