Lizards

Lizard Alliance race icon from VGA Planets Nu

Origin

The Lizard Alliance also known as Lizards are based on the Gorn Hegemony, from the "Star Trek" universe. It's a reptilian species, which showed in the Episodes TOS: "Arena", Enterprise: "In a Mirror, Darkly Part II" and in some books/games.

Race abilities

• Ground Combat: 30:1 (offensive); 15:1 (defensive) - strongest in the game
• 2x faster mining
• "Hiss" mission - ships with beam weapons can threaten colonists and natives on a planet to increase happiness by 5 points per ship per turn
• Cloaking device on some ships - Reptile, Saurian, and Lizard
• can take 150% damage on their ships (ships will explode after combat if damage is above 100% and if they are in orbit of a planet)

Strategy Guides

From Donovan's VGA Planets site:
It Ain't Easy Being Green
The Lizards Guide to the Echo Cluster

Ship List

Tech	Name	Mass	Fuel	Cargo	Crew	Engines	Beams	Torps	Bays	MC	Dur	Trit	Moly	Special
1	Small Deep Space Freighter	30	200	70	2	1				10	2	2	3
1	Serpent Class Escort	55	160	20	35	1	2			40	15	33	5
3	Neutronic Fuel Carrier	10	900	2	2	2				20	10	2	20
3	Medium Deep Space Freighter	60	250	200	6	1				65	4	4	6
3	Reptile Class Destroyer	60	120	50	45	2	4			50	22	33	15	Cloak
4	Eros Class Research Vessel	35	110	30	78	2	2			30	4	3	13	Terraform Ship (lowers temp)
4	Lizard Class Cruiser	160	330	290	430	2	4	3		190	42	81	30	Cloak
5	Vendetta Class Frigate	100	140	30	79	2	4	4		170	12	23	57
6	Large Deep Space Freighter	130	600	1200	102	2				160	85	7	8
7	Saurian Class Light Cruiser	120	260	150	336	2	4	2		85	32	67	23	Cloak
8	Loki Class Destroyer	101	140	80	265	2	2	4		170	10	20	43	Tachyon Device
9	Madonnzila Class Carrier	331	290	150	910	2	4		5	420	110	123	90
9	Neutronic Refinery Ship	712	800	1050	190	10	6			970	125	150	527	Alchemy Ship - 1 Supply + 1 Mineral -> 1 Fuel
10	Super Transport Freighter	160	1200	2600	202	4				220	125	13	18
10	T-Rex Class Battleship	421	490	190	810	2	10	5		350	140	153	100
10	Merlin Class Alchemy Ship	920	450	2700	120	10	8			840	625	250	134	Alchemy Ship - 3 Supplies -> 1 Mineral

Notes

• Build an Eros starbase early on to pump out HISS-er ships. Every large cluster of planets should have one HISS starbase. Eros ships are 100mc each (ish) even if you outfit them with t5 engines (nice but not necessary).
• Some players build tons of small deep space freighters late in the game to fill up the build queue, then recycle them for priority build points. The Lizards can do one better - build Serpents with tech-1 engines and beams and use them to HISSS! until you want to recycle them.
• starbase-inna-can ships are extremely valuable for getting starbases up and running fast. Null-tech starbases can still pump out HISS ships, and you may not get the chance to make them later.
• The T-Rex is a midrange attack ship, and is extremely cheap for its armament. Don't treat it like a heavy warship - it's in fact the least powerful tech-10 ship in the game. (Nevertheless it is superior to Fascists/Crystals (Diamond Flame)/Privateer and Fed (Missouri) main warship if you have a Lizard crew on board)
• LCCs are awesome but they're heavy and they suck up fuel. Make lots, but be aware that scavenging for fuel in enemy territory is hard, particularly if you're gravid with troops.
• Lizard players can win alliances by offering to HISSSS! other players' planets - have them tow a Serpent with tech-1 engines and beams to the planet of their choice. Note that you can't give your ships to them - you must be in control of them in order to HISSSS!

