The Face of the Enemy (Destroy this Ship!)

[Mordante]

Some good ideas and interesting points everyone;

1)choice of battlefields/choke points – not an option I fear, I already have 3 maximum range (500ly) renewable (ie. Onboard repair) warp point constructors myself (each tied to a fleet) and I expect a similar capacity from my enemy. From my front line I can target his rear territory and I expect a similar advance from him when the time comes. Thus choke point defence (mines/satellites etc) will be irrelevant since the warp points will be newly placed. I can see able practical way to force the battle in nebulas either.

2)“attrition tactics” – although my opponent has no-maintenance advantage, my resource income is approximately twice his and my planetary shipyards outnumber his by over a hundred (we have 200 space bases each). If both fleets were annihilated I believe I could replace mine faster.

3)“wave motion gun” – I didn’t know it had +30% to hit, interesting but it does depend on the launching vessel getting out of range effectively during recharge.

4)“fighter combination attacks” – fighters to draw the big guns, yes, I could see that working – until he orders standard base ship designs to ignore them and lets the custom pdc’s engage the skirmishers! But a battle could be won that way I think.

5)“Sun-destroying” – I have several sun-destroyer craft on standby in potential target systems of mine – what worries me about their offensive capabilities is the fact that a) they need to start the turn above the target start, and b) does the detonation occur immediately in the simultaneous turn sequence or at the end of movement and combat?

6)“cloaking” – rendered impotent by high level sensor nets – all my systems have sensor satellites capable of detecting the maximum cloak available in the game. (no psychic or temporal players left alive) I expect the same of my enemy…

7)“engine-killing beam” – I think they max out at range six, I can certainly rush the base ships and burn engines on individual ships in the enemy fleet but at the cost of the engine-killer hull’s existence by massive retaliation at range six from polaron beams.

8)“enemy supply strategy” – not sure, I imagine he will add one or two quantum reactor equipped ships to the grand fleet to replenish everything. (all of my ships have quantum reactors so no supply hassles for me)

9)“Manoeuvre with 300 ships!” – not sure what will happen, even the combat simulator on strategic takes a long time to do a battle of that size … interesting to see his fleet lumber around immobile hulks though …

10) “guerrilla tactics with wolf-packs” – I was think of doing this with range eight cannon cruisers to pick off lone colonies and support craft …

kind regards all, i will certainly let people know what happens ....

[DirectorTsaarx]

Put the minefields around your planets if your opponent has warp-point generators. He has to come after your colonies sometime, and like others have said, mines ignore shields. As for engine-destroying weapons, build a couple (large) ships with lots of the engine-destroying missiles. Overwhelm the PDC (and maybe add some fighters, just for flavor, and to keep more PDC busy). And, of course, load up on armor (or phased shields) so the Phased-Polaron Beams are less scary. I'm up against an AI that uses PPB's and got used to staying out of range (I only had standard shields on the ships in that region), and in one battle (tactical, not strategic) thought I was in trouble when I failed to stay out of range. Then, as I watched the enemy fire, I realized I had finally gotten ships with phased shields deployed... what a relief...

[Vger]

Hi,

I find your dilemma fascinating. I'm just glad I'm not in your shoes. I know I'm an SE4 neophyte, but looking at weapon mounts, if you use Extended Range or Dreadnought mounts your engine killing weapons will outrange his PPBs by 2. (Unless he's using D mounts also, which I take it he's not.)

You can put ER mounts on anything Destroyer sized or larger, so you could put cheap shield depleater/engine killers against his big guys and leave them sitting ducks for your main fleet, assuming your main fleet was using ER or D mounts also.

Forgive me if I'm suggesting an unworkable option, but this just jumped out at me. You have one big advantage and that is tactical and strategic maneuverablility. Those Monitors are slow. Even if they can form any warp point they like, it still takes them time to move around to kill/take your planets. If you build SDs and smaller you can move c50% faster around systems. You can also collect replacements faster, which should allow you at least a local, temporary superiority.

Hope some of this has helped.


Vaya con nukes,
V'ger gone

[Mordante]

"dreadnaught and extended range mounts" - what are these? do they exist in the standard game ... I know that starbase weapons get range bonuses but do any basic ship mounts?

"mines for planet defence" - well, one problem is the units in space limit (4000) - I have 270 odd planets to defend (about 14 mines a planet!) another is the limit of mines per sector 100 + deployment load ... say 175 as a maximum with an abusive mine layer strat - it's childs play to design a large mine-sweeper that can clear 100 mines a turn - 2 of these babies with every fleet and the mines are worthless.

......

Dilemma aside, it is a damned amusing game and the closest thing to a competitive space opera I've ever played ...

[PvK]

quote:

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Originally posted by Nitram Draw:
One of the biggest problems I see is if you have 150 ships and he has 150 ships how can anyone maneuver? If you could disable the engines of the first rank of ships then all his other ships would be sitting ducks!

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If your opponent has 150 ships, and puts them all in one sector... he can attack one of your planets and win, while you attack 150 of his planets...

I don't think he meant all in one single engagement, although that would be a sight.

PvK

[PvK]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mordante:
...
4)“fighter combination attacks” – fighters to draw the big guns, yes, I could see that working – until he orders standard base ship designs to ignore them and lets the custom pdc’s engage the skirmishers! But a battle could be won that way I think.
....

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After using this tactic with cheap-o fighters, you can switch to sending in fighters that can hurt ships (e.g. rocket pods). If he's told his PPB's to ignore them, they might be able to get through the PDC's. You can also send in cannon-fodder fighters and other seekers to absorb PDC fire from the bombers.

PvK

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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1)choice of battlefields/choke points – not an option I fear, I already have 3 maximum range (500ly) renewable (ie. Onboard repair) warp point constructors myself (each tied to a fleet) and I expect a similar capacity from my enemy. From my front line I can target his rear territory and I expect a similar advance from him when the time comes. Thus choke point defence (mines/satellites etc) will be irrelevant since the warp points will be newly placed. I can see able practical way to force the battle in nebulas either

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Uhmm. Don't you know about the 10 WP limit?
Just like the "can't create stars if more than zero" thing, you can't add new WPs if theres already 10 in a system.

So activate those WP openers, and shield your systems by interconnecting them till no more WPs can be added.

Then, WPs cannot be opened into your territory, and you can force the enemy to travel through chokepoints.