Advice for Imperial Remnant players

[JollySam]

Hello everyone,

I've been playing Ascendancy for a while now, usually as the Imperial Remnant. I was wondering if anyone has any tips or strategies for playing this faction; both against the AI and against human players? As in; what to build and when, what to research and when, fleet composition, planet upgrades, ship levelling, everything. If you found a good strategy/trick, throw that in here. I'm interested in becoming a better player, and I figured the best way is just to ask.

The empire will rise again... and then I'll start a new game and it'll hopefully rise that time too.

Thanks a lot,
JollySam

[tlmiller]

I like to concentrate on military and get the Strike Cruiser researched ASAP.  Start building them as the backbone of your navy, while concentrating on your economic research.  Get the increased taxes researched first, this is your major income booster as the IR (and make sure to start getting your planets that can have high populations researched to allow those populations to grow and get the income).

Once you have some good income, research your weapons improvemnts, and then get enough economic stations to do the research that gives you free supply/command.  That's huge, and will sustain you for a bit without having to deal with upkeep.  Once that's researched, go hard and heavy on your military research.

Dreadnaughts will be one of the other backbones.  They're super cheap, requiring no tibanna, so you can build them very fast, and they have pretty good damage.  The Strike Cruiser carries a bomber or an interceptor, but comes into it's own once you research denting strike.  Once that's researched, you want a lot of Strike Cruisers in your fleets.  Ton Fauks Falks, whatever, are the best way to get a lot of Scimitars in your fleet.  Victory I & II's can carry them, but they're expensive, cost a lot of fleet, and only carry 1 per.  The Escort carrier carries 2 for about 1/2 the price in resources and supply.  The Victories will be the "heavy hitters" of your non-capital ships.  You need a good quantity, but realize that going overboard sucks up your supply like crazy compared to Strikes and Ton Falks.  The MTC is an awesome ship.  While not cheap, it's not insanely priced, has decent combat ability, can carry 2 squads (with their ability), and can restore fighter supply in the middle of combat without worrying about IMMEDIATE destruction.  While they don't do hull repair, they lifesavers for a fleet you want to keep on the move.

ISD-II's will be the bulk of your capital ships.  Better in every way than the ISD-I, except they can't capture planets.  A few Allegiances are good, but don't go overboard.  Their size makes them slow, and their abilities make them a bit suicidally agressive.

[Pali]

A strategy I'm fond of, for medium or large games where you've got a little time to expand, is the super weapon rush.  Rush to 7 mil labs, leaving two crap planets that you colonize but build nothing at (polluted are great for this), research World Devastators, then scuttle those two planets - it should give you enough resources to research the SSDs and build one.  That leaves you with an SSD and 4 World Devastators in your fleet LONG before anyone else has a Titan out, giving you a massive combat advantage for early battles.

[JollySam]

Thanks everyone, these sound good.

Another kind-of related question, are Golan III platforms better in every way compared to Golan I and II platforms? Or do they differ in effectiveness against certain ship sizes? Should I be only building Golan III's, or a mix of all 3 types?

Keep the suggestions coming!

[tlmiller]

Yes, Golan III's are superior in every way.  1 Golan III has the hull & shields of 3 Golan I's, and the weaponry of 4 I think.  It also is the only defensive station for the IR/PA/NR that has fighters, thus adding to it's effectiveness that much more.

[Pali]

Yes, Golan III's are superior in every way.  1 Golan III has the hull & shields of 3 Golan I's, and the weaponry of 4 I think.  It also is the only defensive station for the IR/PA/NR that has fighters, thus adding to it's effectiveness that much more.

But - and this is an important but - while it has 3x the hp, and 4x the weaponry, it has 5x the tactical support cost.  It is cheaper to build a single Golan III than five Golan Is, but I'm not certain that one Golan III is necessarily better than 5 Golan Is.

My defenses tend to be centered around a single or pair of Golan IIIs, each of which then has a pair of Golan IIs, which then have Golan Is surrounding them with 2-4 repair stations behind.  In my experience a mixed defense like this tends to survive longer and be more effective.

[tlmiller]

Good point, should have mentioned that.

[Pali]

Good point, should have mentioned that.

I make half my posts anywhere online during quick smoke breaks at work, so I know that feeling very well.

[JollySam]

Thanks everyone, these are useful.

I have another question; which AI type (aggressive, defensive, economist, etc) would you say is the most 'balanced'? I know it is a strange question, but I am looking for opponents (or allies) that are a little aggressive, a little defensive, who research technology and build up their economy without overdoing any one of those things at the expense of the others.

Recently I've been fighting against hard economist AI's, they send fleets against my planets, but still build plenty of defensive structures and research technology. What do you think?

[tlmiller]

No clue on that, every AI in every game of mine is "random".  I would think Economist might be the most balanced though, since they focus on economics first, they'd have the income to research their military and play agressively.  But who knows if that actually is how the AI works.

[JollySam]

Okay I see. I will keep on playing with Hard Economists for now then I think.

I know this question has probably been asked and answered many times before, but have the developers revealed what the final two factions will be yet? Or are they secret for now? I hear a lot of theories, but I haven't seen anything official.

Keep the advice coming! I'm very slowly getting better.

[Pali]

I know the Armada 3 team recommends Aggressor AI, but that could just be the one that synergizes best with that mod.