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Posted by: Revanchist

« on: January 19, 2014, 05:00:23 PM »

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I like the Venators for the V-19s that they spew out. It depends on what I want: if I need a ship that can have some decent combat value I will go with the Acclamator, but if in the later game Inwant a carrier purely for supporting an offensive fleet, I use Venators. If it wasn't for the replacement bombers that the Venators had, my carrier fleet (that had only 1 ISD-II, 1 Praetor, and four Munificents total for "real" firepower) wouldn't have been able to destroy both the Lusankya and the Annihilator in a single battle. If it wasn't for the Acclamators in my fleet the surprise Vic-II strike at my carrier lines would have wiped out my Venators. They work together well.

Posted by: tlmiller

« on: January 19, 2014, 03:59:16 PM »

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I never use Venators. For their cost, their shields are basically just as useless, and while have about the same overall offensive capability, the acclamators have the Proton Torpedo that gives them a bit of a range advantage. And while they offer more WAVES of fighters, they have the same amount of fighters in the first wave, the ony difference being that the Venator has several waves of bombers whiel the Acclamator gets only the first. They are, IMO, given their price, inferior to the Acclamator in a huge way.

Posted by: Mat8876

« on: January 19, 2014, 03:44:10 PM »

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Quote from: tlmiller on January 19, 2014, 03:02:31 PM

Yeah, FTGU is INSANELY hard as the PA because of that. POSSIBLE...but insanely hard. 1 ship that the PA has that is great at all stages of the game is the Acclamator. Decently armed, can be built from light frigate yards, has a darn decent fighter and bomber complement given it's size and cost. Pair those with a couple Vic-II's and Vic-I's, and they become quite capable of ruining even ISD-II's days REAL quickly.

And when you get past the early stages of the gc Venators become a good replacement for the Acclamators

Posted by: tlmiller

« on: January 19, 2014, 03:02:31 PM »

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Quote from: revanchist on January 19, 2014, 01:33:01 PM

With the firepower the IR can bring in, bombers aren't as important to many strategies as they are for the EotH or NR (for the PA they are vital, as most ships they get early on are REALLY terrible combat-wise). Thus, I have found MTCs to be a better investment than Escort Carriers.

Yeah, FTGU is INSANELY hard as the PA because of that. POSSIBLE...but insanely hard. 1 ship that the PA has that is great at all stages of the game is the Acclamator. Decently armed, can be built from light frigate yards, has a darn decent fighter and bomber complement given it's size and cost. Pair those with a couple Vic-II's and Vic-I's, and they become quite capable of ruining even ISD-II's days REAL quickly.

Posted by: Revanchist

« on: January 19, 2014, 01:33:01 PM »

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Carracks are extremely good ships. I like to pair them with Vic-1s, as the Carracks can rip through shields and then the Vics can unload their concussion missiles onto the hull. My other favorite ship early on is the Vindicator: decent firepower, very chunky with a small fighter compliment make them an excellent all-around light frigate.

With the firepower the IR can bring in, bombers aren't as important to many strategies as they are for the EotH or NR (for the PA they are vital, as most ships they get early on are REALLY terrible combat-wise). Thus, I have found MTCs to be a better investment than Escort Carriers.

I do use SSDs, but mostly on a defensive role: killing those annoying Viscounts that the NR throws at me. I use them more as moveable space defense stations, defending chokepoints while my main offensive fleet conquers outward. However, sometimes I bring in a Defender squad, a Sovereign, an Executor, and a Praetor into a battle, just for giggles.

Posted by: taldarus

« on: January 18, 2014, 10:29:49 PM »

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IR is probably my favorite FTGU faction. On Admiral its a real blast to climb your way to victory. Getting surrounded is ok, as long as you hold bilbringi. Pump out ISD II's if your looking for a fun victory. Or just by superlaser ssd's and turn the game to easy mode.

My main advice for FTGU is learning to retreat. I often raid enemy territories with a 10 - 15 point fleet in the early days. Try and kill rebel carriers, imperial strike cruisers, or eoth karieks. Powerful but fragile ships. At first you may only kill one ship without losing a ship, but I can succesfully, if uniterupted, take the first two systems without casualties and using only my starter ships. I spam ground troops and auto battle.

