Defending Tips on High Difficulties

[Fleet]

Hello,

Currently in a game diff 9/9 against a Sledge Hammer and The Tank. First few planets I took easily enough. I got to the point where i had two home-system adjacent planets, and two separate planets farther out, and (still one AI planet next to my homeworld). At about this point, with 5 planets that could be warped (with 3 of those having 3 AI wormholes as possible incoming warp locations), I found defense was getting unmanageable. I have maxed out my basic and MLRS MK I and basic Mk II, but they don't seem to provide enough firepower since I have to cover soo many wormhole locations with them. Fleet ships help out, but I can't use too many on defense since I still need an offensive force. I destroyed the two stations on the adjacent-to-homeworld systems to stop wormholes there for now (since they have supply its no problem for a temporary measure), and destroyed the last gate next to my homeworld, I now only have to defend 2 worlds (both of the farther out ones.

I'm vary wary of raising AIP, especially because of the higher difficulty. At this point, would it be advisable to take out some warp gates, so I can concentrate my defenses? I can post a save or galaxy map picture, if requested. 

Playing co-op with one ally (who is unfortunately working very slowly due to a tough start). 

[Fox Soul]

they don't seem to provide enough firepower since I have to cover soo many wormhole locations with them

Well, I found that out fairly early when I was playing.
I had this problem at first until I went back to my roots. "What did I do to prevent my weaker forces being overwhelmed by a stronger force?"

Looking back on newgrounds tower defense games I placed all my turrets around the main objective, since it was the only objective.

Applying that to my planet I had to think, what was my main objective?

• Protect the command station
• Harvesters are replaceable

So I shoved any single turret I had around my command stations and whenever a ship came close it was blown apart.
But this wasn't enough, large formations of bombers can easily destroy my forcefield and command station with a short amount of time, not enough for my defenses to take them all out.

I then began adding extra forcefield generators, unlocking and using turrets I never used before like lighting turrets, gravity, ect.., then finally seeing as the snipers need more time to disable ships I put my command stations at the far end of a planet right on the border.

All that took time, practice and guts.

[Lancefighter]

throwing this one out - your AI choices, sledgehammer and tank, arent exactly turtle AI types. Those are some of the more aggressive ones iirc.

[superking]

destroy all but one of the warpgates adjacent to your planets so you only have to worry about waves coming from that one wormhole. basic turrets are pretty weedy, you might find beam turrets and laser turrets (huge bonus vs armour ships and spacetanks) serve you better.

[Diazo]

If you can scrape up the knowledge, fortresses are by far the best defensive unit.

My typical setup is Command station under an FF blocking the wormhole that leads deeper into my territory with a fortress and turrets guarding it.

The fortress handles the ships that warp in while the rest keeps the fortress alive.

It is expensive on harvesters though, I can expect to lose half the harvesters in a system when a wave hits.

D.

[superking]

If you can scrape up the knowledge, fortresses are by far the best defensive unit.

at 30k energy cost for level 1, you can get much more bang for buck using regular MRLS turrets, so they are only superior in respect to their effectiveness vs starships and wide coverage.. for covering a singe, wave receving wormhole, a huge number of MRLS turrets is the best way of maxing dps

[Diazo]

The fortresses can cover multiple wormholes though.

Which is why you only build the turrets at the command station. The fortress cuts the AI ships down as they cross the system then the turrets at the command station clean up.

There's no having to build a turret ball at each wormhole, you just have to build a single turret ball and no AI ships can move further up your empire.

They do destroy the harvesters in said system regularly though so it isn't always the defense you want to use.

D.

[Fox Soul]

I have also used fortresses, but I only tend to use them when I have extra knowledge and power.

At that point the AI ships are MKIII and higher and doesn't seem to do that much damage to the ai fleet.

Of course they are very useful in replacing my mobile repair. I just leave them near my rally point and good things happen.

[Diazo]

AI Ships Mk III in the waves? Are you playing the conquer all strategy?

AI Ships didn't get above Mk II in my most recent game so Mk I forts were still effective. I did have Mk II forts for my critical systems unlocked as well though.

D.

[Fox Soul]

AI Ships Mk III in the waves? Are you playing the conquer all strategy?

There is no strategy, there is only Zuul.

Yes, I only play with conquer all strategy.
It has lead to defending on high difficulties much harder.

[Diazo]

Ah.

That would do it, I go straight for the homeworlds ASAP so for me a high AIP game is in the 600-700 range (80 planet map).

The AI doesn't get Mk III ships until 820-830 AIP or so, depending on difficutly.

Also means my waves are smaller aswell as being the lower Mk level.

Regardless, I would think that the fortress is still a unit worth your time, just it would have to be part of a larger defense in the setup you are describing.

D.

[Sunshine!]

I've recently been experimenting with difficulty 9, and I can't seem to survive the first wave to my home planet at all.  I don't seem to have the resources to mount an effective defense, for the most part because all the defenses require ridiculous amounts of crystal.  Any suggestions for how to get past that first wave?

[Spikey00]

I challenged myself to play a game with 10diff sledge hammers on a ten planet map, starting in the middle connecting to all nine AI planets; survived 3K ships in an hour with fast forwarding.  Shorthand tips:

- Salvage useless nuke silo for 10K energy.
- Disable power plants for efficiency.
- Spam basic turrets which cover more than one wormhole.
- Build basic starships to cap.
- Build fighters, research for II; build to cap.
- Don't build MK1 bombers or frigates; they're useless all from start to end unless you have a juggernaut economy.  MK2 for both if you need it.  Damage for bomber goes up from 200 to 900 and shield from 500 to 1 500, and MK1 frigate improves from 24K HP to 100K.  You can't support that with the energy you have early game either, focus on higher tier ships.  MK1 fighters are fine, they don't suffer from the same dullness.
- Don't always FRD your ships; always keep an eye out for large groups of enemy bombers and manually send your fighters to attack them.  300 MK1/2 fighters will easily handle a group of 100-200 bombers rapidly, even without attack boosts from starship.
- Research laser turrets.  Versatile, long range, helps with bombers and shielded targets, especially melee ships.  Boosts your defense line to a dual format so you catch those ships which may be resistant and resilient to a certain type of ammo fire.
- Do not waste all your knowledge on defensive tech.  You need to expand later on, MK1 ships are useless on offense when AI has forcefields and MK2 ships.
- Do not be wasteful; be as efficient as you can.  Avoid spamming all your turrets at once unless you have enough resources stockpiled.
- Don't forget rebuilder and engineer nodes, including FRD engineers.  10 rebuilders are fine, and five MK1 engineers are fair enough; watch your energy costs.

Example is a screenshot--see how I position all my turrets effectively, and the lack of tractors turrets.  Only nine [each on one wormhole] because it is unrealistic that I try to build a ton on all of the wormholes, and the AI is bound to escape the wormholes anyways; that's what the turrets and mobile military is for.  Always catch the early border aggression ships early on with a few tractors, or your economy will suffer.

I have my main mobile military on one side because I don't want to spread out my forces too thin--that's why I have way more turrets over on the other upper side.

[Lancefighter]

And your planets name is Murdoch.

I swear that name comes up far too much in the most omen-like fashion.

[Spikey00]

And your planets name is Murdoch.

I swear that name comes up far too much in the most omen-like fashion.

It's in altplanetnames by default; ugh, but yes, it kind of drives me crazy.  Almost like being brainwashed to make more profitsss...