Playing as Romulans, by Boggz
1, 2
posted on January 14th, 2011, 9:22 am
Last edited by Boggz on January 15th, 2011, 7:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[align=center]The Romulan Star Empire
A little overall gameplay advice....
By Buggzy
[/align]
... Let me just begin by saying: This is all Boggz' opinion from what he's learned playing the game so far. Don't take this as anything but my own suggestions and my own advice. If you wanna argue with me about it, fine, but you're not likely to change my mind
. I'm no authority on anything, so don't feel as if you need to disagree or the world will blow up 
.
So as we've started to have more competitive games and are currently sitting on the most balanced version of the game we've had thus far, people have been finding themselves confused as certain "counters" don't always pan out for them in games. I thought I'd go ahead and discuss for the Romulans a little bit about how I see Romulan gameplay as a whole and some considerations I had about general tactics beyond the racial themes. I hope it is helpful and fun!
CONTENTS:
1. Ship Conservation.
It's hard to argue with the notion that Romulan ships are the most expensive of the Non-Borg factions. They are this way because they have such a powerful tool in their 2 second cloaking devices. This is one of the (if not the MOST crucial) aspect of how to play Romulans. All ships with a 2 second cloak are able to completely escape after cloaking as long as:
This means that, as long as the enemy does not have many ships or a cloak detect, you will not lose any ships. Keeping in mind when this situation exists and when it doesn't will help you control the map and minimize your losses - critical to success as a Romulan player.
[align=center]Offensive vs. Defensive Traits[/align]
Cornerstone to ship conservation is knowing your ship's defensive capabilities. Nearly all Romulan vessels are equipped with inherent defensive traits to help them survive and fight again. What's important is knowing how and when to best utilize those traits.
The remaining vessels - (Shrike, Serkas, Griffin, Norexan, Generix Basic, Torp.Rhienn) do not possess any distinct ability to defend themselves beyond their simple shield/hull values and thus are not usually spammable baseline units. They are generally specialist units with either supportive abilities or Offensive passives. They are thus not able to survive as well as the aforementioned vessels and shouldn't make up the bulk of your forces (unless your opponent stupidly sticks to poor tactics).
Getting a good idea of when your opponent's can finally bust through your defensive abilities is pretty crucial to knowing how you can control the map. A few Rhienns without Phase plates are unlikely to destroy a miner before help arrives and they are destroyed. However, a pair or even a single Leahval can do damage and escape as long as it has it's repair ability. Likewise, a Disruptor Rhienn can attack and even be engaged by ships with Tactical Weapon Arrays and still win/escape, while a Torpedo Rhienn is much less forgiving on the owner.
Bottom line is: you want the backbone of your fleet to be made up of ships that will hold up well in their timeframe of the game. Specters and Frigates are immensely difficult to destroy as early game ships due to their overall high stats, cheap cost, and decent numbers, while a Warbird Rush may yield stronger ships, but fewer numbers that leaves them more vulnerable to special weapons and decloaking techniques like Manual Targeting. Offensive units like the Shrikes, the Norexans, and the Serkas are specialized for handling certain kinds of nasties (and do so VERY well).
2. Economy and Turrets.
[align=center]"Rommie miners are sooo weak", "Romulan turrets suck", "Rom economy is too hard to keep going" [/align]
... these are things lots of people say. They're all correct. Rommies have the weakest miners in the game, the most elaborate and difficult turret setup, and a tough economic outlook .... because they have some of the best map control with their units. It HAS to be this way or there would be no stopping them. Your economy is tied hand-in-hand with your ability to control where and when your opponent moves. Get over it and learn what you need to do to be sneaky-sneaky!
If your miners are attacked, you can pretty easily kiss them goodbye. They build quickly and die quickly. Instead of freaking out, run them away at a sign of trouble and take action according to whats happening. Don't waste money trying to build Turrets and a Transmitter right away, just use your ships to keep your opponent on the defensive (without taking losses yourself). Your ships ARE your turrets. They are cloaking, mobile turrets that can be repaired. The actual turrets are mere distractions until you get a Transmitter and even then are basically a nuisance that says "you can attack my miners, but you can't stay here forever". Use several of your own vessels as defense and, if you were a good Rommie and kept your ships alive, you'll eventually be able to use some res to make 2-3 turrets with a Transmitter that will let you scurry off to attack with any defending ships.
