Dread lords.. or OHH My Gods..

Actually I have found that turning the AI up to suicidal really helps against the dreadlords, since then your allies are getting obessen advantages.

yea, the aspect of losing tech is annoying.. I finished the game, but I prefer the sandbox a whole lot more... I think the dreadlords should appear in sandbox games.... it would reall ymake it fun.

I think the reason you lose your tech from level to level is that if you didn't you could just spend alot of time on the first level. Make sure the Drengi don't die and have insane tech for all other levels

what are some winning stratageis for winning the Ach. Heels camp. ? I seem to tick the dread lords off fast, and hey kill me within 60 rounds.. It obvious you cant research your way to victory.. the AI has nothing to trade, very fast. If you kill The DL ships.. it seems to tick them off.. If you Beat alot of them they upgrade to stop that noise.. whats the trick?

Who Hates Crazy Dread lord ships of Mass Destruction? *Raises hand* Luckily I came up with odd "lame" tactics to thwart their insane ships of "gib me crooked-ness".

I took advantage of attack first bonus and later fleet bonus. I spamed Cargo Ships loaded with engines and the best and most weapons I Could throw on them. Had a base that could bump them one out every turn which helped... Basically I fought an insane war of attrition. The Dread Lord Ships with kill any ship you make so might as well send in a ship that can possibly damage it... and eventually destroy it. Logistics helps here too, fleets will get more shots in (fleet of 3 cargo ships take out the "small" escort ships with no losses, the battle ship was a bit more tricky but he died too).

Also sometimes the dread lords will fail to attack you or "target" certain ships... Yes they love eating your troop transports... (Luckily I had one of their battle ships chase the little transport and I used other ships to "wall it off" from chasing them all.) It reminds me a lot of Star Wars Hoth... except while they pound you your head in and your transports are "escaping" their really headed to invade The Inner rim T_T.

Anyhow spam super attack drones. I used small ships with a lazer to take out their troop transports but they obviously became fodder too. Just need to spam as many damage dealing ships and get the "attack first" bonus if non-fleeted. (nice thing is they only have so many of their super ships... even if they do respawn... )

Anyhow sorry for the ramble, hope this mess gave you an "idea" of what gambit to try doing. Also try "surrounding" their offensive ships with your mass spamed ships... when I finally got my troop transports moving I "surrounded" his last death beam ship (the escort respawned with more shields then my 3 cargo ship fleet had in firepower T_T), the ship never made a move out (of course it could destroy all the ships escape and start picking off the transports... but somehow That dread lord captain must of come down with a severe case of... whatever =P)

Anyhow good luck, on "apocalypse" myself =P. It suggests you "rush" them, which may work in Achilles’ Heel as well *shrugs* Good Luck =P.

Build a fleet of small ships containing maybe 5 ships or more. Pack em with lasers and one of your best engins. I kill there battle ships like this. I lose a lot of ships, but i kill them dirty scum bags AI cheaters!

It takes the dread lords a long time to build new ships and imrpovments, that's your advantage, and they don't use defenses so they really go down just like any other enemy.

The campaign really needs work in this game, I stopped playing the campaign after I found out you don't carry over techs, it just seemed pointless after that.

Dread lords use defences now (in 1.2? I dunno, I bought it after 1.2 came out).

Its luck of the draw though. They usually specialize in one defence, but it goes up really fast. If you're unlucky and they pick your weapon type, you're screwed. I usually have to restart the scenario because by then they start spamming carriers.

I toyed with the idea of the cargo ship suicide bomber, but ultimately it seemed too lame to implement (that’s just me though). So I took up building fleets of tiny, single weapon fighters without defenses. My better industrial planets could crank 1/turn or 1/two turns so eventually attrition caught up with them and I was able to push them back. Posting these fighters a distance away from my planets proved helpful in taking out undefended Transports. Also having a single fast engine helps: if you see a Troop Transport approaching without escort you MUST be able to launch from your planet and intercept it in a single turn or else. Finally I researched all the Soldiering techs I could and that helped with 10 troop invasions!

P.S. There is a reason some scenarios have specific planet objectives. Sometimes all it takes is a surgical strike at the target planet.

Wrong, they use defences if u let them live too long. like 16 armour....which was annoying when I had an all-mass-driver fleet....