posted on August 23rd, 2011, 5:35 am
Last edited by
godsvoice on August 23rd, 2011, 5:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ai is playable.
First, I guess a big thing is that you played with 6 (am I right?) AI? 2 klingons, 2 Roms, and 2 Doms? Hard and Normal each?
This is big time bad news. Those are three of the hardest AI to beat. Fed being easiest. Borg depends on map, but one borg AI is generally ok.
Rom are cloak experts. Klingons spam field yard and battle yard quickly. Dom build upward quickly then crush with um V-13?. erg I forget the name of the ship, but yeah.
Admittedly, none were merciless, but like what you had set up, the AI don't crush each other in my experience like that. They'll maintain attacks on all fronts without committing to any one. Hence, they'll balance themselves in an upward manner. Building defences of starbases and turrets. Ships as well.
You will almost certainly lose in the long run this way. After a certain time, in order to win in any efficient way, it would require enormous fleets. As soon as you take out any one AI, you strengthen the others a whole lot because you just took a way a front, and freed up some ships. Eventually they all come for you. You would need stronger allied AIs.
The key to beating all AIs in 1v1 at merciless or above, you vs 2 AI etc, in my view, is offensives. You can't defend against AI. Admittedly, you are going to want phaser platforms for sure. But definitely hit them first. Their first attack of 3 ships is obviously meaningless. But you can build an economy on most maps fast enough to get a healthy fleet of 10-15 and make the first attack.
They'll build 20, send 10, and then have 10 more to play around with, either send them again, or they'll lose all 10 ships attacking, and just have a safety fleet and a head start on the next wave.
Be more aggressive. And probably, play fewer AI. I don't see how you can beat that many.
Is one merciless Dominion ok for you? I think that new map.. up plasma conduit? I often play Feds vs Dom merciless on that one and generally its an easy win.
Your mission is to hit them before they get to their large yard. You have until you see your first V13 I think it is. That's your first sign of trouble. Hopefully you are up and running by the time they get not he board. If you start seeing numbers of V13 times up. Breen cruisers from the large yard, and S7s, also not good signs.
Small yard dom merciless is not a big threat, especially for feds and klings. warpin + saber spam works. build up a small fleet of 8+. get a few phaser platforms up at your expansion. the ai hits it with a few. you crush them then attacks station or two. easy ranks for you. You also need to work at destroying mining and ship yards of theirs. In my view, even though this may be inaccurate, the AI seems to bide its time, you have to make it think its meeting resistance, and then it just plays dumb. if you let it go on a building rampage, it will just swarm you.
keep them rebuilding their small yards over and over, and you win extra time.
build economy up, don't overdo it with defense. build a few platforms at the main expansion the ai attacks, maybe a couple others for safety, then go for ships.
unless you are facing multiple merciless ai. then... haha blue amber is definitely a safe bet.. but you really need to do everything. phaser platforms spam, economy spam, and ship spam.
Klingons are the hardest in my view, they are quick with field yards. but i don't play them much.. rather play as them. Roms are next toughest, they will reach warbirds quickly even early on, and the cloaking is a pain. Dominion are tough... if you let them get to far, but in the early game... in my opinion they kinda suck, but come in to mid game with vengeance. Borg are iffy, they can be hard and easy. Feds are pretty easy.
edit: actually if your splitting them up into teams, you can crush them near the beginning... but thats the strategy to use regardless. its that you can't win if you let it drag on because you focussed the whole time on your defensive.
for the most part, build an economy quickly, build ships quickly, tech up before they do, and attack.
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