Birth of the Federation

Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 8:17 am Calamarain won't attack your star systems, only stations/ships. You can avoid placing your ships in sectors with star systems, means if your fleet's firepower/tech is too low to kill it or if you would take heavy losses.

'Jumping' monster (Borg, Calamarain...) movement is very random: viewtopic.php?p=34119#p34119

EDIT: Here is some advice against Borg: viewtopic.php?p=51553#p51553

Key factor is to kill the cubes before they obliterate a whole star system and get a chance to replicate (i.e. to early make hard sacrifices to stop them). If there is already an out of control invasion there are certain empire specific tactics to oppose them. From what I remember, for example, sacrifice about 20+ scouts, set to evade, and charge(or assault I don't recall what works better) with 8-12 heavy cruisers. All your shipyards produce 1 scout each turn to replace losses. In vanilla you can fight them much easier, not because they are weaker, but you can use many broken game mechanics to cheat around certain game limitations (i.e. srapping ships for money to support way larger fleets).

When I first played the game in '99, I played the Klingons and got hit hard by the Borg, and I never recovered. I lost the game to the Cardies and Ferengi who capitalized on the devastation wrought by the Borg. On the second playthrough, I knew I had to be ready for the Borg. So I stockpiled groups of 18x Battlecruiser II's per system in about 7 systems. I was able to anticipate their move and hit them. Yes, I faced the Borg with 56x Battlecruiser II's and was successful with the loss of about 1/3 - 1/2 of my ships. On another time, the Borg hit me at Tech level 7 and I had just unlocked the K'Vort. I had 18x and the free cloaked turn, and I wiped them out.

This scout advice against Borg is cheapest 'empire specific' (i.e. no cloak) solution (cruiser types and numbers can vary). Using cloak is a joke. For your example, just using fleets of klingon scout 2's would be cheaper, faster and more efficient than Battlecruiser II's (you just need to test the numbers required to kill a cube with no losses).

Mudpuppy630511 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:24 am Oh but Thunderchero, wheres the fun in that?

it is more fun than a crash due to random/monsters

Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 12:20 pm This scout advice against Borg is cheapest 'empire specific' (i.e. no cloak) solution (cruiser types and numbers can vary). Using cloak is a joke. For your example, just using fleets of klingon scout 2's would be cheaper, faster and more efficient than Battlecruiser II's (you just need to test the numbers required to kill a cube with no losses).

That second play through in 2000, I had not yet unlocked the K'Vort Heavy Cruiser, and had just unlocked the K'Tinga II. The K'Tinga did it's part, because I only had 2x groups of Scouts on the other side of the galaxy scouting. I did not have a centralized QRF in the home turf except for the K'Tingas. After that incident, whenever I play the Klingons from the earliest possible level to endgame, I build only as many as I need, and invest heavily in the K'Vort, Vor'Cha, and Negh'var. The only system of mine that I'm never concerned about is Rubicon when I've paired the Edo Guardian with a Starbase and sometimes a small defense force. The Gaurdian and the Outpost/SB is more than a match for the Borg and when I decide to have a small guardian TF, I have no issues with all of the random monsters. Nevertheless, I enjoy the game and it's refreshing to play it again after 21 years.

The coolest thing is pulling a bribe Romulan style.