Evil starbase rush strategy

from Stardock Forums
In my last game, I was overwhelmed by the good Drengin. I had to quit the game for a few hours to do some chores and in the meantime I spent some time thinking on how to regain a foothold...

Since I already had maxed espionage I decided to take a close look on why the Drengin were such a powerhouse. It turned out they had 150%+ bonus in both economy and morale due to a bunch of maxed-out resource starbases. So I decided to gamble a bit and try to take those starbases. The only problem was that their military machine outranked mine, so I had to avoid a drawn-out war. Luckily, I remembered that I had a couple of trade goods that the Drengin didn't have yet. This was when I hatched my evil plan:

- I quickly scouted out the location of the Drengin starbases. They had two economy, two morale and one research within reach. All starbases were poorly defended.

- I built one fleet for each starbase consisting of a bunch of constructors and one destroyer.

- Organised a coordinated assault on all five starbases in one single turn. The starbases were destroyed and quickly built up to full potential again. I was now at war with the all-powerful Drengin.

- Contacted the Drengin to sue for peace, offering two trade goods as the incentive. Luckily, they accepted.

Result: The Drengin had lost ~100% morale and economy and ~50% research and gained some smaller bonuses from the trade goods. Their economy was in shambles and their morale dropped so low that several of their planets defected and joined the I-league.

I almost doubled my economy instantly and sent all my planets into a reproductive frenzy right into a massive cultural assimilation of all minor enemies. It took sime time to actually pull of the win (beyond human), but the game was effectively over.
2,916 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
That's pretty evil... maybe just a shade less than the one where you get another race to do your dirty work :)

How should the Dregs have responded? If they were human, they would have realised what you were up to with those staged ships at each starbase and would have either defended them or insisted that you stop the buildup. Maybe the AI could be taught to dislike buildups in starbase sectors that they control.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I've received warnings for military build up around starbases when there were no planets around, so I'm pretty sure they do take note of that.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Ah, but I built up in my own sectors and just coordinated sending out the fleets so that they would all arrive on the same turn. With +speed and gravity accelerators, the Drengin had little time to react. Also, a single (but powerful) military ship seldom provokes a response from the AI.

The fun part is that the Drengin was really relying on those starbases, and after I took them out, he went bankrupt in no time due to maintenance costs. Which I knew he would. Ha! Who said espionage wasn't useful?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Snyggt jobbat ;) Ga med i European Alliance nu sa vi kan visa jankarna vem som kan strategi bast :)

In my current (1.04) game the Drengin built up a military resource in Earth sector (!) and didn't garrison it at all with ships (!!!). While I love the way they snuck in to steal the resource while I was rushing to beat the Torians to two other resource with my first constructors, I was quite disappointed that they didn't defend their base with a few cruisers. If the Drengin had held that base and added some modules then I'm sure Earth sector (5 colonised planets) would have been lost to me.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, the AI really should defend its starbases better. In larger maps, where the starbases may be far from the nearest planet, defending a starbase with a couple of good ships is more important than defending most planets! After all, the loss of a planet will usually not cost you ~50 percentile units of economy.

Brad?

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
chaoticspyder: 1.04 is an alpha version that is only available to drengin.net subscribers at the moment.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I chose another way to get rid of a powerful Drengin reasearch base in a recent game:
I gathered a couple of constructors and dreadnaughts near it and sold some of the dreadnaughts to the enemies of the Drengin. At first they just moved them somewhere else. When I tried again they got the message and destroyed the base. :)
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Markus, one thing that helps is if you take one of the constructors, plant a starbase, and then hand over the dreadnoughts the next turn. Makes sure that the ships are in range, and also gives the AI an interest in that sector.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
(oops, meant to say "plant a starbase and give that to the intended recipient that turn").