Targets of value?

[FreakHavoc]

Hey guys, new to this game (don't have any of the expansions).

I read in the manual that you should only "take targets that have value to you", but it doesn't explain this any further. How do I know what is of value? And if I find a system of value, shouldn't I capture all systems up to that system to connect all my planets?

Thanks.

[x4000]

Here's a good wiki topic that gives some broad advice on targets of value: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_AI_Progress#When_To_Worry

But the basic question to ask yourself is: do I gain more by taking this planet than I lose in terms of AI Progress?  If you figure that you only want to take about 20-30 MAX planets in a given campaign, is this one of the 20-30 that you want?  Is it resource-rich, tactically useful to you (near to other things, at a nice bottleneck, whatever), or does it have some awesome stuff for you to capture?  If not, probably ignore it.

And, no definitely don't take planets to make yours all connected -- your transports can generally make it so that you can take every third to every fourth planet pretty safely, except when there's a need to take several together or a desire to create "Defense in depth" by having all the planets next to a planet with something you want to protect.

There aren't any hard and fast rules, which is why the manual is a bit vague.  Some people do, in fact, just take every plant in a line to what they want.  Some people try to take every planet on the map (and some even succeed).  Some end up with games with AI Progress of 4,000 or more, and they're such good turtles that they can take it.  Most can't, though, and those games tend to last 60+ hours (no joke), so in general we recommend just stuff that's important to you.

Another example: if a planet has an Anti Starship Arachnid Fabricator, and another has a Beam Starship Fabricator, which one is more valuable?  Is either one more valuable than a huge pile of resources?  And the answer is... it varies by the player and the situation.  If you need resources bad, go for those.  If you need some specific type of ship to round out a weakness in your fleet, or to combat a specific type of ship the AI is using a lot, then go for those.  The best capturable in one game might be next to useless in the next, so what is valuable depends on your scout intel and your personal playing style.

Hope that helps!