Too darn hard?

[Cowbell]

I'm no rookie to RTS's, and I appreciate a good 4X game. But this....this is way hard. Too hard. I'm playing the Rebel campaign on medium and I am just getting smoked left and right in space combat. I can't tell if I'm trying to go places I'm not supposed to, or if I'm just clueless when it comes to combat.

 

For example : I'm on the mission where I'm supposed to fly all the way across the galaxy to do some mission (mission 5? 6?). I'm teched all the way up. I can build a HUGE fleet - something like 4 assault frigates, 4 nebulon B's, 12 Y-wing squads, 8 corvettes, a fleet commander, Antilles, and a handful of marauders. I can't even make much of a dent in the Kuat system. Utter annihilation. I can usually take out the imperial forces at Mon Cal or Kashyyk, but shortly thereafter is a huge counterattack that I have no hope of stopping.

 

It's just....crazy. Am I just supposed to -not- be attacking these systems and sneaking raid fleets through?  I mean, I've had to defend a few times at Alderaan against mega attacks (ISD, 8-10 victories, endless Acclamators, etc) - the only way I've survived those was through judicious use of the ion cannon.  It just feels like the numbers are fundamentally flawed. It seems that no matter how much I spend, I can send the entire contents of my fleet on attack and just get crushed repeatedly.

 

I've read all the tactics (corvettes vs. fighters. marauders to standoff space stations. nebulons and assault frigates vs. tartans.  use the Y-wings as precision scalpels, etc, etc). Nothing seems to work.

 

What am I doing wrong? Should I just give up and not try to conquer anything beyond my little corner of the galaxy and sneak raid fleets everywhere?

 

Ech. A few suggestions would be great. It's disappointing to be hit with yet another Battle-of-Endor that I have no hope of repelling.

[FestinatioCogito]

Play empire and space combat gets easier.

[Zer_Teron]

You just need to practise, i took out the Rebels on Mon Calamari mission for Empire(You know the one with the surprise Mon Cals) With a single Vic and a couple of Acclamators

[Cobra848]

Well for me, since this is a different kind of RTS that I have let play with all these new ways to play.  I started on easy mode.  How you play the game is different from other RTS, It takes a while to get use to but it will come easy when you are ready.

 

--Get as many planets as you can put space station above the ones that can be safe..

 

--You don't have to attack right way you can take all the time you want.  Since you are good at raiding, you might want to move up slowly and ion cannon on each planet.  I don't know how the AI is on normal, and how fast a counter attack can happen.

 

--Sometimes you have to let some units die so you can bring in those fresh reinforcements to help finish them off faster.

 

--I always put my Y-wings on the back of my fleet because the corvettes eat them up fast.  Moving x-wings back until ties get to you, or use corvettes.

 

--I think your mission is the one where you have to go get the pirate who has information.  Before I went out for that mission.  I had control of everything in the upper right.  I kept my fleet next to my space station.  I didn't go for Mon Calamari until after the pirate mission, I think.  I had controll of Kashyyyk ground and the ground on the planet to it's right. 

 

--When you do go for the pirate informant, only bring space units with you.

[Dorkthehunter]

I suspect why I is "too hard" is because you are playing the Rebels like you would the Imperials. You have to have completely different strategies to play as each side, as they are so different. You have to steal credits and land troops on the ground without attacking the space. You have to attack the enemy where they least expect it. Also, normally you can't walk into a battle with the Imperials and expect to overwhelm them with force. The Rebels are a hard faction to use.

[MD351]

Play empire and space combat gets easier.

 

Whats the point of playing the game then? If one side is easier than the other...

[Xenomorphine]

Whats the point of playing the game then? If one side is easier than the other...

 

They have strengths in different areas and it shows! I play as the Empire and keep getting dwindled down by corvette rushes, then they start bringing in some frigates and so on. But if I can get to the stage of being able to build Star Destroyers of Victory or higher class, on a regular basis, things get easier. Getting there is a problem, however!