Let me say that again:
[align=center]YOUR SHIPS ARE YOUR TURRETS.[/align]
You 'defend' your mining by not letting you opponent attack. Facing another cloaking opponent can be a very difficult task, but making sure you build the right counter to their units will allow you to both attack and defend at the same time with smaller sized forces. If your Romulan opponent sends all 5 of his Shrikes to your expansion to eat your miners, while you have 1 Frigate defending and 2 Rhienns attacking HIS/HER mining, your Frigate will do plenty of damage while taking very little while your 2 Rhienns are damaging/preventing his mining at the same time. Get it? Certain ships make for very difficult defenders due to their defensive passives, while others make for excellent attackers.
3. Teching Up.
[align=center]"Will spending 1400+ di on the Warbird Yard and nearly 1k+ di per Warbird going to do me more good than the same 2500+ di spent on small yard vessels? Is what I need in this game going to happen by making Warbirds?"[/align]
Warbirds were one of my favorite things in TNG. They were always so ominous and so sinister. They were one of the few ships to consistently be regarded by the Ent-D as more than a match for themselves. Sadly, (in Boggz's opinion), nearly all games played as Romulans can be won without having to invest in the extremely expensive Warbirds. D'Deridex are (as of 3.1.5) the one major source of strong torpedo firepower that the Romulans have and should not be discounted, but I am of the opinion that the small yard contains several vessels that, together, can cover nearly the entire spectrum of ships you'll be facing.
I find that, in most cases the answer is no. Most Warbirds are so expensive that, even on 2 moon pairs, you cannot keep a constant production of Warbirds along with Staryard vessels. There are some pretty clear examples to contradict this statement, but I feel confident in saying that, 4 out of 5 times the Warbird Yard expense is not worth the sacrifice in small ship production. There is, however, one notable exception: The Mighty Norexan
.
[align=center]The Norexan[/align]
Seemingly an expensive, Offensive-Oriented, pulse-based Battleship with a nasty weakness of increased damage from short ranged vessels, the Norexan has one Ace up it's sleeve that alone makes it worth the expense to the WB Yard: Multipurpose Weapons. This weapon allows the Norexan to do enormous damage even to ships that would normally take reduced damage from pulses. It simply shreds weaker vessels and gives quick ranks to the Norexan. Seriously ... the MPW is worth it's weight in gold. As long as you can micro carefully which ships are using it and which ships are letting their energy recharge you'll be able to deal devastating blows rapidly.
[align=center]Multi-Purpose Weapons broadens the uses of the Norexan away from ships it was designed to counter. This is invaluable when your vessels are expensive and difficult to mass-produce.[/align]
4. Specialists
Finally we come to some of the more interesting, yet more difficult to use vessels that the Rommies have. First off I'll just say that, before anyone bitches at me, that you CAN do anything you want with these vessels. If you wanna spam Griffins because you think that's the UBERPWNZORS, then be my guest
.
Along with Offensive vs. Defensive Traits, certain vessels are not set up to be very effective baseline vessels. The Serkas is a great example. People want to use them against fleets of ships, but it's really difficult to do and in most cases won't be very effective.
Serkas
A GREAT use of the Serkas is to make just one or two and slowly park them outside a mining station, a staryard, or a turret and wait. Don't be greedy, just wait
... wait until you know exactly where your enemy's forces are and can safely crush their entire building in rapid time! Rommies have the best scouting in the game - use it! Watch your Serk gain ranks quickly as it blasts a mining station to pieces and kills the miners parked in it at the same time. As soon as someone runs over to shoo you away, you cloak and pray they can't decloak you 
.
Griffin
Probably the most likely one you'll see massed out of the 'misfits', but really the Griffin always tends to be a bit more fragile than people would like. Part of that is because it's got just 20 defense, medium range, and no defensive trait besides cloak. It's not a true support ship by class, but that's mainly it's role. There are exceptions as always, but overall it's not good to make Griffins your grunts. Their special turns off weapons in an AoE - AWEsome so use it when you can, but the damage it does even in groups is negligible so assume that it's job is really to support Rhiens/Leahvals/Gens with it's special.
Shrikes
Boy do I like Shrikes. Fast, medium ranged, with a very useful passive and the cool ability to turn off weapons of destroyers! GIMME! However, Shrikes really shouldn't be regarded as a baseline unit to base your fleet on unless your opponent is dumb enough to continue making short range vessels against your sexy Shrikes. Things like Dodes, Canav/Sabers, B-8's, and even things the Shrike is supposed to counter like the Kvort and Leahval will all bring the fight to the shrike really hard. The Shrike has the defense of a Rhienn and no phase plates, so you have to be REALLY careful how you choose to fight and only build them when needed or when you know you're GOING to need them. If you do want to go up against Leahvals with Shrikes you're making a good decision - but you need to make sure that you outnumber them (not hard) and you work towards getting their anti-support special ability.
