Taiidan, a once mighty interstellar empire, one of the two playable Homeworld 1 races. Some would say they were tyrannical and opressive, others would point to them as a beacon of space civilization.


Now to get the preamble out of the way. You have to understand that there is no real 'build order' or standard mode of gameplay in a Homeworld match. You have to be dynamic, you have to scout what your opponent is doing and you have to build the hard counters to what he's building. Sometimes it can be a game of deception, other times an all out brawl, you have to adapt to your opponent(s) and adjust your build accordingly, and luckily, I find Taiidan to be one of the most adaptable races.

The other thing to note is that the game is like any other RTS, whilst your economy is important, your production is equally as important. There's no point in having a bunch of RUs sitting around (unless you want some spare to hyperspace some frigates/capitals around). You should constantly be building stuff, that's how you overwhelm and win the game.

• There are no 'modules' on your Flagship or Carrier, it is all about research, you build a research ship and are then able to research chassis' and instantly build them as soon as the research is done.
  
• You can build two different units at one time, on both the carrier and Flagship, this allows you to outproduce the Homeworld 2 races even without building extra carriers.
  
• Fighters come in individual ships, not in squadrons.
  
• Salvage corvettes do not capture a ship, they fly it back to the flagship and the flagship converts it.
  
• All frigates and capitals come with an inbuilt hyperspace drive by default, allowing you to get your reinforcements into the fight quicker.

The early game for Taiidan is fairly slow, you can't build a single combat unit at the start of the game and it is where most people get thrown off by the race. Your first step is to build a research ship, without it, you will not be able to produce anything worthwhile. After you have started building your research ship you should send your carrier to the next nearby pile of RUs, and build some resource collectors at it. Be careful with your research ship, you want it to be tucked away safely somewhere, because if someone destroys it you are dead in the water research-wise. Build some probes and send them around various places, try to keep tabs on your enemy's carrier or mothership, if they are playing Hiigarran or Vaygr you can see which facilities they are building and can start planning their counters before they have even started building anything.

Protip: Building 2 scouts early on can be really useful, one can seek and destroy enemy probes whilst the other scout zips around their base within sensor range to scout what they're building. Taiidan scouts are ridiculously fast and cheap, they also the the speed burst ability which you should take advantage of.

After your research ship completes you should have already decided what ships you want to build next, it is quicker to research Fighters than Corvettes, but Corvettes are very strong early on before frigates are out on the field. One of the cool things about Taiidan is that your tech is hidden, so if you don't show a single produced Corvette or Fighter, then your opponent won't know what you're doing.

Protip: Select your carrier or flagship and in the top right there is a 'launch' button, click that and untick auto-launch, when it builds things it will stop them from automatically launching, hiding whatever you're building.

Make sure you keep research going, it's one of the biggest learning curves with Taiidan and Kushan, people forget to continue researching. If you're going corvettes consider getting both heavy corvettes and multi-gun corvettes, multi-gun corvettes will shred fighters and heavy corvettes will provide the firepower. If you've gone fighters then consider getting Defenders, whilst they are relatively slow, but if you get enough of them they will shred basically anything in their ridiculously long range, if you have cleared the enemy's fighters off the field then perhaps mix in some bombers to due some heavy damage to their capitals. Remember you can build four different types of units at the same time right off the bat (two at your carrier and two at your flagship).

Protip: I am underwhelmed at how Taiidan interceptors deal with other strike craft, I find them mostly useless, I've seen 30 interceptors get shredded by 3-4 Vaygr strike craft. Defenders are better in every way except for mobility.

If you have scouted that you are outproducing your enemy then perhaps you should try to attack his seperated carrier (don't try attacking his mothership yet, you'll get minced with only fighters or corvettes). If you can destroy someone's carrier with bombers or at least take off some of his modules and adjacent resource collectors you can stunt your enemy's growth immensely, as well as secure more mining space for yourself. Harrasment is a great way to start the early game, and it is also very useful in the later stages too.

Now it is time to start transitioning into some more beefy units. Depending on what your opponent is doing and how quickly he is doing it should dictate what you should do. You should have secured one and preferably two expansion(s) with plenty of resource collectors nomming on those delicious space rocks. If you find your resources too high then you need more production, keep on top of your build queues on both your carrier and flagship and if that still isn't enough work towards getting another carrier.

