Tips to defeat Lv.10 Kortal Devastator & dozen carriers?

from Sins Forums

Just bought Trinity and bloody hell, what a game...there's absolutely nothing quite like epic fleet battles with plasma and lasers and gauss rounds flying every which way. Brilliant.

Anyway, got up to speed fairly quickly, played a med. normal game as Advent (these guys have my favour for now, haven't played as TEC or Vasari yet) and dominated quite well. It was short though and I didn't get a chance to fully explore the research trees. So now I'm in a far longer, normal large game with the Advent, 2v2v2 on the Ancient Artifact map, AI opponents.

Basically, we're well into the game and everybody has their big fleets and big economies and so on. Unfortunately, my nearest opponent happens to be Vasari and has some powerful medium-sized fleets. One fleet in particular has a level ten Kortal-Class Devastator supported by another level six carrier cappy, about a dozen carriers and other cruisers. Lots of bombers and fighters of course, but my real problem seems to be the Devastator; it has some damn impressive shield tech and I think it has a mitigation of about 67%. My fleets can't take it out quickly enough because it constantly recovers its shielding. My boys are there trying to take it down while the enemy small craft just whittle down our numbers and consequently, our strength, forcing us into a retreat every time.

I've tried luring them into one of my border worlds so as to trap them against some thirteen beam platforms as well as a heavily armed starbase, but this doesn't work either, they just send a cruiser or two and that's it, big daddy never comes along. My current strategy is a trident strike tactic, where I've got three fleets formed into a battlegroup. One fleet has three Halcyons and four carrier cruisers, another is loaded with three Raptures alongside twelve Defense frigates and two Iconus cruisers, and the last is the real haymaker, with seven Radiance-Class battleships and twenty-eight Destra Crusaders. I intend to move in the first and second fleets first, as they naturally support each other, then phase in the third part of the battlegroup to really bring the hammer down.

So yeah, any advice as to how my odds could be considerably improved without my having to construct unnecessarily monstrous fleets? All my caps are currently level four, courtesy of upgrading, and all have full squadron complements but I have my doubts about whether even this will be enough. I have also maxed out the weapons part of the hostility tree so I'm hoping that this will help to a large extent. Also, in case you're wondering why I'm confronting this fleet at all, it's because it happens to be blocking the wormhole to the enemy system (I actually managed to invade the system at one point and established a foothold but then in comes this fleet and suddenly all my progress is reversed, if you know what I mean).

strategy
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Detonate AM is an ability on the Radiance...use it on the Kortul to deplete its AM and prevent it from using abilities...

For a Diplomacy game, I'd say you are going too heavy on the capital ships...anything over 5 or 6 is pretty much overkill, and honestly 3 to 4 in many cases is more than enough until late game...

Remember that capital ships contribute much less firepower than frigates...caps are there for their abilities, and if you have too many caps, they will level up slower and never get very high level abilities (XP is shared amongst all your caps in the gravity well)...

More bombers/heavy cruisers, less caps...

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Well first of all, Advent VS. Vasari is probably the toughest match up there is, as the Advent rely on their wonderful shields and the Vasari have phase missiles, which have a chance to bypass shields, leading them to do obscene amounts of damage to Advent fleets.

Second, the Kortul is without a doubt in my mind the toughest ship to kill in Trinity. At level 10 its no wonder its causing you issues. Capitalships gain hull, shields, damage, and max mitigation as they level up, and battleship capitals have the most of all. Also its power surge ability lets it regenerate its shields quite fast, so you'll need a lot of firepower concentrated on it to take it down.

A Radiance as Seleuceia suggested is a good idea, but you'll need to make sure the Kortul doesn't attack your radiance. This is because its disruptive strikes ability will deplete the Radiance's antimatter to nothingness in a one on one fight. Make sure its firing on a different ship before sending the Radiance in. Detonate antimatter should eventually prevent it from using power surge, at which point focus everything you have on it.

Another strategy might be to focus on the carriers, as the Kortul is tough but more than likely most of the damage is coming from the carriers. The Skinantra you should get rid of ASAP, as it will keep healing the Vasari fleet and spitting out bombers until destroyed.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for the advice guys, very much appreciated.

As large fleet battles go, it went pretty well. I scored a fairly clear victory; forced a retreat and pushed them back through the wormhole, albeit with considerable casualties.

