New Borg Strategies

posted on March 6th, 2011, 3:03 pm

Assimilate
Build Condunction Matrix
Queue up 6 Resource Assimilators

First resource assimilator goes to main base Tritanium.
Second resource assimilator goes to main base Dilithium.
Third resource assimilator goes to first expansion Tritanium.
Fourth resource assimilator goes to main base Tritanium.
Fifth resource assimilator goes to main base Dilithium.
Sixth resource assimilator goes to first expansion Tritanium.

Once Conduction Matrix is complete, research Technology Nodes Level 1 and wait.

Once you reach about 20 collective connections, build an uplink.  Select the Assimilator chassis and build a 3-assim, 1-regen Assimilator.

Once your assimilator is complete, the opponent should have expanded somewhere.  Go to the most likely expansion or the main base and assimilate the mining station, transport aboard, and decommission it.  You'll get free resources.  Your opponent should be able to provide some resistance, so pull the assimilator out.

By the time you get your assimilator back, you should have enough resources and connections to build another assimilator.  Do the same thing you did with the first assimilator.  3-assim, 1-regen.  Send them both to the mining that you attacked earlier.

About this time, either build more resource assimilators to mine at your first dilithium expansion, or switch your tritanium expansion miners to dilithium.  And focus on building combat assimilators.  Research technology nodes level 2.

Don't forget to keep the pressure on and make sure you don't let the opponent expand.  A smart opponent will go somewhere else to expand.  By this time, you should be able to just about destroy all of the opponents mining.

Please note that this doesn't work against Borg.  Current Borg vs Borg strategy is still being tested.  It's possible that faction specials such as warp-in rush + Intrepid spam, or Ktinga rush is capable of countering this strategy before the first or second Assimilator is complete.  If your opponent destroys one of your assimilators while it's in construction, then the game is probably lost.  Especually if it's your first assimilator.

Optimize
Build Condunction Matrix
Queue up 6 Resource Assimilators

First resource assimilator goes to main base Tritanium.
Second resource assimilator goes to main base Dilithium.
Third resource assimilator goes to first expansion Dilithium.
Fourth resource assimilator goes to main base Dilithium.
Fifth resource assimilator goes to main base Tritanium.
Sixth resource assimilator goes to first expansion Dilithium.

Once Conduction Matrix is complete, research Technology Nodes Level 1 and wait.

Start building double-intercept dodes as quickly as possible.  Send the finished dodes imediatley to the enemy mining (most likely the expansion).  Reinforce your dodes in a safe area and don't let any of your dodes be destroyed.  Wait for the dodes to regen a little and as soon as reinforcements arive, go in for another attack.  Pull your damaged dode out first when it's time to retreat.  Eventually, you should have enough Dilithium to build another dode and research Level 2 Connections.  Research the connections first, then build the rest of the dodes.

About the time you have around 45 collective connections, build an uplink and wait for the connections to reach 50.  Select the sphere chassis and make it a 3-regen, 1-torp sphere.  You might want to replace the torp module with a prime module to drain special energy from enemy vessels (to prevent special weapons use, cloak, ect) but torp is better.

By this time, your opponent may have given up on that expansion and gone somewhere else.  But you should now have enough vessels to counter anything he/she has.  And the game should be about over.

Please note that this strategy is still in it's testing stage, but looks very promising.  The Monsoon counter for dodes is bugged and the Monsoons have way too much resistance to dode weapons than it's supposed to have.  It should be considered bad etequitte to counter dodes with Monsoons because of this bug.  You may want to discuss this before the game starts and discuss alternative counters.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 3:12 pm

Aren't these basically the things Sütee does when playing Borg?^^

posted on March 6th, 2011, 3:27 pm

I didn't get these from Sutee.  I got them from someone else, then modified it to fit various situations.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 6:30 pm

Well the first one is not really new. It's called an Assim Rush.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 6:39 pm

this is assim rush:
Directive: Assimilate - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

if you dont want RIF you should go for a scube/probe start then transition to assims after 2 scubes.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 6:40 pm

The first strategy is a decent coop multiplayer one - I'll add it to the guide after some more investigation

posted on March 6th, 2011, 7:27 pm

The first one is good even with 1v1.  If you get the right Borg player, the Borg win every time!  At least against Federation.  Some go for 4 freighters, build the first assimilator, then go build the other two freighters.

