Base Defence

[kai]

I'm starting to wonder if defence emplacements are even worth the space they occupy, never mind the time money and research that goes in to them.

 

Missles - I've found these to be useless, they're about as accurate as a Kalashnakov on auto fire

Laser and Fusion - I have a base with 2 fusion missle batteries, a laser battery and a grav shield. I scored a few hits but the ship survivied intact and went on to land by my base.

 

So are any defensive structures worth it?

[Gimli]

I would suggest 4-5 fusion defences with a grav shield. You don't need anything else then, and the chances of aleins getting through them are very slim. However, I almost always like it when the aliens come in, then I play hide and seek.

[Pherdnut]

I'm starting to wonder if defence emplacements are even worth the space they occupy, never mind the time money and research that goes in to them.

 

Missles - I've found these to be useless, they're about as accurate as a Kalashnakov on auto fire

Laser and Fusion - I have a base with 2 fusion missle batteries, a laser battery and a grav shield. I scored a few hits but the ship survivied intact and went on to land by my base.

 

So are any defensive structures worth it?

 

I think it's a waste at occupied bases (you might as well get all that stuff), but at places where you may not have any troops, 3-5 fusion ball launchers and a grav shield will keep the battleships at bay. The annoying thing as that the aliens will keep attacking that base incessantly until you finally let them through and then they forget where that base was. It would be nice if you could turn off defenses after ferrying some troops and gear over.

[NKF]

A lean impregnable base design would generally only use 3 fusion ball defences and a grav shield. Toss in a mind shield for good measure.

 

Missile defences are deemed useless because they haven't got that much of a punch per module. You need to be able to deal as much damage as the hull strength of a battleship in order to take it down - and a single missile isn't going to do that much.

 

Now, get a base with a 6 missile silo battery and a grav shield, and you'll start to get sick of them right quick. Unlike the other defence modules, the missile modules are cheap and can be built fast, so you can afford to build a lot at the expense of expanding the size of your base unnecessarily. And with multiple attempts, the chances of some missiles hitting and dealing damage are very great indeed. It's like your defenecs are on auto-fire!

 

The missile defences also have a unique corridor layout that you can use to control the flow of traffic through your base. If anything, the interior layout is the only practical reason to use a missile defence module.

 

As mentioned earlier, each group of aliens targeting your base will not stop until they get through - then they get a sudden case of mass amnesia. So it's generally better to just let the aliens through and be done with it. However, the defences do give you some time to prepare yourself if you're not ready and you're having staffing shortages (and you don't have enough fusion HWPs lying around the base). When you're ready, perhaps you can halve your defence by dismantling your grav-shield to let the attackers through and then rebuild it. Sadly, this is a slow and expensive way of doing it.

 

For myself, I generally ignore the defence modules except the mind shield. This method of playing is disadvantageous if you're caught off-guard while your base is understaffed so you have to remember to keep a sufficient number of soldiers garrisoned at the base at all times along with some explosive HWP support.

 

- NKF

[Silverblade-T-E]

Never noticed how each HIT on an incoming battleship reduces the number of attackers?

Enough hits and only 4 or so aliens will be inside.

So, base defence is worthwile!

[NKF]

Not quite - but I really wish that was true. We've had a bit of research on that thanks to our resident trial-by-massive-numbers expert, and it seems the amount of damage to the battleship does not control the number of aliens in the assault.

 

Difficulty level does influence it, sure enough, and the number of available spawn points. If you have more soldiers than there are spawn points in your base, the alien numbers dwindle. And if you manage to occupy ALL the soldier and alien spawn points, the alien weapons spawn but not the aliens and the mission ends very quickly. You don't get any score for the absent aliens, but you still get their weapons. Hah, if you're short on cash, you'll probably find yourself shooting down everything in sight just to instigate base attacks for the 'donations'

 

The recipe for auto-win base defence is to keep the base as minimalist as possible. So very small bases, lots of soldiers and next to no HWPs as they take up 4 soldier slots for 1 spawn point.

 

- NKF

[kai]

I've found one good use for missle defences. Fusion missles take forever and a day to build. When constructing defences, I've used this method.

 

Build about 2 fusion missile batteries. Add a few missile batteries, they only take about 16 days to build so they're a usefull stopgap. Start to phase out the missile batteries with fusion. That way you don't have an impressive array of weapons that have the slight disadvantage of not being ready when an attack comes.