Defense Strategy

posted on December 20th, 2008, 7:21 pm

I was just curios what you guys think are good stategies for deffense. I personaly like to build a bunch of turrets, but they never are strong enough to take on very many enemy ships.

posted on December 20th, 2008, 7:26 pm

In stock A2, about 50 Starbase's.
In Fleet Ops, about 20 of the strongest turrets and 36 warships.

posted on December 20th, 2008, 7:28 pm

If you're playing the Borg in version 3, you won't need much of a defense at all, since they just build assimilators and scout cubes even on AI hard...  :ermm:

As for general defense, I find diversity to be the key. Don't neglect middle sized ships as they are supposed to be the backbone of the fleet. If the game is balanced right, a "destroyer spam" shouldn't work (think stock Armada 2 - the designers made a major goof). A rough guess at the destroyer : cruiser : battleship ratio would be about 2:3:1, in an ideal world. The build costs should reflect this really.

Turrets are just for when things get really bad!!!  :sweatdrop:

posted on December 20th, 2008, 7:32 pm

I never build turrets ir defensiv structures. They are much too weak and dont stand against ship power. I always follow an offesive strategy. I only play multiplayer vs humans to say that.

posted on December 21st, 2008, 2:51 am

If you're playing the Borg in version 3, you won't need much of a defense at all, since they just build assimilators and scout cubes even on AI hard...  :ermm:

As for general defense, I find diversity to be the key. Don't neglect middle sized ships as they are supposed to be the backbone of the fleet. If the game is balanced right, a "destroyer spam" shouldn't work (think stock Armada 2 - the designers made a major goof). A rough guess at the destroyer : cruiser : battleship ratio would be about 2:3:1, in an ideal world. The build costs should reflect this really.

Turrets are just for when things get really bad!!!  :sweatdrop:

Not to mention the more diverse range of abilities in Fleet Ops that virtually necessitates diversifing the fleet... In Aramdas I and II, your fleets would generally consist of at most two different ships, but in Fleet Ops, if you're playing as the Fed's for example, you'll usually want Defiants for weapon killing, Remoores for shield killing, Akiras for numbers, Excelsior IIs for strength and staying power (and perhaps ACS torps), whatever Starfleet Command ships you can lay your hands on (as these are free except for the credit cost and the cost to build SFC) and (maybe) Sovys for engine killing, Intrepids for tricobalts or Intrepids/Monsoons for additional numbers (and and Newtons for repairs)... That's alot of different ships...

posted on December 21st, 2008, 10:54 am

Ships ships and more ships unless you are Dominion.  If you are Dominion then get some turrets as they are semi useful.

posted on December 21st, 2008, 12:02 pm

Ships ships and more ships unless you are Dominion.  If you are Dominion then get some turrets as they are semi useful.

Perimeters are, turrets not so much. Their supply cost is a little deterring to me though - I prefer the Dreadnought

posted on December 21st, 2008, 7:59 pm

Thanx guys!  I was wondering if someone knew the keyboard shortcut for going into the map editor (ingame). I sometimes want to even things out. 

posted on December 21st, 2008, 8:45 pm

Used to be Ctrl-A, not sure what it is now. I also used to use it often!! Nothing like a few (hundred) torpedo turrets to hand the enemy their arse.

posted on December 21st, 2008, 9:01 pm

Hey Doc. I'm likin' this torpedo strategy Doc.

posted on December 21st, 2008, 9:04 pm

Hey Doc, it's been a while! Yeah Doc, I was never the best A2 player so I often "rewarded" myself with a few shiny new ships.

posted on December 21st, 2008, 9:10 pm

Well Doc, you've always been more comfortable with the old integers than with computer games, it has to be said.

posted on December 21st, 2008, 9:10 pm

Quite true Doc, quite true.

[Tyrel]

posted on December 21st, 2008, 10:07 pm

Last edited by Tyrel on December 21st, 2008, 10:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

In my opinion, for a good defense, you need the following:
1-2 Starbases, mostly for their ~300 defense value, they are the main "tanks".
A few turrets, just to fill in the gaps... Don't forget the sensor stations, they're very important to be able to spot ships attacking from long ranges and for the tachyon detector.
Like a dozen or more ships which have at least Long range, or even artillery. Example the ExcelsiorII at the Fed's.
Several special/support ships with their special weapon autonomy enabled, so they make your enemy incapable of fighting or make your own ships more effective (or a little of both).

...and i think that's it.
But always keep a fleet close by, in case something goes wrong...

Ohh and for your ships, in my opinion the Defense command usually works better that the Patrolling. Just remember that the bigger the station is, which your ships orbit, the bigger the radius of orbit will be, so they can get too far away or get stuck in an asteroid field etc. if you set them to defend the space station... Set them on a turret instead...

posted on December 22nd, 2008, 9:49 am

If you're playing the Borg in version 3, you won't need much of a defense at all, since they just build assimilators and scout cubes even on AI hard...  :ermm:

As for general defense, I find diversity to be the key. Don't neglect middle sized ships as they are supposed to be the backbone of the fleet. If the game is balanced right, a "destroyer spam" shouldn't work (think stock Armada 2 - the designers made a major goof). A rough guess at the destroyer : cruiser : battleship ratio would be about 2:3:1, in an ideal world. The build costs should reflect this really.

Turrets are just for when things get really bad!!!  :sweatdrop:

You haven't let the borg live long enough =P I've seen the building pyramids (It was my first game, I was playing as the borg against the AI, and I let them get way to ahead of themselves. needless to say it was a pain to retake the map).

That having been said, I myself am a fan of the Turret with a small number of ships to back it up. Early game you can build mining outpost and dispatch small numbers of destroyers or cruisers to deal with just about any attacker, And from there as you expand you make the ships that are defending more and more powerful. That way you're mines will never be under any real threat of attack, and no matter where the enemy goes they will be facing at least some heavy resistance. Of course if their main fleet is punching through you're pretty much up a creek no matter what you do.

I love defense as the borg because if something gets to close to your main base and you have the resources you can have a ship to deal with it in seconds. But yeah, really the turrets in the game are nullfied once the heavy cruisers roll out. And honestly they're not all that great for taking on cruisers. For the amount of time and resources you'd put in to them they aren't quite worth it. Starbases on the other hand are actually worth the money you put in, fully upgraded anything but a fleet of capital ships should be put through enough trouble to allow you to build some kind of defense.

On that note, always send ships before constructors. It may seem silly, but scouting ahead can save you resources, it also gives a small defense fleet with which to work off of