Battle Tactics-Noob Questions

First off, glad you like the game.  Read up on the strategy guides (if you haven't already) and look into the mechanics of the abilities.  There are a lot of abilities that go well together.  Also, don't forget all the acronyms we throw around.  Trust me, there are a lot...

1. No, it just goes straight through the cap unfortunately.  The exception to this is Cleansing Brilliance/CB which can go through ships, but it doesn't ignore them, it damages them just as much as the target.

2. You can hide outside of a ship's firing arc.  This is hard to do though when facing Illuminators as their side beams (very deadly ones at that) can still hit you a good chunk of the time.

For nitty gritty, this is called Microing.  If you like microing, I'd suggest playing as Advent or Vasari as they require the most.  Advent ships have synergies, or groups of abilities that work well together.  Example:

Holy Trinity: this is a general name for the three primary Advent capitals-Progenitor Mothership, Halcyon Carrier, and Radiance Battleship.  Each one is wonderful alone but combined, they are the best cap-ship combo in the game.

Cleansing Brilliance/CB+Malice: When used by an expert, this allows you to deal up to 1000 damage per second/DPS to an enemy which will destroy any cap your enemy might have.

Animosity+Vengeance: Animosity makes them fire at one of the hardest ships in the game to kill which then reflects damage back to the attackers thanks to Vengeance

Amplify Energy Aura/AEA+Radiance Battleship: AEA is a great passive which increases DPS by 23%.  On the Radiance, this is a very good buff.

For the TEC, there is the Dunov+Kol synergy.  Flux Field+Gauss Rail Gun/GRG is awesome as it allows you to spam GRG and deal about 200 DPS for quite some time.  If you throw in friendly culture and Finest Hour, you can fire for a minute straight.

I suppose the biggest tips would be: 

1. Expect human players to Focus Fire/FF your capitals

2. Don't spam the Novalith.  It annoys people but doesn't do that much.  A Deliverance Engine/DE spam will cause big problems for the enemy though.

3. Don't underestimate the power of Repair Bays, especially if playing as the TEC.  These things will save your fleet when on the defensive.

4. A fleet is better than any static defense outside of starbases/SB's.

5. Don't use Light Frigates/LF's after the first 10 minutes of the game.  Switch to...

6. Long Range Frigates/LRF's are one of the most common ship spams because they are good.  Illuminators dominate this category with their side beams.

7. Beware the Advent's Iconus Guardian.  Repulse is a fearsome tool in the right hands.

8. Beware the power of the Advent.  This race is pure military and can take two-three and sometimes four times as many TEC ships and win.

9. Beware the power of the Holy Trinity.  Each one is powerful, but the combination of those three ships escorted by Illuminators, Dominas, and Guardians is a fearsome fleet.

10. Beware the might of Missile Barrage.  When you see a level VI Marza in the gravity well, expect to take heavy losses.  Missile Barrage/MB is the most powerful multi-target ability in the game (CB is the best single-target).  It deals 3000 damage to all enemy ships within range over 25 seconds.  If someone uses this on you, move your fleet or use Ion Bolt/Phase Out Hull/Detonate Antimatter/Reverie to stop it.  The Marza can't move or fire normal weapons while using this ability so take the opportunity to leave.  If you have a tight fleet formation and a Progenitor, you can actually sit there and just absorb the damage, although this is not recommended.  Deactivate MB so you don't have to waste Shield Restore's healing power on making up MB's damage.

Well, there are some general tips...  You didn't exactly ask for them, but oh well...

I'm pretty sure that you'll soon find yourself lost in micro managing battles if you try to manually move every single ship for maximum efficiency.

Imagine your fleet with 2-6 capital ships about 50 cruisers of at least 3 different types and more than 100 frigates of at least 3 different types engaging a similar sized enemy fleet. You simply will not be able to keep track of each single ship. Thus you have to focus on the most important issues.

