AI Massive Tropedo Spam

[cw8]

So the AI decides to attack me with 13 Juggernauts all armed with Anti-matter Torps. Needless to say that's a lot of warheads coming my way. Now I have 3 Super Dreadnaughts, Heavy Carriers and a variety of smaller ships defending the planet. But the Torps easily wipe out everything I have including the very expensive Dreadnaughts. Is there anyway to defend against the missile spam? PD doesn't really do much against missiles/torps flooding the whole screen.

I remember in MOO2, they had this AE attack thingy that wipes out the entire area of missiles. That's a long while ago or am I remembering wrongly Is there something like that in this game?

[akkamaddi]

MOO2? You are remembering the first incarnation of the Lightning Field Generator. It had a 50% chance to destroy any incoming missile.

In MOO3, it became a short range weapon. I think the rate of fire was 5, and the shield and armor piercing were both around 50%, so they could mop up nearby missiles and fighters.

EDIT: Oh, wait! There was an Antaran tech, the Disruption Field Generator! (Wow, I spent a lot of time on that game.) It was a short range area of attack, but it did not differentiate between friend and foe.

[Arioch]

Interceptors are pretty effective against missiles. But 13 Juggernauts is a lot.

[cw8]

Funny thing is that I'm on Easy. Thought I could take it slow and take my own sweet time to build since I'm on easy for the first campaign. Turns out I was wrong and the AI went way ahead of me. 2nd campaign I explored and colonised like crazy, paid off at the start, I had 1/3 of the universe and my science was going great and then I took the passive stance of sciencing and building up the fleets. However, the Tinkers started to conquer the other half of the universe and they went from 20 ships to 70 ships in just a few years. So I declared war on them to halt their progress and that's when they had fleets of those torpedo spamming Juggernauts.

[BladeX]

build a fleet of scouts or other small cheap ship and just fit them with nothing but anti missiles. put them on the front line and have them attack any missile that comes at them move them right at point blank range and let you attack the torpedos don't rely on PD attack the missiles yourself. have your beam ships right behind them and your missile launchers behind them NEVER move your missile launchers. it's ok to let the scouts be destroyed as long as they do their job stopping the missiles. a SL of carriers also helps

[zolobolo]

build a fleet of scouts or other small cheap ship and just fit them with nothing but anti missiles. put them on the front line and have them attack any missile that comes at them move them right at point blank range and let you attack the torpedos don't rely on PD attack the missiles yourself. have your beam ships right behind them and your missile launchers behind them NEVER move your missile launchers. it's ok to let the scouts be destroyed as long as they do their job stopping the missiles. a SL of carriers also helps

Good point: Shouldn't anti-missiles be slightly more powerful then PD guns of the same tech level?
They do have longer range of course, but are limited by ammo and are not as effective as RF modded lasers or kinetic guns against armor and ship hulls

Considering these disadvantages, they should have like 20-40% more power

[BladeX]

anti missiles , force beams and primary beams are the best for getting rid of missiles earlier on coli guns also work good on nuclear and fusion missiles. fighters in carriers are the best defense possible though although they only get one shot than have to return to the carrier. so it's really better to use anti missiles and beam weapons and again attack the missiles yourself don't rely on PD. you can hold down shift and select multiple ships at once than select the incoming missiles to use all your Am/beams to attack them.

[Brindle]

Funny thing is that I'm recommending this PhenQ review to people on Easy. Thought I could take it slow and take my own sweet time to build since I'm on easy for the first campaign. Turns out I was wrong and the AI went way ahead of me. 2nd campaign I explored and colonised like crazy, paid off at the start, I had 1/3 of the universe and my science was going great and then I took the passive stance of sciencing and building up the fleets. However, the Tinkers started to conquer the other half of the universe and they went from 20 ships to 70 ships in just a few years. So I declared war on them to halt their progress and that's when they had fleets of those torpedo spamming Juggernauts.

What's the most cost effective defense against so many Juggernauts though? Anyone figured it out?

[zolobolo]

Generally Fighters are the most effective against missiles and torpedos

So when I was playing Tinkers the last time, I found them to be most cost effective in a mobile starbase acting as carrier.
It cost less then a carrier chassis would have been, and I could outproduce with these cheap solutions the AIs fleets of Juggernauts

Also experimented with Destroyer swarms armed with Primary beams: no shield and armor: they were also effective, but had no real way of taking down the juggernauts effectively so were only useful as escort ships for the rail gun armed boats

As for other races: the question is mostly if they have a better escort or carrier chassis for this purpose. Gremak have both, they are my fav

[Captainspire]

Generally Fighters are the most effective against missiles and torpedos

So when I was playing Tinkers the last time, I found them to be most cost effective in a mobile starbase acting as carrier.
It cost less then a carrier chassis would have been, and I could outproduce with these cheap solutions the AIs fleets of Juggernauts

Also experimented with Destroyer swarms armed with Primary beams: no shield and armor: they were also effective, but had no real way of taking down the juggernauts effectively so were only useful as escort ships for the rail gun armed boats

As for other races: the question is mostly if they have a better escort or carrier chassis for this purpose. Gremak have both, they are my fav

When I'm up against 6-8 Tinker Juggernauts they so many missiles to destroy. my fleet of anti-missile, PD weapons, and carriers with heavy fighters couldn't stop two rounds of these missile assaults. I cant build a fleet with enough force beams to be effective, it seems unless the Tinkers slip their fleets, they are painfully costly to defeat.

[Capt Phoenix]

Have you considered fighting fire with fire? Admittedly this is usually a Terrible way to fight a fire. I like to have plenty of small ships in my fleet. I love that there aren't command limits so I keep my DDs updated. Their missiles are useful forever in high numbers. By the time the Tinkers could have 13 Juggernaughts I will have thirty to fifty Missile DDs floating around in my fleets. Put fifty Yoral Torpedo Boats together. Each one launches 8 antimatter Torpedoes. Lose 13 Torpedo Boats to kill 13 Juggernaughts. Then send the Battleships after his planets; he won't have much left. If you are playing Orthin, substitute Gunships for Torpedo Boats. For Ashdar Teros; CVEs.