Just a question, this is the first time I play on impossible mode so it could be that setting. But I find capturing or bombarding systems to be, well, impossible at this setting!

I attack a system with 2 orbitals with 6 veteran Heavy Cruiser II's and I lose 2 of them in the process!!! How the heck is that possible! 3 Battle Cruisers should do the trick without losing anything! Does someone has any advise regarding this since there are also systems with 12 orbitals. I don't even dare to guess what I need to bring those down!

I doubt this will work in 'speed mode', but this is how my strategy usually works. Playing Romulans on even hard causes me to lose about 1 starship per orbital. (but only me, other races can do this without losing anything at all ). Even Battlecruiser II's aren't immune. So.....

1. I achieve strategic space superiority early in the conflict, using a mix of 'blitzkrieg' and hit-and-run tactics. If I can catch and destroy their main fleet, so much the better, but the AI usually cheats, sees through the cloak in impossible situations, and escapes. Then I unleash wolf packs of destroyers and battlecruisers to destroy installations, raid, catch smaller fleets, and cause general havoc. I usually have total space superiority after about 20 turns, 50-100 if everyone tries to gang up on me.

2. I stake out production systems and ship routes to prevent the (idiot) AI from ever rebuilding. The game's pretty much over by now, but I haven't taken any major systems.....yet..... for the reason of the prohibitive losses on my battlefleet. Seriously, I've played "hard" games as Romulans and my ONLY losses were to orbitals

3. I create large fleets of standard cruisers, about two per orbital in the target system. I've found that with Romulans, at least, the strike cruisers are pretty much useless, and will surely die, while battlecruisers are too expensive to lose over mere conquest. Anyway, those medium cruisers will also likely die, but they get the job done. Once the orbitals are gone, take the system.

This takes a long, LONG time, but you are rarely in any danger of losing after step 2 unless the Borg send 50 or so cubes!

Another (much faster and even safer) route is to wait for the tech level to max out. Warbird II's can take the pounding of orbitals and then some. An equal number will take 'em out with no losses at all, at least on hard.

In your case, I'd try either using cannon fodder poh-dunk ships or lots of battleships. The Klingons have even thinner skins than the Romulans, so that might be your problem. If an orbital gets shots off before being destroyed, some ship important to you will probably die. Check to see if the Attack Cruiser II can take it, then just wait around for them and take the systems that way, with no losses!

So I'd recommend seperating your fleets into 'Combat' fleets and 'Invasion' fleets. The Combat fleets carry your best and most experienced ships, the Invasion fleets contain cannon fodder to kill of orbitals. You'll need to constantly replenish the latter, but it should work in the long run.

My theory is that Fed and Cardassian ships after cruiser II's are pretty sturdy and can take the pounding most orbitals can dish out. The Ferengi are just a mess of AI cheating and programming errors, so discount them! The Roms and Klingons, though, have pretty weak hulls, and only the very best ships (Warbird II hit points or better) can survive an orbital past 'Hard' difficulty level.

Try Attack Cruisers on a small, weak system, even AC II's, if you can spare them for the test. If they all survive with acceptable damage (i.e. still there), you're ready to start pillaging. If not, though, cannon fodder cruisers may be your only option!

I tried with one Attack Cruiser I vs one orbital. It didn't destroy the orbital and was reduced to about 20% of his hit points! :S

But your story is strange, though. On Hard I never use any ships in orbital bombardment. Even with the Romulans, my formula of: cruisers needed = number of orbitals + 1 works wonders. Even with Cruiser I's.

Realy strange. I posted some thing about ground combat as well, but the thread was hijacked within 5 posts (matress..... )
But anyway, the problem with that is that I tried to attack a system with NO orbitals using more than double the ammount of needed troops and I LOST! I just hope that BotF II gets a bit more clear on this. I think ground combat should not have a random factor or whatever. You should need to have a certain ammount of troops and than succeed no matter what. It should be known to all parties up front.

In my Klingon game I took a damn 50 turns to subjugate the Talarians simply because I failed THREE times in a row. Talk about a war, huh

Now what about the challange? Anyone played "his" speed-game???

I resent that! The actual hijacking began on page 2...

In my defense, I DID start off following your topic, and the Hijacking was all about making TrekBoyChris's life easier when it came to invasion.

And if anyone has anything else to say about the ground combat, they can easily steer the course of the thread back to it's original purpose...

...

