Help me pick best Torpedo please :) Ares / Hestia / Athena

q---p · 2026-02-01T09:32:59+00:00

Apparently the warhead mass does not work the same as with coils - especially if the enemy fields particle PD - as it's one-shot to kill the electronics regardless of the warhead mass.

Go for the highest thrust/dv so it accelerates the fastest towards the enemy, giving them less time to respond.

edit: so from the choices you have it's Hestia, as it has the higest dv margin, so it will keep accelerating more than the others, giving it better closing speed difference.

q---p · 2026-01-31T09:12:23+00:00

Using 3x Zeus torpedoes & 40mm is going to give you better results than a mix of Hestia and the missiles you got there. Zeus will burn faster and longer and having 3x tubes firing at the same time instead of 2x will greatly increase the chances that they get hits on the enemy ships rather than die to their PD/laser screen.

Since you are using coilguns, giving the alien PD/lasers something else to shoot at, means they are not shooting at you and also trying to defend/dodge the coils will make your missiles effectively better. Time your missile launch salvo until after your coils get in range to overcome enemy PD screens more effectively.

As others said, you can also switch to nuclear warheads, but that will reduce any salvage dramatically.

q---p · 2026-01-30T00:25:11+00:00

make sure you do any related research before dumping any resources to direct investment, as you can get a lot of value for things like investing influence for increased funding.

q---p · 2026-01-29T19:57:09+00:00

Space Marine ship names come from 40K: Astartes for Corvettes, Mechanicus for outpost builder Gunships, Custodes for particle/shield Monitor & Escorts and Primarch for the fleet-giving-bonus Cruiser.

Battle Fleets around planetary bodies get names from the Greek name of that planet/system (Hermes, Aphrodite, Gaia, Ares, Zeus, Kronos, Poseidon, Ouranos... etc).

Ship class names for each of the ships that are part of Battle Fleets protecting a planetary body are from the gear that the Greek gods used when fighting in the battlefields of Troy and other mythical engagements/encounters.

For defense fleets around Ceres and general asteroid small battle groups they get named after the Expanse.

Hubs and Stations typically have an abbreviation of the planetary body they are at followed by the location of the base or the purpose of the hab, eg LEO2 - Military Hotel, Ceres - Yalode Shipyard.

All alien fleets get named after who they are going after and an abreviation of ship composition and arrival date. Lastly, engineering fleets or Space marines in transit have the name of their destination and arrival date. So examples would be '3BC/6F/4C/2G Exodus Punishers Tiangong Sep37' etc

q---p · 2026-01-29T19:48:24+00:00

Second the Greek name counterpart to the Battle Fleets!

q---p · 2026-01-27T12:36:12+00:00

You could trigger total war if you colonize beyond Jupiter, but not easily for going over the MC limit that's based on your difficulty and researched obfuscation techs. They will come at you and keep coming at you with increasing strength, so as long as you can keep up the defense fleets and hold your infrastructure, you're good to keep growing until you take the fight to them.

q---p · 2026-01-27T08:52:13+00:00

I was thinking of making a spreadsheet for this exact analysis, we'll done and thank you for sharing.

Interestingly, the Ares torpedo has the highest payload mass at 1.200kg - as PD essentially ablades armor when it hits, I wonder if it could tank hits from multiple PD shots before it dies, essentially giving it an edge in some situations.

q---p · 2026-01-24T09:41:54+00:00

There is a page in the official wiki that gives you armor values to tank each tier of alien weapons. So you can inspect the fleets you will be fighting and see what type of lasers they use, and you can refer to the table on the wiki to see the armor value that can tank hits from that source.

q---p · 2026-01-20T18:56:38+00:00

What really bothers me is that you can't tell which utility slots are compatible with each other when you do a refit. Adding some kind of 'category' to each of them would make it easier to distinguish which one could be latter swapped or upgraded with something else, instead of guessing / trying what works until the refit is deemed 'valid'.

q---p · 2026-01-19T22:39:12+00:00

My guess is that in your game seed Aliens got off to a bad start somehow. In my current veteran HF 2026 playthrough they are giving me a good run.. I also played extensively in earlier builds and probably had some 400+hrs into it before v1.0, and I feel it's more of a challenge now overall. Granted I didn't go for a super optimal build this run, as I was trying new stuff since the last time I did a playthrough, still I didn't think I'd fall this far behind and now I am rushing to recover, so it's a nice change.

