Re: FoC Tactics for Zahn's Faction

[Dorkthehunter]

Any tactics? (please don't say they are overpowered or the wrath of God(my best friend)will be upon you)

You can post countertactics for Rebels and Imps if you want to.

[Star Wars Man]

Imperial Tactical Break-Down:

 

Stormtroopers: Okay, I know most people just skip these guys in FoC and go right to dark troopers. My advice: Don't. Though weak, they can capture reinforcement points and are useful for scouting the map and looking for areas to set up defences. Even better, put these guys in bunkers for protection and tactical defence.

 

Scout Troopers: These guys are also skipped in most FoC battles. My advice: I agree. They are worthy of skipping. Why? Poor defences, lackluster armor, and horrible path-finding issues.

 

Field Commander:  These guys are actually making a comeback. My Advice: Get these guys into battle as soon as possible. They offer health and sight bonuses, as well as other goodies.

 

Dark Troopers: Bum bum bum. These guys are basically robots designed to kill. My Advice: Skip Phase I. While they seem to do a good job, they lack real armor and must get close to attack. Skip P. I, and go straight to P. II & III. Not only do they have better armor, they really do pack a punch.

 

TIE Maulers: These guys are starting to die out in favor of Dark troopers. My Advice: Use them sparingly. Although they have great attacks and stopping power, they lack adequate armor and really aren't worth the effort needed to protect them.

 

AT-STs: These are still showing up on FoC battlefields. My Advice: Use them or lose them. Great scouting, adequate armor, and fast speeds make this guy an excellent scout/defender.

 

AT-AA: These guys are showing up sparingly. My Advise: Use them when the situation requires them. Have a bomber fanatic? Use them!  Have a infantry lover? Skip them.

 

MDU: These guys are showing up in great quantity in FoC. My Advice: Use them whenever possible. Not only do they provide immediate defence, but they have a larger-than-average LOS and move quite quickly.

 

M2 Tank: These guys are slowly dissapearing from the battlefield. My Advise: Use them sparingly against light targets. Have a large concentration of T2Bs? Use them there. Only use them against light vehicles or else they will be PWN3D.

 

SPMA-T: These guys are medium quantity in FoC. My Advise: Use them against a turtler. Enemy has a lot of MDUs? Use them! Lots of slow moving vehicles? Use them! Infantry? Skip them. Easy as that.

 

AT-AT: Dissapearing, but still kicking. My Advice: Use them rarely. Their slow speed, large size, and low turning capacity makes them a death trap.

 

Lancet: About 70 % not, 30% so. My Advice: Skip them.

 

Juggernaut Infantry Vehicle: Lots of them in FoC. My Advice: Use them well, no kamikaze tactics. Why? Low armor and weak weapons.

 

And that's my wrap up of the imperials.

[Hymster]

Imperial Tactical Break-Down:

 

Stormtroopers: Okay, I know most people just skip these guys in FoC and go right to dark troopers. My advice: Don't. Though weak, they can capture reinforcement points and are useful for scouting the map and looking for areas to set up defences. Even better, put these guys in bunkers for protection and tactical defence.

I shove em in bunkers early on then take em out when they can be slaughtered by a long ranged attack

Scout Troopers: These guys are also skipped in most FoC battles. My advice: I agree. They are worthy of skipping. Why? Poor defences, lackluster armor, and horrible path-finding issues.skip

 

Field Commander:  These guys are actually making a comeback. My Advice: Get these guys into battle as soon as possible. They offer health and sight bonuses, as well as other goodies.I like using these, good benefits

 

Dark Troopers: Bum bum bum. These guys are basically robots designed to kill. My Advice: Skip Phase I. While they seem to do a good job, they lack real armor and must get close to attack. Skip P. I, and go straight to P. II & III. Not only do they have better armor, they really do pack a punch.*agree*

 

TIE Maulers: These guys are starting to die out in favor of Dark troopers. My Advice: Use them sparingly. Although they have great attacks and stopping power, they lack adequate armor and really aren't worth the effort needed to protect them.for kamikazes and raids, these guys are the best

