Alright, usually I have a pretty good grip on these games as far as mechanics and things like that. I'll never be AMAZING at it, but I at least get it. I figured it out with the UE and Lumeris, all the factions in EL....

But the Vodyani. I just can NOT figure out the Vodyani and have gone several hundred turns into games only to find myself destroyed by either pirates or massive enemy ships. So I turn to the forums to maybe figure out some strategies on how to not immediately die.

Mainly, I want to complete the quest. I love all the quests for the main factions and want to figure thiers out.  The problem is every time the quest ends up with either A) "Take control of Tabernacle" and its WAY far across the universe, so far I can't reach it until its all claimed up, or B) Its already claimed and I just can't defeat the people there.

The main obstacles are that I can't figure out the combat. I have ships with missiles, some with lasers, some with beams, it doesn't matter, the AI somehow knows exactly how to kneecap my arsenal and take me out. Or they all focus down the Ark so any gains made are immediately lost since I now to rebuild an Ark again. 

What is the best way to outfit an Ark to not immediately die? Missiles? Beams? Lasers? It doesn't seem to matter. If the AI goes full missiles and I go slugs, they still kill me. If i go laser to counter their missiles, they just kill me. Whats the best way to use my small-to-medium hulls to fight back? Also whats the best way to deal with enemy Carriers? I've had 3 Carriers kill my fleet of an Ark, 4 medium attack, 4 medium defender ships easily. They take like no damage. What do I do there?

Whats the best way to keep Manpower up for the Vodyani besides spamming the Manpower boosting production thingie (Penal Labor or something?) It works, but it feels like I'm cheating what should ACTUALLY be working to keep Manpower up.

When you start as Vodyani should you be undocking and landing near enemies or immediately docking and never moving? Regardless of what I do I find myself outstripped in score and resources and if I leech, I lose all science and industry;  if I turtle science, I still get out teche'd and surrounded since I can't produce Arks fast enough. 

Whats the best way to play this blasted faction, I want to know how and if they reach their goals!

Wait wait wait. you are using countering weapons for AI and even so you are losing fleet wars against him? Really? That seems a problem, i think. 

I remember once i used titanium flak cannons i got trough a curiosity to beat a enemy riftborn fleet whit missles. Surprinsingly, even having a few more attack power than me (the enemy fleet) i badly lost the battle, because my flak cannons wheren't able to defeat those incoming missles acorddingly. it's as if flak does not counter missles anymore, or something. maybe its just a personal experience anyway, or the enemy fleet really had far much more attack than i had... or maybe lack of luck to shot the missles down. 

But just another thing: why you are attempting to use laser weapons to counter missles? did you know that missles actually counters lasers, because they have more DPS than lasers? i once tried to fight a fleet whit missles wearing lasers, but i figured out missles does massive damage for each shot,and is really effective compared to laser weapons. I do only recommend you utilizing laser weapons if the enemy fleet has kinetic defense instead of energy. that way you can rack up some serious damage to defeat the enemy AI fleet. 

Also, if you are losing so many battles, did you made sure your battle card counters the enemy battle card? maybe the problem is the range phase. After each battle you lose against the AI, check the post match advanced information. i never saw it till after a very long time, but after every battle there is information about each battle phase you find in game. and whit that information, you can know every step that hapned in battle that led to your defeat, or victory. 

Also about the part you said if there is actually another way to grow man power, i can say: Yes, there is . it is to increase your food production as vodianny. 

But then you can say: What? Food production? but vodianny wastes 50% of all food they have! building food production resources is useless therefore. 

Lie. 50% does NOT mean 100%. Plus, your vodianny pop still grow normally whit food. so you can "cheat in" extra vod population by increasing your food production in systems. 

Here is a tip: Build the first vod pop for essence, but do not buy the second pop. And when you get the first system upgrade (or ark in this case) and attach it to a system, buy the first two vody pop upgrades. but after that, after buying those pop upgrades and stopping there, build every industry upgrade you can, then food upgrade, then science upgrade. following this order. then your pop will grow normally and you will be able to build even more arks whit less costs. that way your VOD pop will grow normally and after a dcecent amount of turns (about... 10 turns or something) you will naturally achieve extra vod pop. 

Its a tatic i use often when playing vod, and after discovering its food mechanic. 

Also military penance is a very good tatic. in order to not lose as vod, i recommend you to always retrofit you arks for them to have essence modules (i honestly think vodianny is bugged on this essence module thingy) and when you keep upgrading your vodianny ship (i think you upgrade your vodianny ark when you research new military stages or build more arks), once you attach your ark in a system, retrofit the ark so it is filled, but filled, but FILLED to the brim whit essence modules on the place there was engine modules. and whenever you see a enemy army coming to your ark, retrofit your ark one turn before to fill it whit speed and RUUUUUUUUUUN for your vody life xD 

Also, are you playing against endless difficulty AI? i was playing whit this same difficulty level AI and i find it a bit too easy. Only a bit, i mean. its description is far more scary than its actual gameplay... one day i found out that one ai in his home system did not colonized 2 of his planets because they where... lava and ice? what? plus he also researched some useless upgrades (in my opinion) that i otherwise would never research in my life.... 

Hey just a tip: after you feel more safer whit your gameplay, you could try playing against real players. Multiplayer battles are much more intersting than single player battles ,right? :)

i also like 1x1. they are pretty cool! :)

Vind wrote:

Forget about ark - ark is useless in combat right now even then it is upgraded to level 2 - it cant kill 3 smallest pirate vessels. Ark problem is bugged combat and the cost of upgrading - it is still 4x per slot but all weapon/modules effects nerfed to 1x 2x 3x per upgrade level.

Also ty for the info. that means ark power doubles per system level? cool!

Ok i can give few tips that works for me:

1.Make multiple ship designs, it is hard sometime to keep track of all of them, but if you wish to improve as a player, that is what it takes.
2.Vodyani Heroes have specific traits that increases power of laser weapons, so late game you probably would like some laser weapons, if you would manage to trade of projectile also great, but for the last possible weapon tree upgrade should be lasers.
3. Starting Vodyani ships (explorers) are pretty strong, except leecher (even tho is flexible on his build options), you can use then to start some early action.
4. Late game ARK hits like a truck, even tho it was nerfed(also bonus damage modules stacking removed), still if protected he can deal tons of damage and be usefull as a sieger as his utility modules power ar multiplied by a lot.

Also, make sure you properly manage your flotillas in relation to your battle card.  Letting your ships float into the wrong combat range means death lategame.  If you're running missiles and they get to close range with flak, write off that fleet as lost.  Examine your flotillas and where they're going to try to go according to your card.  Once you have enough command points to have more than one flotilla per fleet, taking advantage of their ranges becomes an important factor.  Sometimes it's as simple as loading up a couple heavy ships with tons of defenses and flak and then leaving them alone in a forward flotilla while your missile boats hang back and blast the bejesus out of everything at long range.