Advice for late-game stalemate?

[Tarquin]

Hello!

As a player who is new to Grand Strategy and relatively new to Stellaris (played around 70 hours), I’m hoping to get some advice on a late-game stalemate situation possibly involving some bugs. This is going to be a bit of a wall of text, but I feel I need to explain as best I can.

The situation revolves around the Prethoryn Scourge. Basically, soon after they arrived, a Fallen Empire awoke and I formed a Federation with them. We managed to halt their expansion pretty quickly and eventually purged their initial systems. As it stands, they now have a single planet left.

The main problem is that the Scourge seems to be stuck. They have a massive amount of Infestors just hanging out near their last planet, as well as a serious number of Star Broods. Just look at the screenshots: that poor UI doesn’t know what to do with all those fleets!



The following keeps happening on a loop with very minimal variation: they sent a constructor to a nearby system to build a military station, my Federation buddy goes over there to kill it, then they maybe chase a Star Boord to the neighbouring system, and finally they head home. Then the Scourge sends another constructor and the whole cycle starts over again. Literally seconds after they leave, the constructor arrives, and it takes them a while to turn around. Meanwhile, other Empires display similar one-track behaviors. Also, they send adorably small fleet of, like, two Destroyers.

The Scourge does send out Star Broods to planets, but all they do is bombard them. Endlessly. I kill a Brood, I leave, they send a new Brood, and it begins bombarding again. They never send an Infestor to actually take the planet. This feels like it’s not intended behavior, is it?

With the massive amount of military power surrounding the final Prethoryn planet, my Federation buddy won’t attack it (or immediately Emergency FTL if they ever do). Together, we could make a dent, but I can’t get them to cooperate in any way.

There’s more: I seem to have this bug, wherein my buddy will not accept any kind of war I suggest, and I cannot leave the Federation. What’s more, if they propose a war, they do so against the only other Federation in this playthrough, and the same cat-and-mouse mechanics play out on that scale as well: they hover over planets, bombarding them endlessly. If I step in and take a few planets, the enemy AI seems to send small fleets whenever I’m gone, only to pull out when I arrive. Honestly, it’s infuriating… All our forces combined, we could do something, anything, but without directly controlling the AI, I am forced to watch them send fleet after fleet to wipe out single constructors and fleets. At first, I was happy to just let them play their cat-and-mouse game while I expanded my fleet, but it’s come to a point where I really need to conquer more systems to deal with the maintenance costs of said fleet.

Is there anything I can do to get out of this stalemate? I’ll resort to save game editing if I have to.

 

[Almond_Brown]

I suggest that when it is your turn as Head of the Federation, build a Scourge killing Fleet as quick as possible (save up resources for it in advance) and then use that Fleet to kill off or seriously hurt the remaining Scourge fleets. If it takes 2-3 times as head of the Fed to finish the job, so be it. I think you get a turn every 10 years(?)

Then with the Scourge gone, you can fight wherever the Fed wants to go and do you own thing when at war.

 

[Tarquin]

I suggest that when it is your turn as Head of the Federation, build a Scourge killing Fleet as quick as possible (save up resources for it in advance) and then use that Fleet to kill off or seriously hurt the remaining Scourge fleets. If it takes 2-3 times as head of the Fed to finish the job, so be it. I think you get a turn every 10 years(?)

Then with the Scourge gone, you can fight wherever the Fed wants to go and do you own thing when at war.

Hm, that's not a bad idea -- thank you. I'll try it out. Though, I'm worried about 1) the Scourge rebuilding/repairing during down time and 2) seriously going over my naval capacity. I'm already over it with my own fleet. Or does the Federation fleet not count against your own naval cap?

 

[Oscot]

The solution to all your problems seems to be an extremely obvious "pretend your buddy doesn't exist and just build up and stomp everything yourself".