D'Deridex
People are gonna squeal at me over this one. Big D's are excellent for taking down structures, but structures can be ignored often times in favor of just destroying their miners/warships until they realize that they can no longer meet you in battle on equal terms. If you destroy all their ships and have an overwhelming fleet that isn't good at killing buildings, you are not likely to lose for not having built the anti-building ships. Turrets and Starbases don't win games! Thus people will often say 'GG' when they know they can't outfight your fleet.
In accordance with that, the Big D does have some excellent uses and some great things going for it: It's an incredibly strong battleship with the best standard cloak. It's the Rommie's primary source of Torpedo damage, and it's special is of a supportive nature like the Griffin. My only reason for putting it here is that I feel the small yard offers ships that can pick up the uses of a Big D quite well without the investment in the Large Yard. Big D's are an excellent vessel to field against Borg in my opinion as the Torpedo firepower hits on the mainly large-sized Borg ships, the hull can withstand a cloak under fire, and they are natural tech-up progression from Leahvals and Torpedo Rhienns that also perform wonderfully against Borg.
A little overall gameplay advice....
By Buggzy
[/align]... Let me just begin by saying: This is all Boggz' opinion from what he's learned playing the game so far. Don't take this as anything but my own suggestions and my own advice. If you wanna argue with me about it, fine, but you're not likely to change my mind
. I'm no authority on anything, so don't feel as if you need to disagree or the world will blow up .So as we've started to have more competitive games and are currently sitting on the most balanced version of the game we've had thus far, people have been finding themselves confused as certain "counters" don't always pan out for them in games. I thought I'd go ahead and discuss for the Romulans a little bit about how I see Romulan gameplay as a whole and some considerations I had about general tactics beyond the racial themes. I hope it is helpful and fun!
CONTENTS:
- Ship Conservation
- Economy and Turrets
- Teching Up
- Specialists
1. Ship Conservation.
It's hard to argue with the notion that Romulan ships are the most expensive of the Non-Borg factions. They are this way because they have such a powerful tool in their 2 second cloaking devices. This is one of the (if not the MOST crucial) aspect of how to play Romulans. All ships with a 2 second cloak are able to completely escape after cloaking as long as:
- They are not destroyed before cloaking
- They are not detected
- They are not boarded
This means that, as long as the enemy does not have many ships or a cloak detect, you will not lose any ships. Keeping in mind when this situation exists and when it doesn't will help you control the map and minimize your losses - critical to success as a Romulan player.
[align=center]Offensive vs. Defensive Traits[/align]
Cornerstone to ship conservation is knowing your ship's defensive capabilities. Nearly all Romulan vessels are equipped with inherent defensive traits to help them survive and fight again. What's important is knowing how and when to best utilize those traits.
- Rhienn - Phase plates gives you a 25 second window to reduce damage during your cloak.
- Leahval - Repair/Reeling allow you to repair damage and cloak out.
- Frig/Spec - have decent defensive values and strong weapon-resistant passives.
- Dis.Rhenn - High defensive value.
- Eresis - ADAI, fast speed.
- Cehlaer - HDSG.
- D'Deridex - Strong hull
- Tavara - 1 second perfect cloak.
The remaining vessels - (Shrike, Serkas, Griffin, Norexan, Generix Basic, Torp.Rhienn) do not possess any distinct ability to defend themselves beyond their simple shield/hull values and thus are not usually spammable baseline units. They are generally specialist units with either supportive abilities or Offensive passives. They are thus not able to survive as well as the aforementioned vessels and shouldn't make up the bulk of your forces (unless your opponent stupidly sticks to poor tactics
).Getting a good idea of when your opponent's can finally bust through your defensive abilities is pretty crucial to knowing how you can control the map. A few Rhienns without Phase plates are unlikely to destroy a miner before help arrives and they are destroyed. However, a pair or even a single Leahval can do damage and escape as long as it has it's repair ability. Likewise, a Disruptor Rhienn can attack and even be engaged by ships with Tactical Weapon Arrays and still win/escape, while a Torpedo Rhienn is much less forgiving on the owner.
