QUOTE
Originally posted by Glenn:
There must be more than you're telling me. As soon as my fleet gets to the "island" where the Ion Cannon is, they get EMPed by a science vessel which darts in, zaps, and retreats before I even have time to fire back. Bam - no Yamato for my entire fleet. Then dropships bring in half a dozen Ghosts, and before you can say "Lockdown" it's over. Even if I try to just dash past the defenses rather than fighting back, I only manage to get in a half dozen laser shots at the Ion Cannon before they have my entire fleet on lockdown.
So what am I not doing that you forgot to told me?
If you want a swift victory, you're method will work, but it's best to break through the outer defenses before going directly for the cannon. The following strategy works well if you're willing to put some more time into the mission and prefer to wage more of an all-out war.
I strongly suggest securing the ridge to the Northeast of your starting position. It has a wealth of minerals and gas, and the land itself is high ground with only limited ground access, so it's quite defensible. Build and fortify a second base there, and you should have enough resources to get all the tech upgrades.
While this is happening, send two Battlecruisers up the left side of the map and have them work at gradually weakening the base there, one building at a time. Save their Yamato guns for missile turrets, and for other buildings, order them to attack, and once they are in position and firing on the building, change their orders to "hold position," so that they will continue firing upon the building but destroy any reinforcement units that come in. Be sure to have them retreat for repairs once they fall below 50% of their hit points, because they are so slow they will probably take some additonal damage on the way back. Once they are fully repaired, you can send them back to pick up where they left off. This will severely weaken the enemy's ability to attack from the North.
Once your expansion base is operating at full capacity, send in some Battlecruisers to the low ground area in the center of the map. You'll find plenty more resources there, and you can build a small base if you need them. This position is a bit tougher to hold, as the Northeast enemy base will hit you fairly hard, but if you keep your Battlecruisers around and add some Siege Tanks and defensive structures at the entry points, you should manage.
Now you should have the capacity to build as many Battlecruisers as you want. I suggest finishing off the Western enemy base as you prepare for your assault on the cannon. Send in Battlecruisers to work their way through the cannon's formidable defenses. In case your cruisers get hit with an EMP, have a squadron of Wraiths backing them up to run down and destroy the Science Vessel and prevent it from coming back and doing it again (you can also cloak the Wraiths to follow the Science Vessel into enemy territory). It's also not a bad idea to bring in a Science Vessel of your own to reveal cloaked enemies. Once you've broken through the outer defensive perimeters and the only defenses left are in close proximity to the cannon itself, make a run for it and hit the Cannon with everything you've got. You can continue to build additoinal units at your bases to send in if your attack force gets substantially weakened, but you should be able to take down the cannon before taking serious losses.
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"I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid... and I went ahead anyway." -Crow T. RobotJust Games •
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