What do you think is the best weapon at endgame?

[UmberGryphon]

Well, most of us are convinced that capital ship missiles are _the_ weapon in the very early going, and I am convinced that phased-polaron beams are the bomb in the midgame (heck, I often have them so early that I never actually build a CSM ship, if my nearest neighbors are peaceful). But after the computers start getting high-level phased shields, what's the weapon of choice? (Low-level phased shields are so weak that PPBs are still more than enough).

Sometimes I use PPBs all the way through endgame, just because they're small, they do good damage, and they fire every round. Sometimes I use enveloping acid globules (if I'm organic) or graviton hellbores for the extra range. Sometimes I use null-space weapons. But I haven't really gotten to the point that I've settled into a groove. What does everyone else use late in the game when they have enough research points to get anything they want?

[Puke]

I can only use nullspace in early-mid game, even with its shield armor bypas, its fireing delay and short range make it fall far behind other weapons.

IF you have an advanced race technology, the endgame looks much prettier. nothing like a max level aligence subverter or three. maybe a psychic singularity on a dreadnaught mount. Tach Cannons ain't nothing to scoff at either. most organic weapons do best in earl-mid game, but they have some good ones that hold their own in late game.

As for NORMAL weapons, do star-implosion devices count as weapons?

[UmberGryphon]

quote:

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Originally posted by Puke:
As for NORMAL weapons, do star-implosion devices count as weapons?

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Does destroying a star destroy every ship and base in that system? If not, then no, 'cause I don't have problems killing planets. High-level heavy-mount starbases, yes; planets, no.

Besides, I prefer to conquer planets using troops, not glass them (or turn them into finely-ground powder, for that matter).

I'll look into psionic/temporal endgame weapons in my next couple of games. I'm not a big fan of allegiance subverters, though, mostly because I don't really WANT the opponent's ships. ;-)

[MoonDragn]

I used capital ship missiles in the beginning but I hated the delay on them. I really prefer the PPBs and I pretty much use them for all my ships. I met a race that had these really nasty weapons that did a godly amount of damage that went through my level 5 phased shields in no time. I had to rethink my strategy. I put 20 plasma missiles on a dreadnaught with 2 dreadnaughts filled with PPBs. I went to his home planet and met up with 2 starbases with those nasty weapons. With my plasma missiles I was able to stay just out of range and blow it up. Any ship that got remotely close to me got wiped out by the PPBs. For some reason this race only had cruisers at this point so I never found out if he could have beaten me with a bigger ship.
PPBs are really nasty with experienced ships. Seems all the AI ships have heavy shields and light armor.

[Nyx]

I tend to go for a couple heavy tachyon beams to rip apart enemy guns, and then nullspace weapons to rip apart thier ship. Slow reloads, but I can ignore even phased shields AND armor. The reduced damage and range is worth it, because late game I tend to have ships moving 6 in combat and I can get in close as needed, and I only need to get in once before he's unable to fire back with any significant effect.

I prefer to fight by blowing up stars and ripping planets into asteroids. I don't believe in allowing the enemy to reclaim territory and in the late game I get no advantage from taking his turf.

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[MoonDragn]

Well this new game I had researched all the technology, All the other races had pretty much advanced too so I have new Favorites... The Energy dampner combined with time distortion bursts and shard cannons. It stops them from firing, then takes out their shields to let the shard cannons go through their armor. I had these on my dreadnaughts. On my base ships I had 3 Massive projection cannons, 4 large nullspace projectors, and 5 ionic pulse missiles, it pretty much stopped them if they stayed too far, or disabled them if they get too close, either way it was nasty. Plus I had 2 fighter bays with heavy fighters with small time distortion burst weapons. I could usually take out the enemy organic tech race one base ship against 3 of their dreadnaughts with full technology. I also had a battleship with 4 time distortion bursts, 1 shield accelerator that ate through their shields fast then took them over with boarding parties. It was highly effective against their dreadnaughts as I captured a bunch of their ships for my forces. Looks like alot of different end game strategies there to be had with a bit of imagination.