Random Questions

from Sins Forums

In this post, I have several strategy questions to ask, but others may feel free to post their questions here, too. I probably won't be able to answer most of them, but hopefully, others will. My questions are:

As Advent, what is the best way to take down a Vasari starbase? It outran my ships.

As Advent, what is the best multiplayer defense? AIs will fall for a combination of starbase, countless turrets with synergy, hanger defense with crazy awesome upgrade, repair bays, and a couple antimatter rechargers. Humans, however, will move right by the tens of thousands of credits I spend on that. What should I do then? Spamming hanger defenses isn't all that effective, since with a few fighters and flak, they are useless. And I know that I could just leave some ships at the planet, but they are definitely going to be outnumbered. And as if my attacking fleet isn't small enough already... Should I build the uber defense and then micro some guardians to force the ships into the defenses? That would be really hard, but soooooo awesome...

As Advent, should I just copy the AIs method of placing mines? Spam them around one half of the grav well but leave the middle open, since there's a starbase there. It gives me a headache. I haven't gotten into the habit of placing mines yet. I assume everyone thinks it worth it to invest money in them.

As soon as I expand to other factions, I often catching myself just spending most of my money on defenses and research, and attack very little until my fleet becomes very large. As Advent, I assume this is better than full out rushing since they stink early on but kick donkey with research?

I'll probably come up with some more soon, but that's all for now. I hope that you guys can help. Thanks so much.

strategy
5,666 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

To take out those Vasari starbases:

Try lots and lots of bombers, run your carriers around the well while the bombers do all the work. The other option is to use your ships to "pin" the starbase by surrounding it, while your bombers and starfish pummel it. The first option will yield the best results.

For your defenses:

Don't spend too much on static defenses. Repair bays being the exception (you can't have too many). TO truly be effective try setting up a few static defenses around your starbase for the synergy bonuses, and use a phase jump inhibitor. Your opponent still may try and bypass your defenses, but at least the phas jump inhibitor will slow them down. You also wanna place your defenses at critical locations, like your hw, or a forward production outpost. Choke points are good as well. Truthfully though in MP the best defense is a good offense.

For mines:

Humans are pretty smart when it comes to mines and will steer clear whenever possible. The best idea is to catch folks off gurad when they enter the grav well. Put them as close to the edge of your gravity well as you can, around phase lanes opponents will enter through, and remember they rarely come right down the middle. Don't waste money putting them in an easily passable position.

Some notes on factions:

For online play you have to use a balancing act between economy and fleet. There's no set line between econ and fleet, it all depends on your starting situation. Expand at a pace you can manage, faster if theres no enemies nearby, slower if there are. Scout your enemy to get an idea of how much you should spend on a fleet to match theirs, and spend the rest on research and economy.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

As Deceiver said, the best defense is a good offense. You can afford to lose a few worlds if you have wiped out one of the other players and can take all of his territory.

In my experience, I haven't found it helpful to think of turrets, hangars, etc as defenses. Rather, I find it more helpful to think of them as augmentors. The only real defense is to have a fleet on the planet.you're trying to defend. Turrets, repair bays, etc help aid that endeavor if you place them strategically by the important structures that you know they will try to kill (repair bays, phase jump inhibitors, factories, tech).

Often times (especially if they are hitting one of your fringe planets) I have found it much more useful to let them raze the grav well (throw the dog a bone so to speak). You'll lose a lot less resources beefing up defenses on a deeper, more important colony. Just upgrade the bombardment facilities to keep them delayed longer.

If it won't take too long to get your defenses beefed on the critical colony, just immediately scrap everything on the outer colony. This saves you money and keeps their cap from getting as much experience. If you need some time, leave the structures so they'll stay there longer. You can hold up surprisingly well if you have enough forces and augmentors concentrated in one world (ideally your hw if you have no other colonies left, you DON'T want to lose HW), even if you are being double teamed.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Deceiver_0, reply 1
To take out those Vasari starbases:
Try lots and lots of bombers, run your carriers around the well while the bombers do all the work. The other option is to use your ships to "pin" the starbase by surrounding it, while your bombers and starfish pummel it. The first option will yield the best results.
End of Deceiver_0's quote

In this case, it was early game, and I only had 4ish drone hosts. So you recommend that if I really want to attack it, spam bombers and flak? By pin I assume you just mean sacrifice, but wouldn't human opponents send the starbase after the starfish and ogrovs (love domination!)?

Quoting Deceiver_0, reply 1

For your defenses:

Don't spend too much on static defenses. Repair bays being the exception (you can't have too many). TO truly be effective try setting up a few static defenses around your starbase for the synergy bonuses, and use a phase jump inhibitor. Your opponent still may try and bypass your defenses, but at least the phas jump inhibitor will slow them down. You also wanna place your defenses at critical locations, like your hw, or a forward production outpost. Choke points are good as well. Truthfully though in MP the best defense is a good offense.
End of Deceiver_0's quote

The synergy bonus doesn't affect the starbase, it only affects the turrets (giving them a 50% damage increase), so wouldn't the slots be better spent elsewhere (like on increased shields with hangar defense or repair bays)? Doesn't the PJI only affect ships leaving the grav well? So my opponent could still annihilate my planet (and destroy the PJIs), leaving my defenses alone, and move onto the next planet? Wait, nevermind, I should just put those structures in range of my starbase, hangar defense ect?

