For many years I have played Homeworld 2; buried it; rediscovered it, and always refined my strategy. This is a totally biased guide, since I describe my personal strategy, and what works about it; no alternative views here. First off, I have discovered the following priorities in my gameplay:
So, if you are fan of bombers, frigates or weapon platforms, this opinion strategy guide is not for you.
Even before my fleet (mothership + 6 resource collectors, 1 carrier) appears, Tab Q B shows improved HUD and opens the Build menu of the carrier. I start the Fighter Facility and 4 probes. After the fleet appears, I select the carrier, assign to group 9, send to an asteroid field near the center. The probes are sent to promising asteroids or to locations behind the enemy (at this time, he has no fighters to kill them yet).
Then, I doubleclick the 6 resource collectors and H (harvest) them to hasten their mining startup. The mothership gets group 0.
Once the fighter facility is complete, I set the carrier to produce 14 interceptors, with P (rally point) somewhere near the center. I then go to the mothership and set production to 8 collectors, 1 mobile refinery, 6 resource collectors, with P near the asteroid that the carrier by now is heading to. If you choose high start resources, do this at the very start; on low resources, doing so would slow down interceptor production.
As soon as two interceptors are complete, I fighter screen (F7) them into group 1. The enemy has also at least his first assault craft. Attack it two-on-one, then reload the group on the carrier. In the meantime, 1 or 2 more interceptors have been produced; assign to group 3 and replace group 1 in the fight if necessary. During the next time, assign new interceptors alternately to groups 1 and 3; one group should always fight, while the other is reloaded in the carrier.
In the meantime, do not forget the all-important cashflow! The new resource collectors are to mine the asteroid that the carrier is heading to. This is the first test for your mind: Do not get entangled in the micromanagement of interceptor fighting. And do not go near the enemy capital ships.
I call this chapter "Startup Defensive" although the strategy looks offensive. The point is that with interceptors, I do nothing to destroy the enemy resource collectors or large ships; it is solely a "pressing" (soccer) or "harassing" (rts) strategy to keep the enemy from assembling a force against me.
When at least 10 collectors are active in total, build a research module and a capital ship facility on the mothership (again, on high resources, do this at start). When the research facility is done, build a corvette facility on the carrier; after that, cancel all interceptors and start churning out 12 pulsar gunships instead, queuing the fighters after them.
This has one primary reason: By now, the enemy can probably build frigates, and with interceptors alone, you are lost. You need the pulsar gunships to beat them. Often, in that stage, you also need to retreat the carrier from the asteroid if you have an expert CPU opponent.
In any case, pulsar gunships get group 2 and 4 and kill frigates. If for some reason the enemy has no frigates, rejoice! You can G (guard) the pulsars with one of your interceptor groups (1 or 3) and go kill enemy resource collectors (do not forget to replace the interceptor groups from time to time). This will shorten the game drastically.
In the meantime, the mothership should have started to build the mobile refinery. Leave this one at the original 6 resource collectors, start moving the mothership to the next promising asteroid, and P the upcoming collectors near it. For now, the collectors at the original asteroid will happily move on with the refinery; later, you can move 2 or 3 of the original 6 away before the asteroid is running low.
This is the next stage in your concentration game: Shuffle (1) attacking with pulars and interceptors, (2) arranging mobile refinery, more resource collectors, motherships and (3) build the right facilities on the right ships.
While you are fighting with the pulsars, the capital ship facility on the mothership completes. Now, for the first time, go to R (research) and select destroyer chassis. Then, build the hyperspace module (needed for shipyard) and the advanced research module (needed for battle cruiser) on the mothership (0). Then go fighting some more.
Before the remaining resource collectors (total maximum is 20) have been built, you should be able to queue the first destroyer. Shortly afterwards, the hyperspace module should come online. Build a shipyard after the first destroyer, and then queue any number of destroyers (maximum is 5).
The reason for destroyer-before-shipyard is that the enemy will probably have frigates at this point, and while your pulsar gunships may fairly but slowly beat them, only with destroyers you will gain a decisive upper hand on them. Destroyers get group 5 and form a frigate line (F6).
With at least 8 pulsar gunships, 8 interceptors and 1 destroyer I am now king of the defensive: The enemy has a hard time attacking my central carrier with frigates alone. And when he comes with his first destroyer, I swarm it with the pulsars so my destroyer will have better health at confrontation time.
This is another layer in your concentration game: Manage carrier and mothership production, attack with pulsars and interceptors, keep an eye on research.
When the first destroyer has been built and your 20 resource collectors are busy (meaning a healthy cashflow established), the shipyard should arrive, getting group 8. Build a capital ship facility and a second mobile refinery, the latter of which goes to where the carrier currently resides. In the meantime, the advanced research module will get online; immediately R the battle cruiser chassis, and once this is done, build 3 battle cruisers (maximum), which get group 6, 7 and 8, with the last one replacing the shipyard.
Optional: If you find that interceptors and pulsar gunships are maxed out, build a frigate facility on the carrier (9). I recommend flak frigates to guard remote resource collectors, or ion frigates to aid the destroyers. Also R the defence frigates; they (total maximum 2) are a valuable addition to your destroyer group with their shield (T) ability.
