*Spoiler* Tactics Discussion: Dealing with the L----- S----

[TrashMan]

Disruptor shields are DA BOMB!

I just faced the Locust Fleetword with 22 cruisers (me human).
I had several Disruptor/PD/Fusion cruisers and several Disruptor/Armor/Fusion ones + a disruptor CNC. LAser PD in all small mounts and phasers in mediums.

Lost the planet, but the battle ended with me still having several cruisers on my reserves list!

Wasn't able to bring it down since I lost my only CNC half way trough the battle, and once all of his drones were dead I couldn't cycle my flyswatters (PD) with maulers (armor), so I didn't do enough damage.
Still, now I know how to bring the sucker down cheaply. Shame I can't save the friggin planet.

[TrashMan]

another battle vs. the Locusts.

With 30 cruisers I can easily survive the battle with only a few losses. but I can't do enough damage to the blasted thing to take it out.

I moved the LKillers (Disruptor/War/Fusion) with Hfusion cannons in only after I killed all the drones. So in 2 minutes of pounding, 6 such cruisers weren't enough

[xRei]

Corrosive missiles. Seriously. Epic DPS on near-stationary targets such as that.

[TrashMan]

Ok,killed it!

21 cruisers and 1 DN + a few destroyers.
Lost 5 ships, 3 of which on purpose (it was easier to turn them around and let the fleetword kill them than to wait for them to move to the back of he line so I can bring in other ships)

I had no emitters, no phaser PD, no absorbers, Fusion tech.
Just Disruptor shields and (heavy fusion) cannons and Photon torps as weapons. Laser PD, no emitters.

The tactics is simple - place you CNC DN and as many PD cruisers as you can as close to the planet and wait. Your ships and sats will cover each other and help thin down the locust cloud.
Just wait till the fleetworld comes closer and them move your ships a bit forward, into his path. It will stop and not reach your planet, so it won't be able to shoot at it. After 3 minutes of combat all of it's drones should be dead. Retreat you PD ships and bring in cruisers with barrage/war/armor sections to pummel it to death.

[Mecron]

very elegant!

[TrashMan]

I didn't kill the first one and now the map is crawling with Locusts.
They are all the other empires and are hitting mine like crazy. I get 2 Locust attacks a turn sometimes. The game is ruined..my competition is in shambles.

On the upside, the tactics works every time without a hitch!

[DaNuker]

Ugh, I'm seeing those nasty Hiveworlds incoming and its just the early fusion era.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the cloaked suicide depth charge refineries trick still works in this version as I missed the Disruptor shield tech.

[TrashMan]

It looks to ma as tankers/refineries lost a lot of their bang...that, or various drones became more powerful..


I recall in earlier games that when my tanker was fighting the swarm, it took some of them out when it blew. This last game I had two tankers..both of them blew and not a single swarmer killed. Either the tanker explosion damage was seriously reduced or the swarmers got a serious HP increase.


Without disruptor shields you're in a pickle. You're gonna need a LOT of PD cruisers or cloaked refineries. I wish you luck.

[nickersonm]

I and others have managed it with just masses (40+) of cheap PD + corrosive/nanite CRs. It's expensive, but it works.

[Barleyman]

I had my first run-in with Locusts with Hivers during the weekend. After being wiped out couple of times I turned serious and decided to beat the bastards at their own game -

I designed inexpensive PD destroyer with reflective coating and gauss PD (hammerhead) plus PD cruiser with AI fire control and PD gauss.

I threw sixty destroyers plus thirty cruisers at the blighters backed by a couple of DN CnC and a pair of barrage DN to finish the job.

Result:

Total carnage with my bug fodder dying like flies.. It actually seems like to me the PD isn't doing much, most observed kills were actually from AM cannons from the PD ships! The AI command makes them hit pretty good..

However, eventually the locusts were thinned out and the barrage DNs (with cutter beams) took the locust mothership right out.

Now something I wonder - Are the locust ships armored? The storm of PD should have been far more effective than they actually were! Or my problem is that the PD has less range than the locust beams so the destroyers are wiped out before they can get shots out? Should I trade gauss PD to pew pew laser PD?

No, in my game I have none of the suggested high-tech solutions available, no phaser PD, no disruptors, no energy absorbers.. On the other hand I have ~7 million income / turn with research turned down to 25% so I can easily crank out schwarm of fodder to take the cloud head-on.. Biggest problem is that the hivers can't go hunting for the bugs too easily in deep space.

[Barleyman]

Some more fun with locust. It seems 50-odd bug fodder PD DEs and 30-odd PD cruisers backed by a pair of Armada CnC and a pair of barrage DNs can consistently take out locusts.

You will get about 90 ship losses every time, thought. I'm not sure if the DEs are worth it as they seem to have very low damage ratio, something like 1:6.

PD cruisers are better and can achieve about 1:3 which is still not too exciting.

[Mesaia]

Would emitter DEs work?

[Barleyman]

Worth a try. For next schwarm I'll go with EM DE/CR instead of gauss PDs. Let's see what that does to the damage ratio.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

I have a suspicion the DEs would get destroyed before reaching emitter range.

[Barleyman]

Cruisers with emitters should make a decent showing, thought. And nothing can give worse performance than gauss PD DEs.. You can see them popping all over the place in the tactical display.