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Author Topic: How To Assault A Large Starbase?  (Read 12101 times)

arcadinal

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How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« on: December 01, 2018, 05:07:14 AM »

So, there be a pather base sending terrorists to my colony. It has a starbase, and star base is BIG. I tried approaching it with a battlecruiser and an Astral carrier in support, but the carrier doesn't seem to want to send its fighters at the base unless I get in close with my battlecruiser, and the base will just eat its shields in seconds...so, any tips on how to tick out a hard target like that?
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Megas

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2018, 05:19:38 AM »

If you have a big fleet and the enemy ships are mostly clear, click Full Assault to force your ships to get close to the battlestation.  Bring a lot of ships so that there are more targets and distractions for battlestation to shoot at.
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Sutopia

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2018, 06:13:54 AM »

Paragon, mora, XIV onslaught, name it.
You need some VERY tanky ship to take the devastating firepower, especially midline spitting 9 large ballistic can be nightmare if they get correct armament.
Nonetheless there is currently a bug on high tech station allowing you to fully bypass the shield, just hitting it with any AoE weapon and AoE can directly deal damage to hull making them easiest station to kill. I'm finding XIV Legion very ideal for this spamming it's reaper on large missile mount.
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goduranus

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2018, 06:17:36 AM »

Harbinger, 3x Typhoon Reapers, Hardened subsystems, Unstable Injector, Safety Override. Boom.

CrashToDesktop

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2018, 07:09:15 AM »

I can't say how to assault Star Fortresses (I haven't yet had the pleasure), but Orbital Stations and Battle Stations are easy enough to assault with a few cruisers (at least 2, mainly to absorb fire) and destroyers in tow.  Bombers are definitely useful as well.  The key is to order all of your ships to get as close as possible to the station through the use of Full Assault and Eliminate orders.  The station massively outranges anything and everything in your fleet, no point in holding back any ships.
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Draba

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2018, 07:50:38 AM »

Harbinger, 3x Typhoon Reapers, Hardened subsystems, Unstable Injector, Safety Override. Boom.

Yep, Harbinger is by far the easiest way if you have one.

I can't say how to assault Star Fortresses (I haven't yet had the pleasure), but Orbital Stations and Battle Stations are easy enough to assault with a few cruisers (at least 2, mainly to absorb fire) and destroyers in tow.  Bombers are definitely useful as well.  The key is to order all of your ships to get as close as possible to the station through the use of Full Assault and Eliminate orders.  The station massively outranges anything and everything in your fleet, no point in holding back any ships.

Note that pather bases tend to be much stronger than pirate ones but yep, throw lots of *** at it :)

My recommendation would be to make sure you have at least 5-10 ships, not 1-2 big ones and pack long ranged hard flux weapons.
That way the ones getting focused have a decent chance to hide behind/get bodyblocked by allies(or even you).
« Last Edit: December 01, 2018, 12:21:57 PM by Draba »
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2018, 08:07:46 AM »

Note that pather bases tend to be much stronger than pirate ones but yep, throw lots of *** at it :)

My recommendation would be to make sure you have at least 5-10 ships, not 1-2 big ones and pack long ranged hard flux weapons.
That way the ones getting focused have a decent chance to hide behind/get bodyblocked by allies(or even you).
In my experience, they might be more difficult, sure, but not to the extreme.  The only really tough addition Low-Tech Battle Stations get over Orbital Stations is the Citadel module, a module with considerable firepower made out of what I swear must be adamantium.  The PD Modules are knocked out pretty easily because there's no shielding.

But yeah, more ships is better in this case.  A target-rich environment means everyone takes less damage.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2018, 08:09:43 AM by The Soldier »
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arcadinal

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2018, 10:46:10 AM »

I'm clearly missing something...the harbinger seems to die even to cheap ships like the Hammerhead, and it's system disable thing doesn't actually seem to hinder enemies at all that I can tell.
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SCC

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2018, 10:51:36 AM »

The difference between AI phase ships and player phase ships is day and night. In harbringer's case specifically, you want to force-drop shields to create an opening for your triple reaper shot.

MajorTheRed

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2018, 10:58:55 AM »

I'm still wondering if it's better to get mostly cruisers or take a capital when fighting a station. Mostly against LP which are protected by huge fleet of junk, combat is starting with too few deployement point and you can't spam ships once you took half your deployement points for your flagship. Maybe I,m badly choosing my fights...
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Megas

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2018, 11:13:29 AM »

I'm clearly missing something...the harbinger seems to die even to cheap ships like the Hammerhead, and it's system disable thing doesn't actually seem to hinder enemies at all that I can tell.
Quantum Disruptor disrupts for less time than in 0.8.  You need near perfect timing to land shots consistently, but it is doable (after some practice), similar to timing required for powerful but difficult-to-execute special moves in fighting games.  What I do is hold both fire and system buttons while being the proper distance away, decloak, and watch the fireworks.
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #11 on: December 01, 2018, 01:03:44 PM »

I'm still wondering if it's better to get mostly cruisers or take a capital when fighting a station. Mostly against LP which are protected by huge fleet of junk, combat is starting with too few deployement point and you can't spam ships once you took half your deployement points for your flagship. Maybe I,m badly choosing my fights...
Choosing your fights badly.  If you can't find a moment to slip in and snipe the station while it's undefended, go for the hyperwave relays.  Pirate and Luddic Path bases are usually situated in systems where there are at least 2 hyperwave points, and there will always be relays or arrays in those points.  Salvage them or flip them to your own uses and a few patrols will go over to rectify the situation.  Repeat while undetected for all the other points in the system and the station will be left nearly defenseless - go in and destroy the pesky station.  Much easier without other ships interfering.
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Euphytose

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #12 on: December 01, 2018, 07:06:47 PM »

On this playthrough, to destroy a tier 3 starbase, I just use an Onslaught, a Paragon, a Dominator, and a Heron with redacted fighters. The Onslaught can tank pretty much everything, and I'm running four annihilator pods so I just empty them on the station.
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FeudalWulf

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2018, 02:09:12 PM »

Just swamp the station with heavies and lots of support. I personally use a fleet of Lashers Dominators Herons and a Legion. Although for station assaults, I leave the Lashers out of it and just send in the rest. If you get the loadouts right with enough [REDACTED] LCPs (Sparks are great at everything) then you can pretty effectively kill off Stations without any problem.

When you go to attack the station, if it's a low-tech station setting the station to "Engage" from the tactics menu works well, because your fleet will try to stay away from the big wall of guns. I'd assume the other two types of station would work just as well on Engage or Eliminate, but if it's on Eliminate I'd start to worry about those weak carriers (as in my Herons, they'd probably try to rush it for some reason)

If you're attacking the station and there's an enemy fleet, just set the station to "Avoid." I've killed whole Pather fleets + tier 3 low-tech station, and not lost a single Lasher or anything else by doing that, so I'd assume it'd work every other time.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2018, 02:12:34 PM by FeudalWulf »
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Serenitis

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Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?
« Reply #14 on: December 02, 2018, 02:17:06 PM »

So I brought all these ships to play with this giant base. But how do I stop them all trying to rub themselves on it like a bunch of needy space cats?

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