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unmerged(88697)

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Dec 10, 2007
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  • Crusader Kings II
  • For the Motherland
  • Hearts of Iron III
This game really puts the spotlight on tactics. I can vaguely remember a few episodes of Star Trek TNG where Worf is the Tactical Officer, giving orders to surrounding ships, and announcing "Today is a good day to die!"

Not so melodramatic in Ancient Space (AnSp), though. Still, tactics is one aspect of the fight I really enjoy (let the higher-ups worry about strategy, just win the battle at hand).

I've not played too many Space Adventure games, except for MOO2 (Master's of Orion 2) where one simply constructs better ships than the enemy. The AI in MOO2 was humbling, making for great challenges. Here in AnSp there's no uber-weapons or overwhelming numbers to count upon. One must rely on tactics to win the battle.

Still early game for me. Just at normal difficulty, and have not gone beyond Mission 7. My ships now divide into two groups; offensive and defensive.

The Offensive group is essentially the Achilles 2 and a bunch of Invaders (3-6). Their main goal is to take out buildings and XL. I'll add Corsairs to the group as they become available.

With the left over ships I began creating a defensive fleet around Olympus. This fleet is designed more to take-out small and medium threats. Essentially, the Olympus is parked in a defensive ring surrounded by turrets and artillery. Her fleet is consists of Lancers and usually just one Scout. Bloodhounds are added to the mix later-on, but still keep Lancers in the force structure to deal with Medium threats.

The other ships of the task force go where they are needed most. It really depends on tactical need. If a ship is good against buildings, they go with Achilles 2. If they are good against small threats, then they go with the Olympus.

All remaining ships, good against Large targets, may go either way depending on need. The upgraded Patriot is used to make-up for either Invader losses or Lancer losses ("Lancer Lost!"). Javelins can also go either way, though because they are slow and not well armored they are used mostly for defense.

In the later game (beyond Mission 7), I'm yet unsure. I think the AI is going large, and so the threat from small and medium ships will diminish. In comes the Centurion, the first of the new ships, and with its emphasis on Large and Small targets it will fall more into the defensive category, I believe. Looks like I may need to change tactics at this point, but then I expected nothing less from AnSp in this regard.
 
Yes, it's as I thought. There is a battle in Mission 7 Sector 2 where I tried the standard tactics and it didn't work.

The Pirates have a couple of support bays that crank out a lot of small and medium ships. This is surrounded by Turrets and repair bases. They also have large ships that randomly appear out of nowhere.

I tried going small with loads of invaders, but their small ships ate them up. If I tried going in with Lancers and Bloodhounds, they were overwelmed by Mediums and Turrets.

So, I had no choice but to go with a combination of Centurions (3ea.) and Patriots (3ea.) and just one Corsair and a lone Scout. Also two Rovers along with the usual carriers.

The battle was long and intense, but in the end the weight of my larger ships prevailed. Used the Corsair to take over a station or two, and the Scout to immobilize a station before dashing back to the rear. The turning point of the battle was when Achilles 2 took-over a large Pirate ship and began hammering the enemy stations.

So, now I'm starting Mission 8 (on normal) and getting a bit worried cause I expect the challenges to get even bigger.
 
I've since progressed to standard difficulty, and it's been more and more challenging as you go along.

Just got through watching ParadoxGamer's play-through of the prison breakout. It's surprising that all you used were rovers and corsairs. Ya know that fleet combination wouldn't last long on the harder difficulties.