Eh, I'm so bored I'm writing up something on Ares "strategy"
Not that there's much of it :frown:
Basic Outline
There are three ship types in Ares:
Squadron(Fighter, Cruiser)
These ships are slaughtered by Battleship class ships but due to their speed are very effective against Gunship class ships.
Notes:
Audemedon Cruisers kill Aud Carriers easily
Human Cruisers get shredded by Human Gunships
Gunship(Gunship, HVD)
Gunship class ships are generally weak against Cruisers but shred Battleship class ships.
Notes:
HVDs kill everything 
Ishiman, and Cantharan Gunships aren't very effective against their respective Carriers due to the confusion spread by the carrier-launched Fighters.
Battleship(Carrier, Battleship)
Ships of the Battleship class are effective vs Squadron vessels and lose to Gunship class.
Notes:
A single HVD can kill practically unlimited numbers of Carriers until their ammo runs out.
Ishiman and Cantharan Carriers are the best ships of their race hands down.
Scenarios:
Rock:
(Insert weak race) vs (Insert strong race)
Your best and only chance here is to either pull off a fast asassination of your opponent's Destroyer or try and grab a station and hold it long enough to gain an advantage. If you attempt to hold a station, he'll probably try and blockade your planet. Don't panic, blockade HIM! Once he lifts the blockade to go attack you, target your ships back to your Bunker and build ships targeted to the Bunker from your world until he reestablishes the blockade.
(Insert strong race) vs (Insert weak race)
Rush using your race's best ship. The opposing Admiral will never know what hit him.
Gaitori vs Gaitori
Not much experience here, but either massing Gunships and rushing or possibly building a carrier and targeting your Gunships to it are the best builds. Don't bother with the stations, your Gunships will be shredded by them and it is far too easy for the opposing HVD to kill your assault transport anyway. Your HVD is the most important ship by far, as it can kill an insane amount of opposing Gunships. Make sure that your opponent's HVD is neutralized as soon as possible.
Human vs Human
The only ship you need to build here are Gunships. Once you've run out of cash, target them all to the enemy planet and tag along in your HVD. Once again make sure you knock out the opposing Destroyer with your surely l33t piloting skills. From there it will be a piece of cake to mop up the remaining enemy vessels.
Cantharan vs Cantharan
Carriers are your best bet. Get two and a Gunship(to take over if you lose the HVD) Cantharan HVDs don't have nearly as much firepower as other Destroyers, but they do have a cloak. If you can, try and use the cloak to sneak up on your opponent and blast him from behind with the Quasimatter gun. Rush here, as there's not much point in attempting to capture a station when he can slip in and and blockade your world easily.
Ishiman vs Ishiman
Same build as Cantharans. Two Carriers and a Gunship. Once again, rush him and attempt to get his HVD. If you lose your Destroyer, your gunship should be selected as the control object already so you can quickly hit F8 and get back in the game.
Salrilian vs Salrilian
I find masses of the cheap Sal Gunships to be best here. If he attempts to capture a station, a nice trick is to launch a transport and warp your whole(cloaked) fleet of Gunships on top of the planet to overwelm the defenders and let your Transport land. Your HVD has limited firepower but use the cloak to your advantage by picking off stray units. Use "Activate Special" to cloak your Gunships so he won't be ready for you.
Audemedon vs Audemedon
Your HVD is almost worthless here. Mass Cruisers and rush. Once you've destroyed the enemy Destroyer, it won't be long before enemy cruisers waste your ship so have a cruiser selected as a control object to switch to using F8.
Scratching Post:
Strategy here is almost the same as Rock. One thing you can try is a fast cloaked HVD rush as Cantharan. Your opponent, if he's any good, will be making Carriers and not have any other ships yet. If you can sneak up behind him and open fire, he's as good as dead. If you can, time your approach with that of an asteriod so Zoom to Closest Hostile won't pick you up.
