Fleet
SMALL DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER
The small deep space freighter is not the best pic for anyone except for the Lizards with their 30x ground combat force. Likely candidate for colonization.
OPAL CLASS TORPEDO BOAT
The often unused secret of the successful crystal players. The opal with it’s tiny cargo, tiny mass, limited weapons…is the key to making crystal space the place of player’s nightmares. Think of the 19 cargo holds when dropping mk4 and mk7 torps with a setting of mdq or mdh and think of these little minefields as seeds or eggs. Later on the much more heavily capacity Rubies and Emeralds will make those eggs grow.
MEDIUM DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER
If you are playing in a game where many of the planets you find will not be worthwhile, you may want to build an MDSF (Medium Deep Space Freighter) so that you can scout out the good planets. Once the MDSF’s job of scouting has been finished, it can be colonized or put to use in small cargo transport. If you plan to colonize it you may choose to build a Smallie (Small Deep Space Freighter) instead.
NEUTRONIC FUEL CARRIER
Build a few to refuel your ships at the edges of your empire. The usefulness of this ship depends on how rich the game is.
RUBY CLASS LIGHT CRUISER
The first of the “Armed Freighters” in the Crystal arsenal. A crystal fleet is often heavy on warship/freighter ratio. Why? Because with warships that have cargo holds like the Ruby and the Emerald, the Crystal can build a much more thorny empire than the other races. Their critical freight is protected by webs and by warships.
TOPAZ CLASS GUNBOAT
Limited in use for the crystals, without having torpedoes, this ship cannot lay webs and the only real use for this ship is for freighter escort to ensure that the true freighters don’t get stolen by a sneaky hyper jumping probe.
SMALL TRANSPORT
Is of little or no use
SKY GARNET CLASS DESTROYER
7 beams and 1 torp, but puny fuel and small cargo and even worse, a skeleton crew? Look elsewhere at other ships to fill any job that this ship might. In the long run, you will be happy you bypassed the Sky Garnet.
LARGE DEEP SPACE FREIGHTER
The Medium and Small are too small, the Super Transport is too big, but the LDSF feels just right. This is actually the ship to build.
EMERALD CLASS BATTLECRUISER
Is the best armed freighter in the game. With a massive 510 cargo, this ship sends shivers down your enemy’s spine when he sees these ships following behind the leading battleships and carriers. With the Emerald, the Crystal can secure territory he captures for extremely long times. Often, the well developed crystal takes and never gives back.
ONYX CLASS FRIGATE
So, you’re the crystals and you keep getting those frozen balls of ice? This is your ticket to economic and colonial happiness. The Onyx can heat up those planets to a nice toasty 100 temp. In addition, while these ships are cooking your planets, they can be busy doing other jobs like probe defense and minor web expansion. Yes, it only has the ability to build 3 torps over colonies, but if that is mk7’s and mk8’s you are increasing web-fields by 243-300 web units per turn.
DIAMOND FLAME BATTLESHIP
Often players look at the 390 Moly as a real liability. And for the non-optimized economy, it definitely is. But look at it from the point of view of Alchemy of one mineral. Moly. The cost in Trit and Dur is negligible. The one real problem with this ship is the small cargo space. It is very vulnerable to mine hits because it cannot carry supplies to repair. However, there is a real advantage that this ship has over the similar Victorious; 110 more fuel.
NEUTRONIC REFINERY SHIP
The neutronic refinery ship is a tech 9 ship with 10 engines and 1050 KT of cargo room. Fuel tank will hold 800 KT of fuel. The hull is very massive, 712 KT. The ship is armed with 6 beam weapons. This ship can produce up to 525 KT of fuel per turn.
SUPER TRANSPORT FREIGHTER
To big for most purposes. With tech 10 engines and the cost involved it is much easier to build a few Large Deep Space Freighters. But I like to call it “Starbase in a Box”. You decide.
CRYSTAL THUNDER CLASS CARRIER
The Crystal mop up artist. In many situations, Diamond / Thunder combos can kill even the biggest of carriers. It’s expensive to do, but playing the Crystal successfully requires a great deal of expenses. Don’t overlook this ship in favor of saving money, or you will regret it.
MERLIN CLASS ALCHEMY SHIP
The Merlin Class Alchemy Ship is a tech 10 ship with 10 engines and 2700 KT of cargo room. The fuel tank can hold 450 KT of fuel. The ship’s hull has a mass of 920 KT, which makes it one of the largest ships in any fleet. The ship is armed with 8 beam weapons and costs 840 megacredits to build. The ship can produce a maximum of 900 KT of minerals per turn ( 300 KT duranium, 300 KT tritanium and 300 KT molybdenum ).