THE RAIDER

Hints for playing the RAIDER Character

Though they have now been lionized in the eyes of the masses, one of the most dangerous and powerful entities in the growing Second Empire were the piratical Raiders. Their taste for wanton destruction of life and ravaging defenseless Worlds left thousands homeless and stripped planets of their raw materials and Imperial currency. Many planets, denied an ability to grow while under the sway of a Star Raider, were unable to recover the positions of prominence they enjoyed before the Old Empire's fall. The holos have portrayed the Raider as dashing, black space-suited corsairs, delving impossible odds to confront the tyrants of corrupted Worlds. In truth, the Raider was more likely to lay in wait until the odds were in his favor. But even these robbers, in their raids and ravages helped carry the seed of the Empire's rebirth throughout the known Universe as their dark Ships carried hostages and slaves from World to World...

- excerpt Encyclopaedia Galactica

RAIDER SCORING:

Each Turn:

• 40 points for each of 3 turns of Recovery from a World Ravage, decreasing to 20 points per Recovery turn for the next Ravage (or Raid) of the same world to a final minimum of 10 points per Recovery turn for all subsequent Ravages. (Ownership change interrupts and ends a Ravage sequence) .
• 100 points for Raiding another Player's World, decreasing by 25 points per Raid (or Ravage) of the same world to a final minimum of 25 points per Raid of the same world.
• Raider Capture – The Raider Captures all Fleets intact where his Fleet Strength outnumbers all present non-Allied Fleets’ Fleet Strength of any other player’s fleets by 3 to 1..

Gems:RUBIES

Relics:

• The Eye of the Tiger (Also Trader)
• The Imperial Crown (Also Baron)
• The Golden Diadem (Also Houri)
• The Runesword (Also Warlord)

RAIDER ADVANTAGES: The Raider advantage comes in two flavors. The awesome power of the Raid, which no other player can do, is a deterrent to other Starlords and a useful tool of intimidation. Raiders who make deals to Raid poor and dead worlds can get along well with neighbors and can be a definite thorn in the side of neighbors whom they don't like. However, the most powerful advantage is the Raider 3 to 1 capture. Where the Raider outnumbers the enemy by 3 to 1, the Raider captures fleet INTACT! Unlike other players who must first destroy every ship before capturing a fleet, the Raider can capture the hardware along with the Fleet Engine.

RAIDER STRATEGIES:Raiders are definitely the scourges of the Universe. The Raider may be the most independent of all the characters. Raider make almost all of their points by Raiding other Starlords’ worlds and Ravaging their own worlds and by taking advantage of their special abilities. Ravaging worlds is the Raider staple; you more points but you have to own the world to do that. Since that stops all the factories and pretty much wrecks that world’s economy for 3 turns while you are making points, you only want to do this at world’s that you don’t need. Your Ravages make just as many points at low value worlds as high so just choose your ravage targets carefully. Raiding on the other hand is easy since you don’t have to own the world. You can do this with the agreement of your neighbors and friends or as an aggressive incursion into another empire. Intimidation is a major part of your persona.

You have a special advantage that is particularly sneaky. When most Starlords conquer fleets, they have to destroy every single ship on it and then build it up again. True for the Raider, too, of course if involved in a fleet battle. However, a Raider capture works differently. If the Raider shows up at a world with more than a 3 to 1 advantage of all your fleets’ total strength over combined enemy or neutral’s fleets, you swallow all their fleets whole, intact, with ships. This advantage cannot be underestimated and has a lot to do with your power to intimidate. Big fleets wandering around can cause big problems. Just be careful whom you offend.

On the other hand, other players can slow you up enough to limit your points if you are just antagonistic. Use your strength to make deals. You are a great bodyguard. You still need big fleets and lots of ‘em and your appetite for worlds to Raid and Ravage is insatiable.

THE BARON
Guess who usually has the most worlds? The intimidation factor is that the Baron doesn’t want to lose any of them. On the other hand, Baron’s are also usually rich in resources and if irritated enough, will sic one of their sycophants on to you. That could cost you resources and create an ugly scene. Maybe you want to deal for some low value worlds to Ravage and some target worlds to Raid. Be certain to point out that you will give those worlds back after the Ravage or trade them for higher value worlds of your own and that Raiding won’t hurt the point value of worlds with no factories.

THE TRADER
Everybody can use a Trader. Not only can they maximize the use of the ships you give them for carrying but they are usually full of information. They work for lots of people and right at the heart of their empires. They can easily give you low value worlds to Ravage if they want to. They’re kind of arrogant, though….

THE HOURI
The shape-changing Meta-morph Houri could be a dangerous enemy since the Houri can even be a Raider. However, if you are the Houri’s client you also get 25% of the points the Houri makes. Once again, this is a character that you must work with creatively to find ways to meet each others needs.

THE RAIDER
Raiders can be really uncomfortable neighbors unless you can make some accommodation with them. If they just have to Raid your worlds, show them targets that don’t have factories or Mines and it won’t hurt your points too much. You can trade a Raider some low-value worlds for Ravaging or offer to own his low-value worlds so they can be Raided. In return you'd like some high value worlds from him that you can manage. Production is important to him so he can have more ships to maintain his Raider advantage. While every character treasures fleets, he values them more than most. So you have lots of trade bait.

THE PHILOSOPHER
Another character that you can let convert your populations. Just keep an eye on them, if your worlds go over to the Philosopher, why you can always Ravage them and then take them back. Philosopher’s should be ready to do even trades with you for worlds.

THE TERMINATOR
You can make a good partnership with a Terminator who needs some muscle help. Intimidating as a Terminator sounds, they need their resources more than any other player. Terminators don’t get anything for owning worlds, so if you can convince them to give you unnecessary worlds that have already been robotized for Ravaging and low value worlds for Raiding, you can let them robotize your worlds. What do you care about what kind of populations build the ships for your fleets?

THE WARLORD
These simple soldiers are your antithesis. However, maybe you could get one to make you a Tribute target. It would be hard to keep up with one of these conquering heroes long enough to Ravage every world that comes your way but if you have something valuable enough to this mercenary, maybe he’d see things your way.

RAIDER HINTS FROM THE GALACTIC EFFECTUATOR: The Raider may be the most independent of all the Character Types. However, there are a number of profitable trades that the Raider can make. The Raider is the great intimidator and a dangerous Enemy. He can offer protection to weaker Players in return for Raiding rights of their poorer Worlds, although the weaker Player must be careful to not end up in the Raider's stomach. Trading "ravaged – out" worlds with another Starlord is another possibility. The Philosopher can still proselytize plundered planets and the Trader is very useful to the Raider in carrying Raw Materials. Barons will want to own and manage the Factory Worlds that the Raider cannot ravage, as he needs them to fill his Fleets with Ships. The Houri is probably the Raiders most natural Ally.

The Raider’s continuing Raids and Ravages lowers the point values for these actions as the game progresses. This character will have large scores early and into the mid-game but is challenged to find new worlds for fresh Ravages and Raids. The need is constant and continuing for more fleets and more ships to create more opportunities of a Raider capture and a presence at more worlds for Raiding.