Attacking the big boys

[the_chosen_one]

Don't know about any one else but I always seem to have trouble attacking anyone bigger than myself when I go with my alliance on gal raids. It seems everyone else can land without huge losses except me

Am I doing something wrong?

Any thoughts or strategies would be helpful

[Wandows]

Well if you want advice, i guess you should post some more information, as its impossible to tell what you might do wrong from this post. Things like your fleet configuration and the type of targets you attack ( + the fleet you use to attack them) are kindof important to know if you want someone to give you some advice.

[the_chosen_one]

well...

when i get a unit scan of targets and I make up fleets (FR or BS/CR usually) whenever I bcalc em I seem to have huge losses for example:

http://bcalc.visionhq.org/?calc_id=691132624

This is just about my whole fleet up against someone with about the same score/value as me.

Plus I usually get defence anyway haha

[demiGOD]

It's pretty basic really.

Send enough attack ships to kill / freeze / steal your oponent's ships that target your pods. And enough attack ships to kill the ships that might kill the ships that are protecting your pods, and so on and so forth.

If you don't have enough attack ships, then team up with another planet, usually with the same race. Teaming up with other races is good also. Cath-Zik for example, is a very good combo.

Or you could always look for Cathaar targets, so you don't lose your ships.

[the_chosen_one]

Originally Posted by demiGOD

Or you could always look for Cathaar targets, so you don't lose your ships.

Thats my new favourite target

Hopefully I'l get enough cath ships to help my attacks.

thanks for the tip

[Stoom]

Originally Posted by the_chosen_one

Thats my new favourite target

Hopefully I'l get enough cath ships to help my attacks.

thanks for the tip

I'd advice you not to attack with your marauders in a Fr fleet.
Use them for ingal defence, you can cap more frigs that way.
Also, having more ships of 1 shiptype means more chance of getting through :P

[Death666]

Originally Posted by the_chosen_one

Thats my new favourite target

Hopefully I'l get enough cath ships to help my attacks.

thanks for the tip

it might be ur fav race to hit just now chosen...but if u hit a bigger cath than u they will prob own u...they will freeze to much...

[wakey]

Originally Posted by demiGOD

It's pretty basic really.

Send enough attack ships to kill / freeze / steal your oponent's ships that target your pods. And enough attack ships to kill the ships that might kill the ships that are protecting your pods, and so on and so forth.

If you don't have enough attack ships, then team up with another planet, usually with the same race. Teaming up with other races is good also. Cath-Zik for example, is a very good combo.

Or you could always look for Cathaar targets, so you don't lose your ships.

Thats a little simplistic imho. Yes you need to disable the ships that target but dimply choosing any target and trying to do that is asking for trouble. The key is to choose your target carefully and not to be scared of losing some ships. For example if you are a Xan theres little point choosing a cathaar just for the sake of it as your target as your making your job alot harder as your Tzens will have to worry about Vipers. Even if you can remove all the Vipers he has from the equation the building of more vipers could turn things on their head more than if you were If you choose the right race to suit your fleet you can guarentee that 99% of the time they will run their ships as they have no chance of building enough to take you on.

Also look carefully at the value of the planet, while you want to be attacking a planet with a higher value than yourself you dont gain anything by attacking someone over double your size as your XP gains have already been maxed out so unless they have significantly more roids the are not worth losing more ships on.

The final thing I have to say on this is make sure you have done all the calculations, ESPECIALLY the score gained from the XP one. If you see a bcalc that says your going to lose 40k in value it may seem extreame BUT if you are gaining 150k in XP it can be worth it. You obviously dont want to cripple yourself but its a case of judging whats acceptable on each attack and whats acceptable is differnt each time

[Synthetic_Sid]

Originally Posted by the_chosen_one

well...

when i get a unit scan of targets and I make up fleets (FR or BS/CR usually) whenever I bcalc em I seem to have huge losses for example:

http://bcalc.visionhq.org/?calc_id=691132624

This is just about my whole fleet up against someone with about the same score/value as me.