 

AT-STs: These are still showing up on FoC battlefields. My Advice: Use them or lose them. Great scouting, adequate armor, and fast speeds make this guy an excellent scout/defender.waste of time

 

AT-AA: These guys are showing up sparingly. My Advise: Use them when the situation requires them. Have a bomber fanatic? Use them!  Have a infantry lover? Skip them. keep a few in every battlegroup but spread em apart to make prevent bombers and so they are harder to take out

 

MDU: These guys are showing up in great quantity in FoC. My Advice: Use them whenever possible. Not only do they provide immediate defence, but they have a larger-than-average LOS and move quite quickly.good for blockades and fast defense

 

M2 Tank: These guys are slowly dissapearing from the battlefield. My Advise: Use them sparingly against light targets. Have a large concentration of T2Bs? Use them there. Only use them against light vehicles or else they will be PWN3D.I like using these in hit and runs

 

SPMA-T: These guys are medium quantity in FoC. My Advise: Use them against a turtler. Enemy has a lot of MDUs? Use them! Lots of slow moving vehicles? Use them! Infantry? Skip them. Easy as that.I still like using artillery, but not as good as reb artillery

 

AT-AT: Dissapearing, but still kicking. My Advice: Use them rarely. Their slow speed, large size, and low turning capacity makes them a death trap.never did like it

 

Lancet: About 70 % not, 30% so. My Advice: Skip them.These things are the best for killing heros, buildings, and vehicles.  Hit and runs have to be exploited if you have these

 

Juggernaut Infantry Vehicle: Lots of them in FoC. My Advice: Use them well, no kamikaze tactics. Why? Low armor and weak weapons. using the gank tank is so much fun when you load 2 up with all heros and some Phase3 and everything  "GANK TANK"

 

And that's my wrap up of the imperials.

[Droid803]

Zanns in space are overpowered.

They have absolutely no problem cutting down a level two base with StarVipers alone.

I-4s add insult to injury. Everything else becomes overkill.

 

Rebels have aboslutely nothing going for them in FoC. I'm expecting the rebellion players to entirely phase out.

Only units new in space are the B-Wing and MC-30, both of which are mediocre. The b-wing is a good bomber, but ultimately outclassed by Defenders. they also get cut apart by Inties, Vipers, Phantoms, and Vettes. The MC-30 is too fragile for its cost, it has trouble damaging a level 4 zann starbase because of all the torplaunchers, conc missiles, and massdrivers. Slightly more effective on imperial starbases. X-Wings are now the worst starting fighter. They are outclassed by Inties AND StarVipers, they're the new TIE fighter, cheaper than the rest, but crappy.

 

Land, rebels have nothing going for them other than a few new heroes. HTT is weak (possibly the worst transport. The Zann one cloaks and the imperial one shoots, the rebel one just flies...AA Fodder.)

 

Empire is no match for zann either. Inties are torn apart by buzzdroids. Bossk is the ultimate mine-slayer, he also pwns boba and han's ass with concussion missiles.

 

Now for the actual tactics:

-Use Bossk to hit mines - he's more effective than han or boba

-StarViper Mob=Pwned

-Phatom mob is acceptable unless mirror match (boba kills phantoms!)

-hold and protect sensor pods at all costs - deploying units anywhere is a GREAT advantage, and allowing your opponent to have it will cost you the game 90% of the time.

[Lord_of_the_Sith]

I like the DT phase II&III.

I still believe in the AT-AT. They are good at destroying structures and vehicles.Of course they need protection.

AT-ST are still good as the M1 tanks.

What the Empire lacks is the use of TIEs on the ground something the Empire always use.Need to be added.

The Consortium is strong but beatable at least on the ground.In space really overpowered.

[Hyprodimus Prime]

Zanns in space are overpowered.

They have absolutely no problem cutting down a level two base with StarVipers alone.

I-4s add insult to injury. Everything else becomes overkill.

