THE ARCHONS GUIDE TO POWER Archons Power Overview
The Archon is the self proclaimed Lord of Pirates, ruling his domain by the right of the strongest. He leads his independent power, taking ruthlessly from those who show weakness and ruling his small but well defended reach inhibited by an anarchic bunch of pirate crews, smuggler syndicates, wanted criminals and rebel groups who enjoy his protection and in return respect his authority.
Get into contact with the Kumo Crew here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kumocrew/
A) KEEPING THE PIRATE HIDEOUT TIDY (BGS)
This is a very important task to keep a power succesfull. It gives no direct rewards, but it is the base for a healthy and prospering power-economy and should not be neglected.
The Pirate Kings control systems are the heart and home of the Kumo Crew. The control systems of Archons domain prospers best if they have one of following government types:
As will be detailed later, there exist triggers for fortification, undermining and expansion in the powerplay system. These triggers are vital for success or failure in the power struggle. It's always priority to aim for low fortification triggers in the home systems, becouse this makes life much easyer for the power by making fortification a much quicker process.
The three government-types above are helping Archon to lower triggers on fortification.
ABSOLUTLY AVOID FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT TYPES:
Concerning Anarchy governments:
As much as the Pirate King sympathyses with Anarchy systems, they don't do him any good as ruling governments in his Control Systems – becouse Anarchy ruled control systems have no security against enemy undermining. Even Archon needs some defensive security against invading powers.
Ruling Anarchys in Exploited Systems are perfectly ok, if there are not more favorable government systems available (co-operative, confederacy or communist).
B) SPREADING ANARCHY AND CHAOS (UNDERMINING)
This chapter deals with one of the many combat-opportunities in Archons powerplay. Undermining is the art to damage enemy power-economys by shooting theire powerplay integral ships in theire control-systems and earning merits in the process.
Basic mechanis is:
* If you are looking for quick and easy merits have a look at this guide:
Earning easy merits by undermining in Anarchy Control Systems
* If you have a grudge against a specific power then I'd advice another approach for maximum damage:
Look at the left-hand Navigation Tab and open the Galactic Powers Tab. Open the middel panel „Galactic Rankings“ and select the power you want to undermine. There select the control tab. Now you will want a system that you have a chance to fully undermine to 100% to make an impact. Undermining a system that is already 100% undermined has no further impact. Don't waste your time on those.
It's best to select a system that already has a decent percentage of undermining or a system with low undermining triggers (these are shown in the control tab in the middle). Also you should look at the CC income of the system. The higher the income of the system the higher is the cost if it should be 100% undermined, the more damage it will do to the enemy powers economy.
Another important factor for undermining is the security rating of the system. The higher the security rating the faster the police response. Rubbernuke gave a short summary here:
C) THE POWERPLAY CYCLES:
PREPARATION:
Prior to expanding it is necessary to decide if and what systems to expand into. Either vote for consolidation to stop expanding and strengthen defense or scout the galactic map for good systems and prepare them for exapnsion in the following powerplay cycle (starting each thursday).
Chosing Preapartion Systems
This is a task best coordinated with the Kumo-Crew community, becouse wrong decissions can hurt the own power very much or can trigger wars with other powers. Selection of preparation targets has to be done very carefully:
In essence there are two things to look for:
a) a profitable system that give positive CC income after substracting upkeep and overhead values. This is extremly rare in current state of powerplay – and for Archon nonexistent at the moment. This would be resulting in a peacably expansion in the following cycle, increasing the CC balance of the power.
b) a system that contests a lot of profitable systems from Archons enemys while having low costs for Archon in terms of CC loss. You can see if and how many systems are contested by a preparation target on the Powerplay Map! Go to the Galaxy Map by selecting „View on Map“ from the Power-Tab or open Glaxy Map and select the PowerPlay view, check expansions check-box and then you will have the information as pop up when hovering over the system in question.
If such a preparation succeeds it will be resulting in a weaponized expansion reducing the CC income of the contested power.
