Stylesrj
Tabitha SEAL
I admit, whenever I start a game, I play Supremacy (and mostly a hybrid Supremacy and Purity because I'm sick of the Supremacy look and voices for all my games) and I don't start the game until I get a wonder I want. Some are OK, others just are not my style of play and I restart.
Regardless of that, here's what I think about certain wonders:
1) Cloaking - AWESOME! So long as you maintain your distance and launch fighters, they'll never spot your ships and you can attack the enemy without problem. Good in all stages of the game.
2) Battle Academy - Three Cards per battle is pretty nifty. Could be a Doppelgänger or increase speed for an entire mission. Useful even in early stages. Especially then.
3) Redundant Systems - If the AI has this, take it from them or else battles will be harder, because if you don't destroy the enemy in one turn, they'll be essentially back at full health by the time your turn rolls around.
4) Reactive Armour - Useful in conjunction with torpedoes and a planet. Hug the world, watch the enemies approach, then fire! No damage to you, and there's dead ships raining down on billions of people.
5) Damage Control - Critical hits are no longer a worry! Up close and personal time no need to worry about my shields going down.
6) Naval Tradition - Ummm... unless this gives me an extra bit of morale, worthless. My cannon ships do great damage regardless of fatigue.
7) Jump Start - Situational. I prefer my enemies to go first. But if they go first, they launch stuff, so it depends.
8) Hyperlaunch - Nifty. Launch a fighter, send it out far away from my carrier and send carrier behind a field.
9) Tight Squeeze - Nifty. Fighters can use asteroids for cover and retreat vectors.
10) Repulsors - Not great but I don't mind it. Asteroid gaps are not my biggest worry unless it's a maze.
11) Torpedo Boosters - Found some good use in this: Hang near the enemy planet and fire from a longer distance. Useful if you don't have reactive armour and you're using one ship.
12) Stealth Torpedoes - This is a case of a wonder only being beneficial to the AI. What's the point of having invisible torpedoes if the AI will run into the visible ones easily enough?
13) Jump Control - I hate jump gates when they get in my way, but other times I love them. So this one is situational, if I have nothing else better to spend.
14) Dual Command - AWESOME! Best wonder ever! Launch two fighters... fire cannons, launch a fighter, boost fighter, hit enemy ship from behind! Once I have this wonder (or Cloaking) tough battles start becoming major victories.
15) Intelli-Shields - Haven't seen much use of this one. Most battles I play end up like a game of Rocket Tag. Having 360 degrees of coverage doesn't seem to help if the enemy's cannons chip off large chunks of your hull. Also, once shields become powerful from science and levels, the damage sustained, even at close range is like 9HP on the front, 12HP at the back. A drop in the bucket if you've got 960HP.
16) Convergent Light - Used to think this sounded cool but my cannon/fighter style of play makes this one worthless. Sniper lasers? Aww please.
17) Glide Path - This tends to be discovered at a time where I don't need it. Sounds useful I guess.
18) Great Shipyard - Like Glide Path, this comes when I don't need it. In some smaller games this becomes more useful to save repair costs (especially if combined with Harmony and Redundant Systems. Zombie ships anyone?)
Any other wonders I missed? My top three are Dual Command, Cloaking and Damage Control (in that order)
Regardless of that, here's what I think about certain wonders:
1) Cloaking - AWESOME! So long as you maintain your distance and launch fighters, they'll never spot your ships and you can attack the enemy without problem. Good in all stages of the game.
2) Battle Academy - Three Cards per battle is pretty nifty. Could be a Doppelgänger or increase speed for an entire mission. Useful even in early stages. Especially then.
3) Redundant Systems - If the AI has this, take it from them or else battles will be harder, because if you don't destroy the enemy in one turn, they'll be essentially back at full health by the time your turn rolls around.
4) Reactive Armour - Useful in conjunction with torpedoes and a planet. Hug the world, watch the enemies approach, then fire! No damage to you, and there's dead ships raining down on billions of people.
5) Damage Control - Critical hits are no longer a worry! Up close and personal time no need to worry about my shields going down.
6) Naval Tradition - Ummm... unless this gives me an extra bit of morale, worthless. My cannon ships do great damage regardless of fatigue.
7) Jump Start - Situational. I prefer my enemies to go first. But if they go first, they launch stuff, so it depends.
8) Hyperlaunch - Nifty. Launch a fighter, send it out far away from my carrier and send carrier behind a field.
9) Tight Squeeze - Nifty. Fighters can use asteroids for cover and retreat vectors.
10) Repulsors - Not great but I don't mind it. Asteroid gaps are not my biggest worry unless it's a maze.
11) Torpedo Boosters - Found some good use in this: Hang near the enemy planet and fire from a longer distance. Useful if you don't have reactive armour and you're using one ship.
12) Stealth Torpedoes - This is a case of a wonder only being beneficial to the AI. What's the point of having invisible torpedoes if the AI will run into the visible ones easily enough?
13) Jump Control - I hate jump gates when they get in my way, but other times I love them. So this one is situational, if I have nothing else better to spend.
14) Dual Command - AWESOME! Best wonder ever! Launch two fighters... fire cannons, launch a fighter, boost fighter, hit enemy ship from behind! Once I have this wonder (or Cloaking) tough battles start becoming major victories.
15) Intelli-Shields - Haven't seen much use of this one. Most battles I play end up like a game of Rocket Tag. Having 360 degrees of coverage doesn't seem to help if the enemy's cannons chip off large chunks of your hull. Also, once shields become powerful from science and levels, the damage sustained, even at close range is like 9HP on the front, 12HP at the back. A drop in the bucket if you've got 960HP.
16) Convergent Light - Used to think this sounded cool but my cannon/fighter style of play makes this one worthless. Sniper lasers? Aww please.
17) Glide Path - This tends to be discovered at a time where I don't need it. Sounds useful I guess.
18) Great Shipyard - Like Glide Path, this comes when I don't need it. In some smaller games this becomes more useful to save repair costs (especially if combined with Harmony and Redundant Systems. Zombie ships anyone?)
Any other wonders I missed? My top three are Dual Command, Cloaking and Damage Control (in that order)