Core Demon Hands

[hfbrooklyn]

Now, I'm not going to clamor for a nerf, because I'd like to think in this game there's a way to kill everything, great and small. But I think I do deserve to know if it's even possible to destroy (I don't know if this is a big deal for you guys but it is for me) what appears to be 200-500 core demon hands.

For those who don't know, a core demon hand is a core vampire ship. It has inf engines. Moves fairly quickly. Ignores shields. Is immune to missiles. And, it replenishes health with every melee strike. This means my go to units for defending against a large force (spider turrets, a fort, ion cannon, MLRS(Tier 3) Are out. They are so powerful a handful can slip by all your defenses and kill you Zenith power gen, command station, etc. taking barely any damage and healing any that they did take.

Now, I ask, what would you guys do against a fleet like this? Ai progress for me is only around 250. I have three IV ship types, two Zen gens, 3 or adv research ship types, and tier1,2 riot and flag/light starships. My fleet is almost full- most ships in service.

What could possibly defend against something like this? And, another concern, I noticed in another game I could only make 42(?) vampires. Why doest he a.i. get what appears to be 200-500?

[Garthor]

Gravity Turrets work wonders against fast, melee-only ships.  You do need to micromanage your ships to kite them, though, unless you have some powerful long-range ships, like Zenith Beam Frigates.

[XRsyst]

Grav turrets, lightning turrets, lots of turrets.

In one of my first failed games, I got wiped by 400 core bombers that got loose past my front line.  My first thought was "How do they expect me to stop them?!?! That's BS."  Then I realized the answer was you don't let that happen in the first place. Be very careful about alerting level III's and IV's, and letting them build up.

[Mánagarmr]

Grav turrets, lightning turrets, lots of turrets.

In one of my first failed games, I got wiped by 400 core bombers that got loose past my front line.  My first thought was "How do they expect me to stop them?!?! That's BS."  Then I realized the answer was you don't let that happen in the first place. Be very careful about alerting level III's and IV's, and letting them build up.

This is somewhat unrelated to the thread, but what I bolded in your post finally dropped the ball in my slow brain. Alerting a planet makes the AI reinforce it heavily. Dooh, I never really understood that until now >.<

[XRsyst]

Yeah, I find that most of my early game play is based around what planets can I take and defend without alerting a level 3 or 4.  For eliminating 3&4's the most successful tactic I've used is to figure out where all of the ships in a level 3 or 4 will go when the Command Station gets blown, build very heavy defenses there, blow the offending command station and posts with raid ships and then watch the incoming ships smash themselves against the rocks of your defenses.  With that kind of investment in defense, it's often best to D up a choke point like crazy, then eliminate all of the command stations & guard posts in a chain up to the next choke point before making new colonies.  Much safer and faster than balling up a huge fleet and grinding through a heavily fortified system.