 

Rebels have aboslutely nothing going for them in FoC. I'm expecting the rebellion players to entirely phase out.

Only units new in space are the B-Wing and MC-30, both of which are mediocre. The b-wing is a good bomber, but ultimately outclassed by Defenders. they also get cut apart by Inties, Vipers, Phantoms, and Vettes. The MC-30 is too fragile for its cost, it has trouble damaging a level 4 zann starbase because of all the torplaunchers, conc missiles, and massdrivers. Slightly more effective on imperial starbases. X-Wings are now the worst starting fighter. They are outclassed by Inties AND StarVipers, they're the new TIE fighter, cheaper than the rest, but crappy.

 

Land, rebels have nothing going for them other than a few new heroes. HTT is weak (possibly the worst transport. The Zann one cloaks and the imperial one shoots, the rebel one just flies...AA Fodder.)

 

Empire is no match for zann either. Inties are torn apart by buzzdroids. Bossk is the ultimate mine-slayer, he also pwns boba and han's (censored) with concussion missiles.

 

Now for the actual tactics:

-Use Bossk to hit mines - he's more effective than han or boba

-StarViper Mob=Pwned

-Phatom mob is acceptable unless mirror match (boba kills phantoms!)

-hold and protect sensor pods at all costs - deploying units anywhere is a GREAT advantage, and allowing your opponent to have it will cost you the game 90% of the time.

 

I agree, ZC are so powerful. Crusaders stop my projectile attacks leaving only lasers to kill. Have you noticed how accurate lasers hit Vengence ships? I had HomeOne and 2 Assault frigates and it had 1 60% damaged mass driver by the time him and his 2 friends ate through one of my Assault frigates. They are great against fighters too! If all else fails, they cloak and take you out with them. 3 of these ships, 1 Interceptor IV, and 1 aggressor (and Bosk) obliterated my 3 b-wings, Corvette, Marauder, HomeOne, Hutt base, and Assault Frigate. I like their ships very much, but they are just too powerful.

[Dorkthehunter]

Welcome to the forums Hyprodimus Prime! I hope you enjoy your stay.

 

I agree. A better tactician will lose to an inferior one if the latter is Zann's faction in most cases. That should not happen. EA can balance 6 factions in BFME II and Petro can't even balance 3. That's sad!

[Droid803]

GET THE 1.1 PATCH.

 

lol. ZC get nerf!

[Hyprodimus Prime]

Thank you Dorkthehunter.

 

I have the 1.1 patch, got it as soon as I got FoC. I cant imagine what they were like before the patch. Space and Land are equally important factors, one shouldnt be heavier on one than the other. RTS games with factions and races make it so each achieves the objective but in a different way.

Any tactics? (please don't say they are overpowered or the wrath of God(my best friend)will be upon you)

You can post countertactics for Rebels and Imps if you want to.

Regarding the ZC, in space atleast I usually stick around Tech 3-4. It doesnt matter if your oponent starts bringing up their tech 5 units and super bombers, with enough vengeance frigates you can decimate any fleet. (have at least 2 crusaders hiding around in case of enemy missile ships.) hold your mines and assalut theirs, when you have a good sized fleet and 2-3 vengeance in reinforcement, save up for tech 5. If they press forewards, hold them off by cloak/self desctruct to inflict as much damage as you can. Your next ships will be Kedalbe (my favourite ship after the Liberty http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a368/hyprodimus/kedalbe2.jpg ^^) Now, you will probably still be on the defencive, you will need  a couple vengeance and 1 starfighter (heros or vipers). To save up enough to kill, you need to pressure their base so they will send forces to counter, therefore relieving your main fleet. Its true, a good offense is a good defence, they cant hurt you if they are dead. You wont need much actually, send in your scout, and hyper in your largest ship. Tyber Zann alone can take out a tech 4 space station, you now you can concentrate on saving up for your main fleet.

 

To sum up.

-Mass Vengence

-tech 5

-hyper in a capital at their base

-build up fleet

-"victory is mine!"/yours

[Droid803]

Pre-patch it was...

