Defending Massive Air Attacks

[Guest jubjubjub]

If your opponent is rebel or naboo and decides to attack you with massed bombers and fighters, you should be able to easily hold them off with AA turrets, if placed properly. The key is to build them in a triangle (or zig-zag)formation so that one is covered by two others (at max range or just under).

 

I ran a test (all with all upgrades), rebel air vs trade fed towers:

 

10 bombers + 10 fighters vs 1 AA turret = 5 aircraft lost

 

10 bombers + 10 fighters vs 2 AA turrets = 2 turrets left

 

20 bombers vs 2 AA turrets = 8 bombers left

 

20 bombers vs 3 AA turrets = 1 turret left with 2/3 HP

 

Now, if they don't send fighter escort, your best defense is obviously fighters, but they will send fighters the second wave if you defend the first with fighters.

 

20 bombers cost 760 food and 1200 nova vs 40 carbon and 200 ore for the 2 towers. Even if you have to buy ore at the spaceport (I don't recall it ever costing more than 170 nova per 100 ore), your opponent is going to blow through resources a lot faster than you. Rebuild the towers they take out.

 

With the low cost for turrets, build forward AA turrets to push back their air as you advance with your ground units. Just be sure to have something to take out the pummels and cannons they will come at you with in desperation.

[Influenza]

Good testing! Now, is that with Advanced AA Turrets, or regular? IIRC, the Advanced AA upgrade costs 500 ore plus nova, which is a big investment initially.

 

I'd also be interested in similar stats but using mobile AA, both troopers and the heavy-weapons.

[mailnride]

Any AA unit except the turrets is pretty useless against an aerial rush. Especially if they're rebel shielded fighters. I was playing the comp (rebels) on hardest. I was gal. Empire. He built like 6 fortresses and was pumping out the shielded snow speeders. I tried sacking him with about 40 AA units, they got decimated and lost maybe 1/3rd of his aircraft at most. AA ships were the best AA unit, but they can't go on land.

 

The way I won was to get 5-7 builders together and do an Advanced AA Turret (with homing) push toward his base. The pattern ended up looking like a winding helix of AA turrets, like streetlights lining a winding road. Down the middle of the road I drove some AT-ATs, and some undeployed cannon. That finally got him, but not before he sent about 60 aircraft toward me. I used the undeployed cannons to take out the castles one by one, but if he had been rebuilding them as I took them out, I would have had significantly more trouble.