Utilising the Death Star as a DIVERSION

[Lytyr]

I've been contemplating this... obviously, a death star isn't something you want wandering around your back door. So would it be tactically viable to take the death star, surround him with Tartans and Acclamators, and then ship the group off to one end of the galaxy to draw your opponent's main force in that direction, so that you may strike at the enemy's other flank with fistfulls of Victory-class and Imperial-class Star destroyers and multiple other craft?

 

Given the Empire's proficiency at building hordes of units, I would think that the unit part of this plan wouldn't be too hard to obtain. If the enemy is bad, they may even be defeated simple by running at the death star.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn 889]

That makes good tactical sense but will the Game react to you or the Other way round?

[Lytyr]

Precisely what I'm wondering - it's certainly a tactic I'll be testing, assuming that DS destruction isn't instant death. It could be devastating to the enemy if he isn't cautious enough, particularly since the Rebels don't have hordes of units at their disposition.

[Joshinator]

Yeah i'm pretty sure the only reason i'd ever wanna build a DS is to lure the rebel's out somewhere, unless that thing has mega benifits, i wouldn't even bother.

[Phantom_pff]

It sounds like a good plan, the only cache i see is if the computer AI will me smart enough (or dumb enough) to fall for it.

 

If it (the AI) is too smart i will not come out, and if it is too dumb the i will not even notice you have a DS on the other side of the galaxy

[Lytyr]

Hehe, true enough - I hope it can make the distinction between a Death Star and a Tartan Patrol Cruiser. In the 1v1 multiplayer campaign it might also be useful, depending on whether your enemy knows you and knows the game well enough.

[Garbageben]

I've seen a flaw in your plan. If, in the course of events you try this online, you may find that the Rebel player has many fighter squadrons on all of their planets (if you can indeed station fighters on planets). All they would do is sit back and let you have your DS because to try to use it against them would be folly unless you had a lot of TIEs and other anti-starfighter cruisers to repel them. It would probably work against the AI though.

[Lytyr]

Specifically, I believe Tartan Cruisers are made to be anti-fighter, so loading up on those would deter all but massive swarms of fighters. Not only would that blow up the little ships, but it would draw the larger cruisers needed to destroy the Tartans into the area - you could then back up the Tartans with some other cheap cruiser, like Acclamators, and while it would surely die if they brought several Mon Cal Cruisers to bear, that would be several less MCCs pointed at you when you hit them with your real force.

 

Good that you mentionned it, though - I would hope that you CAN station fighter wings on planets, or more likely in space stations, but we can never be sure.

[Teradyn_pff]

They have to be stationed somewhere, but I wonder. Since we have seen X-Wings in a ground battle screenshot, would you be able to field every x-wing you have available in the battle? Or is there a set amount that you can station on the ground?

 

I am curious about this scenario: you are the rebels and you have an Imperial force come into the sector. You have only 2 groups of X-Wings to defend with. Can you retreat them to the planet? Or do you have to fight it out with them or retreat them to another system?

 

And on the other side, if your fighters can keep the enemy X-wings busy, can you sneak your transports close enough to the planet to start the ground attack before the space battle is resolved?

 

The flow and eb of the space-to-ground transition is a mystery to me still. If you can blockade an enemy planet, this should mean that you can bring reinforcements to the orbiting fleet after the main space battle. If this is the case, why would any space battle have transports anywhere? I would never send in my transports with a main fleet if I could help it. I would send in all my combat ships first, win the space are, then bring my transports afterward.

[The Relentless]

@Teradyn: You have to control the space area to attack the ground, so the whole sneaking thing will not work. I agree with you on the bringing-trasports-after-battle-thing, though.

 

I truly hope that you can station fighters in Space Stations, if not planets. Why?: 1. Because you could do it in "real life." 2. Because it will add more strategy to the game.

 

The DS-luring strategy sounds good, 'cuz it will be a pain for the Imperials to find the Rebels. Why not just lure them out? Whether it works or not will be decided by the level of A.I, like Phantom said.