Quoting Deceiver_0, reply 1
To take out those Vasari starbases:
For mines:

Humans are pretty smart when it comes to mines and will steer clear whenever possible. The best idea is to catch folks off gurad when they enter the grav well. Put them as close to the edge of your gravity well as you can, around phase lanes opponents will enter through, and remember they rarely come right down the middle. Don't waste money putting them in an easily passable position.

Some notes on factions:

For online play you have to use a balancing act between economy and fleet. There's no set line between econ and fleet, it all depends on your starting situation. Expand at a pace you can manage, faster if theres no enemies nearby, slower if there are. Scout your enemy to get an idea of how much you should spend on a fleet to match theirs, and spend the rest on research and economy.
End of Deceiver_0's quote

Gotcha ;-) Thanks.

Quoting KerrekCruiser, reply 2
As Deceiver said, the best defense is a good offense. You can afford to lose a few worlds if you have wiped out one of the other players and can take all of his territory.

In my experience, I haven't found it helpful to think of turrets, hangars, etc as defenses. Rather, I find it more helpful to think of them as augmentors. The only real defense is to have a fleet on the planet.you're trying to defend. Turrets, repair bays, etc help aid that endeavor if you place them strategically by the important structures that you know they will try to kill (repair bays, phase jump inhibitors, factories, tech).

Often times (especially if they are hitting one of your fringe planets) I have found it much more useful to let them raze the grav well (throw the dog a bone so to speak). You'll lose a lot less resources beefing up defenses on a deeper, more important colony. Just upgrade the bombardment facilities to keep them delayed longer.

If it won't take too long to get your defenses beefed on the critical colony, just immediately scrap everything on the outer colony. This saves you money and keeps their cap from getting as much experience. If you need some time, leave the structures so they'll stay there longer. You can hold up surprisingly well if you have enough forces and augmentors concentrated in one world (ideally your hw if you have no other colonies left, you DON'T want to lose HW), even if you are being double teamed.
End of KerrekCruiser's quote

Fringe planets=outer planets? About holding up surprisingly well with proper forces and augmentors, wouldn't your opponent just stay away from all of it and start bombing the planet (assuming that they have fighers and flak to counter hangars). If you are being pushed back this far they will most definitely have a larger fleet than you. So would I just attack while they are leaving and are temporarily defenseless? I still would lose my HW. Or maybe just target caps and planet bombers then flee back to my defenses. I suppose I could just scatter repair bays around to assist me...

Quoting ckotchey, reply 3

End of ckotchey's quote

????

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I should probably qualify a few things first: I'm not a "skilled" player, only intermediate (possibly higher end of intermediate, but I won't make any substantial claims as such) I've played about 20-30 games of vanilla online and only 4-6 of entrenchment. Obviously most of my experience is with vanilla.

Now the basic answer to your question is: it depends on the game and situation.

Vanilla is much different than entrenchment, as is team game versus 1v1.

In a 1v, if you're holed up in your HW trying to stave off his attacks and he vastly outnumbers you, odds are it's over, just give up (unless you want to practice seeing how long you can hold up, never a bad option). In a 1v1, offense IS your best defense, and you want to keep the pressure on without suffering too many losses.

In a team game, you may be losing at the moment, but if your teammates are winning then all you have to do is hold out as long as possible. The very fact that you're not out of the game and you're occupying your opponents attention means you are keeping them from getting back up reinforcements. If you are holed up in your hw and your mates think they can win, hold off ALAP.

Obviously though, you don't want to holed up in your HW as a rule. By fringe, I mean the outermost planets of your territory, particularly an asteroid. When I say fall back and let them take the fringe planets, I mean if they vastly outnumber you and you KNOW that you can't take the fleet yet. Losing an asteroid isn't THAT big of a deal (though you do want to avoid losing if possible), but a planet you probably do want to keep around IF POSSIBLE.

The colony you have closest to the enemy you always want a lot of repair bays (I usually have three, but more isn't necessarily a bad thing either) so you can fall back to repair or hold the line. You can then reinforce those with turrets, and PJI to force some nasty casualties. In nilla, I pretty much never build hangars as flak will render them much more costly than effective. I don't know enough about entrench to say about them though, as the added abilities might make them much more formidable. Now, to protect the defenses from SC you can keep a LOT of flak on hold position near them and put fighters on Local area around the repair and turrets. Do it right and your opponent will either be forced to confront you at the defenses, or try to skip past them to next planet (which is where the PJI comes in handy).

Now, there are cases where both of you are ransacking each other's territory, and here it simply becomes a judgment call on how long you want to play chicken. If you think your opponent will cave and try to come back to defend himself, by all means ransack his shit. Likewise, if you know you can take him out quicker than he can you harm you, then stay (especially if you are ready to colonize what you just ransacked). Otherwise, it may be a smarter idea to fall back and defend.

Hope this helps. It's best I can do at my current experience level.