Since the mothership (0) is churning out more destroyers, maybe you will have won before the first battle cruiser appears. If not, jump one of the battle cruisers (6, 7, 8) to the place of the last stand.
It is often smart to keep one destroyer near the center mothership, while the others go out attacking. This is especially true if you have two opponents. Same goes for some platforms or ion frigates. Enemies may sometimes attack from odd angles.
I usually take great care that my attacks come in a timely manner. If too much time passes, the enemy will have a much stronger force; even more so for multiple enemies. Turtling (i.e. staying on your side and building a giant fleet) really is not an option if you have an expert CPU opponent.
There is a certain gap in may strategy: Due to the fact that I skip the frigates and produce only one destroyer before the shipyard, the enemy may swarm me with frigates in that gap. Once I have the destroyer and the shipyard, I have the stronger units and produce faster; this is my golden age.
Always observe to research (R) appropriate chassis while you build the pertinent facilities. You will bite yourself in the foot if you realise that you have all facilities but no models to build.
Over time I switched exclusively to high resources at start (10000), and particularly when playing against one expert and one easy enemy at the same time on Dante's Requiem map, I had to tweak some things.
First on the carrier (9): 2x4 interceptors (1, 3), 2x6 pulsar gunships (2, 4), 6 remaining interceptors, mobile refinery. This allows me to react to enemy corvettes and frigates much earlier.
Second on the mothership (0): 8 collectors, refinery, 4 collectors only, destroyer (5), shipyard (8), more destroyers. Shipyard: remaining 2 collectors, refinery, battle cruisers (6, 7, replacing 8). This allows me to react to enemy destroyers (and to less probable frigate swarms) earlier, at the cost of later collectors from the shipyard. On the other hand, the shipyard has something to do until the capital facility completes.
Also build research module and capital facility right from the start, and hyperspace module and advanced research module as soon as the first two complete. If you notice cash flow going low, just cancel e.g. the advanced research module and start anew.
As Vagyr, the strategy is somewhat different because their build path is too. They need to research hyperspace gates before constructing a hyperspace module, needed for the shipyard. Also, their carriers can build only one facility. Corvette and frigate facility must be researched before they can be built. On the other hand, there is no advanced research module, and all research seems available from the start (at least for built facilities), though destroyer and battle cruiser improvements are noteably absent. Their fighters seem more fragile than the Hiigaran counterparts and require more frequent reloading, but the unit cap is more generous. The following assumes you are on high starting resources (10000) and normal multiplier.
At start on the carrier (9), B a fighter facility and 4 probes, then 2x4 assault craft (1, 3), then a mobile refinery, then 3 more collectors which we will cancel later. Reload times are much longer for Vagyr, and block their resource drop-off points, so refineries are very much needed to keep the cash flow going. Send the carrier to the nearest asteroid field.
On the flagship (0), build 8 collectors to send (P) them after the carrier, then a refinery (7) to stay with the 6 start collectors (6), then 3 more collectors which we will cancel later. Also build research module and capital facility. When the research module is ready, R in this order: Lvl 1 fighter and lance beams (Alt+f), hyperspace gates (Alt+w), corvette facility (Alt+c), and if capital facility has finished also destroyer chassis (Alt+a). As soon as the hyperspace gate is researched, build the hyperspace module on the flagship -- this is hard to remember for some reason.
So the two fighter groups are pressing, and the enemy might build corvettes, which our assault craft are weak against. So cancel the 3 collectors on the carrier (9) and build 6 lance fighters (4) instead, queuing 4 assault craft behind them to complete the 18 unit cap. The lance fighters will help with the enemy corvettes, but not against enemy frigates; they are also much more fragile than corvettes, so reload them often.
Against enemy frigates, on the flagship (0) cancel the 3 collectors, build one destroyer (5), a shipyard (8), and then 4 more destroyers. As you have a refinery there now, you can move towards the next asteroid field; and if the carrier already built its refinery, move the carrier to the same asteroid field. The one destroyer will help against frigates at this point, and the shipyard, though kind of late, will create the last 6 collectors (or fewer if you had timing issues and forgot to cancel the 2x3 at carrier or flagship) while researching the battle cruiser chassis and building the corvette facility. When the latter is done, start the capital facility and build 6 missile corvettes (2) to complement the 6 lances, so you should have two alternating groups (1, 2 and 3, 4) against enemy fighters and corvettes.
Dont forget starting battle cruiser production once research completes. This takes a long time, so your attention might wander. I have also found it best to keep the one destroyer purely on the defensive at least until the missile corvettes have arrived.
In this sequence, the cash flow should always be good. Further research for fighter and corvette improvement can be sprinkled whenever the reserves are good, generally above 2000 resource points.
This was just one possible Homeworld 2 strategy, and my favourite one! Many other exists, some probably better than this. I hope you enjoyed reading my approach, and maybe you had some ideas while reading this. Thanks for leaving a part of your attention span here, and have a good day!
EOF (Jan:2024)