Chaos Overlords is one of my favourite games, but I remember that when I first started, it was a bit hard to figure out what was going on. I thought I'd post a few tips here on some non-obvious things that I wish I'd known back then, though this is far from a comprehensive strategy guide. Feel free to add to it; I'm also happy to answer questions.

Note: I'm assuming that you're playing "Kill 'em all" or a similar game mode - priorities may change for different game modes.

Basic interface stuff
Double-clicking on most things (gangs, sectors, sites) will bring up more information about them.

Clicking the single green arrow above a gang gives a command for one turn only. Clicking the double-arrow tells the gang to execute the command repeatedly until finished, or until you give them new instructions. This is a great way to reduce micromanagement.

The 'search' button is very useful if you're trying to find a particular kind of site, such as a research lab or a casino.

The 'financial - city' button is a good way to see at a glance if you're overspending.

Starting out: what do I do?
You start the game with one sector and one gang. You'll want to do several things: hire some gangs, capture some territory, and possibly influence a few money-generating sites so you can start earning some income. Don't go too nuts hiring expensive gangs, though; most gangs cost money each turn, so if you're too eager, you can quickly find yourself running a deficit and unable to buy anything. I will discuss these points in more detail below.

What gangs should I hire?
Each turn you can hire one of three available gangs - the other two will still be around next turn, plus a replacement for the one you hired. If you don't want any of them, click the red 'x' below the least desirable one so they'll be replaced.

Each gang has an initial cost to hire (shown below their portrait on the main screen), and an 'upkeep' cost that must be paid each turn (shown on the gang's info card - double click on the gang's portrait to bring this up).

Early on, you'll want to hire some cheap gangs with low upkeeps, preferably ones with a few points of Control, Influence and/or Chaos. You may also want to hire some thugs with high Fight or Martial Arts stats, since they get high Combat ratings without needing to equip weapons.

Once you start earning some income, you'll want to take over a Research Lab and hire some gangs with a few points of Research (and preferably Tech Level 10), so that you can start making better equipment.

Gangs with high Stealth ratings are good for sneaking into enemy territory to cause trouble.

In the late game, you'll want to hire gangs with high Tech Levels so that you can give them all that fancy equipment you've been researching. Even your nerdy science team can be a formidable foe with sufficiently advanced weapons and armor.

What's up with items and research?
If you select the 'equip' command, you can buy some equipment to improve your gangs' stats. At first you will only have access to very basic equipment; more advanced equipment will become available as you research it.

Each gang has three item slots: weapon, armor, and accessory. Every gang and every item has a Tech Level rating from 0-10. A gang can only equip an item with a Tech Level equal to or less than the gang's Tech Level. Higher-tech equipment is, of course, more powerful.

If you don't feel like poring over a lot of stats, you generally won't go wrong by giving a gang the items that seem to "make sense" for them. Ninjas should get katanas and smoke bombs. Your science team should get science kits. Your sniper team should get a high-powered rifle, etc.

However, if you want to delve a little deeper, looking at a gang's stats will usually tell you what they ought to equip.

Weapons: Gangs with high 'Range' should get guns. Gangs with high 'Blade' should get knives or swords. 'Strength' adds to all melee weapons, including blades. Gangs with high 'Fight' or 'Martial Arts' should not equip weapons, as their unarmed bonus is usually better than the weapon - in other words, a weapon may actually cause their Combat stat to go down! If you want a gang to be sneaky, don't give them loud weapons that penalize their Stealth stat.

Armor: gangs you plan to fight with should equip the heaviest armor available. Sneaky gangs should equip lighter armor that gives a lower Stealth penalty.

Accessories: the choice of accessory really depends on what you want the gang to do. If they're just going to hang around using the Chaos command - well, boom boxes will help them do that! Researchers should get science kits, ninjas should get smoke bombs. Heavy fighters should use Body Stabilizers for a healing boost, or Empathic Enhancers to help them control enemy sectors. Scanners are great for hunting down enemy stealth units.

Researching new tech is crucial to your mid-late game development. While any gang can research new equipment, they are not all equally good at it. A gang's Research stat affects how fast they research items, while their Tech Level determines the maximum level of item they can research. Regardless of the gang's tech level, they cannot research an item above level 5 unless located in a sector where you control a Science Center (allows up to level 8) or a Research Lab (allows up to level 10).