Strategies

Alliances

With the Solar Federation

• Refitting of ships
• You can provide cloakers, which they can make pretty good use of (immune to Lokis)
• can HISS his planets
• Madonzilla benefits highly from Fed ship bonus (extra bays)
• Economies: they have double taxes, you have double mining - trade-off (hissing a fed planet will make it a cash cow)

With the Cyborg

• HISSSS! their planets! The Borg need fighters for their deadly Biocides, and for those they need a TON of cash.
• An amazing strategy to try:
  • Put a cloaker (Reptile, Lizard, or Saurian) on an enemy planet where there is also in orbit a very strong enemy ship (say, a Colonial Virgo). Make sure the ship is cloaked.
  • Have the Cyborg player move a Firecloud about 80 lightyears away from the planet - enough to reach in one turn.
  • When you are both ready, have your cloaker tow the enemy ship to the Firecloud.
  • The same turn, the Cyborg should chunnel that Firecloud (and, by extension, the enemy ship) to one of his worlds, where he has a low-ID Biocide waiting, mission set to "Kill!".
  • When the enemy ship comes through the chunnel, its shields will be down. Because the Biocide has the lowest ship ID, it will attack the enemy ship first, easily destroying it.
  • If the friendly code of your cloaker is different from that of the Firecloud, you can stay around and do it again!
• Cool any hot planets they may have (above 50) using Eros Researchers. This increases not only the rate at which their colonists grow, but also increases the maximum colonist population. Essential when combined with assimilation.
• Borg colonists are deadly when given to LCCs. Capture enemy planets (and even starbases) with those clans via ground combat.
• Probes, Firecloud Classes and Biocide Class Carriers are very desirable ships for the Lizard.

With the Robots

What you can give:

• Hiss mission boosts his torpedo production.
• Mining rate boosts his fighter production.
• Your cloaking ability shows robotic carriers where to strike.
• The Lizard Class is a very good robotic minelayer and -producer, due to his great cargo hold.
• The Saurian Class is a very good offensive minelayer due to his large cargo hold and low fuel consumption.
• Be careful with giving cloaking minelayers away. They are gold.
• The T-Rex is an ideal shield-killer against all carriers.

What you can get

• Huge mine-covers destroying the last weapon your opponent has against your cloakers.
• Carriers and fighters making your weak combat groups the strongest in the game.

Enemies

The Solar Federation

• Feds have a rough time getting minerals; hit their laden freighters.
• Their Nova can easily take out two T-Rexes in a row. Be careful.

The Cyborg

• Kill them early if you can! The Cyborg are at their strongest later in the game, while the Lizards are strongest earliest in the game. If you are playing as the Lizards and you come across a fledgling Cyborg player, don't hesitate to destroy them - you probably won't get another chance.
• Don't make the mistake of building only T-Rexes. A single Biocide well-stocked with fighters can destroy four, maybe five T-rexes depending on their torpedo tech. A Rex-Mad-Rex or Rex-Mad-Mad combo will usually do the trick. Annihilations are somewhat easier to destroy (as they are torp ships), but they can still destroy several of your ships, so be careful.

The Missing Colonies of Man

Offense

• Go for the ships supporting the Virgo Class Battlestars, like the Cobol Class, Gemini Class and Sagittarius Class.
• Always try to keep the Colonial Player on the defense, fight in his space, destroy his freighters and his economy.
• Hang around cloaked over his main bases and tow off any ship that can be destroyed. Like this you gain control over a base that is maybe (still) too hard to take.
• Only fight Virgo Classes if you have to. Do so with a T-Rex Class / Madonnzilla Class combination and a torpedo ship as backup.
• Use Mid-Tec beamed T-Rex Classes for Minesweeping.
• Never forget the main aim to colonize enemy territory, especially his starbases.

Defense

• Take out intruding Cobol Classes by any means, because they are the legs of the colonial battlegroup. Then all other supporters. Then the carriers.
• Beam up all fuel and fighter-relevant minerals from planets. Beam up colonists and take it back by ground attack, as soon as one planet has fallen.
• Guard starbases with a torper.