Dealing with Strategic Reserve

[SenorPez]

How do you deal with the strategic reserve? I've had a persistent problem in that, for the last few games, everything is going swimmingly until I attack one of the AI homeworlds. I've been able to expand, to hack (love the new "hacking as a resource" mechanic, btw), to defend without too much trouble.

But when I start blowing up Core Guard Posts, the 70% remaining Strategic Reserve gets released, appears out of nowhere three jumps from my home command station, and steamrolls me.

Am I missing something? Can I somehow identify where the strategic reserve is deployed so that I can bleed it off and/or build defenses?

[keith.lamothe]

I think there may be some confusion going on here, as strategic reserve ships are specifically unable to leave the planet from which they deploy.

But killing core guard posts does release mini-exos that come after you.  Those don't come from the strategic reserve per se (though I guess conceptually it's kind of similar).

Anyway, those (like any exo) can spawn from any warp gate or structure which provide warp-gate-wave (including AI Eyes, etc), so you can control their spawn points by controlling where those structures are left.

But the main thing is to try killing just one core guard post rather than popping them all at once.  If you have trouble fending off even a single post's mini-exo then you may want to put your save up here for defensive advice.  If you can handle just that one post's mini exo then try killing 2 core posts at a time, then 3, etc.

Of course, while you're dealing with the assaults the AI is benefiting from the AIP floor increase from the core post deaths too.  So generally the faster you can take down the HWs the better, but just going "kill eveyrthing ASAP" is no longer optimal in all cases.

[SenorPez]

Ah, I've missed the fact that blowing up Core Guard Posts releases mini-exos. That's what I get for stepping away from the game for a while... apparently surgically striking the Core Worlds like I used to is now a "bad idea."

[Fluffiest]

Yeah, this came out of nowhere and punched me in the neck in the game I'm currently playing. Is there any way to predict when the retaliatory mini-exos will hit? I don't have enough defences unlocked to cover all my planets.

[Diazo]

Isn't it when the Core Guard Post is destroyed?

I've been messing around with the Showdown Devices and have not actually destroyed a core guard post since the mini-exo was added, but I can't see any other way it would work based on the description.

If you are asking 'where' they can hit, I'm assuming they follow the normal exo rules of spawning from a "Warp Gate-Full" and attacking high-value targets.

D.