OlorinStormcrow
Warlord
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
- Messages
- 204
I'm wondering what kinds of tech people wait for before taking on the Guardian. How do you construct a Guardian-killer fleet, and do you find the designs to be effective against AIs as well, or are they too Guardian specific?
When you respond, please let us know what level of Guardian you are talking about, or note any differences in your strategy for different difficulty levels.
I usually play at Impossible level, where the Guardian has 10,000 hp, Shield 9, Death Ray, Stellar Converter, Plasma Torpedo, and Scatter Pack X. It also has a lightning shield.
If I want to easily kill the Guardian, I wait for Sub-space teleporters. Since they automatically give you initiative, it's a simple matter of determining how many of a given beam weapon you'll need to punch 10K damage through the shields. I believe the guardian has a computer level of 9, but by the time I'm at teleporters, I'm usually close to that myself. I usually go with a large size ship to fit a scanner and teleporter, then fill it up with beams. Once I have enough ships, I go for it. That usually means between 100 and 200 large ships. If I miscalculate, or roll badly on the damage, I'll lose a few to the Death ray and stellar converter, but I'll get my second shot off before the scatter packs and plasma torps hit.
On any guardian assault, I'll also take as much of the rest of my fleet as possible, in case my design doesn't work as well as I thought, and I need a little more firepower to finish it off. Large enough flights of torps or missiles will do some damage through the lightning shield, so they are not useless, just much less effective compared to beams.
Recently, I've tried going in with large fleets of small or medium ships, armed with 1-2 beams, no shields, and high manuever. High energy focus is great too. It helps ships get in range. The major problem with smaller ships is that they are slaughtered by the scatter packs. Dodging them sometimes works, or using multiple designs so that one stack can be dodging missiles while the other is free to attack. With HEF, it's much easier to dodge missiles and still get shots off. What kinds of ships do you use?
In my current game, I'm considering trying to attack the guardian with hard beams (8-12 damage, 1/2 shielding). Does anyone know whether the Guardians shields would be rounded down to 4 or 5? 3-7 vs 4-8 damage range makes a difference. Especially since I'm working on finishing BC7, so I'll be facing a disadvantage in computer level.
Share your insights! Regale us with tales of Guardians slain.
*Oddly enough: One of the reasons that I should go after the Guardian this game...the Orion system is infested with Pirates! Yes, trade has been disrupted for almost a century by Pirates sheltering in the shadow of the Guardian. Just how they managed to strike a deal with the mighty ship to allow them to operate out of the Orion system is unknown.
When you respond, please let us know what level of Guardian you are talking about, or note any differences in your strategy for different difficulty levels.
I usually play at Impossible level, where the Guardian has 10,000 hp, Shield 9, Death Ray, Stellar Converter, Plasma Torpedo, and Scatter Pack X. It also has a lightning shield.
If I want to easily kill the Guardian, I wait for Sub-space teleporters. Since they automatically give you initiative, it's a simple matter of determining how many of a given beam weapon you'll need to punch 10K damage through the shields. I believe the guardian has a computer level of 9, but by the time I'm at teleporters, I'm usually close to that myself. I usually go with a large size ship to fit a scanner and teleporter, then fill it up with beams. Once I have enough ships, I go for it. That usually means between 100 and 200 large ships. If I miscalculate, or roll badly on the damage, I'll lose a few to the Death ray and stellar converter, but I'll get my second shot off before the scatter packs and plasma torps hit.
On any guardian assault, I'll also take as much of the rest of my fleet as possible, in case my design doesn't work as well as I thought, and I need a little more firepower to finish it off. Large enough flights of torps or missiles will do some damage through the lightning shield, so they are not useless, just much less effective compared to beams.
Recently, I've tried going in with large fleets of small or medium ships, armed with 1-2 beams, no shields, and high manuever. High energy focus is great too. It helps ships get in range. The major problem with smaller ships is that they are slaughtered by the scatter packs. Dodging them sometimes works, or using multiple designs so that one stack can be dodging missiles while the other is free to attack. With HEF, it's much easier to dodge missiles and still get shots off. What kinds of ships do you use?
In my current game, I'm considering trying to attack the guardian with hard beams (8-12 damage, 1/2 shielding). Does anyone know whether the Guardians shields would be rounded down to 4 or 5? 3-7 vs 4-8 damage range makes a difference. Especially since I'm working on finishing BC7, so I'll be facing a disadvantage in computer level.
Share your insights! Regale us with tales of Guardians slain.
*Oddly enough: One of the reasons that I should go after the Guardian this game...the Orion system is infested with Pirates! Yes, trade has been disrupted for almost a century by Pirates sheltering in the shadow of the Guardian. Just how they managed to strike a deal with the mighty ship to allow them to operate out of the Orion system is unknown.