Stuck (and getting frustrated) on Deadlock+ Broken Alliances

[FearlessJDK]

Really the title says it.

I picked up the base game a while back. Played a few hours, got to maybe the 6th mission and left it. Someone had said that I should try it with Broken Alliances which I'm now doing.

But I'm not getting the Deadlock campagin missions showing up. So I'm not getting new ships. The Jupiter in particular. Meanwhile I have Cylon fleets showing up *A LOT* and it's like trying to put out fires that just keep spreading. I'm also hesitent to spend on ships because I know new stuff is coming.

If anyone has advice I'd be glad to hear it. At this point I'm tempted to just re-start the game and not do BA, but I'd rather not scrap all the time I've put in.

[USS Midway veteran]

Hello Fearless, You don't have to restart, but if you do, you have the choice of skipping the tutorial - the first four missions - and starting with Mission 5. You don't have to go all the way back to Mission 1 when you play Deadlock/Broken Alliance together.

Deadlock and Broken Alliance combined will give you about a 22 Mission campaign - 18 missions if you skip the tutorial - and you won't see the Jupiter battlestar until about the last four missions. However, you should obtain the first battlestar - the Artemis - around Mission 6 and the Minerva around Mission 9 - if I remember correctly. It's been a while since I have played the original campaign.

Other new ships can be obtained by getting the Reinforcement Pack DLC, but they are not necessary to play Deadlock/Broken Alliance.

The first new ships - and you are really going to need them - are the Artemis battlestar and the Celestra support ship and then the Minerva battlestar...in that order. You'll really need that Artemis battlestar because you are going to start facing the Cylon Revenant around Mission 6 or 7. You can defeat the Revenant with an Adamant fleet, but it will take some fancy evade-and-missile-firing maneuvers to do it.

When played together, Deadlock and Broken Alliance missions will be mixed, they won't be consecutive, so it will be different. The Deadlock mission where you obtain Galactica and the Jupiter battlestar won't happen until about mission 18. You'll have a lot to do before then.

If you think you need more experience with the game before you tackle Broken Alliance, there is nothing wrong with that. The most difficult missions of the campaign will be Broken Alliance missions. Deadlock is 14 missions, Broken Alliance will provided an additional eight. You won't get the Minerva battlestar with Deadlock or the Celestra, but you will get the Artemis, and it's the better ship anyway so it's really the only one you really need to save Tylium for.

Yes, the experience is better by playing them together, but it is also more difficult. On your first time through, you really need to play at the Lieutenant level...that's the same as "Easy,"
- but it's not "Easy," it's a challenge.

[FearlessJDK]

Thanks Midway,

I'm pretty sure I'm playing on normal difficulty.

The frustration I'm having is that I'm running in circles. I've been defending colonies for forever and without much to show for my time.

Most games drip-feed you new cool stuff. I'm not finding much of that. And the BA missions are irritating. I had one where they jumped next to the Daidlos and I didn't notice. I blew up most of the enemy fleet, but still lost.

And I'm not finding the story or the gameplay enough to make me want to keep going.

I'm not saying the game's bad. I'm mostly enjoying myself. But I'm winning most engagments without losing ships or having to think too hard about what I'm doing.

So....I dunno. I'll keep at it for a bit i guess.

[USS Midway veteran]

If you do continue or have to start over, I have to tell you this game has a challenging learning curve. There are a lot of variables and for someone who is just beginning it may really be a good idea to play on Lieutenant when you first get started. It's what I had to do.

I almost gave it up too, but I backed up, played on the Lieutenant level and learned the game first before proceeding. Almost three years later, I have beaten everything on the Admiral level, but it took some time.

It's not a game you want to rush through. You'll have to become knowledgeable about both Colonial and Cylon ships as well as both offensive and defensive weapons and what they can do.

Broken Alliance missions to me were the hardest to play starting out. I played Deadlock first and then installed Broken Alliance and the Reinforcement Pack on my second play-through. I was much better prepared and had a lot more fun with the game.

PS. You can find all the battles on YouTube with someone else demonstrating what the ships can do, what you are expected to do and a play-by-play of each and every battle....if that will help. There are also some very good guides written by "Sir Wagglepuss III" on Steam that can explain every ship and weapon in detail. A lot of good information.

[Half Phased]

When you say no missions are showing up, do you have a broken alliance mission available? The base campaign and broken alliance are in lockstep with each other, you can’t progress one unless the other has no active missions at that point.