- Spam starvipers

- Win

 

Thats why pre-patch it was completely ZC unless you wanted to get obliterated, then you played as another faction. Nothing can stop the 'vipers they come at you and destroy your base before your tartans and corvettes finish building (!)

 

Actually, post-patch the empire's strategy of sending in an Acclamator to every ZC mine works quite well. An Acclamator only costs 2350, and if you take out the mine, you would have effectively done 2000 in worth of damages alone (1000 for the original mine, and another 1000 if they rebuild it after you're gone). The ZC without money dies FAST post-patch due to the fact that everything decent costs a fair some of money more than their Rebel or Imperial counterparts.

 

The funniest thing though, will always be the Plasma Cannon double-fire glitch. Really pisses people off though.

[vaders_Legion]

what? i never knew of the double fire glitch.

 

Ok class, heres my rebellion counter tactics that are ultra effective, more will be coming soon. And just so you know droid, the htt can fire lasers, just attack something and you'll see

 

Rebels

space

althought thouoght as useless in space, i found a trick to defeat any unit from any fleet. Spam Corellian gunboats and just fire all missles on a target. lasers will keep vipers away while missles obliterate other ships. keep one moncal behind all of the gunboats to destroy the counter for the gunboats, the crusader gunship. Also keep some bombers and marauders in reserve just incase you need to bomb out their station or defend against figheter swarms with marauders.

This tactic is extremely effective vs the empire because if they have the DS2, it becomes worthless for fireing in space because of the gunships being corvettes. (ds2 cant fire on corvettes) Do not bring out your mon cal in this case or the ds2 will kill it. Bring out two marauder missle frigates.

 

Rebels Land

Just capture kamino and spam plexies. Use yodas force sight ability to find possible places to bomb run and bomb them out. take out two mptls to slaughter enemie and t2b tanks to defend mptls from speeder bikes.

Use bombing runs constantly, they are your key to victory!!!

 

Imperial tactics comings soon.

[Droid803]

Have the cannon fire at something, then before it gets to fire, click the "Fire Plasma Cannon" button again, wait until it fires the first shot, then have it target something else for a second shot.

 

Yea, so now I realized the Juggernaut's useless. Slow, Weak... ungh. HTTs take forever for AA guns to kill because they have T2-B class armor...

 

Don't interdictor fields completely screw over your gunboat tactic? Or do they still have that glitch where Gunboat rockets are immune to the missile jammer?

[Hyprodimus Prime]

Rebels

space

althought thouoght as useless in space, i found a trick to defeat any unit from any fleet. Spam Corellian gunboats and just fire all missles on a target. lasers will keep vipers away while missles obliterate other ships. keep one moncal behind all of the gunboats to destroy the counter for the gunboats, the crusader gunship. Also keep some bombers and marauders in reserve just incase you need to bomb out their station or defend against figheter swarms with marauders.

This tactic is extremely effective vs the empire because if they have the DS2, it becomes worthless for fireing in space because of the gunships being corvettes. (ds2 cant fire on corvettes) Do not bring out your mon cal in this case or the ds2 will kill it. Bring out two marauder missle frigates.

 

....I have a new respect for gunboats (and you too ) I had a constant 6 out, 2 patrolling each of my 2 mines, and 4 in my main fleet. I did not use anything from tech 4 or 5 although I did tech to 4 to improve my base defenses. I made the mistake of getting cocky and forgot to keep making reinforcements. It costed me slightly, but in the end my fleet of Assault Frigates, B-Wings and Correllian Gunships (ABC) won. Once I got control of  the sensor node and I felt safe of sneak attcks, I brought my fleet of 2 garrison x-wings, 4 B-wings, 6 gunships and 3 assault frigates to the pirate base. (this was on Kuat) My Hard AI ZC friend had a kedalbe (one of my fav ships) and zann, and another agressor and a couple of vipers, 4 skiprays (eaten alive by the gunboats), 2 crusaders, 2 vengeance and 1 Int-VI. I had all but 2 very badly injured gunboats left. He sent in another vengeance and it killed one of the gunboats before it could heal back from the repair station I made. However the last gunboat killed the vengeance.

