I have been playing as the sowers. And out of all of my games, this has been the best one. In my tiny galaxy 5 player game ,I Actually sieged an important enemy. They are The Cravers, I have managed to take my corner of the galaxy... fought off a bunch of pirates (that was very fun). I am on turn 140 I believe and it doesnt seem like The Cravers will put up much of a fight now. All I have to do is take over the rest of their 4 planets... What is really makeing me nervous is the Sophons... they are number one on the points list. They are my allies, at least now anyway. But their fleets are huge, I dont know if they fought The Cravers and bled them to death , since The Cravers have no more ships on their planets, besides the ones I have been fighting and defeating.

But Even if The Sophons are my allies, how can I win this game? Can I win with an expansion victory, Since I do not think I can take on the Sophons with my military ships? I still have a long way to go for fighters and bombers, which seem like one of the best unreachable options. I chose tech that increased my production and so forth which is why I dont have that military tech yet.



I think that once our common enemy is vanquished... I must face The Sophons and their military looks to have heavy hard hitting fleets. Thanks for reading my story haha.



P.S. I Have Augria (spell check) as one of my colonized planets! yay!

Be ready, the Sophons are coming, especially if you plan to keep expanding. Are you playing against United Empire or Sheredyn? If so, be ready for an economic loss.

Check on which of the conditions you are leading. A high score can be simply a bloated number by the AI because they fight so much with a swarm of fleets. Besides conditions (number 1 at research etc) combat will provide score points as well so an enemy outscoring you doesnt necessarily mean hes better then you are. Mouse-hover overall the tabs at the top of the screen to check if you lead in any of em....focus on the one you are number one in.



The Sophons are usually very good at research so thats one hard nut to crack already. If they have more systems then you do then they ll probably will do better then you economically too. You can always surprise-end a match via "supremacy victory" which requires you to invade and hold all home systems in the match for 1 turn. Even if the Sophons are superior military you can do this easily especially if they are allies at the moment, you just gotta prepare accordingly.



I would suggest a couple invasion fleets to ensure you ll be able to capture the required systems in the fastest way possible (about 8 turns at normal game speed) and accompany them with a couple guarding fleets. These guarding fleets should be pure tank designs (repair module, armor + defense only). Move em into position and prepare for a declaration of war out of the blue. Its important that you can start the invasion in the same turn or 1 turn later then the declaration else the enemy will simply swarm the home system with more defending fleets making it impossible for you to clear orbit before you can start invading.



Its possible that the home system is unguarded. In that case simply declare war and start invading right away. Do this as fas as you can, if you take your time chances are that the AI will send reinforcements to clear orbit.



IF its guarded build and send in 2 or more DPS fleets to clear orbit upon declaration of war. These fleets will be pure glasscannons (power module + as many weapons as you can stack) and are your ONE shot to clear orbit to start invading before more defenders arrive. Place a hero to increase destructive power.







Do the above at every home system in the match and you ll win in 8 turns

Woah Im going to have to try that then MTB-Fritz. Thank you. Good thing that I saved my game. I got cought up with the Vaulters and got to win with an expansion victory. Now with all this tactical info you provided I think that I can takle some intresting turns vs the Sophons. I have a bombing fleet in mind, to take out thier system upgrades... I dont know how much that will help. The sizes of the sophons fleet are about 20 per little icon I see. so far I have been able to see 3 icons scattered around the map... I was having trouble scouting far when I was at war.



I will have to ID all of the Sophon´s military fleets and cut them off or slow them down and proceed to do what you described... Ofcourse I must prepare my Tanking fleets and DPS fleets. Because my fleets seem to be a mixed mess right now. Im still learning.



Now ..... to do some battle!