T H E       R E U N I O N       H I N T S       F I L E

                                
                           version  1.01    
                                
                                by
                           
                            Orin Thomas
                           
 
Reunion, in my mind, is a cross between Starcon2 and Dune II.
(although not nearly as playable)
It is all about a lost earth colony that has to build up its
space forces, beat up the bad guys and reunite itself with earth.
 
This is a file of hints, not a step by step guide as to how to play
Reunion. It would probably be of help if you are stuck at a particular
stage and need a few pointers as to how to progress.
 
 
C O N T E N T S
---------------
Part Zero   : Setup Problems
Part One    : Beating the Morgals.
     Two    : Defeating the League.
Part Four   : A Review of the Game. 

-------------------------
PART ZERO: SETUP PROBLEMS
-------------------------

Some people have experienced reunion crashing when they have lots of
ram and some decent hard drive space. emm386 must be on (four meg or
so). Base memory must be maximised. It is better to take off things
like smartdrive.


-----------------------------
PART ONE: BEATING THE MORGALS
-----------------------------
 
Try to hire the middle people as advisors. The cheaper ones are basically
useless. When you have the money, upgrade the scientist and the fighter. 
It is generally cheaper to upgrade the scientist than to retrain him 4 
times. 
 
To contact the Jenossians, as soon as the planet Jade becomes visible   
to your astronomers send a TRADE group there. (not a satellite carrier).
 
The Jennosians will make contact with you and offer you an improved trade 
ship. Later they will offer you an artifact for a price. Take it. It 
turns out to be a hyperdrive unit. When they contact you about helping them 
fight the morgals agree to help. There is not much that you can do, but they 
then give you the plans to the Hunter and the Laser Cannon.
 
Start building as many Hunters as you can.
 
If you have about 10 Hunters and the middle "fighter" advisor, you should 
overcome the first morgal attack.
 
When the Morgals kill off the Jennosians send a trade group to Jade and 
land on the planet. This enables you to find a radio transmitter that is 
helpful later on.
 
To defend your planet, put all of the fighters in the New Earth
Defence Force group. This means that they will defend your planet
 
When you can, build a galleon and send it to the Pheonix System, planet
three. You will meet with the Kalls and some sort of alliance is formed.
 
When Pheonix Five becomes visible do the same thing. This time you will
meet the Phelonians.
 
Try to set up a base on Pheonix Two. You will lose it due to radiation 
sickness but this allows you to develop the radiation shield. Set up 
another colony on Pheonix two, this time with the R-shield. Set up an 
observatory and you will find the planet pheonix-one. Send a trade ship 
there and you will capture a Morgal ship in distress. Tell them that the 
Kalls are fighting them and then let them go. 

Doing this forces the Kalls to begin fighting the Morgals. Otherwise
the ally themselves and you are attacked by both. (they also kill the  
phelonians).  This must be done before Nov 2928
 
You can survive past this date but from here on in the Morgal attack
forces seem to grow faster than you can produce defence forces. Also,
their military advisor becomes more competent, making it harder for you
to win.

When you get the opportunity send a satellite carrier over to planet 2, 
moon 2 of the Mirach system and scan the surface. This gives you more 
technology. 
 
You have to keep building military hardware to survive. 
 
The Morgals attack your home planet with regularity. The only way I have
found to overcome them is to invade their home planet (Mirach 3). When
you destroy their home planet, all the colonies go as well! You will need
several units (1 unit = thirty tanks/troopers) to take Mirach 3. When you
launch your ground assault the Kalls also join in to help.

-------------------
1 A) HOW TO ATTACK
-------------------

I have received a surprising amount of mail asking how to attack. Here
is an example of what you do to attack.

Okay, you need to create an army group. Select new group and then click
with the mouse until it says army. Name it whatever you want (mine was
always STARFLEET). Now shift all your military assets into this group.

The first screen will hold Hunters, Fighters, Destroyers and Eventually
carriers. On the Far right is a red arrow pointing down. Click on this
and you will come up with a similar screen. But here you can put Troopers,
Battletanks, (eventually) Aircraft and Missile Launchers.

Once you have put together the equipped group take off. Wander over to a
morgal planet. (lets say jade for this example.) Don't land!
Okay, you arrive. Click on the "planets" icon. You should see a
representation of the Jade system. Over in the right you should see
a picture of a planet with a RED arrow around it. (your fleet). Click
on your fleet and then the attack icon should appear.

You will not need as many starfighters/hunters/destroyers as you might
think. All you have to do is take out the space forces on Mirach 3. The
hardest part of taking any planet is the ground battle. When doing this
remember - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN OVERKILL!

I have had a report that you find the aircraft here. You may have to
wait until the morgals develop this technology. I haven't got the
aircraft yet. I haven't had time to replay the game!

