First and foremost, is understanding how the campaign works on a basic level.

Your ultimate objective is to progress through the story missions to their completion, whilst keeping at least 6 of the Quorum on board. The campaign is extremely forgiving as you can reclaim any Quorum members who withdraw. This means the only true way to lose the campaign is with the destruction of the Daidalos shipyard.

That being said, it doesn't mean you can park Daidalos on Ragnar and then watch the colonies burn. You still need to protect them as they are your source of income - Whilst it hasn't happened to me it would be entirely possible to "soft-lock" yourself by having all of the colonies withdraw and then have no resources to ever build up properly and strike back.

With the above in mind, the best way to secure more resources and progress towards your ultimate objective would be to build up and expand quickly.

However, there is a knack to this.

The first thing to do would be to get yourself up to Chapter 5 of the story - At this point you have passed all of the tutorial style missions and have all of the game's base elements at your disposal regardless of whether you enabled the tutorial or not.

The core of your fleet are your Officers, keeping them alive and getting quick experience is essential on them.

Your fleet composition itself is also important, some ships are inherently stronger than others at different parts of the campaign.

Where you deploy your ships is also crucial to intercepting the Cylons as quickly as possible, as well as gaining exp quickly.

So let's break it down into sections.

All Officers have three branches of promotion which are fleet size, a buff to a single system for the entire fleet, and unique buffs.

As of the current patch, fleets now begin with 4000 points, this puts MUCH less pressure on quickly promoting your officers and dashing for fleet size upgrades. You can now comfortably go straight for system buffs and get the first fleet size upgrade as your officer's second promotion rather than clawing at every opportunity for fleet size upgrades, and having to do constant officer rotations throughout the early game.

System buffs are where your promotion points will go if you do not have access to a unique buff at that level, or the buff in question just isn't worth it. For some officers, this can actually be incredibly powerful such as a Navigation providing fleet-wide mobility bonuses, or Engineering providing fleet-wide durability bonuses.

The unique buffs are very hit-or-miss in their application. This is because they either provide a powerful bonus such as the CIC Officer's increase for resources or exp boost, compared to say the Tech Officer's bonus to DRADIS range which is pretty underwhelming as your Officer really should not be doing the scouting.

Shortly put, the CIC Officer is the best go-to Officer to pick up in bulk. Sometimes you'll roll poorly on the officers you have access to and be forced to grab other officers but the CIC Officer provides the best all-around benefits to your fleet in and out of battle. The reason is because the CIC Officer increases the strength of the CIC subsystem across your fleet, meaning you can put more points into offensive or defensive posture allowing for some pretty insane stuff like the ability to outrange Cylons once you hit the +8/+9 range. As well as this, once you hit rank 6 you unlock Charismatic which grants +50% income for having that Officer parked above a colony.

That's not to say other Officers are bad, they just don't shine as brightly. That being said, Navigational Officers and Engineering Officers are pretty solid pickups as are Hanger and Tech Officers. These all provide passive increases to good subsystems across your fleets, especially Hanger Officers (62.5 evasion Vipers on Berzerks are hilarious). The unique buffs are fairly underwhelming in comparison to the capacity to significantly boost your income.

Very shortly put, everything can be used as a solid option in the campaign. Even the Atlas is a viable option now with the latest patch, as it no longer drags your fleet down so badly.

That said, there is an order to things and you don't just get the full Colonial arsenal on your lap from Chapter 1.

I'll go over the basics of the ships themselves and how to employ them, then I'll go over how to handle and position yourself vs specific Cylon targets afterwards.

The first ship you get access to, and a very strong one at that. When used for direct combat the Manticore is a pack-hunter at heart, best used in pairs or a pack of three. It's forward mounted Corvette gun is unique in that it has the stats of a medium gun with absurdly high accuracy, particularly when shifted into an offensive posture. It's defensive stats aren't bad either as for it's weight it can take a good beating before giving up the ghost.

Manticores are happy both above and below their targets, to an extent. Their gun is on a forward arc but it has quite a lot of vertical clearance - Have both or all three of your Manticores focus the same target and always tear apart the squishiest targets first. Three Manticores can have a Nemesis turned into salsa in two turns without any need for missiles, allowing you to deploy Torpedoes or Guided Missiles on a second target whilst you rip apart the first.

