Getting it handed to me by the AI :(

[Arakiel]

So normally the AI isn't much of a challenge, and truth be told it isn't playing very smart now either however...

I can't hit his ships
It's a custome race that I built around the idea of xenophobic religous fanatics and whenever we meet in battle, which has been often, they totally destroy me. At first it was from him having the Talisman and a 125% Defense characteristic. That combo took out a fleet of 50 of my battleships and battle cruisers with maybe 10 smaller ships of his... disheartening to say the least. The addition of better scanners and more shields/armor to my new ships has improved the situation greatly but the one thing that the AI is doing smartly is the use of engine damaging weapons. Nearly everyone of his combat ships has 2 of these and they are crippiling my ships so fast that my repair boats can't keep up.

Anyone have any good strategies for dealing with engine damagers? Apparently shields don't apply and it seems like they skip armor as well?

[douglas]

Are you sure you're patched up to 1.91? Engine damaging weapons were changed to not skip shields back in 1.78.

[Karibu]

In stock game with gold patch 4, engine destroying weapons do not go through shields. IIRC some pre gold (was it Version 1.47?) Version had this problem. Against engine destroying weapons I suggest you develope quantum reactor. It provides supply when your engines are destroyed in combat (at least it works on simulator, I am not sure how it goes in simultaneous game in PBW).

Also you can start using same weapon, use wormhole beam and computer virus to avoid their ships and make them less maneuverable. There is not any one solution to fight against that.

[Aiken]

Make sure to add at least 1 supply bay to each of your ships. Then they'll be able to shoot back even without engines (which store supplies in stock).

[Alneyan]

You should put Supply Storages on your vessels, especially if you do not have enough shields to soak up the engine depleting attacks. Losing all your engines will destroy their supply storage, and you cannot fire anything (including PDC) if you do not have any supply storage, even with the Quantum Reactor (an unlimited zero still gives zero for the game).

Units may be another solution to take care of this matter, especially if they are lacking in weapons able to target units. A combined force of warships and fighters might do the trick if they reach the enemy ships nearly at the same time; you will take casualties, but hopefully your fodder should Last long enough to win the day.

[Timstone]

Just build a star destroying ship and wipe out the biggest hotspots. A costly strategy, but very rewarding. If I really hate an AI opponent (Like the EEE), I always try to build one and nuke his homesystem. A lot of bang for your buck!

[Arakiel]

The new ships all have quantum reactors, problem seems to be the lack of maneuverability makes them sitting ducks. Without getting down his throat I have horrible hit % due to his high defense characteristic. Conversly he has the Talisman so he always hits no matter what. So he can just hover on the outside of my immobile ships and pound me.
Don't get me wrong, i'm still winning, it's just alot slower and more expensive then it should be all things considered. Overall it makes me happy that a generic AI race I designed is doing so well

[Arakiel]

LOL Timestone - I just did that in a previous game. I closed all WP into my territory and only opened new ones when and where I wanted to send my stellar nuke in. It was expensive to run but kind of funny to watch the AI be totally helpless. I think after about 25 systems he was effectivly done in.

The Ai just doesnt seem capable of handling opening WP into your systems because even though he had the tech (I assume he did anyway since he out-teched me and was building planets) he never once opened a new portal into my core systems. If he had I would have been screwed because I had gotten lazy and had all my forces in one spot on the front line.

[Timstone]

Ouch, 25 systems! My goodness!
Now that's a warmachine. I don't like the super long games, I tend to finish games in about 200 turns. Any more then that and I get very bored and overwhelmd by the huge amount of planets and ships to look after. I like small, fast games so I almost never get to the making of a star destroying ship.

[Aiken]

Arakiel, I have an impression that your ships are not trained at all. As well as your fleets. Aren't they?