Bottom line is: you want the backbone of your fleet to be made up of ships that will hold up well in their timeframe of the game. Specters and Frigates are immensely difficult to destroy as early game ships due to their overall high stats, cheap cost, and decent numbers, while a Warbird Rush may yield stronger ships, but fewer numbers that leaves them more vulnerable to special weapons and decloaking techniques like Manual Targeting. Offensive units like the Shrikes, the Norexans, and the Serkas are specialized for handling certain kinds of nasties (and do so VERY well).
2. Economy and Turrets.
[align=center]"Rommie miners are sooo weak", "Romulan turrets suck", "Rom economy is too hard to keep going" [/align]
... these are things lots of people say. They're all correct. Rommies have the weakest miners in the game, the most elaborate and difficult turret setup, and a tough economic outlook .... because they have some of the best map control with their units. It HAS to be this way or there would be no stopping them. Your economy is tied hand-in-hand with your ability to control where and when your opponent moves. Get over it and learn what you need to do to be sneaky-sneaky!
If your miners are attacked, you can pretty easily kiss them goodbye. They build quickly and die quickly. Instead of freaking out, run them away at a sign of trouble and take action according to whats happening. Don't waste money trying to build Turrets and a Transmitter right away, just use your ships to keep your opponent on the defensive (without taking losses yourself). Your ships ARE your turrets. They are cloaking, mobile turrets that can be repaired
. The actual turrets are mere distractions until you get a Transmitter and even then are basically a nuisance that says "you can attack my miners, but you can't stay here forever". Use several of your own vessels as defense and, if you were a good Rommie and kept your ships alive, you'll eventually be able to use some res to make 2-3 turrets with a Transmitter that will let you scurry off to attack with any defending ships.Let me say that again:
[align=center]YOUR SHIPS ARE YOUR TURRETS.[/align]
You 'defend' your mining by not letting you opponent attack. Facing another cloaking opponent can be a very difficult task, but making sure you build the right counter to their units will allow you to both attack and defend at the same time with smaller sized forces. If your Romulan opponent sends all 5 of his Shrikes to your expansion to eat your miners, while you have 1 Frigate defending and 2 Rhienns attacking HIS/HER mining, your Frigate will do plenty of damage while taking very little while your 2 Rhienns are damaging/preventing his mining at the same time. Get it? Certain ships make for very difficult defenders due to their defensive passives, while others make for excellent attackers.
3. Teching Up.
[align=center]"Will spending 1400+ di on the Warbird Yard and nearly 1k+ di per Warbird going to do me more good than the same 2500+ di spent on small yard vessels? Is what I need in this game going to happen by making Warbirds?"[/align]
Warbirds were one of my favorite things in TNG. They were always so ominous and so sinister. They were one of the few ships to consistently be regarded by the Ent-D as more than a match for themselves. Sadly, (in Boggz's opinion), nearly all games played as Romulans can be won without having to invest in the extremely expensive Warbirds. D'Deridex are (as of 3.1.5) the one major source of strong torpedo firepower that the Romulans have and should not be discounted, but I am of the opinion that the small yard contains several vessels that, together, can cover nearly the entire spectrum of ships you'll be facing.
I find that, in most cases the answer is no. Most Warbirds are so expensive that, even on 2 moon pairs, you cannot keep a constant production of Warbirds along with Staryard vessels. There are some pretty clear examples to contradict this statement, but I feel confident in saying that, 4 out of 5 times the Warbird Yard expense is not worth the sacrifice in small ship production. There is, however, one notable exception: The Mighty Norexan
.[align=center]The Norexan[/align]
Seemingly an expensive, Offensive-Oriented, pulse-based Battleship with a nasty weakness of increased damage from short ranged vessels, the Norexan has one Ace up it's sleeve that alone makes it worth the expense to the WB Yard: Multipurpose Weapons. This weapon allows the Norexan to do enormous damage even to ships that would normally take reduced damage from pulses. It simply shreds weaker vessels and gives quick ranks to the Norexan. Seriously ... the MPW is worth it's weight in gold. As long as you can micro carefully which ships are using it and which ships are letting their energy recharge you'll be able to deal devastating blows rapidly.
[align=center]Multi-Purpose Weapons broadens the uses of the Norexan away from ships it was designed to counter. This is invaluable when your vessels are expensive and difficult to mass-produce.[/align]
4. Specialists
Finally we come to some of the more interesting, yet more difficult to use vessels that the Rommies have. First off I'll just say that, before anyone bitches at me, that you CAN do anything you want with these vessels. If you wanna spam Griffins because you think that's the UBERPWNZORS, then be my guest
.Along with Offensive vs. Defensive Traits, certain vessels are not set up to be very effective baseline vessels. The Serkas is a great example. People want to use them against fleets of ships, but it's really difficult to do and in most cases won't be very effective.