Important note - Keep your Manticores vertically staggered. The missiles fire from the sides of the ship so keeping them at the same height as other Manticores can result in a lot of friendly fire incidents.

Sadly, the Manticore becomes redundant quickly, especially if you have the Reinforcements pack which gives you the Berzerk from the get-go. If you do not have the pack, Manticores still have a place in early 4x Adamant 1x Manticore fleets. Once the Artemis is available and production is going strong, the Manticore gets benched.

But for the early stage of the game, it's a good ship.

Your bread and butter until well into the mid-game. The Adamant brings Vipers, munitions and decent guns to the table whilst being very durable for a 750 point ship. With and without the Reinforcements pack the Adamant will have a place in your fleets until you're looking at 2x Artemis per fleet, and perhaps for even longer if you do not have the Reinforcements pack.

Adamants are best placed on the front line, set up with a broadside. You want your Adamants taking the initial brunt of the damage when you make contact with the enemy. With the exception of multiple Arachne's and Revenants, Adamants can be relied upon to take the first turn or two of incoming fire and hold their ground.

In the early game, the best friend of the Adamant is the Berzerk as the two ships offset each others weaknessess nicely. The Adamant has poor damage output and the Berzerk has poor durability. When lacking the Berzerk, massed Adamants can achieve the same outcome early game, it'll just happen slower and you'll have greater reliance on your munitions to deal initial damage.

For the early game you'll want Adamants being outfitted with Vipers, and then Mk 2 Vipers as soon as they become available. If the mission requires Raptors, or you're coming up against Revenants and you've still not got Artemis in play, the Adamant is the choice platform to mount your Raptors on. Bringing 3x Vipers on your Berzerks and 2x Raptors on your Adamants can provide enough fighter cover to shut down Raiders whilst allowing you to wreck the accuracy and power levels of Revenants or Cerestas giving you a hard time.

For munitions, Guided Missiles or Torpedoes are both fine choices for the Adamant. Guided missiles will take you through the early game pretty well vs Nemesis and Talons whilst Torpedoes will allow the Adamant to start cracking open Revenants and Arachnes. Player discretion is encouraged here, as both work well - Just don't waste Torpedoes on Nemesis or Cerastes unless you're kissing distance as they'll consistently dodge them. If you're still running Adamants by the time you get them, Armour Piercers are also a solid choice.

A special note for torpedoes: The AI has got a bit better with the latest patch, and will do more to try and match the height of your fleet. If you're well above or below the enemy fleet you should hold off torpedoes unless you're at very close range, as the AI will naturally dodge torpedoes easily by moving up or moving down to match your fleet height. If they are near to your height though, feel free to let torpedoes loose vs Talons, Revenants and Arachne.

The Celestra is pretty much a no-brainer to pick up when you get it as the ship takes up the support slow in a fleet. The only exception is to fleet group Daidalos, where the support slot is already taken.

Early game, the Celestra is very handy for keeping Berzerks alive when you're struggling to keep them out of the line of fire, or more importantly for keeping your front line ships in one piece when they are absorbing the heat for the rest of the fleet. It's also quite good for keeping Minerva in the fight, as they have low armour for a Battlestar which can be offset by the Celestra's extra armour plating.

Begin deploying armour plating as soon as a battle begins - The drones take time to reach a target and apply the plating, they will not be able to help defend against incoming fire unless the drones are already present. You can also drop a layer of plating on one ship, and then send the drones to armour up another ship, though only the ship which has the drones applying armour will get reactive plating applied.

The munition resupply ability it has doesn't really shine unless you're up against a large scale Cylon fleet, or you've reached nukes. Once you've reached nukes you can either bring an extra 2 nukes to the battle without cutting into your ship slots, or bring standard munitions to supply to ships that have fired off their one nuke so they can keep contributing.

When placing the Celestra, keep it well behind your fleet. It's built like paper and it can't boost engines. If you have Artemis online, keep it level with your Artemis so it's always behind the flak wall. The Celestra has no business being on the front line, and should never be in a position where it's taking fire.

Available immediately, the Berzerk is your go-to solution for making Cylon capital ships disappear.