Some of them have been mentioned by Volt_Cruelerz such as "beware of XX" and "use the synergy of ship abilities". Some more (probably quite obvious) things from my side:

1. Don't forget about the rest of your empire: Even if there is an epic battle taking place you still have to manage your economy, perform research and build replenishments for your fleets. So zoom out and take care of these issues from time to time

2. Don't let your Cap Ships die. These thingies are far too expensive to lose even a single one. So keep an eye on your big babies and listen carefully to the warnings like "our capital ship's shields are down" and "our capital ship has been severly damaged". Then its probably time for a retreat.

3. Another relatively easy thing to do is trying to avoid counters (as far as possible) by grouping ships of certain types together. Some examples:

a) you might keep the bombers of your carriers docked until your flak and fighters have finished enemy fighters

b ) you might keep your light frigates (if you build these) out of range of the enemy long range frigates until these have been destroyed

c) you might want your carriers circling the grav well in order to avoid enemy fire as far as possible

and so on...

To draw a conclusion: managing battles in Sins efficiently is more about keeping an eye on certain "Do"s and "Don't"s then micro managing every single ship.

@HouseCorrino: Do you know what ships counter other ships? Most ships have a damage bonus against certain other ships, for example:

• Long range frigates/lrfs (TEC Javelis, Vasari Assailant, Advent Illuminator) are VERY good against light frigates/lfs
• Bomber strikecraft are very good against planetary structures, capital ships, and heavy cruisers/Hcs
• Fighter strikecraft are good against siege frigates, bombers, and they do alright against lrfs and lfs
• Lfs (if you use them) are good against flak frigates and support cruisers, but its easier to just kill support cruisers with other things like...
• Hcs which are the main damage dealers of a fleet

Also, capital ships are not very useful for their guns, as others have said they are about abilities.

The advetn have the strongest abilities on the game when combined, for example:

The advent heavy cruiser, the destra crusader, has a researchable passive ability called ruthlessness which does 1.5 damage per second/dps to all ships and structures in a small range of the ship.

If you move that heavy cruiser into a group on enemy ships then they will all be taking the damage, if you then use malice (Progentior mothership's ability) then all the ships will be taking 33% of the damage that all the other ships are taking. This combo kills frigates like nothing else.

As for the placement of ships during battle, the game will act like nothing is between a ship and it's target so shielding ships with other ones does not work. It is more important to pick where you are going to fight the enemy.

Only fight their fleet head-on if you have to. And NEVER try to take on a fleet and a SB at the same time. The same goes for a fleet covered by repair bays.

This game is mostly about attrition, who does the best in battle will win. The best thing to do is trap the enemy fleet on a planet with a phase jump inhibitor/PJI to delay their retreat and allow more time to kill their ships. Human players are (generally) smart enough to avoid this though

 Volt_Cruelerz has some really good points, and so does everyone else on this post. If you follow their advice, you should do reasonably well online. Since you are just startiong to play online, here are a few ideas.

1. When your starting or joing a game, check the other players stats. If one or more of the other players has like 150 games played, you might want to consider joing another game.

2. If you just want to get a feel for playing online, start a new game, and it the title say " new players only". That way you won't end up being destroyed instantly.

3. Like Volt_Cruelerz said, don't try spamming novalith cannons. Not only do they not do much, but it will use up resources that you would be better off putting into ships or star bases.

4. Just remember that even if your start a game with people who have only 2 or 3 games played online, they can still be incredibly good.

If you want to play a 1v1 match and maybe get some tipes, send me an email at [email protected]

Otherwise, have fun online

Thanks everyone for the help. I was pleasently surprised to find such a welcoming community. One last question about online play, how long does a match usually last? I want to make sure I have enough time for it.

Usually 1.5 -2 hours.

hmmm...okay, thanks

Play on smaller maps first, just to get a feel for the online game (which is vastly different than single player).

Smaller games will usually be over in an hour or less, depending on how stubborn you and your opponent are

A little degree of stubbornness is nice.  I got caught in the pocket in a 5v5 this morning and got to fight a grand total of one battle.  A hundred illuminators arrive by complete surprise, destroy a level 6 Marza, and sets off a chain reaction of quits on the enemy team <_<