Nice-guy empire versus Fanatic Purifier

[Incompetent]

I'm playing as a friendly Fanatic Xenophile megacorp, and the first neighbours I encounter (in about year 3) are Fanatic Purifiers. I should be able to grab a chokepoint against them at least. We are currently Equivalent power, so they haven't started shipbuilding in earnest.

Any tips for dealing with a Fanatic Purifier early game? I'm playing with Glavius' AI mod on Commodore difficulty. How long will a basic Bastion be effective at holding them back? Does the AI like to suicide its fleet against bastions in the early game? At what point is it feasible to try to outmuscle them?

 

[Wolfgang I]

I would double down on alloy foundries followed by a fleet buildup. Supremacy as a first tradition helps too.
I don't know much the mod changes but non-advanced start AI empires are complete pushover if you rush them and unless it does the same thing it won't be able to resist.
Conquering a purifier is a great way to expand a non-genocidical empire in the early game and will save you a lot of influnce.
Offense is the best defense.

 

[Nussor]

Bastions are (only) good on hard chokepoints. The AI tends to circumvent Starbases, especially when they have the FTL inhibitor enabled. They can, however, be very helpful on the defense when covering chokepoints and are overall more powerful than in previous patches. I might even consider military upgrades to be useful now.

 

[Drinko]

A great way to deal with stronger empires is baiting them into black hole systems with a starfort or something.

 

[Nin6]

If your a fanatic xenophile, then get a defensive pact.

 

[Bouchart]

Let them expand. You can take fanatic purifier territory without spending any influence.

Build a bunch of torpedo boat corvettes.

 

[3Dent]

As people said, conquest is the best defence.

I think even pacifists can declare total war on them, federates usually vote yes, and you can take their territory without claiming, Which can lead to a bit border-gory results if you have allies/federation -- I'm not sure how the game determines who gets what.

 

[Undeadguy]

As people said, conquest is the best defence.

I think even pacifists can declare total war on them, federates usually vote yes, and you can take their territory without claiming, Which can lead to a bit border-gory results if you have allies/federation -- I'm not sure how the game determines who gets what.

I actually am doing this in my game now. When you conquer a system, whoever has most claims takes it as normal. If there are no claims, then you take it. If you take a planet and an ally takes the station, they take the system. If you take a planet and an ally has a claim, they get the system. If an ally takes a planet and you take the station, you get the system.

In my game, my federation has 4 empires and I own 2 vassals. We are at war with another federation which consists of 4 empires. So a total of 10 empires at war during the Contingency crisis. The map has been torn apart with all the fighting.

Due to the claim system when fighting a war like this, it is very easy to spiral out of control with your admin cap. I think I've increased an additional 300 points to about 1200, about 800 points over. Grabbing multi planet systems hurts the most due to all of the districts. Once this war finally ends, I plan on creating vassals since I don't need them nor do I want to micro some more planets.

 

[3Dent]

I actually am doing this in my game now. When you conquer a system, whoever has most claims takes it as normal. If there are no claims, then you take it. If you take a planet and an ally takes the station, they take the system. If you take a planet and an ally has a claim, they get the system. If an ally takes a planet and you take the station, you get the system.

Usually, but I've seen couple times allies conquering the system and it going to me anyway, despite me having no claims. And the same thing the other way around...

I think that there is a condition that if you own a system right net to the conquered one and the ally doesn't then, all other things being equal, it goes to you, but I'm not sure.

 

[Incompetent]

So it turns out with Glavius' AI mod, the AI hardly builds any ships while at peace. Probably sensible in general, not so much if you're a Fanatic Purifier with a human neighbour...

I built about 15 corvettes, declared war and rushed the enemy home system. They didn't recover from that.

Fun fact: if you occupy a starbase, but don't own the system, you get *their* empire bonuses on shipbuilding. So until I took out the homeworld itself, I was able to use the enemy's discount on ship costs.

 

[Slynx]

Any tips for dealing with a Fanatic Purifier early game? I'm playing with Glavius' AI mod on Commodore difficulty. How long will a basic Bastion be effective at holding them back? Does the AI like to suicide its fleet against bastions in the early game? At what point is it feasible to try to outmuscle them?

as long as you have a fleet they will be afraid to attack you so long there are weaker targets. so congratulations: you've just defended one side of your empire with purifiers at the cost of one base. (I suggest to upgrade it as high as possible, but not to build Def planforms there cuz it's a waste. the base will fall anyway and you'll loose more by paying upkeep and build cost). you can even build a crew quarter there and station your fleets.
as for attacking....i'd say 2 variants: either if they will attack you. then kill them mercilessly. or if they'll become weak to serve as defenders(someone else may get the wrong idea and attack them first. and you don't want it. their territory rightfully yours)

Build a bunch of torpedo boat corvettes.

IMHO it's not the best idea since in 2.2 ai will always have tons of PD(they tend to keep it on every ship). it's worth only if you outtech them. ​