Campaign Blitz

Campaign Blitz is a form of Blitz that has campaign-mode advantages enabled. This gives races more ships to pick from and more racial abilities to use. Because of these campaign advantages, gameplay is very different compared to Standard Blitz. For the purposes of this article, a "blitz game" is a game with 2 players and a very small amount of planets (usually < 50). Official (Standard) Blitz format on Planets.nu has 16 planets and requires 90% military score to win. Non-standard blitz games are custom games created by players, which can have custom settings. This can include different win conditions (e.g. Total Planets instead of military score), and Fight or Fail for the match to end.

This article will review each race and how their power and gameplay is changed as a result of enabling campaign-mode abilities. The differences can be quite drastic.

Overview of Campaign Race Differences

Lizards

New ships
Reptile Class Escort, Vendetta B Class Frigate, Vendetta Stealth Class Frigate, Saurian Class Frigate, Saurian Class Heavy Frigate, Chameleon Class Freighter, Madonnzila Class Carrier (C), T-Rex Class Battleship (C), Zilla Class Battlecarrier.

• The Saurian Heavy Frigate is a larger verison of the LCC. It has 3 torp tubes (same as LCC), 9 beams and is 190 kt. The LCC by comparison has 4 beams and is 160 kt. The Saurian's drawback is a small cargo of only 90 kt.
• The Reptile and Vendetta Stealth upgrades only require one engine, which might help you with cloaked raids on enemy shipping or colonies with a cheap ship.
• The Saurian Frigate and Saurian Heavy Frigate have more beams (7 & 9, respectively). This makes them useful as sacrificial lambs against enemy carriers, since they can kill many fighters and damage the enemy's shields. They are also relatively inexpensive.

New abilities
Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Mine Laying, Starbase Mine Sweeping

Birdmen

New ships
Bright Heart Light Destroyer, Deth Specula Heavy Frigate, Red Wind Storm-Carrier, Enlighten Class Research Vessel and Medium Transport, Skyfire Class Transport, Deth Specula Armoured Frigate, Valiant Wind Storm-Carrier.

• The new Bright Heart Light has only 1 engine, which makes it a candidate for early rushes or spamming.

• The Deth Spec Heavy is a very interesting ship, being more powerful than a Resolute (having 6 torp tubes instead of 3). It is inexpensive and better than the Resolute for engagement against other medium ships, such as LCCs or Nebulas.

• The Red Wind Storm-Carrier can turn the terrible Valiant Wind carrier into a decent carrier with 5 bays instead of 3. Against enemy carriers, you can use a Dark Wing followed by a Valiant + Red Wind to clean up.

• The Enlighten can increase your MC income, which can be very important. However, this takes time, and in blitz games, you cannot always afford to spend a turn building a ship you don't really need.

• The Medium Transport has 180 cargo, making it a good replacement for the MDSF. With its two beams, you can use it to attack lightly-defended enemy planets. It is also a useful distraction for your opponent who will need to protect their planets against it.

New abilities
Super Spy Command, Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Fighter Minesweeping, Starbase Money Transfer

• Super Spy Command can be used to destroy starbases that have many fighters defending them.

Crystals

New ships
Topaz & Imperial Topaz Class Gunboats, Medium Transport, Sky Garnet Class Frigate, Sapphire Class Space Ship.

• The Sapphire is probably the most important addition for the Crystals. They can HYP to enemy territory and lay webs to obstruct your opponent's expansion in their home area. They can also be used to colonize planets far away and destroy enemy freighters. Just don't let them be captured, or your opponent will be immune to your webs!

• The Topaz Gunboats are a useful addition that can waste enemy torps and kill enemy fighters. They can also be towed by another ship and set to intercept enemy ships at warp 0, in order to track their movements.

• Medium Transports can be used as cheap scouts that can attack weakly defended planets and check if your opponent's ships are located there.

New abilities
Starbase Mine Laying, Improved Desert Habitation, Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Mine Sweeping.

Evil Empire

New ships
Ru25 Gunboats, Ru30 Gunboats, Super Star Cruiser II, Moscow Class Star Destroyer, Super Star Carrier II, Aries Class Transport, Mig Class Transport.

• Ru25 and Ru30 Gunboats are invaluable for EE. They can force an opponent to waste torpedoes, messing up their combat order. They can also kill a lot of enemy fighters, making things easier for your carriers.

• Super Star Cruiser II is more expensive than the original, since it has 3 engines. But the extra mass and extra bay make it worth it as a strong medium carrier.

• Moscow Star Destroyer has only engine, but 4 bays. This makes it a strong but inexpensive carrier.

• Aries alchemy ship can keep your ships fueled on the go, especially Gorbies. It is also useful as a transport. It can also be used to remove minerals from planets to deny them to your enemy.

New abilities
Dark Detection, Destroy Planet, Free Starbase Fighters (max +10), Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Mine Sweeping, Starbase Fighter Minesweeping.

• Dark Detection allows you to detect when ships are within 10 ly. Can be very useful against cloakers.

• Extra fighters are quite useful in Blitz. +5 is probably enough. (Try unlocking +2 and +3, to give yourself some flexibility in other games).

Robots

New ships
Cybernaut B Class Baseship, Sage Class Repair Ship, Pawn B Class Baseship, Iron Slave Class Tug.

• Cybernaut B are good medium carriers. Cheaper than the instrumentality and with one less engine, it is a good early ship that you can put fast engines on.

• Sage Repair Ship can give you an important advantage by letting you repair your ships quickly in the field.

New abilities
Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Mine Sweeping, Starbase Money Transfer