Do Cylon Fleets in the Campaign Use More Than Seven Ships?

[Spartan Delta 27]

Hey there folks, quick question on the Campaign Missions and Optional Missions.

I have not played the game in awhile, so I was wondering if the Cylon forces in Campaign can use more than seven ships at the beginning of missions (Reinforcements not withstanding).

I encountered a Cylon fleet in one of the optional missions that had two Basestars, a few Archnes and some Revenants. It felt like there were about nine hostile ships on the field at the start, which greatly outmatched my ability to counter them. In any case, they completely obliterated the two of my Minerva Class Battlestars before I could finish off their powerful fleet.

Anyway, please let me know if Cylon fleets can start out with more than seven ships in the initial fleet. If they can, I will likely need to further adapt myself to counter the new threat.

By the way, awesome job on the new sound effects and fleet chatter. The guns sounded far more cinematic in the replay and some officers got understandably angry when their Commander got two Battlestars destroyed due to poor tactical decisions.

[OMG My Profile Name Does Not Fi]

Yes the Cylons can outnumber you in ships and also in total fleet points. Even on standard difficulty I have seen Cylon fleets of 8500 near the very end of the campaign.

A fairly straightforward way of playing that works well is to field fleets that can bring enough Viper Mark 2s to achieve (space-)fighter superiority. Then when safely behind your flak/anti-missile defense vipers you can manoeuvre till your Battlestar's main batteries are below your enemies and watch the slaughter.

[Supreme Doge]

Originally posted by Spartan Delta 27:

Hey there folks, quick question on the Campaign Missions and Optional Missions.

I have not played the game in awhile, so I was wondering if the Cylon forces in Campaign can use more than seven ships at the beginning of missions (Reinforcements not withstanding).

I encountered a Cylon fleet in one of the optional missions that had two Basestars, a few Archnes and some Revenants. It felt like there were about nine hostile ships on the field at the start, which greatly outmatched my ability to counter them. In any case, they completely obliterated the two of my Minerva Class Battlestars before I could finish off their powerful fleet.

Anyway, please let me know if Cylon fleets can start out with more than seven ships in the initial fleet. If they can, I will likely need to further adapt myself to counter the new threat.

By the way, awesome job on the new sound effects and fleet chatter. The guns sounded far more cinematic in the replay and some officers got understandably angry when their Commander got two Battlestars destroyed due to poor tactical decisions.

Yes, they do. I've hit 11000 point fleets on the highest difficulty as well as encountered cylon fleets with more than 7 ships.

[Fister Roboto]

Yes they'll start to outnumber you pretty fast and on higher difficulties outright match your fleet in terms of firepower and then some. They'll also jump in reinforcements on some missions as well, just in case your butt wasn't sore enough.

[Spartan Delta 27]

Much appreciated folks. So uh... Is there a difficulty lower than Lieutenant?...

Heh, jokes aside, thank you for the help. I am not overly enthusiastic about combating massive Cylon Fleets, but I should be able to figure out some sort of defense eventually. The First Cylon War was about an uphill fight for survival, which definitely seems to be the case in these fleet configurations.

[Xautos]

my first time, 13 hours in:

i've been playing through on medium first time out, the cylon threat is relentless, you have good fleets but the cylons can outmatch that at times and then by auto-resolve or direct combat, you could lose a ship and when it happens it really slows your progress.

so far i'm fielding 7 full fleets of adamants and berserks with mk1 vipers and raptors in the early stages. i've lost a ship or two in every fleet and it adds up overtime due to limited tylium, time to build and there only being three shipyard slots.

so far i'm holding my own in Alpha, Beta and Gamma with exception to that mission world for chapter 5. my top fleet leader is almost level 9 with the rank of commander and the next one up is level 6.

i'm hoping at some point there will be enough of a break to get to chapter 5 without losing anything long enough to get broken alliance 1 completed for the artemis, viper mk2 and the celestra and then work on replacements for the adamants.

[OMG My Profile Name Does Not Fi]

For new players I always suggest starting on normal mode and turning persistent damage OFF. Persistent damage repair costs won't change anything in the long run in normal mode but will made it more grindy.

Also you can slowly build up by having the Daedalus fleet fall back to the solar system one jump from Ragnar, and slowly expanding from there. Use two fleets to stabilise a system then put a guard fleet there, build another fleet and send two into the next one. Last of all take Helios Alpha. this is a slower but effective technique. Then once you get enough experience for your officers you can move all your 6 fleets (2 in alpha, 1 in each of the rest and Daedalus) together to the 6K and 8K size (personally I skip the making 5K and 7K size fleets but you can do it that way if you like.)