Fleet management is the important part. On Admiral, always send in a scout to scan the area, then bring in ships as you need them. I like to hold 75% of my fleet in reserve, and only jump in as needed. It prevents your ships from getting cut off.

Also remeber that the AI will often spawn raid fleets. Just send a defender squad to a system by itself. Hang around in a corner. You would be surprised how much damage raid fleets do to those early systems. It's a great way to clear them out all together, with no risk at all. People will argue about ships all the time. How you use them is the key. A carrack devours shields, and I like to pair them with strike cruisers (good anti-armor). Heres a little table I use, remember a battle is about how much firepower you can fit into the 40 pop.

Pop Anti-Fighter Anti-ship Anti-Shield Total DPS/Pop
ISD II 4   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   128   6   0   0   0   679   0   20   0   0   0   260     939     235
Carrack 1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   10   0   0   0   65   20   0   0   0   0   200     265     265
Strike 2   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   40   0   0   0   0   200   10   0   0   0   0   100     300     150

The table isn't finished yet as I haven't decided how to account for damage modifiers. This is unmodified damage, based on each weapons specialty. Also keep in mind it doesn't cover shields/armor/speed, which are just as important, if not more important on Admiral.

SSD   15   0   0   0   0   100   0   1800   540   540   0   0   0   6210 200   0   0   0   0   2000   10010   667

According to this the SSD is the best use of your population, but any good commander recommends you avoid this ship, because it can be attacked almost anywhere on the map, and moves at the speed of a space station. Sorry to get wordy, but I dislike the ship bashing. Carracks are solid s   hips for the cost. That doesn't mean I only use them, they would get chewed up and spit out by fighters, not to mention bombers.

Posted by: Imperial Knight

« on: October 29, 2013, 09:20:13 PM »

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As the IR, I have to go conquering worlds like a psycho axe murderer - literally taking the train up to Gaitros IV and New Alderran down to Courlag and Harkriss(sp?) by week 10-16 on Admiral. I had one fleet of three Vic II's, 3 Escort Carriers, 3 Lancer Frigs with a comparative handful of AT-STs, stormies, and (by Gaitros IV) a few plex missle soldiers for planetary invasion work by week 14 narrowly beating the EotH to Gaitros IV which luckily for me has an easy to defend planet map for chokepoint purposes.

Then I have to build/use a lot of ground troops (5 plexes and 1 AT-ST and 4 stormies + barracks) at Gaitros IV to hold back the EotH and NR hordes. I had to retreat my space fleet from there since they hurl crazy numbers for week 15-16 (43 (NR - Week 17) - 54 (EotH - Week 15) unit strength - is way too much for my overworked fleet). The enemy AI is stupid and will dribble out forces against my bunkered and free turbolaser assisted ground forces. Sprinkle in a bunch of anti air and use your free speeder bikes as suicide bombers and nothing will touch you. The dumb AI will play around with the rancors on the south end of the map. This means that with the help of the local wildlife the enemy with its hordes will politely crush themselves upon my entrenched defenses one or two at a time like minions in a cheesy old school superhero movie.

This gives me a small bit of time to build up two defensive fleets (I lost one escort carrier early on but had at that point the ability to replace it and build two more).

I was reckless and desperate to get my weekly credit income to the level I could build a Vic II on one week's income since there is no way given the differences in starting strength of matching their space fleets in the beginning at all. They are like the Covenant in the books in that regard. They can lose forty-fifty unit cap fleets and still drop down your door the same week with 3 Viscounts + a horde of BACs, Assualt Frigs, and their equivalent of Escort carriers.

My favorite defensive fleet looks like this...with a unit strength of 36. Feel free to sprinkle on a few Tie Defenders or an Interdictor to flavor. I hope to build four of these sized fleets before I start mustering superweapons and ISD II's in place of Vic II's.

