Strategies

Strategies
As you might imagine, piloting a star ship involves more than just flying towards the enemy and shooting. Pilots who implement strategies, both as an individual ship and as a fleet of ships, stand a better chance of survival and ranking up. Pilots with strategies wind up in the top 1% of their division, whereas pilots that lack strategy don't get very far and are among the first ships to die in a game.

Good Team Strategies
When you play Team matches, you have three other commanders fighting with you against four other commanders. How those commanders play and what ships they have matters a great deal to your strategy. The following are some strategies to try.

Examining Your Teammate's Ships
The game only has so many ships. Learn to tell them apart by shape and engine configuration. That way, you can tell if your teammates have frigates, destroyers, cruisers, interceptors, battleships, or dreadnoughts. If your ship is smaller than theirs, stay behind them to let them draw fire. If your ship is bigger, try to draw enemy fire to allow them more time to use their weapons before they are defeated.

Fighting in Groups
Commanders are always more powerful in groups. Since ships can only fire on one target at a time, single ships are swiftly outmatched by multiple ships, even if said ships are smaller. Fly close to your teammates and help engage the same targets. You'll get more boosts for shared kills, survive longer, and you won't get picked off as easily by opposing squads.

Timing Missile Volleys
When first engaging in battle, it's exciting to get your first missile volley off as fast as possible, but this can waste firepower on a single target. Often, a group of ships will waste their missiles on the single first opponent to reach them and get destroyed by the second opponent because they no longer have missiles. If your teammate has fired upon the first ship of a group, wait for a few seconds and fire on the second ship. This ensures maximum effectiveness of your heavy weaponry.

Reloading Your Weapons
If you have weapons that need to be activated, back off of a fight and make sure they are fully loaded before re-engaging. This maximizes your effectiveness in battle, particularly for ships such as the Falcon and Raider, which have full Missile complements and few Turret positions.

Remembering Range
Different weapons have different ranges at which they are effective. If your ship has a large Missile complement, it is advantageous to be within 5 km, so that you can use your missiles, but outside of 4 km, where the enemy turrets can reach you. Correspondingly, if you have many Turret positions, it is a good idea to close as fast as possible to make your weapons more effective.

Hiding
Oftentimes, in order to fulfill the previous two tips, you need to hide, either to reload or to coax the enemy to get within range. Each map has physical features that are useful to hide underneath, behind, or on top of. Use the physical terrain and your ability to move backward, forward, up and down to hide, get prepared, then come forth when you are prepared for battle.

Flanking
In Planet Commander, ships can move in three dimensions, which is unusual for a game. This means that most players don't expect ships below or above them, making flanking an effective strategy. Ducking underneath a structure and coming up to an enemy from below buys you precious seconds of damage time where the enemy can't find you, allowing you to gain an edge in battle.

Bad Team Strategies
In team games, certain strategies and ideas are bad, and result in a pilot using their weapons/ship ineffectively. The following are tactics to avoid.

Racing to the Enemy
Unless you are a heavy ship capable of taking massive damage, it is ill-advised to be the first ship to engage the enemy. While sometimes you need to take fire for your lighter teammates, the majority of the time it is best to hang back to give the enemy some time to disperse.

Dispersing
When a team is first placed on the map, they have a tendency to spread out, making for a weaker concentration of firepower and lack of team support. Stay close to your teammates, to provide assistance and draw off firepower if necessary. Ships together are always stronger than ships apart.

Obliterating an Enemy
Don't waste an entire team's missiles on a single enemy. If your teammate is firing missiles at a damaged enemy, look around for a full-health enemy to attack instead. Doing extra damage doesn't give your brownie points and wastes your limited missile shots.

Attacking Head-On
Most ships have built-in guns mounted where they only fire when your broadside (length of your ship) is turned towards the enemy. If you are within 4 km and don't have your broadside facing the enemy, you are wasting precious firepower.

Getting Stuck
Map features are great for hiding behind or flanking around, but your ship can actually interact with them and get stuck. Take care to watch where your ship is going, even in a firefight, to avoid getting caught underneath a boulder or in a crevice where you can't escape from enemy fire.