The borg Assimilation beam

posted on September 9th, 2009, 12:12 am

On topic would be

How do I handle the assimilator problem with klingons?

Anything is fair game.

Since we are talking about mixed fleets of course, we could of course always imagine the ideal fleets for both factions and then have them fight in our imaginations. If you ever play against or with Feds online however, I'm sure you will find that the Sensor Blackout is king of all abilities. 75% weapons reduction for a radius of medium range over 25 seconds is quite usually murder. You only need one or two Canaverals, and then the entire enemy fleet is quite decently incapacitated for the entirety of the battle.

posted on November 12th, 2009, 9:35 pm

(this is a Assimilation Borg player speaking )
Sensor blackout doesnt affect auto-assimilation. That is the MAIN weapon of the borg. The tac cubes and everything else comes later. The KEY with the borg is to KILL their early assimilators. Run and bait till you reach a point of overwhelming firepower. At the same time. RUSH their base. Just do it. Anything you take out will set back the borg a LONG time. It takes FOREVER to build with the borg. Try to take out the conduction matrix if you can(not really likely). Torpedos are your FRIENDS, assimilators, and most borg targets are BIG and ONLY hull. Phasers arent going to do much when compared with torps. Mayson would be the best to counter borg in federation. If you are dominion attack bombers. A LOT of attack bombers. 

posted on November 12th, 2009, 10:35 pm

(this is a Assimilation Borg player speaking )
Sensor blackout doesnt affect auto-assimilation. That is the MAIN weapon of the borg. The tac cubes and everything else comes later. The KEY with the borg is to KILL their early assimilators. Run and bait till you reach a point of overwhelming firepower. At the same time. RUSH their base. Just do it. Anything you take out will set back the borg a LONG time. It takes FOREVER to build with the borg. Try to take out the conduction matrix if you can(not really likely). Torpedos are your FRIENDS, assimilators, and most borg targets are BIG and ONLY hull. Phasers arent going to do much when compared with torps. Mayson would be the best to counter borg in federation. If you are dominion attack bombers. A LOT of attack bombers. 

Sensor Blackout indeed does not affect auto-assimilation, but since the Assims are usually annihilating your Warp Ins with graviton torpedoes while assimilating your low crew Sabers and Canaverals, Sensor Blackout is still a must. Usually the best thing against Assimilate is to stay at maximum range of course, and just retreat those destroyers out of range before they can be taken. With the Borg it's all about conserving your vessels - rushing will usually get you killed because you won't have enough ships to take out that early Sphere or Assim, and you'll only discover that once you've lost enough ships to break the bank. You are correct, hit and runs are extremely useful and important for keeping the Borg away from your mining - just don't engage if you have a chance of losing your fleet when your Borg opponent is very passive.

posted on November 13th, 2009, 3:17 am

Sensor Blackout indeed does not affect auto-assimilation, but since the Assims are usually annihilating your Warp Ins with graviton torpedoes while assimilating your low crew Sabers and Canaverals, Sensor Blackout is still a must. Usually the best thing against Assimilate is to stay at maximum range of course, and just retreat those destroyers out of range before they can be taken. With the Borg it's all about conserving your vessels - rushing will usually get you killed because you won't have enough ships to take out that early Sphere or Assim, and you'll only discover that once you've lost enough ships to break the bank. You are correct, hit and runs are extremely useful and important for keeping the Borg away from your mining - just don't engage if you have a chance of losing your fleet when your Borg opponent is very passive.

The point is to try and attack the base while the assimilator is OUT of it. That way the base will be vulnerable. Many early borg bases are undefended. Especially the expansions. Also if you can catch a collective uplink early and destroy it you can push back their ship building schedule as well. I agree that the goal is to conserve ships but against an assimilation opponent that just gives them further ships to take.

posted on November 13th, 2009, 3:24 am

Hehe, in that case usually the Assim is at your base then

Usually I find waiting until about minute 6-7 (around 2 Assims) does the trick (when you also have a boatload of ships). With Dominion and Klingons you will have more than enough "artillery" (Sus'a', Bugs and Bombers or Breen Cruisers/Bombers, Veqlaragh), and with Feds you will have two Warp-ins if Mayson, (or can even get out torp turrets by that time strangely enough). Risner will have been producing Intrepids and have some Warp-ins. Romies will have enough nasty Griffins, Rhienns, and begin to get out the Support Generix by then ... and generally the Assim player will have just begun to expand, which makes them ripe for the picking  .

posted on November 18th, 2009, 2:36 pm

From the perspective of an Optimize player, Sensor Blackout is far more terrifying.  We shoot things, and we shoot things alot.  We'll use some Assimilators, but they aren't our backbone.  That's the Sphere...which is hosed by Sensor Blackout.

posted on November 18th, 2009, 9:39 pm

True; although Prime Spheres seem to do a good job of killing the energy on those things fast. Assims still do it better though 

posted on November 19th, 2009, 8:06 am

I'm still trying to figure out how many Holding Beams it takes, btw, to successfully assimilate anything with that weapon.  So far, my answer is...lure the victim ship to a uni-complex enabled station.  Don't bother with the Holding Beam module.  Ever.  Unless you're stealing scouts.  It's too slow, and eats too much power.  Even a Holding Beam Cube can't keep the beam up long enough to be worth much.

posted on November 19th, 2009, 4:45 pm

The Pyramid with 4 holding beams isn't too bad.  It's about the same as an assimilator then.

posted on November 19th, 2009, 5:11 pm

What about a cube with 5 holding beams and 1 tactical armor.... What do you think that'd be like?

posted on November 19th, 2009, 5:37 pm

It would be like if you started playing online again.   So when are you going to start playing online?

posted on November 19th, 2009, 5:56 pm

Hmmm.... I am unsure (maybe when I have a break from modding and all). Though someday it'll happen... someday...