By the time it came to the assault orders, my opponent had seriously bulked up. I think the final tally was something like forty Kanrak Assailants, sixteen carriers, a Skinantra, a Jarrasul Evacuator and a multitude of other support and offense vessels (numbering somewhere in the region of 20-30 craft). Thankfully, I suppose, the Kortal was despatched elsewhere and strangely did not join in throughout the entire twenty minute ordeal.

I decided to increase the size of my combat pool, and constructed an additional forty Disciples, more as cannon fodder than anything else, along with a couple more Iconus Guardians, Aeria Drone Hosts and a Scion (to set up a starbase in the system once it was clear). In any event I was still outnumbered, though I felt confident that my combat multipliers (weapon upgrades, shield upgrades, etc.) would outperform the enemy forces.

And they did, for the most part. I jumped in the carrier fleet, defense fleet and Disciple fleets first, let them stir up havoc for the enemy for a bit, then sent in the battleships and Crusaders. I confess I twice considered retreating, as my entire Disciple fleet was wiped out, as were my Progenitors, Defense vessels and Guardians. However I held out and eventually ran them off. Somewhat ironically, all my Radiance-class ships survived, as did the drone hosts and Halcyons. I was also left with nineteen Destra Crusaders, which was pleasing.

In hindsight, it might have been a lot easier had I used more support craft rather than relying on big fleets and multiple capital ships. The Domina Subjugator for example, which I didn't use, might have helped to immobilise the enemy craft and render them ineffective, which could've given me more breathing room. More Iconus Guardians would have been excellent for lessening the amount of damage my main combat vessels took, due to their shield projection ability. I'm not particularly fond of strike craft but admittedly, more drone hosts and by extension more fighters and bombers would have sped up the process of destroying enemy vessels. All this being said, my fleets got the job done.

Advice taken on board, battle won, lessons learned. Mission accomplished. B)

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

10 kortul devastators....and you are sure nothing in the game can beat em down...and their disruptive strikes just ROCK...i was the tec against the vasari AI and was brutally beaten down to death in Unfair difficulty...havent been able to beat vasari on unfair settings...and those orkulus...goddamn forts move to annihilate you!! lol

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Build titan - they are best way to kill enemy capital ships and star bases.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Rebell44, reply 5
Build titan - they are best way to kill enemy capital ships and star bases.
End of Rebell44's quote

 

I believe ThePrior is playing Trinity.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Rebell44, reply 5
Build titan - they are best way to kill enemy capital ships and star bases.
End of Rebell44's quote

Actually high level kortuls will probably counter a titan with disruptive strikes draining their antimatter and power surge keeping them in the fight. Seriously the thing is my favorite capital ship, several of them will give any titan or capitalship a headache. ;)

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

There is nothing I fear more than disruptive strikes...seriously, nothing...that ability cannot be stopped and cannot be easily countered...repulse is about your only decent option, as JW and power surge make it different to FF and drive off the kortul quickly...and god help you if they have more than 1 high level kortul late game...

The issue generally is just that at low levels the ship didn't compare to the early game use of carrier or colony caps, and if you don't pick one as your 2nd or 3rd ship, it's hard to dependably get multiple kortuls to high enough levels...

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Rebell44, reply 5
Build titan - they are best way to kill enemy capital ships and star bases.
End of Rebell44's quote

 

This is my fear for this game.  A strategy game that will devolve into "Problem? Build Titan."

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

So far "just build a titan" is not the case. Titans can be very tough, but they are not indestructible war machines. Especially vs lvl 10 cap ships, or fully upgraded starbases surrounded by turrets. Titans can go down quite quickly if they have no support.

Kortul, and a bunch of carrier caps are a very dangerous fleet indeed. Loyalist have a weak titan, but rebels are far worse. a healing titan with all those healing carriers combined you will need lots of ships that can disrupt/disable ability's. Which luckily for the advent they have plenty of that. While the kortul would seem like a priority target. I would go after the healers first. Disrupt then smash them.

I can think of similar fleets. Tec Kol, and a bunch of Dunov's backed up by Hok's. Advent Radiance, and a bunch of Progenitors backed up by Guardians. Can also think of ways to smash through them too. Vasari are obvious choice because of phase missiles, but each faction has ways of countering the other. The "Strategy" is in knowing what can counter what, and exploiting it.