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Unread 23 Sep 2005, 21:59   #1
Monroe
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Game Tactics

After doing a quick search of the strategy forum and not finding a thread on this topic, I would like to start a thread on interesting tactics used in this game. I would like this tread to include not only specific tactics, but if possible known successful counters to those tactics. In addition you can feel free to include defensive, as well as offensive tactics. The objective of this thread is to share ideas, and perhaps create a list of tactics to suggest to new players to attempt. Part of the idea here is while the manual does a decent job explaining the nuts and bolts of the game, it doesn't really include any examples of suggested strategies to help new players make good attack decisions. So if some of the strategies suggested seem obvious to experianced players please don't flame. Please feel free to add to this list, and to discuss the various merits of the suggestions made. A copy of these suggestions can also be found on the PA Wiki .

Tactical level description:
[basic]
These are the recommended tactics for new players, they give you the basics on how to play the game and give you a decent chance of success.
[intermediate] These tactics are recommended for once you've been playing for a bit and have a good feel for the game. These tactics are ussually feast or famine tactics, either they work great with large rewards, or they fail miserably.
[advanced] These tactics require careful timing and planning. Unless they are done just right they never succeed, but with careful planning the rewards can be great.


Several tactics that stick out to me:


Tactic: Send, recall, resend [basic]
Description: Launch an attack, jumpgate the attack near the end of the first tick to see if there is defense, if there is defence recall right at the end of the tick and resend the following tick. The advantage of this often used tactic is it soaks up out of galaxy defense, and gives you a second opportunity to attack.
Counter: The best counter to this strategy is active defense, rather then passive defense. Having defenders on at the end of the first tick to recall can be very useful. Another good counter strategy is to organize an attack on your would be attacker that will require him to keep his attack fleet home to defend. Then use the same tactic back at him, ie jpg at the end of the first tick and recall if he got defense.

Tactic: Fleet Exchange [advanced]
Description: Have two attack fleets of different ship classes, with different eta's, and the same size. Launching the higher eta fleet with fleet name "alpha." Right at the end of the first tick recall the high eta fleet and send the lower eta fleet. Rename the lower eta fleet to Alpha. If you are lucky (and I've seen it work) they will assume it's the same fleet and not rescan the attacker. Then all defense that is sent will be worthless
Counter: Make sure you do an FA scan after the first tick to verify the fleet composition. Also make sure you have at least some defense against the attackers other possible fleet.

Tactic: Single class attack [basic]
Description: Send only one class of ships on any given attack, thereby limiting which of your targets ships can target your fleet.
Counter: No specific counter, just find the right defense.

Tactic: Fake Defense [basic]
Description: When a friend has incomming and you have the correct type of ships, but those ships are not home send a different type of ship instead in the exact quantity you have of the ship that would be effective. If the attacker does a jump gate he will not know that the defense is fake and will have to assume it is real and will therefor recall.
Counter: No known counter, other then landing anyway and seeing what shows up. If the defense is from outside the target gal you CAN do a news scan at eta 1 and see what the initial eta of the defense was, if the defense eta is different then what it should have been (ie 7 because the fake def is FI rather then 8 because the real def would have been FR) then you know the def is fake. In my personal experiance however this rarely is useful.

Sum up of tactics suggested below:

Tactic: Disguised Fleet Attack (aka Fake Attack) [intermediate]

Description: Similar to Fake Defense, send a fleet of one class disguised as a fleet of another class. For example, sending a bunch of FR that have the same number of ships as your DE's, then later send your DE's faked as BS (for terrans). Defender will think the first wave is DEs and send anti DE, defender will think second wave is BS and send anti BS, therefore your DE will get through unharmed.
Counter: Fleet scans can tell the difference, as long as you don't get blocked. Otherwise calc your home fleet against the attackers potential attack fleets. Using the above example, if you have pretty good BS defense, but terrible DE defense, simply assume both incomming fleets are DE and defend accordingly. Otherwise massive overkill on def ussually works, but is rarely a good option.

Tactic: Mutli Race Attack [intermediate]
Description: This tactic involves finding a friend of another race to attack with. Because races have different advantages and weaknesses, combining two races together can sometimes be a very powerful attack fleet which is nearly impossible to defend against. One classic example would be cath and zik CR/BS combo attack. Essentially the caths freeze the attackers, and the zik's clean up. Another great example is the 1-2 punch of zik and terran BS attacks, they target most classes and are hard to stop. Essentially any two races can combine at some level, but which combos are best depends on the current ship stats.
Counter: If the attack is done right there is no good counter, other then overwhelming defense. If you are lucky you can find a ship that the attackers don't target, and that does target the attackers, but if the attackers are smart, this isn't really an option.

Tactic: Defense Specialization (aka Fleet Swaping) [intermediate]
Description: If you have alot of anti CR, and your mate(s) have alot of anti BA, and you have BA incs and they have CR incs, you send your fleet to defend a mate, they send their fleet(s) to defend you. It is especially effective if also combined with fake defence, ie you fake another anti CR fleet to another of your gal mates, thus potentially covering two incs with only half the ships .
Counter: The obvious counter if you think your target is likely to swap in-gal def or has a previous tendency to do so, is to send both a CR fleet and a BA fleet at him - that way if he defends his gal mate he leaves himself wide open.

