A2 final mission on hard

posted on October 17th, 2011, 4:51 am

I've been trying to beat A2 "Rifts" and keep getting totally overrun.  I'm pretty sure I have it on hard mode.  Can anyone tell me how to beat it?  It seems that by the time I can make tac cubes, even if I have a bunch, I get overrun by battleships charming all my fleet away anyway.

posted on October 17th, 2011, 5:06 am

Hm, is this the last Borg mission (the one where you have to kill the 8472 Mother)? If so, as I recall, it's best to concentrate on one techtree. I remember going for Diamonds with Utribeams (AoE murder) and eventually FusionCubes for the last base assault 

posted on October 17th, 2011, 9:51 am

yes, its safe to pretty much ignore the fed tech tree. galaxies are plain and sovvies only reflect torps which 8472 dont use much. only use fed cons to build a starbase if you need crew (and of course the trading station for the miner).

the only thing i can ever see myself wanting from feds would be the nebula special gemini effect, the only thing better than a fusion cube is 2 fusion cubes. does gemini even work on the fusion cubes? its a lot of money on the fed tech tree just for that special.

a big problem will be the battleship special making your ships shoot one of your ships. with several cubes on your side this could get messy fast. if you see a fleet of battleships coming, fight near your starbase for extra dps on the enemy. you could even try putting ships on green alert to avoid shooting at the ships hit by the battleship special.

each rift will have one fleet head for it, you get a notice for this, and i think the map flashes their location. once you defeat the fleet heading for a rift (Best to just wait near the rift in question lol) then you can ignore that rift. the fleet heading for your starting rift will come from the bottom right of the map, so make sure you have starbases there.

if you cant afford tac cubes then normal cubes should be good enough. especially if you fuse them. and that leaves you with similar buildings as for diamond strat, ultritium will pwn the enemy if you use them defensively.

dont bother rushing the big momma, there's no timer i believe. just wait and wait until you have a massive fleet.

posted on October 17th, 2011, 3:37 pm

Corbomite reflects beams too 

posted on October 17th, 2011, 4:13 pm

Yep, beams are reflected although it's harder to tell when it happens - quite often they are reflected along the same path while the beam is still active.

posted on October 17th, 2011, 5:01 pm

yeah forgot about the beams. still corbomite doesnt tend to be worth going for in that mission. the borg tech tree tends to work better. especially with a powerful aoe special.

[godsvoice]

posted on October 17th, 2011, 9:21 pm

Last edited by godsvoice on October 17th, 2011, 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Been a while since I played, but my general strategy didn't change very often throughout the game.

Starbases for defence (also crew officers). Fleets of smaller ships. One final wave of big ships.

Starbases are an easy cushion to retreat to for safety.

There was one mission where I won even though I lost my main base. It might have been that one. Was the mission completed if you destroyed the mother ship, even if you didn't beat all ships in the sector?

This might just be pure forgetfulness and I might be mistaken. But I think I balanced it between star bases and ships. Starbases guard you for the beginning portion of the game (like the resources you begin with, also use them to build yards). And then yeah, build a few fleets of smaller ships. Hide them behind the star bases, when the ships come, star bases destroy the ships, and you can send your ships out to get the long range ships that are out of range or not targeted as quickly. Then build up a hefty fleet of large ships, although I don't remember what I used.

But I think I remembered winning with just a massive fleet. I'd lost my constructors and star bases by the end.

Massive destroyer cruiser fleet which smashed a straight line through everything until I found the ship, then I brought in my big large ship wave to finish it off. I might be remembering things wrong, or this could be the wrong mission though.

If I remember correctly, the point is not to go hunting. Find out where the mother ship is by sending out lone ships to get a feel for it. But don't send small raiding parties trying to figure things out. The place is swarming with 8472. Go for it all at the end when you have built the massive fleet.

It was a while ago, but I still think I remember the beginning of it - if this is what I think it is. I was doing the normal strategy of building up forces waiting for a large attack ... followed by my counter attack where I chase them back to their home. But the big attack never came! It was a steady medium attack I would say. But I was building ships like crazy... Then finally, they came and butchered me. If there was a ship like the sovereign you had to keep safe, I guess I did, because after I started to lose star bases, I just gave up attacking those ships and went on an all out attack with my whole fleet at the centre - ish of the map. And I think I won, and then you get a nice video telling you the universe is safe, ... or is it! bah dah duhn. stay tuned.

Edit: actually it was quite nerve racking. Cause there never seemed to be a bigger wave coming. just lot's of... behemoth's? anyways, so when it finally did come, I guess you might sense it coming, but for me it happened all of a sudden. I watched dismayed as my star bases were blown to bits. then sort of a last ditched attempt, I went Captain Ahab on them. or if anyone has read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card... The enemy's gate is down!

posted on October 19th, 2011, 2:42 am

I was able to build the wimpy fusion cube, and only one.  I could never get the resources together for a second one.  The trade ship barely brings in anything, maybe just enough for a tech upgrade.  Note I'm playing on Hard.  Is that doable?  Anyone got a video?

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:10 am

I was able to build the wimpy fusion cube, and only one.

Wimpy? Did I hear that right? I'm pretty sure it's the strongest vessel in the game, and pretty cost-effective considering the power it brings to the field
As for the video, I found one, don't know if its hard difficulty though

Hope that helps

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:31 am

Not sure if I played on hard or not either.

But I know for a fact I did not use fusion cube.

I definitely went the way of quantity over quality on this one. Fusion cube might be the strongest ship in game, but yeah, I didn't go for that.

One thing you could do, is build structures like maybe a central hub of four star bases, just to survive the beginning attacks.

Once you build yourself say 25-40 vessels, or whatever is achievable, scrap them, and build more. And just go all out assault. Try to mix between weaker ships and stronger ships, cause auto target weak ships right? So need the cannon fodder.

Also, you survive longer with star bases, so you should get more income... longer your alive, the more trips the freighter will take. I think. I might have to go back and play this again when I get a chance, and on hard.

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:57 am

I meant to say, not the mighty Tactical-Fusion cube, but the smaller one (wimpy maybe a poor description). I could never afford Tac cubes. 

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:58 am

i build  a fusion cube and a tactical fusion cube in the last mission to try to beat the rift maker
At the time I had no idea the green nebula even existed above the rift maker...

i tried to replicate it several times afterwards but the trading ship keeps getting stuck 30 min into the game so no more income

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:59 am

A single Fusion cube of either sort is quite enough - just make sure you have 2-4 Diamonds backing it up to Remodule its shields every once in awhile .