Whats a good defence at the start of the game?

[Nurgle84]

I am in my first game and my tower defenses get owned if I have no fleet support around. So which and how many towers do you build in your home system at the start of the game? I always fear, that I will have not enough towers later on to secure my other systems.

[chemical_art]

Varies  on the threat. Normally I build a tractor beams sufficent to stop a wave at the homeworld before the first wave hits. Normally at the 9 minute mark I wait and let my resources build up unless they are at max. Once the wave warning pops up I build defenses to counter whatever threat is coming as I burn off the excess resources I was saving earlier.  If it is bombers I build lasers and fighters I'll build MLRS. I always use fighters as well.

As you expand outward and your homeworld is relatively safe you can delete your turrets* there and re build them somewhere more useful so feel free to load up on the turrets at the start.


EDIT:*Keep at least a dozen sniper turrets at your homeworld. If an enemy raider starship pops onto your homeworld they are your best defense at a game ending lost within 2 minutes.

[Philo]

Yuo can't deal with waves with just turrets. You need fleet there. Usually when I begin I do 2 tractor beams on each wormhole, some beam cannon turrets (needs to be researched from science labs) and let the fleet support the turrets.

Though, if you manage to capture a planet in the beginning and build a military command station there, you usually won't need fleet to protect it from the early waves. Do a Military Command station, put it under a forcefield and if you can, put 4 tractor beams per wormhole. Make sure your Military CS has the range to hit the wormholes, otherwise the tractor beams are useless.

A MK1 Military CS under a few forcefields will hold off around 100 troops.
A MK2 Military CS under a few forcefields will hold off around 200 troops
A MK3 Military CS under a few forcefields will hold off around 300 troops

And if you also build lots of missile turrets on the planet you should be able to deal with most anything. When big waves hit though, you need the support of your fleet.

[Commiesalami]

Dropping the Military Command station under a force field destroys all of its damage.  Add a few spider turrets to actually deal the damage to the ship + handle any overflow from the tractors

[Philo]

I thought CS:s were immune to force field stuff and could shoot through with full damage. They are also influenced by forcefields?

[Nurgle84]

Thanks guys, I will use this knowledge in my next game. Good flattened by a 2K Cross planet attack, that hit me were I didn´t expect it  Lesson learned, just because a planet is completely neutered, doesn´t mean, the troops are harmless.

[chemical_art]

Dropping the Military Command station under a force field destroys all of its damage.  Add a few spider turrets to actually deal the damage to the ship + handle any overflow from the tractors

I thought CS:s were immune to force field stuff and could shoot through with full damage. They are also influenced by forcefields?

The damage per shot of a station while under a forcefield is reduced. However the main defense, the translocation, still fully works. That damage is tiny anyway so I think the stations benefit very great from forcefields.

[Echo35]

Dropping the Military Command station under a force field destroys all of its damage.  Add a few spider turrets to actually deal the damage to the ship + handle any overflow from the tractors

I thought CS:s were immune to force field stuff and could shoot through with full damage. They are also influenced by forcefields?

The damage per shot of a station while under a forcefield is reduced. However the main defense, the translocation, still fully works. That damage is tiny anyway so I think the stations benefit very great from forcefields.

Don't shots under force fields damage the force field now?

[chemical_art]

Don't shots under force fields damage the force field now?

Shots as in friendly shots or enemy shots?  Friendly units have never hurt shields as far as I can remember and if an enemy can move through a shield their shots often pass through the field itself as well.

[Echo35]

Don't shots under force fields damage the force field now?

Shots as in friendly shots or enemy shots?  Friendly units have never hurt shields as far as I can remember and if an enemy can move through a shield their shots often pass through the field itself as well.

I thought friendly shots under a force field damaged it.

[chemical_art]

I thought friendly shots under a force field damaged it.

If they did, I would be absolutely screwed. But thankfully they don't. Somehow in the AI universe they managed to make barriers that let shots in through one way but not another!

[Echo35]

I thought friendly shots under a force field damaged it.

If they did, I would be absolutely screwed. But thankfully they don't. Somehow in the AI universe they managed to make barriers that let shots in through one way but not another!

I was certain turrets at least did. Hmm... I must be going crazy.

[Ranakastrasz]

A long time ago, Player's attacks dealt damage to the force field when they attacked from under their protection, but did full damage to the enemies, but this was changed to reduce the damage of ships under force fields, Probably because people complained about it. I hope that clears it up.

[Philo]

I still have this same question though. Do forcefields hinder Military Command Stations' ability to shoot effectively?  Do they also get 1/4 to their firepower if under a forcefield?

Cause if they do I might have to try some more tractor beam + gravity turret kinda defense with the military station having no force field.

[keith.lamothe]

Way long ago ships could shoot from under a forcefield with no penalty.

Then it was changed to do damage to the protecting forcefield.  This did not apply to the ff's projected by Shield Bearers.

Then it was changed to not do damage to the protecting forcefield but to do 1/4 damage to the target.  This does not apply to the ff's projected by Shield Bearers.

Later on a few other ff-types were introduced that don't have a penalty (namely Riot Starship Shields, Avenger Shields, Hybrid Shields, Spirecraft Shield Bearers, and all the FS capital-ship and city-defense shields).


In any event, when it comes to defending a command station against heavy attack while the fleet+static-defense deals with the attackers, the absolute #1 most effective tactic I've ever found is piling tons of mkII and mkIII ff's on top of it with a bunch of engineers hiding under them to repair them; there's a delay between last-damaged and can-be-repaired but if you have enough "layers" and can keep the overall incoming damage below a certain critical point you can basically tank forever.

Without ff protection even a military command station goes *pop* waaaaay too fast.

Do forcefields hinder Military Command Stations' ability to shoot effectively?  Do they also get 1/4 to their firepower if under a forcefield?

Yes, that's correct.  But the translocation effect is unchanged.