5x Medium guns with solid accuracy and a great rate of fire has the Berzerk tear Nemesis, Cerestas, Talons, and Revenants to pieces in short order.

My preferred early game fleet is the 2x Adamant 3x Berzerk fleet, as it allows the Adamants to soak up damage upon making contact with the enemy whilst the Berzerks tear the targets to pieces. The Berzerk-buffed Vipers are the icing on the cake, and the 5x Viper Mk 1's (Or Mk 2's once they are unlocked) from this fleet are more than enough to handle any Raider threats until Cerberus/Basestars start showing up. As of the latest patch, Mk 2's are MUCH better than Mk 1's, and the 2x Adamant 3x Berzerk fleet can actually handle fighter duty with just the 3x Berzerk Viper Mk 2's, allowing your Adamants to have flexibility in the squadrons they have.

When deploying the Berzerk, it is best done so as part of a broadside and placed behind Adamants early game or Artemis mid-late game. They have 5500 base range compared to most other Colonial ships 5000 letting them shoot over the shoulder of your fleet whilst sturdier friendlies take the damage. Ensure that if a Berzerk starts taking damage that you turn it off immediately - Berzerks simply melt to focused fire and you'll certainly lose a couple before you get the knack of placing them just right to contribute to the battle but not be in immediate danger. Note that the AI will prioritise the Berzerk upon getting into range if it hasn't targetted something else first, so ensure something durable hooks the AI first.

Revenants and Arachne's in particular will shred the Berzerk, as will focused munition strikes - Place and protect the Berzerk accordingly and it'll dish out all the pain you'll ever need.

Congratulations, upon hitting the Artemis you can consider yourself officially at the start of the mid-game. The Artemis replaces the Adamant as your bread and butter - 2x squadron slots, 1x munition slot, very strong hull and respectable armour on a mobile package make for an excellent general purpose frontliner. Now throw it's 8x Battlestar Artillery on top of it into the mix and you've got a ship that can deal out as much damage as it can take.

Simply put, you always want your Artemis underneath the Cylons. This is so it's 8x BS-Arty can get to work deleting anything that isn't a Nemesis or a Cerestas - Try not to get too low so the 8x Point Defence Guns can get in on the action too as well as keeping your flak relevant. Diving too low will allow Cylon missiles to fly over your flak shield and hit the top armour of the Artemis, or worse, other ships in your fleet.

The Artemis has enough gun strength that you do not need to lean on it's munitions for damage, so you can consider utility when outfitting it. Guided Missiles will allow the Artemis to help deal damage to the fast Nemesis/Cerestas and PCM's can allow the Artemis to provide emergency missile defence when flak isn't an option. Torpedoes aren't necessary unless you want the Artemis contributing to a larger alpha strike against a quickly-ID'd Basestar for example. Armour Piercers are also a solid option to provide help cracking hard or awkward fast targets before you get in flak position.

The Artemis is a prime candidate for housing your support squadrons such as Sweepers, Raptors or Assault Raptors. The Artemis has standard +20 evade, so it's alright to house support squadrons, rather than using a valuable +50 evade Berzerk slot which should be used exclusively for Vipers.

Your first optional ship is unlocked alongside the Artemis.

The Ranger is not a requirement to bring along, but you most certainly CAN bring it along once you get to the 5000/6000 point mark. The Ranger is a little flimsy for it's cost, but the damage it brings along is significant in the form of 2x rapid reload munition slots. You can effectively pour on a constant stream of ordnance using the Ranger until you run out of ammo by alternating between each missile tube. It's gun loadout isn't anything to scoff at either, being focused on the front and bottom of the ship (2x heavies front, 2x mediums bottom) though you can use it as a rather expensive Adamant by bringing it down with the fleet and using it's 4x light guns either side.

Recommended deployment is to have it above your fleet and let it rain Torpedoes down on the Cylons. Deploying them in pairs allows for a constant stream of deadly ordnance on anything that isn't a Nemesis/Cerestas, or outfitting them with Guided Missiles/Armour Piercers allows them to handle speedy threats like the Nemesis/Cerestas handily. PCM's are not recommended for the Ranger as they are better served on the Artemis/Jupiter which can throw them out whilst a flak wall is up.

