Wormholes and big fleets

[Technotopia]

How do you handle endgame fleets when using wormholes?

I actually find this to be a challenge and one of the few pushes to play tall, as spamming low-tech ships cripples the mobility for wormhole-FTL.
Of course, you can later switch to jumpdrives, yet what if you are materialist?

Researching the wormhole calibration techs helps, yet it just delays the problem, as fleets grow.

Sending a fleet capable of battling AE may take ~6 months per jump.

So far I see following solutions:
1. Emphasis on tech rather than quantity. Doesn't work well in Stellaris so far, yet in this situation you are somewhat forced to play tall.
2. Try to get Zro and wormhole techs.
3. Split fleets and send them via different path converging in the system where you plan a battle. Tricky and lots of micromanagement.
4. Get jumpdrives early. How to do it if not spiritualist? Fish for a psionic scientist?
Please add your ideas.


Besides all the endgame problems wormholes are pretty effective for raiding itching one corvette fleets to harass superior enemies distracting their armadas when head on battle is not an option?

 

[Sirbab]

If you can find and kill the dimensional horror, you can get the tech option at 50% for jump drives, I was able to get this in around 2265 with the damage bonus from the curator enclave.

 

[Technotopia]

If you can find and kill the dimensional horror, you can get the tech option at 50% for jump drives, I was able to get this in around 2265 with the damage bonus from the curator enclave.

That requires DLC, right?

 

[Neodym]

That requires DLC, right?

Yes, it does require the Leviathans DLC. So if you do not have said DLC your only options to get jump drives are a psionic scientist or reverse engineering from a spiritualist (fallen) empire in late game.

 

[scaper12123]

You can't doomstack with endgame wormhole fleets, at least not all together. Their size will make it impossible to move across the empire with any efficiency. If you keep your fleet split up into groups and keep them in separate systems, you'll find it much easier to move them about. Just be sure to account for that in your wormhole station placement.

 

[Technotopia]

You can't doomstack with endgame wormhole fleets, at least not all together. Their size will make it impossible to move across the empire with any efficiency. If you keep your fleet split up into groups and keep them in separate systems, you'll find it much easier to move them about. Just be sure to account for that in your wormhole station placement.

That's what I was actually doing in my latest games. Still having fleets split into 5-6 chunks of 20-25k it took ages to move them from one side of my empire to another.

Despite being problematic for a player, I find it 'right thing' because it forces players to tech rather then build hordes. Its fine until you face real challenge which can't be taken without doomstaking (AE, unbidden et.c.).

 

[nrader]

You can build more than one wormhole station in any system and then split fleet into several parts that will travel along through same systems, no need to make different path for every fleet. And if you feel having 2-3 stations everywhere is too expensive you can build 2nd ones only in some key systems which you will use later when need to cross big distance.

 

[scaper12123]

That's what I was actually doing in my latest games. Still having fleets split into 5-6 chunks of 20-25k it took ages to move them from one side of my empire to another.

Despite being problematic for a player, I find it 'right thing' because it forces players to tech rather then build hordes. Its fine until you face real challenge which can't be taken without doomstaking (AE, unbidden et.c.).

This became an issue for me when I was facing a xenophobic FE in the War in Heaven. I was working on getting Jump Drives but until then I had to do something about their fleet. Luckily the AI has been taught not to doomstack so harshly as well, and I was able to lure their fleet out and attack them.

 

[Technotopia]

You can build more than one wormhole station in any system and then split fleet into several parts that will travel along through same systems, no need to make different path for every fleet. And if you feel having 2-3 stations everywhere is too expensive you can build 2nd ones only in some key systems which you will use later when need to cross big distance.

This looks like a good idea.

 

[Scourgeclaw]

I can't personally stand use of any of the other types of FTL save wormhole and Psi-drives so, here's what I typically do:

A: Employ a wide-ranging wormhole network; ensure that every colony and system containing a frontier station has at least 1 wormhole station (around the time you're using minerals as toilet paper, go through your colony systems and double up on the number of Wormhole stations you have built (trust me, this can save you entire planets just by preventing bottlenecking)

B: When you have new regions of unexplored space, place wormhole stations at the edge of your accessible jump radius- this will maximize your accessible area while also making long-range jumps only take 2/3 jumps

C: prioritize wormhole jump techs when they pop up.

D: Breaking up your fleet into multiple attack groups can help, but this can also strain your wormhole network if you haven't been building duplicate wormhole stations per system. This can also be dangerous if one of your fleets gets caught out alone against an enemy armada. Be careful in how you structure them. Personally, once a fleet of mine is powerful enough to fend off any enemies nearby without major losses, I'll allocate all new ship construction to another fleet. This usually consists of smaller, faster vessels as a "rapid response unit" until the fleet gets big enough to need Cruiser and Battleship support. Use this flotilla to deal with smaller event hostiles and clearing out void-creatures blocking the way of your science vessels. This is also useful in wartime for wiping out enemy mining and frontier stations or escorting transports while your main fleet hunts the enemy armada and bombards worlds.

E: Build wormhole stations and defense stations in enemy territory/around worlds you've conquered during wartime. This can help with responding to relief forces for any worlds held. Furthermore: use defense stations with grav-snares that will put the enemy within immediate firing range of your fleet should you warp back. Ideally: place a fortress with high defense a good distance away from the system's edge so that any small enemy stragglers get snared and taken out by the station itself, or will withstand fire long enough for your main armada to arrive and relieve the station. Best configuration I find for these fortresses are full medium-autocannons with heavy shielding and 4 shield capacitors. Done right, these can withstand fire for months at a time from 10k fleets. Much more and they start struggling to survive.

 

[name_here]

Research jumpdrives, mostly.

The thing you actually should do is construct multiple stations in key systems and move your fleets in segments.

 

[Sun Rendered]

A suggestion on the tech front. There still needs to be a point at which numbers win of course and just upping weapon dmg and and such will quickly bend the balance to breaking. What if with each weapons tech there came a related defensive bonus on the basis that in developing a weapon you also learn how best to defend against it. Each type of weapon gives miniscule permanent ship bonuses to all ships upon research conclusion.

Energy weapons: +% shield hp per actual weapon tech
Kinetic weapons: +% armor per actual weapon tech
Explosive weapons: +% hp per actual weapon tech

This would allow ships with higher tech to be beefier than their low tech counterparts in such a way that eventually numbers will still win but also give ratios of 1:2 a fighting chance