 

Things I learned:

-Gunboats work very well when around a repair station as they can be fully repaired and functional unlike capitals with hard points.

-Use Assault frigates to take out the nasty crusaders and their point defense lasers.

-Use B-wings to destroy important hard points ie special weapons.

-Use the gunboats to work off mass drivers.....they hurt fighters really badly.

-If you must hyper in fighters near a vengeance, do it beside it or else you will be in its line of fire.

 

I also found out Victories hurt Gunboats, I would not recommend this tactic against the empire because their capitals rip these guys apart fairly quickly if in small numbers. (2 victories and their possy will shred apart 8 gunboats)

 

Overall I was extremely happy with the results. It was highly cost effective and I found the bane to my least fav ship, the Vengeance. Without having to tech up to 4 or 5 means you can constantly aply pressure to the ZC mines and base. (and when you do assault the base, make sure you eliminate the mass drivers so the B-Wings can do their dirty work.

[vaders_Legion]

space

althought thouoght as useless in space, i found a trick to defeat any unit from any fleet. Spam Corellian gunboats and just fire all missles on a target. lasers will keep vipers away while missles obliterate other ships. keep one moncal behind all of the gunboats to destroy the counter for the gunboats, the crusader gunship. Also keep some bombers and marauders in reserve just incase you need to bomb out their station or defend against figheter swarms with marauders.

Ok people The mon cal i hilighted red will destroy the interdictor with ease. even if it dies, the gunboats have some laser cannons on them

[Droid803]

Well for GC makes very much sense.

Tech-ing to MonCal in skirmish can be painfully long, especially when you have to constantly defend your mines...though that would still be a great idea...gotta try that...when I get on the nerve to play EaW/FoC again. Though as rebels I generally lose before I reach tech five, or reach tech five with an untendable situation unfolding around my space station (also known as a fleet of large proportions which have already taken chunks out of the SS)

 

I'd guess gunboat spam worked better in EaW vs Empire than in FoC vs Empire, since back in EaW, Vics costed 4200...too much to effectively...use.

[Hyprodimus Prime]

I just realized something....

 

Empire=Lasers

Rebels=Projectiles

ZC=Special weapons

 

Thats why ZC and imps have units to negate projectiles, its to counter rebels. If this is true we must look at how and why projectiles affect each faction.

Lets first look at Rebels vs ZC. The reason Gunboats are so effective is because their ships cannot counter the gunboats as well as the sheer laser power of the imps. The ZC uses mass drivers and special weapons. These are effective against bombers (mass drivers own B-Wings and other fighters) and Aggressor cannons are slow, even without boosted engines, one can avoid the blasts with a little micro. The ZC has very few ships emphasizing on ion cannons and lasers.(which the gunboats are weak against) Gunboats are also somewhat immune to self destructs. Gunboats can easily run from a dying aggressor or vengeance. Even if you dont run,  if you space them out, the blast might only kill 1-2. Against Kedalbes gunboats are somewhat immune to its special ability. Draining the weak shield on a gunboat wont help it much. By staying on one side of the Kedalbe a couple gunships can rip apart the turbo lasers making the kedalbe very weak. As I said before, Gunboats are fast naturally. Keeping to one side and flanking the capital is easy. Hard point destruction should be Turbo laser->Mass Driver->Ion Cannon->Special Weapon->change sides. Leave the shield generator (the husk of a ship is now wasting 4 unit slots) Because of these weaknesses, the ZC has come up with the Crusader's point defense laser system. So in order to have an effective gunboat fleet, one must bring something the size of a Neb-B or bigger to take care of crusaders. Mon cals are expensive and slow Speed is key for this tactic.

 

Summing up:

Why are ZC weak against Gunboats?

-Hard to destroy them

-Few counters

-Easy to control mines

-ZC ships excel at eliminating Small fighters and Large capitals, but not intermediate ships.

