Moo2 Strategy

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utilae
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Moo2 Strategy

#1 Post by utilae »

Anyone ever try strategies in Moo2 that are different and perhaps more challenging.

For example, I normally always build titan ships loaded with beam weapons. But I decided that it would be fun to focus on pulsars. It's that weapon that shoots a ring out and hits enemies and your own ships.

What I did was to shoot up the shield category to get shields, the pulsar, innertial nullifier, subspace teleporter. I made sure to get some other good shield techs, like Hard Shields and Shield Capaciters. I also went up the energy category to get all the good travel techs.

The end result was that I had an army of cruisers fitted with pulsars that could surround and destroy the enemy on the first combat turn. Their high shields would protect them from damaging each other and their good engine speed mean't they could close in quickly. Pulsars also proved effective in stopping fighters and missiles.

With about 18 of these cruisers I surrounded the Guardian, used pulsars on it for my first combat turn, almost killing it. During its turn it killed one of my cruisers, but once it was my turn again, I killed it with only one cruiser destroyed in that battle.

Anyone else try any crazy strategies, to make Moo2 a bit more fun.

GexNZ
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#2 Post by GexNZ »

Hi Utilae,

Sounds like quite an good strategy you have there.

In the early stages of the game I would build ships with no armour or shields but with fast missile racks. These ships would sit warp in point and launch as many volleys as possible towards the enemy.

The idea being that the enemy is destroyed before it comes within range of beam weapons. The technology that lets the missile retarget themselves (can't remember what it was called) is essential to minimise wasted missiles.

Once a few missile volleys have been launched you can either retreat or stay to finished off the remaining fleet. Simple but fairly effective in the early game.

I see you are a fellow NZer. Where abouts? Auckland here.

guiguibaah
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Neat Strategy

#3 Post by guiguibaah »

Did the 2x missile ship strategy, with a twist. built 10 destroyers / cruisers full of missiles, and one small unarmed scout.

Then, combat began. Unloaded all missiles on one target, and had the scout run away in the opposite direction.

Next turn, unloaded all missiles and gave all my ships except scout the order to retreat. Scout still running in opposite direction.

Next turn, missiles hit their target, since the scout is still prolonging the battle. As the scout now has a lot of distance between it and the rest of the fleet it has enough time to retreat without getting hit by any missile.

Kept doing this over and over to different systems. Worked like a charm even on impossible. In multiplayer, the only thing that could stop this were ships set on suicide (like a scout) to hopefully take out missiles in the blast radius when it overloaded the engines. 70% of the time it didn't work.



For a real challenge, play with no 2x missile ships, and as a uncreative race, as you are forced to adapt your strategies to what techs you are given.
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utilae
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#4 Post by utilae »

GexNZ wrote: I see you are a fellow NZer. Where abouts? Auckland here.
Yep. I from northland.

@guiguibaah
I haven't tried that strategy my self, though I have heard of it. That's the great things about missiles though, in large numbers they cause destruction.


Recently I read a strategy of someone building empty destroyers, using about four of them to board a space station early game. Also I think I might try to capture some Antaren ships, anyone got any good ideas there?

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#5 Post by siron »

utilae
"Anyone else try any crazy strategies, to make Moo2 a bit more fun."
I think there are a lot of crazy strategies but when u play the AI u prolly wont search them, since the AI is no real challenge.
"Recently I read a strategy of someone building empty destroyers, using about four of them to board a space station early game. Also I think I might try to capture some Antaren ships, anyone got any good ideas there?"
I like boarding tactics with demo lith races. These research races can have a nice transporters fleet by turn100. With a very good ground combat value even frigates can capture battleships then. In one of our recent StarLeague matches I captured 8 bbs just with ffs.