Protip: You have to research the first stage of frigate production before you can build resource controllers, once you have researched it you should certainly build a few controllers. They will increase your resource input by a lot, and you can also use them to dock your injured strike craft or corvettes for repair. You also should have amassed enough collectors by now to where you are getting bottlenecked at your resource drop offs.

Going straight for an Assault/Ion Frigate combo is fairly powerful early game, in fact if you have crippled your opponent enough in the early game then you can probably finish off his mothership with a handful of Ion Frigates. If it is more neck and neck then you want to probably transition into the late game, which means Destroyers, Missile Destroyers and Heavy Cruisers. Rushing capitals is not a bad strategy, provided you don't get caught with your pants down whilst teching to it. Many times I've seen early Destroyers end games.

There is also the more defensive style of gameplay, if you have more expansions than your opponent then you can just sit on it and force him to make the first move, minelayer corvettes are a great advantage if you play defensively, and I also recommend getting a gravwell generator at each of your capitals. If you opt for this style then you really need to keep tabs on his forces, and remember that without a gravwell generator he can warp capitals on top of your unguarded Flagship and blow it up really quickly.

At this stage you have a few Destroyers and have probably started research on some other Capitals too. If my economy permits, I like to produce two Capitals constantly on my Flagship, and use my Carriers to produce the smaller stuff. I find having a mixed fleet very useful by this stage, remember there is a unit cap for every type of unit, so if you reach that then you should research and start making something else.

Taiidan is great for hit and run tactics, if your opponent does not build anti-hyperspace then you can simply hyperspace a bunch of frigates and capitals on top of his carriers or mothership, focus his hyperspace module, then finish it off. Like I said before, you should try to have a mix of units, if you focus all your production on one thing then he can specialize and hard counter what you have built.

Resources are probably getting thin, so one of you will have to make a move sooner or later, I prefer being on the attack but that's really up to you.

Taiidan has supremacy in the early-mid game, and sort of fades out towards the end (at least in my experience). Heavy Cruisers and Destroyers just don't match Battlecruisers, so if you see the enemy starts to build them you have to strike before they get a critical mass.

Taiidan's main advantage is the fact that frigates and capitals come prebuilt with hyperspace modules. This will allow you to respond to battles and also harass the enemy very effectively. Once they start getting hyperspace inhibitors your advantage fades out, but it is still useful for reinforcing the front.

Probes are 3x cheaper for Taiidan compared to Vaygr or Hiigaran, make good use of them, you don't ever want to be caught with your pants down. If you see enemy probes send a single interceptor or scout unit to take care of it, they have to spend resources and production slots to replace them, and if they decide not to then they have no intel on you.

If you see an opportunity to snipe a carrier with ion frigates or other smaller stuff then you should take it, especially if they are Hiigaran or Vaygr, because they probably won't build a hyperspace module on it and will not be able to escape. Sniping a carrier basically ends the game in a 1v1, they won't be able to match your production capability.

Scouts are not as bad as they seem. If the enemy is moving in to take out your resource collectors near your forward carrier and you haven't researched interecptors, consider making some scouts for defensive purposes.

Salvage corvettes can be amazingly useful, 1 for a corvette/fighter, 2 for a frigate, 4 for a destroyer, 6 for a carrier. Just be sure to back them up and not send them in first, they are paper thin. Start the engagement, distract the enemy, then sneak some in through a different angle and try to steal their most valuable ships. Not only do they attempt to steal ships, they will disable their weapons, neutralizing the threat.

Salvage/Light corvette rush: You build nothing but salvage and light corvettes, dock them in your carrier and try to hide them from view in general, once you have like 8 salvage corvettes, warp your carrier on top of their carrier, salvage it and protect it with light corvettes.

Pick your engagement angles. Why warp in on the enemy force head on, why not warp in behind, on top to the side or below them? Battlecruisers are especially weak to this, they have to be facing forward to do their maximum damage, so if you are able to get in on one of their sides you could easily pick off their main cannon before they can turn towards you.

If your opponent is going heavy fighters, consider defenders or multi-gun corvettes. Defenders are great en masse, if you have 60 or so Defenders, nothing short of a flak frigate will put them down.

Hopefully this guide will give you some insight on how to play Taiidan successfully. Good luck out there.