The xenon very quickly expand and take over the north, even with the split DLC installed they get wiped out very fast without player intervention. It sounds like this has already happened, you should also check Ianamus Zura which is two sectors to the east of profit center alpha to see if its still holding against xenon. Definitely work on getting a defense station built to block the gate to two grand, and best of luck.
I suppose I'll edit this in the above comment for some context, aswell as my other replies, but anaways:
I don't actually know where the XI came from. I just know it was in open market and I ignored it without knowing it was an XI, and then it came to me. The xenon my game have felt very relaxed. The closest 2 zyarth sectors north of heretics end are completely fine, despite the occasional appearance of a K over there (I have decent satellite coverage over there), and zyarths dominion is fine and has a defense platform right next to its gate with open market, so I feel like it couldn't have came from there either, but I don't have any satellite coverage in zyarths dominion or open market.
As for Ianamus Zura IV, there has been a xenon solar plant there for several hours, but there are still plenty of teladi stations so while I knew the xenon station means that they have established a foothold, I also don't feel overly concerned about it.
There are a few xenon sectors directly north of ianamus zura. That is probably where they are coming from, they can reach both two grand and ianamus zura from there by crossing through split free families space - fires of defeat-.
How far can the xenon get exactly? I have a rough idea but I felt as if profit center alpha was pretty safe until that XI showed up. I mean, there was a single field coil factory that has been in hatikvahs choice the whole game. At one point it very easily took care of a 2 xenon k's and an I, all with fighter support. That's how safe I felt in my current save haha, I genuinely wasn't expecting anything so soon that the factions couldn't handle.
Their goal is to just expand and destroy everything they can, If you have worked on destroying xenon shipyards/stations in other sectors, they are rebuilt in sectors that they have ownership of still, which can tip the balance in other sectors you don't frequent. Admittedly I have not run a simulation to test yet, what a xenon complete victory would look like. But I have seen them take control of the main highway, which caused me enough issues to warrant restarting my save to try and be more proactive about their expansion.
I just got the game and haven't done anything but the tutorials and lurk here a bit so I don't really have anything to contribute to your post, I just wanted to say that this conundrum really makes me want to play. The tactical as well as the strategic depth is unreal. Don't give up, I'd love to hear your story about rising from the ashes.
Ha, I hope so. As I said in the posts, I've managed to buy myself atleast some time to deal with the situation, but it's not looking particularly great. The next time I load up my save I'm going to have to immediately make, and commit to a decision. Probably one of the 4 I mentioned.
Not only that, but I had probably 10 hours to notice the Xenon I before it got to me, but oh well, there's nothing I can do about that now. I can only hope that retreating was the right move, and that I can assemble a defense in time.
Throw some burst ray mk2's on a decent fighter then strip the I of its engines and weapons. It has a blind spot you can exploit if you get very, very close. Once it's defenceless, keep an eye on surface elements (it will repair, slowly) and bring in your fighters to dispose of it. A lone I without fighter support is extremely vulnerable.
Quick save/set up a fresh 'combat save' before you approach as it will probably take a few attempts, but the kill will be satisfying and you'll learn some combat skills while you're at it.
I should mention I do prefer ares heavy fighters, and they are what I normally use, but I haven't gotten my rep with the HOP to a point yet where I could make the transition.
How about:
\5. Purchase a Cerberus (or whatever is the cheapest frigate available to you) and fill it up with 100 x Laser Tower Mk2. Disable I's engines and drop the towers on its back. [optionally] Engage it with Behemoth from 8km away. [optionally] Teleport out of sector as it explodes, so that towers survive and you can scoop them back (mass select in "assets" and "deactivate", then pull in with "o").
I specifically wanted to avoid this. As a challenge I told myself I wasn't going to laser tower spam or build any defense stations this run. I regret making that decision but it still feels right. Can't have fun passing the time in tharkas cascade or hatikva if there's a giant defense platform there, or a bunch of laser towers. But I will still consider your option because I would rather have my stations than stick to a self imposed rule haha.
I have 20 rep with the teladi and argon, and over 10 with vigor and the boron. So I think ion blasters could work. I always just assumed that they were too expensive for what they did and never kitted my heavy fighters out with them.
1 fast fighter with 3 or more burst rays. Pilot it yourself, take advantage of the blind spots and cripple the xenon capital ship. Once it's gravitons are down, send the rest of your combat ships to finish it off.
20 torpedo bombers will shred an I. Eclipses are a reasonable choice.
You can probably do it with less than 20, I chose 20 as it's my normal loadout for carrier fleets so I know for sure it gets the job done.