Plus I usually get defence anyway haha

You need to specialise in an attack fleet for one thing - and not send all your ships. Zik FR is possibly the worst atttacking fleet in the game - due largely to xan FR being the best and hence there being a ton of anti-fr around which can handle zik fr very easily. Zik this round is is probably the hardest race for someone with relatively little experience to play - until you steal a decent number of ships gaining roids is gonna tend to be very expensive. If you manage to steal a good number of tzens that all changes very rapidly.

I'd recommend that if you want to stay with fr you focus pretty heavily on clippers. Forget about cutlass - you'll never flak past xan fi with them. With a decent number ofclippers you should have no problem finding a xan to team up with on larger targets. The xans can take care of vsh defence and your clippers protect them vs ingalaxy wyvern defence which is increasingly more common and and a real pain to xans.

Other option is go to BS - and hit planets weak on anti-bs (or counter ones with it out - e.g. caths attacking your galaxy/alliane mates with their CR).

The best options for ziks involve stolen ships and faking (ziks need lots of deflectors) but the above is probably your best bet for now at least.

[noah02]

Ziks with plenty of distorters uuu sends shudders down my spine damn hate the guessing game when it comes to ziks.

[Squishy]

Just to repeate roughly what sid said.

A zik/xan FR attack team can target all ships that target it before they fire with the exception of vipers which only have to be sufficiantly outflaked. And if their outflaked they will run them so as not to lose them to the thiefs. Giving u a free run at roids or gaining them at a very small and worth while price. Expecially if the XP is high enough

If your wanting to hit big players team up xans and ziks and you should have very little problems.

edit: It all depends on your fleet compositions if you decide to go this way concentrate on clippers and tzen for maximum killing power to the main FR threats and fill in the rest as need be. Thiefs to discourage vipers and ghosts to discourage those cruisers (tulas and maurauders)

[OlaTa]

As you are a Zik, then i would you to get more clippers. Then target Terrans, as clipper > Wyvern.
And wyvern is the only anti-FR Terran can have against your ships.
With other races you have to accept the loses.

[Monroe]

Kind of back to the origonal question in a general way. Each race has specific weaknesses against certain classes of ships. The best thing to do when looking for a target is to know what your race's advantages are. For example as mentioned about Zik FR do well against terrans when you have enough clippers, another good example is cath CO can pretty much roid terrans at will. So by finding the right kind of target you have a good shot at being able to take them out regardless of your relative size.

[Squishy]

On this note.

Me being a 200k value zik player have been hitting people upto 1million value and getting their roids with acceptable losses. Thats affectivly players 5times my size which is pretty big imo

Unltill i just crashed my fleet for not jump scanning

To attack big players alone theirs a few things you have to consider.
Gal defence:- Dont expect to land on big gals often ( /me waves bye to his FR fleet by not taking his own advice ) They will likly be active and will find it easy to repell your fleets ( or smash it into little pieces )

Fleet composition:- Choose ur targets long before u ever think about launching and build your fleet to target specific people. ie i target Terrans so my fleet composiution is mostly clippers.

Launch Times:- Think carfully about when your launching most players are in europe so try to launch at say 4am GMT this will ensure the maximum amount of people are in bed.

Bcalc:- Always calc the battle before you launch and even if you take losses check to see if the XP gain is worth the few ships that may be lost.

Scan:- Always jump scan before landing

Be Brave:- Even if he gets defence all is not lost. Check what the defenders fleet consists of and through the worste case scenario into the bcalc as well you may find its not as bad as it looks.

[The Real Arfy]

Also don't forget to newsscan the defenders and your target - the defence may well be fake.

[the_chosen_one]

Cheers you guys for all the help.

I've managed to build up a little CO fleet which has helped me (plus i've been uber building distorters hehe).

I also founda nice BS fleet for roiding and stealing from Caths

Now i'm fat


thanks again guys