It is very important to remember that a preparation system will be a new control-system if succesful. Remember that it also is becoming one of the system that can be undermined or fortified. Take a look at the factions in the prep-system. It is best if there are factions with favorable governments (co-operative, confederacy or communist) present. Anarachy system or ruling factions with harmful governments (prison colony, feudal, theocracy) should be avoided.
EXPANSION and OPPOSITION:
You can see if there is an acitve expansion in the left hand navigation tab when clicking on GALACTIC POWERS and then Archon Delaine and the Expansion tab. If there is an active expansion you will see it's progress here.
Mind you that not all expansions are wanted and good for the power. Sometimes it happens that enemy agents have succesfully put up a bad system for preparation in the prior cycle and Archon in fact has to try to get rid of it, asking other powers for help to „scrap“ the unwanted expansion.
Best double check with the community discord if the expansion is a good one (take the link form the reddit link at top of post).
As with undermining all merits are lost when your ship gets destroyed. For the merits to count toward your weekly total you will have to redeem them at any close Archon Contorl System, just like with undermining. You can see your collected merits at the left hand transaction tab.
Opposing enemy expansions:
This works exactly the same way like with fighting in own expansion. You have to go to the expanding system in question and there you can fight either by interdicting the specific enemy NPC ships that are involved in expanding or by fighting in special powerplay combat-zones if available. Only powers with combat-ethos in expansion have those. Other powers expand by hauling powerplay commodities. Pilots of a super-power (Federal/Imperial) can not oppose expansios of the same super-power.
FORTIFICATION:
This is necessary to strengthen the home-systems of Archon. Every power has to do this to keep theire systems strong against undermining and gaining a higher CC income.
Control systems can have three states shown in the Control Tab in the Galacti Powers screen. Those states are reached by activating trigger treshholds of undermining merits and fortification merits redeemed for the system in question.
Under Threat: The system is under threat to get fully undermined. If the system is fully undermined and not fortified at end of cycle it will produce a negativ CC income equivalent to it's income+upkeep. If the powers total CC income reaches a negative it will get into turmoil and thus into danger to lose systems.
Cancelled: A system has been fully undermined but it also is fully fortified. When this is the case a system will have it's normal income and its regular upkeep+overhead to pay and have no additional profits or losses.
Fortifying: If a system has reached fortification triggers (100%) and undermining has not hit it's trigger then the system counts as succesfully fortified at end of cycle. If this is the case the system will get it's full income without having to pay for upkeep. This results in a bigger income as if not fortified.
Attention: The control tab is not always showing systems under threat accurately. Mostly this is the case if fortication effort is already higher then the undermining effort. It is best to browse all of the top systems for enemy undermining and to help fortificating systems with high income against any possible threat.
Taking action
To strengthen Archons Control-Systems you will have to load a certain powerplay-commodity called „Marked Slaves“. You can get those „Marked Slaves“ in the Control System you want to fortify and you will have to deliver them to Archon HQ in Harma. Delivering 100 tons of „Marked Slaves“ to Harma will net you 100 merits. You can also fast-track but then you will have to pay 1.000 credits per unit of „Marked Slaves“. The allocation of „free“ marked slaves per 30 minutes raises with your rank.
Priority of fortification usually is: High profit systems first. Becouse you never know if there is an enemy power that is keeping undermining merit for hand in late at cycle to snipe those most valuable systems. Second priority are systems that have reached the undermining trigger at 100% and have a moderate to high income.
Never fortificate systems that already have reache the fort-trigger (100%). Don't waste your time. This has no effect for the power at all.
The Archon is the self proclaimed Lord of Pirates, ruling his domain by the right of the strongest. He leads his independent power, taking ruthlessly from those who show weakness and ruling his small but well defended reach inhibited by an anarchic bunch of pirate crews, smuggler syndicates, wanted criminals and rebel groups who enjoy his protection and in return respect his authority.
Get into contact with the Kumo Crew here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kumocrew/
A) KEEPING THE PIRATE HIDEOUT TIDY (BGS)
This is a very important task to keep a power succesfull. It gives no direct rewards, but it is the base for a healthy and prospering power-economy and should not be neglected.
