Need a good guide for the Zuul :)

[GraveDigger]

Hi,

I haven't played in a long time and wanna try again. But most probably I have forgotten how to play the Zuul and so I wanted to ask if someone has a good guide for me that is somewhat noobfriendly (especially a good guide for research for them would be awesome).
Also: Does morale matter in any way for them?

[Resok]

Well one quick answer would be morale has no impact on their colonies.

Don't know of any specific guides off the top of my head. Do you have any other specific questions about them?

[Bugs]

I have an unrelated question about the zuul. I'm at war with them and they seem to have unusual leviathons. These leviathons are much bigger than other ones I've seen and have tentacles (6 of them I think) and different sections that I can target. They attack with psionics and then use a tentacle to devastating effect. I drew up 3 fleets to fight one in a system and I've done so much damage to it (I believe over 75,000 in 1 turn) and the thing was still going... Is there some unusual weakness that I'm not aware of?

[GraveDigger]

I haven't build a Titan of the Zuul yet but I think that may have been "a Zuul" (one of their gods in an avatar form). They get up to 5 of these for each level 5 diplomatic station.
They are pretty dangerous as they can teleport. But I'd imagine later weaponries on leviathans should be deadly to them as they mostly rely on psionic and tentacle attacks and have poor weapons.

But as I said. I haven't seen a Leviathan of the Zuul before. So I might be wrong and the Leviathans are similar.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Bugs:

I have an unrelated question about the zuul. I'm at war with them and they seem to have unusual leviathons. These leviathons are much bigger than other ones I've seen and have tentacles (6 of them I think) and different sections that I can target. They attack with psionics and then use a tentacle to devastating effect. I drew up 3 fleets to fight one in a system and I've done so much damage to it (I believe over 75,000 in 1 turn) and the thing was still going... Is there some unusual weakness that I'm not aware of?

Those are the Suulka, ancient Liir that has grown so big and powerfull that they can use their psi powers to warpspace around them and teleport/fly around.

They are the Lords of Winter, the creators of the Zuul(were bioengineered), the masters of the Morrigi(they enslaved them), etc.
They are essential the big bad guys, who even turned on their fellow(and much younger) Liir, because absoule power = absolute corruption(but were beated back for a time).

As for combating them efficiently, I dont know, unfortunately.
Which race are you using, and what kind of weapons?

[Serafine]

Zuul have ordinary Leviathans and Suul'ka (Liir Elders - basically psychotic megalomanic humpbacks). Suul'ka can teleport across several star systems (they can even use their teleport to interdict enemy fleets ariving at nearby systems). Suul'ka are almost impossible to kill and they wreck Dreadnoughts as well as Leviathans but can't reliably destroy cruisers (which is not that bad because cruisers aren't a threat to them anyway). Their beam weapon is good against planets, too.

Basically Zuul wins by spamming the enemy and salvaging tech from them. Zuul are horrible scientists so they rely on looting and salvaging tech from the enemy, which means that your enemies' technology will almost always be superior. However they have the greatest potential to get all techs (ALL of their ships can salvage, the specific salvage ships just have an even higher chance) and they will always have the mass advantage because they can set taxes to maximum without suffering from any negative impact.
Zuul boarding pods are ridiculously deadly, a well-managed Zuul boarding fleet can kill any fleet except Loa (which are immune to boarding).

In the first turn you should expand quickly because Zuul have high hazard resistance, high terraforming rate and an even higher population growth (which also makes loosing colonies to Specters less annyoing).
In the very long run Zuul can outpopulate and outtech all other races.

[Bugs]

What many of you described sounds like what I'm fighting. There are at least 2 of them (Elders) and despite having ripper cannons, various beam weapons, missles ect.. the things do not seem to die. I'm playing as humans right now and as stated, I can do quite a bit of damage to opposing fleets but I just can't believe that after 75,000 points of damage it is still alive. I'll just have to clear out systems and avoid their elders.

[Fendelphi]

If the enemy ship has a high amount of structure points, as well as a high tougness(absorbs layers of damage), a ship can take an extreme amount of damage.
So while you might have made 75k raw damage, maybe 90% of it was absorbed.

For instance, I once had a Liir Leviathan with 5 Layer toughness(I got lucky and got adamantium on them, which together with Phase dislocation and Leviathan hull gives you 5 layers of "permanent" armor) and 30+ armor on all sides.
With Structual Fields(shield tech, but is a hardpoint upgrade that increase the ships structure point by 30%) the ship had around 25k structure points.

Also, if I recall correctly, there is a psionic ability that can further reduce damage(adding an extra layer of toughness) and other abilities that can heal damage done.

Against 5-6 layers of toughness, only Heavy beams, Energy torpedoes(Antimatter) Meson weapons and Impactors/siege drives has any decent effect.

So yeah, if properly designed, even "standard" leviathans can be pretty tough.

[Fendelphi]

And sorry Gravedigger, I kind of went off topic.

As others have mentioned, Zuul boarding ships are deadly, but dont focus solely on them(because if you meet an enemy with lots of flak, they are kind of useless). Having 3 boarding ships(and the pods from the command ship) will give you enough pods to take control of several enemy vessels, while the more heavily armed ships in your fleet engage the remaining ones.
(also, remember the Maw)

Also, their ships are relatively cheap with loads of gunpoints. Even standard Mass Driver cannons can prove deadly when you have so many of them.
They might bounce often, are inaccuracte and has a relative short range, but they fire very fast, has a high damage output and deals very good damage to planets(In case you dont want to bother with the assualt shuttles).

I think a Zuul Cruiser can mount 4 Heavy weapons and several mediums as well, which should give you adequate firepower.

Instead of invading a system with 1 or 2 fleets at a time, you should easily be able to invade with 4 or 5, giving you 4-5 combat sequences per turn(which should be enough to conquer most systems in 1 turn).