Come to think of it, this strategy makes the Borg look way overpowered.  A couple assimilators can wipe out your entire mining by sending one assimilator to the expansion and one to the main base.  There is no counter for the Federation.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 7:38 pm

There is no counter for the Federation.

lol feds handle borg easily.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 10:01 pm

this is assim rush:
Directive: Assimilate - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

if you dont want RIF you should go for a scube/probe start then transition to assims after 2 scubes.

Oh, haven't looked into the Borg guide for a while. I was thinking about the old assim-assimilator-rush that was so popular in 3.1.2 or so.

posted on March 7th, 2011, 5:09 am

lol feds handle borg easily.

stealing crew assim can not defeat early fed.....

posted on March 7th, 2011, 8:24 am

What's this! posting my strategies on the forums now eh? Can't have that! 
Well, I'm fairly shure that the assim rush I use and the one Sütee uses would be almost if not completely the same. Since borg strategies are usually inflexible and should be done as efficienlty as possible. The main problem with borg is their inflexibility in changing counters. So if your initial strategy fails, you're almost always doomed to lose. But playing borg can be a lot of fun too. I discovered that when trying out some strategies with Chapman. (Yes I know I'm spelling your name wrong. I'm just lazy) Remember two assim assims trying to assim eachother? That was funny! 


Actually, I played several times against the feds with borg, using this strategy. I won nearly everytime.
Micro-ing your assims can be tricky at times. But if you pay attention, you'll wipe out almost everything.
Warpins aren't a problem. Just assim the 2 weakest warpin vessels and recrew them immediatly. Extra firepower means extra pain for your opponent, plus he loses two of his warpin vessels. Intrepids are easy to assim too, since they have only 85 crew. (Which I think is strange, because the crew compliment of voyager was around 150 crew when they chased after the marquis)


Also, i saw a flaw in your description. the assimilator only has three (3) mods, not four. So the assim chassis with 2 assim and 1 regen is correct. Not 3 assim and 1 regen.
The rest seems fine.

Also, once you have 3 or 4 assims up, switch to spheres. Try to get a diamond up as well, with order to chaos full up. Order to chaos is nice, since it boosts up to three? borg vessels for a short while. Making them nearly twice as strong if i remember correctly.

Because if you haven't knocked out the opposition with you first three assims, and you probably lost one or two allready, you will need something stronger then assims. Pyramids will substitute your assims, while spheres will take all the damage, and then regen. You would need a regen sphere for this.

The optimize method needs some more testing. But I'll be happy to test various strategies with you Chapman    We need to try to develop an effective strategy for a borg counter with borg. I'm guessing that will be a tough one. I'll see you on fleetops 

posted on March 7th, 2011, 10:27 am

stealing crew assim can not defeat early fed.....

from the tone of your post it appears you are disagreeing with my point. but our points are the same , feds are good vs borg.

posted on March 7th, 2011, 12:12 pm

I think he meant to say that crew assimilators can defeat early Federation.  In that case, he would be disagreeing with you.

By the way, you did spell my name right in that post.

posted on March 7th, 2011, 12:31 pm

if he meant to say that auto assim assims can deal with feds then i'm gonna oppose that, feds have multiple choices to deal with assims of any kind. monsoons take half damage, and although 60 crew isnt much, the monsoon travels so fast that it should be able to escape if retreated quick. the intrep has 85 crew, the assim can take them all, but only if the intrep sits still, the intrep is fast and can escape as well, and has torps for hurting the assim. also even if an assim takes 1 intrep, that will have drained a lot of energy. warpins all have decent crew and torps, so no problem there. and fast e2 is a common anti borg fed strat, and they have 180 crew, way more than any assim can hope to take in 1 go. the feds have absolutely no trouble in dispatching borg.

posted on March 7th, 2011, 1:18 pm

I have to disagree with you.  This strategy has been tested and the Federation won't be able to keep the economy up long enough to get the numbers required to destroy an Assimilator.  By the time they finally do get the numbers required, there will be two, or maybe three Assimilators to replace the one that was destroyed.  The Federation will take heavy losses just trying to destroy one Assimilator.  With the economy gone, the Federation will loose the rest of it's fleet trying to go after the rest of the Assimilators.  Plus, by now, the other Assimilators have probably drained the crew of the shipyard, captured the yard, and decommissioned it.  Which means no more ships or repairs.  Plus, the Assembly Node building those Assimilators could be right next to your base.  Which means that when the Assimilator comes out, there's no way you can respond in time.

When done correctly, the Federation will loose every time.