The Pirate Kings control systems are the heart and home of the Kumo Crew. The control systems of Archons domain prospers best if they have one of following government types:
+ CO-OPERATIVE
+ CONFEDERACY
+ COMMUNIST
Always try to help factions with one of above government types in Archons systems, be they exploited systems or control systems, by doing missions for them.
+ CONFEDERACY
+ COMMUNIST
Always try to help factions with one of above government types in Archons systems, be they exploited systems or control systems, by doing missions for them.
As will be detailed later, there exist triggers for fortification, undermining and expansion in the powerplay system. These triggers are vital for success or failure in the power struggle. It's always priority to aim for low fortification triggers in the home systems, becouse this makes life much easyer for the power by making fortification a much quicker process.
The three government-types above are helping Archon to lower triggers on fortification.
ABSOLUTLY AVOID FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT TYPES:
- PRISON COLONY
- FEUDAL
- THEOCRACY
Systems with those governmetn-types increase the fortification triggers for Archon and this is absolutly bad for the power. Don't do missions for them, don't trade with them and fight them wherever you encouter them in Archons domain.
- FEUDAL
- THEOCRACY
Systems with those governmetn-types increase the fortification triggers for Archon and this is absolutly bad for the power. Don't do missions for them, don't trade with them and fight them wherever you encouter them in Archons domain.
Concerning Anarchy governments:
As much as the Pirate King sympathyses with Anarchy systems, they don't do him any good as ruling governments in his Control Systems – becouse Anarchy ruled control systems have no security against enemy undermining. Even Archon needs some defensive security against invading powers.
Ruling Anarchys in Exploited Systems are perfectly ok, if there are not more favorable government systems available (co-operative, confederacy or communist).
B) SPREADING ANARCHY AND CHAOS (UNDERMINING)
This chapter deals with one of the many combat-opportunities in Archons powerplay. Undermining is the art to damage enemy power-economys by shooting theire powerplay integral ships in theire control-systems and earning merits in the process.
Basic mechanis is:
- Grab a combat ship of your choice, equip an FSD-Interdictor and fly to an enemy control system. Look for specific powerplay-ships (see link below) interdict them and destroy them.
- You earn 30 merits per destroyed ship. Only powerplay-ships of the local controlling power give you merits!
- Don't let your ship be destroyed in the process or your earnd merits will be lost.
- Mind that you will get wanted if you are not undermining in an anarchy system and bounty-hunters will be after you. Be prepared to high wake and also be aware that stations under control of the faction you are undermining might turn hostile on you!
- It is also possible to undermine without FSD-interdictor by hunting powerplay ships in RES-Sites, NAV-Beacons and combat USS.
- If you have harvested enough merits (shown in your left-hand transaction tab) you will have to return to a nearby Archon Control-System to redeem your merits. Only if you have handed in your merits to your power contact (station-menu) the merits will be added to your weekly balance.
* If you are looking for quick and easy merits have a look at this guide:
Earning easy merits by undermining in Anarchy Control Systems
* If you have a grudge against a specific power then I'd advice another approach for maximum damage:
Look at the left-hand Navigation Tab and open the Galactic Powers Tab. Open the middel panel „Galactic Rankings“ and select the power you want to undermine. There select the control tab. Now you will want a system that you have a chance to fully undermine to 100% to make an impact. Undermining a system that is already 100% undermined has no further impact. Don't waste your time on those.
It's best to select a system that already has a decent percentage of undermining or a system with low undermining triggers (these are shown in the control tab in the middle). Also you should look at the CC income of the system. The higher the income of the system the higher is the cost if it should be 100% undermined, the more damage it will do to the enemy powers economy.
Another important factor for undermining is the security rating of the system. The higher the security rating the faster the police response. Rubbernuke gave a short summary here:
C) THE POWERPLAY CYCLES:
PREPARATION:
Prior to expanding it is necessary to decide if and what systems to expand into. Either vote for consolidation to stop expanding and strengthen defense or scout the galactic map for good systems and prepare them for exapnsion in the following powerplay cycle (starting each thursday).
