Minefield, cloaking, and Starship Questions

[TheStratovarian]

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to hopefully answer my questions. (and I have alot)

The first I guess, is what the limits are to the cloaker starship hiding, and can it actually hide itself in that, or is more like the sc (starcraft) arbiter in hiding under it? From that, I want to ask, if the ship cloaks defenses?

The reason I ask, is that I'm learning about how beneficial deep raiding is. (i think its called that) (Something that would cost me games, and does now and then) Normally, i go in with the cloak planes as my starter choice (Always, over any other type, not the raiders, but the really low health ones with monstrous attack, the electric shuttle fodder ones.) Since the leech starships are good at punching holes in defenses, I was curious if i could park one at the gate, take in engineers, and build mines and use this to keep a hidden force to pull back to hit 2-4 jump targets id have no chance to best otherwise early on.

Now then, What is a good mine field array to use? on the defensive for baiting an attack force with a strike on a command center with? Should I put emp mines near the first, or leave that to the area for the avoidance vessels. to trigger when they go to the outer areas? (I havent experimented much, but ask those that invest heavily in those)

The final one, is how do I prevent raid starships from hitting deep in my own territory, slow them down, or manage to keep them from causing problems if i cant hit them easy.

[x4000]

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to hopefully answer my questions. (and I have alot)

Our pleasure.

The first I guess, is what the limits are to the cloaker starship hiding, and can it actually hide itself in that, or is more like the sc (starcraft) arbiter in hiding under it? From that, I want to ask, if the ship cloaks defenses?

It has cloaking in and of itself, so it follows the normal cloaking rules.  But it also extends cloak to other nearby ships.  I believe it can cloak defenses, but I would not swear to it.  Please note that as soon as any of those ships open fire, they come out of cloak, so they should be in low-power mode if you are wanting to use the cloaker starship to hide military ships from view while they are stealthily on the move

The reason I ask, is that I'm learning about how beneficial deep raiding is. (i think its called that) (Something that would cost me games, and does now and then) Normally, i go in with the cloak planes as my starter choice (Always, over any other type, not the raiders, but the really low health ones with monstrous attack, the electric shuttle fodder ones.) Since the leech starships are good at punching holes in defenses, I was curious if i could park one at the gate, take in engineers, and build mines and use this to keep a hidden force to pull back to hit 2-4 jump targets id have no chance to best otherwise early on.

If you are deep raiding, then you wouldn't have supply, so you can't build mines or any other fixed defenses, anyway.  You could use the cloaker to hide those ships when they are not fighting, but otherwise as soon as they start fighting it won't help.  And mines are always cloaked anyway, as an aside.

Now then, What is a good mine field array to use? on the defensive for baiting an attack force with a strike on a command center with? Should I put emp mines near the first, or leave that to the area for the avoidance vessels. to trigger when they go to the outer areas? (I havent experimented much, but ask those that invest heavily in those)

EMP Mines have turned out to be unpopular.  I think that most will recommend using Area Mines and regular mines.  Generally building them along paths that you expect the AI to take is the way to go.  Usually this means in something of a V shape facing away from a wormhole on your planet towards where the incoming AI ships are likely to want to go.

The final one, is how do I prevent raid starships from hitting deep in my own territory, slow them down, or manage to keep them from causing problems if i cant hit them easy.

You'll want to just have enough forces to take them out on whatever planet they are attacking from.  Only time they would be showing up is as part of a wave, or from an AI planet whose command station you destroyed without killing all the ships on it first.  So you won't just see them randomly infiltrating your areas or anything. Fighters in general are particularly good at going for starships, as are starships like dreadnoughts.  Typically those would be my first choice for going after them, but I tend to just engage the starships of whatever sort with my fleet, and let the autotargeting sort itself out.  If starships are running amok on my planets while my fleet is elsewhere, I tend to bring my fleet back.

[TheStratovarian]

I was looking at using the leech ships to capture its gate defenses, then send in the cloak ship to hide and repair them, but if you need supply to fire them, it would be a moot point past the first wormhole. Better then to send in a cleaner pair to prevent it from re-building, and then park a ship there and pull back as needed through the wormholes. Thank you.

[x4000]

I was looking at using the leech ships to capture its gate defenses, then send in the cloak ship to hide and repair them, but if you need supply to fire them, it would be a moot point past the first wormhole. Better then to send in a cleaner pair to prevent it from re-building, and then park a ship there and pull back as needed through the wormholes. Thank you.

You can't capture turrets with a leech, but if you mean their mobile ships, that would work.  You don't need supply for regular ships to attack, but turrets can't attack without supply (and can't be captured, anyway, so that's moot for here).  You can use the cloak ship to hide them while you repair them, I would think -- I've never tried that, but it seems like a clever use for them.  The engineers will be decloaked automatically while they are repairing those other ships, though, so they'll wind up taking all the sniper fire instead of those other ships (which will also automatically attack anything in range of themselves, thus breaking their own cloak, if you don't put them in low-power mode).  Basically, ships can't be cloaked while they are doing anything other than just moving around or providing scout intel, unless they are cloaked by an AI's planetary cloaker, which is the sole thing that breaks that rule.

[Oewyn]

ships with reclamation (leech, parasites, etc) cannot capture turrets.  Cleanup drones are dirt-cheap, don't require supply, and are pretty good at staying alive.  I don't see a point in /not/ bringing in cleanup drones on an assault, unless you plan on going straight for the orbital, immediately destroying any enemy remains on the planet.

[x4000]

ships with reclamation (leech, parasites, etc) cannot capture turrets.  Cleanup drones are dirt-cheap, don't require supply, and are pretty good at staying alive.  I don't see a point in /not/ bringing in cleanup drones on an assault, unless you plan on going straight for the orbital, immediately destroying any enemy remains on the planet.

Yeah, I tend to bring a half dozen or so with me, usually.

[TheStratovarian]

Does the mobile builder provide supply to whatever planet its on without a link, or would you need to chain them to get the same effect as holding the planet?

[x4000]

Does the mobile builder provide supply to whatever planet its on without a link, or would you need to chain them to get the same effect as holding the planet?

There is no substitute for supply other than holding the planet or an adjacent planet.  All your planets don't have to be in a line, but you'd have to send a colony ship way out to wherever you destroy a planet, capture that planet with the colony ship, and then you'd have supply to the adjacent planets.  The point of supply is to prevent people from raiding too effectively without actually capturing planets, since that was exploitable.

[Kjara]

Well, sometimes its easier on a deepish raid to take out the cs, then go back and pick up a colony ship(preferably in a transport to get it past the hostile worlds) then to try to keep it alive while killing the planet.

[x4000]

Well, sometimes its easier on a deepish raid to take out the cs, then go back and pick up a colony ship(preferably in a transport to get it past the hostile worlds) then to try to keep it alive while killing the planet.

Now that transports can contain colony ships, you can also keep them in spare transports, which might be easier to keep alive.  But yeah, I know what you mean.