Additional info: you can get
the aircraft by talking to one of the races in the bar. I got that from the
email and couldn't tell which one (sorry)


--------------------------------
PART TWO : DEFEATING THE LEAGUE.
--------------------------------
 
When you defeat the Morgals you find the co-ordinates of three more systems.
Two of these systems contain an alien alliance called "the League". As soon
as you turn up in a trade group to a League planet the whole League decide
decide to attack you.
 
After having the same problem with the League that I had with the Morgals
I loaded a game where I had just defeated the Morgals but hadn't explored
the three new systems. I then made up an army of about 450 tanks, 50 
troopers, 20 Destroyers, 200 Starfighters and 100 Hunters. (this took a 
while). I then, using my satellite carriers, located the "League" worlds,
and, using the spy in "local", worked out each race's main planet. I then
took my army group in and destroyed the league. 
 
The Morgal that appears in the bar is useful for finding minerals and other
things.
 
When you destroy the League you will find the new Rigel System.

--------------------------------
PART THREE : REUNION WITH EARTH
--------------------------------
 
When you explore the Rigel System you find some interesting stuff on
the first planet. This enables you to develop some new technology that
finds a new race. One that is finally nice to you.

They give you the co-ordinates to the sol system. Again I decided to
build up a force (this time with the newly invented missile launcher).
Also it is an idea to arm your destroyers with the plasma cannons. 

I then, after I had built up my force, sent in my spy-satellite group
and scanned planet earth. As soon as I had detected an alien presence
there, I sent in my army group. The earthlings declared war (what else?).

I took about 400 missile launchers into the last battle, only to realise
that I could only field about 80. :-) It didn't matter, I kicked their
butts. 

-------------------------------
PART FOUR : A REVIEW OF REUNION 
-------------------------------

Warning : The opinion expressed here are opinions only. The best way
    	  to judge something is to objectively assess it yourself. If
	  you are interested in my observations please read on.

It would be an interesting question to ask why I ended up writing
a hints file for a game that so annoyed me. I can't really answer
that except to say that I hope the hints file is of some help.

Reunion *IS* an annoying game. Annoying because, by fixing a few minor
faults, it could be one of the best wargames written. It is a combination
of Civilisation, Sim City, Dune II and Star Control II. All of which were
incredible games and any combination of which should be a success.

Civilisation because of the technology developing aspect of the game. You
have scientists who research technology that becomes more useful as you
progress. 

Sim City because on each planet you explore you have the possibility of
colonising and building up a city, building by building. The citizens of
colony X are unhappy? - Give them a Staduim, Church or Recreation centre.
The Citizens want to be educated, plonk down a University. The citizens
need feeding, build a farm. Your running out of power? Place a new reactor
there. The buildings have a very Dune II like appearance as well.

Dune II because the ground combat is very very much like Dune II. The 
realtime ability to set platoons of tanks, troop carriers, aircraft
and missile launchers against your enemies arrays is fun. You have a 
decent amount of control in the ground war.

Star Control II because there is a good planet exploration/roleplaying
aspect to this game. You come into a planets orbit, scan the surface
with satellites and see if it is fit for habitation or mining. You can
then set up a colony or a mining base if it is.

Sounds pretty cool so far hey?

But (there is *ALWAYS* a but) there are problems. First of all, where 
are the Morgals getting there extra fleets from? I blockaded there
home planet, took out the morgal fleet, yet a huge one still turned
up and attacked me. Bigger than any fleet the morgals had. It couldn't
have been constructed on a colony as reunion doesn't allow that.

Second. You should be able to produce items on colonies. Colonies should
also be able to be attacked. If your home planet is destroyed your 
command post should be moved to the next toughest colony. Same for
your enemies. It sounds pretty stupid to me that with one surgical
attack on one planet I can take out a race that has four other self
sufficient colonies.

Third. Your advisors should offer more constructive advice than "More 
Products". You should have someone in the bar saying "have you checked
this out" if you get a little behind. The only way to win reunion is
by loading saved games until you hit the exact pattern the computer
wants. (or reading the hints file).

Getting the aircraft. I have been told that you can do this by killing
the Morguls when they have the aircraft. What if, like me, you kill them
before? Then you have no chance further on to get this technology. You
can even kill other races and have them say that they will supply you 
with the technology you don't have ... and you STILL don't get the
aircraft.

The ability to set up mineral shuttle services between planets.

Reunion is very addictive. I had to finish it. It became *personal*
But, unless they come out with a patch dealing with some of these
problems, I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.

yours in honesty.

Orin.


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|  Orin David-Leslie Thomas.                                          |
|  Melbourne, Australia.                                              |
|  Internet : orin@werple.apana.org.au                                |
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|  Behind every successful man is a surprised woman. - Maryon Pearson |
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