Taking action:
There are three ways to participate in preaparation:
a) The Consoldiation Vote:
Since it happens quite often, that enemy agents are trying to put lossmaking "bad" systems on the preparation list of a power there is also the possiblity to vote for consolidation to migitate the influence of "bad" preparations.
If you see that the preparation list of Archon is full with loss-makers that don't contest any enemy powers (see under "chosing preparation systems" how to find out if a system contests any other powers) you should consider voting for consolidation to prevent that those systems go into expansion in the coming powerplay week.
b) Vote for preparation:
You need at least rank 2 with Archon to be eligible to vote. The higher your rank the more votes you get. You can spend your votes on systems on the preparation list. Choose wisley or ask on the community discord what to do (take the link form the reddit link at top of post).
c) Putting systems up on the Prep List:
To succesfully preapre a system it has to be put up on the Top 10 preapartion list. A minium treshhold of preparation deliverys has to be done to put it there. To do this you will have to deliver Kumo Contraband Packages from a close Archon Control-System to the system in question.
There are three ways to participate in preaparation:
a) The Consoldiation Vote:
Since it happens quite often, that enemy agents are trying to put lossmaking "bad" systems on the preparation list of a power there is also the possiblity to vote for consolidation to migitate the influence of "bad" preparations.
If you see that the preparation list of Archon is full with loss-makers that don't contest any enemy powers (see under "chosing preparation systems" how to find out if a system contests any other powers) you should consider voting for consolidation to prevent that those systems go into expansion in the coming powerplay week.
b) Vote for preparation:
You need at least rank 2 with Archon to be eligible to vote. The higher your rank the more votes you get. You can spend your votes on systems on the preparation list. Choose wisley or ask on the community discord what to do (take the link form the reddit link at top of post).
c) Putting systems up on the Prep List:
To succesfully preapre a system it has to be put up on the Top 10 preapartion list. A minium treshhold of preparation deliverys has to be done to put it there. To do this you will have to deliver Kumo Contraband Packages from a close Archon Control-System to the system in question.
Chosing Preapartion Systems
This is a task best coordinated with the Kumo-Crew community, becouse wrong decissions can hurt the own power very much or can trigger wars with other powers. Selection of preparation targets has to be done very carefully:
In essence there are two things to look for:
a) a profitable system that give positive CC income after substracting upkeep and overhead values. This is extremly rare in current state of powerplay – and for Archon nonexistent at the moment. This would be resulting in a peacably expansion in the following cycle, increasing the CC balance of the power.
b) a system that contests a lot of profitable systems from Archons enemys while having low costs for Archon in terms of CC loss. You can see if and how many systems are contested by a preparation target on the Powerplay Map! Go to the Galaxy Map by selecting „View on Map“ from the Power-Tab or open Glaxy Map and select the PowerPlay view, check expansions check-box and then you will have the information as pop up when hovering over the system in question.
If such a preparation succeeds it will be resulting in a weaponized expansion reducing the CC income of the contested power.
It is very important to remember that a preparation system will be a new control-system if succesful. Remember that it also is becoming one of the system that can be undermined or fortified. Take a look at the factions in the prep-system. It is best if there are factions with favorable governments (co-operative, confederacy or communist) present. Anarachy system or ruling factions with harmful governments (prison colony, feudal, theocracy) should be avoided.
EXPANSION and OPPOSITION:
You can see if there is an acitve expansion in the left hand navigation tab when clicking on GALACTIC POWERS and then Archon Delaine and the Expansion tab. If there is an active expansion you will see it's progress here.
Mind you that not all expansions are wanted and good for the power. Sometimes it happens that enemy agents have succesfully put up a bad system for preparation in the prior cycle and Archon in fact has to try to get rid of it, asking other powers for help to „scrap“ the unwanted expansion.
Best double check with the community discord if the expansion is a good one (take the link form the reddit link at top of post).
