Fight Dirty?

[Xaren Hypr]

If you can figure out which world have his Resupply Depots, hit those.

IIRC, levels 6 to 8 of Planetary Weapons give you the two flavors of Smart Bombs:

1) Smart Bomb (RD) I-III: no resupply depots means that those of his ships w/o Quantum Reactors or Solar Collectors will eventually be dead in space, and

2) Smart Bomb (SP) I-III: no space ports means a big hit on his empire income, and those aren't normally very quick to rebuild .

Just a couple things that have worked against the TDM AIs that I usually play with.

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Loser:
It looks like this is going to be a thread to remember. The 'big secret' dirty fighting tricks may not be coming out, but a lot of 'lesser' tricks sure are.

If you have the time, and you are not focusing on destroying that WP fleet of his, here is something to try.

I currently lack the ability to press the offense though ghetto-cloaking a shipyard ship and running it into the storm is a /very/ appealing option. I'll steal his star charts tonight.

First establish, by scouting trips, intel, or whatever, if any system of his has a storm that disables sensors (not combat sensors). Then send in a construction ship and build a construction base in that sector or system. After you build the base, scrap or mothball the ship immediately so that it consumes no more resources.

What level of sensors will a sensor-blocking storm prevent him from scanning? Does it stack with stealth armor? (I.E. Can I make a stealthed drydock?)

If this ghetto-cloaked construction base is in the same system as some of your enemies' worlds (a one-sector storm, as opposed to a system-wide storm), build a cargo-&-fighter-bay base and fill it with fighters and troops. Build these fighters for planetary attack. Build minor little troop transports and go start taking his most undefended planets, attacking with the fighters and dropping the troops. He will probably be unable, or at least find it difficult, to retake the planets and may glass them. This is not a loss for you, it is an intentional strategy of demoralization. If he does glass his own world, point this out to your role-playing friends, and point it out before you start using plagues.

This plan, while very complex and requiring a lot of finesse... appeals to me on levels I cannot express. I doubt he'd even think to check in the storm.
If the base is in a system-wide storm, or if you run out of targets in the system it is in, build harassment ships or fleets and go after similarly soft targets. Your main goal here is simply to harass. This will cause him to spend research time on sensor rather than weapons, and then it will pull warships away from his fronts.

Alternately, with domestic or imported harriers, you can attack targets of strategic value. If you can figure out which world have his Resupply Depots, hit those. This will severely limit the mobility of his troops. Mine the warp points within his sphere of control. Glass big worlds with high pop. Blockade his homeworld, glass it, or plague the damn thing.
The problem with resupply depots is that everyone has Stellar Harnessing 3 by now. Hell, I don't even build resupply depots anymore, I just have dedicated supply ships in all my fleets. I can handle constant fighting on the run for about .7 years before supplies force me to stop moving.

On plagues... if you need to wax this guy to survive, what does it matter what other players think. If you die because you don't plague him, or die because you plague him, wax him, and the others pound you, what difference does it make. Just make sure you are ready to move decisively after your plague attack: take his worlds, his resources, his power, and be ready to faces his new friends with their righteous anger.

One more thing, if you can get an AS harrier behind his lines, use it on non-combat ships as well as warships. Stealing the guys population transport could be lots of fun, especially if he blats it out of the sky when he can't get it back (see righteous role players).[/quote]
Yeah, I've been trying to think up a proper smear campain to launch on this guy. I run an "In-Character" newsletter with my own 'fair and balanced' journalism. So far they're biting nice and hard. I'll see if I can't make this work. Really, the minefields will be the problem point as getting a buildership past his fleet/minefield is the problem.

Once I get a single ship through... it's party time.

[Loser]

Originally posted by Pooka:
What level of sensors will a sensor-blocking storm prevent him from scanning? Does it stack with stealth armor? (I.E. Can I make a stealthed drydock?)

They don't stack: they do not add to eachother. I believe each storm will say what level of scanner is blocks.

But a stealthed construction base (stealthed by the storm, not armor) is the plan.

I believe that Storms offer bettwe cloaking than Stealth Armor.

Originally posted by Pooka:
This plan, while very complex and requiring a lot of finesse... appeals to me on levels I cannot express. I doubt he'd even think to check in the storm.

If his options are set to animate ship movement, he may see your ships emerging from the storm.

Originally posted by Pooka:
The mines worry me. This brings me to my next question. I just captured a battlecruise I expected to be armed. It was a mine layer. How do I stop mines? Will simply building mine sweeping ships suffice? Or will I have to move to the sector, then activate the mine sweepers? Should they be in a seperate fleet? Can mine sweepers be used while under cloak? (I.E. Can I quietly defuse his minefield right under his fleet's nose?)

he's camping the minefield, which is what worries me. Is it the minefields that destroy the captured ships before I can run with them?