Do note that Rangers deployed above your fleet are very vulnerable to Cylon missile strikes, and should be protected by Vipers, Sweepers or PCM's as deemed appropriate.

As of the latest patch, you can bring the brick without feeling bad now.

Before hand, it was a liability for the most part, but now it's a solid ship for a number of reasons.

The Atlas can keep pace with the Jupiter now, and it has guns mounted on the bottom of the ship so it can actually contribute to fights by keeping up and shooting down as required. Also, with the Raptor being a nice option, the Assault Raptor being fantastic for bringing along on your Battlestars, and Sweepers becoming a necessity, the Atlas is a very cost-effective way of getting 2 more Viper Mk 2's into your fleet, which get a pretty nice 35 evasion compared to the standard Colonial 20.

You can either keep it behind the fleet and let it play fleet support with it's Vipers, or you can throw it on to the front lines to use it's incredible amounts of armour to soak damage. It won't ever be a primary source of damage, but it's 3x heavy guns on the broadside will contribute to a fight, especially if Assault Raptors are present and marking targets for extra accuracy.

Just hold in mind that the Atlas is a huge ship and it's as bad as the Jupiter at diving. If you throw it on the front line, you'll either want equally slow ships like the Janus and Jupiter accompanying it or you'll want to be mindful of your faster ship's positions. 2x Atlas, 2x Artemis, 3x Berzerks is a solid fleet for firepower and squadron slots, but it'd be very easy to prevent your Berzerks from properly getting a shot off if you use your Atlas on the front lines, for example.

The Janus is what you bring when you want missile support but you want the ship bringing it to not die to a passing breeze.

The Janus is a ship that is a question of taste. Due to the very defensive nature of play of letting the Cylons come to you in the campaign, the Janus and Ranger fill very similar roles. It really boils down to whether you want a constant stream of ordnance from the Ranger, or if you want the burst damage that a Janus can bring.

The Janus also brings stronger bottom armaments, 3x heavies bottom with 2x mediums forward, allowing it to pack a bigger punch in a gun fight but meaning it MUST be deployed above your fleet to contribute meaningfully to a gun fight.

The same rules that apply to the Ranger apply to the Janus when deploying it above your fleet - Be mindful of Cylon missile barrages.

Whilst the Janus can work with faster fleets made up of Berzerks, Artemis, etc, it'll feel more at home alongside ships like the Adamant, Atlas and Jupiter.

The Berzerk, but bigger.

That's what I'd like to say at least - As far as gun performance goes that's what the Minotaur brings to the table.

The Minotaur does actually bring a LOT of firepower to your fleet in the form of 6x light guns each side and 5x heavy guns top, with 2x heavy guns forward and bottom. The broadside firepower of the Minotaur is staggering for a 950 point ship (Alongside having a 10% buff to it's accuracy built into the ship - check it's FCS ingame) and it has the mobility to get under targets and bring it's battery of heavy guns to bear consistently. It's also pretty durable for it's cost too, which is a bonus.

The problem however, is the firepower is all it brings. No squads, no munitions. Bringing the Minotaur means ensuring the rest of your fleet can cover your Viper and missile requirements.

Again though, the Minotaur is a ship you get once the campaign is really getting under control, and it's a very good ship for direct combat performance.

Just don't bring 2x Minotaurs with 2x Rangers or Janus, or you'll face extreme levels of disappointment when you bump into a Basestar/Cerb heavy fleet that drops a dozen or more Raiders/Heavy Raiders on you or enough missiles to blot out the sun.

Bring the Minotaur with discretion.

Colonial fleet decided they needed a literal bucket of guns that could still haul ass, so the Minerva happened.

For singleplayer, you can use the Minerva the same way you would an Artemis, but it has a few things to note.

The Minerva has the same range as a Minotaur, and it scales a little bit better with posture. It also puts out a silly amount of firepower through it's 11x point defence guns on each side with it's standard 8x BS-Arty mounted on top. This allows the Minerva to be a bit better at hitting the speedy targets like Nemesis and Cerestas if they're still around, as Battlestar point defence guns are deathly accurate. The Minerva also has a LOT of gun coverage. It's one of the few Colonial ships with rear facing guns, having 4x medium guns facing rear - Pretty much a Berzerk strapped to it's back. It also has 4x heavy guns mounted bottom which is better than the Artemis 2x heavies, making it a little better at hitting targets below it though you still want to keep your enemy above you. It also has 2x BS-Arty pointed forwards so you can use the Minerva's speed to have it go directly into a target and from below to have 10x BS-Arty firing all at once as a nice opening salvo. Using it's 2x munition slots with torpedoes would make such an opening all the more potent.