Serkas
A GREAT use of the Serkas is to make just one or two and slowly park them outside a mining station, a staryard, or a turret and wait. Don't be greedy, just wait
... wait until you know exactly where your enemy's forces are and can safely crush their entire building in rapid time! Rommies have the best scouting in the game - use it! Watch your Serk gain ranks quickly as it blasts a mining station to pieces and kills the miners parked in it at the same time. As soon as someone runs over to shoo you away, you cloak and pray they can't decloak you .Griffin
Probably the most likely one you'll see massed out of the 'misfits', but really the Griffin always tends to be a bit more fragile than people would like. Part of that is because it's got just 20 defense, medium range, and no defensive trait besides cloak. It's not a true support ship by class, but that's mainly it's role. There are exceptions as always, but overall it's not good to make Griffins your grunts. Their special turns off weapons in an AoE - AWEsome
so use it when you can, but the damage it does even in groups is negligible so assume that it's job is really to support Rhiens/Leahvals/Gens with it's special.Shrikes
Boy do I like Shrikes
. Fast, medium ranged, with a very useful passive and the cool ability to turn off weapons of destroyers! GIMME! However, Shrikes really shouldn't be regarded as a baseline unit to base your fleet on unless your opponent is dumb enough to continue making short range vessels against your sexy Shrikes. Things like Dodes, Canav/Sabers, B-8's, and even things the Shrike is supposed to counter like the Kvort and Leahval will all bring the fight to the shrike really hard. The Shrike has the defense of a Rhienn and no phase plates, so you have to be REALLY careful how you choose to fight and only build them when needed or when you know you're GOING to need them. If you do want to go up against Leahvals with Shrikes you're making a good decision - but you need to make sure that you outnumber them (not hard) and you work towards getting their anti-support special ability.D'Deridex
People are gonna squeal at me over this one
. Big D's are excellent for taking down structures, but structures can be ignored often times in favor of just destroying their miners/warships until they realize that they can no longer meet you in battle on equal terms. If you destroy all their ships and have an overwhelming fleet that isn't good at killing buildings, you are not likely to lose for not having built the anti-building ships. Turrets and Starbases don't win games! Thus people will often say 'GG' when they know they can't outfight your fleet.In accordance with that, the Big D does have some excellent uses and some great things going for it: It's an incredibly strong battleship with the best standard cloak. It's the Rommie's primary source of Torpedo damage, and it's special is of a supportive nature like the Griffin. My only reason for putting it here is that I feel the small yard offers ships that can pick up the uses of a Big D quite well without the investment in the Large Yard. Big D's are an excellent vessel to field against Borg in my opinion as the Torpedo firepower hits on the mainly large-sized Borg ships, the hull can withstand a cloak under fire, and they are natural tech-up progression from Leahvals and Torpedo Rhienns that also perform wonderfully against Borg.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 9:37 am
posted on January 14th, 2011, 10:25 am
posted on January 14th, 2011, 2:01 pm
i agree on most of this, nice work boggz.
i will oppose you on birds tho. they are awesome they are massive ships with brilliant cloaks. and their hull strength is enough to make it easy to cloak them away. i love birds and i always try to make them. i agree with u on MPW (my initials lol) i used them recently, they are as awesome as described, they do impressive damage and are worth every penny. i also think the eresis is impressive with its speed.
i submit another piece of early game advice. i love early raiding, and getting out there with the first ships to supply some pain to my enemy.
i like to build a couple rhienns in every match, and sometimes i make more than 2 before teching up to leavhals or whatnot. 1 rhienn on its own isnt a threat to miners, but i like to use it thus: build a rhienn and immediately send it to enemy main base. send second rhienn to guard my own expansion building. by the time both arrive, i already have phase plates (one of the most awesome specials evarr - its funny, nobody ever used unrefitted rhienns cos they werent as useful, so the devs gave them something super useful ) so i decloak the first rhienn and fire on their miners, obviously it wont get a kill, but they will retreat them all to their starbase. if they are going out harassing and your rhienn isnt killing their miners they will probably stay out harassing for a while. thats when your second rhienn decloaks and fends their 2-3 ships off with phase plates, they wont get your second rhienn cos of phase plates, and by the time phase plates wears off and they wanna harass some more, your third built ship can probably get out there to help. all this time you have kept their main base mining inactive with 1 rhienn if they go after the harassing rhienn, phase plates will keep it safe and you got to expand unmolested while they still lost mining for a short while. its how i use 1 vessel to raid and stop them mining. it works well cos the rhienn has an awesome defensive special and long range weapons for scaring miners without getting unwanted attention from starbases.
