Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

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1537 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes ago

skrunge

Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by Privateers when I'm trying to intercept them? I am playing the Robotic Emporium.

1537 days, 14 hours, 27 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Don't intercept them.

Step 1. Lay mines.
Step 2. Lay more mines.
Step 3. Go to Step 1 and repeat.

1537 days, 14 hours, 26 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

As a privateer player myself I (sadly) agree with Bacchus.

1537 days, 14 hours, 25 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Oh, and trade for a Loki or Pop ships.

1537 days, 14 hours, 20 minutes ago

challengespaceyard

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Like Bacchus, I recommend NOT intercepting them, as they are baiting your fleet to meet with them so that they can rob and board your ships.

What they do is that they have one (or more) of their ships run out of fuel on purpose, so as to prevent attack, accompanied by multiple cloaked ships (which you can't see without a Loki or Glory device, both of which are foreign to your race).

Minefields are the best you can do against them. It's not entirely fool proof, but it can cause a few of their ships to smack these mines. All of their standard ships are destroyed in a single minehit, except for the hardly used Dwarfstar, and even it is crippled at 99% damage.

1537 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes ago

skrunge

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

SO much help. Thank you!

1533 days, 14 hours, 16 minutes ago

skrunge

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

I need wise council. I'm the Robots and I am playing against the Privateers. I have a very good economic system. Plenty of stocked Golems and Cats paws consistently pouncing across the map. I 've laid Mines ALL over the map and avoided intercepting their ships as the above advice told me to. I was very confident it was time to attack. (I haven't seen most of their ships the entire game and the ones I have encountered were dinky). On the scoreboard I'm the man by alot... I attack the starbase and take it without effort. The next turn he/she boards and steals 5 Golems and robs all my others. He/she turned the entire game around in 1 turn. Now I'm completely screwed. How do I fight privateers? I laid mines and didn't intercept. I'm totally lost on what to do. What they did to me was quite impressive and I will not give up. But what do I do??? If they can take my ships and I can never do any thing about it maybe I'm playing as the wrong race :)

1533 days, 14 hours, 15 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

1533 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Also when you send a ship into attack a planet and you think it will be taken you can try intercepting it, that is dangerous if the Privateer does run the towing ship dry.

1533 days, 14 hours, 2 minutes ago

skrunge

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

You said "change directions into planets" and "move those ships to different waypoints"...do you mind elaborating a tad. I really want to fully understand. Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it.

1533 days, 14 hours, 0 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Yes if the planet is 2+ turns out shift the way point going there so he cannot land on the point you will be after each turn.
If going to a cluster of planets, aim for one and change direction to another planet and attack that one, that way if he has a mess of cloakers waiting for you could be wrong planet.

1533 days, 13 hours, 58 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

When you take a planet from your privateer enemy:

Do so with as few ships as possible. Giant carriers work very well. Also look at the Instrumentality, it's small (for you) and holds a ton of fuel, and it'll still usually pop a planet.

Once the planet is taken, immediately change the FC, dump all your fuel to the surface, and set mission to beam up fuel. If he robs, it will be before you beam up the fuel, and when he tows you it will be after. You'll be nicely fueled up and likely pop the ship.

Dump clans if you can, and get off the planet as soon as possible.

Planets are hiding places for pirates, as are warp wells, and debris disks if there are any.

Also helpful, increase and decrease your mass as drastically as possible as often as possible. This will make it more difficult for your enemy to figure zero fuel tow drops and miss traps more often.

Happy hunting!

1533 days, 13 hours, 57 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Make sure you're doing all of your work inside your huge minefields. Always have your primary enemy set to Privs. Go for his planets and starbases, not his ships. Your mines will kill his ships.

Once you take a priv planet, he will try to rob you or tow you off. Your mines deal with the tow problem, and if you dump your fuel on the planet and set mission to "beamup fuel", you'll avoid getting robbed also. Tow some of your cat's paws so they cannot be attacked.

1533 days, 13 hours, 39 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Also, build Golems that are just going to be used against the Privateers with NO beams. They will more easily take out bases (substantially so) and if the Privateers do take your ship then they can not rob with it. But follow the suggestions above to make even taking that ship expensive for them. And they can also not get out of your minefield easily.

1533 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

One last thing is vary the masses on the ships as much as you can, when you go in the planet after you take it load it up so that if they tow it falls short of the point (if they try and run the towing ship dry).

1533 days, 12 hours, 48 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Building Golems w/o beams is a valid strategy against Privs only. Only use it if you are sure your next enemy won't be Crystals (or Colonies). Otherwise, I'd recommend you don't intentionally build w/o beams.

Privs can rob you only if they know where you'll be next turn. Planets are the easiest places to predict. You invade, they wait for you planet-side cloaked (or out of fuel with a cloaked ship under it/them). Next turn they rob and tow/capture you - easy as pie. To counter that, do what others suggested. Transfer all but 1 unit of fuel to the planet and set mission to "b/u fuel". Since "Rob" is before "b/u fuel" in Host order, you'll still get robbed (of that 1 fuel only) but will get fuel from the planet after Rob. So any ship attempting to tow/capture you that turn will fail and will fight your ship instead (your PE should be set to Priv, of course. ALWAYS set to Priv).

Another Priv strategy is to tow your ship off the planet to a cloaked "wolf pack" in mid-space. To counter that - MINE! Then mine some more. Did I mention you should mine? Oh yeah, I forgot, you should definitely mine. As a Robot, you are best suited for the job.

But the general strategy (as others have mentioned) is to make your next arrival point unpredictable. That means don't set a way point for more than 2 turns' travel time. If you need to traverse > 81 LYs, set a way point for 81 LYs only. Next turn, set another way point. You can't let the Privs know where you'll end up next turn. If you are attacking a 5-planet cluster, aim for 1 planet, but then switch your target and hit another one. And lay LOTS of mines to cover your movements. If Priv has to chase you through the mines - you won most of the battle already.

1533 days, 11 hours, 52 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

Darn it, we Privateers get accused of such dastardly deeds! I guarantee you that the robbing is not by order of the Captain, it is rogue crew members. So, you really should assume that we are just taking a friendly stroll around the planets. Please believe this, I wouldn't lie......

Ikester - President of United Privateers Local 343

1533 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes ago

RE: Question: How do I avoid getting my ships stolen by...

And find a friend. The Feds and Lizards are the best at handling the Privateers because the Loki is the supreme Privateer killing ship. Failing that, make friends with either a Fascist (POP ships), Crystal (Web Mines), or the Birds (their capital ships cloak so are easier to protect from robbing).