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[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Lazerus
how does BB = battleship (im assuming) anyways

That is the USN designation for a battleship - BB12 as CVN is is nuc carriers, CA is heavy crusier, DE is frigate or destroyer escort.
I spend 5 years in the navy. so I use that.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Why not Doomstars?

I will probably not have that tech. If I do get it, I may make a few with Stellar converters to destroy planets.
This is just a means of get the game over for me as I will not have to come back to smack any recolonization of the planet.

[Lazerus]

Just played impossible tactical there.
Started next to the silicoid who started attacking almost straight away, i managed to get some decent ships out and was soon pushing them away, as soon as i was winning the gnolams decided to jump me for refusing to pay them a 10% tribute. I managed to kill both of these 2 but literally the turn after i did that i was framed and the mrrshan and alkari started hitting me, the alkari had almost no military techs and were a complete walkover however the mrrshan were just unbelievable !
i was losing 5 battleships against their one and the only real difference was them having plasma cannons (which were doing 200 damage over a huge range) compared to my graviton beams/phasors.
i managed to take out 2 of their main systems but in return they had razed 3 of mine.
This is when my human allies for no reason whatsoever called me scum and declared war ! i was soon framed against the saakra aswell and ive given up on this game as the AI is just razing whatever planet is undefended
going to have to load up mid way or start again ....

[vmxa1]

They had 1 against your 5 and they won? Wow, the plasma cannon is a strong weapon, but not the reason they won, I would venture.
Do you have the game still to post? If so pop up the one before the fight and the earliest one.
I would image that they had a tech lead and the miniturization is what allowed to do better. Did you have reinforced hulls or heavy armor and did they?
I guess I should check that you are playing patch 1.31.
If you are playing 1.2, then forget what I said about plasma cannons, at that version they are the best and you must get them ASAP.
Rule number one to me is no undefend planets if there is any race that could reach that planet. If so it must have ships sitting on it or planetary defenses. I have to use ships until I get a star bases as I will not have planetary missile bases.
A number of factors come into play as to why they may come after you, primary is if they see you as weak. This means you need ships to make them behave.

[Lazerus]

Well around 9/10 of my colonies had star bases (also had tach comm, the tech that gives you +1 points) and i was always producing ships until my command points were at -30 and i needed other bases to trade goods to stop my cash going too negative, the only dents came when a large fleet got massacred so i don't think it was my small amount of ships.

im playing 1.2, what does 1.31 entail and is it needed badly ?
Yes i had reinforced hulls, its a definate feature of all my ships now thanks to the amount of battles its won me, they had a battle scanner and ecm, no heavy or reinforced hulls.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Lazerus/impossibletactical.zip

i haven't got the file where my 5 battleships were lost but heres a file where theres :
Mrrshan - 1 battleship,1 cruiser, 1 frigate
My fleet - 4 battleships, 1 fairly weak cruiser, star base, planetary missile base (i think a destroyer aswell)

and i get slaughtered, i remember i stopped his fleet by luck the first time as i managed to kamikaze my last battleship into his and just kill it (rather heroic or what)

The other save is just before i kill the silicoids.

About the undefended planets i do get star bases/missile+fighter garrisons at nearly all of them but still unless i send my main fleet there then the AI simply walks over them.

[Whoha]

Alright heres the problem, you are going with normal beam weapons(not heavy mount) with only an electronic computer, you are not going to hit anything with that setup(alot of the guns are just missing). You need to put battlescanners and go with heavy mount guns(or just stick with missiles, though missiles are probably obsolete at this point in the game). But you need to trade,steal,research, or conquer a better targeting computer. Also early on in the game, throw up a space academy and keep your ships camped out over that system so they get experience.

the Cats on the other hand, have +50 ship offense pick, warlord so higher level crews,battlescanners, so they are hitting you.

[Whoha]

Also you should have gone with radiation shields rather than class 3 shields, shields this early are very poor at blocking damage, and the extra productivity you can get out of those ultra rich radiated worlds you have far outweighs any benefit you are getting from the shields.

[Whoha]

also, assign your combat leaders, the pilot guy and the combat guy to your attack fleet, it looks like the easiest way for you to take out a starbase is to have enough ships to rush up to it and board it, and you need the combat leader to do that.