For all of it's advantages, it does have a few issues. The Minerva is the lightest Battlestar at 60 armour on it's thickest plates (Though it's 135 hull helps) as well as a slightly lower engineering stat compared to the other Battlestars meaning you need to be very watchful of the damage it takes when being used on the front line. It also has the worst hangar bay in the entire Colonial fleet at +15 evasion, making it an exceptionally bad platform for Vipers. This is definitely a ship to bring your support squadrons on.

You can definitely mix things up with a Minerva in your fleet though, as the ship is strong enough to be a flanking element all by itself, whilst still being competent enough to run in a general fleet too.

The Minerva is a solid ship to bring along, just be mindful of it's price tag when building a fleet with it.

The end-all and be-all of Colonial ship design during the campaign.

By the time you get the Jupiter, you can field it pretty much however you want. However, keep the following points in mind.

The Jupiter is all you'll need for soaking damage in your fleet for singleplayer. One or two Jupiters on the front has enough armour and hull to simply not care about incoming fire. By the time you get them, most of your officers will have at least +/-8 posture so the Jupiter can open fire on incoming Cylons before they even get into range.

The Jupiter is SLOW. Your fleet will not be going anywhere fast with the Jupiter present, so if you still want to take side missions, you probably don't want to try taking a Jupiter for any side mission that requests speed from your fleet.

The standard Battlestar rules apply that you want it below the enemy to get the most out of the 8x BS-Arty on top and it's 8x point defence guns mounted on the side. However, the Jupiter doesn't mind so much if a target gets under it as it has 4x BS-Arty mounted below too, giving the Jupiter considerable firepower in every direction.

Generally speaking though by the time you've got the Jupiter you know what you're doing in your campaign. At this point, it's time to enjoy the silly amount of firepower and durability that the Jupiter brings along and enjoy the end of the ride.

So you've got a rough idea what your ship strengths are, but which ones do you use?

The choice for fleet composition is most important for the early game, you can start to get away with murder once the Artemis hits as it does everything so well. However, failing to bring a good balance early on can lead to a lot of unnecessary losses until you hit that point.

Here are some of my suggested fleet compositions based upon available points:

4000 points

4x Adamant, 1x Manticore w/ 4x Viper & 5x Torpedo

2x Adamant, 3x Berzerk w/ 5x Viper & 2x Guided Missile or Torpedo <---- Wagglepuss Favourite early game

1x Artemis, 3x Adamant w/ 5x Viper & 4x Guided Missile or Torpedo

1x Artemis, 3x Berzerk w/ 5x Viper & 1x Guided Missile or Torpedo or PCM

Once you get Viper Mk 2's, see that they are used in all fleets wherever possible as they are a direct upgrade to Mk 1's now.

With Berzerk fleets, you can safely change out the Artemis or Adamant squadrons for support squadrons without worrying about losing fighter dominance, especially once Mk 2's are up and running.

Now that fleets start off at 4000 points, there's much less pressure on rushing officer promotions. Personally, I take it slow and build up 2x Adamant 3x Berzerk fleets one at a time.

Once you've hit Artemis production and got some officer promotions rolling, you'll be hitting the mid game.

Here's a few suggestions for fleet composition (ALL fleets to have 1x Celestra in the support slot, or Daidalos):

5000

1x Artemis, 5x Berzerk w/ 6x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 1x munition of choice

1x Artemis, 4x Adamant w/ 5x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 5x Guided Missile

1x Artemis, 1x Ranger, 3x Berzerk w/ 4x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 3x Torpedo

2x Artemis, 2x Berzerk, 1x Manticore w/ 5x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 3x Torpedo

2x Artemis, 2x Adamant w/ 5x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 4x Guided Missile

2x Artemis, 1x Ranger, 1x Berzerk OR Adamant w/ 4x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 4x/5x Guided Missile

