How to properly harass an opponent

i dunno but man when I played a 3v3 game and was about to colonize a planet and then some guy sent a few ships and his cap across both the planets and then kept warping them around that was pretty effective

Harassing and raiding works best in an RTS where even the basic extractor doesn't have 2500 HP. In age of empires, you could kill a villager here or a villager there and it would have a significant impact on his economy, because it took about 20 seconds to kill an unguarded villager.

In Sins, by the time your raiding force gets the extractor to half health he's already jumped his ships in and is about to take out your raiders. Now you might get the extractor at the cost of a ship or two, but how much did you really win by taking out a 250 credit extractor and losing about 800 credits and 100 metal in raiders? Not even the lost production from the extractor can begin to cover that.

The closest thing I've seen in sins that is actually kind of effective is when your opponent has more ships than you, so you run through his planets and destroy as much as you can without losing anything while you continue to build fleet.


To make raiding more viable, it might be a good idea for Ironclad to add a trickle cost of credits or something like that for a building to repair itself. Free repairs on a very expensive facility don't make sense anyways, unless there's some intergalactic insurance agency taking care of all the problems.

The best way to harass your enemies is to periodically message them... calling them "n00b5" and "|0053r5". Don't forget the tried and true "y0u 5uck". It's guaranteed to annoy, distract, and pretty much piss off all your enemies.

good luck   

FM

Also a good way to be remembered. And you'll never get a game going again.

Or the player who you message doesn't pay attention to whisper's and then lands his nicely sized and strengthened fleet that he has been building on your doorstep after your latest verbal harrasment.   

In our Lan games, I use 1 Marza, 5 Flak, 5 Carriers (all fighters). Hanger Def are little problem with the Flak/Fighters, and the Marza can take out key buildings, and bombard planets. Your opponent absoulutly must make/move some kind of counter force to deal with it.

I send the above to an ememies rear planets if I see him comming in with a superior force at my front lines; they pull back 90% of the time. . .

@Paulta..

I campaigned for the raiding element in Sins a long time ago , but raiding which has always been the true test of unit control in other games , would simply be a nightmare in Sins for two reasons...

- Raiding requires focused unit control , therefore the ability to manage simultanous battles under direct supervision. The indirect left bar is insufficient and its pretty tedious jumping from one area to another in sins , compared to other games.

- Inorder for there to be raiding , there has to be the ability for players to chase the raiders down , and for the raiders to dodge the chasers - all depending on the unit control skill of the player. Sins simply doenst go down this direction , instead offering a simple and pretty dire unit movement logic with no grace whatsoever (but on purpose to fit the design of the game). Raiding will be a dismal affair in Sins that doesnt compensate the extra micro with the satisfaction of outclassing your enemies unit control.

However what we do have is the neutral asteroids. The saving grace of sins. This does satisfy the raiding element.

Actually the only way to effectively to raid the enemy is, to distract him with ur main fleet then hit one of his back planets with a small bombarment fleet(6-8 deal effectively witht their colonies), the ai does it all the time in single player i also do it in mp too, once in an mp game i took out 4 of a guys colonies using this tactic.

So, the vibe I'm getting here is that you shouldn't harass your enemy. Just send in a large chunk of your fleet and go balls to the wall until he stops you I guess.

Since sooo many ppl on these forums suggest no/little defence, sending in bombers to take down colonies like khire noted is the best form of harrasment.

That's what I've always been confused about, granted I havn't played MP yet, but I would think the defense would still be important.

Having little defenses means you have more money for your fleets and research, and many say that static defenses are easily skirted around. I am sure this is true in MP but to manuever your fleet around static defenses without getting in there ranges would take some time, at least you would think. And that time would give your fleet more time to close the distance to the raided planet.

Definitly Sins makes it real hard to raid since you can't get in get out really fast. Raiding for me is a jump into the system with my fleet, hope that the guys entire fleet isn't at that planet or asteroid, and then try to blow up as much as I can without getting too close to the other phase lane so when the guys fleet starts to show up I can get my ships already heading toward the other phase lane.

Utter nonsense. It might have 4x elements but sins is still primarily an rts game and the usual tactics still apply. Just make sure you lead with a siege cap or carrier. I usually capture 2 asteroids then attack. Every building and point of population you get damages your opponent's economy and forces him to devote resources to defense instead of tech or expansions. If you hit and run there's really little your opponent can do but chase after you endlessly until he masses up a fleet and by that time the game is in your hands.

all you need to do is spam about 200 illumators or phase missle chuckers or carriers to win

300 if its a large fleet game