What is the second best way to deal with Dread Lord events in DA?

Hi!
In older game versions there was an option to talk to them, when you clicked on the message "race X signed a peace treaty with DLs". You can try doing this. If your mil stast are high, they should gladly accept peace.

Another way could be you ignore them, but have the best ground combat stats in the universe. This way you'll not be losing planets, but you'll likely lose starbases.

The third way could be you use spies to block ther factories, but they'll still produce some ships with the output from their Capital.

Like you see, nothing I mentioned can beat good old extermination.

BR, Iztok

I'd like to second using spies to block their factories. Dread Lords NEVER neutralize spies, and their ships are very expensive (which is why their homeworld will have the best factory on every tile). By locking them down with spies, you can restrain their ship production to the point where you could conceivably overwhelm them with many weak craft and then take them out with an invasion.

Dread Lords go after starbases very aggressively. Since bases tend to have lots of hit points, try and find a cheap way of spamming constructors near their world and build a heavily armed base there. Battle stations + devastation beam are enough to preserve a base against one of the DL's smallest ships - getting more will allow the base to put serious hurt on bigger DL craft.

Does anything trigger the event or is it random?

In all the games I've played, I had this event happen only once. I was freaking out until I realized it only had 1 planet and no ships. I killed it that very turn and was disappointed to realize that was all it was.

Bury them in an avalanche of crap. If you have no chance at all of taking on even a single Dread Lord ship in combat, and they *DO* have ship, just surround it in unarmed, engineless hulls flung into position by military space catapults. Every time he is forced to kill one just to leave dock, it costs him a move. As long as you can replace them faster than he can kill them (they cost next to nothing to make), he can do nothing.

Another way is to build a fast ship and lure theirs away. Preferably towards a fleet or planet of another AI who may keep them busy :p

Most Dread Lord ships have a low number of hitpoints, so massive attack may sometimes be enough, for example damaging them 1 point with each ship you lose.

Yes, as I mentioned in the original post, it can be quite easy to defeat them in the mid-late game, especially if they are nearby. When they show up in the early game, before you have the capability of invading them, however, it's not so easy.

Really, I wonder what the point of Dread Lords showing up without any ships is.

"Attention inferior beings: the Dread Lords, your new masters, have arrived! Tremble before our might! You will never... err, excuse me, my assistant wants to tell me something. What's that? You say we have no ships in orbit? Oh... my... god. We are sooooo %$#@ed. Umm, inferior beings? Yes, would you mind going on about your business for a few years without us? Thank you. That will make our invasion of this galaxy so much easier. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter."

"Attention inferior beings: the Dread Lords, your new masters, have arrived! Tremble before our might! You will never... err, excuse me, my assistant wants to tell me something. What's that? You say we have no ships in orbit? Oh... my... god. We are sooooo %$#@ed. Umm, inferior beings? Yes, would you mind going on about your business for a few years without us? Thank you. That will make our invasion of this galaxy so much easier. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter."


hahahahah thats just freakn funny.I wish I had something more to add but I turn off events for now.

That was just fresakin funny.

I was able to do this yesterday in DA 1.8-something (I forget what I'm patched to, I oughta check). The Dread Lords are totally my new BFFs. I love those guys! Playing Terrans with all the diplomacy techs I could get, diplomatic translators and galactic bazaar. Had a ton of extra cash from being turtled by the DLs for a long while doing research, and from trading with my allies.

So I bought myself a peace treaty, then spent every spare BC (about 80k) I had on the Dread Lord's advanced techs. My tech rating almost tripled, and within 6 months I was cranking out influence starbases and massive fleets like nobody's business. After I finish flipping all the Drengin worlds I'll be on the DL's doorstep with about 50 cruisers and some transports. Suckers.  :LOL: 

You can even buy treaties from them, I wonder if that would keep them from attacking you later on?

Actually, I think it's the other way round; you give them your treaties to prevent them from attacking you, by virtue of the diplo increase. However, if you have their treaty, they have little incentive not to attack you as they are getting nothing out of the deal. This is why many players give away their two treaties to the nearest races -- to forestall them attacking for a little while longer.

At least I believe that's correct. I'd verify it if I were near my home pc.