Why Do None Of The Units That Are Meant To Counter Illuminators Work ?

from Sins Forums

Well I was in a game yesterday where the guy had an army of about 50 illums and 3 cap ships on a heavily defended planet with reapair stations and gun turrets, me and my ally had him cornered and we had captured the majority of the planets and destoyed his other ally. Because I had so many resources I though i'd try a few tactics against him and I was quite suprised as to how good illums are against stuff which is meant to counter them.

First I though I'd just build a fleet of carriers with fighters to take out all his illums and then finish off the cap ships later, I had about 35 carriers full of fighters with fully aupgraded autocannons and a lvl 6 sova capital ship. I sent them to the edge of his gravity well so I couldnt be targeted by his gun turrets and unleashed the fighters, to my dismay the fighters would rather go after his structures and stuff they where not suited to than go after his illums, also they would spend ages flying to the other end of the gravity well to chase down a single bomber that had just been replenished on about 25% health whilst his army of illums started closing in on my carriers. I phased to another planet before they got near to me and tried again this time targeting the illums manually. Even when attacking the illum a target they are meant to excel against they seemed to take ages to make a dent, I followed one illum that they where attacking and it took about 30 seconds for them to take it down. In the end I just left my carriers on the planet attacking, they where guarded by about 15 or 20 of my own javelis also and the sova and a dunov but the capital ships where quickly dispatched along with the carriers and I had hardly dented his army at all.

After that set back I though id try again with somthing slightly differnt, I still bought about 20 carriers and another sova and dunov but this time I built about 120 acova scout frigates as they have 200% damage against illums which means that 3 scouts would do 24 dps with fully upgraded lasers. I phased over to his planet again and left my carriers on the edge whilst my scouts attacked him, by now he had about 60 illums and still had his 3 capital ships, the scouts destroyed a fair few but the problem was they died so quickly they didnt have much of a chance. I quickly phased back and by now I had produced about 80 new scouts at my own planets. He followed me so I sent my army over to my 3 repair bays and gun emplacements to defend. He had also built his own army of about 40 scouts which along with the illums quickly wiped out my 80 scouts and then my two capital ships and carriers.

In the end he just gave up as he knew he wasnt going to win, but the fact that I built all the correct stuff that is meant to be good against illums and none of them worked made me think that maybe the game is broken?

strategy
9,165 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Heavy cruisers are also anti-LRF units... though you need to give them support because they have to get into close range to kill the LRFs.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Heavy cruisers are composite so theyre not dedicated anti LRF, but that still doesnt answer my question... The two things that I gave examples of above are meant to be anti LRF but they dont seem to work. Also if heavy cruisers are the only counter then theres still somthing wrong as heavy cruisers are tech5 wheras illums I think are tech 2.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Advent's third tier Illums ARE broken, it's a known fact.  It's going to be nerfed in the eventual 1.1 patch.  The problems is that illums has side cannons, too.  So it's very powerful in a large scaled battle.  Counter it with a balanced fleet with your own LRFs and fighters. 

P.S. if you had so many carriers, why not carry some bombers for his repair bays, gun turrets, and caps?

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Just as I thought, im glad they are going to fix them as it was making me feel like not playing the game anymore, do you know how long it will be before this patch is released? I dont think the problem with them is their side guns though as that is quite cool so I wouldnt want to take that away from them, my problem with them was that they where far to tough to take down, their sheilds are far too high, imo I think they should be fairly weak so they die quite quick in return for the massive damage they can give out.

In response to your later question I wanted to try out some tactics and seeing as I had so many more resources I thought it would be a good opportunity, if I had wanted to build a killer fleet I would have just gone for tonnes of heavy cruisers but in the early game you dont have that option which is why I wanted to test scouts and fighters.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

if you want something destroyed do it your self.  I tend to point groups of fighters at the things I want dead :) Select a couple of bombers point on an ilum and bye bye ilum.  Can't do that with 50 ships, but if you wanted to you could.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

lol. By the time i'd clicked on his fleet of 60 illums the battle would have probably have finished and id have neglected other duties such as cap ship abilities ect.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Well a good strategy is the Dunov emp ability to take out their shield and then use your LRM's with clustered warheads to attack the illums. In theory that sould work. Also it's easier to play as Vasari if the enemy has a lot of illums because their superweapon the Kostura Cannon damages everything in the Gravity Well :) But better yet you can build Novaliths and own his planet from long range. Another good counter against illums is Marza Dreadnoughts with the radioactive shell and clustered rockets ability. Hope it helps.

PS Don't forget to have support with your forces.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Also if there are two or more phase lanes around the planet coordinate your attack. Have the bulk of your fleet attack him head on from one phase lane and have your ally attack from the other. If there are three or more phase lanes then do what I said at thetop and from the third one attack with siege frigates his planet, that will cause him to divert his forces away from the big fight and make it easier for you to attack his main fleet. KOL Battleships excell at blowing the hell out of enemy capital ships and only if your rail gun is at level 3. Also while the battle is raging on have your carriers circle the gravity well just to keep them safe and always moving, the point is to further disperse the enmy fleet, while your carriers are moving around have the bombers destroy his defences mainly the repair bays. The siege frigates attaking his planet excert a lot of pressure on him because if he lets them bombard his planet he looses the planet and looses the game if he sends too much ships to destroy your siege frigates he might loose his fleet and later loose the game. Hope it helps. :P

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Its alright cause I just downloaded the patch for 1.1 now so hopefully ill never have to play 1.05 and deal with those stupid OP illums again! :)

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

I just played a game against an illum spammer and my carriers with fighters didn't really do much. Maybe I didn't have enough carriers to his illums, but for the amount of resources I pumped into them I would have expected to kill more of his ships.

 

Did 1.1 really fix it and I just suck?

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Illus die horribly to fighters.

 

 

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

If your fighters were busy chasing bombers and other fighters, that's probably why.

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

for the moment illuminators are still to powerfull,  tough the nerf helped alot,

 

i wouldnt worry about illuminators by the way,   as soon as carriers are fixed we can go back to figuring  out why illuminators are so darn strong (sidebeams should be counted towards primairy damage not secondary... theyre used around 99% in battle!!)