The Face of the Enemy (Destroy this Ship!)

[Phoenix-D]

Note on missiles and WMGs:

When I've been fighting the AI recently, I noticed them doing the infamous "missile dance" to my planet- i.e. they were FLEEING from the enemy while waiting for a recharge, then coming back to fire again.

Something to think on.

Oh, and bomb his main contstruction worlds, steal resources via intel.. etc. Remember that with plague bombs and smart bombs you don't have to hit more than once- and knocking out a spaceport in a system HURTS, if only until it can be rebuilt.

EDIT: BTW, if at all possible use Black Hole or Nebula bLasts on his stars. While the standard SD can't be blocked, it leaves behind remenats of planets that can be rebuilt. The black hole, when disappated.. leaves a blank space. They have to reignite the star, and no planets at all!

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 06 June 2001).]

[Q]

Your enemy has ships with PPB each giving a damage of 250kT, isn't it? You have crystalline technology with crystalline armor III each reflecting 15kT damage to your shields. So if you build ships with at least 17 crytalline armors, which certainly is possible with baseships you can't be hurt by his weapons. Use yourself either shield depleting weapons plus any potent normal weapon or nullspace weapon. Of course he soon will change his ship design and use other weapons, which will penetrate your crystalline armor, but you will get time, which you can use to destroy his colonies.

[Mordante]

Regarding;

"crystalline armour and massive guns" - the problem is that the armour doesn't pump the shields until it is damaged (assuming it survives the damage) and since the massive phased polarons are doing 250+ the armour belt is mostly destroyed at the first volley rendering later shield augmentation mimimal. I have seen crystalline armour clad ships work well against low damage organic cannons but not against massive endgame damage.

"hit and runs with starbase smart bombs and plague warheads" - is there any way to effectively program a ship to hit the planet in combat-mode once and then withdraw for a continued strategic move? Since the ship only needs one pass it's survival chances would be greatly enhanced by getting out of close proximity fast once it's paylaod strikes.

[Cyrus]

One thing you can do to make the Engine Destroying weapons useful is put them on a smaller hull, like a destroyer. That gets a +25 to defense, put on stealth and scattering armor +30 to defense, put on ECM 3 +60 to defense, train the ship and fleet to max before using them +40 to defense. I haven't used engine destroying weapons with this strategy, but I've used PPB's at max range succesfully against battleship and dreadnought sized ships. They ended up having something like a 1% chance to hit even with a combat sensor.

[Mordante]

"engine destroyers/small hulls" - I can see the advantages - but i do wonder about their ability to avoid all hits in a target rich environment. Unfortunately my racial traits produce an additional -20% defence bonus so my vessels will not be very good at dodging. That said, I am beginning to see the advantages of sticking 1 engine-killing cannon on everything ... even if i lose the engagement it will stop the fleet moving on.

PS. to anyone interested in the political situation of this game have a look at the "face of the enemy" - narrative thread elsewhere ...

[Taqwus]

Of course, whether or not engine-killers are a good idea also depends on his degree of support (namely, repair ships -- and possibly resupply? I don't recall what happens to supply with a destroyed engine), and how much damage you can inflict before the fleet is repaired. If you can't take advantage of the (quite possibly temporary) immobilization / slowing down, engine-killers won't be a good idea.

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[rdouglass]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Taqwus:
...I don't recall what happens to supply with a destroyed engine), and how much damage you can inflict before the fleet is repaired...

---

IIRC, a repaired engine (after being a destroyed component) gets no supply directly unless of course you have a QR or Solar Collectors or are at a planet with a Resupply Depot. Also IIRC, a ship / fleet will be repaired as long as it is in the same sector as a SY or RepairBay and has at least 1 component left intact. The rate of repair depends on SY's and RB's levels and numbers of them (they do stack).