Tactic: Fleet Catch [advanced]
Description: This tactic has to be carefully planned and executed to be successful, ussually with multiple attackers, sometimes with as many as 20 or 30 attackers. The idea is to find a target who is about to land his fleet on a target, and time your attack so that your attack will land the same tick that his fleet will return home. The conceot here is to make it so he is unable to run away from your overwhelming attack, not to steal roids, roids are a bonus. There are two strategies with Fleet catches, either to steal as much of the targets fleet as possible, or kill as much of the targets fleet as possible. In order to kill as much as possible the tactic is simple, just send a lot of ships! A good fleet catch however will endevor to steal, rather then kill. To accomplish this ussually a gigantic attack fleet is sent, and once the attack is certain to succeed (ie no defenders left) most of the attack fleet recalls and allows the ziks and maybe some caths to land to maximize the ships that can be stolen.
Counter: Suprisingly there are two counters to this tactic. One is rather obvious, simply find a ton of defense! The other counter is a little less obvious. If you suspect someone is trying to fleet catch you, shortly before you land on your target have a jumpgate taken of your planet. If you see a bunch of fleets on prelaunch timed to catch your returning fleet simply recall your fleet before you land and mess up their timing. You won't get any roids, but you will keep your ships. Most fleet catches will recall as soon as they see they have missed your fleet, and ussually you'll even get to keep your own roids.
Note: The jpg scan counter may not work every time as some rounds zik steal ships have a lower eta then the ships they target.

Tactic: Selective Prelaunch Defense [advanced]
Description: This tactic is used mainly when you have multiple waves of incomming. If you have ships at home and are being attacked and cannot find enough defense you need to run your fleet to keep it from being destroyed (saving ships is more important then saving roids generally). However when multiple waves are attacking you it is sometimes benificial to have some ships home for one wave of attackers, but not another. One way to do this is to place your fleet in prelaunch. When an attacker lands fleets in prelaunch are not included in the battle and so are spared from getting hammered. Then if you need some of this fleet for the second wave of attackers you can recall the prelaunched fleet instantly and reconfigure to have the correct ships home to defend, placing the ships that would be killed back into prelaunch.
Counter: There is no known ingame counter for this tactic. If you can find the general times your intended target is online you could in theory time your attack for when he's asleep, but you'd really have to get lucky.

Tactic: Liquid Assets (Defense) [intermediate]
Description: This tactic is fairly straight forward. As your planet grows your fleet can become unbalanced in terms of it's ability to kill various classes of ships. You may choose to focus on an attack fleet and in so doing leave yourself vulnerable to attacks from classes of ships your attack fleet doesn't target. With the liquid assets the concept is to save up a reserve of funds to be used if you are attacked. That way you can buy the exact defense you need and have it show up the same tick the attacker lands suprising him with unexpected defense.
Counter: Planet scan all your targets before launching and again before landing, if he has a lot of resources when you launch, and few when you land, odds are he built a bunch of ships.
Notes: This tactic is most effective for zik's who can have an extremely unbalanced fleet late in the game due to stealing. In addition make sure you have production as an engineering priority so that you can build ships fast enough to have them available in time (production time of 7 or less). Lastly this defense has the downside of if you build the ships expecting him to run because it will be messy for both sides don't count on it, he may not use the counter and so land anyway.

The Fleet Dodge:[intermediate]
Description: This tactic is similer to the fleet catch but instead of aiming to land the same tick their fleet gets back you aim to land the tick before. So the idea here is to make it impossible for the guy attacking you to recall his attack fleet to defend against you. What you do is time your attack to launch either right as your attacker is landing on you or the tick before so that he can't recall his fleet to defend against you, hopefully making it hard for him to find defense against your attack fleet because his own fleet won't be home.
Counter: As in a fleet catch, get a jumpgate scan of yourself right before you land to see if you have incomming. Only other real counter is to find the right defense.

Tactic: Fleet Catch Attack [advanced]
Description: This is about the most advanced tactic in the game for ziks, and takes careful planning and a ton of luck to get it to work. Basically the setup is you attack a target with two fleets (either two of your own or with a buddy). Your attack fleet is designed to draw a certain type of defense so that you can fleet catch that defense, you recall right before it lands and you allow your buddy (who's fleet is just one FI sent as defense) to land. You simply launch a fleet catch at the defender and steal the helpless defensive fleet if when your buddy lands he finds the right kind of defense.
Counter: Sending fake defense works, as does being online right before the attacker lands (this tactic is easy to spot because of the two fleets incomming when one of them is just one ship).

Tactic: Disguised Fleet Defense [advanced]
Description: When attacked and you suspect that the attack is a Disguised Fleet Attack (see above) you can use the same tactic against the attacker. By disguising your defense fleet which targets what you think his disguised fleet is as the type of defensive ships the attacker hopes you sent the attacker will land and hopefully get slaughtered. Of course if the attacker didn't send a disguised fleet, then your tactic didn't work and things can get really messy.
Counter: No real counter against in gal defense, possible to do a news scan if the defender is out of galaxy and see if the fleet eta makes sense (see above).

Tactic: Covert Op Fleet Scan [advanced]
Description: When considering landing an attack on defense and you suspect the defense might be fake you can perform a Sabotage mission against your target shortly before you land. If you destroy the class of ship that would defend against your incomming fleet then the odds are the defense is real and you should recall. If you don't destroy that ship class, then there is a chance (though not necessarily high) that the defense is fake.
Counter: Having a high security level helps. Also keeping a few of the right ship class home could prove an effective counter.
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Last edited by Monroe; 24 Oct 2006 at 03:46. Reason: Adding Ideas
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