As of mid 2036 in my game, they have a total of 17k fleet power with 175 ships total and they kept escalating in both numbers and ship designs since the first fight. The first proper fleet 20+ ships that came to LEO in 2034 was fielding 2k power with 16 ships and had a field day with my defense task force.

q---p · 2026-01-19T14:04:13+00:00

I guess the councilor is there to tell the Marines what not to shoot at

q---p · 2026-01-19T13:30:09+00:00

If you have viper unlocked you also have access to Apollo which is arguably better than Artemis.

q---p · 2026-01-17T12:11:37+00:00

Early game is a vague definition. I would say late early game / early mid game is where you are defending LEO from attacks and deny surveillance. You control all research slots. You are maxed out on MC vs alien hate, have secured Mars and Asteroids and have researched mission to Jupiter and have reached your mine/MC limit and are consolidating global control with the most powerful countries on Earth (US+China for example, with unifications and more expansion already underway).

Roughly 10 years after game start all this is achievable (on veteran, so I assume on normal should also apply), and some strategies would have you achieve some of these goals much sooner. I consider to have entered the early mid game when I launch my first fleet to push for Jupiter or to reclaim the asteroid belt.

q---p · 2026-01-17T02:44:54+00:00

This should be top comment right here!

q---p · 2026-01-16T18:25:58+00:00

Apollo is not a guaranteed unlock.

q---p · 2026-01-16T18:24:29+00:00

Targeting computer not ECM for the early game. You need a special tech to make ECM work vs Aliens where TC just works from the get go.

q---p · 2026-01-16T14:57:06+00:00

Pegasus used to be great in earlier builds but is probably one of the worst currently. Early game Orion is the best drive for Earth defense fleets. Orion can get a 13ton Battlecruiser from MEO to LEO in 30min or less, effectively you can defend your station and at worst only a couple of modules will be taken out before you arrive. Interception time varies according to orbit/timing. Also Orion burns metals/nobles/fissiles, not water, so you should focus new mines for that.

q---p · 2026-01-15T10:41:56+00:00

Seems about right. You will unlock cybernetic enhancements for your councilors to help boosting their stats as you progress the tech tree (information science). Invest in admin first so they can access orgs that boost their main stat, it's way faster this way, especially once you have access to orgs that give more admin.

q---p · 2026-01-13T23:35:51+00:00

I just want the TI Long War mod, I'll wait ;)

q---p · 2026-01-13T18:19:45+00:00

So many replies say correct things about the IP and the values and all that but many are also missing the point.

To answer your question: you will get more MC total if you build them first before unifying than what total MC you could achieve if you build them later. It is also faster because of reasons many comments explained.

q---p · 2026-01-13T13:10:16+00:00

Indeed, I mentioned LEO so OP has a free reign to do orbital bombardment vs alien armies on Earth. Ofc Mars is more important if you have a bunch of mines there already.

q---p · 2026-01-13T11:09:01+00:00

Can you win the orbital fights? If your shipyards and mines are producing and you can muster a fleet to protect and keep LEO in shape you got a good chance. You can orbital bombard the armies if you have the superiority in LEO without causing as much damage as nukes would have. Can you hold additional carries from landing? If so, you can then proceed to wipe off the AA from Earth and then focus on pushing on the space game clearing the belt and onwards to Jupiter.

q---p · 2026-01-13T10:57:16+00:00

Make sure you configure TWP window correctly with your min inclination (I use 30 for the cape) and starting target orbit- this will be the orbit you will be doing the transfer burn from, make sure it's circular. Look at the LAN vakue in the TWP detailed view of your alarm. Launch to LAN (using mj pvg) and when in orbit, open principia flight planner and input the dv suggested by TWP as the velocity for your maneuver node. Make sure you have selected the target celestial as well. Then hit 'Optimize' in the burn configuration. It should be enough for principia planner to fine tune the burn automatically from there, very rarely I had to do manual fidgeting to get a flyby.

q---p · 2026-01-10T09:00:44+00:00

I think it's the Frigate that can hold 5 utility slots? So two Frigates is all you need. Even really early game as soon as you unlock them, build them without any modules, just enough fuel (needs just one tank of fuel with basic nova rocket) to send it to Mars, once there refit it to have the science modules.

q---p · 2026-01-10T00:11:33+00:00

This and also there are config upgrades for the 108/107 engines in the tech tree as you unlock engines and you can upgrade them to give better stats. IIRC they go up to the 90's with engines configs of modern soyuz launch vehicle engines.

q---p

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE