Good Strategy against Dire Guardians

[ulu]

Hello,

I wonder how to deal with a Dire Guardian Lair next to a planet which I consider to capture. In my current game (7.3/7.3) I researched warp jammer command stations. But now I feel a bit foolish because of the 5000 knowledge I spent.

What do you do? Do you fight the Dire Guardian Lair? Do you think the warp jammer command station is worth its cost?

[Shrugging Khan]

If you have golems, then that's your solution right there.

Otherwise you'll need a rather strong fleet to take care of them. They're big and scary, but given that you can choose when to make them appear you can really just wait for the right moment. When your fleet is strong and your economy can live with a few losses, bust open their Lair and swarm whatever pops out.

[The Hunter]

Champion(s) of high enough tech level together with fleet should easily be able to take care of them, from my experiences. If in doubt, beachhead near lair beforehand.

[Shrugging Khan]

Oh, Champions. Yeah, if you have one of those then don't sweat it.

[Tridus]

Hello,

I wonder how to deal with a Dire Guardian Lair next to a planet which I consider to capture. In my current game (7.3/7.3) I researched warp jammer command stations. But now I feel a bit foolish because of the 5000 knowledge I spent.

What do you do? Do you fight the Dire Guardian Lair? Do you think the warp jammer command station is worth its cost?

The Warp Jammer is awesome, in certain circumstances. If you want to encourage the AI to ignore a planet as you want to do? It's good. I like to use them on Spire Archive worlds and to set up a forward base that I can attack the AI homeworlds from. They're expensive and certainly not necessary as there's usually other ways of doing things, but I really like them.

[LordSloth]

-generally- I take them down by throwing fleets at them. Usually turns out better than throwing starships at them.

Since K costs generally went down, I find that at 7 AI difficulty, marks I-IV of fighters, bombers, and missile frigates can clear a 'popped' DG lair and the three guardians that spawn. MKs I-II Fighters, Bombers, Missile Frigates can struggle against a single dire guardian, it depends, but a bit of extra support will help a lot (as long as that support doesn't go in front and get alpha'd, or have the wrong bonus hull type).

Fortresses will die horribly to guardians that get close enough, but they can put a significant dent in if far enough away and screened by fleetships. Golems should also operate from behind a protective screen in most cases. I would recommend you try Spirecraft Implosion Artillery. They can outrange Dire Artillery Guardians. You might need more than MKI Implosion Artillery, but if you have the room, you probably have the speed to kite. Alternatively, perhaps you can use cloaked Rams.

[Kahuna]

I just park my fleet on top of the Dire Guard Lair.. pop the lair and then pop the Dire Guardians.

[tadrinth]

It partly depends on what pops.  Dire Disassembler Guardians should be kept away from starships, for example.  Dire Artillery should be kept away from fortresses and possibly starships. 

Most guardians are best lured into your defenses.  Piles of Core Turrets will generally help a lot. 

Guardians also don't all have the same speed.  Popping the lair when its a few hops out can cause the guardians to spread out as they travel, letting you engage them one or two at a time instead of all three.  Raid starships are obviously handy for this. 

On the other hand, if an Infiltration guardian pops out, you probably want to engage immediately so you don't lose track of it.

So, the ideal would be to pop it with raid starships, with a scout starship present to provide tachyon, with your fleet next door, and all your slow ships in transports.  That way you can engage or run back to a good defensive position. 

Beachheading the planet with turrets is a very good idea but not always possible.