6 Vic II's for capital ship killing power
6 Lancers for killing the legions of fighters I always encounter that stray too close to my overly sensitive Vic II's and their single drone squadron

6 Escort Carriers to counter the starfighter hordes of the enemy with a TIE swarm of your very own!

Tactics are simple I break my ships up as I imagine everyone else does with the above setup.
Group 1: My first three Vic II's that always appear in a line on the left at the start of the space battle.
Group 2: The two idiot Vic II's that always autodeploy behind the fleet on the right and the one near the front to form the front right side of my skirmish line.
Group 3: Behind one and two, I keep my 6 lancers.
Group 4: I hit Ctrl-A to get everybody and auto-select my fighters and bombers with the Ctrl+left click on one of my 6 drones to get all fighters and bombers after they finish launching from the escort carriers set them to guard one of the Vic II's in the middle.
Group 5: I select group four and ctrl+left click on the scim bombers marking them for easy access with this key.

My Vic II's charge ahead in line abreast formation closely followed by the lancers with the escort carriers at the back of my three ranked skirmish line. I don't let my fighters + bombers go with ctrl-A (fighters) or the attack target command (bombers) until my Vic II's are almost(!) within range of the enemy defenses (I find the best defensive fleet is an offensive fleet :p) Works like a charm unless they are shooting Viscounts at me which since my entire fleet auto-deploys like a pack of morons just within the Viscount's cone of fire meaning I either have my fleet run away like rats off a sinking age of sail ship or scatter my fleet to the four corners and use the survivors to angle around the side with my fighter+bombers to distract everyone from my Vic II's long enough for them to shoot the Viscount in the back with a concentrated burst of maximum firepower! (with everyone else piling on en masse)

I don't bother trying to capture the cap shipyard at Bilbringi or Byss even after I put my factions colors on every easily obtainable world leading to them so the other factions can't have them either. With such a poor economy there is no point in building anything heavy and once you have taken your 11-12 planets (one barracks + as many tax centers), building defensive fleets to hold back the barbarians storming your gates are a much wiser and more economical strategy. I prefer to have at least one shipyard working pretty much all the time and given the massive disparity in space fleet numbers well...I learned my lesson about heavy frigate shipyards on the border at Gaitros IV!

As should be obvious by now I agree with Fuwious 112%...ISD's and ISD's II's are simply too rich a luxury item for the IR in this GC. Their economy at start sucks the root, man! Until I can make 6200+ credits/wk there is no point in using them at all and by then you are probably wanting to save for Sovereign or Eclipse to get a little superweapon of your very own to play against the AI's many Viscounts and Phalanx Destroyers!

Well, that's my FTGU strategy and it seems to be working very well as the NR has a very soft front around Bimissari and below! My - defensive - fleet must be ridiculously battle hardened and full of Spartan quality veterans by this point after facing so many orange NR meanies! Seriously, they must spawn into existence like rabbits all over the galactic map right from the start! Its almost like someone opened the Galactic Gates of Rebel Hell and let slip the dogs of war against the Galaxy! No matter how many I kill they just keep coming!

Posted by: Revanchist

« on: September 15, 2013, 11:26:58 AM »

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Play session 4:

Took Byss. Continued on the offensive, took Duro. Built up fleet, added the second Sovereign, and Executor, and a Praetor to the mix. Meanwhile, the NR continued to attack, so over the course of the play session I destroyed 3 more Viscounts (NR military is now below mine in overall strength). Then the EotH appeared, actually taking one of my planets. Now I am about to teach them the foolishness of what they just did.

Comments: Those bunkers where you have to purchase them and they are built: buy them! They are really tough and kept the M-TATs busy long enough for my troops to arrive and destroy them. On top of that, I never lost a single bunker.

Each Viscount represents a significant part of the NR military. With each one you destroy, the NR becomes weaker. As the NR becomes weaker, the EotH becomes increasingly more powerful. Don't forget this.

Posted by: Sanguinius

« on: September 09, 2013, 02:58:40 AM »

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Did manage to finish my first FTGU (on Admiral) yesterday in week 74.

