Question about Battle Transports in GalCivII

Blockades?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I had a long Thanksgiving weekend ahead of me and I loaded GalCivI Ultimate. I had played the demo from online of GalCivII and didn't realize I had GalCivI so I was surprised because the interface looked different. I decided to go ahead and play and was doing okay until the Altairians declared war on the Torians. I didn't want to break my Alliance with the Altairians so I joined in, only to have the Torians land Battle Transports on Sol and the nearby planet. I was able to take them back but I was somewhat devastated in my ability to manufacture larger new ships. Any attacks I made on the transports simply resulted in a complete loss of ships due to the 17 Defense of the transports and 188 HPs.

I had a bunch of Corvettes and Battle Cruisers and Drone Satellites and I noticed another Battle Transport from Yor was heading my way. I had noticed that Battle Transports in GalCivI would not attack a planet if it had ships in orbit, so in a desperate move, I surrounded the Battle Transport with some drones and Corvettes. Eight ships on all adjacent and diagonal squares effectively kept the Battle Transport froze in space. I did the same thing with the second one that came along. In the meantime, I and my allies attacked the three Yorian planets and defeated all but one of them.

This leads me to my question. In CalCivII are ships with no Attack points like the Transports also limited in this way, i.e. they can't attack unless attacked themselves? I'm probably going to purchase GalCivII before Christmas but I was curious as to the answer of this question.

Thanks.

4,601 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
hi,

I don't know GalCivI well, but II is certainly a much better game. Now, If transports have no weapons built on and getting alone into trouble, then you better rush them back home, they simply won't be able to attack and are without any defence...
I never put weapons on troops (too expenssive), but as company I give them an attack ship and usually send first some warships to clean the way out...

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would recomend waiting until the release of Twilight of the Arnor before you buy the game. You can probably get a better deal, plus a ton of bonuses. Not to mention, you won't be left hanging for a month when you finish the campaign.

As to your question, I beleive that in my experience, transports would sit in 'front' of the planet until it was un-defended; they do not attack at all, and are always defeated when an enemy attack ship engages them in battle.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As I understand it, the combat model in GalCiv 1 factored a ship's defensive capabilities into combat. In GalCiv 2, defenses are a PURELY defensive solution, which reduce damage (and are more effective versus the weapon type they are designed against). A ship with defenses but no weapons is completely useless in GalCiv2, since the attacks will eventually get through and the ship has no counter attack. A ship with no weapons can therefore not attack.

As I understand it, there isn't much in the way of "battle transports" in GalCiv2. You can make one with a larger hull size with transport modules slapped on, but it will be at an extreme disadvantage in combat and be very expensive for a disposable troopship. You're usually better off defending transports with attack fleets, and outfitting your transports with enough engines to let them strike from a safe distance.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sometimes planets are "defended" with empty hulls and scout ships, which have to be blown away first before a transport can land. In those cases, an unescorted armed transport with even 1 point of offense can be effective.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for the replies. The AI in GalCivI for the inteligence level wasn't smart enough to do some of the things you mentioned in your posts. GalCivII is a definite improvement over the first edition based on the demo version I've played. I went ahead and purchased it yesterday afternoon and played until 3 this morning.

Now if I can just figure out how to design ships.

Thanks.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
On the bottom row of buttons on the main game view, there's a button to access your shipyard. You can create new ships in there, upgrade old ones, or decommission designs you aren't using. Using custom ships is an absolute MUST in GalCiv 2. While the original game gave you a few premade types of ships (fighter, corvette, etc) the premade ships in GalCiv2 are completely useless. They typically use components that are far older than the newest tech you've researched, are suboptimally designed or outright wasteful of ship space, and are never customized to face the opponents you are fighting (for example, if your enemy is using mass drivers, you'll want ships built with armour).

It also helps that designing cool looking ships is a game unto itself.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The premade 'Core' ships in GC2, DA and TA are jokes which do nothing but take up memory. Every time I see a Core ship in my design list, I hit Obsolete. The only Core warships I've ever half-appreciated are the Defender, the Star Fury, and the Battleship, because the Dark Avatar Campaign forced me to use them(whose going to waste a free ship?).

Tactically handling those poor contraptions on one hand while colonizing and developing my economy on the other hand proved rather fun, with me sending tiny Defenders and Star Furies to wait next to an anomaly, resource or low-class planet and ambush the first scout, flagship, constructor or colonizer to come near. Then I would move them to a new hiding place closer to the AI and let the jokes continue, until some military resistance arrived around the late 2227 or early 2228. But by then, Psyonic Beam armed Drengin super-frigates with >70 attack ratings would be lurking nearby.