Some help with defenders

from GalCiv2 Forums
I have got dreadlords fully patched up and i have a few issues. hell i dont know if this will make any sence but here gose. (thanks to anyone who replys it be greatly apreciated)

1) My strategy for economy is to build mass economy buildings on high PQ planets and mass factorys on high PQ planets while i mass build research on low PQ planets. This srat works on the latest patched dread lords to a certian extent. While im familar with this strategy i cant help but feel that it has its problems.

Problem number one

Since this startegy relies on planet specilisation its common that my production specialised planet have powerfull garrison (cause of the ships being built on that planet). Yet my economy worlds and research worlds have no garrisons making them prone to attack. Transfering ships from production worlds to economy worlds and research worlds to provide them with effective garrisons are ineffective and slow imo (sonetimes it can take 6 weeks or more). Especialy if i needed to mobilise defenders on each of my worlds to defend them.

Problem number two

Due to a overall poor defence coverage on all my planets if one planet was to fall such as a mass production/ mass research or mass economy then my race would be in tatters as the nations survival would depend on each planet (almost like a domino effect)

1)I was wondering what other people have for build plan strategys.

2)I would prefer a build plan where i can generate a effective economy research and production. Where my planets are pretty much self sufficant. And withen a few weeks i can generate a effective defence on all planets in case of a attack. can anyone help me on this???

3)Can anyone show me the strat for defenders....i know that sounds so noobish but i never have to build defenders on easy but since i now play on normal i just wondering the build layout for a good defender.

4)since im getting dark avatar and i suppose game strats are dramactialy different from dreallords is there a place to start to find out the changes and new strats.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I play the DA campaign now on "normal" with a similar strategy with quite good success, so I can't tell you much about the DL campaign, but I can give some advices...

You have to get yourself in a position where you will not be forced on a defensive. Your soldiering should be pretty darn high at some point that AI can not just rush your planet and expect to conquer it with one transport. By the time they try to send a second transport, you should be able to send defenses. I never have more than one ship on a planet, and that's usually a defender. If that planet even falls, I should be able to take it back easily. Dread lotrds seem to leave my planet in a pretty nice state though if I take it back

If you have to deal with dreadlords themselves, you can usually build 4 very fast cargo hull ships with 1 damage and good sensor range to surround their planet and watch for transports coming your way. As soon as you see a transport, intercept it. Those tend to survive the encounter because the game considers them "stronger" even though Dreadlord transport has 7 damage (also 1 hull).

If you have a strong opponent, even the dreadlords you can place a military starbase at a strategic location and own their incoming ships because they will consider it a threat and focus all their resources on it even if the ships keep getting owned like crazy. I assume that this an exploit in current game AI, but can help you deal with nasty situations.

So overall, if you dominate the map economically and militarily you should have no problem leaving some of your important outposts semi-exposed. Maybe if you laid out your specific issues we can help better.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'd recommend not really worrying about putting garrisons on planets. If you are in a war, you want to be fighting with mobile fleets.

In stock Dread Lords, there is basically no reason to use defenders, since they're typically built the exact same way as the equivalent combat ship. The only purpose they can effectively serve is to slow down an invasion fleet, forcing them to spend a turn or two clearing your planet of defenders.

I'd recommend that you simply build your own attack ships, group them into fleets, and use those in the case that you need to defend yourself. You want to hit your targets before they can come anywhere near your planets.

Defenders are for two situations: keeping a planet safe from surprise invasions (in which case, you only need one ship of any variety, be it a single fighter, a scout, etc. to keep transports at bay) and for situations in which your back is against the wall. Try not to be in the latter!

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well in sucidal i have never had any more then half of my planets garissoned.. well thats probably because neutral is nice on buying ships, and 100% research strat makes my production suck, but i hardly ever lose planets because my ships are mobile, fast and can destroy fleets of the enemy since i can custom tailor each ship to exploit my enemies strength's and weaknesses