Fallen Empire Wrecking Me Every Game

[Gaius Cassius]

So I've played several games now since 3.0 (granted i haven't played much within the last 6 months), but each has ended the same way. I get near the end of the mid game/beginning of End game and a Fallen Empire declares war on me. Now this use to not be that bad as about this time i can defeat their fleets. BUT....

Now after the initial large fleet battle, whether i win or lose they then send one or two dozen 2k - 10 fleets to all of my systems. Now this also wouldn't have been so bad, except by this time i have a lot of gateways setup for quickly moving around my empire. Well jokes on me the fallen empire can use your gateways and there is nothing i see that can keep them from doing that.

So what am i doing horribly wrong, is it that i build gateways? Is this something that i need to simply quit doing? I wouldn't find this a problem except you cant use them to go back into their systems, so if they are on the other side of the galaxy its a non-stop 1 sided war of recapturing a system while they take another, repeat.



TLDR, i don't get Fallen Empires anymore and they are wrecking my booty. Help.

[Gustuv Wynd]

You got to declare war first. That's the only way I know how to handle a fallen empire. If they awake before you attack them...just make a new game. Not worth the trouble.

[Gaius Cassius]

Originally posted by Gustuv Wynd:

You got to declare war first. That's the only way I know how to handle a fallen empire. If they awake before you attack them...just make a new game. Not worth the trouble.

I was afraid someone would say that, I was able to easily able to defeat the nearby Fallen Empire, but the empires on the other side of the galaxy that i can't get to are the problem. So either A) i have to conquer the galaxy in order to get to these Fallen Empires first or B) I have to make everyone between me and the Fallen Empire happy so they don't close their borders


But B is impossible if you're playing as a Devouring Swarm (My latest game). The only way i could have possibly reached the Fallen Empire would be to also declare war against everyone between me and them as well.

[Gustuv Wynd]

yeah, it sucks when they are are across the map from you. I typically just have 1 and it ussually is near my area of the map. If I do 2, one will be close and then it is a race to get friendly with other empires or conquer them to get to the other fallen empire before it awakes.

You can beat them back...but it is such a pain and it will leave you weakend for the upcoming crisis.

[GONDAL]

As Gustuv said, you are pretty much toast if you aren't optimally prepared when war is declared. You should take perks like galactic contender and have a doomstack that can individually pick off their fleets. After their main horde is done for, kill their citadels to nick ship production before going after any stragglers (or handle them with auxilliary fleets). Avoid fighting against citadels with defenders as they often have lots of defence platforms and can easily chew through stronger fleets.

Also, you should use arc emitter + void cloud ship setups as FE ships have lots of armor & shield but relatively weak hull. Just do the classic corvette cloud + a bunch of artillery BBs. Since their escorts have mountains of PD, don't even bother with missiles. Throw in a few PD carriers as well to protect your artillery BB from their strike craft. Optimally you'd want to use your federation or imperium fleet to maximize the girth of your fleet.

[Sovietkotek]

In my past few games I've been lucky enough to either start next to a protective FE, or reaaally far away from a hostile one. But either way it's always a rush to pump alloys and research beyond all reasonable proportion.

[Rage000]

there is a mod that stops them using your gates.

[Sovietkotek]

Oh yea gateways. Gateways make things significantly more complicated imo, I played one game where I accidentally disabled them and that made progression between territories much easier and more linear to handle.

Otherwise they just keep popping back and forth all over the place using their own gateways in territories entirely captured by me.

[Storm]

Originally posted by WhoYaKiddin:

Oh yea gateways. Gateways make things significantly more complicated imo, I played one game where I accidentally disabled them and that made progression between territories much easier and more linear to handle.

Otherwise they just keep popping back and forth all over the place using their own gateways in territories entirely captured by me.

Didn't that get changed? Occupied systems with gateways go to the occupier?

[Rage000]

the mod "Bypass Adjustments" might solve your frustrations.

[Sovietkotek]

Originally posted by FANG:

Originally posted by WhoYaKiddin:

Oh yea gateways. Gateways make things significantly more complicated imo, I played one game where I accidentally disabled them and that made progression between territories much easier and more linear to handle.

Otherwise they just keep popping back and forth all over the place using their own gateways in territories entirely captured by me.

Didn't that get changed? Occupied systems with gateways go to the occupier?

Hmm, it's been awhile since I played tbh so that would be a great change. Last I remember, that only happens if you're dealing with "containment" wars when the territory immediately changes hands instead of needing a negotiation.

But if that was resolved, I might just install it again!

[Gustuv Wynd]

Originally posted by WhoYaKiddin:

Originally posted by FANG:

Didn't that get changed? Occupied systems with gateways go to the occupier?

Hmm, it's been awhile since I played tbh so that would be a great change. Last I remember, that only happens if you're dealing with "containment" wars when the territory immediately changes hands instead of needing a negotiation.

But if that was resolved, I might just install it again!

I think one of you is talking about wormholes and abandoned gateways and the other is talking about what you build.

Though I just took over system with an AI built gateway in my game and it settled right into my gateway network. I could use it even while the system was just occupied.

[Storm]

I was talking about gateways switching sides now.

[SkiRich]

Originally posted by Gustuv Wynd:

You got to declare war first. That's the only way I know how to handle a fallen empire. If they awake before you attack them...just make a new game. Not worth the trouble.

I've defeated FE's after they awake.
Trick is hit and run.
While they are busy going after other empires, you make a bee line for their home world and devastate it. Plus any other world they have with an autoforge on it.
You need to eliminate their ability to continue to create ships.
They eventually begin splitting their fleets into smaller units, while you keep your doomstack together and then hit and run.
Out of the last 4 games I played 3 were successful, one I dont count because two FE's turned on each other, so I let them battle it out while I took back territory they stole from other empires.

I dont like going after an empire as first blood. The last few games I had an ally in an FE and if you go after one, they all turn on you. So I waited and let them come to me.

[Sovietkotek]

Originally posted by Gustuv Wynd:

Originally posted by WhoYaKiddin:

Hmm, it's been awhile since I played tbh so that would be a great change. Last I remember, that only happens if you're dealing with "containment" wars when the territory immediately changes hands instead of needing a negotiation.

But if that was resolved, I might just install it again!

I think one of you is talking about wormholes and abandoned gateways and the other is talking about what you build.

Though I just took over system with an AI built gateway in my game and it settled right into my gateway network. I could use it even while the system was just occupied.

No no, I'm probably just unaware of changes made in the latest patches about how captured gateways function. It seems to have changed for the better now so that's good.

[Kastor]

My advice is to place some T2 fortresses and a planetary shield on some of your boarder worlds. That slows then down more than any station can