Fodder

Fodder refers to worthless ships added to an attack/raid so that defending ships or defenses attack the fodder rather than the ships that are actually carrying out the attack.

Fodder also refers to adding worthless defenses to a colony so that attacking ships attack the worthless defenses, rather than the defenses that will actually defend.

The term is derived from "cannon fodder", [1] a derogatory term for "disposable troops" who are expected to sacrifice their life to preserve the life of other more valued members of the team.

Typical fodder ships include Hermes Class, Artemis Class, and Atlas Class.

Typical fodder defences include Missile Battery, Laser Cannon, Pulse Cannon and Particle Cannon.

This strategy is effective because ships and defenses randomly select an enemy target to fire upon; by having large numbers of smaller-value targets, the risk of larger-value targets being fired upon is reduced. For example, in a fleet of 900 Artemis/Atlas + 100 larger ships, the 100 larger ships would each have only a 10% chance of being hit, compared to the situation if those 100 ships were sent with no fodder.