Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Academy » How do I use Minefields?
| How do I use Minefields? |
Fri, 14 May 2004 20:15  |
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 Strat |
 | Petty Officer 1st Class |
Messages: 62
Registered: March 2004 | |
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Its 2440 in my game and I see people using minefields.
When should I make them?
How should I use them?
What ship design should I use?
ect..
Remember I'm new and have no idea how to tactfully use these things.
I looked in Stars! FAQ and found no info on how to use them, only statistics for how they work...
Thanks guys!
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Fri, 14 May 2004 20:36  |
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I'll take these questions one by one:
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When should I make them?
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Generally as soon as you can afford them. Since you are at 2440, generally it is wise to start building 1 or 2 each year and get the minefields started where your most valuable planets are. As you build more minelayers, start shipping some to your outer world areas.
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What ship design should I use?
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If you aren't SD (and I guess you're not), the best hull to use is the frigate hull. Just use an engine and minelayers on it. If you are IS, then you will want 2 types at this stage, one with speed bump mines and one with standard mines.
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How should I use them?
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The best way to lay mines is to use numerous, small, overlapped minefields. When I play IS, I like to lay combined fields with both speed bump and standard mines. So, I use 2 ships - one of each type and set repeating minelaying paths along borders and in spirals around planets. When playing any other race I still lay overlapped fields as described above.
A border minelaying path would look something like below (where the dots are minefields):
. . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . .
For this, I would probably be using 3 ships in automatically repeating patterns.
It is also a good idea to leave a couple minelayers laying mines at your planets - once an enemy gets through the outer fields he still has to sweep the planetary field to attack. This can buy you an extra year or two to get defenders into place.
An exception to the above tactics for laying minefields is short term, location specific minefields - these you lay in enemy shipping paths with cloaked ships, (a very favored SS tactic), but any race can do it. Usually, you will need the galleon hull for this if you aren't SS. Then your minelayer is a galleon with lots of cloaks and a couple slots of minelayer pods.
Ptolemy
[Updated on: Fri, 14 May 2004 20:37]
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Fri, 14 May 2004 20:49 |
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I suggest you figure out how big of minefields you want.
If you are only going to be dropping an average of 400 or less mines per location, you may find it more cost effective to go with a frigate (or scout) design with less than 3 minelayers/ship. In theory it costs a bit more per minelaying but in practice you spend less time moving and more time minelaying. Your minelayers are also more spread out so harder to destroy and your fuel supply may last longer.
I also remember a certain tidbit from a mlaub post, that in 'Sniper' he didn't build minelayers and was thus misidentified as a warmonger (rather than HE).
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Sat, 15 May 2004 02:17 |
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Take a look at the directions your enemies would have to come from and lay the mines in that direction first. Something like below where P is the planet, A is the first mine laying point of a pattern and B the last, C the first and D the last, E the first and F the last. Send the minelayers from A to B and back again from B to A with 'repeat orders' and 'lay minefield for 1 year' for each pattern.
P
A . . .
B . . .
C . . .
D . . .
E . . .
F . . .
Send the first ship out to A (in the example above you are protecting the apperoach to planet P from the SE), go East, then SE one dot, then West to point B, then up to point A - repeat orders. Ship 1 does A - B, ship 2 does C-D etc.
Go to point A, lay the minefield for one year, set the view zoom to about 150% or 200%, set the waypoint east from point A to a little outside of the first field you lay and then set the next waypoints about the same distance apart - you don't need to be exact in light years - just close. Ideally, you want to be able to move at warp 4 to do this with the fuel mizer. One complete pattern will take 15 years to complete. If you are in more of a hurry, use shorter patterns or more ships per pattern. 
Ptolemy
[Updated on: Sat, 15 May 2004 02:18]
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Sun, 16 May 2004 21:42 |
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Also, don't forget that (unless you are SD) your ship has to stop to lay mines, so if you only lay mines for 1 year for each point, then you are only deploying mines at a rate of 50% of maximum. If you increase the deployment to 2 years at each location then you are deploying at a rate of 66% (3 = 75% etc..)
Lots of small minefields are definately more effective than one big one however... I think in my next game I will probably lay fields for about 3 years at each point.
