MOO2 -- Antarans. Help!

[Garumphsh]

Hi there..

Newbie here.. just got MOO2 a couple of weeks ago from a friend, and absolutely love it. Am still learning, but progressing steadily... (or so I think).

Anyways, I have started in tutor mode, and have just recently started playing with Antarans Attack. Every time I do so, I lose. In tutor mode. I get all my colonies blown to bits, and that makes me sad..

Anyways, what kind of strategies, hints, tips, anecdotes, etc. do you have regarding the Antarans, and defeating them (or at least keeping them at bay enough to not be sad...)

Thanks a lot!
rudy

[Garth Vader]

Don't send ships to fight them unless you have high tech, like the plasma cannon.

Missile bases with a star base or better work well, especially if you are cybernetic.

Being creative is the best thing because you get all the planetary defence buildings.

[Yolky]

Here is on you just might not like...

I cann't remeber where I have read or herd this is if the Antarans are attacking YOUR colony there is not much you can do since you are pretty weak in the bigining to mid game for the Antarans, so all you can do is GIVE the colony away for free to anthor race and get bonus points for it and let them deal with the loss and send anthor colony ship there.

Try it and see what happens.

Davor

[ravagon]

Another option if you're just starting out is to use the "accelerated startup" or whatever its called. This gives you six colonies (on a huge map anyway) and a few techs. The real plus is that if you're starting with a "creative" race you will almost always begin with a battlestation around every colony. Even at the beginning with basic weaponry these are capable of fighting off the one or two Antarans unassisted.
Don't be

[vmxa1]

It is advanced technology. Starts you with a number of planets (depends on the map size) and some technology. On the hard level, I have always gotten battlestations with all planets with this option. You are correct, they can handle the Antarians early and any attackers for the beginning.

[The Mad Monk]

If it's early on, write off the colony and try again. If its not too early, any kind of missle WILL destroy an Antaran frigate, if you're able to lob enough of them.

[Dry]

Miniaturisation

I don't remember having problems with Antarans since ages...

Against Antarans, any missile base/fighter garrison will do the job, but if you don't have them, here are some thoughts.

The strat. in this game with weapons is miniaturisation. This is true for missiles as well as for beam weapons. Its better to have many miniaturised old tech weapons than a few new tech ones.

The problem at the beginning of the game for beam weapons is your attack computer. You should be able to kill Antarans even with laser weapons (they have no shields) if it wasn't that poor attack computer. Therefore, at start, I prefer missiles (in fact as long as I connot put a miniaturised batlle scanner on my ships).

My research path at beginning is following:
Research Labs, Automated Fact., Polution Proc.
The PPs miniaturise the nuke mssles, allowing MRVed on ships and more mssles on star bases (and/or missile bases).
If I remember well, PP gives you 7 mssles on a star base, which is enough against an Antaran frigate (3 volleys are enough I think).

Now, if you don't have a Star Base on the attacked planet, try to have many frigates/destroyers with MRVed missiles.
Remember that a hvy laser do at most 6 hp (when it hits), while one single MRV nuke will do 32. I don't remember how many HP does an Antaran frigate have (100 ?), but I think you don't need so much missiles (4 ?) to kill it.

If you don't have that... well, it never hapened to me anymore. When the antarans are coming, I have made contact with other races and I was almost always able to trade missile bases/fighter garrison with one of them. I just need to rush build one on each planet.