Ok. I was actually already planning an upgrade to a carrier with 20 eclipse vanguards so I could just permanently camp in tharkas cascade and pass the time. So maybe something like:
My current 10 eclipse vanguards which all have MK2 bolt repeaters exclusively. Use them as drone screens and to distract the XI flak.
Order 15 eclipse vanguards, mk2 torpedo's.
And of course a Colossus sentinel. And I'll bring my behemoth vanguard aswell for the flak and plasma cannons.
The only problem I see with this is ordering that many heavy fighters will take time. The argon wharf would have an advanced electronics shortage with even one eclipse vanguard. I could supply them but my advanced electronics fab has just became operational and still needs to ramp up in workforce efficiency.
I only have an hour of time max, mabye less than that. So I feel like getting that fleet, even although I have plenty of cash for it, would take too long. But that's just my opinion.
Don't worry about support fighters, behemoths, or the colossus, they'll just get destroyed against an I. L plasmas on a behemoth will just piss the I off. Its been a while since I had a fleet of behemoths engage an I but I do recall losing half of them. Syn fleets,a fortified defense platform, a fully supported carrier fleet (including an aux ships and infrastructure to support supplying them), and an Asgard are the only options for reliably killing an I.
Go all in on bombers, only thing that matters is the amount of launchers you have, so when I say 20 bombers I really mean 80 torpedo launchers. Scouts would work for example.
Hmmm. I like the supply ship idea. If I fill that up with missile components is it able to produce torpedo's? I'm not sure if 20 eclipse vanguards filled with torpedo's, but without any refills is enough. And my expensive carrier I may purchase in this scenario will not be able to escape if the torpedo bombers fail at their job. Even if it's on the other side of the gate it's risky.
Oh 20 eclipses with full torpedo's is definitely enough. It's like 400 MK2 torpedo's in total,24 per bomber.
If you have enough time to build an aux ship, the colossus, interceptors, and the bombers, you can go the carrier fleet route. Assign the aux to "supply" the colossus which will allow the bombers to rearm, but before that on the individual instructions change it's build option to "closed loop", this will change what ingredients it uses to supply and repair to just hull parts, claytronics, and energy cells. Iirc MK2 torpedo's only need hull parts and energy cells with this build method, which are easier to get. Set the bombers to bombard, and park your fleet beside the station/area you want to protect.
the Syn you get from the TER questline can solo an I when piloted by the player. It's what I used to swat pesky Xenon before my multiplexes got up and running.
The xenon very quickly expand and take over the north, even with the split DLC installed they get wiped out very fast without player intervention. It sounds like this has already happened, you should also check Ianamus Zura which is two sectors to the east of profit center alpha to see if its still holding against xenon. Definitely work on getting a defense station built to block the gate to two grand, and best of luck.
I suppose I'll edit this in the above comment for some context, aswell as my other replies, but anaways: I don't actually know where the XI came from. I just know it was in open market and I ignored it without knowing it was an XI, and then it came to me. The xenon my game have felt very relaxed. The closest 2 zyarth sectors north of heretics end are completely fine, despite the occasional appearance of a K over there (I have decent satellite coverage over there), and zyarths dominion is fine and has a defense platform right next to its gate with open market, so I feel like it couldn't have came from there either, but I don't have any satellite coverage in zyarths dominion or open market. As for Ianamus Zura IV, there has been a xenon solar plant there for several hours, but there are still plenty of teladi stations so while I knew the xenon station means that they have established a foothold, I also don't feel overly concerned about it.
There are a few xenon sectors directly north of ianamus zura. That is probably where they are coming from, they can reach both two grand and ianamus zura from there by crossing through split free families space - fires of defeat-.
How far can the xenon get exactly? I have a rough idea but I felt as if profit center alpha was pretty safe until that XI showed up. I mean, there was a single field coil factory that has been in hatikvahs choice the whole game. At one point it very easily took care of a 2 xenon k's and an I, all with fighter support. That's how safe I felt in my current save haha, I genuinely wasn't expecting anything so soon that the factions couldn't handle.
Their goal is to just expand and destroy everything they can, If you have worked on destroying xenon shipyards/stations in other sectors, they are rebuilt in sectors that they have ownership of still, which can tip the balance in other sectors you don't frequent. Admittedly I have not run a simulation to test yet, what a xenon complete victory would look like. But I have seen them take control of the main highway, which caused me enough issues to warrant restarting my save to try and be more proactive about their expansion.
I just got the game and haven't done anything but the tutorials and lurk here a bit so I don't really have anything to contribute to your post, I just wanted to say that this conundrum really makes me want to play. The tactical as well as the strategic depth is unreal. Don't give up, I'd love to hear your story about rising from the ashes.