3x Artemis w/ 5x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 3x Guided Missile

6000

1x Artemis, 2x Ranger, 3x Berzerk OR Adamant w/ 4x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 2x Armour Piercer, 3x/6x Guided Missile

2x Artemis, 2x Berzerk, 1x Ranger, 1x Manticore w/ 5x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 2x Guided Missle, 2x Armour Piercer

2x Artemis, 2x Adamant, 1x Ranger w/ 5x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 4x Guided Missle, 2x Armour Piercer

3x Artemis, 2x Berzerk w/ 7x Vipers, 1x Sweeper & 3x Armour Piercer

As you can see, there's a LOT of ways to build 5000 and 6000 point fleets, a lot more than I've demonstrated here as Atlas and Minotaurs can enter the mix too. Just make sure you've got enough firepower, enough fighter coverage and something to cover you from missiles.

Note: Support Squadrons should always be placed on the Artemis where possible, and munition choice is fairly open to user discretion. Until Cerberus hit the field, you only really need 4 Viper squadrons to deal with Raiders, so you have breathing room for things like Raptors and Assault Raptors.

So you've got ideas on your ships, your fleet compositions and now you've jumped in. The alert Vipers have been scrambled and it's game time.

Your first priority is to check your position relative to theirs. Are they above you? No problem! Are they level with you? Dive a little. Are they well underneath you? Uh oh. Time to slow down and start diving HARD.

Being under the enemy is crucial as for most ships in the game firepower is concentrated on the sides and tops of ships, with very little being focused on the bottom. He who is lower has the advantage. For example, the Arachne has 5x medium guns, 2 of them front, 3 of them on top. Diving under it strips it of 60% of it's firepower by doing nothing more than engaging your brain.

Your next priority is to find out what you're up against. Before Chapter 5, you don't even need visual contact to confirm what you're up against - If a ship deploys a squadron it's a Talon, if it doesn't it's a Nemesis or Cerestas. After that, Revenants can start popping up so you need eyes on the target, which will also permit missile locks.

Get your Vipers out there, send them high above the enemy or low below to avoid taking gun fire (And Cylon ships that have powered up their Fire Control System WILL land consistent hits on your squads) to confirm your targets.

Once you've seen the enemy, got into formation and got below the enemy you can let them come to you, and it's time to focus targets.

This brings us to dealing with each ship.

For many, I understand the Nemesis is an ever loving pain in the ass.

The reality is that the Nemesis is piece of cake to deal with so long as you don't dive into the enemy fleet head first.

The Nemesis arms and armour are pathetic - It's nose mounted gun has nothing on the Manticore and it's armour melts under anything more potent than a stern glance.

It's strength lies in it's extreme mobility, it's ability to deploy ordnance from awkward angles, and of course... Hacking. Thankfully, the AI does not take proper advantage of the first two points and is questionable with it's hacking (Likely due to hacking system choice being a bit RNG).

For the first couple of missions, 3 Manticores can simply focus down a Nemesis and have it destroyed in 2 turns, which is enough time for the Nemesis to start dealing damage to a single system assuming you started firing the same time it started hacking. Realistically speaking, you should be firing on it before it begins it's hack in the first place because you scouted it using the Daidalos' or an Adamant's Vipers.

When engaging a mixed Cylon fleet, destroy the Nemesis first. It's hacking ability is more dangerous the more time it has to work, immediately destroying the Nemesis removes that problem. When Cylons engage you, they come at you head-first and then turn off once they are in gun range meaning the Talon(s) escorting the Nemesis won't usually start firing until 1 turn after the engagement starts.

TL;DR: ID it, wreck it first, headache-be-gone.

Talons appear from Chapter 2 onwards, and are a pretty reliable gunship / carrier for the Cylons.

You can however, remove much of their teeth by diving lower than them. They also have very little options for firing forwards. The Raiders they bring can pose a legitimate problem if you have built your fleet poorly and they act as a check to ensure you've got a pair of Adamants in your fleet at least.

Let the Talon come to you to take advantage of it's zero frontal weaponry and horrifically thin frontal armour. If you have Berzerks and are running a 2x Adamant 3x Berzerk fleet, the first Talon that comes into fleet range nose-first will be destroyed the same turn you start firing.

