Romulan Star Empire

General Romulan Advice

When paired with a Romulan teammate and your opponents can use cloak, it is absolutely necessary that the Romulan player research the Talon class refit and give you at least one of these refitted vessels so that both players do not have to research anti-cloaking technology. These refitted talons should be built and outfitted after about 8-10 Rhienns/Shrikes. If your ally is strong and the map is big you can continue building a few more Rhienns/Shrikes throughout the game to continue maintaining your hit and run attack force. Five of these vessels per attack force is generally enough to destroy mining vessels quickly enough without that great of a risk.

General Helev

If you do not like harassment but prefer relative brute force when playing as the Romulan General Helev, skipping Rhienns entirely to build Griffins as your first unit is possible. Immediately after constructing your first Staryard, begin building a Research Institute. As soon as this structure is complete, research Sensor Jammer and begin building Griffins. Cloak your Griffins and have them lie at your expansion if you are expecting an early game attack. If your opponent attacks, decloak in the midst of enemy forces, and use the Sensor Jammer to hopefully cripple sensors and weapons. Note that several uses of the Sensor Jammer are sufficient to cripple your opponent’s destroyers due to their large sensor radii. Cloak any Griffins that have lost shields and send them straight away to repair (they have strong hulls, and thus are likely to escape unscathed). Note that this strategy works best when you have some initial backup, as retreating with Griffins is harder as you will always be outnumbered and you cannot outrun your opponents. Likewise you will always have less firepower early on (for instance in the time that one Griffin is complete, two Rhienns can be produced, which can later be refitted to give even more firepower) and no real harassment capabilities. It is thus the Sensor Jammer that is the saving grace of this strategy. Later in the game when you have gathered a fair amount of Griffins (5-8) it will be much easier to use them in an offensive position. At this point, depending on whether it is better to go for mining harassment or pure brute force, you should begin constructing Rhienns or Leahvals. As Leahvals are short range, they are not the best complement for your Griffins, and thus it is wise to use decloaking strikes to quickly disable your foe. Teching up to Generixes or possibly straight up to anti-destroyer Norexans is thus much more important than in other Romulan strategies.

General Mijural

First Strategy: General Mijural also additional strategies available to her in team games. Although it would be too costly to use this tactic in one on one games (where having the most cost effective strategy is often one of the most important factors), in a team game it is possible for these issues to be partially compensated for by a teammate. Consequently, instead of relying on torpedo turrets for a real defense, build two Staryards (preferably one being situated at your expansion) and produce between 5-7 Shrikes and another five or more Rhienns in a battle geared against non-Borg forces. As you near the end of this construction phase begin building a Research Institute. Depending on whether your opponent has begun producing cruisers or is continuing destroyer production you must choose the adequate special weapon with which to outfit your Rhienns. Since  Rhienn Torpedo Refits to exceptional damage to cruisers and can be also outfitted with excellent anti-structure Vector Torpedoes while Rhienn Disrupter Refit do better against hordes of destroyers, the choice should be obvious. This combination will allow you to quickly disable and destroy enemy destroyer forces, as well as allow you to fire while retreating. This combined force is also more effective for harassment than a pure Shrike force, as you get long range firepower to boot.

Second Strategy: If on the other hand you prefer to decimate your enemy with the Romulan speciality - battleships - there is even another strategy available to Mijural. This strategy is best used if you expect to face non-Borg units. Facing an opponent who constructs lots of Sus'a' warships will also end in disaster for you. After beginning with a dilithium mining station and a Research Insitute, construct a Warbird Yard and a tritanium mining facility. Make sure both station have their requisite three Fakairu freighters. As soon as the Warbird Yard is complete, begin production of a Cehlaer from the station. At the same time immediately begin construction of an Upgrade Facility and send one construction ship to expand. This will give you access to the notorious "Big D" - otherwise known as the D'deridex. A dozen or so seconds after the Cehlaer is complete you will thus be able to queue up two to three D'deridex. If you have chosen a safe mining moon set, begin construction of a dilithium mining station at your expansion. This will grant you the funds necessary to bring out the real star of your force - the Romulan dreadnought. While the second or third D'deridex is building, begin assembling a Tal'Shiar Academy and be certain to research the D'deridex's special ability Stealth Field, which will decrease the damage dealt to your vessels by 25% for 15 seconds when triggered. Upon completion of the Tal'Shiar Academy, build one Tavara. As soon as you have enough tritanium, purchase the Rei'karansu Covert-Ops team to allow your star warship to capture enemy vessels and stations. Note that due to a bug the ability is only targetable when the enemy vessel is missing at least one crew member. To skirt this, simply place the warbird on high weapons autonomy, but make certain to carefully watch the crew complement and learn when to set the ability back to manual. Since all warbirds have extremely strong hulls, you can often cloak and escape in the midst of battle without fear. Likewise, decloaking on top of your opponent's fleets is quite a powerful move, as it completely takes away the range and speed advantages that your opponent's smaller vessels will likely have. Remember that if you wish to protect your expansion, you will not have access to turrets for quite some time, so be sure to keep your warbirds cloaked and within range if necessary - it can be quite surprising to have even a lowely Cehlaer decloak right next to your Sabers.

At this point it is probably best to try and build a Staryard and a tritanium mining facility. You will need some support for your battleships, and the best way to get it is to build support refits to recharge the shields of your vessels. At the same time notice that you now have the means to construct Norexan class battleships. As these are quite fast and powerful anti-destroyer units, these will complement your existing ships quite nicely. Note although in this version of the game you can tech straight to Norexans, this has been confirmed by the Developers as a mistake and will be fixed in the upcoming patch. Please refrain from using that strategy.