Need tactical Advise against the scourge

[Antheloras]

So I did my first playthrough with my spiritual psionic empire and did pretty good....until the pretorian scourge showed up.
Maybe I'm doing something terribly wrong. Thetefore I would be glad for some advise.

I do own about a quarter of the galaxy, including vassals which I by now nearly all integrated into my empire. I researched pretty much all techs and I'm on an equivalent tech level as the fallen empires.

The scourge has fleets with about 60.000 to 65.000 strength. They almost always travel with 2 fleets or have fleets in the neighbouring Systems which come to their aid.
My fleets have about 70.000 strength and I only can afford to have 2 fleets at once, nearly all battleships, with my 320 ship limit. I changed the ship design to only armor and hull protection as well as to photon cannons and stuff that does haevy armor and hull damage since I read the scourge has nearly no shields and is shield penetrating.

I managed to slow down their advance considerably but I cannot stop them.
There are two ways into their territory. On one and the main fleet is stacked with about 12 to 15 fleets, all with strength 60.000+. I have no idea how i could defeat that even if I could triple my fleet strength.
I frequently attack the other end. But eventually 2 or 3 fleets arrive just after I fought and won a major battle and annihilate my ships.
Since they arrived in my territory, waiting is not a real Option...

[Xobra]

The Scrouge should be very weak against plasma and laser weapons. Full Battleships? even in pre2.0 it is a bad idea. If I remember correctly, their weapons are strikecraft and Missiles, so get destroyers with a lot of PD and Flak. Get Corvettes with plasma. Maybe some more cruisers for "midrange interception", mostly plasma too. since they don't have shields, don't use Missiles or torpedoes. while one does extra dmg to hull, they normally are most useful against enemies with shields. Scrouge don't have shields, so abuse plasma and lasers. Battleships with the Big Laser Beam and Plasma. Neutron Torpedoes are rly good too. Titan with Firerate increase buff, of firerate decrease buff. If your Fleet is actually holding on long enough, maybe the nanocloud for regeneration, although it is normally most useful after battles, for faster repair, while moving.

[Xobra]

Also, fortify chokepoints set your fleet to passive, and guard the chokepoint with fleets, while waiting for your fleets to build behind the chokepoint

[_ALuX_]

Try starving them out from any potential planets they could infest.

[Xobra]

cleanse their worls with nuclear fire -Gandhi
also, if you don't need the planets, crack 'em up :^)

[Helios]

I strongly disagree with Fernardo. PRE 2.0 only battleships fleet was best way to deal with Scourge. Idea is simple, have fleet powerfull enough to take their fleet with no losses. Heavily armored battleship with long range energy weaponry were able to do that. Tachyon lances are absolutely crucial. Scourge overnumbers you greatly, no lose battles are only way to go. Point is destroy major part of their fleet before you enter enemy weapons range. If i remember correctly, scourge major fleet power is in their bigger ships, so use plasma instead of lasers. That small ships wont be able to damage your ships too much when they finally come into range.

I havent played against scourge since 2.0. Problem can be in way how Armour was redesigned. Now it basically offers you not that good protection against Scourge weapons. Btw living metal helps a lot, since you have to be able to go from fight to fight with no stop, when you go for their planets. But this still regenerates your hull, but not armour (or does it?). Armour is so bad after 2.0 :/.

From what you wrote, maybe you let Scourge took too great part of galaxy. How big galaxy do you play, how big part Scourge controls? 320 fleet limit is pretty low unless you play small galaxy.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by Eyvon:

I do own about a quarter of the galaxy
[...]
with my 320 ship limit.

You need to be able to support more ships. If you are not at your starbase cap, build more starbases and fill them up with anchorages. Look at the starbases you already have and consider replacing trading hubs with anchorages. Convert research labs to power plants to make up the lost energy; if you are as advanced in tech as you say then slowing your research rate down a little won't hurt you. Make sure that the starbases that have anchorages are full of anchorages, and also use a naval logistics office to maximize the increase to your naval capacity.

If that still isn't enough ships then build as many as you need, even if that means you go over your cap (up to as much as you can support without crashing your economy). Even in a 600-star galaxy you should be able to field a navy at least twice the size of what you have now (600+ points); more if the galaxy is larger.

[Kypamop]

Originally posted by -DI- Helios:

I strongly disagree with Fernardo. PRE 2.0 only battleships fleet was best way to deal with Scourge. Idea is simple, have fleet powerfull enough to take their fleet with no losses. Heavily armored battleship with long range energy weaponry were able to do that. Tachyon lances are absolutely crucial. Scourge overnumbers you greatly, no lose battles are only way to go. Point is destroy major part of their fleet before you enter enemy weapons range. If i remember correctly, scourge major fleet power is in their bigger ships, so use plasma instead of lasers. That small ships wont be able to damage your ships too much when they finally come into range.

I havent played against scourge since 2.0. Problem can be in way how Armour was redesigned. Now it basically offers you not that good protection against Scourge weapons. Btw living metal helps a lot, since you have to be able to go from fight to fight with no stop, when you go for their planets. But this still regenerates your hull, but not armour (or does it?). Armour is so bad after 2.0 :/.

From what you wrote, maybe you let Scourge took too great part of galaxy. How big galaxy do you play, how big part Scourge controls? 320 fleet limit is pretty low unless you play small galaxy.

Totally agree. Tried many tactics vs Scourge after 2.0 and the best was a Titan (for aura and early combat engagement) + as many BBs as possible. Full Tachyon Lances + Neutron Launchers + Full Crystal-Infused Plating + Regenerative Hull Tissue + Titan Aura for Regeneration (another Aura may be picked depends on your Admiral skills and Living Metal). I was playing with 200 fleet cap so I had to bring 2 fleets at once to destroy their fleets without losses and was able to regenerate to 100% before another combat started.
After I picked this tactics the Scourge lost fast enough. Was playing on 800 stars galaxy and they already got 1/3 of it to that moment.

Mass PD is useless vs them cause of Stellaris game mechanics. All bombers die when their mothership dies so there's no need in countering them, just annihilate their motherships before bombers reach you.

[Antheloras]

Thank you a lot for your advise.
I changed my whole economy to war economy, espacially all science and unity to energy and minerals. Furthermore I built a lot of Anchorages in my Sations and was in the end able to supply about 800 ships total. And I changed my ship designs and fleet composition according to your tips.
With that I could finally beat the scourge, though it was still not easy. All in all it was a 100 years of constant war.

So thank you in the name of the whole galaxy (of my game).

[Helios]

Originally posted by Eyvon:

With that I could finally beat the scourge, though it was still not easy. All in all it was a 100 years of constant war.

Sounds like funny game :).