Boarding Parties (and housing technique)

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lostminstrel
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Boarding Parties (and housing technique)

Postby lostminstrel » Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:40 am

I've seen a lot of guides and stuff say that a ship's shields need to be down before you can board them - is that just wrong? I'm able to board ships without taking down their shields as long as I immobolise them with enough tractor beams and move up beside them.

Also....I don't get the "housing technique". I've seen guides say that a 1 pop housing planet can make a new colonist in a few turns, even with no buildings, but this never seems to work for me. What am I doing wrong?

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rewster1
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Postby rewster1 » Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:44 am

It's not going to be a few turns without any buildings, unless you've some significant things going your way, like an ultra rich world and you are unitol. Then if you're lucky you might get 250k, which would mean a new colonist every 4 turns. On a small abundant barren planet that same unitol will get 120k a turn with no buildings, tech, other race picks, leaders, or random population boom. So it wouldn't be a few turns (in my mind a few is 3-5), but 9 turns. But as soon as you add in an auto factory, it's over 200, and with a robo I think maybe it pushes 400k a turn. So that's when you start to get new pop every few turns.

Oh yeah, and the boarding question... you only need to knock down shields if you are using transporters. If you are boarding an immobilized ship, either via tractors or engine damage, you just need to be within (I think) 3 spaces of the ship. The advantage of transporters is that you don't need to fiddle with immobilization, which can be tricky to pull off. Of course the disadvantage is that they are negated by hard shields. You can also use assault shuttles which require neither down shields nor immobilization, but that's only effective if the opponent's point defense is slim to non-existent.

lostminstrel
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Postby lostminstrel » Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:18 am

Thanks for the answers (and sorry for not thanking you earlier, I thought I had posted earlier in the week, but apparently I did not).

I thought some guides were wrong on the matter of having to down shields before being able to initiate boarding actions.

With regards to the housing thing, when is it worth it? I mean, should I use those turns to build actual buildings, or perhaps not even bother with the CB or CS in the first place? I have a hard time judging when to expand and when to build the new buildings I just researched.

And since I thought I posted this already, but did not...

I've noticed that "commando" leaders appear to provide a flat +15 to gorund combat during planetary invasions only - its the listed bonus during ship-to-ship, but in planetary invasions, it will say something like "Commodore Tulock +15", even though his portrait just says +6. Is that a display error, or some other kind of trouble?

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rewster1
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Postby rewster1 » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:20 am

Hi lostminstrel... as far as the commando thing, I don't know whether you're seeing a display error or a bug that actually affects gameplay. It isn't listed here, but someone else here may know about it.

Regarding housing and when to do it, check out these movies.

Zyraen
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Joined:Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:32 am

Postby Zyraen » Sun Oct 02, 2011 11:25 pm

Just some poking around... (I'm playing on v1.4 thank you Lord Brazen)

I've found that Assault Shuttles launched from Cruiser and Smaller Ships *Immediately* hit enemy Ships, resulting in Boarding Results (and Captures). This makes Assault Shuttles viable even into Endgame as long as they're Fast-moving and Not-Targeted (usually with few / less weapons), and is a very distinct advantage over Transporters.

This makes Assault Shuttles far Superior on smaller Ships, that move faster by default and have less space consumed by Augmented Engines.

Related "not sure if this is a bug" stuff
- Assault Shuttles fired from Battleship or Larger Ships do not immediately hit, even if the ship is right next to it
- Assault Shuttles' Marines count separate from Ship Marines, so unlike Transporters, you don't have to worry about "running out" of Marines. I've launched 44 Marines via 11 Shuttles on Antaran Crafts from Battleships (20 Marines, 40 with Troop Pods)

=============

Meantime, anything that improves your Ground Attack works in Boarding actions, granting +X accordingly. I'm not sure about Power Armor etc bonus to Hits as its not reflected... I suppose I could run a custom game to test.

With some (a lot of) effort, I was using a Creative with up to Phasor Rifle and Power Armor (+50 mods in all) to capture 2 Antaran Destroyers (8 Marines at +110 mods I think). I used 3 Battleships with 11 Shuttles each (44 Marines) and 2 Cruisers with 4 Shuttles each (16 Marines).

Antaran Destroyers should be easily capturable with 4-5 Battleships of 11 Shuttles / 44 Troops, I think.

That would be a ratio of about 8:99... is that correct or should 99 be doubled to 198 to account for Power Armor hits?

PS : what technology can be obtained from Antarans? I've got Xentronium Armor and Damper Field... I gather anything you can get from Orion you can get from them ?

Zyraen
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Postby Zyraen » Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:33 am

An old but relevant topic on the forum if you want to Board Antaran Ships.

viewtopic.php?t=287&highlight=

Zyraen
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Postby Zyraen » Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:04 am

I just know that powered armor seems to work in ship-to-ship combat since it is quite popular.
from viewtopic.php?p=1666#1666


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