What did they do to the Contingency?

[Warbird]

It's my first playthrough since 2.0. I have three fleets up to 150k total and the Contingency spawns. But they spawn with two 300k fleets and four 100k ones. How the hell am I supposed to fight a million points of ships with my puny 150k? I have every other civ in the game in my federation. Total we might have 300k in ships. What is the point of this? It's just game over.

[Primordial Hunter]

Just wittle away at the Hubs defence fleet and stations. it will take time, like decades or longer, and design your ships to counter the Contingincy's ships.

And if you really need the boost grab gardians of the galaxy.

[ArcticISAF]

Only 300k? That's extremely small for an entire galaxy...

It can be done. I have a current game where the roaming fleet sizes are around 250k, and 500k guards at their homeworld (plus 100k station). I've beaten one world, three left to go.

The trick is that the larger fleets do not leave their planet - they're guards essentially. You amass an armada that can kill their smaller fleets, and for your situation, I'd keep them isolated until you can grow stronger - through tech and through quantity. Building up your strength is the main priority for you.

Once you are strong enough (especially in economy), you may have to attack the homeworld a few times to eliminate it. It took me two attacks in my case. Attack, retreat once you feel like you're no longer doing damage, rebuild - attack again.

Tech wise - note that they have large health pools in shields/armor, but low amounts of hull. Use weapons that attack the hull directly (like XL lightning (forget name)).

[Warbird]

Thanks. I'll switch over to hull weapons. I already have guardian of the galaxy. When I saw 1 mil vs. my 150k I figured it was over. I'm sure I can pick off the smaller fleets. The big ones could squish me like a bug if they just attack me.

[Primordial Hunter]

What crisis difficulty are you playing on?

[Warbird]

Originally posted by Advent:

What crisis difficulty are you playing on?

The default. I'm doing a small galaxy with 4 races. I just wanted a quick game to see what was new. I still miss the old travel options. Also jump drives don't seem to work. All of my ships have them but they still travel down the lanes instead of jumping straight there even if the destination is close.

[ArcticISAF]

Originally posted by Warbird:

Originally posted by Advent:

What crisis difficulty are you playing on?

The default. I'm doing a small galaxy with 4 races. I just wanted a quick game to see what was new. I still miss the old travel options. Also jump drives don't seem to work. All of my ships have them but they still travel down the lanes instead of jumping straight there even if the destination is close.

Oh, there's a button you press at the top of your fleet. Looks like an arrow kind of. It'll give you a ring that will show how far you can jump. Click on the system, and you're good to go.

[Warbird]

DOH! Thanks.

[ArcticISAF]

Originally posted by Warbird:

DOH! Thanks.

No prob. :)

[Nemund]

Originally posted by Warbird:

DOH! Thanks.

Remember jump drives give you a debuff, so don't jump straight into combat.

[Warbird]

Originally posted by nevyn0ad:

Originally posted by Warbird:

DOH! Thanks.

Remember jump drives give you a debuff, so don't jump straight into combat.

CRAP! Jumping didn't used to do that. Yes I just jumped into the system next to the contingency and my fleet power was cut by a ton. I was wondering what was going on. Also they are up to 5 homeworlds now and about 5 million in ships. It's not looking good for the galaxy. Did they play test this at all?

[Nemund]

Yes they play tested it, but different people advance at different rates, and even RNG can make one game dramatically stronger at the given year than another.
If you find the end game events too hard you can adjust them down in strength or extend the years before they can happen to give yourself more time to prepare.

[ArcticISAF]

Looks like you got a bit unlucky with it I think. I got 4 homeworlds myself, but it was in a 1000 star galaxy. Two on the fringe/unimportant areas of my empire, two elsewhere where the AI kind of keeps them in check (or at least slowing them down). They spawned around 2450, crisis difficulty 1.5x (end game date of 2400). I can handle the situation... but there's a lot of factors that support that.

I think the main thing that is hurting here is the distance, and the power of the other AI empires. You're almost dealing with the threat all by yourself. And there's not that much time/distance you can put between them and yourself, if this is a small galaxy.

Oh, this might be useful for you to have hope. "Originally one of the Precursor empires, the Cybrex will resurface to help fight the Contingency if it sterilizes over 20% of the Galaxy. Near a random rim system, the Cybrex Beta ringworld system will spawn. All Empires will be contacted immediately. The Cybrex function analogous to the Sentinels of the Swarm Crisis, except they will only donate ships after 100 destroyed fleets and will take them back a month after the crisis ends."

So you should get some support after some time of them invading. I wouldn't count on them though. Also, typically fallen empires will help combat the invading fleets (had one awaken and help out a bit).

Let's make a final defense plan. Fully armed fortresses should easily be in the 35k-40k range with ion cannons. Highly recommend those for long range support. Those along key choke points with supporting fleets to fight the contingency should keep them at bay indefinitely. Your tech will continuously improve - their fleet strength will remain the same and will not improve. Keep your allies alive as best as you can, but if they're dead, then so be it.

Personally, I love do-or-die situations like these. Really stresses and pushes you to find innovative ideas to keep alive at all costs. Such as when I was fighting the horde very close to my empire. Landed 40 assault armies on one of my planet (blocking a key bridge) under a planetary shield, to delay the khanate from invading further (fleet was way too strong). Held them off for 3 years while they bombed it, landed armies... finally took it. But it was enough time given to rebuild and have defenses set up further back. Anyway... I recommend framing it in mind as a challenge. I find it doesn't come too often in games.

[Warbird]

Yes it's a small galaxy. It's one jump or less to all of their homeworlds from my territory. I'm pretty sure at the rate they are taking worlds I have zero chance. I normally have no problem with endgame stuff. This one seems to be abnormally strong. I certainly don't want to turn off all of them because this one came out crazy. I hate to turn it down too because that will make the rest of the endgames a joke. Ah well. Thanks for the advice. I'll see how many years it takes for them to kill everyone.

[Botji]

There are already a bunch of good advice here so I will just leave the consolation prize here.

Remember that this is the end game crisis you are fighting.
If you lose, the game is over.
If you win the game is over as there should be literally nothing left stopping you from doing whatever with the galaxy.

Either outcome will more than likely force you to start a new game so even if you lose its not as bad as it might sound ;)

[Warbird]

Well they are dead. Thanks for the advice. It's a good thing the AI just kept their big fleets guarding their homeworlds. Their small fleets took about 20% before I stopped them.