DreadLord Ship Attacks Starbase - Why I Couldn't Kill It

from GalCiv2 Forums
In the final map of the DA campaign, my starbase was attacked by a DreadLord ship with no defenses. However, with its 300+ beam attack, I knew the starbase would die. The starbase had sufficient attack to destroy the medium ship in most cases, but I noticed that as had happened previously with other combat, the DreadLord ship always escaped with 1 HP when it should have also died. A constructor upgraded to a high attack ship faced a similar fate, but I accepted that maybe that ship type was unable to kill on its own.

What I discovered today (https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Ship_design_strategies) was that a new DA combat rule is that if both ships would normally be destroyed, the "strongest one" survives. (Is the strongest ship determined by attack, size, or HP?). I guess that changes the late game strategy slightly because a smaller ship will lose to a larger ship if both have massive weapons values. Does the new rule prevent "ties" in combat now?
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
(Is the strongest ship determined by attack, size, or HP?). I guess that changes the late game strategy slightly because a smaller ship will lose to a larger ship if both have massive weapons values. Does the new rule prevent "ties" in combat now?


The strongest last ship is based on a combination of stats. It only comes into play in cases of mutual destruction, so that there is always a winner. I believe the formula is:

sqrt( ( 2 * Attack )  + Defense + ( Current HP / 2 ) )
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think value of the ship may come into play.
Dreadlord transport -- 7 atk, 0 def, 1 hp
Ship I build with cargo hull, about 4 speed, survey module, some sensors, some life support -- 1 atk, 0 def, 1 hp

When I intercept dreadlord transport with it, the transport dies, it survives
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess that heavily weighs in favor of the high-attack ships. In that case, there's no way I would have beaten it unless it had a very poor attack roll. The effect of this though is to make a ship with insane weapon stats nearly unbeatable 1-on-1. Since I can't "fleet up" with my starbases, I need to guard them with at least two ships in those circumstances (even 2 cargo class ships with decent weapons will do when I know the DreadLord is coming!)