If that’s not the case, what’s your quorum status? You need at least 6 colonies in the quorum to progress the campaign.

[USS Midway veteran]

One last point, defending the colonies is not enough. You need to establish fleets on the colonies so you will keep the Tylium and Requisition Points coming.

It is very important to place a fleet with an officer on each colony. There are 12 of them and you have to have at least 6 to progress. By establishing fleets on a colony - and I suggest you begin with Helios Gamma, which includes Scorpia, Sagittaron and Libran, right next to Ragnar - you form a foundation for further progress and help to keep the Alliance together.

You need at least Six Colonies with you in order to progress. If you don't, mission progress will stop and you'll be stuck until you do have the six. That may be what is happening. Check your "Intel" to see how many colony planets are in the Alliance....that is key.

[FearlessJDK]

Thanks,

I seem to have a handle on it. Many many defence fleets parked over the planets.

And I was puzzled because it seemed to be giving me nothing but Broken Alliance missions for a while.

But progress is being made and I finally unlocked the Jupiter.

i know I'm complaining a lot but man the UI for a lot of the game is clunky. Doing, like anything is irksome. Adding ships, promoting officers. I've been doing it for a while but I still lose track.

I'd be curious as to takes on the other DLC. With the Steam sale I can pick it up for not a lot. Is it more of the same? Or is there more to it?

Also, I'll confess to finding some of Broken Alliances a bit cheap. Sneaking past and shelling Daidlos, or trying to focus down civilan ships. Even on multple attempts I found them irritating.

So, I dunno if I should pick up the expansions.

[USS Midway veteran]

The upcoming DLCs are similar, turn-based battles will continue. However, new ships, new weapons, more variety in missions are all part of the game. You don't have to worry as much any more about keeping the Colonial Alliance together when you get past Sin and Sacrifice...as a matter of fact everything changes with Resurrection; you start playing the game from the Galactica's CIC. If you can get any of it on sale, go for it.

[gmuir77]

One thing that took me a while to realize: there's no timer. You don't have to take story missions unless you want to. (Resource missions with countdowns you do need to take before they run out, if you want to complete them.)

The dumbest thing you could do (like I did!) was rush the story missions. Build resources with the resource missions so you have enough dakka to tackle the next story mission.

The one thing you need to consider is the Cylons step up in proportion to your fleet size so you need to make sure you grow a couple of good fleets with admirals at the same time and have the tylium reserves to beef up their ships proportionately. The dumb thing is to get one admiral up to 7k and have all the cylons step up while your other fleets don't even have admirals and are stuck at 4k with bum ships.

[FearlessJDK]

Thanks again for the great advice! This game has a great community. I remember when I picked it up around Sept or so and playing a bit and having some issues I remember people being very helpful.

I think I'll pick up the DLC's. Looks like some fun to be had. And there's nothing on my "to-play" list that can't wait.

[phily]

Throughout the game, Helios Alpha is the system that is gonna be targeted the most. Generally I have Daedalus stationed there, along with my strongest fleets, since that is where the majority of Cylon fleets end up and I can replace losses quicker. I find the two systems on the left are generally left alone, you will have a Cylon fleet or two end up there, but they're usually not a big issue.

If you fortify planets, then you get better bonuses. I very rarely, if ever, had shortages even on the highest difficulties. Also don't be afraid to use the auto-calculate battles feature, in the long run you'll probably save a ton more ships than you lose since the auto-calc seems to favour Colonial fleets.

[FearlessJDK]

Originally posted by Phil:

Throughout the game, Helios Alpha is the system that is gonna be targeted the most. Generally I have Daedalus stationed there, along with my strongest fleets, since that is where the majority of Cylon fleets end up and I can replace losses quicker. I find the two systems on the left are generally left alone, you will have a Cylon fleet or two end up there, but they're usually not a big issue.

Yes! This I learned. Most other systems I could get by with a single big defensive fleet. But Helios Alpha had two with back-up ships to replace losses.

[gmuir77]

I've had the auto-battle see a single Adamant fend off a 9k fleet. It's just rolling the dice and it came up lucky but I couldn't imagine how an actually fought battle would go like that. Best I can figure is you boost from the cylons, use the viper to fend off missiles, dock it when the raiders get there.... It still doesn't make any sense. If the Cylons were dead still and not moving it would still take probably five minutes just to kill them all with the guns.