In a system with orbitals, I usually send in my largest Warships, whilst setting my Destroyers to raid etc. I get a bit of money by attacking the enemy then, so any lost ships can be replaced more easily.

Only once most/all of the Batteries are gone though, will I attack with all my ships. I keep my Troop Transport in reserve, until there is <Almost> nothing left in the system. Only then do I invade.

It may mean that I have to practically build the system back up from scratch, but I minimise my losses, get to keep the system, and I only having the buildings I want. Not only that, I don't have to worry too much about defending it, coz my Fleets are already there!

I'm up to it...... lol

Ahhh Ftranschel.... I was in my game... it crashed big time.... took my system out for almost a week.. I'm just now getting back online..

so my first game I have to concede...... Do to computer malfunctions.

I have started a second.... I'll post my results a bit later on...

I'm surprised MATRESS has not jumped in and done a game...

i'm currently playing a botf as romulins was at tech 1 vs the other races at tech 3 on impossible, easily winning i'm at turn 214 with 2150000 credits and have around 220 battle crusiers, about 10 turns from bc2, have production enough to be able to build a ship every turn for 10 turns in 30 colonies, so should have 500 bc's by upgrade, i'll then scrap them to start building warbirds and start the endgame part, should be able to build between 700-1000 warbird's, so it will be my best game, only got to around 300 warbirds in previous games, so should double my previous game stats

wow.

Which mod(s) do you have?

That is enough to make anyone shiver with pleasure (or fear)!

play with no minors, it makesit alot more interestingt! im assume u have the planet mod installed?

no mod installed, so i can still play it multiplayer on msn

Hi Jarok, and hello to all others.

Loosing ships to orbitals, even as Romulan or Klingon, sounds quite strange to me at any Difficult level. Of course someone would loose ships if he sends in anything smaller then a cruiser, but from that point on, its just a matter of having a large enough fleet. e.g.:
1. If you attack a planet with 4 orbitals, have at least 5 or better 6 - 8 Starships to do so, that way you will never loose a ship.
2. always attack systems using your cloaking device.
3. as said in 1., always use a considerable higher number of ships to attack a system. I have no concrete figure, but maybe 1/4 more ships then orbitals are opposed to them.
4. correct me on anything that might be incorrect or even wrong, its just quite a long tme since I played my last BOTF game.

Just two questions:

- How long is it since the last time you tried to kill orbitals with Rommies on Impossible?

- How did you forget you can't attack orbitals with cloaked ships?

You can if you regroup your ships. Its in the topic"share your botf-tricks" or something like that.

No you can't. You can attack with them the same turn they arrived, but cloaked they won't attack, even if you get them to show the order.

Are you really sure you want to follow a 2,500 turn game? I thought not...

I'm actually too busy to play a decent BOTF game at the moment, having to actually do stuff isn't a good thing at all...

Besides, didn't my signature mean anything to you?



I was on holiday.

How many holidays do you need to go on

Hey, it was just a weekend one - the one before was our 'big' family holiday.

My dad doesn't get any more time off until Christmas now, so we had to go! (As if we needed an excuse)

I don't think I will ever understand how you do that. I quit my efforts with the Klingon game since it laggs too severe at turn 150 and crashes about once every 10 turns. And after blasting the Ferengi and Romulans into oblivion I don't think the Cardies and the Feds will be that much of a problem, so the game is pretty much over for me.
Anyway, college has started again, so I have some general distraction while waiting for BotF2 to come out.

Yes you can, its like Thunderchild said, you have to regroup and then cloak the whole group again, after you gave them the attack order. The question is, if it makes any difference, I honestly never found out about that.

Well regarding my last game, its probably half a year or even a year ago, that I played it, though it was with a mod.

Regards

Mentat

I don't think i'll side in this. Ok Mastress i understand. i've just "had" to go an a holiday aswell

We are in agreement then, if you can go, then go!

Hey, welcome to the site, Mentat. I noticed the thread you created about the Civ3 mod. It looks promising. I've got Civ 2 and 3 myself, but i've never downloaded any mods for them. I just used the editor that came with Civ 3 to make my own changes.

...

Centurion, surely you understand patience? Watching...waiting...biding our time, is that not the way of the sons of Romulus?

There is only one way around the enevitable crashes, and that is saving regularly. And I have to admit, my 3,496 turn game did take about 6 months to play...

Matress,


Finally beat you there. I blew up ( with flames and sparks ect) 3 new systems in one week.. lol... My comp dealer hated me... I love a good waranty... lol