Raids in the enemy territory

[Poulpe]

Hi, I'm new to Ai war, I've finished the Tutorial and I've started my 1st campaign.

I would like to know how far can I go in the enemy territory to capture a planet.
In the tutorial we have to bypass one enemy planet to capture one other, trhen to bypass one other planet to attack the Homeworld of the AI.

How many planets can I bypass to capture an other one without being in trouble (transport ships destroyed on the way, Having a lonely planet may be hard to defend etc.) ?

[Rujasu]

If you destroy the guardposts in the planets between, there's little to keep you going very far. The soft limit is four hops from friendly/neutral planets, though, since after that is when the AI starts reacting to a deepstrike and does things you might not want it to do.

[Poulpe]

Thanks for the tips !
And can I send all of my ships to attack a planet ? Can I rely 100% on the turrets to defend mine (+repair and reconstruct drones) ?

[Draco18s]

Thanks for the tips !
And can I send all of my ships to attack a planet ? Can I rely 100% on the turrets to defend mine (+repair and reconstruct drones) ?

Yes and No.

Yes you can send your whole fleet and yes you can rely on turrets for defense but it's not necessarily a good idea.

[keith.lamothe]

Yes and No.

Yes you can send your whole fleet and yes you can rely on turrets for defense but it's not necessarily a good idea.

True, though if the difficulty isn't very high and you've done a thorough job of covering your entry points, the answer is often just plain "yes".  Achieving that condition is a good indication that one has grasped the basics of the game, or at least the defensive side of it.

[Draco18s]

Yes and No.

Yes you can send your whole fleet and yes you can rely on turrets for defense but it's not necessarily a good idea.

True, though if the difficulty isn't very high and you've done a thorough job of covering your entry points, the answer is often just plain "yes".  Achieving that condition is a good indication that one has grasped the basics of the game, or at least the defensive side of it.

I find it depends a whole heck of a lot on the exo-waves.  Although there are other factors as well.  In a "what memo?" game you have to really pay attention to wave announcements: where they're going, what kind of ship, and how many.  Although as some users have shown, lightning warheads are a good replacement for smart fleet tactics.

[Poulpe]

I'm playing with the "Beginner" setting (2 AI dificulty 6 and I've selected 50 planets).

Thanks to your advices I'll focus on turret for now and use more ships later on because :
1 - When I attack I don't know yet how big my fleet must be to face the AI.
2 - I'm not yet used to dispatch my ships and remember where I put them lol. So I gather them in 1 spot at a time while I'm learning the game.

[keith.lamothe]

1 - When I attack I don't know yet how big my fleet must be to face the AI.

Question: How big does the hammer need to be?

Answer: Bigger.





Concentration of force is really, really key in this game.

Which isn't to say there's never a time you don't want to hit multiple offensive targets at once, but generally speaking hitting the next thing on your list as hard as you can will help make it consume less time and cause less casualties.

Of course, one has to be careful around AI Eyes, etc.

[Draco18s]

Btw, learn which eyes you can completely ignore with starships.  Particularly the neinzul drone spawning starship.  Because the eye will turn on and not do anything because it can't meaningfully effect your units.

Most eyes will ruin your fleetships, although there are a handful that work with some eyes, but pay attention to the immunities and use it to your advantage.

Spoiler:
Parasite eyes can't do anything to ships that are immune to reclamation.  Drones and starships can't be reclaimed.  Plasma Eyes can kill drones, but often the attrition is a larger factor.  Translocating eyes can't knock starships about and drones simply don't care.  Threatening Eyes don't do anything to the current system, and if your defenses are good, the increased threat is not a significant issue if you kill the guard posts/eye quickly.

[Gelatious Cube]

Also, regarding eyes, you can get rid of them easy-peasy with a sabotage hack.

[Poulpe]

The answers you gave me before were of a great assistance and I've an other couple of questions (sorry if it feels noob, I try to find answers by myself but on these one I can't find something).

I've just read in the wiki that the Ion cannons can be captured and I've (of course) destroyed all the ones that I've encountered
Is there other things that can be captured ? (other that Adv lab, mark IV and V ships builders)

I've seen Mark III, IV and V planets. I can't find informations about the exact meaning of this.
I've noticed a strengh of the AI according to the Mark, but is there something else ?
Most of the planets with a Mark don't have a special building to capture nor a lots of metal/Crystal spot.

[Draco18s]

Ion Cannons below Mark 3 are not worth capturing.  By the time you have one or more the AI's got mark 2 ships (which are basically immune to a mark 1 ion).
Orbital Mass Drivers are also capturable.

Anyway, you can hover over every structure and it'll say "changes ownership on system capture" or something like that (I forget the exact text).

Ions, OMDs, Gravity Drills, factories, fabricators, science labs, distribution nodes...

[Gelatious Cube]

Mk V planets are homeworlds. Mk III and mk IV just means the ships are going to be that much more powerful on that planet. There's a lot more to it, but I'm not really the best to explain it.

[Poulpe]

I've noticed that Mark V planets are surounded by Mk IV.

When I've sent my fleet to a IV planet it was like throwing water to a sponge. Destroying the AI Command center early on wasn't definetly a good idea.

[Toranth]

I've noticed that Mark V planets are surounded by Mk IV.

When I've sent my fleet to a IV planet it was like throwing water to a sponge. Destroying the AI Command center early on wasn't definetly a good idea.

The AI Homeworlds are surrounded by special Mk IV worlds referred to as Core Worlds.  These planets, in addition to being Mk IV, actually have Mk V Guardposts AND get a special deployment from the Strategic Reserve.  It is usually a bad idea to tangle with a Core World before you absolutely must.