How to deal with Fortresses

[Wingflier]

I'm kind of new to this, and I've been having trouble dealing with the large fortresses that shoot 60 or so missiles at a time at my fleet.  My problem with them is that the missiles are specifically designed to destroy fighters, arachnids, and such; yet those are the ships that are supposedly strong against the Fortress.

In addition, Fortresses have just a HUGE amount of health, so it's extremely hard to burn them down quickly without losing everything, especially the fighters.  I know fighters are cheap to make and all, but they usually don't even get to the Fortress before they die.

Any tips on killing them/countering them?

Thanks.

[Diazo]

Odd, where did you see that fighters are supposed to be strong against fortresses?

Bombers and Space Tanks (if you have them) are about the only things that are really good at taking out fortresses.

A large enough fleet can do it also, but it will take significant losses.

D.

[rubikscube]

are you sure it's not a super fortress?

if not, i can imagine you have a very small fleet, i just like getting a big fleet and destroying everything possible besides the big things, but fortress aren't that hard, and yah, use more bombers and tanks

[Wingflier]

Hmm...are bombers and tanks better than fighters against starships as well?

[rubikscube]

nope, fighters are extremely good at (well not extremely but much better) destroying starships.

besides the triangle of fighters bomber and frigates, usually just remember bombers for force fields and fortresses, fighters for starships (not much a difference but) frigates for long range targets.

[Wingflier]

Frigates for long range targets like what?  I've never really seen the point of building frigates in this game.

Why?  Because enemy fighters are never a problem.  Fighters die so easily that you don't need Frigates to deal with them when a healthy mix of your own fighters, bombers, and some starships can take them out with no problems.

So when DO I need Frigates?

[pierre dupon]

It may be that your playing style doesn't require frigates. I don't tend to have starships in my offensive fleet cos I end up being too protective of them. I use frigates in defence in conjunction with tractor turrets or grav turrets near the endgame. I park the frigates within range of a wormhole and they will help with the slaughter, they outrange most other ships so they end up dealing heavy damage. So far they've racked up 15k of 150k kills in my current game, which is more than any other of my base units (marginally). On the offensive I use them to kill tractors when the other turrets are down since they outrange them and deal tasty damage.
On fortresses: just hit them with bombers. If you're taking heavy losses park a mobile repair station with tugs outof range of the fortress. Or build a countermissile turret and hide under that if you want overkill all that assumes you have supply of course.

[x4000]

Frigates are awesome against things like special forces guard posts, but also they are the counter to about 1/3 of the units in the game. You will need them, and they have long been the favorite unit of many players, but depending on a specific campaign they may be more or less useful. If none of the AI's ship types happen to be in the 1/3 of ships that are weak to frigates, then you may not have much use for them. And, Pierre says, your play style could let you use some units instead of others, etc.

It's funny, with the ship types: someone has a favorite type, and someone else is convinced that same type is utterly worthless. Same is true of microfighters, for example. I think that boils down to differing playstyles and scenarios.

[Wingflier]

Interesting.

That's dynamic

[x4000]

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

[Rustayne]

Another suggestion for dealing with them, is if you can cut off supply to them, they shut down except the Super Fort.  That is what I have done on a couple planets that have had 2-3 of them in a system.  Dealing with that kind of damage for any length of time is rough, let alone turrets and everything else going on.

[Diazo]

How about a system with a Mk II, a Mk III fortress, a Superfortress and 3x Mk II ion cannons? (This is on Diff 10 though.)

I can see it being doable with missiles as there is no anti-missile cannon in system, but it would be costly. (What is the name of that cannon anyway, there's Ion Cannon, Orbital Mass Driver and ?)

Fortunately the map layout let me go around so I haven't had to take that system out and I don't really want to think about it. 


On the topic of frigates, I use them to destroy special forces posts early in the game and as a defensive unit that stays grouped with my starships later in the game. This uses their range to keep ships which are strong against starships, but are short ranged, away from my starships.

Having said that, Mk III frigates are one of those maybe unlocks that depend on how that specific game plays out, where are Mk III bombers are unlocked by mid-game.

D.

[Wingflier]

I've just come to terms with the fact that not all planets are going to be penetrable.  Sometimes you just have to go around

[x4000]

I've just come to terms with the fact that not all planets are going to be penetrable.  Sometimes you just have to go around

For sure. You could probably break any planet eventually, but te not always worth the effort.

[Frozen Critical]

"Nothing is Impossible , Everything is Possible" -Edward

but yea , its not really worth the effort to waste half your forces on a single planet