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Author Topic: Just how many Marines are too many?  (Read 3933 times)

Arcagnello

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Just how many Marines are too many?
« on: November 23, 2019, 06:57:18 PM »

So, I've been playing my second, DAKKA focused campaign for a while now and I've come to the point where my fleet is big enough to start giving me a number of different ship combinations where in-between the 200-300 deployment mark.

I've got three legions (broadsword ftw), a single XIV Onslaught I got from a bounty, two griffins (is that their name, the missile cruiser?), two eagles and four falcons as the main fighty bit of my fleet, followed by a single was, three mid sized tankers and Prometheus, a salvage rig and two guys.

I figured I had the space so I added a good 2000 Marines to permanently roam with my fleet, but I was wondering if that is a bit too much considering that bombing a planet beforehand makes it much easier to raid stuff.

How many Marines do your fleets usually carry?
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goduranus

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2019, 09:23:28 PM »

I don't carry any marines unless I am doing raids, and it all depends on the planet I'm up against. Bombing a planet reduces stability and costs fuel, so I sometimes raid without bombing. The most I've carried is about 20,000 marines, carried by 15 Starliners.

Hey, Arcagnello! From From the Depth forums right?
« Last Edit: November 23, 2019, 09:26:08 PM by goduranus »
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Arcagnello

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2019, 02:49:49 AM »

I guess carrying Marines you don't use most of the time is quite a waste, considering you could always store them and pick them up whenever you go on a raiding spree, since I assume they do not have a salary once you have them sitting like a pile of metals in one of your planets.

And nice to meet you again goduranus, I still remember your fighter jets if my memory holds firm!
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Lucky33

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2019, 05:43:48 AM »

You can use them to raid planets with defences and after some time you can sell them your marines for skyhigh prices and spend the money on new marines at a discount shops. To finish the loop.

Next thing you know the whole sector has gone decivilized.
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SapphireSage

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2019, 03:12:42 PM »

I used to travel with a starliner sized amount, but since I normally bomb a planet before raiding it I decided to downsize to a nebula for if I need an emergency raid. Bombardments cost fuel but fuel costs less than marines do and I care more about my marines than theirs. I generally keep the nebula for quick small raids but can grab my starliner if I'm planning an invasion or I need to raid something without ruining relations with the faction(s) in question. (eg. friends with Diable but want their Synchrotron core).
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Megas

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2019, 03:22:33 PM »

Unless I am only farming Ordos, I bring about 500 or so to raid the typical low defense worlds like nearly every pirate base, New Maxios, Asher, and that one Hegemony industry planet in Valhalla.  If I want to steal special items from the capital worlds, I bring several thousand marines to steal that synchrotron or pristine nanoforge after I knock out their star fortress.  I do not want to bomb their worlds because I do not want to lower stability more than I need to.  After all, decivilization from the zombie pirate horde is still the biggest threat in the game, and high stability is a buffer against that.
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Tackywheat1

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2019, 07:11:15 PM »

The most I've ever carried at once was 5k with no transports except a valkyrie
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Cyber Von Cyberus

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #7 on: November 25, 2019, 11:39:05 AM »

Well if you play with Nexerlin then having a lot of marines means you can invade planets without tac bombing so you don't end up with a colony that has no defences for a year.
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Arcagnello

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2019, 02:26:05 PM »

Well I'm in the process of wiping the floor with the Hegemony and I am (in this order)
1)nuking their star fortress
2)tac bombing them
3)raiding them half a dozen times
4)disrupting every single thing that's still barely fuctional on the planet

And I'm reliably doing it with 4 legions, sometimes a few (up to 4) Dominators and 3k marines. I quite litterally make a profit in terms of fuel and supplies by doing this. I don't think spam-raiding should be so damn effective. Like maybe increase the time between raids from a day to a week?
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Arcagnello

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Re: Just how many Marines are too many?
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2019, 02:29:54 PM »

Oh and did I mention you can wait a month in a system you have done this and you'll be spammed with trade missions on the very planets you economically annihilated to get them the very things you've stolen from them?

You can even go into a loop of accepting the mission, completing it, raiding them a couple of times and having a new mission pop up! This is wrong.
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Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.
The therapist removed my F5 key.