My First Raid

Some guides say raiding is a good way to get resources quickly. I've been hesitant to do it since the procedure isn't documented very well, from what I can tell. I'm worried that I might raid someone bigger than me and they will retaliate and pulverise me.

My mines have been producing for a couple of days so I built some more buildings and did some more research. Here's what I have:

Buildings
Metal level 10, Crystal level 12, Deut level 9, Solar level 14, Robotics Factory level 4, Shipyard level 3, and Research Lab level 3. (none in other categories)

Research
Espionage Tech level 3, Energy Technology level 3, Combustion Drive level 3, Laser Tech level 1. "Lasers?", I hear you asking. What can I say, it was cheap and I was bored. (none in other categories)

Fleet
One Small Cargo Ship, 1 Small Fighter, 1 Espionage Probe, 1 Solar Satellite.

Okay, I've been procrastinating on my first raid. I think I need to psych myself up. Here goes... "Raiding is part of the game you pansy pacifist! Don't be a pussy!"

Damn, what's with the name calling? My internal monologue can be a jerk sometimes.

"Quit stalling and DO IT!!!"

Okay, okay, sheesh!

Step 1. - Look for a planet that is inactive. Use the Galaxy screen to view other systems and look for an (i) next to the player name. A small (i) means they've been inactive for 7 days and a capital (I) means they've been inactive for 28 days. Okay I have found a target - planet 5 in this system.

Step 2. - Espionage. Oops! Now I've done it. While in the Galaxy screen I clicked on the Espionage button next to the target planet. That's all it took to send my Espionage Probe to that planet.



The target is in a nearby system I got a report from my probe on the Message screen. It looked like this.



Cool! It shows he has some Metal and Crystal and apparently has no defenses. Perfecto. I should be able to send my small cargo ship, which has a cargo capacity of 5000 units, and get some of his goodies.

I was thinking that Espionage Probes were single use vehicles, like a missile, but my probe came back home after its mission. Sweet.

I have a few questions, like
Why is this planet undefended?
Is it a deserted planet created by a player who started the game and then quit?
I've only been playing for about 10 days and am ranked about 6000 out of 8500 in this universe. So maybe there are a lot of deserted planets out there like this.
-OR- maybe his Espionage Tech is so much better than mine that I don't have a clue.

Hang on Wedge, I'm going in full throttle! That ought to keep those fighters off my back!

Step 3. Send the fleet. In my case that will be one light fighter and one small cargo ship. The fighter is prolly unnecessary but wtf, my cargo ship needs a wingman, if only for the style points. Here goes...



Fill in the number "1" for the ships I want to send, then click on the 'continue' button. That brings up the Choose Target screen.



I made up the coordinates shown in the above picture to protect the innocent. I don't know if this is necessary but it's part of the OGame forum rules to not post a players coordinates. I am trying to protect the identity of my home world too so someone doesn't get the idea to "hit the newbie and see him post about it". That would be totally uncool. Forget I mentioned it. (puts on sunglasses) Hey, take a look at this shiny memory neuralyzer... FLASH!

After clicking on the 'continue' button I get the following screen.



I am confused. Should I choose to Transport or Attack? I want to transport stuff from the target planet back to mine, but I think the transport option is for when I want to transport resources to a colony or something. So I am going to choose Attack. There are also Cargo Options. Do I need to send deuterium along with my ship for fuel? I am guessing no, and the cargo options are for peaceful transport to/from colonies, so I am sending my ship empty of cargo, and assume it will pick up the resources once it gets there. We will see.

I checked the OGame Wiki for info on Attacking. link
The Wiki entry for Combat is interesting too. link

Step 4. - Wait
I think I have done this correctly. After I clicked on the 'continue' button I get my main Fleet screen again.



It now shows I have an active mission. The Wiki article on Combat explains how there are rounds of attack even if the planet has no defenses, and if the attacker wins he can pillage up to half of each available resource. Sounds good to me.



My Overview screen now shows a couple of new events. The first one for when my fleet arrives at its destination, the second one for its return to my home world. The timer is ticking down the seconds. Looks like I will have to wait 1 hour and 8 minutes to see what happens. Until then, this newbies fingers are crossed. In the meantime I will upgrade my Research lab to level 4 which should make Weapons Technology available.

Pick up the gun, newbie.