Counter to tec marza/cobalt/lrm rush

Maybe Kodiaks backed up by Hoshikos and a fleet of carriers with fighters to hit the LRMs?  Also, your own LRMs would be a good counter against the mighty cobalt fleet.

That would be good, but you probably wouldn't have had time to get too many Kodiaks out. A pure LRM fleet would have beaten his fleet (with same fleet capacity/cost, or even slightly less). However, at that low of a tech level, how fast you're expanding and how much you're putting into your fleet is more important than what units you are building. It's just about timing the peak of your fleet size.

With that many cobalts, your best course of action would be to try to get a lot of LRM's.  Hoshikos would be the best unit to support them.  Carriers would be the wrong answer in this case, because cobalts kill them incredibly quickly when massed in huge numbers like those.  You want a strong LRF presence first to ward off LF.

Kodiaks would also work, but getting to the 5-lab level is a risky proposition.  If your opponent has a large number of cobalts and scouts you massing labs like that, you might not survive long enough to pull it off.

Lrm's would be a good counter, Hoshikos would also help... but have some Kodiaks to support carriers, and hurry up on that, b4 he gets a lvl. 6 Marza.

(^) Koda0

there is a cheaper solution however. you could do what ALL tec players do and rush for the lvl 6 marza. you set up star bases and pjis around your choke point and wait for him to attack. once he attks the sb bring your marza in for xp feed. once you hit lvl 6 you can sit back while he hides in fear from it and therefore you can mass a stronger technologically enhanced fleet at your leisure.. just dont lose the marza. this is an unorthodox move so dont rely on it too often as some will see right through it.. just a new suggestion to keep the mind flowin.

<cough>lots of bombers<cough> = bye bye Marza and SB!!!

Well, given that he's already built about 50 ships and due to the fact that a level 4 Marza suggests it's still early game and he doesn't have a good econ the least the SB/PJI defense would to is buy him some time. Still, to counter a fleet consisting mainly of LFs I'd refrain from getting carriers or hoshikos against the few LRMs that are present. Just spam out 30-40 Javelis yourself and it should be fine, especially when you got a rep bay or 2 close. The only "problem" with this fleet: both hoshikos and carriers would be ripped apart by the majority of LFs. So just concentrate on LRMs and get hoshis/carriers after your Javelis dealt with the current threat.

answer to the topic : illuminators.

At least read the topic you claim to answer...he had a Marza as well, thus he played TEC, thus your answer isn't exactly an answer at all.

And the whole Starbase thing.....he mentioned VANILLA sins in the 1st line of his 1st post....

Personaly, I'd just spam LRMs until I could afford carriers and kodiaks. Don't spend too much of your resources on definsive buildings, either. Focus mainly on ships early game.

Kodiaks would've been useful, but carriers? They wouldn't do much against a fleet that consists to almost 80% of light frigates. Still, you're right about the SB thing. But I guess we all agree that LRFs would've been the best choice.

The problem ( IMHO ), is that you didn't have a fleet to counter him. I'll assume you spent instead on the defenses. Fleet ALWAYS wins against defenses in vanilla SINS. Defenses only serve to slow down an advance, not stop one. They are only truly effective against pirates.

Given his fleet, almost anything in moderate numbers would have worked ( with the planets defenses ) to beat him back. 10 kodiaks, 20 or 30 LF/LRMs.. 20 Cobalts might have been enough ( backed by the three repair bays and 11 platforms ) to even take out his Marza. For what you spent on defenses, you could have easily afforded the fleet, which in turn could have counter attacked, or at least pinned some of his fleet in fear of the counter attack.

I've had to train myself to think of large amounts of defenses as the first step to loosing. You give up the initiative, lock resources into non-mobile units, and wait for your enemy to choose the time and place of the conflict. Remember the french and the Maginot line in WW2. Buy ships instead, and as TEC, JUST BUY MORE.

The general is right.  Even at a chokepoint, the defenses you build will eventually be useless, unless you're fighting WWI, and the lines never change.  In Entrenchment, starbases at least have some useful behind-the-lines abilities....

This is highly presumptuous.  You can do this against the AI, but against a player you cannot presume he's going to fall into your trap.  He could easily scout it and go around it.  You also presume you have enough time to research starbases and PJI's and produce a solid defensive line.  This is incredibly expensive and if he so much as scouts it he'll make sure all that money was wasted by either attacking on a different front or sitting back and building a counter.

Against a rush, your only real course of action is to have your own standing fleet.  If he's got lots of cobalts, LRF (assailants, javelis, illuminator, depending on your faction) are your best course of action.