Espionage Confusion

[Gamemusic]

There is a world I have attempted to liberate but EVERY sabotage and rescue mission I send is always foiled.

 

I attempted a huge combination of 10+ infiltrators and multiple espionage characters with enormous decoy swarms.

 

I attempted a small company with a single character or infiltrator and either 2 or 10+ decoys.

 

After I did a single infiltrator supported by Lando and another infiltrator, it was not just a foil but Lando got injured and I read it was impossible in a guide for decoys to get attacked.

 

The planet has 4 armies, 1 stormtrooper, 1 gencore, and 1 general.

 

I could not get a single shot through the gencore despite massing a few nebulon B's and a ton of fighters.

 

Since I have not built a cruiser [i did not want one until I captured Mon Calamari] everything has a 1 bombardment except the escort carrier at 0. Would it still let those fighters bombard or would the 0 negate them?

[geir389]

I'm a little rusty with the mechanics since I havn't played much recently. But I think can help a little.

First off, I believe the game rolls your espeionage success individually for each character. And if a character is detected they roll on their combat rating to decide what happens to them, roll to low and they get injured or die.

 

Now when it comes to detection, each regiment and ship guarding a planet has a detection rating, which gives them a chance to find a character.

So far so good, with no general in place, you would easily be able to spy on them and destroy their stuff.

 

The problem is the commander. Since you are talking about using infiltrators and lando (a bad idea, lando is a useful diplomat and comander aswell as a research character) im going to assume you are playing rebellion. And I'm going to guess that you have not captured Coruscant. When a planet has a general on it, each of your units has to roll against the general Leadership rating to succeed. And Most imperial officers have high leadership and they get a 50% boost while the emperor is on Coruscant. So you are rolling 50 espionage (infiltrators) and 80 espionage (Lando) against 150+ Leadership.

 

Thats why your missions are failing. You might want to try capturing the general, as then you will be rolling your combat rating against his combat rating. Or leaving the planet alone for the time being.

Edited May 16, 2015 by geir389

[geir389]

Also, one gencore early on can stop a whole fleet, I think you need somthing like 40 total bombardment rating to get through?

[Master_Xan]

Geir is correct on both the missions and the shields. Below are a bunch of tips for anyone looking at this.

 

Look at a character's stats to see what they are good at. Lando isn't very good at espionage or combat, so it would be better if you used someone like Han or Chewbacca. The Rebels have many good espionage characters.

 

Usually small numbers of highly-talented individuals will do better than huge swarms of mediocre characters. Always use decoys if you can. I'm not sure what the "perfect" ratio is, but I usually use 1 operative for 1-2 decoys, and I rarely have more than 9 total characters assigned to one mission.

 

Infiltrators are basically worthless if the enemy planet has a general or an orbiting fleet. They simply can't get through. Note that a general with no troops is nothing to worry about.

 

You can look at the statistics of enemy units in the encyclopedia, or by right-clicking the unit itself. Each trooper regiment has a detection rating; for example, Imperial Fleet Regiments are better at detecting missions than most other Imperial troopers. Fighters also have detection ratings.

 

If you haven't successfully completed an espionage mission, you won't know the characters on the planet. You may know some, but even orbiting a planet will not reveal the full, current status of enemy characters. For your specific instance, the Empire may have additional units running espionage on their own planet, which can detect your missions.

 

Running missions against any planetary target that is protected by an enemy fleet is dangerous. Ships in orbit give a huge boost to detection.

 

To break through a gencore shield, you need units with bombardment rating. Many ships do not have this, particularly early in the game and particularly Rebel ships. Look at the ship stats, all the way at the bottom iirc. You can do multiple bombardments a day with no penalty, and if you are right on the edge of overcoming the shield, then some bombardments will destroy things and some won't. Make sure you bombard military targets only to increase your odds of taking out the shield generator (and to avoid public backlash).

 

The best early Rebel units to overcome shield generators are Carriers stuffed to the gills with YWings. Support this with whatever other ships you can scrape up with a bombardment rating (Bulk Cruisers and Dreadnoughts may have some, I can't remember for sure).

 

What's the best way for Rebels to bust through a fortified Imperial planet with orbiting fleets, troops, generals, shield generators, or other defenses? Ignore it and work on the other planets in that sector. If you can isolate strongholds, you can build up forces to take on your target. If you can liberate an Imperial world in the same sector, you'll get a huge boost to support throughout the rest of the sector, possibly starting an uprising on the fortified world you are gunning for and/or getting free intel from smugglers. Later in the game you can just smash through, but early on, Rebels lack the fleet strength to do so.

 

If you simply must take out a fortified world, this is the order to do so:

1) Take out any fleet presence. Doesn't matter if it is just a troop transport, any enemy orbiting ships need to die. Ideally, you would use your own fleet for this, but if they have too much power you'll need to use very talented operatives instead.

2) If there is no fleet or you dealt with it, your next target is always enemy generals. Even if you fail to capture him, just injuring him is enough to negate his (usually massive) leadership bonus. Remember, they may send a replacement general (or reassign someone already on the planet) if you injure the first general.

3) After any generals are out, you have your choice between targets: shield generator or other planetary defenses if you want to bombard, enemy fighters if your fleet can't safely attack, or troopers. If the planet likes you more than your enemy, always take out enemy troopers, since you can liberate the planet for massive public support throughout the sector. Also take out troopers if you plan to assault the planet or your operatives have a difficult time completing missions.

4) If you are trying to liberate the planet by taking out troopers with sabotage, try and put a fleet in orbit. Your operatives can run missions from your fleet, even if all you put up there is a single Medium Transport. That will greatly decrease travel times. Having an orbital presence also makes it harder for your opponent to reinforce the planet, and when you do liberate it, your fleet has a chance to capture or destroy any units fleeing the world.

5) If you can't put a fleet in orbit, get your operatives to launch missions from the nearest world you control. That greatly reduces travel times. If you don't have a planet adjacent to your target, you can put a fleet in orbit of neutral planets and launch missions from there. If there are no nearby neutrals, you can orbit one enemy world and run missions targeting another. If you can't get at any world in a sector using one of these methods, you probably need to wait until you have a bigger fleet before trying to take your target.

[The Crazy Psychopath]

An escort carrier full of Y-wings is usually enough to break through one gencore. Did you assign an admiral?