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
possible early on, no one can take them until they get battleships, so you
should milk them early.
The next two buildings to go up should be in order: Advanced Shipyard and
Science Station. Now, more experienced players may wonder: why build Advanced
Shipyard first, when I can get Steamrunners and Iwo Jimas from the regular
shipyard, and wipe my enemy out? My answer: if you don't build some
battleships, and try to build up a massive small ship artillery/capture force,
you'll die once the enemy starts building Galor and Venator Class ships, for
example. Plus, Galaxies, which require nothing to build (station-wise), are
capable of planetary bombardment, which is always a good thing to do in your
spare time.
While you're building an army of Aegians and Galaxies (you are, right?), you
need to try to get a Vulcan Research facility up. This will allow you to access
Sovereigns, which, with the Corbomite Reflector, ensures victory.
For a final assault on the enemy base, I suggest a force of mixed Sovereigns,
Steamrunners, Akiras, and Aegians, since their special weapons form a brutal
task force. The Corbomite Reflector allows your biggest ships to get in way
more pounding than usual, the Engine Overload leaves ships unable to flee,
Shield Enhancer keeps everyone alive even longer, and Chain Reaction Pulsar,
with its multiple hit/power gaining properties, makes a wicked base destruction
weapon.
SPECIFIC HINTS
RESEARCHING
The order of techs to research here is just a suggestion, and it is also
recommended that you research them before or as you are building that ship
class.
1. Anti-Matter Mines= cheap and fast, and essential for early dominance.
2. Chain Reaction Pulsar= this is one nasty weapon, and well worth the time
spent on it.
3. Corbomite Reflector= you need to get this long before you build Sovereigns,
so the two most expensive things (tech and ship) aren't competing for demand.
4. Shield Enhancer OR Shield Disruptor= doesn't really matter, choose based on
what you plan to use more for a big attack (both are good).
5. Weapons Level 2 OR Engineering Teams= same reason, except Engineering should
come first if you're on the defensive.
6. Engine Overload OR Shields 2 OR Sensors 2
The others are pretty much less than useful, but try to figure out better ways
to use them; I need help with this section, please send in strategies for the
other special weapons. You'll get full credit (title all e-mails with the
subject: STA2 suggestions).
RACES: BORG
Ah yes, the infamous adversary. The Borg are highly powerful once they get
their bigger vessels, but are fairly weak early on. This makes it essential
that you get the upper hand early. You need to get up a mixed force of Akiras
and Defiants as fast as possible so that you can cripple their economy early.
All you need to do is wipe out as many Resource Processing Nodes and Resource
Collectors as possible, while still pumping your own economy. Now obviously,
this can work against everyone, but it's especially effective against the Borg.
Their only really good early combat ship is the Assimilator, and they have to
have a Modification Center to build them.
Beware if the Borg start going faster than you do; their late-game combat ships
are absolutely deadly. You seriously do not want to be on the receiving end of
the assault of more than a couple of Cubes or Tactical Cubes, let alone
Tactical Fusion Cubes (one of those babies is enough to destroy almost any base
less than completely fortified with every one of your ships in about ten
seconds). If they do manage to get Cubes, well, the best strategy is to set a
trap with a few Nebulas, a waiting killer force, and a Temporal Research
Facility. Wait till they start blasting, then turn on the Stasis Field. Fire up
the Nebula's Shield Disruptor, and let 'er rip with all your attack force's
power. Hopefully, they'll all die pretty quick.
SPECIES 8472
These are an interesting enemy to fight; very similar to the Borg, except with
quite a different late-game combat style. Sure, their ships are organic, but
they are still late-game players, with less resource quibbles than other races.
Species 8472 isn't very strong early on (even worse than Borg), but once they
get all their ships and a few special weapons, they can do some nasty stuff.
The main problem with them is that they don't need crew, so you can't go around
hoping to blast all their planets and stall them into not being able to
produce. However, their special weapons are deadly, too. Psionic Blast and
Psionic Insanity can cause your ships to have a very bad day, and that
Bio-Pulse Beam is annoying when used against planets. Transient Rift can have
Behemoths popping into the center of your base at inconvenient times, and I
hate the frickin MINES!
Main thing to do against Species 8472 is to just keep them on a heavily
defensive posture. Remember, they don't have to keep their resource buildings
in one place, and the Mother can move when it needs to. Try to hit them with
Steamrunners and Sovereigns, Battleships just don't compare to your heavy
capital ships, and the Behemoths are too stupid to do much but die, albeit
slowly.
ROMULANS
Hehehe, the Romulans. One of the most paradoxical races in the game. These guys
are so weak with just pure firepower and shielding, but when you've got an
opponent who can manipulate special weapons easily, they can be a pure death
race.
Tachyon Detection Grid spikes to the top of the list when playing against these
guys, because every one of their combat craft cloaks, and their frigate's
weapon is a Cloak Enhancer (for newbies, that means any ships within a certain
radius can now fire when cloaked, and the means pain). Most of the other
special weapons aren't too bad, though a combo of Sensor Jammer (Griffin), and
Holo-Emitter (Shadow) can cause you a major headache. That Jammer will allow
guys to sit outside your Starbase's now limited range, while the Holo-Emitter
will make you fire on your own ships. Isn't that fun?
