In the world of Merchant Empires, you will sooner or later, but most likely sooner, end up in a fight. This section of the manual explains the basic mechanics of fighting.

Fights are initiated in the current sector, via the current sector ship list . There you see the enemy ship's ratings, and compare them to your own. If the enemy has a better ship, the preferred strategy is retreating, and calling for backup. If the enemy is inferior however, you usually press Attack.

When Attack is pressed, you are taken to a screen similar to this one:

Here all ships that will participate in this attack are listed along with their attack and defence ratings. You can also see if your opponent has any kind of protection (newbie, imperial). Protection makes your opponent invulnerable, but it also makes him unable to attack your ship. This picture for example was taken in Imperial space, and all participants have imperial protection, so no fighting can occur.

Most fights however happen in open space. There one can use forces to aid him and hinder the opponent. You place the forces either via the FRC menu, or via the Forces link on the ship statistics screen. Mines dropped after your opponent is in sector, will prevent him from leaving, however combat drones are more effective if they are on board your ship.

When you have allied forces in sector, they will help you in battle. They are stacked after the players with ships in the attack screen.

When you press Attack on the attack screen, the combat really occurs. If the attacking ships and forces are group A, the defending ships and defending forces D and if X -: Y means that X attacks Y:

Here we see that every unit (a ship or a stack of forces) fires only once per round of combat. Units combat the ones that have the same starting number (first attacker vs first defender, etc.); the left over units on one side then attack units from the beginning of the list.

Base busting

Fighting against bases is similar to ship combat. The bases are defended by turrets and combat drones, and protected by shields. As bases are usually heavily defended, a fleet of warships is needed to bring one down.

When attacking a base, a list, similar to the one in ship combat is created (but not displayed). Ships then fire at the base in the order of the list. After each ship attacks, the base fires back at it with turrets and combat drones. The number of turrets and drones that strike at one merchant depends on how many are on the base, and on how many merchants are attacking, as turrets and drones are equally divided among the attackers.

When a base loses its shields, it is considered destroyed. Therefore it is possible to destroy a base without the base firing a single shot (but don't count on it too much).

Tri-Focus Plasma
Another form of battle is long range shooting with a ship mounted TFP. It is accessed via the installed technology link on the ship stats screen. You enter the target sector and name of target merchant, and press fire. For more information, visit the technology list. Ship mounted TFP can also be used for clearing forces, only condition is that more than 100 units of forces (mines+drones+scouts) are present in the target sector.

When combat occurs, you will get a battle report link on the top right of your screen:

When you see that link, and you know you did not attack anyone or anything, it is inadvisable to stay around and look at it, or you will get a free ride to imperial space in a pod. Immediately return the look from any screen you had displayed to Current screen, and if you see an enemy there, run to safety as fast as you can. Note that this link can also be displayed due to an attack on your forces in a sector far away from your current location, but better safe than sorry.

Combat Report

In a report that you always receive when a combat occurs with you or your belongings present, you will get the following information: location of the incident, attackers, defenders and detailed information on every shot fired.