General_Harada

First things first.. If he's bombing a planet, get the ships doing that first. Siege frigates and cap ships are the only thing that can bomb your planets. Get those and it's safe. Or if it's going to be a while ( single cap ship ) chase the other ships. It depends on what they are bombing. Asteroids with no upgrades ? Let them bomb, I'll be busy killing expensive ships.. Planet with full upgrades ? Save that sucker first. You're either thinking about pirate raids, or your enemy is using

I thought the Kodiak charge ability allowed them to get past the Guardian repulsion ability ? Level 6 tech, but it sure we be funny to see your opponents face when you stomped him with a wave of kodiaks.

[quote]Bump HC and Illum supply. It's hard to spam when your economy starts going in the tanker to feed your fleet.One other option (perhaps the same as reply #1's?) is to bump the supply by a "fleet count" mechanic. If you build 4 illums, that's 6 supply each for a total of 24 supply. . . . This approach would massively encourage fleet diversity.-- Retro[/quote] Wow. That is a SMOKING idea. Much better than mine. You could still spam HCs/LRMs if you really wan

I think the problem with LRM's isn't that they are too powerful, it's that they are available to early and they're CHEAP in both terms of resources and fleet cap. Add to this focus fire and long range, and you've got a pretty effective weapon system. Toss in a few upgrades ( at least as TEC ), and they get scary fast. You betcha people are gonna use them. A few ideas come to mind for balance : 1: Limit the number of ships capable of focus firing in a single ship. If the limit w

It's actually still pretty fun against the AI. I'd reccomend it.

Depending on how many planets you have... I'd attempt the 'Novalith Solution'. Build two on backwater planets, give the TEC AI two simultaneous shots. That should finish him if he has only one planet. If you don't want to go that far, you can use multiple shipyards to outproduce him, sending in waves ( taking out his ship yards as previously mentioned ). He won't be able to keep up, and eventually you'll grind him down. The Vasari will be harder. With RA up, he'll replenish faster than

As TEC, the very first things you want to research are Ice/Volcanic colonization ( for my style at least ). Which one you choose first depends on what type of planets are closest. Don't waste time or resources on a planet type that you don't have nearby ( use your scouts ). I don't even make a military lab until after I have two civic labs. You want to expand as fast as possible, that means being able to colonize. Then can come Psidar, trade ports, and mining buffs. Anything other then colonizin

Mid game : 3 Kol's, 1 Akkan, 1 Akkan or Dunov. I like the quick punch 3 Kol's can seriously mess up any other ship, even with healing, sheild repair, etc.. ( 3 level 3 guass per Kol is 9 x 800 points = 7200 points.. ). I usally don't take Marza's, bombing the planet is for my Novalith or seige frigates. Battle ships have other things to do unless I am deep in enemy territory on a raid.. Never use Sovas. End game, I usually never have more then 8 or 10. Same Mix : 6 Kol's, 3 Akkans, 1 Du

[quote]These are straw man examples of the most blatant variety. I have never advocated letting your fleet size languish for the sake of getting upgraded ships. What game are you playing where you built only 10 frigates? . . So: Sideshow, General_Harada, you're right. Maintaining a sizable, powerful fleet is your first priority. But ignoring upgrades altogether is a grevious mistake. I doubt this is a position you'd disagree with.[/quote] Very true. I do say that, and I do a

[quote]I'm not sure what you mean with "beginning the game" thing: The three scouts are the first ships I built.Ummm...pardon me for butting-in...but...isn't "first ships I build" counts as "beginning the game"?You rarely need scouts once you have the clairvoyance/scanners research thingie that alerts you on incoming fleets. .. . You will be able to have a clean 30 seconds at most before my defense fleet will arrive, and my defenses would keep you tangled up till then anyway.[/quote]<br

Upgrades pay for themselves over time, since you don't pay for the continual tax. But, numbers will win a battle. 9 colbats will win against 6 upgraded cobalts ( assuming tier one ). If you run the tech all the way out, spending the thousands of credits, your cobalts will kick butt ( as will your HC's, LRM's, and cap ships ). But, it takes time, credits, crystal, and metal to get there. The big questions is, do you have that time and could those resources be better spent else where at t

As TEC, during my early games I found I had a negative economy because I never upgraded my planets. Thats really key. You HAVE to upgrade the population on your planets/roids or you'll go broke. You actually have a negative income on your early colonies until you upgrade them. Do it to your home planet while waiting for your cap ship. Once you've upgraded the population and tossed in a few tradeports, you'll find you have money to burn ( against the AI at least ). Fleet builds.