When you select the research command, you will see a list of researchable items. Each item has a number beside it, giving a rough idea of how long it will take to research (a higher number = longer research time). As you research the item, this number will go down, and when it reaches zero the research is complete. You can stop research without losing this progress, and multiple gangs can contribute to researching the same item. Items may be researched in any order.

How do I make money? Or: The importance of the 'Chaos' command.
Each turn, you will get a little bit of income from controlled sectors, and possibly from a few rare gangs with a positive upkeep cost. However, most of your income will come from 'influencing' sites within the sectors you control. As you influence a site, a green progress bar will show you how close it is to cooperating with you. The most lucrative sites are the Casino (6/turn), the Corporate Offices (5/turn), and the Arena (3/turn).

Your second-most important income source is the Chaos command. Any gang standing around with nothing to do should be causing Chaos, unless they have a negative Chaos stat. Each Chaos command nets you a little bit of money, depending on the sector's Income Level and the gang's Chaos stat, but it adds up when lots of gangs are doing it.

As you Chaos a sector, its Tolerance stat will go down, and eventually the police will start cracking down. If it's one of your sectors, you should switch to the Bribe command for a few turns to boost the Tolerance back up - otherwise the cops may raid the sector, blast any gangs in the area with high-powered weapons, and revoke your control of the sector. However, you can also Chaos enemy sectors! This is especially handy with stealthy gangs who can evade the eventual police raid.

Keep your gangs healthy!
Your gangs' current hitpoints actually affect how good they are at almost every skill roll. Each gang can have up to 10 'Force' (hit points), and their current Force is added as a bonus to most skill checks. For example, a gang with full health and a Chaos stat of 2 that makes a Chaos check adds +12 to the check, while the same gang with only one hit point adds only +3! Keeping your gangs healthy can make a huge difference!

Gangs do not heal automatically - you must select the 'Heal' command. Gangs with high Heal stats will heal faster - this stat can be boosted with various items (such as the med kit) or by being in the same sector as a friendly hospital or clinic.

How does combat work?
This section is for those who want to know a little more about what's going on "under the hood". When you attack an enemy gang, the game performs the following calculation: "Attacker's Combat stat - Defender's Defence stat = Number of dice rolled." Each die rolled has a 1/3 chance of scoring a 'hit.'. After attacking, the defender gets a free counterattack - this works the same, except that the number of 'hits' scored is halved. The counterattack technically happens at the same time as the attack, so it takes place even if the gang was 'killed'.

The Combat stat is determined from the gang's base rating, plus bonuses from any weapons, plus bonuses from any stats related to that weapon (e.g. a gang with a Blade stat of 4 that equips a sword gets +4 to Combat, on top of the bonus from the sword itself). The Defense stat is determined from the gang's base rating, plus bonuses from armor or other items.

A few unusual situations:
-If an unarmed gang with Martial Arts attacks a a gang without Martial Arts (or a gang with Martial Arts that has a weapon equipped), there is no counterattack.
-Gangs with high Stealth may be able to attack enemies without being seen - they may not even show up on the map. If you find yourself being harassed by a gang you can't see, bring in a gang with a high Detect stat so that you can find that ninja bastard and start pummelling him for his insolence!

Why can't I gain control of this sector?
Enemies in a sector will oppose your control attempts with their own Control stat, so make sure to clear out any gangs with a high Control stat before trying to control it yourself. If it's still not working, remember to check for sneaky ninjas! Alternately, you may just need to bring in a gang with a higher Control stat, or combine the efforts of multiple gangs, particularly in enemy-controlled sectors.

Nice explanation and tutorial ! :)

I have finished one game after in the past I even didn't understand what was going on when playing the game. Now I have understood most of the rules. But after finished one game I still have question:

What factors that affects the gangs that appear in hiring list ? does the number of influenced sites give effects ? Until the end of the game I was wondering why my opponents often have Ground Zero gangs (one of the most powerful units) . While I stuck with a soldier with 9 hiring cost (forgot the name). The highest cost (20) gangs I ever hired was the person that holds a suitcase full of fake money (forgot the name too). The second highest is the hacker with 15 hiring cost.

Do you know how to get ground zero or high level gangs more often ?

So far as I am aware, the new gangs that become available for hire are random, except that you will never see a duplicate of a gang that is already available (though you will see duplicates of gangs you have hired in previous turns). Some games I never see a Ground Zero; other times I've lucked out and gotten three or four of them. To maximize your odds, though, remember to fire a gang in any turn that you aren't hiring one, so they'll be replaced.

