SPACE - GLORY THROUGH CONQUEST

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MINEFIELDS

Laying a good Minefield
1. A minefield is an object in space, which has 24 hitpoints, 27 hitpoints for Kreel mines.
2. The minefield hitpoints are increased with hull technology, and minefield evasion is increased with stealth technology.
3. Each minefield can potentially damage one attacking ship, and destroys itself in the process.
4. One ship may be hit by multiple mines.
5. Sensor technology improves minefield accuracy, based on the number of scanners on the planet (Maximum 50 scanners).
6. Stealth technology improves the base damage a mine inflicts by 10% per tech level.
7. Minefields have 100% shield penetration unless enemy shield tech is more than 50% higher than your missile tech, otherwise damage is partially absorbed by shields.
8. Minefields have a 20% bonus to hit against capital ships and uniques, and a 20% penalty against escort ships.
9. The maximum chance to hit for minefields is 88% (achieved when you have 300 minefields or more), Minimum chance is 12%.
10. Each mine has a 40% chance to misfire. (Less for Kreel).
11. Minefield damage is applied before combat occurs.

Clearing Minefields
1. Half your beam slots are used as point-defenses versus minefields, on a ship with only beams. A quarter of beam slots are used for point-defense on ships with mixed weapons.
2. Big ships with lots of sensors and armed with only beams make the best minesweepers.
3. The tech-level of your shields versus the enemy missile tech-level determines whether shields will absorb some of the damage. You need to have 50% higher shield-tech than enemy missile tech.
4. Stealthy ships are less likely to be hit by minefields (small ships can have higher stealth).
5. Minefield clearance is the first stage of combat, and slots used for point-defense are free to fire during combat with no penalties.

Species Advantage
1. Kreel mines are more evasive, have higher hitpoints, and are less likely to misfire, than those of any other species.

Strategies
1. Border planets, or planets under threat, should have as many minefields as possible, supported by up to 50 scanners.
2. Build Weapons platforms and/or shields on the same planet, optionally supported by evasive ships, so that the enemy cannot conquer the planet in 1 tick, but has to endure the minefield for several ticks.
3. Putting up a defense against a stronger enemy in a large minefield is strongly advised.

Minefields