You should be able to check your reports and see exactly what was killing those ships.

A mine sweeper sweeps for mines when it moves into a sector. I do not know if it will uncloak as it does this.

If you ever steal a mine laying ship of his, imediately unload the mines. That would be nasty, and he would start making mine sweepers, which you could also steal.

You don't stop mines, you sweep them.

Originally posted by Xaren Hypr :
1) Smart Bomb (RD) I-III: no resupply depots means that those of his ships w/o Quantum Reactors or Solar Collectors will eventually be dead in space, and

That is exactly what I was talking about. Sorry I did not communicate that.

Originally posted by Pooka:
Yeah, I've been trying to think up a proper smear campain to launch on this guy. I run an "In-Character" newsletter with my own 'fair and balanced' journalism. So far they're biting nice and hard. I'll see if I can't make this work. Really, the minefields will be the problem point as getting a buildership past his fleet/minefield is the problem.

Once I get a single ship through... it's party time.

That sounds great.... War needs to be faught on that level as well.

Getting past the fleet takes Stealth Armor. Getting past the minefield takes a few Mine Sweeper Dreads that you shove through with or without cloaking. If you shove them through with your cloakesd ships, will the enemy see all of them, fight all of them, or just the uncloaked Mine Sweepers?

[Pooka]

Okay... so I can just shove the sweepers through eh? Hmm. And yeah, I was going to try and dump the mines on another warp point, but the ship never made it out of the sector. The reports say a battle happened, and his ships took no damage, but I got worked. I'm assuming that's because we're not using Gold so the attacker was going first. (Otherwise I would have gotten a shot off with its single MesonII.

Still, just dumping the mines sounds appealing too. I'll start doing that.

I guess I'll try to shove some cloaked minesweeping destroyers through. I'm only up cruisers, myself. Still, though. A small fleet of minesweeping destroyers followed, the next turn, by my cloaked shipyard ship, etc seems to be the way to go. Hmm. I'll need to get BCs to do cloaked buildership.

[Ruatha]

Sorry, Cloaked minesweepers don't sweep, they eliminate the mines by hitting them at full speed. Enough ships clears the mineflied but the ships are destroyed, not the ship crews intention I guess. Better decloak first!

from FAQ:
5.9.9 Cloaked ships cannot sweep mines. (DavidG). [Editor’s note: I can confirm that problem with unknown minefields. Rumor has it (and there are references that hint at it in history.txt) that a cloaked minesweeper will uncloak to sweep a KNOWN minefield. I still haven't tested this one yet. May or may not work the same way. Has anyone tested a cloaked minesweeper on a known minefield?]

[ May 06, 2003, 16:05: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
Sorry, Cloaked minesweepers don't sweep, they eliminate the mines by hitting them at full speed. Enough ships clears the mineflied but the ships are destroyed, not the ship crews intention I guess. Better decloak first!

Hmmm.....
How many mines does an escort suck up when running through? How many does a fighter suck up?

*ponders evil, evil designs*

Will mines force cloaked ships to decloak? The big problem with sending minesweepers through is that it'd require me to fight off his fleet of 40+ ships which is /also/ parked there.

[Loser]

Originally posted by Pooka:
Will mines force cloaked ships to decloak? The big problem with sending minesweepers through is that it'd require me to fight off his fleet of 40+ ships which is /also/ parked there.

Don't fight off his ships, just write off yours.

[ May 06, 2003, 16:39: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Loser:

quote:

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Originally posted by Pooka:
Will mines force cloaked ships to decloak? The big problem with sending minesweepers through is that it'd require me to fight off his fleet of 40+ ships which is /also/ parked there.

Don't fight off his ships, just write off yours.

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So minesweeping happens before the battle, then? That's interesting. Though I suppose the empire would be stupid to follow us into their own minefield.

[Suicide Junkie]

I'm assuming that's because we're not using Gold so the attacker was going first. (Otherwise I would have gotten a shot off with its single MesonII.

A single meson bLaster, eh?
Even if you did fire first, you probably didn't get through his shields, (or missed) and the damage percentage only shows hull damage (shields completely regenerate after battle anyways)

[wanker]

Originally posted by Loser:
Don't fight off his ships, just write off yours.[/QB]

If you have the space mount a colbalt warhead or two on the mine sweepers. Set their orders to "Ram". They will still die, but make it a gloryious death.

It may freak him out enough to set his fleet orders to maximum range (assuming that he is using optimal).