Here are some strategy tips I picked up from playing Sins multiplayer games.  A lot of it is common knowledge and I hope by putting this together as an early game guide, it might be useful to new players.  I’m sure you’ll discover more than I have.

This is not a rushing guide.  The all out early game rushing then quitting is a very boring play style and not for me.  On the other hand, I also do not think Sins is as long a game as a lot of people thought.  It is important to go military early and able to repel the early rushers.  Most 3v3 games I played are decided in the first hour, and only the rare games last more than two.   Some players try to play it like Sim City for the first hour and they can get in trouble very quickly.

Before the game starts:

- Know who the teammates are.

- Note opponents picked races: know each races early strengths & weaknesses.  Example: If Adv/Vas team is up against TECs, expect to be out bid on bounty & resources, and be ready for the early mass LRMs + Kor.  If you are up against Vas, be prepared to take the battles to him at early/mid game, before the dark fleet.

- Calculate APP: Note the planet count and calculate Average # of Planets per Player.  APP indicates how long the early game is.  Rule of thumb: expect battles when expanding to 1/2 of APP.  Example: 3v3, 30 planets, 1 star map.  APP = 30/6=5.  Planet #2 can be colonized in relative safety but be prepared to fight/defend for #3.  Some maps have safe corners and are exceptions to this rule.  If the map has multiple star systems, find out your effective APP in game.  See below.

The first split second:

- Join the mad click rush and buy crystals (please fix/redesign this)

- zoom out and locate teammates.  Even when the map is not yet explored, this gives an initial guess of team positions: who is in a safe section, who is isolated and may get double teamed early.

The first minute:

- Make scouts, cap ship, mines; maybe planet upgrade, colony, frigs

- Scout out your expansion path, priority for linking up with teammates.

The first few minutes:

- Locate opponents: identify nearby opponents and early contest points, usually planets at midway points.  Note their early fleet composition.

- Recalculate APP for each player based on the actual map.   

- Identify double team targets, or prepare to defend against possible double teams, by reading the map.

- Decide on military/econ priorities: APP less than 3 means it should be all out military.  Larger APP means more econ.

- Identify early colony targets, make early fleet accordingly

Early conflict Preparations.  This assumes the map indicates early conflicts (APP around 2.5).  Early battles are usually fought with the free Cap, light frigs and LRMs:

- Make Mil lab, research LRM and repair station

- Scrap Cap yard for resources

- Make 50 supply of ships, mostly LRMs unless you expect early counter.

- Expand if possible. Do not invest in econ unless the payback time is less than the time to conflict (see below).  Upgrade fleet supply.

- Pick your first battle: ambush the opponent while he is fighting heavy militia or pirates, double team or bring much larger fleet, or engage in range of your own repair stations/turrets.  The goal of is not to knock out an opponent, which is difficult to do early unless your opponent has been playing Simcity.   The goal is resource denial: destroy colony, mines, and ships, while minimize your own ship loss.  You win by trading resources in your favor each battle.

- If you’ve extra resources, research and make Flak as LRM counter (I think the game design needs to be changed: Flaks need to be available earlier than LRM)

- Keep scouting.  Research jump detection.  This is often neglected but not optional. You need to know the wheres and whats for opponents fleets. Getting an early warning 2 jumps away means you can build up planet defenses in time to turn the tides of battle.

Econ payback time:

Calculate the payback time for each econ research & upgrades.  Example: 3000cr for +2cr/second = 1500seconds payback time, or 25 minutes.   If the decisive battles will be fought before the payback, then the econ investment is a bad idea.  2x payback time is a good rule of thumb: if you can delay the main battles for that long, then invest in econ.  Keep in mind the opponent’s resource/fleet superiority in the mean time.

End of part one of the guide.