Defeating the Guardian in MoO1

[Urban Ranger]

Oh man, somebody dragged this old thread back from the grave.

[AIL]

Would you mind me for having done that? I was bored and wanted to talk about Moo 1 and since I already replied to all of the newer ones, I dug deep to find some more.

[catullus]

Originally posted by AIL
Would you mind me for having done that? I was bored and wanted to talk about Moo 1 and since I already replied to all of the newer ones, I dug deep to find some more.

Fair enough.

I try to take Orion in mid-game, preferably at a time when I have secured my planets and while I am at peace with my neighbours. Usually I do it with a mixed fleet, with two or three stacks of almost-identical fighters with mass drivers, 500 to 2500 in each. Usually I get a tech or two while building up, and make a new fighter type accordingly after each discovery. I then throw all my other ships into the fleet. Missile boats, large half-obsolete power ships, my whole weapons force.
Always remember to send a colony ship with the fleet. I've had races steal Orion under my ships before. That stinks. I can always capture it with my superior fleet, but the bonuses are gone.
Sometimes I fail to capture Orion in the first attempt. That doesn't really hurt much, since I have peace with the other races, and the destroyed fleet would anyway be obsolete before I start any conquest.
What really hurts is to have another race to take Orion and have the time to fortify the planet before I have a chance to capture it.

C.

[catullus]

DP
My first, I think.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by catullus
Always remember to send a colony ship with the fleet. I've had races steal Orion under my ships before. That stinks. I can always capture it with my superior fleet, but the bonuses are gone.

I thought you get the techs after defeating the Guardian, not when you colonise Orion?

[catullus]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I thought you get the techs after defeating the Guardian, not when you colonise Orion?

Come to think of it, you probably are right.

C.

[vmxa1]

You get the death ray and three tech for defeating the Guardian. I do not even colonize the planet as I will end the game soon after in Moo1. In Moo2, I come as early as I can, but do not colonize it either as it takes too long to build up. I let them build it up some and then take it.

[Urban Ranger]

I always colonise Orion in both. It's gaia, so you get the growth bonus, and you can always transport colonists from other planets, particularly poor/ultrapoor ones.

[vmxa1]

Once I take down the guardian, I am going on a planet capture spree and do not want to leave ships on Orion to protect it. I just come back after they get a few structures up and I will have ships to spare for protection.

[Urban Ranger]

I usually have "advanced cloning" or at least "cloning" at that point, so I just pay to grow more colonists.

Just different style, I suppose.

[vmxa1]

Well you will stil need to leave ships there to protect it until it gets defenses up. It is much easier a bit later when they already have some colonist and structures in place. The thing is I take it down with no more than 5 or 6 battleships and that is all I have in my whole empire. I want to send them on to hurt some one.

[Zed-F]

Defeating the Guardian is certainly not a requirement, but Orion is a nice place to colonize. The tech itself is more-or-less irrelevant as by the time you are able to take out the Guardian you're usually winning already anyway.

Once you get into the 2nd half of the tech tree it's a good time to start thinking about going after the Guardian. I generally don't go after Orion earlier than the midpoint of the tech tree as prior to that I'm more interested in expanding my empire at the expense of my neighbors. I usually play on Impossible/Small with 3+ enemy AIs, and use about 2000 small ships armed with Megabolt cannon (at minimum) or better, depending on when I get around to it, with fusion drives and inertial stabilizers (or better) for movement, as well as good computers. This kind of fleet usually takes only a modest investment in shipbuilding to create (a dozen turns or so) at this point in the game. I have found that small ships tend to work better against the Guardian than larger ones at this stage of the game due to the kinds of weapons the Guardian is armed with.

[vmxa1]

I do not wait that long as I want the chance to get the X-armor and a free battleship. I go as soon as I have the two 3500 rp techs (Power and Physics). 5 or 6 batleships is plenty, normally I do not lose any.
Loknar will may conquest much easier and often captures the Star Base.

[Zed-F]

You're talking MOO2 of course, I'm referring to MOO 1. Sorry for any confusion.

[AIL]

He shall haved noticed it, since you mentioned "2000 small ships"...

Don't the Scatterpack Xs kill you of? Was Megabolt the white 2-20 with +3 to hit or was it the Orange one?