IMO boarding Ants is no longer possible in the early game (1.31 patch) since the damper field negates neutron blasters now...at least for most races. (mebbe with heavy gravity racepick and powered armor....I have to ask zirkahn who plays this race quite often.)

guiguibaah
"In multiplayer, the only thing that could stop this were ships set on suicide (like a scout) to hopefully take out missiles in the blast radius when it overloaded the engines. 70% of the time it didn't work."
Well, this missile salvos are not bad and I agree that they are simply enuff against the weak ai. But humans are a lot of smarter than the dumb AI. Missile boats are strong in the early game (turn70-110) but the combat system is actually balanced...missiles are no uber weapon in the longer run.
When you have battlescanner, space academies --- any race has a good enuff beam attack value to build a larger beam fleet which can coordinate its efforts (f.e. by using the wait button) to shoot down the missiles...(by using 360degree - avoiding direct contact with the missiles - you have several rounds to shoot them down.)
Fusion continuous enveloping is preferred by most standard prod races, when you have a decent Beam Attack Value massdrivers autofire are really strong (cybertronic or warlord with shipoffense racepick).
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#6 Post by marhawkman »

"Recently I read a strategy of someone building empty destroyers, using about four of them to board a space station early game. Also I think I might try to capture some Antaren ships, anyone got any good ideas there?"
Boarding works okay actually. At least in the version I have.(I need to double check)
siron wrote:IMO boarding Ants is no longer possible in the early game (1.31 patch) since the damper field negates neutron blasters now...at least for most races. (mebbe with heavy gravity racepick and powered armor....I have to ask zirkahn who plays this race quite often.)
Actually you just need to Heavy Mount the Neutron beams. The Crew damage is calculated based on the damage done AFTER the damper field is taken into account. Damper fields do make teleporters less useful in that they have a 50% chance of killing the troops you transport.
Well, this missile salvos are not bad and I agree that they are simply enuff against the weak ai. But humans are a lot of smarter than the dumb AI. Missile boats are strong in the early game (turn70-110) but the combat system is actually balanced...missiles are no uber weapon in the longer run.
I have two favorites here.
1: designs that can close to point blank range on turn one then unload into the enemy with a few dozen Neutron beams before taking over with a troop assault.
2: Multiple Stellar convertors. Missile ships can kiss their butts goodbye. As soon as I get in range, which won't take long, you'll get blasted, HARD.
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#7 Post by Dreamer »

I did use this tecnic nce or twice, but I found it to be too unbalancing to make it fun. Make a fleet of small ships with a lot of movement and stasis fields.
These ships are very cheap to build. Since you play first, move your ships in the mist of enemy ships and stasis them all before they can fire a single shot. Then take your time to surround one of them with assault ships, release the ship ad board it on your turn. Wait for the assault ships to come back (there is no limit on how many times this work, I have pulled hundreds of troops from a frigate) Repeat.

And voila, you have gained a whole fleet, not a single beam shot. I once got a whole fleet so big that no all ships were put on the combat screen. I did need some firepower to blast holes on their formation, so I can get my stasis to the back (stellar converters work nice for this).

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#8 Post by marhawkman »

Dreamer wrote:I did use this tecnic nce or twice, but I found it to be too unbalancing to make it fun. Make a fleet of small ships with a lot of movement and stasis fields.
These ships are very cheap to build. Since you play first, move your ships in the mist of enemy ships and stasis them all before they can fire a single shot. Then take your time to surround one of them with assault ships, release the ship ad board it on your turn. Wait for the assault ships to come back (there is no limit on how many times this work, I have pulled hundreds of troops from a frigate) Repeat.

And voila, you have gained a whole fleet, not a single beam shot. I once got a whole fleet so big that no all ships were put on the combat screen. I did need some firepower to blast holes on their formation, so I can get my stasis to the back (stellar converters work nice for this).
Neat idea.... I might incorporate that into my Excalibre design next time I play. But if my ships attack YOU.... hehe..... you're hosed.
Computer programming is fun.

siron
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#9 Post by siron »

Actually you just need to Heavy Mount the Neutron beams. The Crew damage is calculated based on the damage done AFTER the damper field is taken into account. Damper fields do make teleporters less useful in that they have a 50% chance of killing the troops you transport.
I refer to the weapon mod "kills marines". And this does surely not work after version 1.2:
ftp://ftp.infogrames.net/patches/moo2/moo2v131.txt

