Homeworld 3: How To Use Cover & Stances

Homeworld 3

By Joshua Leeds

Published May 10, 2024

Homeworld 3's maps have varying amounts of space stations, debris, and asteroids stuck in place. These do serve a gameplay purpose beyond just adding to the visual feel for each map offers cover to hide behind and fight from.

Stances play an important part in how your ships and your enemy's will function in combat and can also influence how those ships interact with cover. Cover can affect line of sight along with even blocking incoming lasers or missiles. Properly using cover and fighting with the right Stance can greatly help a control group's combat ability if used properly even when outmatched.

A Hiigaran Ship Capturing An Enemy Frigate

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Every Stance Explained In Homeworld 3

There are three Stances in total and each individual ship in your fleet can be given a different Stance. Stances can also be issued to entire Control Groups at once to help them all fight in the same way. Should players want their ships in a control group to fight in different ways each ship within the group can be issued different Stances, but this can start to clash with their formation if they are in one. The Stance of ships can be changed by selecting the Stance button in the bottom left of the screen to the right of the selected ship's icon.

Aggressive	Ships in this Stance will seek out and attack enemy fighters that get close and will follow them to great lengths until they are destroyed. Ships will ignore cover or defensive tactics and go all out to destroy enemy ships even at the cost of destroying themselves.
Passive	Ships in this Stance will not attack unless attacked and will make no effort to follow or further damage enemy ships beyond defending themselves.
Neutral	Ships in this Stance will fight defensively but still attack nearby ships without following them too far after engaging. Ships will also utilize cover and fight in a smarter way than just focusing on attacking.

A Carrier Building Ships & The Menu To Do So

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How To Use Cover In Homeworld 3

Strikecraft Using Cover To Fight A Frigate

Cover can be anything floating in space on the map. Debris along with projectiles are real objects traveling through space and can interact with each other should they collide. This means that faster ships can dart behind cover to avoid a volley of incoming fire should the player give the commands quickly enough. Cover is best when used with Strikecraft in Neutral Stance as they will dart in and out of cover while attacking their enemy with most incoming fire getting blocked by the cover.

Larger ships can also utilize the Passive Stance to limit movement and fire in a specific direction while utilizing cover. Having cover along one side can help protect that ship from behind flanked or to hide a less armored section of the ship. Cover can also be used offensively by breaking the enemy line of sight and allowing your ships to sneakily approach the enemy Mothership without getting noticed even by enemies in the Aggressive Stance.