Bumping this topic...

First question would be, what is pinning and how do you do it?

I can understand micro-ing LF's around the main force to hit carriers (or carriers that are 'kiting').

I can also understand focus firing different units

Then, what else is there to micro?

For example I have seen a few people saying to use assailants range against illumiunators so they can't use their side beams. I don't really understand how to do that effectively? The turn speed of the assailants seems too short to fire, then run, and then fire again? [picture answer preferable]

Also as another example - Scouts (also LF’s?) against LRF's. Is there a way to more effectively use scouts to consistently get to the back of LRF using their superior mobility, take some shots while the LRF’s are still turning and then rinse and repeat? How exactly do you do this?  [picture answer preferable]

Another problem I have is retreating individual ships. As you see your ships getting focus fired, and you want to retreat them. Is it best to drive forward, through the enemy line (probably not best against illuminators) forcing them to 'turn' slightly, if not completely around (against AI), or should you just try and turn them around on the spot - meaning they move around in an arc and often get closer to the enemy anyway - before retreating them.

Are there any other things that you can/should micro? All input would be beneficial.

On a side note (to improve macro) is there a way to 'tab' between the research tree's? Basically you press F2 but when you want to swap between military/civil/fleet, you have to mouse over & click - is there a shortcut keyboard command?

"Ctrl+right click to set multiple focus fire targets" [Deceiver]

I am just going to assume you mean 'shift', unless Cntrl does something different? - I believe it focuses the camera on the target unit.

Thanks for that input Deceiver, I appreciate it. But, that only half answers my questions...

So the questions repeated (also changing the wording because they were not outlined very well...)

1. What is pinning, and how do you most effectively do it?

2. When retreating individual units they are getting focus fired, what is the best way?

3. How do you win with scouts vs LRF's? Do you micro them to the backs of the LRF's or do you just take them on face to face with superior numbers + less cost. Note: I am just interested in micro tactics for flanking any unit really (using a units speed to gain advantage) & how to best achieve it. [Picture answer preferable]

4. If you were in a battle Assailants vs Illuminators, (you being the Assailants), is there a way to stay out of range of the Illuminators and wear them down slowly whilst reducing your casualties? Note: I am interested in micro tactics using ships RANGE to benefit, this is just an example. [Picture answer preferable]

5. Is there a way to tab between the research tree's after pressing F2, or do you have to manually click on each tree?

Basically to sum up this thread so far (yes I am going to overuse numbers in this post, by using them again!):

1. You should memorise the "gridkeys" the game provides to increase micro. (these are QWERT,ASDFG)

Ie. At the start of the game to improve speed you should click the planet, then WS (then place capital factory) WA (automatically places a crystal extractor), then AQQ (depending on how many metal/crystal extractors you have on your home planet), Ctrl+F6 (Twice to sell 200 metal), F7 (To buy 100 crystal), AQQ (to que [at least] 2 scouts, which should then each be control grouped for ease of use).......etc.... continue on like this micro'ing scouts, building research labs (civic or military, map dependant), que'ing capital ship - and setting rally point towards the nearest asteroid.

2. You should then go about pinning your capital planet and important structures (frig factory, repair bays) (I don't completely understand how to do this but at the moment I can see it being very beneficial).

3. Along with pinning you may want to assign control groups (Ctrl+#) to certain structures/planets/ships. You definetly want to assign a control group to your capital ship, and set a rally point from your frigate factory/ies to your capital ship. Note: Double clicking your group Ie Ctrl group 1 (just the number one twice) make the campera pan to their location. This followed by pressing 'X' will zoom the camera to an ideal position. (this X button combining the groups is a very useful way to micro scouts @ the start of the game...)

4. As your fleet starts to come into play, assign hotkeys to each unit type, so you can focus fire their hard counters when the battle begins (aka fighters against LRM's, but also staying away from flak). When selecting targets hold down shift+right click to focus fire each ship individually. Note: you can select all units of one type within a gravity well by holding down Alt+LeftClicking on a target unit (aka LRM's).

5. If you have a large bunch of utility frigates (or ANY ship for that matter), you can cycle through your selection by pressing the tab key, and going backwards with the shift-tab key. This is useful for casting different abilities such as heal and repel - remember to use the hotkeys for these abilities to further reduce the mouse movement, ie QWERT.

6. Use F2 to go to the military/civil research tabs (F3 for pirates). .. this is where I don't know how to switch between them faster.. (I can only use the mouse at this stage).

7. Hold down alt to show unit ranges and health/antimatter (useful when trying to focus fire, and using abilities).

8. If you are attacking an enemy ship and it decides to run away, you don't want your whole fleet to follow it, potentially moving closer to danger. Simply press the S key to make them stop (from memory it is S?), sadly you will then have to reassign them focus fire targets.

Pinning -

In options you can tell what should be auto pinned.

On the upper left corner, where is Search button, next to it is "stack" button, and on the other side pin button.

It work's like this, if you have something pinned, then that thing where it's located will show up on Empire tree. For example, it auto pins cap ships, that's why you see on empire tree their phase lane, however, you don't see your scouts traveling trough phase line, since they aren't pinned.

I usually just unpin planets that I have developed beyond my need of attention. (You do it by selecting the pinned object, hovering over pin button, you can see evewrything that's been pinned, and then click on pin button, it will unpin, same with pinning)