Help a newb counter novaliths

the basic solution is to storm the castle with a few weak strike groups (plural here being important)

It shouldnt take much firepower to down a novalith, it has something like 800 hull points, less than a combat cruiser.

Reaserch as much emergency facilities as possible, get planet shields.

and storm his castle

I haven't played onlive enough to have encountered a novalith, but that is what I would do.

The only way that I know of is to kill them fast. Those babies cost a hefty sum, so this plus your dark armada should mean that your fleet is superior to anyone that builds so many of them. They also take a long time to get built, so you can get a good headstart if you have good scouting. And they do 3.500 damage iirc, so two of them can one-shot even a fully upgraded terran planet. A shielded planet might be able to last longer, but this is TEC only, so it won't help you.

Because Novaliths are very late in the game, or he has skipped a lot of upgrades to storm to them, I would suggest you just need to keep more pressure on in the early and mid game so as to prevent such a fortress being set up. I suspect that because he was able to focus on building three Novaliths, the game was probably already over and this was just how you found out So my suggestion is to read up on some of the other strategies and work towards improving your own early game and then it should be all good

It has 4000 hull points.

A couple of shields and max health upgrades can save an asteroid from several simultaneous shots. So it doesn't take a whole lot to protect yourself from them, it certainly requires less to protect yourself than it cost them to build it.

I know this, because I've had a Novalith war... I won.

you can get max 6000hp on a planet as vasari, 2 simultaneous novalith shots do 7000 hp in damage, if the novalith user is smart he will target your homeworld once he has 2, -50% allegiance reduction empire wide instantly.

your only option is too take them out.

This has probably been said but once you know a novalith is active, you have to get rid of it.

The same goes for all races superweapons, its not wise to let them sit around.

Try using your superweapon, the Kostura Cannon. It can knock out structures and ships for ~3 min at a time and deal 10% damage to all of them, so build 3 Kosturas and chain-disable the 3 Novaliths, or use a Kostura to knock out a chokepoint fleet and then send a gaggle of Assailant LRMs and carriers through to destroy the Novaliths one-by-one.

Or get a foothold in the enemy star system, build a Phase Stabilizer, and send LRM/carrier strike groups through it, bypassing the enemy chokepoints, and blast the Novaliths.

man. Is there no way to enjoy late game smashing of each other?
It just seems everyone rushes for the fast victory in early or mid game, but never wana stick around for a long drawn out slobberknocker of a brawl with fully teched out ships.
Most people assume the games over by then, but darn it! I love huge numbers!

Since the N-Gun only destroys the colony itself, the easiest way to counter its effect seems to be placing a colonizing ship right next to every colony. This way, if one of your colonies gets banged up from afar they are instantly recolonized (and for only 90AM vs 200AM the N-Gun needs). You stilly have to re-develop the planet but the structures are still there... and you don't lose.

About late-game: I really don't like running around with one single "too huge for its own good" fleet. It takes too long to phase jump properly, get's chewed up by AoE frigates and usually, small strike-forces perform just as well. Also smaller fleets aren't that much of a target for an enemies "stack of death" (even if so, my little fleet outruns your big fleet anytime).
To sum it up: I prefer the strategic value of being able to hit several targets at once to the tactical effect of "Hey, look at me! My [fleet] is bigger than your's!" *g*

actually theres a slight delay before you can recolonize a planet.

Its not long.

maybe we can play in the weekend i know more guys that also like long/no quitters games
my name is emperorredlab i will try to ask the others maybe we can do a 3v3

novalith cannons will do 3500 damage per shot, that means even the most emergecy upgraded planet will die in just 2 shots... so u had better put shields on all your planets if you want em to survive

and then take out that novalith ASAP!!! otherwise you will eventually get pounded into oblivion

To the person who said build 3 Kostura cannons. He might stop at 1 Novalith when he sees you spamming those. Then you attack when you have 3 and all of a sudden you're facing a frikkin huge armada.

Thing is, rushing to a novalith and destroy it might work if it is 2-3 jumps into enemy territory, then again, if it is further in, you might be in trouble.. as by the time you get to the gun - which is probably heavily defended - you just lose half your fleet to defenses you have to pass by.

I do think however, that if you destroy enough labs to put him below the lab requirement for the novalith gun tech, the gun stops working.. at least i know from experience, that certain techs cant be used - even if you have them researched - unless you have enough labs.

Anyway.. if they build one - or in worst case scenario multiple - novaliths, then it is pretty much now or never.. you just have to push and either take out enough of his empire to prevent novaliths from being used, or die trying.. as dying you will anyway if you let him do target practice on your planets.

For Advent, shoot his homeworld with a bunch of culture guns. At least you can recolonize your right away. ( I know you play Vasari, but in case you diversify! :))