General battle advice?

[Kak]

Hi guys. Just to say, I'm absolutely LOVING this game right now. Having come from Sunrider Academy, I'm loving this as well. The battles are really fun, but...

I'm pretty bad at them. I die quite a few times, say, 5, each battle, but I usually pull through in the end. However, I'm now getting into battles that I just can't seem to win. Icari and Sola are destroyed either in the first turn or shortly after, making the ensuing battle next to impossible.

I've tried spreading out, I've tried clumping together, but every single time I lose at least one character on the first turn. There are so many enemies that even the Sunrider goes down within five turns unless I sit around at the back of the grid. I think the problem is that the enemies usualyl outnumber you massively, and they do a first turn missile spam, eradicating whoever they aim for, which is always the most fragile characters. :P

Does anyone have any tips for battling in this game? I'm playing on Captain mode, but I swear it feels like Space Whale. And, in case you were going to say it, I don't really want to lower my difficulty. I like that feeling of pulling through when it's hard.

[Tericc]

Im in the same boat as you. I have tried all trades to maxamizing a certian attributes but When i find myself excelling in one area Im obliterated in another.
Tried upgradeing the pilots before the sunrider but i cannot take down enough ships fast enough to reduce attrition

Being a jack of all trades doesnt seem to help either.

Im not new at thinking games like this as i have a list from way back when but this.. I caint seem to find that.. "edge"?

Especially When that mission comes forth where you have to get the civilans transport to the other side of the map safely. From trying to blast my way through to simply saying fk it Engines at flank speed ahead.. (procceding to get wasted just the same.)

[Vaendryl]

If you're having trouble with the game at normal difficulty it's probably a good first stop to look at the game's wiki page about combat mechanics: http://sunrider.gamepedia.com/Direct_Combat
it's possible you didn't know about some of the details of how certain things work.
It's also wise to read the following to learn more about how the AI selects its targets: http://sunrider.gamepedia.com/Enemy_A.I .this is very useful during escort missions especially.

As a more general tip I would recommend you try and fight more aggressively early on. the 'full forward' order combined with some well placed rockets can take out the most dangerous enemies quickly leaving only the small fry to clean up. however, the use of 'all guard' can save your skin when the enemy is spamming missiles and/or rockets of their own.

You probably don't have enough money to upgrade all units so choosing your upgrades effectively and efficiently is very important. You'll want to aim for particular combo's, like getting just the right amount of energy and cost-reduction upgrades so that a unit can fire a main weapon more times than before, which can make a big difference. for example, being able to fire the sunrider's main guns twice each turn is pretty useful. later on, being able to fire twice with Sola is really good, but expensive to get. it's even possible to get triple kinetics on the paladin. you're unlikely to be able to get all 3 though.

laser weapons allow for a safer play style as you can keep your distance, but you also have to deal with enemy shielding a lot more. upgrading the liberties max energy is probably a must so you can use her to disable shielding, as is hiring a full team of frigates for their shield jam ability. because of this you'll also not be able to rely on the liberties healing as much.

thinking outside the box can be surprisingly helpful. if you've got Claude on your team learning to use the gravity gun can be a great tactical advantage. not only can you pull enemy units into range or even into a counter attack, you can also move your own slow units ahead while having them retain their full energy reserves. shoving the paladin ahead and having her unleash a few rounds of heavy kinetics can really ruin someone's day.

The Phoenix can be hard to use as she's pretty much a glass cannon but she can be very useful with a few upgrades and skillful tactics. she can really use some more HP and max energy upgrades make her a lot more mobile. have her zip in and out of enemy range so she can melee enemy ryders to death very effectively while ending her turn inside of friendly flak and shielding range.

[Kak]

Thanks for the advice! I'm currently attempting to complete the battle after the wedding, but this is leading to more trouble.

