religion to strong

[Slothful Gecko]

Am I the only one butthurt because of the Church ships? Their setup is really strong, and it's not the "last sector of the chapter" type strong. Literally every Church ship goes with Decay Gun, Engine Disrupt, Hull breacher and a lotta time a Freezer (all that + 2 0fficers, one of them has the cooldown perk 100% of the time), then whole bunch of frigates and long range cruisers, including the accursed Impaler. I get that their shmug is fighting the debuffed enemy to have buff against them, but the weapon setup is already tiresome and a half. Your ships get engine disrupted, those who are not disrupted - freezed (and by the Oberon if you play on Kosh-Buenida ship you are as slow as my download speed), then you go against buffed frigates (because you are already decaying and they have Church Tech), and all that is timed because they have Hull Breacher and sometimes the accursed Impaler. This makes the shmug into "hold the line" which is really hard to break through, if you're not playing the kamikaze strat. Overall: religion to strong.

[Samseng Yik]

My best ship is also the church one.
It is the only 1 I can win all campaign mission with easiest feeling.
Yes just like what you said, I dedicate at least 2 weapon for the damaging enemy ship.
With 2 AOE weapon to clear units and play defensively.

[Dwang Zhongson]

Get the shield guy. Otherwise you will suffer.

[demycat]

I can fully confirm this, even after a recent update, pass for Kosh-Buenida on a hard level (I don’t know how it is on medium or easy) against the church is unrealistic, you literally have to be very lucky to get at least something long-range on the hull of ships, otherwise you will SUFFER LITERALLY!

[Scr(A)tch]

Your best friend here are regen abilities or shields. Otherwise, cycle squadrons as soon as they are hit by a Destabilizer, you can even bait a shot with a single squadron out, then quickly deploy everyone.

With the last update, asteroids also prevent debuffs, so standing there is a good idea. You may also want to use Debris Catapult to spawn more.

The moment they deploy an Impaler is generaly your occasion to strike decisively as it's an otherwise harmless unit. Don't kill it, just reset its timer with a few hits if needed.

Playing as Hammer is smoother with an officer for squadron speed.

[demycat]

Originally posted by Scr(A)tch:

Your best friend here are regen abilities or shields. Otherwise, cycle squadrons as soon as they are hit by a Destabilizer, you can even bait a shot with a single squadron out, then quickly deploy everyone.

With the last update, asteroids also prevent debuffs, so standing there is a good idea. You may also want to use Debris Catapult to spawn more.

The moment they deploy an Impaler is generaly your occasion to strike decisively as it's an otherwise harmless unit. Don't kill it, just reset its timer with a few hits if needed.

Playing as Hammer is smoother with an officer for squadron speed.

The problem is that at a difficult level there is not enough money, and in order to get at least something from this, it must be a very huge luck.

[Scr(A)tch]

Originally posted by demycat:

Originally posted by Scr(A)tch:

Your best friend here are regen abilities or shields. Otherwise, cycle squadrons as soon as they are hit by a Destabilizer, you can even bait a shot with a single squadron out, then quickly deploy everyone.

With the last update, asteroids also prevent debuffs, so standing there is a good idea. You may also want to use Debris Catapult to spawn more.

The moment they deploy an Impaler is generaly your occasion to strike decisively as it's an otherwise harmless unit. Don't kill it, just reset its timer with a few hits if needed.

Playing as Hammer is smoother with an officer for squadron speed.

The problem is that at a difficult level there is not enough money, and in order to get at least something from this, it must be a very huge luck.

Not enough money for what exactly?

Ironically OP didn't mention the most unfair weapon of Church ships, Executionner Laser or whatever it's called in English. Destabilizer is annoying but lets you some time to react and either withdraw or heal but that laser almost one-shots fighters and cruisers if they're debuffed (58 damage) and generally means any damaged squadron is in danger of immediate destruction.

Another strat that works really well against the last boss is defending with 3 squadrons and backstabbing with a stealth fighter.

[Zagreus]

Executioner is the most annoying thing especially if you have van guard units.
It will favour impalers if you leave out a sacrifice at right time.

Against church you have to target the gaps between the guns and enemies and hit the ship.
Use a stealth or teleporter unit or just a drone you send the long way around.
Its a battle of attrition so does take longer than normal but quite doable.

Still end boss hurt and wrecked a lot on hard
https://ibb.co/Jsf8qSm

[Jame$]

For church, these are the squadron types I use so that I can make an initial approach: Nano, shields, bender drive, or Atemporal. You need some sort of way to approach the other side of the field safely or your squadron is guaranteed to lose every fight.

Depending on what classes of squadrons you spawn in with, the Church ship goes on the offensive or remains in a defensive posture. If they are stationary and have one cruiser, they will break formation if you are four tiles away.

I found that if I can just occupy their initial frigates instead of killing them outright, I can do enough heat damage to keep their weapons offline while I chip away at their health. This requires alternating between attacking the weapons bay and the bridge. Cruisers are good for this as they can do a lot of damage on their own.