[CTrooper1]

If it where me i would use my DS as a wepon making it a part of my fleet and destroying planets that the rebels have and 1. i see no use in taking bec it provieds nothing that i need, or 2. an occupied planet that i dont think i can take from the enemy even though i bet thats not going to be happening.....

[Moriarty101]

Sorry Relentless but you can slip in your transports while in space combat. Delphi confirmed this in another thread and in the 47 min video it was also mentioned.

 

Teradyn I was wondering about the X wings too. Maybe you can call in air strikes. This would be a good question for the Dev chat. For the transports the most logical and safest way would be to bring them in after you control space.

[Grand Moff Joyce]

This is a great tactic but it does have the AI IQ flaw but i might still use it.

[Darth Vader]

hmm I don't know if this work... maybe the rebels will be just faster in moving all their units into the next hyperspace destination...

[Guest]

I think the deathstar is a weapon that is too slow both in moving and recharging to use has a diversion. It will both retard and reveal your attack (FFS, I think a giant space station like DS can be easily detected parsecs before!) giving the enemy enough time to plan a defensive strategy or an evacuation plan.

[chewieusma]

Well I don't know about the initial AI capabilities, but I know that even in SW Rebellion that once the Rebels realized that there was a DS in production, they immediately sent a sabatoge mission, or once there was the threat of a DS attacking a system, the AI would place an extra fighter squadron on each planet, and the first attack move in any space battle involving the DA was for the trench run to finish it off.

 

So if that is any precedence, prepare to defend your DS. Remember that it comes in very handy with a pesky planet filled with hundreds of troop battalions, shield generators, planetary batteries, hate for the Empire, and heroes of the Rebellion.

[Sabu113]

psh aim ahypervelocity gun at the DS

[Darth Vader]

the hypervelocity gun is maybe too weak to cook the DS, a space station like that is one thing, but the DS is much more armored than that

[Guest]

I am alittle confused though about the ability of the DS to defend itself. In the online chat with the developers, they said the DS, the New Hope version, was not able to attack capital ships, and likewise in the game it will unable to do so. But according to the movie, the DS was too heavily defended against large scale attack, but fighters should be able to penetrate its outer defenses. Also, will the DS itself be able to fire upon fighters attacking it or within its range?

 

Thanks, and I'm new and its my first post.

[Garbageben]

Firstly welcome to the forums!

 

I'm not sure about the DS defending itself either to be honest. We have seen no indication that the DS will be able to shoot turbolasers out for defense against capital ship assault. I really hope that it can do so, but right now I don't know for sure. Maybe some other people here can help you a bit better...

[Garbageben]

the hypervelocity gun is maybe too weak to cook the DS, a space station like that is one thing, but the DS is much more armored than that

The DS had planetary shields on it. To blow up the DS a hypervelocity gun would have to have a DS-powerful laser on it. Since that is unlikely (and expensive) I'm going to say that it wouldn't be able to kill the DS. Also I think that the hypervelocity gun is Imperial only....(not totally sure.)

 

Sorry about the double post. I just wanted to address two different topics in separate posts.

[Darth Vader]

well that can be solved by conquering it, but Still I think that the DS flaw is that it can only wage e full-scale attack, but a small fighter *coughlukeskywalkercough*

can bypass its vessel-oriented defences and fire through that small hole

[Guest]

I believed that was its only flaw was the smaller vessel attack, but according to the developers the DS will NOT be able to fire or engage capital ships, which seems like a very large problem.

 

Popcorn2008: Can the deathstar take out capitol ships during combat?

Petroglyph-Joe: The first Death Star took about 24 hours to charge up and didn't have the targeting ability to fire on single ships, so in keeping with Lore, it cannot hit individual ships.

 

 

Not sure if this means it will not be able to use its superlaser to target one ship or if will not able to engage them at all and will have to rely on escorting ships and fighters.

 

Thanks for the welcome.

[Darth Vader]

hmm... no targeting capital ships?

[Garbageben]

Actually we've already known about the Death Star 1 not targeting capital ships for ages. I mean if they want to keep most of the units in the timeline, then they should at least keep the superweapons in the timeline as well (and vulnerable).