I have gotten SO close, SO close, only to get completely destroyed on the last turn I would have needed. It's getting so frustrating. The only thing I've put research points into is the kinetic cannon, and being able to fire that twice is pretty useless in this battle. What I need are movement points, but I don't have a save where I'm not in the battle, so I think I'm now screwed.

I kid you not, I have been playing through this battle for 4 hours, with about 2 good runs out of the 15+ I've tried. I'm thinking that I might have to start a new game so that I can allocate my research more effectively, but that'd be incredibly irritating.

EDIT: Scratch that, I followed, with some slight alterations, Graph's tutorial for the mission, and it finally worked! I had no idea you could sell upgrades to do other things, so I guess I'll think about that from now on.

[Drathnar1]

The Wedding Crash is one of the tougher battles for someone new to the game.

As highlighted by Vaendryl, getting just the right amount of energy and cost-reduction upgrades is key for improving damage output. You can further enhance damage on top of this and also accuracy (if you find yourself missing a lot).
Getting 120 reactor energy (4 EN upgrades) on Sunrider enables 4 hexes of movement, on top of being able to have double kinetics for 3 kinetic cost upgrades. In general, this is a good breakpoint for reactor energy for Sunrider at this point in the game if you math out optimizing damage output for credits spent. In the same line of thought, units like Seraphim should not be getting any reactor energy or kinetic cost upgrades (damage upgrades are fine though) as you don't have the resources to get 2 shots per turn with her at this stage of the game. Use Skirmish mode to explore/experiment with how each unit functions.
Kinetics are the most effective weapons for getting rid of those PACT Battleships and Cruiser, so I'm not sure why being able to fire them twice per turn is useless. The sooner you get rid of them, the sooner you can finish the mission by getting to the other edge of the map. Yes you can use rockets too (provided you've applied Flak Off appropriately), but these are consumables.

Assuming equal accuracy/access considerations, prioritize taking out enemy units that have high damage potential while not having too many hps (high damage/hp ratio). At this stage of the game, this include units that launch rockets/missiles like Bomber ryders and to a lesser extent Missile Frigates. Battleships are even more damaging but depending on your upgrades/difficulty setting you may not have the damage output to get rid of both of them in turn 1. Disabling one with Liberty is a sound option to start with in turn 1.

Full Forward is a good order for boosting accuracy/damage and should be a strong consideration in turn 1. It more or less pays for itself in terms of its CP cost as finishing a mission faster gets you more CPs (assuming same amount of enemy units destroyed).

At the end of the first few turns, make sure units who have done good damage/ made kills are under good flak coverage (supplied by Sunrider, Blackjack, Phoenix) to reduce damage from enemy missiles/rockets.

Selling upgrades incurs a 20% cash penalty every time you do it, so try not to do it too often. Keep multiple saves in case you really need to redo upgrades/decisions.

[D4L]

Im on Casual. Im still getting obliterated. ♥♥♥♥ THE RNG. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 80% accuracy my ass. I swear Im getting killed more on Casual then I did on Captain. And something must be seriously ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up for that to happen

[Thunder-Z]

Even 90% accuracy miss sometimes, and that rally hurts. Especially when that lost shot means a ship/ryder not destroyed that turn.
For winnin it's needed a good tactic, the correct upgrades and some luck. Sometimes lot of luck :-(

But always being capable of twice-shot with the sunrider and three-shot with Kryska ease things a lot against the hard ships. Better if damage is 480 or more so then even Icari could finish them with her guns. Also expanding radius of shields of the ryders, and maybe one upgrade on Shields strength and evasion in other ryders for better surviving chances.

[HeavenlyHost]

dont play on spacewhale difficulty ._. thats all ian say

[jenovaschild]

I like the game so far, but this could really have used some professional game testers before it was released. The balance of battles are all over the place, too easy in some parts and requiring a very tight and specific set up to beat the next.
Just not worth so many re-loads. But the game is free and I have already sent $10 their way, hoping for the next game is better balanced.