Strategy |
Hi guys. Do the ship/unit Strategies work? I’m trying to create a strategy for fighters so they will not launch during ship combat. I want them to be around for ground combat. Here is the situation. My opponet attacks my planet with say 4 Frigates. Each carrying 6 troops and 6 fighters. I have designed a fighter strategy to attack ships with troops, that seems to work. A Frigate still may make through to drop its troops though. I have symded fighters against his troops as much as a 4-1 in his favor. Fighters win hands down. What I’m trying to do is stop some fighters from launching so they can take on his troops. I gave my fighters a primary target of troops and changed True to False in the Stagy menu. But my fighters still launch in ship combat and die. Is there a way to stop them from launching so they will defend in ground combat? Thanks.
Caius
Re: Strategy
I changed the True to False about the Launching during combat. Changed the Planet orders so they would adopt that option. Fighters still launched. I tried both planet and fighters to attack troops. That did not help. I loaded only troops on Frigate to see if my fighters would not engage the ship, but they still launched. I guess I was just looking for a quick fix to his attacks. Will have to build the troops to defend and enough fighters to knock out as many ships before they close to land troops. Thanks for your reply Captain.
Caius
Re: Strategy
You need to go into the Empire Options menu and set the planet strategy ("Planet Settings") to a strategy that does not launch fighters during combat.
Re: Strategy
I have changed the Planet Options to not Launch units during combat. I have even picked Don't get hurt option and changed True to False. No matter what my fighters launch. Does the combat sym recognize the planet order? Not tried any of this in game combat yet.
Caius
Re: Strategy
You might want to try making some satellites, a space station or weapon platforms. They might thin the attackers more before they land. Then you will need fewer ground troops.
Re: Strategy
And Caius, if you take Jozsf's advice, bear in mind that satellites, weapon platforms and bases all work best in defence when you've researched weapon mounts to go with them. In all cases the mounts grant an increase to range as well as damage (talking about the Balance Mod). There's nothing worse than having your defences slowly picked away by weapons launched from out of range while you sit there, helpless.
Re: Strategy
Not sure if this will help, but after changing the settings, you may have to shut the game down and re-load it. I'm not sure how often the configuration files are refreshed while the game is running, but rest assured that they will be read when the game is restarted. This would especially be true for any hand modified configuration file. Hope this helps.
Re: Strategy
Thanks guys for your advice. Last try with the combat sym my custom strategy worked. I changed the Optimal Fire order from True to False regarding unit launch durring combat then copied and changed name. Then changed the Planet strategy to my custom strategy. Placed a planet in sym with a couple Weapon Platforms and 5 of my fighters. Added opponents Frigate with troops and his fighters. Put the Frigate in a fleet with Capture Planets orders. His ship closes on the planet but does not launch his fighters and planets fighters do the same. Now my long range WP take out his ship with his troops and fighters on board. Have to wait for a combat in game to see if it really works. I did research ship and unit Weapon Mounts early in game.
Caius
Re: Strategy
~Slimbo
Is there a way to have some attack ships go in with the troop transport to provide cover and "soften up" the planet?
Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design...
Re: Strategy
Normally, I never add planet capture ships in the same task force as the regular attack force. As long as your task force for invasion only contains such ships (or is mixed with "don't get hurt" strategy ships) this task force will only move to capture the planet after the other one has taken care of ground defenses. The regulars move out of the way at that point and they should not have glassed the planet if executed well.
----------
See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.
Re: Strategy
If a planet capture order is given I find that the rest of the ships on the map no longer even attempt to attack the planet so I'm assuming it'd happen that way if the order was given automatically as well so combat ships should work in the same task force, I think you mighht have to have the capturing ship as the TF leader though, make sure to not enable break formation immediately.
Re: Strategy
Why would you risk losing your invasion ships by putting them in the same task force? There's nothing more annoying than to see your non-weapon ships attack alongside the others in a PBW replay because you forgot to split them up into separate task forces. If they are the TF leader and the defending planet has any WP's or other defenses, then forget about your precious invasion ships because they will never get in range to drop troops.
----------
See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.
Re: Strategy
You can create a copy of the Capture Planet strategy with Break Formation Immediately set to False. Name that "Capture Planet Group" or similar. It's then possible to create a task force of your troop transport as Task Force Leader, with for example two combat ships for protection. If you pick an attack formation for that Task Force where the support ships 1,2,3 etc are positioned in front of the Task Force leader (I think like Barricade) then they will assault the planet with a few ships in close formation around it. They can be point defence ships, heavily armoured combat ships, anything you like.
By chance I happened to do exactly this last night in a game versus the AI. I attacked a Sergetti planet sector with a fleet with 3 task forces. The first was a block of about 20 combat ships, the second was a Capture Planet Group formation of 3 ships - the transport and two defenders alongside. The third was a task force of Fleet Support (supply/repair ships) set to Don't Get Hurt.
The main combat task force killed a few defending fighters and then retreated. The troop transport and defenders approached the planet which had a few weapon platforms to defend. One salvo hit the transport, then the platforms were distracted by the two defending craft and the transport managed to get the troop pod away! All three ships were destroyed in the next salvos, but after ground combat the planet was mine! If the transport was alone the plan would not have worked.
Edit: I do recall in previous games that I've seen my main combat ships shoot at the planet until all weapon platforms are taken out. That hasn't happened in my last couple of attacks when I am invading at the same time. There's a big risk that your attack fleet retreats and then your troop transport is blown to radioactive space dust by the planetary defences. I wonder what has changed?
Re: Strategy
I was sure their was a way to do it. I experimented with it somewhat but could never get the thing to work the right way. I will try somemore based on your suggestions, but just wish it was like SEIV in that the attackers automatically cover the troop ships.
~Slimbo
Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design...
Re: Strategy
This is exactly what I meant lol thanks for explaining it more clearly
Re: Strategy
A minor irritant. If I change the default Planet strategy (Optimal Firing Range) from TRUE to FALSE for unit launching in combat it works if I reenter the Strategy. That means fleets that have that strategy will not not launch fighter too I guess. So made a custom strategy for my planets so they will not launch units. The custom strategy will only work if the default strategy is also set not to launch units. So custom strategy is redundant.
Caius
Re: Strategy
There's a setting "Launch All Units" that you can set to false. I believe there is a specific section for planet strategy in the empire options menu.
Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod