I have decided to begin my strat discussions with one of the most basic tasks you will perform while playing HW (in non-injection games anyway). Resourcing effectively and efficiently is one of, if not the single most important non-combat activities you will undertake during a game. You cannot build ships without resources. Therefore, a good resourcing plan is vital to any successful game. Starting collection is the very first thing I do when begin a game.
Knowledge of a map is the first step to developing a plan of action. If you know the map from having played it before, great. Otherwise send probes out to discover the best areas to harvest. Some areas that look very good on sensor manager turn out to be just a bunch of small asteroids when your probe reaches there. You will want to pass on these in favor of areas with larger asteroids or dense dust pockets. Once you know where the good resource pockets are, you can send a controller and two to three collectors there to begin harvesting.
Make sure that you send no more than three collectors per controller. Two collectors is preferable though because if all three collectors decide to drop off their loads at the same time, one collector usually ends up going all the way back to the MS or another unoccupied controller (pretty inconvenient if you are harvesting far from the MS). Don’t forget your MS has a drop-off for resources. So you can send the controller and a few collectors to another area of the map while you keep a collector or two back near the MS to harvest those resources near the MS.
Get your controller(s) out early on medium to large maps. While it is not always necessary on smaller maps (swarmers on Radial and Talas often neglect cap ship drive altogether), cap ship drive should be either the first or second item you research. On smaller maps like Talas or Subjugate that have a good starting supply of RU near the MS, or when you are using a swarm strat on those maps, or on maps like Scattered or Hyperspace Arena where you start with a controller, you can get away with researching vette drive/fighter drive first. Otherwise get cap ship drive first thing!!!
Set your controller to guard all the collectors in an area. This insures the controller stops moving when each collector goes to drop off. If you set it to guard only one collector, and one of the other nearby collectors goes to drop off, the unguarded collector may have a difficult time dropping its payload because the controller is moving around. This is one way resourcer collisions happen.
A general rule of thumb for the number of collectors and controllers to build on a map is as follows. For small maps, e.g. Talas or Subjugate, I have found that three or four collectors and one or two controllers is adequate. For medium sized maps, e.g. Iron Curtain, Dante’s Fate, or T2 Elite’s “Plex”, or large maps with sparse resources, e.g. Scattered or Hyperspace Arena, I recommend five or six collectors and two or three controllers. For the largest and most resource rich maps, e.g. Mobius Ring or Valley Vortex, the sky is the limit, feel free to max them out (12 collectors/4 controllers).
Resourcing properly ultimately depends how many RU there are on a particular map. The more you spend on collectors and controllers, the less you have to spend on attack/defense craft early. The above guidelines are meant only as a starting point. You may have to add or subtract one from the number of collectors/controllers depending on the strat you implement. Generally more collectors for cap ship strats, and less for swarm strats.
Micromanage your collectors when you have the time. At the beginning of the game there is ample time for you to directly control your collectors, so don’t just select the collectors and press “h” to collect. Direct your collector(s) to nearby large chunks or dust clouds. Later in the game, when battles are going on, this may not practical, but any advantage you can gain in the beginning of the game is helpful.
You should collect large dust clouds before asteroid pockets if you have the choice of harvesting between the two (i.e. Hyperspace Arena has areas of dust pockets and asteroids to choose from). When harvesting asteroid fields, there is usually time when you are flying between asteroids and not harvesting. Dust clouds are usually more densely packed and you don’t have to fly far from cloud to cloud to harvest like you do with asteroids. The net effect of this is to increase your overall harvest rate.
Guard your resourcing!!! I cannot overemphasize this enough. Many maps are a battle for the central fat resource pocket(s). This means you must build an ample supply of scouts and/or light vettes to protect the collection operation. Sometimes you can get away with leaving resourcers unguarded. But I recommend this ONLY if they are not likely to come under siege, i.e. they are harvesting far away from enemy lines, and you can quickly send a force to protect them.
Collectors that are near the front lines should ALWAYS be set to aggressive tactics so that they will continue to harvest if fired upon. If they are on neutral or evasive, they will cease harvesting and return to the nearest controller or MS if even one bullet hits them.
I truly hope these tips help those of you just starting to play HW, as well as the intermediate players. I know many of the veteran players already practice these things. If you ever hope to compete with the best, you must collect as good or better than they do. Remember, he with the most guns usually wins the battle.
Salute, Apollo(SLS)