2 shots usually destroys the colony on any planet that isn't buffed with shields, as far as I've seen it. As for effectiveness, it certainly is effective. By popping an enemy home world you really screw with their income, and allegiance will start bleeding down. But by the time you get access to the weapon, any stalemated opponent should be able to continue on through your superweapon attacks. Still, the impact will be felt over time, and you can probably predict an opponent massing up for an attack on your weapon. You can also rob opponents of artifacts rather easily, since their location is known to all players after they are found, and they must be 're-explored' every time time the planet is colonized to regain the bonus.

No race has real trouble with pirates.....if you think a planet could get hit by pirates, 3 repair bays, 4-5 turrets, and a hangar will handle them easily. Just make sure you have some turrets covering pirate siege frigate approaches

the culture cannon (I have never used it , but i've read about it in the manual, correct me if I'm being Noobsauce) is, i think, just a brodcasting center on steroids. it boosts your culture Ten-fol. great if your culture is already strong or your culture is being pushed back by enemy culture. Unfortunately, culture does not affect space pirates - they don't care about culture. The Advent are great for turtling and Winning via culture and revolting.

With the TEC Novalith Cannon, it does take two shots to destroy a non-shielded planet and possibly three shots from it to destroy a shielded planet and four for a pirate base. The TEC are all about direct fire and close-range combat. I'd suggest TEC for noobs and boomers, and because of the F'd up market dynamics, they are the most powerful faction in sins untill patch 1.4 comes out.

As for the Vasari, their Kostura cannon is actually very effective - it damages anything in orbit of the targeted planet. It does not do much damage and it will take many a shots to destroy all the orbital facilities, but it immobilizes any production on the planet AND the orbital structures for 3 minutes AND disable all ships and fleets for 10 seconds. The Vasari are quite possible the best Race for advanced playes in this game. Especially once they fix the market dynamics.

So, in the end, Cannons are very effective, and, for pirates, using the Novalith cannon to destroy the Pirate base is effective to stop pirate attacks. you could also risk an entire fleet and rush in, guns ablaze. the Idea for planetary defenses that silverace suggested is somewhat the same mathod I use, but I also add in a few frigates and later on heavy cruisers to defend those planets that would most likely be attacked by pirates.

...accidentaly posted twice...






I AM NOOOOOOBBBSSSAAAUUUCCCEEE!!!!

Pirates (early game) can be handled like so:

Let's say they're attacking your asteroid, or a new planet. Send a few ships to take out their planet bombers, then scuttle your two extractors (metal/crystal) and then leave the planet. The remaining pirates will have no means of attacking, and leave.

Maybe its an exploit? But It's essentially all the pirates DO to a planet. Scuttling the structures just makes it go faster, and gives a little bit of resources back in return.

I have found the culture cannon can be quite handy later on in the game esp with the culture spy upgrade (you know the one that lets you see enemy planets if they are under your culture influence. So I use it as a ultimate spy weapon and I also use it to make it harder for them to capture my planets and theres after I have taken them by making them hostel cultures. Never build more then 1 tho unlike the TEC cannon which my current record is 9

the tec supperweapon can destroy a pirate base in 1-2 shots.

Certainly, the Novalith's effectiveness has been blunted with Entrenchment through Auxiliary Government, Enduring Devotion, and Enforced Loyalty.