Do not allow Talons to gather up and start dumping fire on single ships - The Cylons will focus down squishy or vulnerable targets. Destroy Talons quickly once they enter range, or pull them from their buddies, and avoid giving them the time to broadside you.

A mild annoyance, or a fleet killer.

As a fleet escort and having one or two of them in a Cylon fleet, the Cerastes is a nuisance at best. Spotting them in the enemy fleet just means pulling back your Vipers and engaging their Raiders a bit closer to you than usual.

However, there is one particular Cylon fleet that can turn up which is comprised of 5x Cerastes. This fleet is to be engaged carefully as it has a staggering amount of damage output for the early game. You can easily find yourself an Adamant or Berzerk or two down if all 5 of them get the jump on your fleet.

Cerastes have an almost fanatical zeal for shooting fighters, and can easily make poor movement decisions, something to keep in the back of your mind if you've got a massive fighter advantage and don't mind risking your own fighters a bit.

Cerastes now have a bit of intelligence, and will no longer chase fighters to the death. Be exceptionally careful when engaging a 5x Cerastes fleet and ID it as quickly as possible. Having a pair of Raptors on your Adamants can help a lot for cutting down their speed and firepower.

This is where things can start getting dangerous if you've not got your fleets nailed down right.

The Revenant is a pure gunship, with high mobility and pretty decent armour packing a lot of light guns on both sides with heavy guns both top and bottom.

Ideally, you want to engage the Revenant from the front where it has the least firepower. It can still bring a decent amount of guns to bear on you even when you dive below it. Unfortunately, it's front armour is it's strongest at 75 armour which is a lot to burn through quickly in the early game.

If you're packing Berzerks, you'll have the raw firepower to do it but any return fire has the potential to seriously put the hurt on your Berzerks should they find themselves in range.

If you don't have Berzerks, this is where you'll want your torpedoes to be dumped. So long as the Cylons ship's are near to the same vertical level as your fleet, they generally won't move vertically giving torpedoes very good odds of hitting Revenant.

Revenants will start making your life difficult if left to deal damage, so make disposing of them a priority once any Nemesis present have been reduced to dust.

Arachne's are to the Cylons what Artemis are to the Colonials. A strong jack-of-all-trades that can give and take a beating.

The Arachne will tear apart anything less than an Artemis in short order, but thankfully they have a glaring weakness. Zero bottom weapons. Not one. Being under an Arachne means you've cut off it's ability to use it's 3x medium guns on top, and with a bit of positioning you can avoid it's 2x medium front guns too.

The Arachne is dangerous, but only if you let it be. Nemesis and Revenants will take priority as an engagement starts, and the Arachne can be left until after them so long as you've got your fleet below it.

If the Arachne starts well below your fleet though, it changes things a bit. You'll want to consider actively falling your fleet back until you can get below the Cylon fleet when Arachne's are present, as the combination of Arachne AND Revenant top-pointed armaments will result in losses trying to take that gun fight, especially when trying to do it with bottom-pointing Colonial guns.

Treat it as a Nemesis on steroids, except you can actually hit it with Torpedoes.

The next big threat that you'll come across.

The Cerberus showing up is a check to make sure that you're fielding enough Vipers, as it's 3x Squadron slots means there will be a LOT of Raiders and Heavy Raiders in the air for any fleets containing a Cerberus.

Deal with the Cerberus by avoiding it, the ship is slow and has no munitions. Whilst it does have reasonable gun power for a dedicated carrier, it's only a problem if you allow it to wander into gun range.

Cut up it's Raiders, gun down it's supporting ships then pick apart the Cerberus at your leisure.

Just don't dive head first into it or let your squadrons wander near it, those 3x heavy guns top and bottom are precise and hit hard.

The biggest ship that the Cylons have to bear is pretty much as simple to deal with as the Cerberus.

Avoid it and shred it's support - The added exception being that you keep an eye out for it's missiles. Fleets running Rangers or Janus in particular can find themselves running afoul of Basestar missile salvoes as Basestars have a habit of hanging back high above typical anti-missile deployments.

Once Basestars start showing up, it's time to either bring a Sweeper or brush up on your missile vigilance.