I started in the beginning to conquer or destroy as much planets as possible without breathing.
Took first Farrfin, Noqiuivizor, Borleais, Corulag, Champala, then i went north and stopped there at Garqui and Wristil. I did fortificate this planets on ground and went meanwhile further north in the other direction (New Alderaan) and then down to Kashyyk.
I had 21 Planets in Round 21 (including Bilibringi). Took them all with a fleet of 5 Vic I, 2 MTC, 3 Escort Carrier, 1 Vindicator, 1 Lancer. Until that point i did only lose one escort carrier at Bilibringi.
On ground i did use one AT-AT, 2-AT-ST and several infantry units from Wayland.

In round 21 i decided to spare for my first SSD (Sovereign). And started in fact in Round 25 to build it. On that point i had 3 more planets and first time i consolidated my positions.

But even in this time i didnt stop to attack the NR wherever i could to destroy as much as possible.
Meanwhile Garqui and Wristil were attacked daily by EOTH on Ground but there werent able to take them.
With the SSD ready the FTGU was won and i started to build up a heavy fleet and ground force to be able to autoresolve battles as often as possible to get faster to an end.
I autoresolved battles on ground with infantry only spammed on wayland for only 1 credit per unit. That way i didnt lose anything on autorsolved groundbattles.

Did finish of the NR in round 69.
Eoth on round 72
And the minor factions on round 74.

I prefered to build Vic I because they were able to fight fighters effectively with their missiles.
On major forces i did only hit and run tactics to prevent my fleet from losses.
I did never build any space station except on Capitalshipyards the whole game. Did defend my planets on ground only.

Posted by: Revanchist

« on: September 05, 2013, 12:08:55 AM »

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Play session 3:

Took a quick breather to gather/bolster my forces, then attacked ILC-905, J't'p'tan, and Galantos. Then I moved back up to the northeast and took Gravan Seven from the NR. This caused the NR to mobilize, and they sent their Viscounts after me, forcing me to concede the space (but not the land) over Gravan Seven and Hakassi. Moved back south (by this time I was beginning to feld ISD IIs) and took the Transitory Mists off of Corulag, then Chartibah(?) next to it. At this time a mystery fleet including Viscounts attacked the Mists, cutting my fleet off of the rest of my Empire.

Over the Next few weeks I waged a shadow war with the NR, letting them take the space but never seceding an inch of ground. Then I had enough to build the answer: a Sovereign. Once constructed, I took the war back to the NR, reuniting my 2 fleets (Sovreign and the rest) and conducting mt own hit-and-fades against the NR, successfully destroying 2 Viscounts. With my borders secure, I turned my attention to Byss. Using the same tactics I was able to destroy the enemy Sovreign (barely escaping) and then the Praetor and Interdictor SD. Next time Byss will fall.

Current Credit income=4000
Space Fleet: 1 Sovreign, 4 ISD IIs, 1 ISD I, 8 VSD IIs, 8 VSDs, 2 Strike Cruisers, 2 MTCs, 5 Lancers, 8 Defender Squadrons.

Comments: Make sure to build a Barracks on any planet you control. It gives you free Scout Troopers, which make excellent Suicide Bombers. By moving the scout troopers to the enemy LZ as soon as possible, I was able to destroy 3 of the 4 MPTL squads that the NR had in their ground fleet. Also have your own artillery stationed on hotly contested planets. This will save you because you will have the same reach as their artillery. When defending against the NR, always build AA turrets to stop the V-wing spam. Finally, use Stormtroopers for map control and scouting, but NovaTroopers for offense/defense.

In space be sure to have some Defenders to put a stop to any of the NRs fighters. They can tie the enemy up in dogfights which allows the Lancers to have a better shot at them too. Sovreigns are actually pretty weak for an SSD, be careful with them! They are great for shadow wars against the other factions to drain their military might and economy: warp in, superlaser a ship, warp out. Just be sure the enemy doesn't have an Interdictor with them.