[quote]I'm not sure what you mean with "beginning the game" thing: The three scouts are the first ships I built.[/quote] One thing we do agree on. I build three scouts right off the bat. You have to know whats going on, where your enemies are, how far away they are..Why waste time with asteroids if you have a terran planet one hop the other way ? It makes a huge difference in strategy to find out the enemy is three hops away ( in which case I am spamming Cobalts, getting the Kol, a

[quote]I just did a test on a small random map as TEC in order to see what provided the fastest expansion: Kol supported by colony frigates and Cobalts, or Akkan supported by Cobalts? . . Any conclusions? It's too late to write mine...[/quote] Very interesting. And a very good test of the two strategies. I look forward to viewing the recorded games ( at work now and my Internet connection at home blows ). You may have won a convert. I guess the d

[quote]There's no doubt in my mind that choosing a colony cap is instrumental in expanding as quickly as possible. There are two main reasons for this:1. The faster antimatter regeneration limits the time spent waiting to a minimum.2. Most important is the ability to colonize the planet/asteroid while fighting the resident rebels (sometimes even before) gives you a substantial advantage. The planet will often already be profitable for the colony cap player by the time the player without brings i

[quote]Raging Amish has it right. The different between aquiring planets with a colonizer Cap ship versus a colonizer frigate is significant.... you don't know wtf you're doing.[/quote] And if you find your cap ship tied down defending from an adjacent player or aggressive AI early on ? Or you have to recall your cap because you lost a bidding war against a pirate raid ? Or your opponent is going to rush you ? What then ? Guess your colonizer isn't really colonizing then, is it ? Or you

[quote]It's kind'a sad when building Hangers and turrets are "not worth it". I understand that with chokepoints, making defences too strong can lead to impassable stalemates, but as it is, I wish that when I spent that much time/money/resourses on a planet packed to the rim with defences, that it made an opponent flinch a bit. As it is, Repair bays seem the only thing worth really building; I wish it were otherwise (big space defence guns are my favorite part of most sci-fi movies/games). Heck,

Good points, but I'll take a Kol or Marza before the Akkan ( as TEC ). A colonizer frigate works better. I can clear plenst and move on, assigning a frigate to actually populate the planet. I can split my fleet, having 4 or 5 cobalts attack an adjacent weakly defeded atseroid, while my Kol can handle a tougher planet. If I had an Akkan, I'd have it running around dropping people, not clearing militias. Early game, I might have other uses for the first Cap. As mentioned, multi-kodiak mil

It's all about fleet size and composition. I've taken out huge bases, but I needed a huge fleet. My biggest was 6 Kol's, 2 Akkans, and 80 Kodiaks. It took a while, but I only lost 17 kodiaks. It probably would have been better with Marzas using the missile area attack. Usually, it's not worth killing them. Just outbid your opponents. Except in the late game stages when I get tired of paying them because bounty is running 20k credits.

[quote]I used this strat agaist a Tec & Advent twice(never had a Vasari player close enough). The first TEC... Failed Attempt; ...The second TEC... Success! The first Advent... Success! The second Advent..Failed attempt.[/quote] 50-50 doesn't seem like a viable strategy to me ( why I don't use a Sova rush ). But, seems like you executed it correctly since you had some success. What fleet did you have for defense ? Did you find it slowed your own expansion ? A quick expander wil

A Sova rush does have a few problems. I've used it against the AI in tests, and it worked, but against a player, I don't think so. The AI charged in blindly with a Kol, then a few frigates, failing to focus fire on the Sova ( instead choosing one of my 5-6 cobalts ). My fleet concentrated on the Kol. I remained stationary to utilize the extra fire power of my platforms. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. A player would have waited to group forces before attacking, and concentrated on the

I'll usually put in 5 hangers on the opposite side of where I expect the enemy to phase in, and then the rest of my points in turrets as close as I can to that point. Late game, I will scuttle enough turrets to put in a jump inhibitor. I park my fleet between the turrets and my planet. The statics will usually take care of most pirates, and will augment my fleet against a determined human opponent. If I fight under the guns of my turrets with help from the hangers, it's usually a big help.

Typically, I have at least three cap ships in a small game, and have had up to 8. Frigates/cruisers are more efficient from a cost/fire power ratio, heavy cruisers too. But as mentioned, lack special abilities which make a cap ship so valuable. A frigate swarm is toast to a Malice/CB combo, or any 'area of attack' ability from an enemy cap ship. As a counter, 3 Kol's and an Akkan will pop an enemy cap ship pretty quick. a little more range and accuacy go a long way on a level 3 guass..

When I first started, I hated them. Random attacks forced me to keep reserve units to beat back another invasion. It seemed kind of stupid to have some chaotic force attacking me at timed intervals. I was constantly fighting one more faction besides the one(s) I signed up for ! Now I look at them more as a mercenary force to be utilized if I have the cash ( which I usually do as TEC ). They harrass my enemies on a constant basis, and pirates work very well with insurgency. Two or three

[quote]Do it all the time.Try a couple Akkans, the targeting/range ability stacks as near as I can tell. A few Kols for center punch really add to this too.[/quote] My fleet of choice ! One Akkan to three Kols, with tons of frigates ( or Kodiaks ). Six Kols with two Akkans usually blows out the first enemy capital fast, or totally depletes the shield restore capability.