Question about general strategy: missles vs. fighters vs. drones vs. direct fire, etc - Page 2

Krsqk · #11 May 20th, 2003, 05:01 PM

Yeah, slaughtering someone because they're Berserkers with maxed offense/defense is a little gamey. Slaughtering someone because they're Berserkers with maxed offense/defense andReligious/Psychic combo is just smart.

teal · #12 May 20th, 2003, 05:16 PM

What does "gamey" mean? I'm confused. I thought it was a game.

Some points.

I am under the impression that it is currently considered to be "just smart" to dogpile on anyone who is silly enough to choose deeply religious as a trait so as to eliminate them before they get the talisman. *If* it is determined that bezerkers/maxed defense agressiveness is equally as bad as the talisman, then doesn't that make it "just smart" to try and win agains them any way you can?

Second point. Don't you consider your relative strenghts weaknesses in every diplomatic exchange you make? If one race is stronger than all the other players in the game, then doesn't it make sense that the lesser powers form an alliance against the winning race? Whether they are stronger because they took bezerkers and no one else did, or if they are stronger because all four adjacent systems next to their homeworld contained huge breathable/colonizable planets is immaterial. The lesser powers will unite or die.

Finally. In the particular game being alluded to. The bezerker race was in a strong first place position and forming an alliance to stop them seemed to be the reasonable solution, regardless of whether they were bezerkers or not.

All this brings up another interesting question. Does Space Empires suffer from a "get the leader" problem often seen in the world of multi-player board games where being in first place is often a large disadvantage as it is extremely easy for everyone else to gang up on the leader and stop them. I think that it does in the sense that their are no, or few, mechanisms which stop people from ganging up on the leader. In practice perhaps their is an unspoken social norm among SEIV players not to do this. Perhaps provoking the remarks that using diplomacy as a balancing mechanism against a stronger empire set up is "gamey".

dogscoff · #13 May 20th, 2003, 05:39 PM

Quote:

I thought it was a game.

It is game, but it's a roleplay game which means pretending it's not a game... you see?

No, neither do I.

tesco samoa · #14 May 20th, 2003, 05:42 PM

Teal... With Seekers, units timing is very important.

This is very important when the player counters with the PD Ships.

Always design your fighters to move with your fleets... Not to speed out and be destroyed before your fleet shows up. This way they will be involved in the fight at the same time your seekers hit and your Main DF Ships come into play.

Practice this tatic with a good trained fleet can work wonders. And they extend the life of the carrier well beyond the Cruiser class counter ships.

Also this will allow you to keep with the carrier / repair ships carrier / minesweeper ships carrier / pd ships carrier / supply ships. Carrier / seeker ships

As All ships should fight.

Now think about combining this with ram ships....

Also.... You should make sure that you understand the difference between fighting on Warp Points vs open space vs planets.

tesco samoa · #15 May 20th, 2003, 05:47 PM

For the question of First Place etc...

It is not the score that matters but the number of planets and production levels....

This is the true power of an empire.

And as with most games... IF a player has a huge empire... The smaller empires will combine forces to bring it down a peg or two or destroy it

Ruatha · #16 May 20th, 2003, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by teal:

I think that it does in the sense that their are no, or few, mechanisms which stop people from ganging up on the leader.

Some games run with "Show only own score" which hides who is the leader.
Getting people to gang up on someone is much harder then.

The same when you provide only score ranks on the PBW site in the statistics screen and disable all other statistics and in the game has "Show only own score", you can still see who is leading but not by how much or why.

[ May 20, 2003, 16:51: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

teal · #17 May 20th, 2003, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tesco samoa:

Always design your fighters to move with your fleets... Not to speed out and be destroyed before your fleet shows up. This way they will be involved in the fight at the same time your seekers hit and your Main DF Ships come into play.

So then the question is. How do you design your carriers? I find that if you make your carriers so that they carry large numbers of fighters then the carrier will run for the corner and laucnch fighters every turn, spreading the fighters out and making them much easier to deal with. Are you saying that you should design your carriers so that they launch all of their fighters in one turn? That would make sense with combining carrier/minesweeper, carrier/supply, carrier/repair ship, etc.

Ruatha · #18 May 20th, 2003, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by teal:

quote:
Originally posted by tesco samoa:

Always design your fighters to move with your fleets... Not to speed out and be destroyed before your fleet shows up. This way they will be involved in the fight at the same time your seekers hit and your Main DF Ships come into play.

So then the question is. How do you design your carriers? I find that if you make your carriers so that they carry large numbers of fighters then the carrier will run for the corner and laucnch fighters every turn, spreading the fighters out and making them much easier to deal with. Are you saying that you should design your carriers so that they launch all of their fighters in one turn? That would make sense with combining carrier/minesweeper, carrier/supply, carrier/repair ship, etc.

Add large mounts with beam weapons and give them attack strategy.
That way they will close with the enemy with the same speed as the fighters, so all fighter Groups arrive at the same time, supported by the beams of the carrier.

[ May 20, 2003, 17:21: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

tesco samoa · #19 May 20th, 2003, 06:38 PM

You can configure your Strag. on the number of fighters you can launch at once. ( ALl the way up to 50 per launch ( IF you have enough bays to launch that many )

This way you do not have to put a DF mount on every ship ( such as minesweeper carriers )

rdouglass · #20 May 20th, 2003, 09:50 PM

All said is good. However, sometimes you don't fight the enemy in the open (or head on) to beat 'em. Noone has suggested avoiding some fleets then rush to attack their outlying colonies and damage the infrastructure. Just make sure you have a few good W-Platforms.

Many times that puts them in a position of overextending their supplies. You attack and destroy their RD's and SY's on their borders. Ships that run out of supplies are generally easy pickin's

Also, getting a few outlying systems to riot can cripple their economy.

Many times a good counterstrike can be better than good defense...Just IMO...