 

Now, let us examine the Imperial fleet.

What do I see on the Acclamator? Turbo Lasers, concussion missiles, proton torpedoes and the standar hanger, shields and engines. Their progectile weapons wont last long because these ships are relatively weak. now what about the Victory? Same thing, tough ship....but an added ion cannon. And Thrawn, Piet and the ISD? One more ion cannon and a tractor beam. Now....what do you think the Imperial Tactic will be?

 

Overwhelm with raw Laser power....

 

This is extremly powerful against Medium ships hence why Gunboats and imperials do not mix. Imperials can simply over run any opponent with sheer numbers because their fighters are garrison. However they too have a weakness. Proton torpedoes. Concussion missiles only come from the gunboat and thats out of the question. So who ya gonna call?! Not the ghost busters...but the B-Wings! Now why B-Wings over MC30s? Lets look at what an MC30 is. Its bigger than a corvette and smaller than a Liberty....its a medium ship. I dont care what the game says its strength are, ISD WILL OWN THEM. ISD will kill the MC30 or just knock out the 2 torpedo launchers before it can inflict any real damage. Knock out those 2 hard points and you just sent the Rebels into a 4000 credit debt! B-Wings are fast, and very effective against Imperial Capitals. The turbo lasers cant target the small fighters and garisson fighters are relatively weak. What is the Imp counter to The Bladewing? The Broadside and the Interdictor. In my experience, interdictors are excelent, but too weak. A moncal with the other side turned and boosting its shields can easily eliminate them. Broadsides are your best bet. Again, if the B-wings are destroyed, they cant hurt you. Broadsides can take out multiple squads of B-Wings with one stream of Diamond Borron Missiles. Now how does a Rebel counter this if the broadside is waaaaayyyy at the back of the Imp fleet? Get Han to do it solo, thats how. Pop on invulnerability and fly into the belly of the beast. Make a gunship quick and hyper it in right behind the broadside/s. Han and the gunships should make quick work of them. If you want it done faster, make 2 gunships.

 

No Broadside=healthy B-wings=victory.

Oh and you will need marauders in your back line to take care of the swarms of fighters. Of course the Imps can just scout your back line and hyper in an acclamator to squash the marauders, but they probebly wont be thinking of that with B-Wings pounding on Piet.

 

Summing up:

Why are Imps weak against B-Wings?

-Hard to destroy them

-Few counters (I didnt mention Tartans....dont use them, they will get eaten by the Mon Cals)

-Deals massive damage against capitals.

-Imps are good at eliminating medium ships, but not large or small.

 

I wont state any build orders as each map is different and ill let you experirment for yourselves (if you like these tactics).

And remember, this is only explaining key units, Im not trying to say my fleets are made of 25 B-wings or 12 gunboats, more like,

 

Against ZC: (Tech 3)

-3xAssault frigates

-4x B-Wings

-6x Corellian Gunships

 

Against the Empire:(Tech 5)

-Ackbar

-2x Mon Cal Cruisers

-6x B-wings

-Han

-Corellian Gunship

 

This fleet can vary on curcumstance depending on what the enemy is using and doing however I find this to be the best balance.

 

I know this was a ZC thread, but the post has lost of ZC relitive stuff.

[Droid803]

Countering B-Wings?

1. Boba Bomb = B-wings Owned Hard = Free range for ISDs to maul enemy ships

2. Broadsides (takes some time to line up correctly though)

3. Vader (?)

 

Boba is the main contender actually...he'll generally be able to drop that bomb and annihilate your B-wings before he takes any notable damage then just fly off and hide beside a repair or somewhere semi-remote until he's needed again...

From what I've seen I think Vader does OK too, but he takes a a little longer to finish off the b-wings but he's ANNOYING to kill.

Boba and Vader can also help keep Han and the Gunships from killing off too many broadsides but some damage will still be done.

