Walkthrough :
After "Dungeon Keeper" - the second Power Words are about the strategy game "Pax
Imperia II" (These PWs are released 4.1.1998, after playing this game for
several days. Thanx to Andreas for hardware). This game is ... let`s say very
similar to "Master of Orion II". If you´ve played that before it is not too
difficult to start your own Empire. The realtime-mode is not too bad, slow it
down at the beginning or in important phases. For those who never saw Orion: you
can create your own galactic empire with colonizing planets, doing research,
conquering worlds and managing your empire. It is a complex strategic and
economic simulation where you often have to think about all aspects at once, in
short- and longterm- plans. I played only the German version, so I am not shure
about some original names. By the way, the German translation of this game has
many funny or just stupid mistakes. (ever seen "Schlitze" in a spaceship? ;-).

Here is one strategy (there are many ways to win) and some common tips:

- I don`t play custom races. My created race are the Elarians. They are a proud
race of scientists (science +5 in the attributes) and constructors (construction
+5) of mighty spacefleets. Doing Spionage or sabotage is against their honor
(spionage -5). They don`t need that because of their superior technologigal
knowledge (weapons, shield, ship & colonial research "high+1"). Alcyone, the
home planet of the Quantum Empire is well kown for its great cities and
impressive buildings, for the Elarians are a rich race (finace +1).

- Staring your empire: better test your staring position. If you have many
opponents, check out that no one is directly nearby. Start on the edge of the
map. Important is to find several green planets (very fast population growth) in
range of the start-position. Build at once another transporter and send the
other off at once (Speed = 0). The research should go 100% on research buildings
(750 points, 3750 points) & then on construction. Build these buildings very
fast on your planet & start all yur new planets with research. This is a very
important phase. After some time (hope to have no encounter yet) you can start
researching some weapons & shields & basic spaceship equipment like fast
tactical engines. But do most research on weapons & shields at the beginning for
they are the most important at that time. When you have some destroyers (don´t
resesarch or use rockets -> trash) you should research very fast for better
colonizing units (Class C). Never build a ship with old weapons when you found
new technology, e.g. the waveshield.

- The Elarians don`t like spionage, so don`t pay any money for it (0%).

- Planets: at the beginning is finding & chosing the right planets very
important. Green is top, best with high wealth, orange is OK when having more
than 10 population with at least 3 wealth. Don´t build colonies on red planets
in the beginning, they have no population growth. This and efficient research
are the keys for your superiority in the virtual galaxy.

- When you found in the beginning of your game a green planet with a high wealth
& population then start with building buildings and later with a wharf in the
orbit to build fast transporters for more colonisation.

- Research in mid-game: try to skip useless things like the tactical drives with
defense bonus (takes too long to research). I don´t research any warpdrives for
more than 2 jump range, because I never needed them. But: to get the biggest
ship fast you need to research the neutronium (in the field of shields) and some
other warp-engines & fundamental research. Try fast to develop the biggest
ships. While waiting for research (Speed = 5) don´t forget to look from time to
time after your colonies that they always buld what you want.

- Computer-research: very stupid. Never stressed on a special field like ("How
do I get the best shield in the galaxy?"), it just goes through all topics with
750 points, then all with 3750 and so on. The Elarians are much more effective.

- Computer-constructing: again stupid. You should be more clever & specialize
planets for research, finance-centers (many of them in the mid-game to finance
your future fleets!) or planets with fast contructing. Don´t build some
constructing buildings at the beginning, time is too short, just start directly
with science or finace. Don´t ever build a spionage-building (in this
partuculary strategy).

- Weapons-research: don´t waste any time on rockets and do not research at the
beginning too much in planetary bombs (firestorm is quite enough). But get fast
some good long-range weapons (Durg-Cannon) and then some nice mid-range weapons.

- Research in Space: don´t waste many points here at the beginning. A c-class
colonizer is important and a level-3 wharf is good, but here are not too many
important things. But in the mid-game you will encounter intelligent mines. To
get rid of them research the mines & then the anti-mine-ship and build it in
your bigger ships. Later, you might encounter mines this ship can`t see & so you
must research better mines & the better anti-mine-ship.

- The Elarians conquer other worlds & protect these with their fleets which
guard their systems (the guarding-symbol). They don´t ever need a planetary
defense system, because parts their fleets (two ships) always protect their
systems at the border to other territory. They are smart enough not to fight at
too many places of the galaxy at once, they first finish a branch off & then go
to another. Because of their superior technology theyr ships win nearly every
battle.

- And the computer can play very stupid, he has only three little spaceships,
notices my big fleet & declares war. Talking about stupidity: the computer is
not bad at automatic fighting, but has difficulties with good moving big fleets.
Sometimes you have to move your ships to the right position & click again on
automatic fight.

- Cracking the planetary defense system: can be difficult with even very modern
ships, so take at least four big ones (4000) and some medium ships (2000) to
attack a system with mines, rockets and battlestation.

- In the later mid-game you should start to research good fighters. The Elarians
don`t have any problems fighting their opponent fleets, but have to be careful
about fighter pods & battlestations on other planets. Now you should fast
research all fighters & develop a carrier-ship with some weapons, but mostly
eagles & co.

- Talking about weapons: the Elarians never use weapons on the left or right
side on their ships, they attack always from the front, for they never flee.
Weapons for the front are: long-range like gauss cannon and mid-range weapons
like the quantum torpedoes. Important especially for attacking mined systems are
the point-weapons for the around-defense of the ship. Here you should place
mostly mid-range or short-range heavy weapons, but many different ones. Don´t
let the computer automatically equip your ship!

- The computer places two fighting fleets in far-weapon-range. But it is better
to move your ships very near to the enemy fleet & then switch back to automatic
fight. Then the heavy short-range weapon can be used. With this tactics, the
Elarians destroy ever four times bigger fleets.

- Attacking heavily guarded systems: the others launch their fighters and they
come near, your fleet starts. Then press the stop-automatic-button and wait for
your fleet destroying the fighters. Then start to attack the mines and the
battlestation. With this easy tactics you save a lot of ships.

- In the mid-game you`ve got many nice planets (I hope for you), so you should
look from time to time to find the best administrator for the fields like ship
construction or research. This brings much more points, often 10%,

- Damage: in Pax Imperia II, the ships don`t just have hitpoints going to zero
when being attacked, the enemy attacks can damage important systems as tactical
engines (no moving), weapons or warp-engines. If your fleet doesn`t move or go
through the wormhole, try to find out which ship is damaged and scrap it.

- Moving your damaged ships back to a construction bay repairs them faster. You
should research fast the repairing-drone. For fast Hit Recovery (reminds me on
Diablo...), put two reairing drones in one ship.

- You will see that having a good fleet will be expensive: after the first
research & colonizing phase start with building specialized finance worlds. When
having the class-C colonizer, you should also colonize on red worlds if they are
rich (at least x4). This is a good trick to get many money, because you have
five million colonists at once on this planet.

- In the end-game (I think you came so far ;-) your empire should attack the
strongest opponent & build many tranceporters and move the front of your systems
through the galaxy. With the InfiniShield(tm) and the Corona (great weapon) you
can easily destroy any planetary defense system. But in the rush of building a
big fleet look from time to time if you have enough money to finace it. If not,
scrap the oldest and most damaged ships in the fleet menu. During the end-game,
the Elarians have enough research points, so they only build finance worlds
(change switch to "finance").

- When playing against 15 computer opponents, you will see they mostly work all
together against you, even do research together! But no problem - the superior
Quantum Empire of the Elarians win all battles.

Now start your empire and colonize the galaxy. Good luck.