Another interesting trick you can do on Post is making an Assault Transport targeted on the nearby Outpost Station as your first ship. Immediately attack the station, circling it so you don't take more than 5-10% damage. Your opponent might attempt to attack the Transport with his HVD, giving you an opportunity to take it out and end the game quickly. If he doesn't attack by the time your Atrans is 60-70% to the Outpost, warp over and see if he's pulling the same trick. If you're lucky, his HVD will be far enough away that you can drop out of warp on the Transport and shred it in a few seconds, warping away afterwards to prevent retaliation.
Space Warz:
Not much strategy here, heh. Try to be moving at top speed when you enter battle. Just let yourself drift out of range and concentrate on hitting the opposing Light Cruiser.
Capture the Flagpod:
This strategy only works if your opponent doesn't do the same thing, heh.
Immediately target all your Cruisers to the flag and order the flag to the ENEMY moor. Then head over with your own cruiser to the opponents flag. If you can capture it, switch control to the flag and you shouldn't have a problem evading the enemy ships and returning to your world. If he does the same thing, you basically have an unwinnable stalemate as whoever attacks won't have much of a chance because the enemy ships will reincarnate almost immediately.
If it's a tournament or MaG game or something, you can try sending your fleet at his and sneaking in to grab the flag. Or you can simply try to outwait him, heh(you can probably win by leaving your computer on and going to sleep )
Location, Location, Location:
There are basically three ways to play this:
1. The right way. Make an Atrans, capture an Outpost and grab two Flak Drones with the Engineering Pods(need to send a group of 3-4 per Drone to grab it) Then, send your whole fleet "once more unto the breach"(the Bunker Station) and pilot the Assault Transport in personally to capture the Station.
2. The cheap way
2a Do a normal rush with some Cruisers, Gunships and your three Carriers.
2b Wait half a minute and make a HVD. Proceed to utterly annihilate your opponent. May not be effective vs 2a.
HOT KEYS*******VERY IMPORTANT***
In Ares 1.2, a new feature was the addition of 10 hotkeys, each of which can be assigned to one of your ships. Hotkey any ship that you might need to switch to. This can be done by selecting the ship as control and holding down 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 0 etc for about 5-10 seconds. Let go and the object's name will be changed to Cruiser <1> or something along those lines. Use hotkeys to rapidly switch ships when your ship is lost Ā Just hit the key you assigned as a hotkey and then F8.
Also, this feature can be used to rapidly deploy your fleet, a must when controlling more than one location(Stations, etc.). Just hotkey a "nucleus" for your fleet, perferably a Carrier, and target the rest of the fleet to the nucleus. Then, when you need to deploy your fleet, quickly target the...target(what an idea!) hit the hotkey and then control.
Other Misc. Tips
Ā Target your forces to an immobile object or at least to a slow thing like a Carrier. Having your ships attempt to follow you around during a battle is a Bad Thing.
Ā If you want to play a defensive game and you're using a race that has Carriers as the best ships, prelaunch all the fighters using Activate Special. Nothing screws a squadron of Gunships up more than 20-30 fighters.
Ā Stock Ares Transports are totally and completely useless. Don't build them unless your opponent is being cheap and hiding in the asteriods with a half-dead cruiser or something. The only Transport that is even semi-useful is the Salrilian one because of the cloak.
Ā Audemedons are even more boring than Grolk, as your personal piloting skills have almost no effect on the outcome.
Ā If both your opponent and you are Auds, set him to very different color so you can easily tell the difference between his ships and hologram images of them(which remain orange)
Ā Don't try to kill the Flak Drones in Space Warz. It hurts.
Ā If you're feeling bored and cheap, hyperbomb your opponent with your HVD by running over big ships like Carriers while firing your weapons in FTL. This is also very effective with the Gaitori Gunship's pulse.
Ā A cool thing to do in a custom net scenario would be to check off the "HideEffect" flag on planets and stations to simulate Fog of War like in WC2 or Starcraft. Might add a bit of strategy, having to scout your opponent and all.
Well goodnight and please, someone comment
(edit: Found two grammar mistakes, to instead of too and a missing in. Guess that's what I get for not proofreading).
(This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 06-29-2002).)