Fed Strategy vs AI only

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 8:23 am

Ok, try this against a human player and be prepared to be owned.  Vs. AI only.

You can make mega money as the feds and lots of ships all without building a single ship.  It requires quite a bit of turtleing and and unless you are very good you will want to play on a defensive map (Nirvana II comes to mind).

It relies on the fact that when a warp-in vessel reaches rank 5 (two gold bars) they take less (usually zero except for Descent) warp-in slots.

First off you need to tech as quick as possible to Warp-in.  So, if the AI rushes you quickly you could be out of luck (again, why defensive map is useful).  As soon as warp-in is available send for your first ships.

Now you need to keep your base defended of course but turrets can help out here a lot.  Since you are not building ships or doing research you should have plenty of money for tons and tons of turrets  Send your warp-in ships out harrassing, try not to loose any choosing safety over kills as each ship lost costs you a lot of time.  You are aiming to get two gold bars on each ship.  To help with this I retire ships which have achieved this back to base and start forming a second fleet comprised of the experienced ships and focusing on getting kills with the inexperienced ships.  Just keep then using warp-in whenever you can.

Given enough time you can get massive fleets comprised of only warp-in ships all with two gold bars and a few promoted to elite rank. 

Ok, its long a boring (in a way) and not really in the spirit of fleet ops, but was fun to do once.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:05 am

Normal warpin ships take 1 slot each, when they reach the first officer rank (1 gold bar, level 4) they get the Battle Bridge passive, reducing their consumption of slots down to 0. descents take 4 slots when warping in, when they become officer level (level 4) they then take only 3. so dont warp in descents lol.

so yes its possible to get infinitely many warpins, but each has be rank.

as for which to vet, against anything but borg you should vet the galaxies and steamies, against borg vet something else, as the shield punching isnt terribly more helpful. torp nebs as vet is useful as they will allow you to use more tricobalts.

the ai wont rush you with much before u can get a turret up. play as mayson, you wont need the cost reduction on chassis research as you wont be doing any chassis research, and mayson's turrets are better. start with a phaser turret at each main moon, then 1 at each exp moon. then move to a mix of torp and phaser turrets. dont abandon the phaser turret late game, it doesnt split its damage so it can be useful. remember to put up sensor stations with your walls of turrets to extend the torp turret range to arty, that way the enemy wont outrange them. and it will decloak cloaked enemy ships that will run straight through the ping. get ventures for decloak, and maybe norways to recharge them if you are willing to actually build a ship lol.

this is a really really boring strat lol.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:37 am

Ooops, yes, 4th rank, not 4th, my bad. 

And yes, its a boring strategy (played once, never again).  But this forum is entitled Strategy... doesn't say anything about boring or exciting strategies 

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:39 am

Ooops, yes, 4th rank, not 4th, my bad. 

lolwut? 4th not 4th?

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 12:21 pm

Ok, brain damage is permanent.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 4:53 pm

And pray that you aren't facing the Dominion or Borg AI. 

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 9:44 pm

And pray that you aren't facing the Dominion or Borg AI. 

Why?  The AI regardless of race has the same basic policy.  Spam ships and throw at your base.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:05 pm

The Dominion AI outspams the others, and uses c-11s to allow all it's ships on screen to focus-fire the same target.

The Borg AI spams Borg ships.  You think 4 Sovvies is a pain?  Wait until you get 4 Tac Cubes inbound.

I discovered on Nirvana II that there is a point where the Borg will even break a turret wall, because of how many cubes are sent in.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:09 pm

enough quantum turrets (around 15-20) can eat tac cubes in 2 volleys.

so if turret walls fail, make turret fields

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:19 pm

Walls, fields, eventually the Borg AI will either break it, or cause the game to crash. 

Moral of the story?  Kill the Borg AI first.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 10:21 pm

Walls, fields, eventually the Borg AI will either break it, or cause the game to crash. 

Moral of the story?  Kill the Borg AI first.

the ai will attack before it can get enough cubes to crack a field of quantums.

the ai doesnt know to build up more cubes, it will attack after several are built.

a better moral is to play online, its way more fun.

posted on August 3rd, 2010, 12:27 am

The only thing thats fun to play on nervan 2 is 7 vs 1 lol you will lose.