The Scout
	Name = Scout Speed = 1000 m/s Cost = 35 RU Time = 12 s Drain = 2.92 RU/s First and foremost an early-strike craft, the Scout is the first unit that should be mass-produced by your fleet. Scouts are quick and agile, and can easily get from one sector of space to another at a rapid rate. Cheap and easy to build, scouts work best in large groups during battles. Their guns are far from powerful alone, but combine several scouts in an aggressive Delta or Claw formation, and these bad boys will tear through small fleets of enemy fighters. Underestimating a wing of scouts could be very costly. Formations: As a rule, I start off every game by queuing up 30-40 scouts. The first and only strike craft available to you at the beginning, the first squadrons of scouts will be vital to protect your early resource mining operations. In groups of 5 or 10, Delta or Broad formations are a good idea, and work fairly well. For larger groups, try changing to X or Claw formation. If you're attacking collectors or controllers and there are no enemy strike craft in the general vicinity, an aggressive Sphere formation can be deadly. Broad and Wall formations aren't particularly useful with scouts. Tactics: Scouts are a superior multi-role fighter. Not only can they do strikes, but scouts can also be excellent diversions for enemy strike craft. If your opponent sends a squadron of strike craft to your collectors, send your scouts to attack the incoming fighters and set your tactics to aggressive. Most players will immediately turn towards your incoming scouts, drawing fire away from your collectors. Once his fighters are attacking yours, set your scouts to evasive tactics and light the afterburners (the "z" button). A speed-bursting scout is the most difficult target to hit in the game, so unless your opponent has some Defenders or Multi-gun Corvettes in the area, his strike craft should be effectively tied up until you can bring in reinforcements. Another excellent tactic with scouts is the kamikaze attack. Now I'm not saying you should do this all the time, but in some situations, it's better to have your scouts take a few enemy fighters with them rather than trying to limp them back to your support craft while under heavy enemy fire. Scouts are only 35 RU's, making them the second-cheapest unit to produce in the entire game. On top of that, a kamikaze scout has sufficient power to take out any other enemy fighter in a collision! Defenders, bombers, even interceptors will die in a kamikaze collision. Scouts are also the best early solution to the power of enemy defenders. Should you find youself fighting an enemy using defenders, build a Claw of scouts, set them to aggressive tactics, and kamikaze them into the enemy defenders while using the speed boost. Although this seems like throwing away your units, you're achieveing a nearly 1:1 death:kill ratio. Defenders are more than twice as expensive as your scouts, if you spent 25 scouts to take out 20 defenders, you lose 425 fewer RU's than your opponent, which just happens to be the exact cost for a shiny, new Support Frigate. Isn't that nice? However, if you do find your scouts idling in space during a lull in the battle, send them to repair and refuel so they're ready for the next round. Notes: Bombers fear scouts. Scouts are much faster, much more agile, and powerful enough to take down enemy bombers, even when fighting superior enemy forces, so don't hesitate to take on a wing of bombers should you bump into one. Scouts should avoid Gravwells and Missle Destroyers like the plague. A single one of either can easily decimate massive numbers of scouts if you're not careful.

	The Interceptor
	Name = Interceptor Speed = 875 m/s Cost = 55 RU Time = 18 s Drain = 3.06 RU/s Interceptors are neat. Really neat. Basically the Interceptor is just a bigger, better Scout, slightly slower but with stronger armor and nastier firepower. But tactically the Interceptor is extremely valuable as a bridge over the gap between the disposable Scout and the heavy-hitting Bomber. They have the potential to be an unpleasant surprise to your opponent. Formations: Interceptors work best in either X or Claw formation. The number of Interceptors in a group is pretty much a matter of personal preference, though more is always better. Formations are less important on a small map since opponents will usually meet before either has the chance to build more than a few Interceptors. In this scenario Interceptors will probably end up being added to the fight a few at a time in a jumble of mini delta formations. Tactics: Interceptors are an excellent all-around fighter unit. Use them to add punch to a Scout group or provide fighter protection for a Bomber group. You may even want to consider Interceptors as a replacement for Bombers. In groups of 20 they can be quite deadly to collectors and frigates and, unlike Bombers, they can protect themselves from other fighters. What's more, since Interceptors represent a much smaller research investment than Bombers, you don't care quite so much if they get wasted. Interceptors have one big problem: Corvettes. Light vettes are mean, but Heavies and Multi-Guns are downright evil. Just a handful of these last two will chew up your Interceptors in seconds. If you see corvettes and you want to keep your Interceptors, run away and come back with some frigates. Don't even try telling these guys to kamikaze; it's pretty much a waste.

