Prethoryn Scourge: Am I Doomed?

[XO99]

So I've had the Prethoryn Scourge take over half the galaxy because I was one of those empires that expanded faster than I researched. They spawned on the other side of the galaxy which allowed me to build up my space navy to around 50k-60k but I have no where near enough to destroy the Scourge still.

The Sentinels spawned in I feel a little late in a system smack in the middle of the Prethoryn Scourge. They died before retaking a single system back from the Scourge (besides the one they spawned in). At this rate, I'm waiting for another Sentinel faction to spawn into the game because I think my galaxy is doomed to extermination without their divine intervention.

Should I just restart at this point or is there hope still for retaking the galaxy back?

[Voice From Beyond]

I'm in the same situation. My 20k fleet had no chance against several 50k+ fleets and they took my little empire apart.

Additionally some other AI's decided to attack me also since I had no fleet left. Their victory over me was short lived too.

[Mack]

Nope you are not doomed. And even if you are, it's still fun to play.

In my current game the Scourge spawned on the other side of the galaxy. I even had a war going on with a fallen empire who hated my synths. The sentinels did nothing but get taken over.
The scourge took over the bottom right quadrant of the galaxy.

I was able to white peace the FE after using my fleet to just barely kill their assaulting fleets. They left me alone after that.

My first attempt at intervention was a fleet of particle lance destroyers (note my tech was heavily weighted towards weapons, I didn't get past level 3 shield tech until I killed the FE, and didn't get anything over level 2 engines until after the scourge). They smashed into a big Scourge fleet and wiped out about 30k for their loss. They just couldn't hold long enough.

The second was a big ship only fleet. Scourge have no shields, and their weapons to my understanding

Battleships & Cruisers only. Built up with minimal shields, large amounts of armour, and particle lances.

The long range will tear through the scourge.

[FlashBurn]

With the scourge long range lances are really your friend. With that said, I have lost everytime since 1.20 going up against them. But its never over till its over. it is possible by the time they get to you some of their fleets will be down in numbers. They have to birth new ships and timing is everything. The ability to jump away faster than they can jump means you can try to hit and run in long range fights. But like I said, so far failed everytime. The closest to going my way was wiping out 1 fleet of 75k only to get 2 150k fleets out to eat my lunch. Did not have good enough jump drives to get out of dodge. They clobbered me on where I popped out in the next system.

One thing seems clear, do not get in a close in fight with the scourge. Or if so, lots of armor might buy you a few more seconds of life. Most weapons of theirs seem to not give a hoot about shields.


I would scout out things with scout ships. Perhaps even declaring war on an empire getting wrecked by those bugs. Jump in and try and research blown up stuff. See if you can get a boost on some missing tech while there is still time. Hit anything that is weak of theirs before its on your door step. Its never over till its over.

[Red Dox]

If you want easy mode for Scourge

1.)have battleships with 5 large lances and 4 point defenses.
http://imgur.com/a/ad7gw <--kinda like the blanket counter here
I would suggest shields because they regenerate better in the breaks between fights. If you got no lances take the focus emitter. Not as good but also 120 range. if you do not have both, check what your longest large weapon option is. But be warned that othere weapons will probably not be that effective and can/will screw up the following battleplan.
2.)have a fleet consisting of 36 to 40 battleships. Should be around 50-80k strength. Do not worry about the numbers, as long as you have the long range lances.
3.)pick a Scourge system you want to fight in. Best near to your next base (for quick repair route) and maybe not miles depp into enemy territory (so that science vessels could better research debris).
4.)Send a corvette scout in the system to see if a scourge fleet is waiting on your entry point.
This is important. If your long range fleet jumps on top of a scourge fleet, your loses will be harsh. if a fleet is in the way, pick another system or wait until they jump somewhere else.
5.)Send your battleship fleet in the system. attack the structures, bomb the planet. Important is that your fleet is somwhere in the middle of the system or at least has a good part of space between possible entry points.
6.)After you mopped up the system and probably had first contact with a fleet who you crushed, just wait in that system. The Scourge will send fleet after fleet after fleet. Do not panic if the numbers are against you. If your 55k fleet has two scourge fleets with 70k and 130k in front and another 70k fleet coming from behind you still can win (depending how near they areto you).
As long as you have the higher lance range, you can decimate three fleets who barley can touch you. You will suffer some hits but your shields and hopefully crystalplate hull should absorb most of it.
7.)But since your fleet is IMBA, it is not invincible. keep an eye on your hullpoints. If several battleships are badly damaged, jump back, repair and repeat this attack pattern. At one point, the Scourge will send no more fleets. That will be the end of that.
8.)With all fleets destroyed, you just need to take care of their systems left. In my experience 3 battleships can take care of the stations. So you can split your fleet up to cover more ground. Keep at least one fleet of 12 ships to bombard planets faster.

