Clockwork Horror

[Fii]

How do we even beat these things? They continue to fight all the way down the very last tentacle.

I sent a 20 ship fleet that could probably wipe the board everybody else, rained down shells until I ran out of ammunition. And they still refuse to die. I ended up staring at bunch of random tentacles floating in the middle of the air while out of ammo.

Plus you can't reduce them like you can with pirates. If you say, destroy the mothership down to the last bit and retreat then come back later, it's there again!

Do I need to field 40 ships just to clear this one neutral location?

[FourGreenFields]

Are you using any mods? Can't remember having seen a "Clockwork Horror", and I played a good bit of conquest recently.

Sky Krakens and Monsterous Jelly (having tentacles, like you mentioned) are relatively easy to beat, with enough firepower (and I think also with ramming).
The Fleshcrackers sent out by Mad Scientists aren't nearly as durable as you claim, and their main weapon are gatling guns - which are relatively easy to armour against.
Clockwork Wasps are relatively easy to defend against. Cheesy way is to put the ship they want to board into the reserve - non-cheesy way would be a good number of rifles, gatlings, etc. to shoot the wasps, and some guards to deal with the rest. Then you just need enough ammo to destroy the thing. And ofcourse they don't have any tentacles.

[Fii]

Ah. Right, I am playing with Catalystic Expansion. So it's a mod thing.

[Fii]

Lol, I eventually won by using suicide bombers. CE mod has a 1 tile component that explodes massively on death (called TNT appropriately), apply to the tip of a ram and tada!

4 suicide bombs and all trace of the clockwork tentacles are erased.

[Wren :3]

Hey, Jseah, I know you mentioned the TNT a while back, but where in the hell on the research tree is it? I just got back into the game and I am having a hard time with a similar situation. Also, the NPCs have TNT, but I cannot find it.

[Fii]

Ah, this is from an older version, before techtrees were a thing.

TNT doesn't work now.

[SmokeDragon]

tnt should become available from +30% damage from explosives trait.. so you can get it at start. i made a 1k missile that has no crew and can kill anything. is so fast it can outpace cannon shells too =P

[Scarf]

I think literally everything you mentioned is modded.

[The Indomitable Human Spirit]

Ah yes, TNT.
The most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing the AI can pull. CE is a wonderful mod, but damn that TNT spam on AI is just the most BS thing to every have to handle.

[Wren :3]

Originally posted by Napalm Sticks To Kids:

Ah yes, TNT.
The most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing the AI can pull. CE is a wonderful mod, but damn that TNT spam on AI is just the most BS thing to every have to handle.

That's why I brought it up way back when. It's so painful and I wanted to know what it was and how to get it.