A bunch of newb questions

If I have ships in reserve are they in this generic empire-wide reserve pool, or are there reserve pools for each system? For example, if I build 10 Eagle Attack Ships in my home system can use a Mobilization Center to turn those reserves into a task force in a completely different system?

Do these answers apply to Infantry (and other ground troops) as well?

I have 10 or so Scouts just out meandering around, but my stupid Viceroy keeps building more and more Scouts at different planets! Can I tell him to stop making Scouts or something? What if I go into the Shipyard, is there a way for me to delete the Scout design? If I do delete it will all my Scouts dissapear?

Also I typically go into my Planets screen and set Migration counters onto my smaller, newer worlds. I figure this will help them grow faster. But does Migration take colonists from my other worlds and move them or does it just create "new" colonists that show up?

Thanks!

There is just one reserve pool. You can create fleets in the system that has the imperial seat of government (your home system unless it's been destroyed and/or moved) or any system that has a MOB center (you have to research this, then build the MOB center in a system). Once you disband a fleet in takes a number of turns (sort of random?) for the ships to get back into the reserve.

Troops are also in one pool, but troops groups can be formed at any planet. Note that even if a planet doesn't have any troops deployed on it, if the planet is invaded some militia will defend it.

You need to "obsolete" the scout design (in the shipyard tab) or manually edit the build queue (double click on an item to get it out of the queue). To obsolete a design click on current designs, then obsolete design. Deleting the design will not make the scouts disappear. There is an option to delete ships of a certain design from the build queue. This will get rid of all the ships in the queue that are not partially built.

Migration just moves colonists from other worlds. You have to be a little carful how you use it so you don't deplete worlds. Also, if you have more than one race in your empire, turning the migration button on makes it more likely that races not well suited to the planet will move into some of the planet's regions.

BTW, building colony ships does create new population. One way to speed up the pop growth of a race (especially a magnate race later in the game) is to build large hull colony ships with very small system engines and multiple colony pods.

[zanzibar]

A sure fire way to get the ships you want built, instead of 500 scouts is to completely micro-manage your planetary build ques. There are 2 ways to get to those ques.

1) Double click the system's star on the galaxy map. Double click the planet you want to build the ship on. Click the economics popup tab. Click the military tab. Now you can remove and add ships that you want built there. (this works for ALL versions of moo 3).

2) Click the planets tab. Check the owned planets type. Click the double arrows next to the ship currently being built to change it. (much faster and easier this way!!). (only works for versions 1.2b and 1.2.5).

[DeckPrism]

Originally posted by Actuarian
Troops are also in one pool, but troops groups can be formed at any planet. Note that even if a planet doesn't have any troops deployed on it, if the planet is invaded some militia will defend it.

...

BTW, building colony ships does create new population. One way to speed up the pop growth of a race (especially a magnate race later in the game) is to build large hull colony ships with very small system engines and multiple colony pods.

If you want troops able to go to an enemy world though you have to put them on a troop ship. At any MOB center from the galaxy screen click on the system and there should be an option "create ground transport" which will take you to creating the ground troops first, then show you ships to put them on.

Some people also send multiple colony ships to the same planet to boost the population. Just be sure they all arive on the same turn.

Your vice roy will tend to build cheap ships. Read the "big boys" thread stikied at the top of the strategy folder.

[RobNelson]

I feel I should point out that it's not a completely bad thing to have some scouts in reserve. Only ships designated recon can fill the picket ring of a task force, so if you want large fleets, keep a few recon (scout) ships around.

[Shogo Yahagi]

I use outpost ships to scout. They're usually cheaper, and you can create an outpost when they find something good.

Don't hold onto scouts to serve as picket ships. Design a point defense ship to occupy the picket slots and just give it the recon classification so it will be allowed in the picket slots.

[Longspur]

I'm with Shogo on this one.

You can design any kind of ship under the "Recon" mode and it will fit in the picket ring.

I like to fit lots of light mount best beam weapons on a Recon ship for point defense purposes in a task force.

And one spinal mount best-reach beam weapon for "eyes."

And, unless it is very early game, I like to put a fighter bay on them. I like the idea of enemy ships firing at those drone fighter ships instead of my core ships. They are first fire sponges, soaking up the damage that otherwise my ships would be absorbing.

I always try to use best armor/shields on my ships.

As far as actual scouting goes, you can used any kind of ship. If you do use outpost ships for scouting, I'd put some kind of weapon (best direct fire/spinal mount) on them. Nobody ever seems to get mad at you if you gun down a competing colony ship in a new system.

I went through a phase when the use of outpost ships formed a big part of my starting strategy. Now I don't use them at all. -- Longspur