Fortunately, enemy Ground Zeroes can still be "handled" by teaming up on them with several other gangs equipped with similar tech.

Note that a higher hiring cost does not necessarily mean a more powerful gang (in combat terms). The reason the Forgers (suitcase of money guys) cost so much is that they have a negative upkeep - in other words, they generate extra money for you every turn.

Ah. I didn't aware that Forgers have negative upkeep. Yes, I am aware that higher cost doesn't mean more powerful. I am just curious how to get Ground Zero. I thought there are some factors that could affect the randomness -not that I have problem with enemies' Ground Zero. I simply blast them with Plasma Generator, cut them with Katanas, and give them some Rockets, and... they are gone XD

Well. Thanks for the explanation :D

I understand how Stealth keeps you from being detected but what does the "hide" action do? Is it like dodging, where an enemy might miss you with an attack?

Basically, yes. "Stealth" and "Detect" pull double duty in the game - they determine whether you can even see an enemy gang (whether or not it is hiding), and they determine whether you can hit a gang when it is hiding.

To "see" an enemy gang, the detecting gang must have a "detect" skill equal than or higher to the enemy's "stealth". Hiding does not affect this. However, having multiple gangs in the sector does - the game uses the highest "detect" stat, then adds bonuses based on the "detect" stats of allies in the same sector. See p. 52 in the manual for details.

"Hide" affects the chance that a detected gang will be hit in combat. By default (assuming your "stealth" and their "detect" are equal), the attacking gang has a 30% chance to hit the hiding gang. For each point that your stealth exceeds their detect, lower this by 5%, and vice versa. (So if you have a stealth that is 6+ higher than the enemy's detect, you cannot be hit.) Only the attacker's "detect" matters here - allies do not add bonuses.

Nice thread, Azilut!

I played the demo of this game years ago, and then never heard about it again until now, when I finally, finally bought it on sale here. It's truly a Good Old Game.

The only point I'd like to add is that every gang and every researchable item is useful, even the bad ones.

You can invest the time it takes to be able to use the best equipment, but that will only help your highest tech-rated gangs. Even the crummiest lowlifes like the pukes or the bicycle messengers can help you out if you can give them boomboxes or shades or whatever. Similarly, the mid-level gangs can be much more effective if you've researched mid-level tech items.

Learning about the specific strengths and weaknesses of the different gangs is crucial to becoming good at Chaos Overlords. One of my favorites is the Neck-Kickers. They're horrible at everything but Martial Arts, so they're perfect for kamikaze missions to kill enemy gangs.

Dealing with enemy high tech gangs:
No matter how tough your gangs are, once the enemy is throwing similarly equipped gangs at you, you're going to lose some guys. Or are you? Forget using anything in your third slot except for body stabilisers or med kits, except for specialised roles. When faced with a tough enemy gang, simply heal yourself. Let them kill themselves with the counterattack.

Going for the big finish:
Assuming you're on kill 'em all, I like to attack in waves. Send in 2-3 attack gangs to clear out and follow with my control gangs. A lot of high tech level gangs with control/influence stats are rubbish at combat, but easily steal control from the enemy. I find this strategy to be a lot better than using control increasing items on my combat gangs.

There are definitely some researchable items that are better than others. I also try to get medkits and especially body stabilizers ASAP. No high-priced gang should be without one, for the most part.

Another tip for new players: all the shooting weapons count as Ranged, but not every melee weapons counts as Bladed.

If you give a Thunder Mace or a Polearm to a gang with a Blade bonus, you will not get the Blade bonus. Strength, however, gives a bonus to all melee weapons, included Blades. Some gangs - like the Dominatrix Squad - have a Strength bonus, but a penalty to Blades. You should give them a non-Bladed melee weapon. In the case of the Dominatrix Squad that means a whip is the best choice (in case that wasn't obvious).

I know that this formula, which is identical with that from manual, is completely wrong. If you don't believe me then just start a 6 human players game and watch fight's of "RIGHT HANDS". Theirs stats are 1 attack and 1 defence and yet they are still able to deal even 7 dmg (with full FORCE). Please note that formula from manual doesn't take into account FORCE, which I find very important especially in low stat fights like in above case. A low HP RIGHT HANDS (1-2 hp) struggle to deal even 1 point of dmg.

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After thorough testing I'm absolutely sure that combat formula looks like this:
# of dice = FORCE (HP) + COMBAT - DEFENCE
and for counter attack it's the same but damaged is halved and rounded down.