How do I blockade?.
 

Twice now I have tried to start a blockade and both times it has failed. The first time I told the fleet not to get hurt, that way they would stay at the edge of combat and not attack the planet only destroying ships etc that came after them. They ended glassing the planet because there were no defenses to threaten them. Next I told them not to attack planets but still they did it. How can I tell them just to stay away from the planet while blockading it?.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

I believe you have to change the ship streategies, not just the fleet strategy. This could be a problem though because changing ship streategies affects every ship of that class everywhere in your empire.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

If the enemy has no units/ships/bases in space at the planet and your whole fleet is equipped with stealth armor, you can park the cloaked fleet over the planet without combat occuring, and if the enemy player can detect the fleet the planet will be blockaded.

Theoretically, fleet strategy is supposed to override ship strategy if the fleet's strategy is set to not break formation. This is a very bad idea if you plan on actually fighting a serious battle, however, and only works for the first combat turn with "don't get hurt" in my experience.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

Just use cloaking devices. While cloaked, park your fleet above the enemy planet, then decloak. Without a fight, you'll have a blockade. Or, you could use a SYS with no weapons at all and move it to a defenseless planet, then build a single sat or something else that's done in 1 turn, move the SYS away and voila, a blockade.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

I'm pretty sure that units like satellites and fighters can't blockade a planet. Have you tested this method?

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

Mine can't, I'm sure. For the other unit I think they can, but I may be wrong

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

To be honest, no, but I am 98% sure that the first method will work. OR, alternate version of second method, design a dirt cheap Space Station with just the B/LS/CQ comps and just enough armor to still let it have 1 turn construction time on your best ship SY, the build it in orbit. It won't be of any use if the enemy counterattacks, but it will be a blockader. Also, you could make this dirt cheap station then retrofit it a couple of times to produce a powerful battle station with built-in repairbay and have it operational in less time than it would have taken to build the thing from scratch.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

If your fleet has the strategy "don't get hurt" and no ships are set to break formation it should work, at least I used this with success. Ship strategy is effective as soon the formation is broken.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

I would block it with a transport set to "Don't Get Hurt". It works with a Minesweeper or colony ship as well.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

As previously mentioned, if you set a ship's (not fleet, but ship) strategy to "Don't get hurt", it will "run for the corners" instead of approaching enemy ships, planets or units. Certain Design Types have this as a default, so unless you have modified that strategy, an uncloaked mine sweeper or a colony ship will blockade a planet quite nicely, until there are some defending drones, fighters or ships.

Even on “Don’t get hurt”, your ships with guns will defend themselves if an enemy ship or unit moves within its weapon range (Try it out in the simulator to see) if attacked, but will still run to the corners and leave the blockaded planet alone. The obvious disadvantage would be if the enemy defenders have longer ranged weapons than your ship (Missiles anyone?).

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

I didn't do too good a job, but I was enphasizing the fact that you should use a ship with no weapons (or only PD and Shield Depleters and Boarding parties) Setting it to DNGH will keep it out of range of most planetary weapons. Setting a ship with weapons to DNGH can still cause the planet to be glassed. The ships could start in range of the planet. It will still fire if it can even while running.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

Why would you want to? Just drop some troops and take the planet.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

True, but there are the occasions when the attack ships arrive without troops and you don't want to glass the planet.

Sometimes in the very early game, especially if "Empires allowed to start in the same sector" is on, one may want to blockade a nearby enemy planet before you have researched troops. Having a pool of slav..., volunteers that breathe another atmosphere is a great bonus to your burgeoning empire and may be worth tying down a ship for a few turns while waiting for the Imperial Guard to arrive.

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

You can also set the ships to not target planets. Probably want to tell them to not target any seekers too. They may still do so though if something else results in them being in range.

But that can let you blockade with warships that can still engage ships normally.

BTW this can be really useful in Proportions mod. Often it may be very hard to defeat an alien homeworld, but blockading it and getting it to riot can be much easier.

PvK

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

Funny, I was just thinking about this today.

• single, unarmed ships can always blockade. In fact you could build a batch of stripped down escorts just for blockades. They are, of course, vulnerable to enemy ships and fighters.
• "Do not fire on planets" has never worked for me.
• Fleet strategy of "Don't get hurt" doesn't help either. Armed ships will attack the planet anyway, unless...

Create a strategy called "Blockade"

• Set movement to "Don't get hurt" and "Don't get hurt".
• Set formations so all ships stay in formation!
• All other setting are up to you.

Create a fleet

• Add at least one completely unarmed ship. Even PD can cause a problem if it finds targets.
• Set the unarmed ship as the leader!
• Apply the blockade strategy to the fleet
• Note: Outlying ships in large fleets may well be in range of the planet. Keep your fleet small.

When your unarmed leader sees that nasty ol' planet it turns tail and runs, dragging the rest of the fleet with it. If the fleet is attacked, the armed ships will still defend.

Again the key items:

• Dont get hurt time 2
• All ships stay in formation
• Unarmed leader

Re: How do I blockade?.
 

Hmm, last time I tried, setting planets and seekers to "don't fire" did work. I also thought formations on unarmed ships or with "don't get hurt" did not work, because I thought both would cause formations to break.

PvK