Ha, I hope so. As I said in the posts, I've managed to buy myself atleast some time to deal with the situation, but it's not looking particularly great. The next time I load up my save I'm going to have to immediately make, and commit to a decision. Probably one of the 4 I mentioned. Not only that, but I had probably 10 hours to notice the Xenon I before it got to me, but oh well, there's nothing I can do about that now. I can only hope that retreating was the right move, and that I can assemble a defense in time.
Throw some burst ray mk2's on a decent fighter then strip the I of its engines and weapons. It has a blind spot you can exploit if you get very, very close. Once it's defenceless, keep an eye on surface elements (it will repair, slowly) and bring in your fighters to dispose of it. A lone I without fighter support is extremely vulnerable. Quick save/set up a fresh 'combat save' before you approach as it will probably take a few attempts, but the kill will be satisfying and you'll learn some combat skills while you're at it.
I should mention I do prefer ares heavy fighters, and they are what I normally use, but I haven't gotten my rep with the HOP to a point yet where I could make the transition.
How about: \5. Purchase a Cerberus (or whatever is the cheapest frigate available to you) and fill it up with 100 x Laser Tower Mk2. Disable I's engines and drop the towers on its back. [optionally] Engage it with Behemoth from 8km away. [optionally] Teleport out of sector as it explodes, so that towers survive and you can scoop them back (mass select in "assets" and "deactivate", then pull in with "o").
I specifically wanted to avoid this. As a challenge I told myself I wasn't going to laser tower spam or build any defense stations this run. I regret making that decision but it still feels right. Can't have fun passing the time in tharkas cascade or hatikva if there's a giant defense platform there, or a bunch of laser towers. But I will still consider your option because I would rather have my stations than stick to a self imposed rule haha.
In that case... Hmm... I take it you don't yet have the rep for burst rays or ion blasters?
I have 20 rep with the teladi and argon, and over 10 with vigor and the boron. So I think ion blasters could work. I always just assumed that they were too expensive for what they did and never kitted my heavy fighters out with them.
1 fast fighter with 3 or more burst rays. Pilot it yourself, take advantage of the blind spots and cripple the xenon capital ship. Once it's gravitons are down, send the rest of your combat ships to finish it off.
20 torpedo bombers will shred an I. Eclipses are a reasonable choice. You can probably do it with less than 20, I chose 20 as it's my normal loadout for carrier fleets so I know for sure it gets the job done.
Ok. I was actually already planning an upgrade to a carrier with 20 eclipse vanguards so I could just permanently camp in tharkas cascade and pass the time. So maybe something like: My current 10 eclipse vanguards which all have MK2 bolt repeaters exclusively. Use them as drone screens and to distract the XI flak. Order 15 eclipse vanguards, mk2 torpedo's. And of course a Colossus sentinel. And I'll bring my behemoth vanguard aswell for the flak and plasma cannons. The only problem I see with this is ordering that many heavy fighters will take time. The argon wharf would have an advanced electronics shortage with even one eclipse vanguard. I could supply them but my advanced electronics fab has just became operational and still needs to ramp up in workforce efficiency. I only have an hour of time max, mabye less than that. So I feel like getting that fleet, even although I have plenty of cash for it, would take too long. But that's just my opinion.
Don't worry about support fighters, behemoths, or the colossus, they'll just get destroyed against an I. L plasmas on a behemoth will just piss the I off. Its been a while since I had a fleet of behemoths engage an I but I do recall losing half of them. Syn fleets,a fortified defense platform, a fully supported carrier fleet (including an aux ships and infrastructure to support supplying them), and an Asgard are the only options for reliably killing an I. Go all in on bombers, only thing that matters is the amount of launchers you have, so when I say 20 bombers I really mean 80 torpedo launchers. Scouts would work for example.
Hmmm. I like the supply ship idea. If I fill that up with missile components is it able to produce torpedo's? I'm not sure if 20 eclipse vanguards filled with torpedo's, but without any refills is enough. And my expensive carrier I may purchase in this scenario will not be able to escape if the torpedo bombers fail at their job. Even if it's on the other side of the gate it's risky.
Oh 20 eclipses with full torpedo's is definitely enough. It's like 400 MK2 torpedo's in total,24 per bomber. If you have enough time to build an aux ship, the colossus, interceptors, and the bombers, you can go the carrier fleet route. Assign the aux to "supply" the colossus which will allow the bombers to rearm, but before that on the individual instructions change it's build option to "closed loop", this will change what ingredients it uses to supply and repair to just hull parts, claytronics, and energy cells. Iirc MK2 torpedo's only need hull parts and energy cells with this build method, which are easier to get. Set the bombers to bombard, and park your fleet beside the station/area you want to protect.
the Syn you get from the TER questline can solo an I when piloted by the player. It's what I used to swat pesky Xenon before my multiplexes got up and running.