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.

Race Differences Overview

Birdmen

• New campaign 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
• New Abilities: Super Spy Command, Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Fighter Minesweeping, Starbase Money Transfer

Important new ships & abilities

• 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 1 extra torp tube). It is good 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 and distract your opponent.

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

Evil Empire

• New campaign ships: Ru25 Gunboats, Ru30 Gunboats, Super Star Cruiser II, Moscow Class Star Destroyer, Super Star Carrier II, Aries Class Transport, Mig Class Transport.
• New Abilities: Dark Detection, Destroy Planet, Free Starbase Fighters (max +10), Ion Starbase Shield, Starbase Mine Sweeping, Starbase Fighter Minesweeping.

Important new ships & abilities

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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).