 

The empire will generally be able to pull off a tech 4 win at the latest from spamming TIE defenders until there's no end... the rebels lack any sort of effective Area-of-Effect blast to finish these guys off (Emps have Boba and ZC just goes and blows themselves up. Rebels have to drop an MC-30 and line up the cluster mines right.)...Unless you absolutely SPAM corellian corvettes or gunships, defenders will at least punch a good few holes in a base... (taking out shields, comm array, supplies, proton torps and concussions, etc) Which is also why I generally use Thrawn, Piet, and other ISDs/VSDs as "bait". Generally always works. They end up building things like B-wings to go after my cap ships while I ping and drop 10 or so squads of defenders behind their base and utterly maul them before they get a chance to respond. Earlier wins are possible through acclamator rushing (I've done it before, but they now are easier to counter with Assault Frigs costing only 3000 @ tech 3 as opposed to 4200 @ tech 4 in EaW, which made Acclamators pretty dominant) or VSD strikes but these can be beaten off without too much trouble for the rebels giving they keep a vette or two reserved.

 

Defenders will also eat through moncals, assault frigs, nebs, MC-30s, basically anything with hardpoints you throw at them and a squadron can go max firepower and trade with even corvettes...

Han is the only true counter, maybe Antilles vette, but that costs a fair bit. ("I can decimate you, but you can't begin to hurt me")

===

 

Now I do know its a ZC thread, but its probably better off as a generally strategy discussion...

 

The lack of an "Advanced Bomber" for the ZC makes it unable to do a sneak-spam rush against the enemy. Skiprays are too slow and will get totally eaten by reinforcements after one or two passes.

 

Crusaders do work well, but their anti-lasers can only hold off so many missiles, so if worst comes to worst, the rebels can just overwhelm them with sheer missile numbers. This is also why the ZC have a missile-jamming satellite (sensor scrambler). If its close enough to the mine, it can divert the missiles...but only from one side.

 

Bossk may be useful against gunboats, haven't tried him yet. Maybe IG2000's ability will help...

 

I found it a lot more difficult to win the the ZC post patch, but it now makes more sense. I found spamming Vengeance Frigs seem to work well, provided you cover them from some of the things it has trouble hitting - they can deal with assault frigs, nebs and b-wings and don't die super fast to gunboats, giving them a bit of longevity (the gunboats shield-pierce doesn't do much for it over lasers), but a large bomber force would force you to detonate, and larger ships they'll die to, but ideally, you get to pound their base for a while before they reach capitals, putting you at the advantage to continue to pressure their base.

 

---

I haven't played in a while, so these are mostly estimates from the ten or so games I had online: Ended up losing most of the ones I played as ZC and winning most of the ones I played as Empire.

 

I have yet to spam gunboats vs. ZC to test the full extent of their effectiveness.

[Hyprodimus Prime]

I also agree with all of that. I forgot to mention that boba and vader are great at dealing with bombers. Boba has his bomb and vader as you said is hard to kill. And if spamming B-Wings of Defender against the ZC make sure you have your sound on, it can let you know when they are about to self destruct. Against defenders and other fghters I like to have 2 marauders at the back of my fleet. The I very much under estimate the empire on fighter power as ZC or rebel. If I see a fleet of 4 capitals I often forget they also carry 4 bombers and 4 interceptors too. 8 squads are 8 squads and they still hurt! I used to do the MC30 line up with the cluster bomb overlap. But it took a lot of time and in the end, as I said, they take out your 2 launchers and you wasted 4000 credits.

The lack of an "Advanced Bomber" for the ZC makes it unable to do a sneak-spam rush against the enemy. Skiprays are too slow and will get totally eaten by reinforcements after one or two passes.

 

Crusaders do work well, but their anti-lasers can only hold off so many missiles, so if worst comes to worst, the rebels can just overwhelm them with sheer missile numbers. This is also why the ZC have a missile-jamming satellite (sensor scrambler). If its close enough to the mine, it can divert the missiles...but only from one side.

 

Bossk may be useful against gunboats, haven't tried him yet. Maybe IG2000's ability will help...