You may be new to Grand Strategy, but hopefully you're not so new to videogames in general to not realise that Friendly AI is always awful and ignoring it is the best bet regardless of which genre you're playing.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Or does the Federation fleet not count against your own naval cap?

no, it doesn't. its cap is based on fed member caps, but doesn't impact on them

 

[Wyrm]

There’s more: I seem to have this bug, wherein my buddy will not accept any kind of war I suggest, and I cannot leave the Federation. What’s more, if they propose a war, they do so against the only other Federation in this playthrough, and the same cat-and-mouse mechanics play out on that scale as well: they hover over planets, bombarding them endlessly. If I step in and take a few planets, the enemy AI seems to send small fleets whenever I’m gone, only to pull out when I arrive.

For this situation I reccomend you take a constructor or two with you. Build military stations near the planets you occupy and he should not be able to harrass them with small fleets.

 

[Kvinfojoj]

Hm, that's not a bad idea -- thank you. I'll try it out. Though, I'm worried about 1) the Scourge rebuilding/repairing during down time and 2) seriously going over my naval capacity. I'm already over it with my own fleet. Or does the Federation fleet not count against your own naval cap?

When you join a federation, a percentage of your naval cap is moved to a federation pool, the same happens for your other federation members. When you build Federatio ships, it only costs Federation naval supply. Also, upkeep is free.

 

[Tarquin]

Thanks for the advice regarding the naval cap, everyone!

The solution to all your problems seems to be an extremely obvious "pretend your buddy doesn't exist and just build up and stomp everything yourself".

You may be new to Grand Strategy, but hopefully you're not so new to videogames in general to not realise that Friendly AI is always awful and ignoring it is the best bet regardless of which genre you're playing.

In fact, I'm in game development myself. That said, the "extremely obvious" solution you propose isn't quite as simple, seeing as I cannot declare war on anybody and therefore cannot expand (which means I can't grow my fleet). Unless I'm overlooking a mechanic that lets me declare war without Federation approval.

For this situation I reccomend you take a constructor or two with you. Build military stations near the planets you occupy and he should not be able to harrass them with small fleets.

Awesome, I didn't know you could build military stations in war zones. That'll surely help!

 

[Wyrm]

Awesome, I didn't know you could build military stations in war zones. That'll surely help!

It's a very useful feature. Keep in mind though that they will be dismantled automatically when the war ends. I think it does so even if the system is ceded to you.

 

[Tarquin]

It's a very useful feature. Keep in mind though that they will be dismantled automatically when the war ends. I think it does so even if the system is ceded to you.

I can live with that. Honestly, with my fleet over the naval cap and the maintenance costs being what they are, my economy tanks whenever I undock. So the less stations to keep, the better.

 

[Wyrm]

I can live with that. Honestly, with my fleet over the naval cap and the maintenance costs being what they are, my economy tanks whenever I undock. So the less stations to keep, the better.

I know the feeling. In my current game, while fighting The Unbidden, I am dependant on a trading enclave to get more energy to sustain my fleet. I hope I won't take too many losses or I will be short on minerals to replace them

 

[Tarquin]

In my current game, while fighting The Unbidden

Ah, the Unbidden. I actually had them as a crisis first -- this is the first time I got to the late-game -- but I had to save scum my way out of there, because there was no way I was going to defeat them. They basically dropped in my empire and the rest of the galaxy shrugged and chuckled.

 

[Wyrm]

Ah, the Unbidden. I actually had them as a crisis first -- this is the first time I got to the late-game -- but I had to save scum my way out of there, because there was no way I was going to defeat them. They basically dropped in my empire and the rest of the galaxy shrugged and chuckled.

I actually have the galaxy semi-united. After they showed up there was a massive spam of non-aggression pacts and even the fallen empires opened their borders. There is no organized resistance, but at least I can keep my fleet away from home without having to fear some back-stabbing. I can face the Unbidden fleets as long as I only face one at a time.
They spawned within in the only federation in the galaxy, something that probably kept them from totally gobbling up everything around them before I could scramble my fleet.

 

[Tarquin]

Well, small update: I won a war and basically every empire but the two Awakened Empires and the Scourge are listed as Pathetic in relative power.

One problem: As soon as I won the War, my Federation buddy demanded I become their sattelite because I was developing too quickly. Since they want to ban AI, I assume this happened because one of the planets ceded to me after the war had droids on it. Bad luck, I guess...