How to deal with 450+ core Z bombardment ships?

[Awod]

As the title says I want to hear how people deal with large quantities of these.

In my current game there's a world just before an AI homeworld that has around 450 of them and it's just brutal. Using 6 decoy drones, 3 cloaker starships, and 10 transports I can get my fleet to the homeworld. However, the drones die midway the cloakers die when they're revealed at the end and my transport still get moderately damaged.

Doesn't help that when I enter the core world I'm greeted by 500 core bombers, what's left of my transports get roasted by them.

I'm just curious, I mean I did get by with what I had but it was quite a bit of effort and drones aren't something I'd have every time anyways.

So, what would you do?

[Fleet]

There are some units (Z Bombardment Ships being one of them) that can really ruin a good game if they come in mass. My thought is perhaps cheap, massable ships would be best, since tthe Z bombard firepower is concentrated into single shots. I have not tried this out though (last game that had mass bombards I lost. This Mk IV planet was reinforcing with tons of ships and I could not get the planet off alert)

[keith.lamothe]

Hmm, that is a large chunk of firepower.

Well, they have a 14 second reload time, so you can burn the initial salvo with 450 cheap ships (Neinzul would be good here).

Then it's a matter of getting something pretty fast with a good bonus against them.  Acid Sprayers are an obvious choice if you have them (100x bonus).  Autocannon minipods get an 8x bonus so as long as the swarm lasts they'll be pretty good with the cluster bonus (some cloaked raids could be effective too).  Deflector drones get 20x against them.  Armor gets 10x.  Youngling weasels get 20x.  Even ordinary bombers get 16x.  Raiders get 12x.  Tanks get 40x.

Obviously your mileage with the various bonus ship types will vary based on whether you have them, but I imagine worst to worst you could use a bunch of fighters to draw the first salvo, and send transports full of bombers to unload right on top of the bombards (though the slow unload rate will hurt, may want Transport IIs for that).

[Awod]

Honestly I never even considered fighting them, heh. But yeah that would've helped for sure, I had drones they could draw their attention for like 25 seconds, follow up next with some fighters and drop transports with bombs right on them. If it worked, it would certainly have made getting to the homeworld a lot easier and the transports would have health to actually get to a guard post. Well, food for thought for next time.

[Spikey00]

450... is there any way to aggro them to your planet in streams, then let your [remaining] defenses deal with them gradually?

(Deflector drones vs them are hilarious.)

[Awod]

450... is there any way to aggro them to your planet in streams, then let your [remaining] defenses deal with them gradually?

(Deflector drones vs them are hilarious.)

I tried that actually, took out the command station. Some came, not all. At that point I started with planning to attack the homeworld and they just kept reinforcing meanwhile so every time I tried my strategy they had even more. It's at like 500 of them now, on the bright side there's only like 1-2 posts left.

[Dragon]

If you kill everything with that has the text "warp gate" as part of it's description (command stations, spec forces posts, barracks, likely other things) then the guard posts will stop spawning reinforcements.

And if you kill the guard posts, the ships they have will attack you.  So you could try that....

[Lancefighter]

lightning warheads?

I've been fond of a cloaker-starship + lightning warhead duo. Or trio... or more lightning warheads depending on your preference 

[Diazo]

Never actually faced that unit, but are they emp immune?

If they are not, dump in an emp then rush them with whatever unit they are weak to.

If they are, phase your attack out so other units eat at least the first volley (they have a long reload if I remember right) and just rush them.

Or cover your fleet in an FF, would move very slow but I don't think they have a bonus against FF's.

With 450-500 of them, there's no elegant solution I can think of beyond just bashing away at them.

D.

[Awod]

If you kill everything with that has the text "warp gate" as part of it's description (command stations, spec forces posts, barracks, likely other things) then the guard posts will stop spawning reinforcements.

And if you kill the guard posts, the ships they have will attack you.  So you could try that....

Good idea! I always forget about guard posts and what they can do, I suppose with the recent updates that will change though.

lightning warheads?

I've been fond of a cloaker-starship + lightning warhead duo. Or trio... or more lightning warheads depending on your preference 

I imagine 2 could take out a blob, this idea would go well with keiths as support/backup/cleanup. Definitely have to limit it though due to AIP costs.

Never actually faced that unit, but are they emp immune?

If they are not, dump in an emp then rush them with whatever unit they are weak to.

If they are, phase your attack out so other units eat at least the first volley (they have a long reload if I remember right) and just rush them.

Or cover your fleet in an FF, would move very slow but I don't think they have a bonus against FF's.

With 450-500 of them, there's no elegant solution I can think of beyond just bashing away at them.

D.

Well, the core variants are.

A lot of nice ideas here, thanks all!

[Spikey00]

I thought core ships were immune to missiles?

EDIT:  Now that I think about it, disregard that.

[Fox Soul]

Radar Jammers work wonders on them if your defending.

[keith.lamothe]

Also could distract the initial salvo, send in a mobile builder with a ton of engineers, and speed build a fortress

[Sunshine!]

If this is the AI core planet you're talking about,you can't destroy all "warp gate - full" buildings because of the exo-galaxy wormhole.

Bombers with a fighter screen are probably what I would do.  Space planes could work as well, super high damage and undetectable until they get right up on the bombards.  Mercenary Etherjets maybe as well, grab a couple and drag them back to your planet so you have a small opening through which you can slip ships in and blow up their guard post, then rinse and repeat.

[CogDissident]

Query: Why not just nuke it? Sure, it costs 50 AI progress, but this is an AI homeworld we're talking about. Its worth it if you've not got the fleet to take out the ships.