The Face of the Enemy (Destroy this Ship!)

[Mordante]

After all my refit woes, a more amusing puzzle; in the endgame of a pbem (turn 100+) my big rival has expanded massively and built a fleet of giant base ships to oppress the galaxy. His race is no maintenance and can simply keep building.

Mine is crystal-tech, attack advantage, movement advantage (+1)

The bulk of my enemies fleet is likely to be equipped with base-ships like this one;

"Tyrant mk 3"

1xBridge
5xCrew
5XLifeSupport
2x Quantom Engines (+3 move)
1x Solar Sail3 (+3 move)
1x Combat sensors 3 (+65 attack)
1x ECM 3 (+60 defense)
1x Multiplex Tracking 5
1x Stealth armour (cloak and defense bonus)
1x Emergency Propulsion 5
1x Self destruct device
6x Phased Shield Generator 5
5x Point defense Cannon 5
10x Massive Phased Polaron Beams

So, the above monster moves 8(4 in combat) - can take 2250 points of shield damage in combat and deals 2500 points of phased damage at range 6 per combat turn.

The question is, how to defeat a fleet of these vessels with finesse? (inferior odds/improved efficiency) There are likely to be around 150 of them in the main offensive when he comes over the border.

My empire can support a defensive fleet of around 150 similar vessels - but would struggle to put more of the them in the field at any one time.

I have access to all technology and can build at around 6000/6000/6000 resources a turn at my best planets.

So the challenge is to design a defender design that can deal with this ship in detail ... not just winning 1 on 1, but also engagements with inferior numbers ... ideally i'd like to be able to halt the advance of the main 150 strong fleet with half the defending ships to free up my remaining strength to counterattack....

All thoughts appreciated

AndyC

[dogscoff]

A few things spring to mind...

1> Run away and hide=-)

2> A ship with a few massive shield depleters teamed up with half a dozen (ie more than the enemy multiplex) fast, cheap boarding party ships might be able to trigger the self destruct. Of course with 5 crew quarters on the target ship you'll need several boarding parties, but a frigate or corvette might do the trick. Use the simulator to get the right design.

3> mines + intel - use targetted intel to trash the minesweepers and repair ships. You can then use cloakd ships to plant mines in the enemy's path.Remember mines won't even notice all those shields, they'll just get skip straight to that nasty old stealth armour=-)

4> Of course all this is useless if you don't eliminate the resource/ production base which is churning out these monsters...

5> Don't use any advice givn out on this forum, because your enemy is probably reading it too=-)

------------------
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "

[This message has been edited by dogscoff (edited 05 June 2001).]

[Nitram Draw]

PPB's have a short range. Try to build some ships with Wave Motion Guns as stay at max range. Another possibility is Null Space weapons, skips shields and armor.
I'm not real familiar with the crystal weapons but IIRC crystal armor adds to shields so load up on that armor to keep you defenses strong. Fighters could also help espescially heavily shielded fighters with 1-2 weapons. 5 PD's per ship is not that much if you can field 1000's of fighters that require more than 1 hit to destroy.
Good luck man, sounds like you are in for a long fight!

[God Emperor]

What do people think about the utility of Null Space Projectors? (given their reload rate of 3)....

[Nitram Draw]

If you have a speed advantage and can get the first shot in, I think there is nothing better than Null Space weapons. You take out components with every hit.
The reload rate is the only drawback. In tactical it can be overcome but I don't know how well you can use them is strategic.

[Mordante]

1) Nullspace cannons; in my experience they are very solid weapons in the mid game where a heavy mount can actually do serious damage against a lean cruiser design. 3 turn reloads are not a problem when you cripple with the first volley. Also, have you seen the damage resistance of a massive nullspace mount? - 250ish - ironically means that a massive nullspace mount is amongst the best way to soak nullspace or shield-skipping damage.

Negatives; if your ships are slower then you could be screwed by the opponent using max-range strategy and longer weapons. Or perhaps flooding the field with small disposable vessels. Economically, the radiactive costs of mass null-space building is vast - can be a big problem. A nullspace equipped base ship is amongst the most expensive vessel in the game outside of steller manipulation - takes a long time to build and a lot to maintain.

2) mines and selective intelligence hits vs minesweepers; nice combo - any hints as to the best way of knocking down 100,000 pts of counter-intel? (I have 200,000 pts of intel available)

3) Wave cannons - I am dubious about these, the 3 turn reload and massive cost seem a disinincentive - for the space and cost you could mount multiple anti-protons or shard cannons and fire every turn. I suspect that in a big fleet battle the strategic AI will not be able to dance reloading ships out of enemy weapon range so the reload cycle will kill.

4) Suicide borders .... now that i like *grins* appeals to the spirit of heroism of my empire. Couple of shield depleters per border maybe and pack the rest out with troops ... interesting results.

5) Economic war, I have more or less concluded that the only way to fight no-maintenance is to go for a very high direct attrition combat; looking for as many damaging engagements as possible to cause maximum casualties (hopefully his) Hence my quest for a "Tyrant"-killer design.

Thanks for ideas so far, please keep them rolling in.

I will probably write-up the results of this clash of arms as a narrative/combat guide document.

Regards