Hello!
I've just went thru a very long series of engagements that involved my fleet and an allied Battlestation fending off multiple rather large fleets (most of them with 800-1000 Fleet Points worth of combat focused ships) and I wanted to share 1) My feedback on the battle mode, enemy/allied AI behaviour 2)The method I'm using to deal with the mode
Absolute, gear grinding boredomI am going to be honest here. I hate siege battles while I'm on the defensive side. If I wanted to play overdramatic tower defence I'd play GemCraft: Frostborn Wrath (It's an amazing game by the way, go check it out!).
It's incredible how a game as amazingly engaging and tactically deep as Starsector can turn into a shallow, dirty slog thru mud that is defending your battlestation from a lemming rush.
The enemy spawns in the form of an endless stream of ships that behave the same damn way regardless of class and proceeds to almost exclusively recklessly rush INTO the battlestation, sometimes even litterally.
Carriers don't stay back and actually do their job but instead prefer to suicide into the station.
Frigades and Destroyers are focused on also suiciding intot he battlestation instead of encircling it and dealing with your (usually weaker and vulnerable compared to the battlestation) forces.
Cruisers and Capitals effectively are the only thing that poses a threat to the battlestation as they have better long range firepower and enough armor/hull hitpoints to actually get close enough to start using it, and even then they are so damn boneheaded in shooting the battlestation they become so extremely exploitable that shooting them to the side with your mobile forces stops being actually difficult to achieve and becomes the norm.
And it just goes on. Over and over, dozens after dozens of ships just keep pouring thru that spawn point and faceplanting into the battlestation that it just becomes a matter of planning a fully AI controlled fleet tactic and doing somewhere else in the house while it goes on; wich leads to the second point of this discussion:
The (almost) AI proof method to grind Defending Siege battlesThe method I'm using will probably take more time to explain and showcase than what it would take you to figure it out and put it into action, but I'm already here writing while my fleet currently grinds thru another siege battle so I may aswell keep writing
I've had to adopt a fleet composition I actually never used before to combat [redacted] getting massive ECM buffs (and Probe drones getting 2x weapon range) thanks to the Ruthless sector mod (
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15279.0 ):
1) I've got two pairs of identical of capitals I deploy based on the situation. The first type of capital is focused around staying power and has very flux efficient, medium to short range weapons to put out as much DPS as possible to enemy ships, fighters, bombers and missiles to drive the enemy away from the battlestation. very useful against aggressive factions for one simple reason: it just needs to be there and take it like a good chonker.
This would translate in using things like two Defense-focused Legions or Onslaughts in Vanilla. I've also found the Apogee to be really and I mean really tanky for just 20FP.
The second capital I use is less of a Sledgehammer and more like a scalpel. It stays far away from the enemy and puts accurate, kinetic damage down range to wither and soften the enemy before it gets to the battlestation. This one is also the only ship in my fleet able to deal with a certain mod introduced [Redacted] flagship thanks to its disgusting ultra long range DPS. Oh and 5 Tach lance Radiants. Those are nasty too.
Vanilla capitals like Conquest, Odyssey or even cruisers like double Gauss Cannon Dominators will succeed in achieving the same task.
You should not have more than one of these on each side (more about that later), two/three on each side if it's cruisers/destroyers.
2)The second pivotal unit in my setup is focused around fire support and boosting that ECM rating thru the roof. There is a point in your fleet composition where you have so many direct fire ships on each side of the battlestation they actually hamper eachother and the battlestation's ability to fire at the enemy. This role solves that as it provides fire support, reduces enemy weapon range and does not get in the way of your frontline ships.
You can achieve the same result in vanilla using Gryphons with Squall/Pilum and every single utility modspec you can cram into them.
3)The third and final part of the defensive fleet is made of carriers. It should not be the prevalent force in your fleet (unless it's bomber focused) as the carrier AI has the annoying habit of escorting the battlestation instead of doing its job. I decided not to use long range interceptors as they do not possess a lot of firepower/PD ability for the Ordinance Points they cost. Short range interceptors mixed in with heavy fighters usually ends up being the best option for both bruteforcing the enemy off the battlestation and shielding it from fighters and missiles.
You can achieve the same result in Vanilla using...well, any carrier really. Try not to spam too many Spark-vomiting Drovers mmkay?
PositioningI've tried many setups but decided to show the easiest one I found that works. As soon as the battle starts summon your frontline units first, then the carriers and then the support ships. Divide the frontline group into two indentical groups and give them a Rally Taskforce order two thirds of a square to the right and to the left and one third of of a square down, like this:
This precise setup will force the frontline ships close to the Battlestation and they won't stray either too far out or in the way of its firepower:
If your frontliners are damage focused, keep them in that position or even give them a rally point further down. If they're more tank focused put them parallel or even a third forward to the battlestation.
Both carriers and support ships will hold position one (or multiple) rally points directly behind the battlestation and at least 2 thirds of a block away from it unless you want them to get besides the station if enemies come too close. You can also try and experiment with setting your support ship more to the side and not directly behind the battlestation to attack the enemy at an angle. Your call.
All positions I experimented with look like this on the tactical map.
Just pick a set of positions you like and have your fleet grind the enemy to victory while you do something more productive like writing an overly detailed thread like this! Huzzah!
Now, if you excuse me, I have to go sat bomb those
Hat Fetishists Hegemony scoundrels before they force me to defend another one of their silly little raids on my Alpha core worlds. I planned on writing a few ideas on how to improve siege battles in general but the OP would be three times longer than it is now.
Maybe later.
Procastination is a Sabot Astral. Always there and ready to screw you up no matter what you do.
Edit: Typos. There will be more.