	The Attack Bomber
	Name = Attack Bomber Speed = 700 m/s Cost = 85 RU Time = 20 s Drain = 4.25 RU/s The teeth of a fighter-based strategy, bombers are necessary if you plan to take on anything larger than a resource collector. Since the 1.04 patch, their armor has nearly doubled from the tinfoil plating they had, drastically increasing their lifespan and their usefulness. Excellent in large numbers when escorted, or in small numbers sent to disrupt resource collectors, these units are indispensable. Formations: Optimal formations vary depending on your numbers, but for the most firepower, X or delta formations are excellent. If you happen on an unguarded group of enemy collectors and controllers, an aggressive delta wing of 10 bombers can decimate a collector in a single pass. In larger maps like Hyperspace Arena or Scattered, chances are good that you'll destroy everything before the enemy can scramble a defensive. Pretty good deal for 850 RU's, huh? Tactics: Aggressive bombers, even with their new armor, die under any coordinated assault from your opponent. Defenders still shred them, scouts and interceptors still outmaneuver them, and corvettes just stand their and take whatever the bombers dish out. Solution? Mixed evasive formations. Recently I've gotten into the habit of grouping all my scouts, interceptors and bombers into a single attacking formation. What does this do for you? Well your opponent has no easy way of distinguishing the bombers from the rest of the formation, drastically increasing their lifespan. Set everything to evasive, and you've got the "swarm" that you hear us talk about all the time. A massive fleet of fighters buzzing around your target's ships, extremely difficult to bring down without sustaining heavy damage. Aggressive should only be used when your bombers are far from enemy support and near your own. In a close game, a wing of bombers can turn the tide, just remember, the things bombers should look out for are: any other fighter class, corvettes, and Assault frigates, and of course, Missle destroyers.

	The Defender
	Name = Defender Speed = 385 m/s Cost = 65 RU Time = 9 s Drain = 7.22 RU/s Simply put, the Defender is king of the fighters. They may be slow, but their heavy armor and three rapid-fire guns will own much larger fighter groups. Since they don't do well against corvettes or frigates, Defenders do not make good offensive units. Rather they're a quick, easy way to protect your larger, slower units from fighter attacks. Formations: Defenders aren't particularly mobile so it doesn't pay to move them in small groups. Any group less than 20 probably isn't going to be effective. Pretty much the only formation for Defenders is Wall because it's the most densely packed and will 1.) keep your firepower in a tight stream, and 2.) bring all your firepower to bear on a target quickly. Tactics: The Defender is basically a poor man's Multi-Gun Corvette. Anything Defenders can do, MGCs can do better, and so the Defender doesn't get a lot of use. The one saving grace of Defenders is that they're quick to produce. They only require two research techs (Fighter Drive and Defender Sub-Systems) and you can bust one out every 9 seconds. This means if your frigates are getting eaten by Attack Bombers and Interceptors you could use Defenders as a quick solution. But honestly, if your opponent has corvettes of any kind, don't even bother. Corvettes use Defenders for target practice. One interesting thing about Defenders is the obscene range of their guns. When set to Aggressive tactics, Defenders actually have longer range than either Gravwells or Drone Frigates. Beware of using either of these units to counter a Defender fiend. Notes: Defenders are okay for killing fighters, but corvettes and Missle Destroyers are better. You're not going to see Defenders used very often on WON. If you are caught off-guard by a swarm of Defenders, send your Scouts to kamikaze and work on making a few Light Corvettes to neutralize the threat.