Of course once you know the game well you can rush to the end much much faster with fewer fleets, but having 6 fleets is safe for newer players.

[Spartan Delta 27]

I remember when I was starting out, I tried to keep my fleets below 3,000 or 4,000 points because it kept the Cylon fleets smaller. Adamants were my best friend and I did "grind" a great deal in order to provide every Colony with a small fleet to defend it. I also avoided unlocking most Blueprints, although I do not know if that had an impact on Cylon force configurations or not.

In any case, the fleets would be destroyed pretty easily later on. I build up a massive reserve of Tylium and committed to completing numerous optional missions with my Daidalos Fleet to build up RP. In the end, my first (And only) Campaign completion was the result of putting everything into the Daidalos Battle Group and carrying out necessary operations with the same fleet.

It was unfortunate... However, I am not a very good player at the game and needed all of my focus to be on the one fleet considered most essential to campaign progress.

[Xautos]

i've expanded out to 12 full fleets each with a commander, still have more than enough for an artemis and viper upgrade before launching mission 5. Preparation and economy is always the first thing on my mind before significant advancement into anything else, it has worked countless times over many games. if you are properly prepared you can limit the damage. but yeah, i'm expecting basestars after mission 5 and the cylon opposite number to the viper mk2.

[OMG My Profile Name Does Not Fi]

There was a reply here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnC5CV_tjoQ&list=PLieGDld2WjZgYdDH8nMuzx1SVlU4bJ8BS&index=59

by someone who apparently tested things which states:

Originally posted by Sarracen0:

It is possible that the entire fleet, all its groups added, have some relevance ... although very slight. What has incidence, and a lot, are the blueprints unlocked AND "bought". I must emphasize the "bought". We must also take into account the size of our battle groups;

- If we keep the battle groups below, say, 2000 pts, we will never face fleets above 2500/2900. If we stay at about 3200-3500, we will never face anything higher than 4500. Personally, testing, I have come to chapter 9 (Nukes) playing only with Manticores and Adamants, supported by Vipers Mk 2. And the toughest enemy was a Talon. The reason: Blueprints acquired.

- Nothing happens when you unlock Blueprints, but everything changes if we buy them (even if we do not build). Just "buying" the possibility of making a BS, and the enemy will begin to show us his less friendly face. And it will also do it in secondary missions, where we get those valuable RPs.

- Another test carried out, indicates that the total size of the fleet (all groups) has little or no relevance (in the beginning at least); keeping the groups below 3500, unlocking and using torpedoes and Vipers Mk2 only, we have about 15 battle groups deployed and about 20 highly trained officers ... and again, we have never faced anything greater than a Talon or 3900 pts.
I think that by decreasing the points of our battle groups (let's put it in half), we also get the Cylons to do it in a couple of turns, too.

So it looks like the major factors are the MAXIMUM size of your largest fleet and also what blueprints you BUY (not just unlock)

[Spartan Delta 27]

I figured that the Blueprints unlocked played a serious role. No wonder why I had such difficulty, the new Campaign unlocks a bunch of stuff right out of the starting gate. It asked if I wanted to send over my data from a previous Campaign, maybe that will prevent certain blueprints from unlocking

[2 Straight Homies Doing the Gay]

13000 was the largest I have seen in my campaigns

[OMG My Profile Name Does Not Fi]

Originally posted by Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

13000 was the largest I have seen in my campaigns

So basically on Admiral it forces you to rush to the final mission before you are overwhelmed....

[Sir Wagglepuss III]

Well, not really. A player controlled 8k fleet with a fully levelled officer can wreck an AI fleet twice it's size easily.

Having 7500m range and laser-like accuracy turns Battlestars into the most over-gunned snipers you ever did see.

[OMG My Profile Name Does Not Fi]

Originally posted by Sir Wagglepuss III:

Well, not really. A player controlled 8k fleet with a fully levelled officer can wreck an AI fleet twice it's size easily.

Having 7500m range and laser-like accuracy turns Battlestars into the most over-gunned snipers you ever did see.

Would you mind posting a video of this at some stage as I would like to see how to go about these very tough fights.

Thanks!

[Sir Wagglepuss III]

Once I get myself back in to that point in the campaign, I could probably get that done. I'll just have to remember to do it, lol.