The Talisman

[TurinTurambar]

Now that I'm in a high-stakes PBW game where someone is actually "playing the Talisman card," I'm inclined to agree with some others that it is an inordinately powerful tool. A little too powerful for the little expenditure it takes to obtain it.

So now that it's out there, and it's coming, what in the world (er... Galaxy...) do you do to counter it? Is ECM III even going to help me?

Turin[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon42.gif[/img]

[Arkcon]

TurinTurambar said:
"Is ECM III even going to help me?"

No. And keeping your ship at long range only gives you the distance penalty. Amass fleets that are larger than his, set strategy to short range or point blank, and hit them hard (most powerful weapons, not longest range or balanced resource cost).

Try to get the rest of the players to turn against him with an "its Us vs Them" mentality. And try to hit his planets that are sources of income to pay maintenance.

[Nodachi]

Here's one I use against the talisman. Include in your fleet ships that have nothing but shields and a short ranged weapon. The default strategies tend to target ships with the most hit points so while he is wasting his shots against those ships you're able to slip ships in to do damage to him. You'd be surprised how much havok you can create by using those shield ships along with small ships toting an NSP.

One rule I play by when facing off against a religious race is that my ships are disposable.

[spoon]

Arkcon said:

Try to get the rest of the players to turn against him with an "its Us vs Them" mentality.

This is your best bet. Failing that, there's not much to do if you can't out-produce him.

If you can get just one other player to help you, you can "double up" on a minefield (each player lays 100 mines in the same sector). Then when is uber-fleet runs into it (there's always an uber fleet!), counterattack. That trick will work once. And is a questionable tactic in some groups, so you might want to clear it with the game owner if you aren't sure.

[Colonel]

Easy soultion sends lots of small weak ships against it then just basically swarm.

[TurinTurambar]

So the New Alliance is pretty much screwed. LOL!

It's 4 empires against three, and the one with the Talisman has almost as many ships himself as any two of ours.

Oh well, there's a lot of RP going on and it's fun anyway!

Turin[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon42.gif[/img]

[Zereth]

Maybe you can get around this. Is it possible to attack, not the ships, but the system they're in? I think making their suns into black holes would work rather well, if you can afford it.

[douglas]

There is nothing that can counter the Talisman. Sufficiently superior numbers will work, but that's true in any situation and the required ratio of your ships to his is considerably higher than in any situation that does not involve extreme tech/racial combat bonuses superiority. If intel is allowed and you have enough of it, you could try crew insurrecting his ships, but that probably won't work without several allies helping you wear down his counter-intel.

[douglas]

Well, yes that works - if you can afford it and they don't have system gravitational shield facilities, and you can get the ship in position safely.

[TurinTurambar]

Well, the problem is, we're on our heels and trying to buy time. When it gets gritty, it'll be in our systems. It's only turn 47, so Stellar Manip is new and building a Star Destroyer takes 15-20 turns after you achieve the technology. The Evil Axis will be smacking us around in 10 turns or less by my calculations and spying, and him tipping his hand intentions-wise.

Oh and speaking of that there's no intel in this one.

If they let us live, we'll cloak and bring it to them. If it comes to us as soon as I think it will... well...

We're toast.

Turin[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon42.gif[/img]