LOTS Shard Retrieval

[supamanu]

So I started my very first LOTS campaign on normal difficulty. In the very early game, I discovered a shard two hops away, but both systems have a LOT of nasty stuff (Mark III).

Having only my home base at my disposal, so resource and ship poor, I thought: he, I'll just send a transport to bring it back safely home...

... which is when I discovered at considerable expense:
a) Shards don't go in transports :/
b) Engineers can't repair transports

So THAT didn't work. I tried again with as many ships as I could spare but only made it halfway back. It sounds like it will be a while (and I have to get more resources and build a much bigger fleet) before I can make another rescue attempt.

Is it ok to just leave it there, or is there a time component? Because the Journal mentioned that I had to haul ass. It sounds like I may be in a catch 22...

Any advice?

[Wanderer]

You have time as long as the shard is not actually in system yet.  You usually need to bring your survey ship up to the area and have it 'find' the shard.  Until you do that, you have all the time in the world, including time to take over a few systems and build yourself up.

[keith.lamothe]

My recollection is that the chase groups (small exogalactic strikeforces) will keep spawning as long as the shard is in the game (visible) and not on a human homeworld.  Letting those spawns keep going at that stage of the game is likely to end in you being quickly overwhelmed. 

You have all the time you want before actually completing the survey, though.

[Mánagarmr]

Yeah, once the Shard is in game (and not on your homeplanet) you are on a timer. The waves will spawn and quickly overwhelm you if you don't hurry. So once you use the Survey Ship, haul ass.

[supamanu]

Thanks folks. I shall exert my attention elsewhere until I am ready to take on the threat. It probably makes sense to take over the MkIII system that lies between me and the shard system, because the transit through that system (distance between wh) is very long and the harassment is incessant. Besides, who wants a MkIII system at one's doorstep, right?

[Mánagarmr]

Thanks folks. I shall exert my attention elsewhere until I am ready to take on the threat. It probably makes sense to take over the MkIII system that lies between me and the shard system, because the transit through that system (distance between wh) is very long and the harassment is incessant. Besides, who wants a MkIII system at one's doorstep, right?

Not many would want that, indeed My last game I started my HW had 4 WH connected. 3 were MKIV >.<

[Silver]

A small tip: take out any neighboring warp gates and SAVE before using your survey ships.

[BobTheJanitor]

A small tip: take out any neighboring warp gates and SAVE before using your survey ships.

It's been a little while since I did a full spire campaign, but if I recall taking out the warp gates doesn't help. The waves are going to spawn somewhere and come for you regardless. If you kill the warp gates, they'll just spawn one planet over and it will save you all of a minute or so before they get to you. What I did for shard retrievals was to neuter all the planets along my path back to safe space and possibly build some static defenses along the way and then send the biggest ugliest fleet I could manage to spare and have them huddle around the shard while it crept back. Rather time consuming to flatten all the planets along the way, but it pays off.

[keith.lamothe]

If you kill the warp gates, they'll just spawn one planet over and it will save you all of a minute or so

That can still make a difference.  But yea, it's not a must-do, by far.

[Silver]

I lost my first 3-4 games by just rushing to get the shard and then getting obliterated by 300-400 Mk4 and Core ships. Then I took out the warp gates and suddenly I could escort the shard, build a stupid amount of turrets and FF's and (just barely) survive. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but nothing else worked for me.

[Kraiz]

I'm in the middle of my second playthrough and have completed 5 of the "Recover XYZ Object" missions... not mentioning what they are for spoiler purposes.

The strategy that works best that I have found (At least for my playstyle) is to...
1:  Clear a direct path between your Homeworld and the object's system.
2:  Capture these systems with Logistics CC's.  Place forcefields on the wormholes leading back to your Homeworld.
2:  Break your fleet into two "Contingents"; one as the escort contingent, the second as the Mobile Contingent.
1a:  Use the Escort Contingent to stay with the escorted object at all times.  It is usually best to split it up over the current system's inlet points so as to kill AI ships as they come through, meaning less targets for your ships to simultaneously target, meaning more of your ships fire on a smaller number of their more powerful ones.  If you're not finding success with this, keep the whole of your Escort Contingent with the shard to work as a group.  Engineers in FRD are very useful as well.
1b:  Use the Mobile Contingent to work ahead of the shard.  This keeps the AI's forces split among two systems, letting you divide and conquer.  It keeps pressure off of your Escorts and the shard while helping to prevent some AI ships from rushing to your homeworld.
3:  Set your spacedocks to send all produced ships to the fray with rally points.  Avoid ships that take a long time to produce like Bombardment or Beam frigates.  I usually pick very fast-producing or high-capacity ships to keep numbers high (Cannon Fodder Doctrine).  The function of this practice is self-explanatory.
Just keep pushing on.  If you set things up correctly, the AI will be slowed down with the presence of the Logistics CC's and the forcefields they have to break through to get closer to the shard.

*Phew*, Glad that's over.

[Martyn van Buren]

One more thing to note is that until you get the shard/other object actually onto a homeworld, the AI will keep spawning exo-waves at the closest warp gate to its current position.  So when you do the later ones it definitely can make sense to look at the path you want to take and do some selective warp-gate raiding to funnel them in to well-defended worlds.  Just make sure you leave at least one near somewhere you're ready to take them on.