 

But wow... This game's intelligence is so far very impressive. Quite challenging and really gives the feel of being immersed in a fluid universe at play. It definitely seems to have that 'one more go' factor there.

[Cowbell]

So I've done some adjusting of my strategy, with great results. Basically:

 

- Ensure that you I never have more than 3 "front" systems. This allows me to allocate a full 1/4 of my pop cap to each of 3 planets, with the final 1/4 used for my assault fleet (w/Antilles).

 

- On each front system, 3 ion cannons, full size space station. Space forces are assault frigates and corvettes only. I keep around a small reserve of y-wings to be able to send for ground support.

 

- Move in 2 fleet jumps. Meaning, set your attacks up so that you can go in with your assault fleet, and then when you win, you can warp in a second fleet from one of your front systems. The idea here is that the planet that 2nd fleet is coming from no longer needs defenses, so you can double up for the inevitable counterattack while waiting for the ion cannons to build.

 

- Assault fleet is assault frigates, corvettes and marauders. Frigates and corvettes are pure defense while the marauders take space stations down safely out of range. Quite easy to escape with no losses.

 

- Always attack ground immediately after taking space.

 

- No ground troops on ANY planet. Just 1 bigass assault army that moves around as needed. Space defenses should be so sturdy that you never have to worry about losing (we'll see).

 

- All space fleets and ground fleets have a field commander. These boost your effectiveness by a TON.

 

It seems to me that once you reach some kind of peak point, things get easier. I have way more income than I can use now and the triple ion-cannon defense stops pretty much everything. Getting a lot more fun

[R2-Opus2]

I haven't yet narrowed down a good mix for my fleets, I just sort of have a little of everything with a ton of Y-Wing backup.  Tonight I began to play around more with assigning some of my fleet elements to hotkeys and that began to help a lot as well.  I had a lot of these fighters fall to the Empire's Tartan cruisers and IPVs, so I approached things more cautiously as enemy units became visible when the fog lifted.

 

I sometimes forget to utilize the Y's ion cannon ability but found that helped a great deal against their anti fighter ships' shields as my other forces could pick away at those while I advanced my Y's further forward.

 

I've yet to play around with some of the other attack commands on that bar, for now I've just been right-click attacking (or single left click? for when I've selected a unit's special ability), and using the guard command, but more often than not, against a hardened target like a station or VSD or something, if I have Ackbar for example I try to save his concentrated fire (which works best if all the units are focused on the same target).

 

What I have been able to prioritize going up against the Empire's fleet target wise for me has been:

 

1) Take down shields

2) Take out hangers (takes out the fighter spawns)

3) Use Antilles and the marauders to saturate an area high in enemies

4) Any units left over can support the maurauders attack or can be freed up gradually to be diverted someplace else in combat.

5) Playing single player so far, pausing time is your friend

 

I've found those work pretty well for me so far but its hard to divide which fleets get characters to help it at any given moment.  This is part of the challenge so its all good.

 

What I'd like to know more about is whether or not we can stack the abilities of the Field/Fleet Commanders if there's more than one in a ground or fleet battle.  Right now I'm suspecting they can't, that its just a redundancy thing.

 

Now, playing the Empire on the other hand, knowing full well the Rebels can use raid fleets on its worlds in range of them, I've found I had to play a slightly more defensive game.  I suppose this is a good thing though, just not very used to playing the Empire just yet but I have been using those 5 things above in terms of using those stand off cruisers in my fleet mix.

 

The only thing I think is missing for the Rebels is giving the Nebulon-Bs a hanger.  I think it'd be one reason why you might weigh keeping one in your fleets and not replace them all with assault frigates later.  Someone corrrect me if I missed anything along these lines, but I think only the Mon Cal's cruiser can spawn fighters right? (stations notwithstanding)

[Zer_Teron]

Mon Cals dont spawn fighters  ;D

 

For me, i usually capture a core of planets and defend the ones that are connected to ones not controlled by me, leave the inner planets defensless. Later on i arm an inner defense but keep the core unarmed.