Strategic Help required!

[Suicide Junkie]

OK. heres the situation.

I control six systems, two of which have planets in them. I have one trinary system I'm hoping to develop, and 3 asteroid systems.

I have no friends in the galaxy, but the two guys I met are at war with each other.
Unfortunately, I have LCs, while everybody else has Dreadnaughts running around in packs of 9+.

Technology:
16k research points available.

-shields level two,
-armor 3,
-planet util is 3 turns from lvl 6,
-weapon destroyers lvl 5.
-DUC lvl 5
-plague bomb 1
-religious 3
-PD 5
-mines & explosives 3
-troops 1
-A Mil Sci 3 (with all ships & fleets in training)
-Base con 2
-ship con 4
-resupply 2
-rock colonies only

Enemy tech:
-Max shields
-Dreadnaught hulls
-Max missiles for Jreanar
-Max crystal (shard Cannon/ High energy magnifier) for Phong.

Map:
I'm in the rightmost corner. Phong are above & to the left, Jreanar are south.
-My planet systems are horizontal in the center of my empire, and there are two dead systems above & below them.
-Two warp points from phong space into my home system on the left, with 540 & 430 mines on them, adding 5 per turn to both.
-Two warp points from phong to the north, with 250 mines each. Adding 14 mines every 5 turns to each.
-one warp point two systems to the south, with 420 mines & a picket ship to stop sweepers. Adding 60 mines every 4 turns.

The phong just declared war & sent 1/5th of their fleet into my home system. That's why the one minefield is depleted by 100 mines

Military:
Maintenance: 7%!
-5 boarding party II escorts.
-one DUC frigate
-7 DUC destroyers.
-6 minelayer destroyers
-7 DUC/Tachyon Light Cruisers.
-2 Repair/Resupply LCs
-4 fully trained (+20%) fleets, two just starting training (+3%), 50% of my ships are just starting training too (the other 50% are done).
In a simulator test, the Phong DN can wipe out one of my LCs each battle turn.
My Battle station design can defeat one phong DN, but is crippled in the process.

How do I survive this?
I'm thinking of getting planet util up to 7, and converting all my moons & planets, but I'm not sure if I can Last long enough. If I get planet creation tech, I'll have two more systems full of planets.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 22 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 24 April 2001).]

[CaptSpoogy]

You're in trouble.

If I were you I would continue to add mines to all my warp points - buy some time.

Convert your planets - build whatever you can! Research point defense; ship construction - build a few point defense cruisers to provide protection to your fleet...

Hope that they continue to attack each other and weaken themselves, until you can challenge them...

Good luck.

[Suicide Junkie]

I've had the minelayers on repeat orders for the Last decade.

PD is at max tech.

Are you suggesting ship construction or planet util? Its pretty much down to one or the other, not both.


And does anybody know how to counter the phong's Shard Cannon & high-energy magnifier?

[Possum]

DUDE!

That sounds like FUN!

[Coal]

The only advise I can give is build a ship with a gavatational condensor and seal off your empire from everyone else. After you build up you empire and spacy, you can open new points deep into the enemy territory and send in large strike fleets. Thats the strategy I ussually use.

------------------
Rules? What Rules?

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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The only advise I can give is build a ship with a gavatational condensor and seal off your empire from everyone else. After you build up you empire and spacy, you can open new points deep into the enemy territory and send in large strike fleets. Thats the strategy I ussually use.

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Well, besides being unfair to the AI, I would need to research that tech, and all I have is astrophsysics 1.

quote:

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DUDE!
That sounds like FUN!

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I've posted the savegame, but it requires Pirates&Nomads V1.3 or higher to work.

[Marty Ward]

You could always try to become a protectorate or subjecate empire. The only thing that will help you is time and you can't research that.

[Suicide Junkie]

It'll take 2 years for me to get the religious talisman & ECM. Arming my ships with the Tachyon cannon Vs I have, could give me a victory.

Or, I could get ship con/ shields, or maybe just swarm with LCs & tachyon cannon.

Or, I could get atmosphere converters in 2.5 years & upgrade all my planets.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 22 April 2001).]

[Marty Ward]

If you have 4-5 years to build atmospheric converters and facilities you probably have time to get 1-2 levels of ship and some better weapons tech and kick a**. A ton of Kamikazi escorts probably wouldn't hurt.

[Suicide Junkie]

Hehe. I have no idea how much time I have left. The phong & jreanar keep throwing DNs at my minefields, but when they do send the minesweepers, 5 of them will defeat my mines (at 105 lost per sweeper)

What I need is a suggestion on how to proceed. Will the AI send the minesweepers quickly, or what? Which of my options gives me the most effect?
Both the jreanar & phong have seen my system, so they could have marked the sector as mined. They have yet to attack my main system's WPs with sweepers, though.