Taking action:
You can help expanding in two ways. In both cases you have to travel to the system in expansion with a combat ship.
a) Look for Reistance Pockets in the expansion system. They show in your navigation panel just like combat zones. They also work exactly the same as normal combat-zones, with one exception: as soon as you enter you will be in the action. There is no need to chose sides. This will be done automaticly – according to your power pledge. So be preapared for instant attacks upon entering. Each kill in the pocket nets you 10 merits. Fighting in Resistance Pockets is best done in wings, becouse every player who has hit a ship earns merits upon destruction.
b) Insatall a FSD-Interdictor and destory enemy power-play NPC ships in supercruise, just like when undermining. During expansion all enemy power-play NPC ships are wanted and earn you 30 merits upon destruction. You won't get wanted and you additionally can collect bounty vouchers. This method is best when you are fightin on your own.
You can help expanding in two ways. In both cases you have to travel to the system in expansion with a combat ship.
a) Look for Reistance Pockets in the expansion system. They show in your navigation panel just like combat zones. They also work exactly the same as normal combat-zones, with one exception: as soon as you enter you will be in the action. There is no need to chose sides. This will be done automaticly – according to your power pledge. So be preapared for instant attacks upon entering. Each kill in the pocket nets you 10 merits. Fighting in Resistance Pockets is best done in wings, becouse every player who has hit a ship earns merits upon destruction.
b) Insatall a FSD-Interdictor and destory enemy power-play NPC ships in supercruise, just like when undermining. During expansion all enemy power-play NPC ships are wanted and earn you 30 merits upon destruction. You won't get wanted and you additionally can collect bounty vouchers. This method is best when you are fightin on your own.
As with undermining all merits are lost when your ship gets destroyed. For the merits to count toward your weekly total you will have to redeem them at any close Archon Contorl System, just like with undermining. You can see your collected merits at the left hand transaction tab.
Opposing enemy expansions:
This works exactly the same way like with fighting in own expansion. You have to go to the expanding system in question and there you can fight either by interdicting the specific enemy NPC ships that are involved in expanding or by fighting in special powerplay combat-zones if available. Only powers with combat-ethos in expansion have those. Other powers expand by hauling powerplay commodities. Pilots of a super-power (Federal/Imperial) can not oppose expansios of the same super-power.
FORTIFICATION:
This is necessary to strengthen the home-systems of Archon. Every power has to do this to keep theire systems strong against undermining and gaining a higher CC income.
Control systems can have three states shown in the Control Tab in the Galacti Powers screen. Those states are reached by activating trigger treshholds of undermining merits and fortification merits redeemed for the system in question.
Under Threat: The system is under threat to get fully undermined. If the system is fully undermined and not fortified at end of cycle it will produce a negativ CC income equivalent to it's income+upkeep. If the powers total CC income reaches a negative it will get into turmoil and thus into danger to lose systems.
Cancelled: A system has been fully undermined but it also is fully fortified. When this is the case a system will have it's normal income and its regular upkeep+overhead to pay and have no additional profits or losses.
Fortifying: If a system has reached fortification triggers (100%) and undermining has not hit it's trigger then the system counts as succesfully fortified at end of cycle. If this is the case the system will get it's full income without having to pay for upkeep. This results in a bigger income as if not fortified.
Attention: The control tab is not always showing systems under threat accurately. Mostly this is the case if fortication effort is already higher then the undermining effort. It is best to browse all of the top systems for enemy undermining and to help fortificating systems with high income against any possible threat.
Taking action
To strengthen Archons Control-Systems you will have to load a certain powerplay-commodity called „Marked Slaves“. You can get those „Marked Slaves“ in the Control System you want to fortify and you will have to deliver them to Archon HQ in Harma. Delivering 100 tons of „Marked Slaves“ to Harma will net you 100 merits. You can also fast-track but then you will have to pay 1.000 credits per unit of „Marked Slaves“. The allocation of „free“ marked slaves per 30 minutes raises with your rank.
Priority of fortification usually is: High profit systems first. Becouse you never know if there is an enemy power that is keeping undermining merit for hand in late at cycle to snipe those most valuable systems. Second priority are systems that have reached the undermining trigger at 100% and have a moderate to high income.
Never fortificate systems that already have reache the fort-trigger (100%). Don't waste your time. This has no effect for the power at all.
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