The borg Assimilation beam

posted on August 19th, 2009, 1:00 pm

Perhaps you know, that I'm a enthusiastic rommies player but i think this is a problem for many races too, especialy for klingons. My problem is that i can handle (at least statistically in more then 50% of the cases ;-) ) any races avatar but the borg assim ava. In my case I go for borg with torp rhienns, but this is surely not the most difficult combination. Every time i try to evade the assim beam i fail to retreat out of range before the crew runs out, even if i just touch the long range circle for duration of one or two shots. The reaction time just does not suffice to turn the ships by time. Though i hold onto what dominus said:


Citing from the Hithchikers guide:

Against the Assimilate Avatar you must expect an early rush of at least one very powerful Assimilator. The Assimilator has long range for its heavy hitting torpedoes and beam (if outfitted with these) as well as its assimilation beam. Be careful to keep your Rhienns at the outward limit of the Assimilator’s range and to recrew them often—even if it means lowering the shields of your other vessels to keep a Rhienn from being captured just long enough to get it out of range. In general, against the Borg it is wisest to seek battle with them constantly, both to distract your opponent from building more modules, and to whittle down their forces so that you can still out micromanage them and not worry about a rush into your base where you are forced to make a stand (and thus where you will lose many ships). Often it is a wise decision to have your Talon scout guard a Borg warship so that you can utilize your superior range as well as keep an eye out for where their vessels are at all times.

I am bound to loose one ship to the enemy or, if i rebeam with all other ships, one ship gets ripped. dditionlly there is the slight lagging which occurs in many games, so it it a considerable problem for balancing.

So now theres my question: Wouldnt it be fair, to reduce the crew drained per second by one third and reduce the energy costs as well? Alternativly you could reduce the range of that weapon?

How do I handle the assimilator problem with klingons?

posted on August 19th, 2009, 1:10 pm

Against the Klingons a quick tech up to either Sus'a' (expand field yard only once, and no need to go to expansion yet) or Veqlaragh works wonders. You can also go for just K'beajQ out of an unexpanded field yard and Sang' as described in the guide now.

With the Romulans (especially as Helev) you should be making about 5 torp Rhienns, and then Tech up to Griffins (about 5) and then to Serkas. Keep in mind that the special weapon for the Rhienn is artillery range. I would make straffing runs with the Rhienns (aka, letting your Rhienn's port/starboard face the Assimilator rather than a head on attack) until you get up to at least your first Griffin (with the Jammer) because otherwise you are correct, it is very hard to turn in time.

posted on August 19th, 2009, 1:23 pm

Last time I had an opponent, with a really fast assimilator, which hit me when i had the fourth rhienn, the fifth halfway ready. Also the problem there was that i could hardly get behind the assim a there was basically his base, 1vs1 maps tend to be small sometimes.   

posted on August 19th, 2009, 1:37 pm

Did you build defensive turrets? That at least gives a small chance to stall.

I should probably put this sort of analysis in the guide next time but small maps reward the Borg and lead to Borg victory almost all of the time while maps that have more than 2 pairs of resources per player reward the non-Borg opponent and lead to a non Borg victory almost all the time. This is due to the way non Borg and Borg expansion works. With Romulans for instance, if you can secure three resource nodes by the time the second Assimilator is sent at you, you've practically already won... as expanding with the Borg is hard and tedious (and it is most difficult to harass with the Assimilate Directive). On a small map, once the Borg take your expansion, it is extremely difficult to win, unless you never expanded at all (but that in turn can slow down your own warmachine worse then never having taken the risk for expanding).

At the current time, the Borg immediate early game is THE stronest of all the factions and unfortunately it is this style which exposes the slight differences in early game for each of the other factions. For instance, both Romulans and the Federation have a tough time (Romulans more so) combating early game Borg... as soon as you hit midgame though (Excelsior II and Intrepids or Griffins/Cehlaers and Support refits) the advantage swings to them. The Dominion and Klingons have a very powerful early game advantage against the Borg (both avatars in fact... though Puretech and Martok a bit better) but their midgame is not quite as strong in my opinion.

posted on September 7th, 2009, 2:42 pm

well for the romulans if you forgoe the rhienns and go for griffins like I do, You'll have much better chances fo winning. And the rommies have the generix support refit which can work wonders with it's plasma mine, plasma torpedo and shield recharge. It's all about building up the tech tree as fast as possbile.