I have yet to encounter the EotH. In the early game they were almost pummeled into extinction by the NR; however, when I caught the NRs attention, the EotH went on the offensive, taking back at least 6 planets. The balance of power is still in flux, and I look forward to encountering a flourishing Empire of the Hand when I reach the other side of the Galaxy.

Posted by: Revanchist

« on: August 26, 2013, 11:45:34 PM »

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Well, play session 2:

Captured around down south to Corulag, made it my base of vehicle production. Then popped up north to Noquivsor, east to Obroa-Skai, back south to Hakassi and the Tsoss Beacon. Fended off a few attacks by the NR (ugh, BACs). Once I was ready, attacked Bilbringi and successfully took the space (destroyed all the space units and autoresolve, Golans have no autoresolve value) and ground. I now have my first Capital Shipyard.

Current Credit Income=2000
Space Fleet: 2 VSD II, 1 VSD, 1 MTC, 1 Lancer, 1 Vindicator, 1 Escort Carrier, 5 TIE Defender squads (lost 1 Lancer and 1 VSD I)

Comments: the key to planetary control is not space domination, it is ground strength. You cannot easily beat the early-game NR Space, but you can hold your own on the ground. My MVPs for ground right now are the XR-85 Tank Droid and the TIE Crawler. Tank Droids can shred anything heavy, and Crawlers have an equal split between anti infantry and anti-heavy usefulness. SPMA-T also are nice to take down turbolaser towers without heavy casualties.

Posted by: Lord Xizer

« on: July 02, 2013, 09:43:38 PM »

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Light and fast are your friends with medium cruisers like Vics and Vic Deuces. Blitzkrieg tactics. Same on Land. Fast tanks followed by Infantry in air transport to secure points quickly and keep moving. Secure territory behind you with a barracks and light vehicle factory from profits capturing the planet. Keep moving and keep the enemy AI on the Defense.

Posted by: Crisiss

« on: July 02, 2013, 08:51:05 PM »

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Quote from: pincuishin on July 02, 2013, 07:14:19 PM

exactly carracks never lose their purpose or usefulness with the speed close to a X-wing they can chase down anything and are great for flanking they can Mess up SSDs all you do is pop them up behind it doesn't stand a chance, they almost have the fire power of a victory cruiser at a far cheaper cost and smaller profile never ever stop using them.

If it works for you that's cool. I just find Victory SDs a more effective starting unit.

Posted by: pincuishin

« on: July 02, 2013, 07:14:19 PM »

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Quote from: frogoverlord on June 21, 2013, 01:32:36 PM

Carracks can do an awesome job if you protect them properly however in later stages when everybody has Capitals floating around they really lose their shine, if you add a Capital plus your carracks you get a nice tank to absorb fire for the carracks to do their job, in my opinion they shift from offensive power in the starting stages to a more support-like role in the later, destroying anti starfighter ships and being a general nuisance to the bigger ships

exactly carracks never lose their purpose or usefulness with the speed close to a X-wing they can chase down anything and are great for flanking they can Mess up SSDs all you do is pop them up behind it doesn't stand a chance, they almost have the fire power of a victory cruiser at a far cheaper cost and smaller profile never ever stop using them.

Posted by: pincuishin

« on: July 02, 2013, 07:07:59 PM »

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Quote from: Fuwious on June 21, 2013, 09:25:35 AM

While I respect your opinion about Carracks being viable,it makes me wonder how do you deal with Bothan Assault Cruisers assisted with Quasar Fires?

surely Carracks cant screen off all the fighters deployed not to mention being at disadvantage against heavily armed Frigate?

this is of course assuming we are playing on either Captain/Admiral difficulty.

I decimate Bothan frigates 2 carracks can bring its shields down fairly quickly also you didn't think I just spam only carrack huh? lol no I bring along a assortment of lancers/MTCs/ and a escort carrier or two I also usually have one main command ship for hard hitting firepower but I keep it in the rear for fire support mainly so most fire is focused on my 5 or so carrack I rarely ever lose anything the only problems I ever have is when the NR spam the corona I don't care what you do taking on several bothan cruisers others and about 40 coronas is hard man.