The Horwasp Plague

The Horwasp Plague race icon from VGA Planets Nu

The Horwasp Plague The Horwasp are an add-on race available only at Planets.nu. The Horwasp are an inter-dimensional species that are invading known space. Little is known about them, but they are widely feared for their destructive and chaotic power. They are very different from every other race in Planets, having no starbases, not using factories or mines, not using supplies or MC and not taxing natives. The Horwasp may not share intel or make an alliance with non-Horwasp players. They also cannot capture ships, have their ships captured, or give or receive ships with another player.

The Horwasp are currently in early testing (Alpha 2, as of this writing) and can therefore be expected to change quickly. As a result, documentation you read about them may not be up to date.

Horwasp are only available to paying members of Planets.nu.

Race Characteristics

Horwasp population only grows by consuming natives on planets they control. The Horwasp automatically stop consuming natives once they are at the limit of what they can sustainably feed themselves with (as of Alpha 2). If there are no natives on a planet to feed on, the Horwasp will slowly starve. Horwasp can land a small pod full of clans on a native planet and quickly grow in size within a few turns. This rapid growth allows Horwasp to spread from that planet to nearby planets for further colonization or attack. (Perhaps this rapid spread is why they are called a "plague").

The combat strength of Horwasp ships is determined by the number of clans on board. Horwasp ships do not use ammo, but instead rely on their "psycho-kinetic energies" as weapons, which are based on the number of clans on board. When a Horwasp ship is full of clans, it has Mk. 8 torps and Heavy Phasers. In combat, torps never run out, while fighters regenerate after each combat round.

Horwasp pods are non-steerable ships that are launched from planets, usually to another planet. Pods travel slowly, at warp 6, and are hard to detect, being detectable only at 25 LY, or at 50 LY if they have weapons. Pods cannot change their course after being launched, and cannot use the intercept mission.

Racial Abilities

The Horwasp main abilities

• Psychic Scanning - Ability to detect enemy ships regardless of cloak or environmental conditions. Also detects enemy colonies and starbases. Range is 150 LY.
  
• Rock Attacks - Ability to hurl rock at other planets, causing major damage to enemies.
  
• Swarming - Whenever a Horwasp ship is destroyed, 10% of the clans on board are deposited on nearby planets within 100 LY, and initiate ground combat. If there are no enemy clans, they settle a colony.
  
• Ship-building Planets - Ships can be built from any colony. Horwasp can build any ship at any colony, provided they have enough clans and minerals to build it. Clans are consumed to manufacture a ship or pod, so a planet's population will go down from construction.

Disadvantages:

• Reduced Diplomacy - Cannot share intel or make alliance with other players, unless Horwasp.

Colony auto-management

Horwasp colonies can be neglected and they will auto-manage themselves. They follow a particular order upon planetfall:

• Harvest natives. (Will harvest until at equilibrium with native population and can feed without causing de-population)
• Burrow - Will dig planet defenses until 100% (1 burrow for each clan). Takes 4 turns for 1 clan to build 1 burrow. Burrows affect ship combat but not ground combat.
• Mine - workers will mine until planet is depleted of minerals.
• Terraform - workers will terraform planet until at 50 degrees.
• Rest. (If there are burrows, Horwasp consume half their normal food)

Ship List

See The master ship list for a list of The Horwasp Plague ships.

Important Ships

• The Hive is your mothership. It can carry 24,000 clans and has a fuel tank of 2800. While the fully-loaded Hive is powerful, it is less powerful than a Golem. Moving a fully-loaded Hive is incredibly expensive in fuel. It often makes more sense to send a relatively empty Hive to a planet with natives, and grow Horwasp clans there.
  

When a Hive is within 100 LY of enemy planets, it causes panic and the happiness of colonists and natives begins to drop. At 100 LY, happiness drops -1 per turn. For every 10 LY closer, happiness drops another -1, up to a maximum of -10 per turn (1-10 LY away).

• Important weapon benchmarks for the Hive:
  

2,667 clans - Proton, X-ray

5,334 clans - Mk. 2, Plasma

13,334 clans - Mk. 4, Disruptor

• Try to avoid the Gamma bomb tech level, between 8,000 and 10,667 clans. Gamma bombs are weak.

• Brood - A powerful carrier. Since it carries 900 clans, it is useful for transporting clans and colonizing.
• Soldier - A torp ship, good against other torpers. Can tow ships and stationary pods (sentry). Its 650 kt fuel tank makes it a good fuel transporter.
• Jacker - No beams but has a thick skin that gives it resistance to fighter hits (fighters have only 25% chance of hitting Jacker). Good for attacking starbases, or weakening enemy carriers before finishing them off with another ship.

Important Pods

• Stinger - Your main weapon that helps you spread your empire. It is quite inexpensive in minerals and clans but reasonably powerful. Like any pod, if you need this pod to travel faster to a planet, you can launch it it from a planet at warp 9 and it will arrive at its destination sooner.
• Accelerator - stationary, weaponized pod that accelerates your pods to a higher warp speed. It provides 25 free fuel to each of your ships at the same location. The Accelerator cannot be towed.
• Protofields - A pod launcher to a location where it deploys a minefield. Very cheap in minerals, but can be expensive in clans, depending on size of mine field. Max size is 2500 clans, which makes 2500 mines (48 LY radius). The pod takes one turn to transform into a minefield after it reaches its destination, so opponents will always see that a minefield is coming before it is deployed.
• Farms - Horwasp are unique in their ability to transport natives from one planet to another, to sustain their population. Reptilian natives are very useful, as they will double your mining output. Spread reptilians to all your colonies if you can, for this reason. Spreading amorphous natives to every planet as a denial weapon can be very useful. You can spread 1 amorphous clan to every planet, making the planet harder to colonize for other players.
• Sentry - Stationary pod with beams that is useful for mine sweeping. Provides 5 free fuel per turn to each of your ships at the same location. Can be towed by Soldier or Hive.
• Rocks - Use them to transport minerals between your planets, or throw them at enemy planets to kill colonists and natives. Very large rocks can do catastrophic damage to enemy colonies. Rocks will destroy some factories, mines and defense posts, and also lower the happiness of the population.

If you hit a planet with a rock, try to use a high warp speed, as this will do more damage. The "impact mass" of a rock upon impact is (rock mass) * (warp speed). So a 1,000 kt rock at warp 9 will have a 9,000 kt impact mass. The default speed for pods is warp 6, which would make the same rock hit with 6,000 kt of impact mass. The formulas for planetary damage haven't been released, but it appears that the maximum damage to anything is 67%--i.e. you can lose up to 67% of your clans, factories, mines and defense posts from a large rock impact. (However, if a planet is small enough, it can be completely destroyed by a rock).

Strategy

Overall Strategy

Set StrategyOverall= in this page.

Early Game

Start with...

Midgame

See if ...

Endgame

Get...

Notes

With the Horwasp,

Alliances

Overall

Your main value as an ally is in:
1. Transfer Natives to others planets
You mainly want from an alliance:
1.