posted on September 7th, 2009, 6:26 pm

If you forgo the Rhienns, you will miss out on the advantage of having artillery and long range attacks... and a long Assim is only a bit slower than a medium range Griffin... which means that you will get hit for longer while not being able to attack. Likewise, you need several Griffins by the time one Assimilator comes your way... and that just isn't that feasible, especially when a good counter to Griffins is to start building Assimilators equipped with Nanite, Regen, and Beam weapons... quick death to the weaker shields on a Griffin (the torp will hit more frequently too--forget about Assimilation). With a Nanite, Regen, Beam Assim, you only need 3 minutes to get one out roughly... by the time that happens, your opponent has one Griffin. You are correct that building up the tech tree is important, but if you skip units that have range advantages etc, it is more like a death sentence in my opinion.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 4:18 am

I ussually manage to get 5 or 6 griffins out by the time his first assimilator comes. I prefer the griffins because they can take and do more damage, plus they have almost 3 times the crew value of the Rhienn and therefore much less susceptible to assimilation beam. Once I get out at least 5 or 6 generix supports, there's not a damn thing he can do against me

posted on September 8th, 2009, 9:35 pm

I ussually manage to get 5 or 6 griffins out by the time his first assimilator comes. I prefer the griffins because they can take and do more damage, plus they have almost 3 times the crew value of the Rhienn and therefore much less susceptible to assimilation beam. Once I get out at least 5 or 6 generix supports, there's not a damn thing he can do against me

Shouldn't be the case... an Assimilator without Auto-Assim takes three minutes to build--by the time you've finished the first tech center, you are up to about 1.5-2 minutes... not to mention construction time for a Griffin . As I said before, against early Griffins, going with non Auto-Assim Assimilators works wonders

Indeed, Generix Supports do kick arse against the Borg: the only problem is staying in range as Auto-Asssims take them down really quick 

[firewarrior1705]

posted on September 8th, 2009, 10:57 pm

Last edited by firewarrior1705 on September 8th, 2009, 11:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've just tried the rhienns tactic, it works only in the first 5 to 10 minutes, then not even the generix supports can't help them as the borg torps kill them in 3 or 4 shots. However by then I have almost a full fleet of generixes

Building 2 or 3 serkas also does wonders, but more than 4 are more a liability than an advantage due to their poor manuverability, low shields and friendly fire.

The romulans are maybe the best race in the game, if played right they are almost unstoppable.

The only race I'm having problems with against the borg are the feds. They have the weakest early game IMO, short ranged and very weak ships. The sabre and monsoon go down in like 2 seconds, intrepids last a bit longer and do some decent damage but are short ranged. The only ship that can do some serious damage is the akira but this is tier 3. I hope they'll at least make the intrepid medium ranged to balance things out 

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:06 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on September 8th, 2009, 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What is your "Rhienn tactic"? I am talking about building about 5 Torp Rhienns, then a few Griffins (maybe another 5) then moving onto Generix Support mixed with more Griffins and eventually Serkas

Oops forgot to mention, the Federation definitely is the strongest faction at the moment. Try looking in the downloadable guide if you want some more detailed help against the Borg. Don't use Intrepids as close fire support, but instead as artillery. Sabers are incredible to be honest. Impossible to assimilate if used right etc. The Feds definitely kick the Borg hard and fast: Canaverals, Excelsior II's, and Intrepids and Sabers just are murder.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:28 pm

What is your "Rhienn tactic"? I am talking about building about 5 Torp Rhienns, then a few Griffins (maybe another 5) then moving onto Generix Support mixed with more Griffins and eventually Serkas

That's the one but I use the generixes in separate fleets if you combine them with serkas they loose speed and manuverability

I'd have to disagree, the romulans are the best IMO because of the generix support refit and the shield recharge ability. Besides, the Norexan and D'deridex have higher offensive values than the sovereign, the D'deridex gains a major damage bonus at officer rank, and if you go for the Talshiar girl as avatar, you get the Cehaler and disruptor bombardment that can fuck up pretty much everything.

Sabers aren't great at all, weak damage, low crew value, they get assimilated in like 3 seconds and I know you could use the impulse boost but against the AI that doesn't work, they'll still be able to target and destroy them very fast

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:30 pm

Well against the humies, the Saber is king of the destroyers . Sensor Blackout makes Shield Recharge look like weak sauce

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:31 pm

Not if you have 16 generixes (like I do mostly) recharging the shields on all your damaged ships in like 2 seconds

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:33 pm

I guess then just pump out the Sovereigns for insta kill. Something like 8 Sovereigns will instantly destroy any number of clumped Generixes using the Engine Overload 

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:37 pm

maybe, but only if you send them unescorted, however with 5 d'deridex, 5 norexans, 5 cehalers and 1 tavara as escort, it won't be that easy.

Now back to topic, if you play as feds and are lucky enough to get a steamrunner or 2 at the first warp-in, the first assimilator goes down like a charm, all you have to do is to draw it's fire with the other ships