Fight Dirty?

Pooka · #1 May 19th, 2003, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krsqk:
Well, any update on how the game's going? It would be nice to see if all our advice worked.

Well, not to go into too much details, since I know atleast one of Hippo's roomates found this forum (he's trustworthy though, I doubt he's spilling anything.) But I'm still marching up the psychic weapons path, waiting to find Alleigance subverter.I've got the TK projector and make-you-shoot-slower-ray but no AS yet. The first wave of 10 sweeper ships is ready, but will they get to sweep for mines before they are destroyed utterly by the enemy's fighters? The cloaked shipyard BC is ready to go as soon as I'm sure there aren't any more mines. In fact, I have an entire cloaked strike fleet ready to slip through and start making havoc in his rear quarter.

Two of his "allies" are getting nervous now after I managed to com-mimic him into war with one of them. I then took advantage of the fact that he missed his turn to convince them that he's using missing his turns as an excuse to have the comp declare war for him. (That way he can always try to take it back later.) They ate that up, hook-line-and-sinker. The war didn't materialize but the damage to their confidence has been done, and they're talking to me a lot more now.

He's got something headed my way, it'll be arrived by mid next week. I don't know what it is, but 30+ dreads remain a possibility. I've got intel projects ready to roll, and am poised to consume as much of that fleet as I can before it hits my blockade. My fleet training centers have just about finished maxing out my ships/fleets to the best of their ability.

Things are progressing well, basically. I just neet to have the time to let these plans develop to fruition.

Loser · #2 May 20th, 2003, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pooka:
Two of his "allies" are getting nervous now after I managed to com-mimic him into war with one of them. I then took advantage of the fact that he missed his turn to convince them that he's using missing his turns as an excuse to have the comp declare war for him. (That way he can always try to take it back later.) They ate that up, hook-line-and-sinker. The war didn't materialize but the damage to their confidence has been done, and they're talking to me a lot more now.

Well. Well, it sounds like you have the 'dirty' part pretty well down...

Everything that deals with mines already spaced happens before anything else. When you send those sweepers though, they _will_ clear the mines (and get hit by them if there are any mines left) before they engage in combat with the enemy. Remember to set them to RAM (set the whole class to Ram) so they do some damage before they're slaughtered.

Then send your troublemakers through the very next turn.... Maybe you should only send on through, at first, just in case he has Sensor Satellites somewhere. It would be good to know before you send the whole fleet through.

Pooka · #3 May 23rd, 2003, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Everything that deals with mines already spaced happens before anything else. When you send those sweepers though, they _will_ clear the mines (and get hit by them if there are any mines left) before they engage in combat with the enemy. Remember to set them to RAM (set the whole class to Ram) so they do some damage before they're slaughtered.

Then send your troublemakers through the very next turn.... Maybe you should only send on through, at first, just in case he has Sensor Satellites somewhere. It would be good to know before you send the whole fleet through.

Well, since this just cost me my fleet, it should be noted that sweepers get to sweep /after/ combat occurrs. I've been stealing his minesweepers and they just get shot by his fleet. Since every other ship I had ever claimed had only been attacked by a fleet, never a minefield, (infact I didn't even know what the 'struck a minefield' dialog looked like.) I figured he hadn't deployed his mines yet. (I found ship after ship with mine layers, but with it's full compliment of mines on board, etc. I figured he'd forgotten to deploy them.)

Lost my entire fleet to his minefield. Fortunately he's bored and likely done with the game now, but still, there needs to be a series of documents on how to use minesweepers, specifically on blockaded warp points. Otherwise it looks like it's just a matter of an invincible defense winning the game.

jimbob · #4 May 23rd, 2003, 06:54 PM

Sorry your fleet was destroyed

I'm interested to know exactly what happened. Are you certain that the mine sweepers went in first? Movement of ships occurs by day... that is to say, if you have a sweeper fleet with a movement rate of 10, the fleet will move one sector on day 3, then one more on day 6, 9, etc. If the other fleet (say your battle fleet) has a faster movement rate, lets say of speed 15, then it will move one movement point every second day.

It may not have been apparent to you, but unfortunately this means that the battle fleet will warp through the warp point before the sweeper fleet = mine detonation!

Now, did your battle fleet have a higher movement rate than the sweeper fleet? Or maybe the battle fleet was closer to the warp point than the sweeper fleet? I'm pretty sure that the sweepers would have done their job before combat was enjoined if they had warped through ahead of the battle fleet... this is why I always put the sweepers in with the battle fleet... sorry I didn't tell you this before.

Lastly, regarding his miner having mines on board still. I'm willing to bet money to donuts that he had put out his maximum complement of mines already, and those onboard mines were surplus. Once you went through and swept the mine field, he would be ready to erect and instant minefield again. If he was smart, he was sending "deploy mines" orders every turn, so that if you came through and destroyed a few mines, he wouldn't have to wait a turn before deploying replacements!

[ May 23, 2003, 17:56: Message edited by: jimbob ]

Loser · #5 May 23rd, 2003, 07:02 PM

Did you send in minesweepers or just send in your fleet because you didn't think there were any mines?

The mine sweepers you stole from him wouldn't sweep mines because they were already in the sector. Mine sweepers automatically sweep mines when they move into a sector, but if they are in a sector with mines in it, you have to use that little sweep button. Of course, you wouldn't get a chance to push this button when there are enemy ships in the same sector.

Ruatha · #6 May 23rd, 2003, 07:14 PM

Use the ship movement replay button to see which ships went in in which order, then report back!.
Now, dismissed, carry out your orders Private Pooka.

Pooka · #7 May 23rd, 2003, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Loser:
Did you send in minesweepers or just send in your fleet because you didn't think there were any mines?

The mine sweepers you stole from him wouldn't sweep mines because they were already in the sector. Mine sweepers automatically sweep mines when they move into a sector, but if they are in a sector with mines in it, you have to use that little sweep button. Of course, you wouldn't get a chance to push this button when there are enemy ships in the same sector.

This was the problem. I figured minesweepers swept mines. My sweeper fleet never even got deployed. I held them back because I figured, why send my minesweepers, when I can just use his?

The documentation, as I have said, is very poor on this subject. Regardless, I have a minefield of my own, plethora of fighters, and collection of starbases. I also didn't send my cloaking SY through, so I still have that. I'll set it to building some other stuff while I rebuild a fleet. Very frustrating lesson, though.