After a few abortive starts when I was learning about the game, I decided to start playing a game as the Sophons (on normal difficulty) and see it through to the end. I began by emphasising research and rapid expansion without building too many ships. I seemed to be in a fairly quiet part of the galaxy, so this strategy worked fine at first. I eventually came across the Hissho and we lived in peace for a few years until our borders started encroaching on one another. They eventually declared war, and this was a bit alarming at first since I had very few ships and they sent wave upon wave of their own after me. However, given that my economy was good and that I had superior technology I was able to counter them and eventually took four of their systems. As it stands, I have pushed them back to the point where there is just one system acting as a chokepoint between their systems and mine. I decided that this was the moment to consolidate, so I left two large fleets at the chokepoint and started to build up my newly taken systems.



Now, I think I've read somewhere that this is a known bug, but Hissho fleets keep sailing past my chokepoint and straight into my territory. They pop up a turn or two later and try to invade my systems, usually the ones that I recently took from them. As a consequence, I've had to build a couple of fleets to fly around and pounce on any enemy ships that pop up in my territory, whack-a-mole style. This has quickly become tedious to the point where I even tried for a cease fire with the Hissho. However, they weren't having any of it because of "insufficient war weariness" (if it had been me, I'd have cut my losses and taken the offer!).



Anyway, I imagine this feature will be fixed in future releases of the game. In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with this? What was a really enjoyable game up to this point has stopped being fun! I don't think that the Hissho can possibly recover from their losses, but I can't concentrate on building a fleet to go and finish them off because my resources are being used to deal with their behind-the-lines "guerilla" tactics. Can I perhaps employ the same strategy on them and send a fleet to directly invade their home system or am I condemned to slowly grinding them down?

Moving past blockades is one of the most popular known bugs; see the links in my sig. I have found that most of the guerilla fleets are small ones, maybe even a single scout. So what I do is to make sure that I have one modern corvette class ship, or even a destroyer, stationed at *every* world. Usually if the guerilla is a single scout, it will move into the system, see there are no "easy pickings", and move on. If you do this at every system, there is no weak point for them to attack.



Sometimes, if I have a small front, and the region I own is deep, I move the defensive fleets out of the systems which are far from the front. But usually I just leave them there, or set up an "assembly line" where the safe, small planets are the ones in charge of building the corvettes.

I also played a game where I got the whack-a-mole feel. Not only because of the known passing bug, but because the AI sent wave of endless ships at me until I finally killed him. He must have been churning out ships at a high rate on every planet and mostly sent them one by one, but at times grouping up max fleets too.



I don't pay much attention to it however, I believe it will be changed with tweaking as it is a large part of what is left to do.

He who defends all, defends none. I would build up my fleet and take a few choice worlds before you could get enough fleet to stop me.

davea wrote:
Moving past blockades is one of the most popular known bugs; see the links in my sig. I have found that most of the guerilla fleets are small ones, maybe even a single scout. So what I do is to make sure that I have one modern corvette class ship, or even a destroyer, stationed at *every* world. Usually if the guerilla is a single scout, it will move into the system, see there are no "easy pickings", and move on. If you do this at every system, there is no weak point for them to attack.



Sometimes, if I have a small front, and the region I own is deep, I move the defensive fleets out of the systems which are far from the front. But usually I just leave them there, or set up an "assembly line" where the safe, small planets are the ones in charge of building the corvettes.

Blockade running is probably the most aggravating problem with the game at the moment.

Slar wrote:
He who defends all, defends none. I would build up my fleet and take a few choice worlds before you could get enough fleet to stop me.

The strategy I describe is a workaround for the bug, where ships can move past my major fleets at choke points.

when ships move through a wormhole, the worm hole uses all of the ships movement points stoping them for a turn. when i play i try to use wormholes as my borders with other empires because it defeats the blockade running problem. if you can push you enemy out of your constellation and put big fleets on your wormhole systems. when i attack another constellation i try to rush every system at once or i just take the exit systems to my wormholes. my empire becomes impervious!..... until the cravers get warp drive and appear everywhere in huge numbers.



my poor UE... victory was so close...

Good point. Right now, wormholes work the way they "should", by preventing ships from sneaking through the defense fleet.

davea wrote:
Good point. Right now, wormholes work the way they "should", by preventing ships from sneaking through the defense fleet.

Yes, I agree, that is why they make good choke points. Important thing to remember if your just started playing the game.

davea wrote:
The strategy I describe is a workaround for the bug, where ships can move past my major fleets at choke points.

I understand, but it opens you up to other tactics. Such as I have stated.

I generally keep large fleets near my borders, especially on choke points, but I also keep a fleet or two in reserve, behind the lines to reinforce struggling fronts, and dealing with blockade runners, pirates, and other threats. Of course, it depends on what your game style is too.

If you think about it though, quickly bypassing the blockade system with small fast fleets and striking at the enemies softer inner systems is a sound strategy, if most of their battle ready fleets are at the choke point. As doing so would draw the fleets back to deal with the danger presented to their support systems. After the fleets fall back you then send in your main force to wipe out the remaining fleets at the choke.

It depends how you visualize the strings. I visualize each string as having a fixed, small exit point in a different part of the star system. Then it is hard to imagine how a fleet could exit one string, cross the system to another string, and enter before the defense fleet could react. The defense fleet knows well where these points are, and it is not like you can really hide in open space.

That is a good point. I forgot to take into account how strings actually work. I have been just thinking of them as possible lane-ways regardless of the how or why.

I agree, it seems that there would be atleast a skirmish, even if the enemy just retreated. Maybe the ships that do, loose X health (depending on the ships, weapons etc) but they do get to go through the system.

davea wrote:
It depends how you visualize the strings. I visualize each string as having a fixed, small exit point in a different part of the star system. Then it is hard to imagine how a fleet could exit one string, cross the system to another string, and enter before the defense fleet could react. The defense fleet knows well where these points are, and it is not like you can really hide in open space.

Slar wrote:
I agree, it seems that there would be atleast a skirmish, even if the enemy just retreated. Maybe the ships that do, loose X health (depending on the ships, weapons etc) but they do get to go through the system.

The devs have agreed the current behavior is a bug. After they make the release with their "fix", we can discuss again whether we like the behavior. Hopefully it will be soon.

davea wrote:
It depends how you visualize the strings. I visualize each string as having a fixed, small exit point in a different part of the star system. Then it is hard to imagine how a fleet could exit one string, cross the system to another string, and enter before the defense fleet could react. The defense fleet knows well where these points are, and it is not like you can really hide in open space.

That is visualized very good in Sins of a Solar Empire, which has a similar strings design. In Sins you also cannot change way after entering a warp link. It takes time to get to the other link exits in the system, in which a present system fleet can intercept. You can go back fairly fast though, as the link is where you start in the system. It is also possible to mine and trap entries in Sins.