quote:
Originally posted by CyC:
The strategy is the blizt blizt situation
Techniques of protecting yourself against WormHoles
1. get WormHole tech first and use it on them.
2. Use diplomatic threats and negotiations if multiple empires have Worm Hole tech get a truce saying that if an empire uses a Blitz tactic everyone else will Blitz them.
3. Keep multiple blitz stations yourself and keep them on the move, If someone tries to blitz you, You Blitz them back both where they come in and esecially where they came from since they would of sent most there defence to blitz you.
4. In ultra important system (You should never have ultra important systems) place mines and storms in every sector around the edges of your systems in the directions of your enemies.(Worm holes always apear around the edges of your system)
5. Massive amount of fighter and Planetary Bases in every system (this is really a Last resort and never works).
6. Keep all your ships togeather and moving and keep a Worm Hole creation ship (biggest posible) with your vessels at all times so you can be anywhere in a moments notice. Never Put a few ships at each planet ships are valuable yet useless by them selves.
1) If you are playing in a 20 player game (something I prefer) than a huge chunk of the game is nothing more than a race for a single critical technology and then what? Declare war on everybody? The fact that a single tech is this critical clearly indicates a game balance problem.
2) This is possible. Something like the biological warfare / atrocity diplomatic concept. War has always been considered (rightly) as an extension of a nation's diplomacy. Historically, there have been attempts made to regulate the uncontrolled use of force for military purposes. What you are proposing is a variety of Geneva Convention on the use of Warp Point technology. This works as long as no one empire is significantly stronger than any other. Once a few empires get strong enough someone always gets impatient, blitzes massively, disabling several rivals quickly, then forces peace back down the other's throats. The others generally go the way of appeasement for fear of this happening to them and their neighbor's not having the balls to stand up and defend them as per the original accord.
In other words, this solution looks good on paper, but if the weapon is there to be used then eventually it will be.
3) This is not so much a strategy as it is a reaction. Mutual anihilation is certainly an option (though I wouldn't want to be a citizen in these empires), but it still does not prevent the WP first strike, nor does it render it any less of a massively destabilizing, must-have technology.
4) All strategies dealing with the placement of mines in order to combat the WP first strike capability are doomed to complete and utter failure simply because any human-led empire that has the technology to open warp points and send in a Blitzkreig fleet of significant size is going to be certain to have their fleet accompanied by a mine sweeper ship carrying enough mine sweepers to clean 100 mines from any given sector per turn (I usually go for 110 just in case as sometimes I have seen a few more that 100 per sector... this is slightly bugged but that is another thread...). This is not a viable defense strategy, rather it is an ultimately futile attempt to get around this badly implemented, strategy-nullifying feature.
Why strategy-nullifying? Because, as I said earlier, where no reasonable defensive preparation is possible, then no defensive strategy is possible. One can do nothing but "plan" to react after the fact.
5) As Cyc points out himself, this never works in practice.
6) This renders you capable of reaction, solely. See my response to point 3.
Please understand what I am arguing for and why. I am greatly in favour of surprise attacks. ALL thoughtfully prepared attacks ought to come as a surprise to the enemy. Moreover, Blitzkreig tactics are naturally a good idea, as once you commit to attacking someone you are more vulnerable to attack yourself. Waging a "lightning war" is, therefore, the best way to avoid war on multiple fronts.
My objection has been (and remains) that this technology should be altered so that the kind of preparation illustrated in CyC's 6th point could be effective as a defense strategy (I employ it myself) and not merely as a means of taking vengeance.
I think, the best solution to how WP technology could be rebalanced remains the instability delay I put forward in my original post, or CW's well thought out variation on that (see his post a few notches down).
[This message has been edited by Magus38 (edited 06 September 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Magus38 (edited 06 September 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Magus38 (edited 06 September 2001).]