[Lazerus]

Well i finished off the silicoid as before, i managed to research plasma cannons before the alkari hit me again, slaughtered them no problem. I haven't bothered going for the gnolams last planet. The Saakra and Humans have called me scum and declared war however this time the heavy mounted plasma cannons are really making a difference ive booted the humans out of the bottom half of the map and have just razed Sol !
Researching neutronium armour right now as that will make a nice bonus with the tripling effect and im pumping out ships like crazy with the hvy cannons.
Mrrshan haven't started yet and im hoping to have killed the humans and gnolam atleast before they do mention anything and then I'm going to enjoy watching them die

[Lazerus]

Just checked your tip about the computers and nobody else has a better one ! so guess thats next for the research.

[Whoha]

well, if you have battlescanners,heavy mounts, and veteran/elite crews(build space academies at your sites building ships), you can hold off on computer research(the other buildings in the comp line are better and if antaran attacks are on those ships all have the best computers, if you can capture and scrap one, and they also have the best jammers, fighter bays, and other techs you can grab from them which is why I go for combat tech any chance I can)

Also, take orion as soon as you feel you can, you get 4 orion/antaran techs, and a couple of other techs that it does not tell you about(as well as an ultra rich/huge/gaia).

[vmxa1]

Yes I always use HV on beams (well there a few case were you would not) and stay out of reach. The plasma cannons lose effectiveness at ranges.
I make a Space Acad on planets that will make ships, it is important.
I look for leaders to hire that have boost to pilots and fighters and latter ground combat. Keep them in the best ships and in a fleet. If they have their ship destroyed, they need a ship to transfer to or they will be lost.

[vmxa1]

Battle scanner are a must right along with Battle pods. These are the first things you need for a beam ship. You can omit the scanner if it is a missile ship.
The raditation shields is one of the hardest choices for me. To research it or shields. I tend to evalutate my empire to decide. If I have a lot of planets that are radiated and I do not have good food production or the planets may become blockaged, I will go for Rad. This lets me get food started. I will not have Class I shields most of the time, so it is hard to skip Class III as well, but I have done it many times.
One other benefit of the Rad shield is that it makes it impossible for the early beaming ships to bust the planet.
The space academy provides veteran crew instead of green one to start. This is very useful for combat and you will get to elite status sooner. See teh ships with gold stars on them in the tactical screen. That denotes the status of teh crews. The super crews can only be gotten by the Warlord type racial traits.
If you were to have a save from 3500.0 you could replay the game with the changes mentioned and see how much more effective the ships will be in combat.
I sometimes will save off to a folder the start of the game and some key junctures so I can replay with a different tactic to see what works.

[Lazerus]

Gnolams squished, humans beaten to 1 planet in the corner and saakra running away like babies

The mrrshan have seen sense this time and are just sitting there, i might just go and smack them one so i can then bring 3 extra fleets over to my western front for when i get some fuel cells big enough to get my across this annoying dark nebula (just noticed shields dont work when i fight in there? )

Quite a few of my ships now have 2 stars with all the combat they've been in. Also i normally trade for that survival pods tech that lets leaders survive if their ship is destroyed.

[vmxa1]

Ok here is my take on the final patch (131).
In 1.2 you had some problems with over powered weapons, namely Gyro and Plasma Cannons. This was addressed by making Plasma Cannon require more space.
Creative pick was too cheap at 6 picks and was changed to 8 picks.
Initivtive was changed and can be enabled to allow ships to go in order of their inititive.
The other problem was that the Ai was inclined to surrender too easily and pay off with systems at the drop of a hat. This is some what better, but it is still a bit easy to get them to cough up a system. I do not use that exploit any longer and restrict myself to 5% tribute from no more than 2 races, in fact I tend to play as repulsive so I can not demand anything.
I used to take my two starting BB at normal tech and upgrade them and them I could demand a system without ever attacking. In 1.2 they often would declare war on me and no one would attack either and then they would offer a system for peace. How bad is that?
I regard 1.2 as too easy a version to play.
Some bugs were fixed as well.