Could you please help me?

Hello all! I am new to this community, and I need help from you guys regarding the early expansion phase of the game...

from Sins Forums

Hello!

I started playing Sins (Trinity) about a week ago, and now i'm hooked, as usual. First off, I did see a few posts that relate to my queries in the forum, but they seemed closed, so I decided to make one myself. I apologize if I am repeating older discussions.

Now to my problems...I love RTS and TBS, and played quite a lot, but I am not a rusher, at least not at the  very beginning. Its not my style, and, you know, teching up and taking risks have their own thrills. Anyway, in Sins, I quickly learned to expand fast and early, primarily because taking planets earlier is lot easier and cost-effective rather than wresting them away from AI later. Expansion is not my problem. My problem is protecting my territory that I am gaining so fast! It seems whenever I am battling the front lines, someone sneaks in from the other end, usually where I just set up a colony which is obviously weakly defended.

  • I am new to the game, and only playing  SP w/hard AI, not online.
  • typical settings would be large multi-star maps with stars and wormholes. Smaller one star maps are not problematic, because the logistics is so much easier, not a lot of enemies, not so many fronts to fight. I play w/ large fleet, all speeds normal. Pirates off.For now.

So to be specific,

  • How do you guys balance expansion and enemy counter at all fronts at once? How do protect your inner planets without bringing back your assault force from the fronts once every five minutes?
  • what do you typically consider to be your first expansion phase? Say the number of planets you grab w/ your first cap and a few frigs, before you decide to wait and get the heavy cruisers online? Are these acquisitions in the same direction onward, or you try to fan out in all directions to try and keep close to the early factories?

Thanks for any help in advance. 

This is my first post ! :D  It seems the Sins has a small but very lively community. It is good to be a part of it.

 

strategy
4,411 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Some tips: Look for natural chokepoint planets. AI doesn't bypass. Use starbases supported with repair bays and hangars. (And later with fleets, especially against TEC AI that loves Ogrovs.)

Keep them near the star, and know that you can build four starbases at a star. AI doesn't always attack those, and the phase lane destabilization helps a lot.

Honestly, I don't even research the majority of combat ships, so I can't really answer your second question...

 

:fox:

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Yes i would have to agree choke points are important an the AI will always stops to fight and will not by pass planets.

One hint if you are sending in suicide defenders who's only point is to delay till another fleet gets back. You can set the gather point for your ship factories (Yellow place marker) any where even gravity well of other planets so once the ship(s) pop out they will fly directly there and if enemies are there they will attack.

Just make sure to change the gather spot back later.

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
  • How do you guys balance expansion and enemy counter at all fronts at once? How do protect your inner planets without bringing back your assault force from the fronts once every five minutes?
End of quote

Scout. As Kitkun mentioned, by the time you take your first Asteroid (or perhaps one other planet if its a big map) you should find some chokepoints and dash to them right away. If its 1 on 1 (which I recommend at first until you get a decent feel for the game), this will probably become your frontline base. If you have multiple enemies in opposite directions, that's where you starbase up. With a proper setup like Kitkun mentioned, you can keep the AI from taking the planet with a minimal fleet if any at all. Then you can focus taking them out one at a time.

  • what do you typically consider to be your first expansion phase? Say the number of planets you grab w/ your first cap and a few frigs, before you decide to wait and get the heavy cruisers online? Are these acquisitions in the same direction onward, or you try to fan out in all directions to try and keep close to the early factories?
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From the very beginning to first contact with the enemy capital in a neutral well you want or a planet you control. The number of planets and how long it lasts depends greatly on the map set up. I'm not particularly skilled at rapid expansion but I can get around six if the map setup cooperates and there is average distance to the enemy homeworld. I usually go in one direction, but few maps put you in a central position so you usually only have two to choose from anyways.

