Dealing with mines, how?

from Sins Forums

So, I have been playing this game on and off since it was first released, I have also upgraded to Entrenchment and Diplomacy when they came available. 

Ive always liked them long games, and in the time Ive been playing this Im at the point where Unfair enemies are the most challenging opponents. However as I am playing with the Distant Stars Mod (I love it!) the AI makes redicilous amounts of mines in their gravity well and quite early on, Ive seen mines in the first 20 minutes of the game. At this point your fleet is scattered all over to clear militia and get more colonies so, if you dont know where they placed their mines you end up losing quite a bit of them.

Now I am wondering what is the most effective way of clearing mines. When they place huge fields of them later in the game I tend to just suicide scouts on them but, so early in the game it just is not an option.

Thanks in advance.

 

*For some reason my apostrohe isnt working, apologies.*

strategy
6,563 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Scouts reveal the mines. anything else can attack it. but flak and fighters are by far the best way to deal with mines.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

If you need to clear a path through an enemy minefield just to give your fleet a path to attack the planet, sending a massed groups of scouts to detonate the mines is actually the best solution I think. Your fleet is to valuable to leave vulnerable while you are waiting for scouts and fighters to clear them, and if the planet is substantially defended you're going to want your fighters to be attacking the enemies ships, not mines.

Once you've actually taken the planet though, the scout and flak/fighter method works pretty well. Just turn off the auto engage if you are clearing advent homing mines because the scouts don't have the range to destroy them. A single scout and a carrier full of fighters will do the job eventually.

Also, while this is absolutely hated in multi-player, you can use the Z-axis control to just move your fleet over the mines. I occasionally do it in single player if the AI is just being ridiculous, but it is considered an exploit against other human players.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Most of the time, gravity wells are too large to "mine up" completely, and you can just go around the minefields.  The best way to get rid of mines is to use scouts and fighters.  Move the scouts close enough to reveal the mines and then the fighters quickly blast them (fighters, of course, being immune to mines).  You can also use flaks and scouts in a pinch since the flak frigates can rip through mines relatively easily.

Clearing mines by running units through them is generally a bad course of action, with the sole exception of Advent with their illuminator's "deceptive illusion" ability.  You can use this illusion to detonate mines and it's not actually a real unit anyways...

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvin3, reply 3
Most of the time, gravity wells are too large to "mine up" completely, and you can just go around the minefields.  The best way to get rid of mines is to use scouts and fighters.  Move the scouts close enough to reveal the mines and then the fighters quickly blast them (fighters, of course, being immune to mines).  You can also use flaks and scouts in a pinch since the flak frigates can rip through mines relatively easily.

Clearing mines by running units through them is generally a bad course of action, with the sole exception of Advent with their illuminator's "deceptive illusion" ability.  You can use this illusion to detonate mines and it's not actually a real unit anyways...
End of Darvin3's quote

This would generally be true, however in Distant stars mod it's very possible to place the mines where your ships will exit phase space. Esp with the TEC. 

It's a bit hard to fly in and clear mines with scout/fighter/flak combination simply because 50% of them will die the moment they arrive at the enemy gravity well.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

however in Distant stars mod it's very possible to place the mines where your ships will exit phase space. Esp with the TEC.
End of quote

That's possible without the mod, too.  Just warp in a scout to check where the mines are, then warp in somewhere else.  If you need to kamikaze a few units to create an opening, then do so, just make sure you choreograph your assault so the enemy doesn't have time to replace the mines.

"Look before you leap" is an important habit to get into, minefields or not.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Advent mines pose far more of a challenge, since their homing range is just a bit shorter than the range of the decloaking ability on the scout. Yes, its possible to clear them without losses, but its a very time consuming process as you have to manually control which mine to decloak first, otherwise the scout triggers other mines and it gets blown to pieces.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

The DS mines are a nasty set, with higher ranges, larger area explosions, and stronger to boot (so you can't just push through a fully upgraded Kol through a minefield). Sadly you are going to lose ships taking them out. Especially advent mines. Recommend a strong group of scouts and flak with replacements for loses.