Endgame vs Human Empires

[Mordante]

Hi everyone,

The pbem game I am playing in has reached turn 80 and from the initial 16 players, only five are left. All empires are pretty well developed (150-210) tech levels - and the techs of baseship, nullspace, propulsion, phased shields and other bits and pieces are in common ownership. Stella-manipulation is also being widely used.

My problem, - how to even think about winning a decisive space war against an empire with similar technology and simular economic capabilities.

It's a fair guess that an offensive would meet a fleet of around 50-100 dreadnaughts and baseships equipped with massive or heavy nullspace/phased polaron and phase shields.

Win conditions for the game are to have 200% of the closest rivals score so bloodshed is going to be absolutely neccessary.

Options considered;

1. Straight Military - how would everyone fight those baseships most effectively in a war of attrition.

2. Stellor Manipulation Assault - Novas and Black Holes - best strategies for genocidal mania ?

3. Intelligence War - It seems impossible to beat 100,000 pts of intel defence split into 4-5 counterintel 3 projects.

4. Deep Strike via warp openers and fast fleets?

5. Ground Wat?

Basically the problem is in finding a decisive advantage in a tech equal environent.

Of the Last 5 players; Two have organic tech, Two (including me) have crystal tech - and one is playing a zero ship maintenance monstrosity for those limitless build kicks.

My race has + to attack dice, - to defence dice, extra movement and crystalline tech - how would you build ships to take out normal tech baseships from a no-maintenance power?

Big question I realise and probably not a situation which happens against the computer - but it is a top challenge and I would like to hear alternative opinions.

Regards

[Dracus]

create a couple of cheap fleets and a couple of cheap sun destroyers. use one of the fleets to cause a deVersion in one of his weaker systems. Use the other fleet to run a screen for your star destroyers. Enter a system, split your fleet and head for a number of his planets. head your star destroyer to the sun. Send the other one off into another system by it self. Since you are attacking on multi fronts, he will have to route ships to handle it. Most people have their ships grouped and therefore are suprised by a multi front attack. You will have to move quickly. take out the sun(this will cost you a fleet.) If you you know were his homeworld is, that would be the system I would attack.

[Taqwus]

Your best bet might be diplomacy and betrayal -- with five players, it might be possible to forge a 3 on 2 or a 2 on 1, or with a combination of actual Messages and comm mimics to get two players to fight each other. And if somebody allies with you, take full note of any information you get as a result.

At the point you're at, my suspicion is that offense wins in terms of fleet battles. The capability to build self-sufficient (including resupply, repair, sensors and construction, sweeping, stellar manipulation) fleets can move rapidly through the quadrant, ignoring defending fleets if desired. Unless you raised the per-sector minefield limit, you can also bring enough sweepers to neutralize them. If both sides go for offensive fleet warfare, the damage to each other's planets, and hence their economies, may be fairly drastic. The maintenance-free player has a significant advantage in this type of war...

Against normal baseships, given that you have extra speed I wouldn't forsee that much of a problem given that your ships should be able to maintain maximum range, which will mean that your combat bonuses matter more (as will the baseship's defense penalty). Shield depleters + shard cannon + HEM might be a fairly 'normal' crystalline design for fighting at range 7-8. And maximize experience w/ training centers and PDCs (IIRC, you get XP for destroying missiles/fighters).

Incidentally, I'd probably omit cloaking, because your opponents probably use sensors, either on ships or in satellites.



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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Nitram Draw]

You have a very common problem that occurs in games with humans.
Each of you are relatively equal. The player with the maintenance free fleet has a slight advantage, but given your tech levels by turn 80 I assume you all have fairly large empires,
You must change the balance. Alliances, as suggested, are a good way to do this. Try to be the ganger not the gangee! Better yet, try to ally and avoid any large batttles.
You game will eventually hinge on economics. It doesn't matter if you have a maintenance free fleet if you can't replenish your losses. Attack homeworlds and farm colonies for the organic races. Protect your big resource producing colonies. Also, if you can attack planets with shipyards you will slow the flow of reinforcements.
Use intel to steal ships and overthrow colonies. Don't get into a war of attrition as this will just weaken the two of you and leave you ripe for destruction. Try to convince someone else to join you in an attack on the player with the maintenance free fleet. Then try to avoid combat, let the other guy fight.
Another thing that will have a big effect on the outcome of battles is your fleet strategy. Since you are fighting in strategic mode you cannot excercise your tactical genius. I've noticed that against the AI, if the fleet leader is destroyed the AI freezes for a turn. Use a formation that protects your leader. One free turn of fire can turn the battle your way.
Also, build the facilities that prevent star destruction and nebulea formation in your key systems, if you have the tech. Don't let someone take out entire systems at one time. And do it to them if you can
Good luck and let us know how it plays out.

[Taqwus]

A few other notes.

- If you have more warp-point capability with your fleets, close *their* warp points when convenient.

- I'd also suggest connecting the systems of two players who are enemies of both you and each other. Just to encourage them to fight...

- Plague V ships are fairly cheap and need only one hit from moderate range. Given that you have a speed advantage, you may be able to build ships that can infect a planet and survive to infect another. With the sped-up missiles in 1.35, 'tho, this is less likely.

- You may want to consider destroying planets when you glass them. This will slow down recolonization, since they aren't likely to have THAT many planet-builders.

- Ringworlds/sphereworlds protect a star against star destroyers, from what I've read. Stocked with production facilities, they'll also boost your score.

- You can fragment a fleet into many detachments to wipe out all colonies in a system faster, since you may not need the full power of a fleet. OTOH, if you do this, watch for mines.


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Will]

Have a SY in each system devoted to mine production, and have ships to distribute them on all the warps (repeat orders very helpful to automate this).

Also use several Groups of fighters to defend the warps, if the mines are breached (a good idea is to use a temporary fleet, train to 20%, then transfer all the fighters to that fleet, giving them an "unfair" advantage). They are zero maintainance, and very powerful (with or without the v1.35 bug).

Go on the offensive to take out the zero-maintanance player, along with at least one other player. Make a show of throwing yourself into battle, but let him do as much dirty work as possible. Take advantage of your temporary ally's fleets while in enemy territory, there is greater safety in numbers. Engage mainly single ships, use Plage Bombs to slowly destroy unprotected colonies and throw the empire into chaos.

For intelligence, it's likely you won't get many operations through. So focus on Counter-Intel, get each one to about half completion, then hit a single empire with several cheap ops and one major op Last (IE. 5-6 Econ. Disrupt, 1 PPP), make sure all can be completed in one turn. The cheap ops should take care of the enemy Counter-Intel, leaving a greater chance for the major op to succeed, while your saved Counter-Intel projects will protect you.

If possible, use troops to capture Homeworlds. It seriously screws the opposition's happiness, empire-wide, while giving you a nice resource boost.

I would say that many of the Stellar Manip. strategies said here would be useless, as it would take to long to construct the ships, while providing little offensive advantage. The best idea, I would say, is use warp manip strategically. Isolate enemy systems, make several connections between two enemies, and make sure they fight. Don't nuke enemy planets after glassing them. Let the enemy waste resources to recolonize. You have a chance that it will be recolonized and start producing again, and a chance that the colonizer will be picked off by your fleet, effectively tying up a space yard for the time it took to build.

Destroy as many ships as possible, while losing as few ships as possible. Make use of field train/retrofits. Make a Version of your main warship with all PDCs. Build and put in with your normal fleets, and have it take care of all seekers, sats, fighters. Then, when experience is high, retrofit to a warship, the experience is kept.