i will oppose you on birds tho. they are awesome
they are massive ships with brilliant cloaks. and their hull strength is enough to make it easy to cloak them away. i love birds and i always try to make them. i agree with u on MPW (my initials lol) i used them recently, they are as awesome as described, they do impressive damage and are worth every penny. i also think the eresis is impressive with its speed.i submit another piece of early game advice. i love early raiding, and getting out there with the first ships to supply some pain to my enemy.
i like to build a couple rhienns in every match, and sometimes i make more than 2 before teching up to leavhals or whatnot. 1 rhienn on its own isnt a threat to miners, but i like to use it thus: build a rhienn and immediately send it to enemy main base. send second rhienn to guard my own expansion building. by the time both arrive, i already have phase plates (one of the most awesome specials evarr - its funny, nobody ever used unrefitted rhienns cos they werent as useful, so the devs gave them something super useful
) so i decloak the first rhienn and fire on their miners, obviously it wont get a kill, but they will retreat them all to their starbase. if they are going out harassing and your rhienn isnt killing their miners they will probably stay out harassing for a while. thats when your second rhienn decloaks and fends their 2-3 ships off with phase plates, they wont get your second rhienn cos of phase plates, and by the time phase plates wears off and they wanna harass some more, your third built ship can probably get out there to help. all this time you have kept their main base mining inactive with 1 rhienn if they go after the harassing rhienn, phase plates will keep it safe and you got to expand unmolested while they still lost mining for a short while. its how i use 1 vessel to raid and stop them mining. it works well cos the rhienn has an awesome defensive special and long range weapons for scaring miners without getting unwanted attention from starbases.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 2:41 pm
Boggz wrote:[align=center]The Romulan Star Empire
A little overall gameplay advice....
By Buggzy
So as we've started to have more competitive games and are currently sitting on the most balanced version of the game we've had thus far, people have been finding themselves confused as certain "counters" don't always pan out for them in games. I thought I'd go ahead and discuss for the Romulans a little bit about how I see Romulan gameplay as a whole and some considerations I had about general tactics beyond the racial themes. I hope it is helpful and fun!
Ship Conservation.
It's hard to argue with the notion that Romulan ships are the most expensive of the Non-Borg factions. They are this way because they have such a powerful tool in their 2 second cloaking devices. This is one of the (if not the MOST crucial) aspect of how to play Romulans. All ships with a 2 second cloak are able to completely escape after cloaking as long as:
- They are not destroyed before cloaking
- They are not detected
- They are not boarded
This means that, as long as the enemy does not have many ships or a cloak detect, you will not lose any ships. Keeping in mind when this situation exists and when it doesn't will help you control the map and minimize your losses - critical to success as a Romulan player.
[align=center]Offensive vs. Defensive Traits[/align]
Cornerstone to ship conservation is knowing your ship's defensive capabilities. Nearly all Romulan vessels are equipped with inherent defensive traits to help them survive and fight again. What's important is knowing how and when to best utilize those traits.The remaining vessels - (Shrike, Serkas, Griffin, Norexan, Generix Basic, Torp.Rhienn) do not possess any distinct ability to defend themselves beyond their simple shield/hull values and thus are not usually spammable baseline units. They are generally specialist units with either supportive abilities or Offensive passives. They are thus not able to survive as well as the aforementioned vessels and shouldn't make up the bulk of your forces (unless your opponent stupidly sticks to poor tactics
- Rhienn - Phase plates gives you a 25 second window to reduce damage during your cloak.
- Leahval - Repair/Reeling allow you to repair damage and cloak out.
- Frig/Spec - have decent defensive values and strong weapon-resistant passives.
- Dis.Rhenn - High defensive value.
- Eresis - ADAI, fast speed.
- Cehlaer - HDSG.
- D'Deridex - Strong hull
- Tavara - 1 second perfect cloak.
