Overdefended Mark I planet. Unbreakable. Halp?

[Mánagarmr]

It appears I just can't break this planet, whatever I do. Can anyone have a look at this save and tell me if I'm done for, or if there is some way to break this planet? 2400+ ships and a million fortified wormholes is just too much. A station raid is out of the question since the station is cowering under a Core Forcefield >.<

[x4000]

From your description, without looking at the save it sounds like you're talking about a main hub on a spokes map?

That can be tricky, but I still think that a station raid would be the way to go here, especially because of the core forcefield.  Even with a forcefield up, you're never in a position where a raid is fully out of the question: it's just harder.  What you want is something that can get through the forcefield to kill it, like Raid Starships for instance.  There are a variety of ways to go about creating diversions, etc, for your Raid Starships to sneak past (even an EMP missile could be the perfect ticket there -- probably what I'd do), and then it's just a matter of getting them to the station to kill it before they die. 

After that... ships swarm through your wormhole and hopefully die on your waiting fleet and turrets, and then you're left to pick on the turrets, forcefields, and whatever else is left.

Others might have more specific ideas by looking at your savegame, but that's my general advice for that sort of situation.

[Mánagarmr]

Raid ships ignore forcefields? In that case, that would be the perfect weapon in this situation. It is indeed a hub system on spokes map. The station is on the far end of my wormhole, so I have to cross the entire system to get there. The system is PACKED with anti-starship arachnids, so not sure a raid starship would make it though. I'll definitely try it though, but tomorrow. Too late now, have to go to sleep. Gonna drive my grandfather to the hospital tomorrow. (No, nothing serious. Just some hand surgery.)

[Mánagarmr]

The enclosed screenshot is what I see upon entering. This is after launching an EMP warhead and bumrushing the station with three raid starships. They got about 40% of the way before dying. I'll try group move and see if I can keep the fire off the raid warships long enough for them to make it to the station. But it doesn't look good

I do NOT want to nuke the planet, simply because it has resources I simply must have, and it would deny me supply on every single world connected to this hub, thus denying me some 25k knowledge. I've tried everything in my power. I even unlocked Mark III forcefields and moved five of them in and had 1200 ships under the cover. That idea worked the best, but was still not enough to break the core forefield that covers the station. And the starships were taken out before they even reached the forcefield, thanks to the damn mass driver. The AI was NOT happy about that, and as soon as he had cleaned up my little attack, he sent 2000+ ships my way and cleaned up my hub system too. It's only a matter of time before I get stomped into the ground.

Is there ANYTHING you can do against a world this fortified, save for a nuke (which, for above reasons, aren't an option)

EDIT: Helps to enclose the screenshot.  

[x4000]

Ouch, you're playing against and experimentalist.  That makes this much more of a challenge -- and all those arachnids sort of nullify your starships, for sure.  One thing that might help to know is that starships are immune to EMPs: so you can detonate one, or two, or more, while your starships are actually still on the planet.

Otherwise, I can't really think of a whole lot that would do well here short of brute forcing this in some manner -- I think the arachnids are weak against cruisers, for instance, but with all those decoy drones giving cover...

Bear in mind that these worlds at the center of spokes on the spokes-type maps are meant to be very hard to take: it's a really sweet prize to take, obviously, since it then lets you exert control on the supply of the surrounding AI planets and all of that.  When that's paired with an experimentalist, though, then that gets even more challenging than it would have been normally.

[Mánagarmr]

Aye, you can say that again I think I'm gonna call this one a loss. I've been banging my head at that system for over 10 hours now without making as much as a dent. Pretty challenging, I'd say Gonna try my luck in a new game instead.

Thanks for an epic game! It really does rock!

[x4000]

Glad you're enjoying it!  If it makes you feel any better, I don't win all the time, either.  In fact, until my current game (which I think I will probably win), I was on an unusual losing streak where my alpha testers and I lost three long games in a row.  Go figure!  We had a good time with all, though, and losing occasionally does make the victories sweeter.  If victory is always inevitable, it becomes meaningless over time!

[triggerman602]

i had a strategy to conquer that world, but it appears that the new forcefield collisions ruined it since units can slip between overlapping forcefields.

[Mánagarmr]

I've yet to win once, but I've been close. Still waiting for that sweet victory

[x4000]

[AdamK]

Would a couple of empty transports or something else tough, fast, and throwaway survive long enough to make a run for the edge of the system and maybe suck away some of the defenders, so there's an easier path for the main attack?

[superking]

1) build maximum limit of lightning turrets + tractor turrets around the offending wormhole
2) build 2-3 transports
3) wall the wormhole in with 4 FF
4) mine the wormhole to the absolute max
5) arrange everything else you have around the wormhole
6) put 200 assorted fighter/bomber in transport
7) fly 3 transports into wormhole, upto enemy command station and unload
destroy command station in 20 seconds. all enemies beeline for your wormhole.
9) transport your 200 units back asap, and get ready for the mother of all battles on your side of the wormhole
10)
11) system empty and ready for invasion

[Mánagarmr]

That would've worked nicely if it wasn't for the Core Forcefield. Nothing is strong enough to break through the forcefield fast enough to survive the bazillion ships that are on the planet. Raid starships didn't work either because of the 300 odd anti starship arachnids.

[orzelek]

superking's plan is very sound - since core force field is preventing straight command station raid do this with all guard posts in system first to get some forces of the planet intou your welcoming defenses. That should help with killing of core forcefield or remove some anti-starships to allow raiders.

Alternative plan would involve moving in with small force in transports and flying out far from enemies - after that build small beachhead there with turrets etc and start luring enemies into it. For luring enemies you may need to use one of units with tag that says that AI will pursue them like Flagship. You can also add sniper turrets but counter-snipers will show quite quickly.

[superspeck]

I'm at work, so I can't look at the savegame... but can you blow some of the command posts to reduce the sheer number of defending units you're going up against ... THEN use transports or other AI-attracting ships to sucker some off, and THEN go in with a couple transports full of bombers and some lighter units, and while the AI is focused on ALL of those things, sneak in your raid starships to try for the command center?