Lone colonizer expansion?

I've read that advanced players like to expand with a lone colonizer, using static defenses to wipe out militias. Why not just use a few light frigates? They can help clear many planets and leave you with mobile units rather than mostly useless static defenses.

8,753 views 14 replies
Reply #1 Top

Turrets are cheap and are harder for the militia to kill than LF, not to mention the fact that they deal more damage.

Reply #2 Top

Yeah I can definitely see where the extra firepower is useful for volcanic but aren't frigates more efficient for asteroids?

Reply #3 Top

If I don't open with a colony cap, I always build two LF to kill the defenses on my roid, but after that, if I bother to be ultra-efficient, I'll just build turrets.

Reply #4 Top

Most skilled expand in 2 or 3 directions at the same time and most of the time attack enemy player simultaneously. 

Reply #5 Top

I'll sometimes expand immediately in two directions, but that's largely impacted by map setup.  I don't think I ever really expand in three directions early-game.

Reply #6 Top

I know it is easily possible to colonize an Asteroid with just colony frigate (head straight for the 'roid, capture it and immediately build turret between the 'roid and the siege frigate present there and you always win).

 

Is it possible to capture any of the actual planets with just colony frigate? The wiki IIRC implies this should be possible, but I was never able to figure out a sequence which wouldn't result in the planet being destroyed :(

Reply #7 Top

Build fighters and take out the siege frigates before colonizing or actually, Seekers might work well for this, but I was never one for using scouts for military purposes.  Corvettes should also work.

Reply #8 Top

With corvettes i usually use 10 of them kill siege and lrms leave one in and circle around when enemy ships on other side warp colony ship in colonize place some turrets.... 1per HC in gravity well is usually enough.

Reply #9 Top

Turrets are best for planets with larger militias or when you need to be very picky about where you put your fleet supply...eco players can't afford to fleet up, and frontliners may have to focus all their fleet on the frontier...

Generally, I'm not a fan of turrets unless it is a terran/desert with lots of militia...occasionally I'll do it on a volcanic or ice that has high militia count if I'm in desperate need of my forces being elsewhere....

Reply #10 Top

Quoting Seleuceia, reply 10
eco players can't afford to fleet up, and frontliners may have to focus all their fleet on the frontier
End of Seleuceia's quote
 

Real trick even if you are fighting is to raise your fleet supply as late as possible. That is why most skilled fleet from at least 2 factories although with corvettes in game 3 is becoming a norm.

Every second of lover fleet supply than guy you are fighting against will give you resources you can sink into frigate research....

Reply #11 Top

Would having a lone colonizing cap ship go one way and 10-15 corvettes escorting a colony ship the other way be the best way to go?

Reply #12 Top

That's a lot of corvettes to pull from your frontline...if the corvettes are aiding in expansion toward the enemy then that's okay...but if they are helping expansion away from the enemy, that's not good...

Generally, you want your cap to expand in planets that have large militias, and it helps to couple the cap with some scouts or corvettes to help wipe out krosovs and LRMs (LRMs can outshoot turrets)...

Reply #13 Top

Going to go out on a limb here and expose my inner noob for a moment, but don't you get your first capital ship for free? Most maps don't have a lot of directions to expand from the start (usually one, maybe two), so I usually start with 3 scout frigates and set them on auto-explore (or whatever it's called), then build a cap. ship factory and a capitol ship (changes depending on what race I'm playing as), as well as a single colony frigate. Then, I send in my capital, let it wipe out whatever enemies are there, send in the colony frigate and move my capital to the next planet. Usually works out well against ai (I haven't played online yet), because then by the time the initial attacks come around I've already got a level 3 capital ship (or it's really close to hitting level 3).

Late game I just add a colony capital to my fleet, since they are fairly useful for the overall fleet, plus it saves me from having to drag colony frigates behind me.

 

Reply #14 Top

Quoting satanisthesavior, reply 14
Going to go out on a limb here and expose my inner noob for a moment, but don't you get your first capital ship for free? Most maps don't have a lot of directions to expand from the start (usually one, maybe two), so I usually start with 3 scout frigates and set them on auto-explore (or whatever it's called), then build a cap. ship factory and a capitol ship (changes depending on what race I'm playing as), as well as a single colony frigate. Then, I send in my capital, let it wipe out whatever enemies are there, send in the colony frigate and move my capital to the next planet. Usually works out well against ai (I haven't played online yet), because then by the time the initial attacks come around I've already got a level 3 capital ship (or it's really close to hitting level 3).

Late game I just add a colony capital to my fleet, since they are fairly useful for the overall fleet, plus it saves me from having to drag colony frigates behind me.
End of satanisthesavior's quote

This takes time and time is 4th resource in SINS. Most of the time overlooked by new players