Backup Strats

Fortifications
Besiege Command is only 10% Chance to Destroy 

However, if you have ANY 2 ships on top of them at the END of the turn, they will be automatically destroyed
Ur Quan Dreadnought can do this by itself (end of turn, its own Besiege Command is bad as anyone elses)

Mission 5 (The Art of War), ends for killing the Starbase instead of of a total map clear
This applies to both sides, and in some cases the starting ships won't even be on top of the AI's starbase.

Mission 7 (Exterminate) can be won by the Hierarchy player for killing all Colonies as an alternative to killing all Ships+Starbase (the AI will build more, so its more something to keep in mind when playing on Alliance side as something the computer might do while avoiding fighting you)

Mission 8 (Proving Ground) can be won by the Hierarchy player for killing all Mines. (again not normally a good idea for human to try, but keep in mind when playing as Alliance against an AI who never tries to move into your stuff)

Rough Stuff

-Star Control 1

Mission 1 Alliance  - Just Charge at them
Mission 2 Alliance  - Mhrrmm turn one manuipulates him into spending all money on Mycon
Mission 3 Alliance  - Easy (Chenjesu Spathi to save time)
Mission 4 Alliance  - Rush their base with Mhrrmm then build two Shofixti for Ilwrath 
Reset until the Ilwrath doesn't spawn on top/ or necessary chockepoint of their base - they will not manually attack (Mhrrmm) with it, but they won't move it out of the way if it's already there either.
Mission 5 Alliance  - Rush Starbase with Arilou
Mission 6 Alliance  - Mhrrmmm win at long range reliably, but if you ram them and then transform the "prongs" will hold them in place and you can potentially kill them a lot faster. 
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/500526657
Mission 7 Alliance  - 5 avg Glory Devices to Win 4 possible (with high damage due to point blank range or small chip due to him ramming planet)
Make sure that the 3 colonies don't spawn so near him he doesn't need to come out. 
After 2 explosions he will retreat to heal, ideally you can spawn with most of your people literally on top of one of the colonies and just pass turn until he comes to you.
Mission 8 Alliance  - Build Mhrrmm & Mine with everyone else
Mission 9 Alliance  - Kill all with Chenjesu (vux can troll you though)
Mission 1 Hierarchy - You can kill them 	Don't let them reach colony.
Mission 2 Hierarchy - If he buys Yehat/Mhrrm/Syreen on turn 1 = Can't afford Arilou
Mission 3 Hierarchy - Huge Time save if Ur-Quan kills Yehat instead of Vux
Mission 4 Hierarchy - Ilwrath/Spathi/Androsynth < Earthling/Arilou/Mhrrm + 10 starbuck
Mission 5 Hierarchy - I've reset this level to get a god-pattern once where all 4 of them were away from base and I just flew in without combat (this level ends on starbase death instead of total clear)- Getting "only" 2 on top is the maximum you should tolerate at least- I'm torn on what strategy to use - Androsynth can beat arilou somewhat more reliably. but Mycon have the advantage that Arilou will not usually jump on you in the strategic view if the AI has a choice between them and Syreen (so it can be a case of it undefending the path because it expects you to die to the syreen) 
Mission 6 Hierarchy - Switch to Awesome Cyborg	Spathi vs Mhrmm is really bad for human, but good for computer. OR SO I THOUGHT - The current record's failure is an outlier, since all previous and IL tests have the Spathi winning 2 on 1 without healing on average.
Mission 7 Hierarchy - Kill all with Ur-Quan, heal if necessary, tank the explosion if it's faster than being safe.
Mission 8 Hierarchy - Kill all with Ur-Quan
Mission 9 Hierarchy - VUX vs Chenjesu might be faster to suicide one VUX taking only the starting 5 seconds (should be half his health) and then suicide a second VUX rather than trying to get the full "slow them down and kill them in one battle" thing.

Mission 4/5 - 10 starting money, Arilou cost 16 (1 per turn for starbase + 1 per mine)

Name	Autor
Backup Strats	Reality 2 years ago
Rough Stuff	Reality 5 years ago