Owned by an Awakened Empire ... getting out from under the jackboot!

[iCreatedSteampunk]

An Awakened Empire that vastly outnumbered my forces came along and asked me nicely to "Give me some guidance."

I didn't want to nark them off, so I said yes.

Suddenly I found myself a "satellite" state and more or less owned by these alien freaks.

My empire is now the dominant one in the game, at least in terms of size, and I am thinking of fighting a war of independence against the Awakened Empire.

My question is this. When I declare war against the Awakened Empire, will my forces immediately stop supplying the Awakened Empire with a tithe of my share of my empire's energy/minerals/whatever?

I suspect the Awakened freaks have grown mighty strong on the back of MY labours. I reckon I can take them if declaring war stops the flow of my taxes into their coffers.

If I actually have to win the war of independence before I cut off my tithe, though, I'm more or less dead in the water as far as beating their slippery alien hides is concerned.

Does anyone know if the game mechanics of Stellaris are such that declaring war against your masters means you also cut off the flow of your resources into their evil tentacles?

 

[Alblaka]

Sattelite means you only give them 25% of your Science, no energy or mineral income.
And of course you won't provide that any further once you declare war.

 

[JMensch]

Im fairly sure it stops because you're no longer a vassal/satellite when you declare war.

 

[iCreatedSteampunk]

Really? Crikes. They only own about 5 per cent of the map (I own about 80%), but they are fielding a fleet of about 500k strong versus my 70k fleet.

I am struggling to see how they can juice a fleet that massive without tapping into my area's energy reserves.

Is it possible the Awakened Empire have changed my status to something even more vassal-like without asking me?

 

[Alblaka]

I am struggling to see how they can juice a fleet that massive without tapping into my area's energy reserves.

They got planets with special 15+ energy producing structures.
Additionally, their fleets are super high-tech and therefore have far more fleet power per fleet point (and therefore, more fleet power per energy maintenance).

I've once conquered 2 FE planets and it doubled my ~30% galaxy empire's energy production.

Is it possible the Awakened Empire have changed my status to something even more vassal-like without asking me?

No, unless you manage to find a bug that does.

 

[iCreatedSteampunk]

I seem to be able to build forts inside the Awakened Empire's territory - I'm hoping that if I build an orbital fortress around each of their mining stations, when I declare war, my forts will immediately destroy all of their domestic energy generating capacity (at least, the off-planet capacity). I suspect I'm still going to lose.

 

[JMensch]

I seem to be able to build forts inside the Awakened Empire's territory - I'm hoping that if I build an orbital fortress around each of their mining stations, when I declare war, my forts will immediately destroy all of their domestic energy generating capacity (at least, the off-planet capacity). I suspect I'm still going to lose.

Good luck!

 

[iCreatedSteampunk]

I should say I have already conquered two smaller Elder races and all of their advanced worlds - hasn't done me much good. Next time when some alien asks to "give me some guidance", I'll tell it to stick it where the solar energy don't collect!

 

[Lothmar]

Huh strange that you can build in their territory.... But if it works i'd say dont forget to put some disposable snare forts around their territory and place them straight in the middle of systems so you can force them to waste as much travel time as possible by having to go the edge to jump etc.

But yeah unless you've restricted the ftl type, then the FE is probably gonna jump 10+ stars at a time towards you capital as fast as possible with those psi drives. Perhaps consider having some 'bait' fleets around the border of their territory and then after declaring start moving the small stacks around systems in their territory with snares and then when they jump in to catch you they get pulled into the snare and you have the bait fleets jump out and continue harassment or merge with your main fleet heading for their capital system.

 

[Rotkohl]

A 70k fleet does seem fairly small for owning 80% of the map... what size do you play on?

Also, if the AE has other vassals, don't target the AE directly, target their vassals. Siege and conquer theirvassal's worlds, and always avoid the AE fleet. Undo the damage they do as soon as they jump elsewhere. The AI is dumb, and that's your main advantage.
Also, colonize some more planets if possible, and raise that fleet cap.
You'll do fine, AEs aren't as scary as they look.

 

[Foefaller]

My advice to fighting AE's is thus:

You know that common accepted belief that the Doomstack is all, no strategy beyond Doomstacking your fleet to go after the enemy fleet compares?

Well, that's true... IF your fleet is anywhere close to the size and power of the enemy fleet, close enough that superior tech, superior and/or hard counter ship designs, a favorable start to battle (like a battle starting at point blank where a navy with more battleships than yours won't be able to sit back and fire) and/or a Fortress with a couple of buff/debuff support modules can make up the difference.

...but when the enemy navy is more than 7x larger than yours, you throw that idea right out the window, and use a strategy that is micro-heavy, sneaky, and kinda abuses the fact the AI pretty much always doomstacks without fail.

You split your fleet. Probably no more than once or twice, cause AA stations are much stronger than normal stations and you need those worlds bombed fast. Depending on your FTL type, you might want an invasion force to follow each of their fleets as well. Then you declare war, send each of those fleets to an AA world, order them to the edge of the system farthest from where the AA's fleet will enter from, and wait.

Eventually, the AA's massive fleet will show up at one of those systems. Once you know which fleet it's going after, you do two things. First, the fleet not getting attacked quickly starts bombing the world in their a prepares it for invasion. Second, you tell the fleet that is being chased to leave that system for another inhabited system in the AA's empire, but ONLY once the AA's fleet gets as close to the sun as possible.

Waiting until it reaches the center will give the chased fleet the maximum possible time to make sure they are not withing engagement range when the AA fleet jumps into the new system. Keep doing that rushing to the opposite edge of the system and jump out once the AA fleet is close to the sun, and you'll be able to give the AA a merry chase while the first fleet systematically invades each and every AA world. As long as they don't have too many fellow satellites, you should be able to sue for freedom pretty quickly, since AA's start off with very few worlds. And then, you are free.