Defeating the Talisman

[Zanthis]

With 80 DN, avoid most traffic issues by making half of them into missile ships. 40 DN can throw a ton of missiles. PDC will not be able to stop fire concentrated on 8 ships at one edge of his group. Use the other 40 as beam ships, focusing on closer ranged weapons. He must close to beam range of your missile ships or he will die. Your beam ships are there to get in his way. Shield regen comp. and rotating your front line of beam ships will keep him from sitting out of range of your ships and picking them off. Not to mention your missile ships will be steadily killing him off.

Beam ships: try PPB (even though he has phased, they still deal better damage with slightly less range). Ripper beam is good in close. Yeah, its only range 3, but you can make him get that close. On top of that, using shield depleters can help if he is too strongly shielded. Say one per ship. Also, consider Ionic disperser to kill engines. Keep your fleet moving and as you kill engines off. Leave those crippled ships to be picked off with missile fire later, possibly even in a different battle (not like they're going anywhere in the system with no engines).

If you have to fight in strategic mode, it gets more annoying. But it is certainly doable.

[Skulky]

While people may say that in the end game the missile ship is dead i totally disagree, a mix organic/standard missile baseship can be produced in 3 turns, as opposed to 1 year or more for a conventional baseship. each can throw about 20 missiles every other turn and another 8 every three turns. if you line up 10 or 15 of these no PDC will stop you, and if someone does build enough PDC to stop that you should just switch back to other designs.

Don't bother with fighters when fighting the Talisman, they will die fast as any ECM/to hit modifiers are wasted.

Drones in gold may be a useful strategy. When playing a talisman you can't out mass 2 or 3:1 with raw KT and firepower then try to pick your battles and draw him out, (then lay mines behind him while you head straight for his home worlds). Try fitting destroyers with plauge bombs and a little armor then sending one at EACH of his planets (lvl 5 will kill ppl real fast). how about luring him into a system of yours and then blow the star? also, get allies against him! BUT WHATEVER YOU DO, AND I HOPE Undertakr tells his friend this, DONT'T QUIT, that is weak and you don't learn anything (i know its been said before but im get so pissed at ppl like that, it ruins the game to a degree as well)

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keep fighting and if all else fails take religious too

[Gozra]

In the hands of an expert the talisman can be devestating. But there are many tactics and ship designs that can overcome the Talisman. Build Fighter escorts for the missiles. Classic Guerillia warfare Strike where the enemy is weak retreat where the enemy is strong. And most of all if the Talisman Empire is trying to fight 2-4 other empires all at once I seriously doubt the Talisman can save him.
A well prepared warp defense point can also take the stuffing out of a Talisman fleet. Since both fleets start at point blank range. And I must point out that Combined arms( I have yet to try it) would probably win the day Missile Boats, Fighters, Drones, Beam Barges, And good ole dreadnoughts can probably go head to head with a Talisman fleet. At least that is what my Navel stratgist tell me.

[Grandpa Kim]

In the hands of an expert the talisman can be devestating.

Okay, on your honor.... NOBODY tell Askan about the talisman!

[bearclaw]

I once was in a game against a Talisman player and found a pretty good way of dealing with him. As Geo said, I was able to take some extra risks because our first few battles were decicive in his favor so I wasn't risking much. More like a fighting retreat...

The key in my experiance was that he was using Null Space, Mesons, and some Plasma Torps. I used APB 12's. I designed my ships to maximize their chances to hit and gave them the Max Range/Don't Get Hurt stratagy. I then made some LC and BC's that were just Engine Killers, heavily shielded and as fast as possible. I gave them Point Blank/Don't Get Hurt stratagey. They would fly in, knock out enough engines before either getting turned to scrap or getting away. Then my BB's and DN's would sit out of range of all but his missles and pound on them. I included 2 PDC on each of my bigger ships which were enough at range to eliminate nearly all the missles. And those that did get through didn't penetrate my shields.

Worked great but only because he relied on shorter ranged weapons. BTW, if my engine killers didn't do their job, or weren't present, I either got a beating or we statemated.

So not the best tactic but it kept me from lossing too fast

[Zanthis]

Just remember the talismon means he is putting beam weapons on his ship, and typically a fair number of them. Any fleet with a single method of attack is vulnerable to an enemy specifically defending against it.

Think to yourself: How do I kill a ship that is exactly the same speed as me, has a range of only eight, and will kick my butt if I get into that range.

[Rollo]

Originally posted by Zanthis:
...Think to yourself: How do I kill a ship that is exactly the same speed as me, has a range of only eight, and will kick my butt if I get into that range.

Hmm, dunno. Might as well quit.

Rollo