If you play Ironman without mods for Achievements and want the Queen, be prepared to act quick if the event pops up. AI races will send their science ships probably faster then you (so keep at least one science ship near the frontlines). Detach your main fleet or a small cover group to secure the queen. Declare a light humiliate war on any Empire who dares to steal your trophy so your escort ships scare them out of the system.

Just finished a Invasion in my own territory real quick that way and got my Queen Achievement ;)
Hmm forum does not like the first two screen links, which I did not take with steam. Ah well, Scourge first notice was around 2350. Around 2354 I had already beaten around 250k of Scourge fleet and as seen in the other pictures, around 2359 the Scourge was finished and I were retaking my systems when the Queen event popped in a nearby other AI-> Scourge system.
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/276226315522047118/1147AFA64BD8CC4460D7B709E3C290D3793C29F3/
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/276226315522053865/4C760ABE8C4A71AD568DC5AD40EC662234948461/
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/276226315522063726/78B928FD53A6F99266F508301DE45BB6EBA10F09/
Played on ironman "hard". Whole point of the game was to trigger the AI rebellion but "Sentinent AI" never showed as tech. But guess what, as soon as the Scourge were done and the Queen taken, who shows up late for the dance?
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/276226315522076879/FDA2D92C2F5C5A93F669FF2D5831846D12512EB3/
A shame we can only get one crisis per game -.-

[Dark Thoughts]

A single 30k stack of 20x lance battleships was enough to wipe out even 100k scourge fleets with 0 ships lost on my side. If you're aggressive you can get all their fleets with the AI doing the rest of the cleanup (which you shouldn't bother with if it is so far away).

[Tomibouzu]

Just target the fleet production they have, then you will win by attrition.

[brownbonobo2]

They just came into my galaxy, nearest me, so I thought, well, I have the best fleet in the entire galaxy(superior to every other race, ~45k-mostly battleships/cruisers, but some destroyers), so killing these bugs should be easy. Then 50k fleets started jumping in and destroying my mining and research stations. So I sent my entire navy to fight a ~55k fleet, and totally wiped them out(w/ lvl5 missiles, lvl5 shields, and lvl4 armor). They ended up dead with my fleet only going down to about 40k. So maybe not the end?

[crgzero]

Originally posted by orange:

They just came into my galaxy, nearest me, so I thought, well, I have the best fleet in the entire galaxy(superior to every other race, ~45k-mostly battleships/cruisers, but some destroyers), so killing these bugs should be easy. Then 50k fleets started jumping in and destroying my mining and research stations. So I sent my entire navy to fight a ~55k fleet, and totally wiped them out(w/ lvl5 missiles, lvl5 shields, and lvl4 armor). They ended up dead with my fleet only going down to about 40k. So maybe not the end?

You necro'd a post started on July 8th, with the last post made on jul 9th. The game has significantly changed since then. The Scourge IMHO are significantly easier to beat now while the ghost things (terrible with names) are significantly harder.

Want to beat the scourge, throw a flak cannon on one slot on every ship and mow through them. Point defense is king with the scourge.

[Mack]

It's still really the same as before. Fleets should be made up of:

Battleships with long range anti-armour weapons, flak artillery & protected by armour.

Cruisers with short range anti-armour weapons, flak artillery & protected by armour. Cruisers have corvette like AI that rushes the enemy hence the short range weapons.

Corvettes built to get as much evasion as possible. Minimal weapons, no shields, just armour, evasion & as much extra power (which helps evasion). They will likely be entirely wiped out, but that is their purpose in life, to protect the cruiers & battleships..

[corisai]

Originally posted by mack:

It's still really the same as before. Fleets should be made up of:

Battleships with long range anti-armour weapons, flak artillery & protected by armour.

Cruisers with short range anti-armour weapons, flak artillery & protected by armour. Cruisers have corvette like AI that rushes the enemy hence the short range weapons.

Corvettes built to get as much evasion as possible. Minimal weapons, no shields, just armour, evasion & as much extra power (which helps evasion). They will likely be entirely wiped out, but that is their purpose in life, to protect the cruiers & battleships..

And you too answering in realities of obsolete 1.3.x build.

Corvettes no longer work as "ablative armor" to battleships, so either don't bring them (silly), or make them combat-capable.

[Mack]

Corvettes are cheap and quick to build. Might as well bring some with as much evasion as possible.

[Laptop]

9 Jul @ 11:02am