Getting a good idea of when your opponent's can finally bust through your defensive abilities is pretty crucial to knowing how you can control the map. A few Rhienns without Phase plates are unlikely to destroy a miner before help arrives and they are destroyed. However, a pair or even a single Leahval can do damage and escape as long as it has it's repair ability. Likewise, a Disruptor Rhienn can attack and even be engaged by ships with Tactical Weapon Arrays and still win/escape, while a Torpedo Rhienn is much less forgiving on the owner.
Bottom line is: you want the backbone of your fleet to be made up of ships that will hold up well in their timeframe of the game. Specters and Frigates are immensely difficult to destroy as early game ships due to their overall high stats, cheap cost, and decent numbers, while a Warbird Rush may yield stronger ships, but fewer numbers that leaves them more vulnerable to special weapons and decloaking techniques like Manual Targeting. Offensive units like the Shrikes, the Norexans, and the Serkas are specialized for handling certain kinds of nasties (and do so VERY well).
Economy and Turrets.
"Rommie miners are sooo weak", "Romulan turrets suck", "Rom economy is too hard to keep going" ... these are things lots of people say. They're all right. Rommies have the weakest miners in the game, the most elaborate and difficult turret setup, and a tough economic outlook .... because they have some of the best map control with their units. It HAS to be this way or there would be no stopping them. Your economy is tied hand-in-hand with your ability to control where and when your opponent moves.
If your miners are attacked, you can pretty easily kiss them goodbye. They build quickly and die quickly. Instead of freaking out, run them away at a sign of trouble and take action according to whats happening. Don't waste money trying to build Turrets and a Transmitter right away, just use your ships to keep your opponent on the defensive (without taking losses yourself). Your ships ARE your turrets. They are cloaking, mobile turrets that can be repaired
Let me say that again:
[align=center]YOUR SHIPS ARE YOUR TURRETS.[/align]
You 'defend' your mining by not letting you opponent attack. Facing another cloaking opponent can be a very difficult task, but making sure you build the right counter to their units will allow you to both attack and defend at the same time with smaller sized forces. If your Romulan opponent sends all 5 of his Shrikes to your expansion to eat your miners, while you have 1 Frigate defending and 2 Rhienns attacking HIS/HER mining, your Frigate will do plenty of damage while taking very little while your 2 Rhienns are damaging/preventing his mining at the same time. Get it? Certain ships make for very difficult defenders due to their defensive passives, while others make for excellent attackers.
Teching Up.
Warbirds were one of my favorite things in TNG. They were always so ominous and so sinister. They were one of the few ships to consistently be regarded by the Ent-D as more than a match for themselves. Sadly, (in Boggz's opinion), nearly all games played as Romulans can be won without having to invest in the extremely expensive Warbirds. D'Deridex are (as of 3.1.5) the one major source of strong torpedo firepower that the Romulans have and should not be discounted, but I am of the opinion that the small yard contains several vessels that, together, can cover nearly the entire spectrum of ships you'll be facing. The question you have to ask yourself when getting the Warbird yard is:
[align=center]"Will spending 1400+ di on the Warbird Yard and nearly 1k+ di per Warbird going to do me more good than the same 2500+ di spent on small yard vessels? Is what I need in this game going to happen by making Warbirds?[/align]
I find that, in most cases the answer is no. Most Warbirds are so expensive that, even on 2 moon pairs, you cannot keep a constant production of Warbirds and Staryard vessels. There are some pretty clear examples to contradict this statement, but I feel confident in saying that, 4 out of 5 times the Warbird Yard expense is not worth the sacrifice in small ship production. There is, however, one notable exception: The Mighty Norexan
[align=center]The Mighty Norexan[/align]
Seemingly an expensive, Offensive-Oriented, pulse-based Battleship with a nasty weakness of increased damage from short ranged vessels, the Norexan has one Ace up it's sleeve that alone makes it worth the expense to the WB Yard: Multipurpose Weapons. This weapon allows the Norexan to do enormous damage even to ships that would normally take reduced damage from pulses. It simply shreds weaker vessels and gives quick ranks to the Norexan. Seriously ... the MPW is worth it's weight in gold. As long as you can micro carefully which ships are using it and which ships are letting their energy recharge you'll be able to deal devastating blows rapidly. Big D's are excellent for taking down structures, but structures can be ignored as once your opponent quits upon realizing they can no longer hope to outfight your fleet.
Well that's all for now - I'm tired. I'll edit and update this as I think of more. I would like to just say though that all of these things are mainly just my opinions. I've set up some examples that are not water-proof.
Decent guide, nothing i didnt know already but well put good job.