 

That is all true. I find the ZC wins by elimination. They have a counter to every ship while the other two factions need to pool their abilities (like han going to the back of the fleet to hyper in gunboats). ZC have it easy when it comes to countering. If you see an Acclamator spam what do you do? Vengence. If theres a strike squad of B-Wings at your base what do you do? Crusader. And Mon Cals? Kedalbe. I love it when the rebels use their shields on a kedalbe lol. For the ZC its a very easy and simple choice.

 

Rebels are good at using small strike teams. Small but potent. Send a gunboat to retake a mine or distract the enemy with a few B-Wings. One MonCal can tank for a long time, but really needs backup to kill effectively.

 

The Empire would be more brains over brawns. They only have a few "special" units and their capitals are just a bigger version of the previous (Much like the Rebs with the exception of the MC30). The Imps have to use their special units to their full potential. Scouts->Send strike teams to eliminate enemy mines unsuspectingly. Defenders->expensive but powerful against capitals when your turbo lasers are having a hard time penetrating a 120 point/second regen shield. Broadsides->defense against fighters. Interdictors->Overlap them to block out enemy hyperspace areas. No reinforcement=no death=win. They are also excellent at diverting projectiles. As powerful as they are, they are easy to kill as I said earlier.

 

I really hate going against IG-88/2000 his area of effect is soooo big and the effect itself is devastating. Its like an ion cannon and a nebula combined.

[Droid803]

Ah yes, the Empire has a harder time killing ZC with TIE defender spam, just tested...they took my friggin huge swarm of defenders going after their base with surprising speed. I barely managed to take out a third of their base, and all their big frigates and stuff were at their mines. (They just self-detonated them where they were to free up population and dropped crusaders >.<) Rebels can't do that - if their fleet is halfway across the map, help has to come from their if they're capped.

 

And the ZC really do have a hard time taking out Gunboats. Though I tested this when my mod was running against 2 hard AIs, I only built gunboats and practically swept across the map, taking out all of their mines and most oft heir ships while taking only a few losses. Then again, in my mod, the ZC don't have crusaders, but Interdictors, and the AI is too dumb to use them right. Through something with more firepower is really needed to attack the ZC space station since that indeed does have the needed turbolasers and ion cannons.

[vaders_Legion]

The gunships own vs everything, i spamed a fleet of 10 of them with a moncal and bwing squad yesterday and i killed 2 zc hard ais and 1 empire hard ai with no problems. The only weakness the gunships have is stardestroyers or broadsides. even if an interdictor brings up its field its not going to make a difference because it only jams like  2/3 of the missles and theres more than enough to destroy the dictor.

[Droid803]

The only time jamming 2/3s of the missiles would be a major setback is if the imps have something like ISDs and VSDs hiding in the jamming fields...Interdictors = NO GUNS. Only pea-shooters.

[Hyprodimus Prime]

Interdictors are just made to hold off bombers and buy time while the main capitals hammer the enemy capitals. Buying time may include jamming projectiles and forcing them to hyper in farther away. with enough interdictors, you could force the enemy to hyper in at their base if their main fleet is at yours. Buying much time to regroup and reinforce. Powerful as they may be, they are also weak. Interdictors and Crusaders provide a counter to the waves of missiles, they may be eaily destroyed in the process, but they are relatively cheap and quick building. I still dont like mass gunship against Imps. The only reason they are strong against the ZC is because mass drivers have little effect on them and the wide array of special weapons have little use too. examples: The shield drain from the Kedalbe lasts like .5 sec. The Gunboat shields are so weak so there is little to feed off of. The Agressor's specials are too slow to hit the gunboats even without the engine boost. Gunboats are fast, but they are also squishy, turbolasers can eat right through them. The Imps have turbolaser galore. They still make good mine scouts mind you.

[vaders_Legion]

Forgot to mention, I just tested the zc crusader and found out that if you have 10 of those, ig 88, and 4 skipray squadrons, you can defeat pretty much anything. this is anti cap ship and fighter, doesnt end well when fighting an ssd.