What units you get and when you get them vary greatly both on your strategy and race. I personally rarely get HCs until well into the late game unless the AI has a lot of LRMs and not many strike craft. That said I usually play Advent and can afford to go a heavy capitalship and strikecraft approach against the AI. TEC has much more incentive to get HCs while Vasari has even less.

That said, most players will have three distinct fleet phases. First is your starting capital ship and the rest light frigates as you use up all your starting fleet supply for quick expansion. Second is mid game with a backbone of your basic frigates and level 3 support cruisers, so combination of LRFs, lights, flak and possibly carrier and repair cruisers. Late game you get Heavy Cruisers and other support cruisers/improved abilities, though these are usually added to your mid game fleet instead of replacing them. That said the best fleet is the one that counters your opponents the best, so these are at best guidelines of what to build when.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

thanks for the replies, guys! :grin:

On the starbases...I like the idea, but like last night, here I was warring like there's no tomorrow against  AI A and B on far front, when suddenly C shows up with 2 Halcyons! o_O  Of course my (TEC) scouts w/ remote sensor probes(?) had a few planets lit up, and I do use the scouts, (this was on the completely opposite front where my main force was, and was like 35-40 min into the game), so I did see 'em coming, but there just wasn't enough time! 8O

(Sigh) I guess I gotta expand smarter, not faster.

Any thoughts you'd share on your early game exp. strategy would be helpful, really.

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Damned Halcyons. >_>

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting teerthad87, reply 4


On the starbases...I like the idea, but like last night, here I was warring like there's no tomorrow against  AI A and B on far front, when suddenly C shows up with 2 Halcyons!  Of course my (TEC) scouts w/ remote sensor probes(?) had a few planets lit up, and I do use the scouts, (this was on the completely opposite front where my main force was, and was like 35-40 min into the game), so I did see 'em coming, but there just wasn't enough time!

(Sigh) I guess I gotta expand smarter, not faster.

End of teerthad87's quote

That kind of situation is why I would recommend playing 1 v 1 for a while. Also make sure you lock teams so that the AI will fight among them selves and not just gang up on you, or do some early game diplomacy so you can get some cease fires if you leave it off.

A proper Starbase would easily handle two Halycons. Even if C sent a big enough fleet to destroy it,  it should buy enough time to get your fleet back. Also you might want to built a frigate factory at that planet or the next one over and try to build a mini fleet to hold them off or even push them back.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

How do you guys balance expansion and enemy counter at all fronts at once? How do protect your inner planets without bringing back your assault force from the fronts once every five minutes?
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If you're facing multiple opponents and don't have good choke points, splitting up your fleet into multiple forces may be mandatory.  Use a smaller defensive force to secure one of your flanks, then use a larger offensive force to push on the other side.  Once your empire gets large (15+ planets) traversing it becomes essentially impossible unless you are Vasari with phase stabilizers, and you're better off building new units closer to the action than trying to redeploy.  Use starbases to supplement smaller forces.

what do you typically consider to be your first expansion phase? Say the number of planets you grab w/ your first cap and a few frigs, before you decide to wait and get the heavy cruisers online? Are these acquisitions in the same direction onward, or you try to fan out in all directions to try and keep close to the early factories?
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Depends a lot on the map.  For a typical scenario, I like to colonize about one planet every 3 minutes for the first fifteen minutes of the game.  Beyond that target, I really don't have a game plan set in stone.  Heavies especially are situational; I sometimes never touch them, and other times I'll go for them right away.  As TEC, you can usually glide through the majority of the game with just LRM/Garda/Hoshiko.  If you have an Akkan Battlecruiser and can max out targeting uplink, LRM's will outrange starbases, so you don't even need Ogrovs...

Damned Halcyons
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Halcyon is definitely one of the strongest capital ships in the game, but be thankful these weren't Skirantras... those things are insane and hands down the best capital ship in the game.

The best way to deal with Halcyons is to rush them with units.  They're pretty fragile, and if they're not escourted they will die pretty quickly to any significant frigate force.  Their large strike craft wing, however, will make them very dangerous.