The Orbital Win Button Strategy (SM)
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 6:50 pm
Today I have tried the Space Marines and while learning their basics I noticed two things that I suspected to have a very strong synergy effect: The Captain's skill Deeds of Glory and the Orbital Strike that can be triggered as often as you can afford 100 influence. Then I tested an Orbital Strike on a city and learned that I does 8 damage. The enemy (impossible) city had around 154 hp then so I had my strategy idea to test.
The settings were
Impossible, 1 Random Enemy
Medium
Medium
Standard
no quests
My build order was based on getting two Captains and lvl 3 Deeds of Glory for both asap. So I researched Reclusiam first and built it after the apothecarion. I immediately started attacking surrounding Dogs but carefully. With the first captain I started pushing to the center of the map and gathered as much exp as possible by killing neutral units and buildings. I built a little more influence buildings (3) than usual at this stage at the cost of research (2 and relatively late) and was able to place three fortresses next to Jokaero Traders. With this I was able to gather ~2000 Influence in Turn 72. Making sure both captains were in range for a kill secured me 16 Influence per Experience point, for example a Kastellan Robot would yield ~80 Influence. At the end my army consisted of 3 Tactical Marines, 5 Devastator Marines (avg lvl 5) and two captains (lvl 7 and 8 ), also 7 Fortresses of Redemption (mostly map center) and two artifacts; so I would be able to hold off any attack the AI could muster at this time easily. I had scouted most of my half and sent two Tactical Marines on suicide missions to find the enemy (without success). A few turns before 72 I had also started to scan (25 Influence) the other side of the map to locate the enemy capital. On my third try I found a city tile in the fog of war and then the capital unit on the next turn. I unloaded 20 Orbital Strikes (1 was from a captain, the other one had his on cd) and the enemy capital was no more. Since the random had chosen Space Marines the match was over on this turn. But even if another faction would have lost its capital around this time it would probably be devastating and secure a victory by crippling the enemy's economy.
My tech path was: Reclusiam, Frag grenade, Dormitories, Krak Grenade, Devastator Marines, Fortress Expansion (could be Company Chapel but I Expansion was more useful to get another bonus and I found a loyalty artifact in the center and later another one), Orbital Relay, Melta Bomb, Kraken Bolts, Orbital Scan, Orbital Strike.
It's a funny strat that secures an easy victory but the question would be if this is intended. It could be prevented by limiting the number of orbital strikes you can call per turn. Although this probably still wouldn't kill the strat. If you could only call one strike from Influence each turn and your Captains would add two more each 5 turns it would probably take around 10-15 turns (and 250-375 more Influence for the orbital scans if you don't have vision from units) to achieve the same because the city would not heal when being hit each turn. Also each hit would already damage the enemy's economy. Another possible fix would be a building that reduces orbital strike damage by maybe 50%.
The settings were
Impossible, 1 Random Enemy
Medium
Medium
Standard
no quests
My build order was based on getting two Captains and lvl 3 Deeds of Glory for both asap. So I researched Reclusiam first and built it after the apothecarion. I immediately started attacking surrounding Dogs but carefully. With the first captain I started pushing to the center of the map and gathered as much exp as possible by killing neutral units and buildings. I built a little more influence buildings (3) than usual at this stage at the cost of research (2 and relatively late) and was able to place three fortresses next to Jokaero Traders. With this I was able to gather ~2000 Influence in Turn 72. Making sure both captains were in range for a kill secured me 16 Influence per Experience point, for example a Kastellan Robot would yield ~80 Influence. At the end my army consisted of 3 Tactical Marines, 5 Devastator Marines (avg lvl 5) and two captains (lvl 7 and 8 ), also 7 Fortresses of Redemption (mostly map center) and two artifacts; so I would be able to hold off any attack the AI could muster at this time easily. I had scouted most of my half and sent two Tactical Marines on suicide missions to find the enemy (without success). A few turns before 72 I had also started to scan (25 Influence) the other side of the map to locate the enemy capital. On my third try I found a city tile in the fog of war and then the capital unit on the next turn. I unloaded 20 Orbital Strikes (1 was from a captain, the other one had his on cd) and the enemy capital was no more. Since the random had chosen Space Marines the match was over on this turn. But even if another faction would have lost its capital around this time it would probably be devastating and secure a victory by crippling the enemy's economy.
My tech path was: Reclusiam, Frag grenade, Dormitories, Krak Grenade, Devastator Marines, Fortress Expansion (could be Company Chapel but I Expansion was more useful to get another bonus and I found a loyalty artifact in the center and later another one), Orbital Relay, Melta Bomb, Kraken Bolts, Orbital Scan, Orbital Strike.
It's a funny strat that secures an easy victory but the question would be if this is intended. It could be prevented by limiting the number of orbital strikes you can call per turn. Although this probably still wouldn't kill the strat. If you could only call one strike from Influence each turn and your Captains would add two more each 5 turns it would probably take around 10-15 turns (and 250-375 more Influence for the orbital scans if you don't have vision from units) to achieve the same because the city would not heal when being hit each turn. Also each hit would already damage the enemy's economy. Another possible fix would be a building that reduces orbital strike damage by maybe 50%.