The Argos is handled in much the same way as the Basestar and Cerberus in that you pick apart it's support elements before taking it on. Even if an opportunity to take it out early presents itself it can still take a while due to it's staggering 280 hull.

However, strong missile defence is outright required once the Argos begins taking the field. It's 3x launchers will bring serious levels of pain and all Argos will bring a nuke. Worse still, the Argos resupplies it's own munitions over time - Including it's nuke.

Keep a watchful eye on any Argos that takes the field, especially if a battle drags on, and make sure you've got a Sweeper up or multiple PCM's with flak and Viper support.

On the bright side, it's squadrons can only get a max of +12 evasion, so your Vipers will use them for target practice.

The Argos itself is not too big of a threat, but it's constant pressure from munitions can take it's toll if it causes you to slip up against it's support, or if you slip up in your missile defence.

So long as you take your time, the Argos can be handled reasonably well.

So you know your ships, your fleets, your enemy.

Where are you putting it all?

Fleetgroup Daidalos is best served hovering around Helios Gamma or Helios Delta, where it can park itself over one of the Quorum members to gain the bonuses such as increased resources, longer Cylon FTL cooldowns, cheaper ships, etc. Being on those two sectors means you can also duck out to Ragnar if you feel the situation is not secure enough. Cylons will never go to Ragnar.

As for your fleets, you'll want at least one fleet in Helios Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta so Cylon fleets can be responded to in short order.

Furthermore, you'll want a second fleet placed in Helios Alpha, as this is where Cylon reinforcements will primarily jump in. This means that the fleets in Helios Alpha are liable to get the bulk of your exp as the campaign goes on. To deal with the issue of Officer experience, you can rotate your Officers between fleets to get experience.

As the campaign goes on, ship production goes on, you'll want a third fleet placed in Alpha and then a second for Beta, Gamma and Delta with Fleetgroup Daidalos itself eventually heading over to Alpha once you feel it's strong enough. Of course, if you feel like playing the long game you can build fleets for every Quorum member. It's useful to send ships that fall out of favour, such as Manticores and Adamants, to protect backline colonies in Helios Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

A couple of extra notes for the campaign to keep in mind.

Do not immediately field larger fleets as soon as one officer gains enough experience to do it. You can get the promotion, but hold off on reinforcing the fleet with more ships. This is especially important when going from 3500 to 5000 point fleets. The Cylons will match the point value of your largest fleet, so if you are fielding 4 fleets of 2000 points and one fleet of 3500, the Cylons will immediately begin fielding fleets up to and around the 3500 point mark. This is a problem because the Cylons WILL pump ships out faster than yourself. When an officer hits the next mark rotate the officer out and get the next one ranked up rather than diving into it, unless the idea of having your 2000 point fleets jumped by 3500 point Cylon fleets appeals to you.

With the 4000 point start you've got a lot more flexibility in what you field and when. 4000 point fleets can hold their own pretty well, even as the game goes on so you can move into 5000 point fleets pretty quickly. It's still recommended to upgrade all of your fleets together though, as smaller fleets will start feeling the crunch when Cylons start pulling out the nasty fleets containing stuff like 6x Arachne.

When a battle starts, assume the enemy has Torpedoes until recon proves otherwise. Keep your fleet loose and mobile, long range Torpedoes are easily dodged but no fighters of any description can intercept them worth a damn. If you have Sweepers however, feel free to pack your fleet as tight as you like just mind you don't crash into yourself, overlap lines of fire, cause missile related friendly fire, block quick exit routes for damaged ships, etc.

Be very cautious when taking secondary missions (Purple flags with a 5 turn timer on the strategy map) whilst they provide enhanced rewards and the only source of Requisition points outside of story missions, they are also designed to scale around your largest fielded fleet for the most part. It would suck to try one with a 4000 point back line fleet and find out the hard way that it was a mission built to fight your 6000 point fleet on the front lines. Another reason to keep all of your fleets stocked up together, even your back ones with your old gear.

On that note, take every secondary mission that you feel you can reasonably take on. Even if you have no ships to research, the Requisition points can be used to promote Officers that need it.

Finally... Stay away from Freighter escort missions once Basestars start showing up. It's a headache and not worth it. Trust in Waggle on this.