Dread Lord: Apocalypse mission help needed!

Total mission tree researched, but they're everywhere!

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm on the Apocalypse mission (regular difficulty) and contrary to the mission instructions I did not attack early. I've researched the entire research tree and I have four other team members who have also researched the entire tree (through trading we all have every technology). My allies aren't doing much by way help at this point.

The Dread Lords at this point can't beat me, or at least not with their current game plan. WIth soldiering maxed out and plenty of colonists they haven't been able to take any of the 6 worlds I control.

None of their ships individually are that big or that great, but any time they can get even a shot off, they seem to destroy one of my ships, even if they're carrying lots of defense. I can get a fleet where with each of my ships' attack can kill one of their ships, but that really only helps when I have initiative 'cause when they have initiative they always destroy at least two of my ships (they usually fly in groups of 2 or maybe 3). The real problem is that I can only keep initiative so long when by sheer numbers they get initiative and start whittling away whatever fleet I've managed to put together.

I can't sustain any starbases, they just get killed. The fleets I've tried to hit them with so far consist of big ships with lots of defense and a ton of firepower. I'm thinking about switching to swarms of small ships with as much gunnery as I can put on them and not care about defense at all since defense doesn't seem to do anything.

I have any ship, any weapon, any ship defense available to me. Does anyone have any advice here? This is way late-stage and if I could find a way to start clearing away more ships than they can produce I will inevitably win because they aren't making any ground against my other team members either it's just that I can't get the tid emoving my way.

Thanks in advance for any information provided.
3,864 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes. End the damn mission already

But yeah, defences need to be a LOT higher than the attack to really be any use at blocking a doom ray. In 1.2 both ships will fire at the same time, so defences will become neccesary. Build some tiny ships, and enjoy the tactic while you can.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Forget defense. Like you said, one shot will kill any of your ships no matter how high the defense. They just don't have enough hitpoints. Instead build cheap attack ships on huge hulls. Pack about three hyperwarp engines, the rest cheap weapons. Find the cheapest weapons for each point of damage (not the biggest weapon). Flog these ships out of the production line enmasse and overwhelm the enemy with fleets of these huge ships.

Upgrade any non-useful buildings such as embassies to factories so you can make more ships. It is a war of attrition.

An exploit, is to pile up some constructors and make a military starbase to increase your offense, just before you send in your stacked fleets. Pure cheese but it does improve your odds.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Tiger, how is using a starbase for what they're supposed to do cheese? The DL destroy everything they can anyway. If they miss a bunch of constructors, I'm inclined to say it's their fault.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try to eliminate the defense and go pure offense maybe taking something that the AI does well no engine or armor and all attack.... on a huge hull with a Hyperion Shrinker you should be able to fit on a whole lot of weapons just make sure you attack them first...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In addition to everything above, build an 'Ultra Transport' with 3 Advanced Troop Mods and as many Hyperwarp III engines as possible. Send it off to the side along with a fighter fleet, then blast away their home planet defenses and take over the planet in one turn. Buy an Industrial Sector (if it doesn't have one already) and then a starbase (again, only if it doesn't already have one) and queue up a ton of other Industrial Sectors. Then churn out fighters and repeat.

Take your planets that are most defended and farther away from the front-line conflict and turn them into pure economic sectors. Build up a massive tax base so you can buy capital ships by the dozen. If you have trade routes, Privateers is a must.

I think the missle-class weapons have the best space-damage ratio. Or maybe it was the best cost-damage ratio. Experiment with different types and use whatever type they aren't defending against.

Build 'Ultra Constructors', with a construction module and a bunch of Hyperwarp III engines. Keep them in reserve until you have a couple dozen of them, then send them all to one point and build a maxed-out starbase (if you can build multiple Military Starbases in such a way that the effects overlap, do that, too!). Its pretty much just a war of attrition, but since you and your allies have pretty much the same technology (or near enough), a far larger military, a far larger industrial and tax base, and the 'power of teamwork', victory should be inevitable. If you have extra resources, give them to your allies.

Then again, if you are a control freak, you could just take over (militarily or culturally) all of your allies and then crush the Dreadlords with 95% of the galaxy at your back
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When you build starbases, why don't you park a fleet or two on top of it. Also starbases act as a kind of honeytrap for the DL they will go out of their way to destroy these, so build up a military one create a few swarms of tiny fighters and kill em off as they come in range. And If its late in the game and you've got the tech you shouldn't be having a problem, unless you haven't researched sensors and ceated sensor ships?? you should get the 'initiative' back this way.