Protecting Planets
 

How do you protect your planets? Weapons Platforms, Satellites?

Re: Protecting Planets
 

Hello,

I am glad you brought up this subject. I have had mixed results with satillites. I am as green as they get when it comes to SE IV. Although I was fairly good at SE III.

In the early part of the game [When I'm still around:-)] I will build sats with missles for an early defence for my colonies. Sometimes they will do quite well against the enemy. Other times it is as if they are not even there [I play Strategic only BTW]

I have no experience with Weapon Platforms as of yet.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

To protect planets, go beyond the planets themselves.

The best defense in my experience is an agressive offense and several layers of defensive measures. Make a few large attack fleets (10-20 ships) and raid enemy targets. Put mines on all the warps to your systems, including between your own systems. Station fighter Groups/satellite Groups over warps along with mines. If enemy ships aren't destroyed by the mines, they probably will be by satellites/fighters. Have fighter Groups on patrol as well, along with a few capital ships. Have a "sensor buoy" satellite in every system (Large sat., 1-comp,1-tachyon_sensor,1-LR_scanner,1-shield,1-ecm). Have satellites in orbit of planets armed with missiles and Point-Defense. Use weapon platforms that are all shields (damage absorbers) and with weapons. Have some fighters on the planet as well, and it would be a good idea to keep some troops too.

Now, with all this, it would take a while to put up all defenses, but they make it a lot more difficult to penetrate into your space. Basically you will want to use standard fleets for defense of outer areas and "automated" defenses for your inner colonies/shipyards.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

Mines are great for early defense - especially for colonies out on your frontier.

Add weapon platforms with PD, seekers and a beam weapon or two.

This will usually help to keep early colonies alive until you can mount a more potent defense

Re: Protecting Planets
 

I don't have much experience to go on yet, but I personally use a mix of Weapon Platforms and Satellites. WPs are bigger than sats at the same tech level, and don't have to be launched after they're built. OTOH, sats can be placed at warp points and don't run into the planetary cargo space limits that WPs do. I like mines, too, but have only used them effectively in one game so far. That same game was the only time I've built fighters, but they never actually saw combat.

(My biggest problem with SE4 is that Malfador keeps releasing patches faster than I can finish games. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gifI've decided not to install Patch 4 and start a new game until I at least find the Last race I haven't made contact with in my current game.)


------------------
Cap'n Q

Re: Protecting Planets
 

I've discovered something about how sats and WPs can work together, quite by accident. The usual way to take out a well-defended planet without losing a lot of ships is to stand-off and fire swarms of missiles until the WPs are destroyed, then you can move in and deal with the sats without being pasted by Massive-mount direct-fire weapons. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif Well, I have modded my config files, and I recently ran into a planet with lots of satellites containing POINT-DEFENCE. This created a problem for my waves of missiles. The range of the PDC was enough to cover the planet no matter which direction I sent the missiles from, but missiles can NOT target satellites! If I went in close enough to target the sats with other weapons, I'd be exposed to the high-powered ground-based weapons with much greater range than my ship-based weapons. In this case, there were not enough PDCs on the sats to completely overcome my missiles, and I eventually destroyed the WPs and closed in to finish off the planet. But if there had been more -- like sats had been deliberately filled with PDC instead of just some added as secondary weapons -- things could have been very different. I think this is the clue to a very powerful defense strategy. Build satellites full of PDC and only a few with standard beam weapons and/or missiles. Put your heavy weapons on the planet and your anti-missile defenses in orbit. If you have the time and resources to build this up it could be a deadly combination.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

Satellites and weapon platforms are deffinitely a must for your major planets, but for major systems the best defense is fighter Groups, huge fighter Groups.

Fighter fleets don't cost much to maintain and can move at decent speeds between planets to meet the enemy fleet wherever it hits your system, especially useful when an opponent is opening new (undefended)warp points into the heart of your empire.

[This message has been edited by Windborne (edited 10 March 2001).]

Re: Protecting Planets
 

hmmm, I use all those assets. Fighters, wp's (some with PD) and sats (some with pd, some missile and some gun, especially PP sats).

Re: Protecting Planets
 

Mines are also a good planet defense. you can build them by the 1000's and only deploy them when needed. They even take up less space than fighters do.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

I never could find a spot in the rulebook that said whether mines exploded only for enemy ships so i've been loath to place them around my planets or warp points I might wish to use.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

windbourne: your mines will not blow up your own ships. so use at warp point and planets but beware that, like staellites, they tend to congrgate in one spot NOT as a "around the planet" field; unless you build a whole bunch.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

I've personally hardly ever use mines or satellites (although I dont usually play above low bonus - played medium a few times).

I rely on WP's equipped with point defence and large/massive mount weapons backed by ships. I try to avoid spending on defensive weapons and buy ships, ships and more ships.
Might change my strategy a bit once the AI can use cloaked ships properly.

I dont use fighters or missiles much because my mod incorporates heavy point defence on the AI ships, which means I have to have a lot to make it worth while.
As a note though, I play tactical combat...

Re: Protecting Planets
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pathfinder:
windbourne: your mines will not blow up your own ships. so use at warp point and planets but beware that, like staellites, they tend to congrgate in one spot NOT as a "around the planet" field; unless you build a whole bunch.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, mines clumping together isn't much of a problem since they don't appear in tactical or strategic combat. They just attack any enemy ship that goes into that sector.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

I use all three for defense.
The only problem with the WP is space. On a domed planet you can only fit a few medium WP before you run out of space and then you can't build any mines or sats. It's quite a juggling act.
I like mines because even if they don't kill the ship they can come into the battle with damage on them. It's nice when they lose all their shields or weapons before the battle starts.
Using all three options lets me reduce my fleet size. In fact I don't think I have ever exceeded 25 combat ships at one time in any game I have played. I always have more support/colony ships than warships.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

The other great thing is that shields don't seem to block mine damage, so if you have an opponent who is shield heavy, this might be your only chance to get some licks in.

Re: Protecting Planets
 

God Emperor: I am currently using the Xi'Chung (no intel) MOD, MOD pack 1.6, patch v 1.27(?). These &*^%$ little bugs are using cloaking to the max. I have to have scanners in a system or ship to see the little *&^%$#@. So the AI does, at least on occaission, use cloaking.

oh yeah and your research mod along with sundevil's politcs/anger mod http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

Re: Protecting Planets
 

Mines do appear in tactical combat if you launch them during tactical combat or if you launch them while the enemy ships are in the same sector as yours and then enter tactical combat with the enemy ships.

note however - the entire enemy fleet will take a pounding - the first time they move just one ship to re-enforce their fleet - into the sector with your mines and ships.

I wont waste too much space puting sensors that detect cloaked ships on a ship - I usually put a single satellite in the system - with sensors to detect cloaked intruders.

This includes sending a ship with my invasion fleet that contains a supply of satellites designed to detect cloaked ships in the systems I am attacking.

Often I will also place a single cloaked satellite with sensors in an unoccupied system to keep an eye out for intruders.


[This message has been edited by AJC (edited 14 March 2001).]

Re: Protecting Planets
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by AJC:
Often I will also place a single cloaked satellite with sensors in an unoccupied system to keep an eye out for intruders.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, I remember this one. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif