I followed your approach and it is 2029, though I lost my research edge against other factions so haven't been able to start on the three global projects needed for coilguns (superconducting magnets, super capacitors, super alloys, and high temp superconductors). I only have half-a-dozen ships, nor do I have Vesta, and I've run up against an MC cap of 58. I'm building up MC in US and European Union (I couldn't get China) but it's going to be difficult to get 5 ships at Earth, Mars, and Ceres (but hope to get that by 2030).
Two issues - the only way I can regain research dominance is by taking out all the LEO faction stations, and replacing them with my own, but that eats up MC that is growing very slowly. But without research, I can't focus global to get coilguns, adamantine, tin drop, etc.
The bigger question is the assumption behind fighting early. If I can get 5 ships at Earth soon, I can go after an alien scout. I can either keep disrupting surveillance missions until it goes home, or catch one and kill it. The aliens have 40+ ships in their fleet. This is obviously a lot better than the 120+ that you face in 2040-42, but is the idea that you wear them down in the early 2030s so they aren't so big later?
I feel like the triple crunch of research shortfalls, MC limits, and alien attacks is a really difficult needle to thread.
This is my 0.3xx shop guide - so first I want to make sure you are not playing on version 0.4xx which is the latest version of Terra Invicta. I have an updated guide for early ship builds in version 0.4xx, in which I recommend lasers - that was primarily because the Tech costs for coilguns went way up.
If you are on version 0.3xx then coils should work and maybe the issue is that you are not generating enough beakers or researching too broadly, or not getting enough help from your councilor stats and orgs or whatever. Regardless, you don’t need to hit all my benchmarks and shouldn’t worry about staying on schedule.
The main thing is to have enough ships to hold your key settlements and earth. And it sounds like you may be ok in that regard.
The main point of this is to keep the aliens from dropping a huge fleet on Earth which is then reinforced continually and occasionally attacks your stations. Or an alien fleet that wipes your colonies on mars.
There are other benefits - such as slowing alien growth by taking out some of their ships, but this is modest, because they will learn to avoid and run from your fleets if you start picking them off.
Thanks, and unfortunately I *am* on 0.4, lol. Can you drop a link to the 4.0 guide?
By way of an update, it's 2030 and I've picked off six destroyers, three corvettes, and a cruiser, mainly by a mix of railgun and missile ships. Aggro reducton mainly accomplished by decoy stations, but at some point they're gonna wise up. Working on lasers but it's going slow as I am having trouble competing with the other human factions re research (my MC is 78 and I don't have enough LEO stations to max the research bonuses). Still, so far, so good.
It sounds like you are doing fine. Typically i don't max LEO research till much later, and for the same reason - limited MC. Once I have good defensive fleets everywhere I need them, I will start shooting down the stations of enemy factions and replacing them with my own.
I followed your approach and it is 2029, though I lost my research edge against other factions so haven't been able to start on the three global projects needed for coilguns (superconducting magnets, super capacitors, super alloys, and high temp superconductors). I only have half-a-dozen ships, nor do I have Vesta, and I've run up against an MC cap of 58. I'm building up MC in US and European Union (I couldn't get China) but it's going to be difficult to get 5 ships at Earth, Mars, and Ceres (but hope to get that by 2030).
Two issues - the only way I can regain research dominance is by taking out all the LEO faction stations, and replacing them with my own, but that eats up MC that is growing very slowly. But without research, I can't focus global to get coilguns, adamantine, tin drop, etc.
The bigger question is the assumption behind fighting early. If I can get 5 ships at Earth soon, I can go after an alien scout. I can either keep disrupting surveillance missions until it goes home, or catch one and kill it. The aliens have 40+ ships in their fleet. This is obviously a lot better than the 120+ that you face in 2040-42, but is the idea that you wear them down in the early 2030s so they aren't so big later?
I feel like the triple crunch of research shortfalls, MC limits, and alien attacks is a really difficult needle to thread.
This is my 0.3xx shop guide - so first I want to make sure you are not playing on version 0.4xx which is the latest version of Terra Invicta. I have an updated guide for early ship builds in version 0.4xx, in which I recommend lasers - that was primarily because the Tech costs for coilguns went way up.
If you are on version 0.3xx then coils should work and maybe the issue is that you are not generating enough beakers or researching too broadly, or not getting enough help from your councilor stats and orgs or whatever. Regardless, you don’t need to hit all my benchmarks and shouldn’t worry about staying on schedule.
The main thing is to have enough ships to hold your key settlements and earth. And it sounds like you may be ok in that regard.
The main point of this is to keep the aliens from dropping a huge fleet on Earth which is then reinforced continually and occasionally attacks your stations. Or an alien fleet that wipes your colonies on mars.
There are other benefits - such as slowing alien growth by taking out some of their ships, but this is modest, because they will learn to avoid and run from your fleets if you start picking them off.
Good luck commander!
Thanks, and unfortunately I *am* on 0.4, lol. Can you drop a link to the 4.0 guide?
By way of an update, it's 2030 and I've picked off six destroyers, three corvettes, and a cruiser, mainly by a mix of railgun and missile ships. Aggro reducton mainly accomplished by decoy stations, but at some point they're gonna wise up. Working on lasers but it's going slow as I am having trouble competing with the other human factions re research (my MC is 78 and I don't have enough LEO stations to max the research bonuses). Still, so far, so good.
Here is the link to the 0.4xx early ship guide: https://xcom.substack.com/p/terra-invicta-early-game-fleets-version.
It sounds like you are doing fine. Typically i don't max LEO research till much later, and for the same reason - limited MC. Once I have good defensive fleets everywhere I need them, I will start shooting down the stations of enemy factions and replacing them with my own.