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Mon, 17 May 2004 05:59 |
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| iztok |
 | Commander |
Messages: 1206
Registered: April 2003
Location: Slovenia, Europe | |
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Hi!
| Dogthinkers wrote on Mon, 17 May 2004 09:22 |
if your layer is in 2 minefields, you can't choose which one you resupply
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The minelayer will resupply the field to which it is the closest to the centre, so you have exact control of it.
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In my last game I faced 2 players laying minefields. One was Ptolemy...
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It's a question of how much MM you're ready to invest into the game. If one invests a lot into minefields, you can't expect to be easy to sweep them with less MM from your side. In my last game I've been successfully sweeping ptolemy's SD minefields, but I also know I invested more time into the game as he did (up to 3 hours per turn  , directing every sweeper/skirmisher fleet every turn). Yes, I'm a MM freak, but why I shouldn't be, when MM pays off so nicely?
BTW, nice to see you lost that ugly red tag below your name. 
BR, Iztok
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Mon, 17 May 2004 06:36 |
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However, it needs to be pointed out that in the last game with Iztok, I picked up the game towards the end as a replacement player. I never really had the opportunity to construct my minelaying since there was already all out war and the forces had to be played reactively rather than being able to set up the minelying early on proactively as a deterrent.
In general, once the minelaying is set up, it is self sustaining and needs little MM. Mostly all that needs to be done is have additional minelayers on hand to replace any combat losses. Unless the ships are heavily cloaked minelayers they are vulnerable to a sniper attack. In the game Dogthinkers refers to, the minefields stretched along a significant border of 350+ light years and were multiple fields deep (3 levels if I remember correctly). Any minelayer that was killed was immediately replaced. These minefields had been set up over a period of 30-40 years.
Ptolemy
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Thu, 03 June 2004 09:42 |
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Laying into opponent territory if you do not plan more agressive stealth operations... but is actually quite useless.
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Depends on situation, nice to be unpredictable. An opponent doesn't know what you really have so you may trigger him spending on things he doesn't need. On the other hand you may really be doing a serious attack and soon have a gate up in which case an opponent believing it is just a useless attack may buy you enough time to secure the beachhead before the packets and warships try to drive you out.
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Thu, 03 June 2004 11:09 |
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Oh? How does minefield in opponent backyard make me more unpredictable?
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Are you about to establish a beachhead (stategic minefields for delaying response a valuable turn)? Perhaps somewheres else and the first minefield is a diversion.
I was HE last game and had fun with a few cloaked forces. Budget cloaked minelayers on border areas were useful to lay mines before anti-minelayer forces could see and respond. Cloaked marauders were useful to trigger lots of starbase defence building and divert warships from enemy gates.
I managed to bag a few large freighters and scare a few others.
Was a mix of newer and more experienced players, the counter designs I saw newer players build were quite funny, including a delta torp scout with fuel mizer and ferret scanner.
Every little bit helps when others are ganging up on you. Easiest PRTs I see for such tactics are SS, SD, IS (heavy speed traps useful for overcloakers) and late game IT (can do more with a suprise gate, though mineral packet vulnerable).
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| Re: How do I use Minefields? |
Thu, 03 June 2004 12:09 |
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Nope. Opponent see that beachead at very same turn he see my stealth attack fleet pillaging something
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Who says you establish beachhead first? Often you first lay mines and clear mines (light sweepers hop off of overcloaker).
I sent small forces including some cloakers through a wormhole last game and was playing around deep in enemy territory for many years (including taking and holding smaller colonies for several turns).
If I had gotten a friend to set up a gate I could have had more fun.
Tell whatever stories you like about only SS, I know how much my forces cost and how much the enemy resources I diverted cost. We aren't talking pure cloak, just enough cloak to keep the rest unpredictable. For example they never knew when they chased my orbital checkers if my cloaked metamorph would suddenly gobble the chaser. Deep orbit checkers and scanning give valuable intel info. A few unpredictable minefields helps survival, otherwise he can chase at warp 10 without any risk or chance to get stopped.
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Once you see such clown then good chaser is ordinary chaff. Send 3 at warp 9 and one of them discover the main bastards (even 81ly in std minefield, but thats rarely the case if you are at least half present). Once you see their cloaker (in battle with chaff) then cruisers or BB-s mop it all up. If you are too weak to shut a WH or sacrifice few chaff or destroyers then sure, but opposition may then operate openly as well. 
