Cracking an IV world

[RCIX]

Anyway, like a lot of people i chose a nice dead end to start in and i've consolidated my planets in said dead end. I own 7 planets which are metal heavy and a fleet of about 1400 ships. I also have a broken golem (cursed, bleh) that is mostly repaired. Special ships types are Anti-Armor (like you couldn't guess that ^_^)  and Grenade launchers. Going up against 2 turtle AIs difficulty 7.6. The problem? i need to crack an IV world with 4400 or so ships on it. Main reason it's that way is that it has a Dyson golem on it which is exciting the AI into sending tons of reinforcements at it.

First thing i tried was simply repairing the golem and sendign it in but they ate it in under 30 seconds. I'm going to try dropping towo lighning missiles on the place then sending in the golem followed quickly by my fleet, and hope that makes a decent dent.

If anyone has some suggestions in the meantime though, i'd be happy to hear them!

[x4000]

Ooh!!  This is your chance to make friends with the Dyson Golem -- or at least tick them off at the AI.  If you can maintain a military presence on that planet, the Dyson Sphere will attack both you and the AI on it (assuming this is the planet with the Dyson Sphere, and not one adjacent).  Since the AI outnumbers you, odds are the golem will kill more of them than of you, especially if you stay away from the golem.  Then, if you're feeling brave, you can kill the command station on that planet and all of the dyson ships that are then produced will attack just the AI and not you.   Just be sure not to build a command station of your own there, or the dyson will get REALLY pissed off at you and will definitely kill you on that planet.

Beyond that, the lightning warheads are a good idea for clearing big clumps of AI ships.  You can even nuke them if you must, since it's only a IV planet.  Only downside to that is the AIP increase.  I have recently really been loving transports, honestly, because they no longer suicide all the guys inside them when they die.  So you can use those to slingshot your forces across the IV planet to specific attack points, and then your guys burst out in a blaze of gunfire and take down their targets (or something like that, anyway).  Might be helpful!

[x4000]

Idea from another thread:  Also, you can pair and EMP with transports, and have your guys inside just waiting to bust out when the EMP is set off.  Then your guys weren't affected by the EMP, but the enemy was, and they are sitting ducks for a few minutes while you clean them up.  Could be a much cheaper AIP alternative to the nuke.

[RCIX]

Yep i plan to let the Dyson golem loose on the AI (been waiting to see one ever since you approved the idea! )

Didn't think of nukes, that might be a serious option -- what's another (50? 80?) ai progress?  

The big problem right now is getting enough fleet onto the planet alive to attrit their ships -- i'm confident if i can go off in a corner i can start blasting their ships to kingdom come. I'm confident that my defenses will hold against even a large AI force (got Planetary Shield inhibitor + booster) so i could deal with a large backlash though not too large.

Edit: probably will build an EMP missile too, thanks for the idea

[Lancefighter]

What about just randomly throwing lightning missiles around?

On that other guy's thread about the mk3 world, I basically angered the AI by throwing missiles at his guard posts, and let him attack me.. surely it might be worth another 10~20 AIP to get through the world..

Just be careful - on fast and dangerous, one missile detonation puts any other missiles in the blast radius at 10% or so health

[x4000]

The EMP is a lot more useful than it once was, I must note.  It gives a 5 minute (IIRC) window of paralysis.  Or something much higher like that.  There's a lot you can do in that window when you aren't being constantly attritted!

[RCIX]

Um... yeah. For me it was only 30 seconds.

I have a progress report: i tossed in an EMP and two lighning missiles which was enough to get my cursed golem in; it's happily eating enemy ships left and right and maintaining upwards of 8m health. I'm doing a lot of microing though preventing the hordes of acid sprayers from catching up with it and killing it...

[Lancefighter]

yeah.. still 30 seconds. Been that way as long as I remember.

What about using lightning missiles as point defense against acid sprayers? :p

[x4000]

Oh, nevermind, I was think of tachyon missiles.  Yeah, I was already thinking that seemed overpowered for EMPs.  But paired with transports that does give you a nice window still.

Nice stuff with the Cursed Golem, though!

[RCIX]

It is a good golem, problem is it starts dying under the heavy pressure unless it's fed a constant diet of high level Acid Sprayers . At least the Dyson sphere was able to build upwards of 10 Gatlings, so it's not all bad...

After a while going along like that the golem finally died I opted to reload a save to do a more focused attack using the golem (3 EMPs now, no need to waster perfectly good golem fodder) which reminds me: des EMP bursts stack? as in, if i drop in 3 at once will they give me 1:30 of pause time?

[x4000]

It is a good golem, problem is it starts dying under the heavy pressure unless it's fed a constant diet of high level Acid Sprayers . At least the Dyson sphere was able to build upwards of 10 Gatlings, so it's not all bad...

That makes me smile, it's as if you are talking about a dog or something.

After a while going along like that the golem finally died I opted to reload a save to do a more focused attack using the golem (3 EMPs now, no need to waster perfectly good golem fodder) which reminds me: des EMP bursts stack? as in, if i drop in 3 at once will they give me 1:30 of pause time?

And, yep -- they should stack.  Paralysis in general stacks, and so I don't know of a reason this should not.  You might want to check it to make sure, but it should.

[Ruges]

And, yep -- they should stack.  Paralysis in general stacks, and so I don't know of a reason this should not.  You might want to check it to make sure, but it should.

Just ran a quick test and was able to stack my EMP's till I got 20mins of paralayisis. I think this is the stratagy I was looking for in order to defeat that last world. going to run it now.

[RCIX]

Progress report: reinserted the golem in the game via several EMP turrets and it's now on the run and i'm pumping through a steady flow of EMP missiles to increase survivability of my golem.

That makes me smile, it's as if you are talking about a dog or something.

It does feel a little like a pet!