Raid Engine Troubles ...

[Commiesalami]

In my current game I've got 3 systems in a triangle pattern each with a raid engine (one of which on a core world).  I can hit all 3 within a minute using Jumpships but cant survive the resulting attack.  I'm not thinking this is not solvable in my case (no Fallen Spire, Spirecraft or Golems I have to trigger 2 of the engines to get to one of the Homeworlds) after trying a couple of times to survive the resulting attack.

I'm curious to know how other players handle overlapping raid engines.

[Solarity]

Well you could EMP each of the worlds, take out the raid engines, then fall all your forces back to a more defendable position untill the attacks are defeated.  Or you could try and trap all / most of the foreces on one planet with a sheild at one of the wormholes then emp then nuke, or just move your forces in and try and kill as many as you can...  How many are you facing and what do you have against them?

[Commiesalami]

I'm playing on a map where there are no choke points to take advantage of.  (I'm of the mindset to roll a map once and then play with what I've got)   AI progress is much higher that I would like (about 900).  I spent the last hour and a half building fortresses at the worlds that they could enter through only to have that work partially.  A wave of bombers arrived and sealed my fate.  I completely forgot about warheads though (I typically dont use them).

Killing the raid engines isn't a problem, a small force of starships loaded up amongst 3 transports works.  I can kill all 3 engines within about a minute of alerting the first one. (The raid engines and wormholes are conveniently close). 

[Solarity]

EMP's are the way to go then, esp if you can hit them when they are gathered at a wormhole.  If you had a botnet golum, they work well with EMP's as the zombies are EMP resistant and come to life as soon as they are turned and will kill things that the gloum cant.  Then again, are the waves all mark V ?

[Sunshine!]

You say you have jumpships, but then say you don't have spirecraft?

Also, trigger all the Raid Engines at the same time, then sneak a mk2 nuke in with a cloaker starship.  When the waves arrive, just nuke 'em all.  Might be a little high for AIP cost, but have you taken out the other homeworld yet?

[zoutzakje]

Isn't there a way around the raid engines? Like, approaching them from a different direction? I once headed to a world with 2 bordering raid engines and I got destroyed pretty quick. Then I tried approaching the enemy from a different direction so I would trigger the engines one at a time. I ended with a little higher AIP because I had to change plans and take a few extra worlds, but it did prevent me from getting wiped out.

[Red Spot]

Defence in depth ..

I had exactly the same situation in the game I started yesterday, took 3 planets in line, dressed for defence, before I was able to stop the waves. Taking on 2 8.6 Vicious Raiders I got 3+k Raiders (mk2) and 2 regular (mk1!!) waves (one had 2.2k frigates), which all hit in seconds of each other (well, the raid engines triggered before, but they didn't cross over untill the other waves hit).

Still being at 6-7 planets and mk1 waves it took me 3 times a full fleet to defeat them, more or less a rebuild fleet per planet ... and 3* a full cap of mk1 FFs.

Costly, but it pretty much opened up the map for me ... 1 hour in.

Edit: Should also mention that the game loved trowing Neinzul Roaming Enclaves at me during the above ordeal, painfull. (When do I learn that nasty AIs dont combine well with Roaming Enclaves/Hybrids?  )

[Commiesalami]

You say you have jumpships, but then say you don't have spirecraft?

Also, trigger all the Raid Engines at the same time, then sneak a mk2 nuke in with a cloaker starship.  When the waves arrive, just nuke 'em all.  Might be a little high for AIP cost, but have you taken out the other homeworld yet?

I Meant Transports, I would love to be using those though

You say you have jumpships, but then say you don't have spirecraft?

Also, trigger all the Raid Engines at the same time, then sneak a mk2 nuke in with a cloaker starship.  When the waves arrive, just nuke 'em all.  Might be a little high for AIP cost, but have you taken out the other homeworld yet?

I have taken down the other Homeworld. I've never actually used a nuke so far, so I'm going to be using this plan.  It seems like by and far the most fun

I tried using the EMP warheads last night, it would have worked in theory except for a Mk V raptor sneaking by and taking out the EMP warhead with out me noticing putting my blob on hold while the enemy fleet came in and picked them off.

[Orelius]

I have taken down the other Homeworld. I've never actually used a nuke so far, so I'm going to be using this plan.  It seems like by and far the most fun

I tried using the EMP warheads last night, it would have worked in theory except for a Mk V raptor sneaking by and taking out the EMP warhead with out me noticing putting my blob on hold while the enemy fleet came in and picked them off.

In this situation, I'd suggest putting the EMP warheads on your border planet under a cloaking starship (so they don't get sniped like what happened in your previous game).  Put your blob of ships one planet into your territory, just outside the border planet with the EMPs, so when the AI forces sweep in to take out your border world, they can be easily disabled and mopped up with your conveniently placed fleet. Never put your EMP warheads and ships on the same planet unless you want to have a severe case of being dead disorder. 

If you try to do what you did with the EMP warhead as you will with the Mark II nuke (which is srs business), it'll probably be sniped off in the same fashion and you'll be down four, maybe five worlds and 500ish AIP.