Dont understand that bit about building the 3 turrents and transmitter later on tho because turrents are supposed to be an early raid deterant, in later game they become completely useless. For instance vorchas dont take long to reach and once the klingons have them the turrents are useless.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 5:30 pm
Yes I sometimes build a single turret just to deter raiding a little bit, but frankly I find it far more effective early on to use use those resources on another vessel that can either sit and defend or go and attack .
Btw, did you have to quote the whole damn thing?
@ Myles:
You're welcome to disagree, but the reason I don't recommend sending 1 lonely Rhienn off early to harass is because it won't kill anything and it's VERY likely to be boarded by whatever comes after it. I see that happen all the time and I laugh when someone throws a single Rhienn at my mining 2 minutes into the game. In 80% of circumstances or so, Phase Plates or not, you're very likely to hand that Rhienn over to them .
.Btw, did you have to quote the whole damn thing?
@ Myles:
You're welcome to disagree
, but the reason I don't recommend sending 1 lonely Rhienn off early to harass is because it won't kill anything and it's VERY likely to be boarded by whatever comes after it. I see that happen all the time and I laugh when someone throws a single Rhienn at my mining 2 minutes into the game. In 80% of circumstances or so, Phase Plates or not, you're very likely to hand that Rhienn over to them .posted on January 14th, 2011, 8:19 pm
Boggz wrote:Yes I sometimes build a single turret just to deter raiding a little bit, but frankly I find it far more effective early on to use use those resources on another vessel that can either sit and defend or go and attack
Btw, did you have to quote the whole damn thing?
@ Myles:
You're welcome to disagree
I actually took your advice on building an early turrent to deter an early raid on my mining but it didnt have much of an effect because it constantly switches targets to which ever is the closest. haha it actually ran out of ammo and finished off by 2 briels. Dont want to turn this thread into a long debate but im going to mention this everywhere untill its changed, get rid of the ammo requerments for that turrent PLEASE!!!!.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 9:01 pm
posted on January 14th, 2011, 9:04 pm
Last edited by Tyler on January 14th, 2011, 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 9:08 pm
Kestrel wrote:I actually took your advice on building an early turrent to deter an early raid on my mining but it didnt have much of an effect because it constantly switches targets to which ever is the closest. haha it actually ran out of ammo and finished off by 2 briels.
Well it doesn't work in all situations
. Giving one example of how something didn't work doesn't mean it's not a good idea. Building turrets against B'rels is not a good idea because they do extra damage to the turrets . Like I said, playing against a cloaking race is a much different game.Take it with a grain of salt.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 9:20 pm
posted on January 14th, 2011, 10:39 pm
Thanks for this one. 
i will try the romulans out right away.
i hope you have some of these for the other four races
i will try the romulans out right away.
i hope you have some of these for the other four races
posted on January 14th, 2011, 11:39 pm
Boggz wrote:@ Myles:
You're welcome to disagree
i admitted it wont kill anything, thats a given, the point is that they wont mine. by this time they will have 2 or 3 ships ready to defend, it takes all day to board with that, despite the rhienn's low crew. especially since they are unlikely to have decloak available (ignoring brel which is also low crew, auto stops beaming when crew hits yellow) and once your rhienn changes direction they wont be able to continue beaming. the risk of losing that 1st rhienn is neglible in my opinion, but they wont mine for a while, its a win for the roms
lets please keep the romulan turret complaints in a thread for them, since discussion on rom turrets usually has so many posts it deserves its own topic.
posted on January 14th, 2011, 11:57 pm
posted on January 15th, 2011, 12:54 am
Tryptic wrote:Boggz goes ahead and does it before I get off my ass. Good job. I hate you.
As long as it's attention you're giving me
.with your guide.
Just to clarify, I'm not trying to make a 'guide' or anything, but instead just a user-friendly way of transferring a lot of the great info in the guide into practical thoughts for gameplay. Like "Romulan ships ARE their turrets
" and such .I like Cehlaer as well, but the point of this was just to discuss what works in a practical sense and what gives the most overall return. I don't feel that the Cehlaer gives enough return on it's uses over what you can get from the small yard for a comparable cost. In my opinion the Birds are for VERY specific purposes and do very well against them
.Finally, know when to NOT cloak.
Definitely
This can be a game-changer if you cloak at the wrong time or when you don't have to do so.And @ Myles: You just have to argue about everything, don't you?
You can send your one Rhienn off to peck at miners all you want, but I will recommend against that here .1, 2
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