Floor, wiped, me

So, I was happily playing my first Sins game (Normal difficulty) after reading lots of the forum posts. I got past the constant pirate raids, even got to where I didn't even need to monitor those battles.

Here's the scenario... I had 5 planets: Homeworld, asteroid world (only 1 way in, through the homeworld), and 3 remote planets (two interconnected). I had two fleets in play, each with 10 frigates, 2 LRMs, and a Kol. I was building up in my newly conquered third system while using the system behind that one for staging.

New system had a fleet in it, 3 gauss defense turrets, 2 repair bays, a hangar, and a frigate factory. Staging system was the same, Homeworld system had about 4 frigates in it hanging about waiting to be fleeted...

Suddenly the enemy attacks not one, not two, but THREE of my planets with 30+ ship fleets all simultaneously. We're talking multi-cap ship fleets complete with colony ships. Needless to say it was over shortly after that and there was no point but to surrender.

Did I approach this wrong? Am I thinking in too small a terms? Should I be hanging back in my home system longer to make larger more defensible fleets and only move to a new planet when I can turtle it up behind me?

Mick

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im wondering this too

also, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to succeed economically? I consistently find myself failing massively in that department as i try to gear up militarily.

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im wondering this too

also, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to succeed economically? I consistently find myself failing massively in that department as i try to gear up militarily.

Upgrade infrastructure. Until you upgrade their infrastructure all newly colonized planets are a drain on your economy. Also build some trade ports as these will give you a nice credit boost. And don't increase your fleet capacity until you need to since increasing the capacity also increases the upkeep. You can also make use of the black market if you consistently find yourself with a lot of one resources and little of the others. There are other small tricks, but those are the main things you can do.

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lordkosc

Join Date 12/2006

spread your fleets out, 1 uber fleet of doom is almost certain loss against the AI with 4-5 well balanced fleets.

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im wondering this too

also, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to succeed economically? I consistently find myself failing massively in that department as i try to gear up militarily.

One trick i used my first time around was to only build militarily at choke planets. As soon as I expanded past my old choke point and established a new one the new territory became my defensive/staging area. Now eventually you're going to get to a point where you need to defend more than one place at a time. Some static defenses are great because they do a lot of work (especially with repair bays), but that normally isn't ever enough. Having even small fleets of long-range frigates or support cruisers (to back up statics) will work well. Have at least one fleet at each border territory.

All other planets that are not militarily important are filled with economic logistics. You only need one trade port for a world to produce trade values, but multiple refineries work well for other resources. I find this to work out well for me. Idk if its the best thing to do but its worked so far. I try to differentiate my military and civil worlds. That way I can use some worlds to stage a good amount of labs or refineries. While a few key planets house my factories.

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Turtling up is the worst thing you can do!

EXPAND EXPAND EXPAND

This is the best mantra... sure you might lose that extra colony or two by sheer fact that you can't defend them... but for however long you owned it the AI did not own it. Think about area denial and 'potential denial' if the enemy has to take a world from you, it is more effort than taking it from the neutrals in most situations... if only because it will likely require siege frigates... a big investment.

Meanwhile you can launch raids, probes, and expeditions to various places and focus not on siege, but on combat ships. You might lose a planet or two or even three in bigger matches, but by being the first to the planets you will be in a better position to win the war.

Expand. Don't turtle! Don't procrastinate! (this does not mean that you shouldn't fortify!)

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Expand is a great strategy on one condition. You MUST be able to build up the infrastructure. You expand to fast your economy will be drained like no other. The farther you are from your homework the less taxes your going to collect. I often by mid-late game will change my home world to a farther out planet to negate these effects.

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Does culture not mitigate some of the effect of being far out?

So rather the moving the homeworld around, perhaps build up a couple culture broadcast centers and solifify your hold on your own worlds.

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There is a max allegiance based on how far away your worlds are from your home world. I'm almost positive that culture will raise the allegiance of a planet no more then 10%. Thats if I'm remembering correctly.

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