Need help on "Salvation" campaign mission

from GalCiv2 Forums
What is a good strategy to beat this mission? The dreadlords eventually come and kill me off before I can adequately defend myself, I only have 2 planets
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is this the one with the Gigantic galaxy and you have to invade the itty bitty planet at the south corner?

I played this in pre-beta. Not sure how it works in 1.1--frankly, I think the DL campaign will need some re-balancing in 1.1. But what I did was first get Planetary Invasion, some engines, and some Basic Life Support as quickly as I could. There's not much time to crank up the economy first. Those transports (I suggest two of them, with 1 troop module apiece) have GOT to be on their way. It's a long trip, and you want them safely away from Earth before the DL's find you. The DL's are targetting Earth--not your transports--unless they're in the DL's sensor range, then you're screwed.

Next you need a couple constructors to extend your range. It doesn't hurt to research a little more Life Support after your transports are launched, either. You also need a few fighting ships to escort your transports. Nothing serious, just enough to take out the Defender(s) on the southern planet. I just sent in my Battle Axes, because I didn't know how hard it was going to be. Now I kind of wish I had left them to defend home.

Next you need some defense of Earth, since if it's invaded first, you lose. I played the usual DL defense I learned in the Siege mission: sensor ships (this is pre-beta), & cargo ships loaded with engines and 1 laser to take out the transports. I also built extra fast Survey ships, since there were plenty of anomalies to find, and they could always double as sensors. If I could get any of my ships to 11 speed or faster, I could usually bait away the DL's escorts. It's all really just a delay tactic--I don't really care about his escorts, I just don't want a transport slamming Earth before I get that planet to the south. The important thing is, the transports have to be in the air BEFORE you shore up your defenses. You have that quiet period at the beginning.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There has been a lot of discussion in the dev. journals about game balance. In 1.1 the logistics cost of large and huge ships was increased for the sake of balance. However, there remains a much bigger combat imbalance. The attacker gets a HUGE advantage! I recently completed the Dread Lords campaign apocalypse mission. So far, always playing at level Tough, I have not lost any combat ships (just scouts, constructors, freighters, and starbases)!!! If you attack you fire before the enemy and if you can take him out in the first round he never gets to fire! The odd time I failed to do this my ships had leveled up enough to absorb a hit from a Dead Lord's ship and then took it out in the second round. The Dread Lord's ships are fast but in order to exploit the attack advantage you also need to see the enemy before he sees you. When selecting my race abilities I choose 50% attack and +2 sensor bonus.

In all but the last mission I would take out fighters with 3 fighters (each with warp drive and 2 plasma1 weapons). Later I would take out the frigates with 4 fighters (each with warp drive and 3 plasma3 weapons). In the apocalypse mission I lucked out by stealing "Black Hole Gun" from the Dread Lords when I captured one of their captured planets in Jan. 2226 (just one year into the mission). By the middle of 2226 I had "Eyes of the Universe" and I was pumping out frigates with 2 warp engines, 2 black hole guns, and lots of range! By the middle of 2227 the Drengin and Yor started pumping out fighters and frigates with the "Black Hole Eruptor" which they got from the Korx who stole it from the Dread Lord's. However, I was able to pick off these ships with my fleets as they appeared in orbit around their planets. A little later I invaded the last of the Dread Lord's planets to end the mission.

In the interest of combat balance would it not be better to have both sides fire at the same time!?

Another problem is many bonuses are lost because floating-point values are rounded down when typecast to integer. Brad, gave an example where a ship with attack 8 and attack bonus 10% gets no bonus because 8.8 rounds down to 8! If 0.5 was added before typecasting to integer then values would round off to the NEAREST and bonuses to applied to small numbers would not be lost.

p.s. In the Dread Lords campaign apocalypse mission, after getting advanced weapons tech by stealing it from the Dread Lords or from tech trading, the AI continued to research low level weapons techs. Why?!
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I built 2 or 3 starbases to extend my range to the lower right corner as quickly as I could, and attacked before they could properly defend themselves.

This is a good strategy for the next mission too, because the dreadlords will start with no defenses on their planet, so you can take it without a fight if you act quickly enough.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
you can take it without a fight if you act quickly enough.

What's the fun in that!? It is much more satisfying to wipe out the Dread Lords, Drengin, and Yor fleets!
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What's the fun in that!? It is much more satisfying to wipe out the Dread Lords, Drengin, and Yor fleets!


By then I just wanted the campaign to end, so I could see how it ends and so I could start playing sandbox games. But I loved the dreadlords cause I could steal their weapon technology and make some kick-butt ships. The first mission with them was my favorite, because they came in and destroyed half of my empire before I knew what hit me. I fought back and by the time I had completely taken them out, I was able to wipe the floor with everyone else in the galaxy.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
By then I just wanted the campaign to end, so I could see how it ends and so I could start playing sandbox games.


I hear ya! The campaign is more limited and less satisfying than the sandbox game. I was looking forward to taking on the Dread Lords but they didn't show up until around the 4th mission. I thought the apocalypse mission would be the end but now I have to defeat the Drengin and Yor, yet again!

The day after the game was released someone claimed to have completed the campaign! How!!! Even on the easy levels (I play all games on Tough), this is a long campaign.

I have not played the sandbox since the pre-release Beta5; v1.1 will be my first post-release sandbox game!

Have you played the 1.1 beta? I understand the new AI now builds fast ships but does it also make good use of sensors to take advantage of attacking? Do you think both sides should fire in parallel for the sake of game balance?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All i did is focus researching into range and engines mainly. I built starbases down toward the Uthin planet and tried to extend my range. I then sent 2-3bil troops and 1 fighter and conquered the planet. The dread lords were already in and kiling the bases near my planets, but I kept rebuilding my range bases to get to the planet. So mainly u need some troops a fighter to clear the little ships in orbit and some fast engines (warp engine at least) and good range.