To fight the Romulans, press the attack when you can, but stock up forces for
those strikes. Hit their Special Weapon Pods and Starbases as much as possible.
Late-game, the Romulans become less of a problem. Once you have ships and
special weapons to outmatch them (Sovereigns and Corbomite Reflectors are
good), the Warbirds that are their pathetic excuse for a battleship become so
much scrap for your quantum torpedoes. The key with these guys is to never let
up.
CARDASSIANS
For some reason, I've never had trouble with these people; whereas some players
find it hard to beat them back. Cardassians a very warlike race, much like the
Klingons, except not quite as good at capturing stuff. Their special weapons
aren't the greatest, but they've got two major bonus factors going for them:
number one, their battleships, without any extra bonuses, are the second
strongest of the game, coming second only to the Cubes, and two, they've got
the Dreadnought missile, deadliest single ship in the game.
Cardassians are pretty much an all-around race, with good buildings, good
ships, and some ok special weapons. They don't really excel or suck at any one
thing, and this makes them dangerous.
Key to winning against Cardassians is speed. I know, you're getting tired of
hearing it. However, in this game, speed can be the difference between sweet
victory and bone-shaming death. Your Galaxy class ships will prove to be vital
weapons against this race, as they are better armed and shielded than the Galor
class, their Cardassian counterpart. You can't let yourself get suckered into
letting them get Keldons and Dreadnought missiles, otherwise you will die. If
you ever see a small, cylindrical object speeding towards your base in
Cardassian colors, destroy it at all costs! Once this explodes, it can take out
a Starbase and most of your fleet within range in one hit. Fortunately, they
have to hit their target to explode, unlike the slightly weaker but similar
Phoenix class vessels the Romulans build.
AS long as you can keep yourself ahead in a game of battleship production, you
should be able to win against these guys.
KLINGONS
This is the 'capturing' race. If you want to take over enemy ships and stations
like nobody's business or just blow a bunch of stuff up, choose the Klingons.
Most of the techs these guys have are focused on pumping up their own forces or
giving the enemy weaknesses tailored for exploitation by their advantages, so
they are tough to defeat in pure battle strength. Granted, their battle and
science ships aren't the galaxy's best, but their military early on can be
vicious.
One interesting point to note with the Klingons is that to win against them,
you can do one simple thing: deprive them of Latinum. Klingons use latinum to
do everything, from ship-building and station construction to researching
technologies. That said, they are a fairly inexpensive race, and can build
fairly fast. In a major departure from previous race trends, the Klingons are
an early game race. Most of their early combat ships can cloak, and the
SuQ'Jagh class cruiser is an absolute terror to combat, especially with
Commando Team as its weapon. When facing these guys, you'll most likely be
seeing a few Bird of Preys and SuQ'Jagh class ships mixed with fleets of
Vor'Chas early on. Vor'Chas are tough to fight off in numbers, and the
SuQ'Jagh's Commando Teams and torpedo banks are hard to counter with many of
the game's early vessels.
The Klingons have potential to be good later on, but their advantages about
spin out once you hit the final stages of the game. Despite their fearsome
report, Negh'Var class battleships really aren't that powerful, and the Ion
Cannon they use is reflected by a good Corbomite Reflector. You have to make
them fight on ground they don't want to fight on, such as right in their base
and in deep space, where you can deal with them in stages and distract them
from going's on back home.
FEDERATION
Yay! Mirror Match! Now hopefully by this point you'll be able to actually have
some idea of how a good Fed player works in this game, so I won't have to...
oh, all right.
As you can see, the Feds have to be smacked down early on: again, this
translates into speed. You want that Research Facility going up as fast as
possible. If you can, get a mixed force of Defiants and Akiras (both with
special weapons if possible, only Anti-Matter Mines if not) to blockade
resource operations and raid isolated structures early on. Expansion will prove
vital here, as you need as many resources as possible to gain battleships
sooner. Watch out for Akiras, they'll surely have Chain Reaction Pulsar, so
concentrate fire on one ship at a time to blow them away. You'll likely face
your own coveted Corbomite Reflector, so I would suggest plenty of Pulse
Phasers in your base (remember, phaser and disruptor fire go through the
Reflector). Don't try to capture too much of the ships, Feds don't really excel
at that. One interesting tactic would be to use some of those poor Intrepids to
circle your enemy (circle formation button in the formations menu); with their
speed, they can dizzy any group of Galaxies and might just slow them down a bit
before they die (they're only cannon fodder anyway).
CREDITS
Thanks go to Activision/Paramount for making the game, and GameFAQs for hosting
this FAQ.
CONTACT INFO
Remember, I need to help round out this FAQ. Suggestion for tactics
specifically for use against other civilizations and for special weapons are
especially wanted. E-mail me at: dictionary_000@hotmail.com