The Damper Field will block any marine casualties caused by Neutron
Blasters and Death Rays.
Any weapon has a small chance to kill marines when shields and armor are down. But before u have completely destroyed the ship you kill roundabout 1-2 marines. (I just tested with several hundreds hv neutron blasters.) Thats surely not enuff to capture any antaran ship in the EARLY game when you have a poor gc value.
1: designs that can close to point blank range on turn one then unload into the enemy with a few dozen Neutron beams before taking over with a troop assault.
This refers to assault shuttles? They are slow and easily shot down by fusion env con pd. Rarely taken in MP games.
2: Multiple Stellar convertors. Missile ships can kiss their butts goodbye. As soon as I get in range, which won't take long, you'll get blasted, HARD.
OK. Thats surely no longer early game. But stellar converter is often overestimated. It is quite good when the opponent has a very good beamdefense...otherwise beam weapons with several shipspecials seem better.
I did use this tecnic nce or twice, but I found it to be too unbalancing to make it fun. Make a fleet of small ships with a lot of movement and stasis fields.
U prolly need also subspace teleporters for this tactic. Otherwise u wont reach in turn 1. Besides Phasing Cloak (it is also bugged) stasis field is banned by many players. Though one main reason is that many hit "wait" button since they dont wanna fly in range of stasis ships. I dont think stasis is uber in MP. U wont have hard shields so transporters tactics work very well (not boarding...raiding is also very effective.) I saw battles where stasis fleet was knocked out this way. I liked stasis in SP...u can even take out guardian just with stasis.
Neat idea.... I might incorporate that into my Excalibre design next time I play. But if my ships attack YOU.... hehe..... you're hosed.
Hehe....u both should try a MP game then....thats more useful than most discussions about this topic :D
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marhawkman
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#10 Post by marhawkman »

siron wrote:
1: designs that can close to point blank range on turn one then unload into the enemy with a few dozen Neutron beams before taking over with a troop assault.
This refers to assault shuttles? They are slow and easily shot down by fusion env con pd. Rarely taken in MP games.
Nope. I mean ship to ship transfer of marines. when I say "point-blank" I really mean"close enough to touch". I use Sub space transporters for this.
siron wrote:
2: Multiple Stellar convertors. Missile ships can kiss their butts goodbye. As soon as I get in range, which won't take long, you'll get blasted, HARD.
OK. Thats surely no longer early game. But stellar converter is often overestimated. It is quite good when the opponent has a very good beamdefense...otherwise beam weapons with several shipspecials seem better.
Convertor is best when you can mount at least 2-3 on the same ship. I usually fill the rest of the hull with PD, AF Phasors and load up on defenseive technology. Well and that one item for doubling the damage the convertors do.
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siron
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#11 Post by siron »

marhawkman wrote:Nope. I mean ship to ship transfer of marines. when I say "point-blank" I really mean"close enough to touch". I use Sub space transporters for this.
Convertor is best when you can mount at least 2-3 on the same ship. I usually fill the rest of the hull with PD, AF Phasors and load up on defenseive technology. Well and that one item for doubling the damage the convertors do.
OK. Transporters?! Decent choice. I like them also...mentioned above. Instead of neutron blasters I prefer md anti harv c3 personal shield path....decent gc value and beam weapon to take down shields. I build destroyers with roundabout 20 speed then.

Stellar Converter....well....Multiplayer Games are more aggressive. I reached this level just once....and I played several hundreds MP games. Ship Initiative is important...I doubt heavy ship is good choice. Anyway...when I *know* your design....there is always a counterdesign. There is no uberdesign.
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marhawkman
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#12 Post by marhawkman »

Hehe... My ships in the game were almost always slow as crap. The first thing I noticed in the game was that using Heavy Armor made it take almost three times as long for the ship to get destroyed. So I literally used it on practically all my designs. then I noticed how long it took to get the things to turn..... hehe. Never actually played multiplayer..
Computer programming is fun.

steward147
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Re: Moo2 Strategy

#13 Post by steward147 »

What I did was to shoot up the shield category to get shields, the pulsar, innertial nullifier, subspace teleporter. I made sure to get some other good shield techs, like Hard Shields and Shield Capaciters. I also went up the energy category to get all the good travel techs.

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