Battlestation: First Contact episode 2 tips and advice

Commanders!

Feel free to post your tips and advice on episode 2, the vicious Trolgars here. This episode is designed to be very hard.

1. No changes on the starting distribution of ppl as I figured I need marines to defend the station (although as it turns out, I built so solid defense that the boarding parties never got through
2. This time I started with focusing on station weaponry first, fighters second
3. I never touched the science section on this episode
4. The core of this strategy was to micromanage engineer allocation for every single wave. For this I noticed a slider controls would serve me better than the +- buttons, so the allocation could be changed faster. So for example I ran out of fighters, I put all my 40 engineers to hangars between waves and just when the enemy got close enough, ordered everyone to weapons as the 40% boost really made a difference between winning or losing. Around wave 45 I had to maximize repair just to hold off incoming missiles. At worst station’s shield were down and was down about 5% hull.
5. Had 2 hangars, some bolters, 1 laser and 2 missiles (1 set to engage strongest enemys’ shield, other turrets)
6. Had time/resources to build couple of missile boats and 2 battleships. I lost one of each.
7. One of the biggest differences between the first and second episodes was that this time I played it real close to the cheast. Had all my ships near the station and only on the last wave when I was sure of winning went all in with ships (fighters dropped like flies).
8. I think one key factor contributing to this times victory was to ignore the carriers which kept their distance. When I had destroyed the mothership, there were about 4-5 carriers still lurking around. Had I went after them, I could’ve left the station open to attack or boarding from ships jumping in near it.

I beat this level with a similar strategy to Inverno.

Starting out:
- I dropped Marines to 20, held pilots to 25, and put the 5 extras on Research.
- I start every single time with two Bolters.
- Stack researchers on Projectiles.

From here, it depends on what my research turns up.
- For Level 2, you have to build the 3rd Bolter before your research comes back because those pesky bad guys like to gimp your guns.
- If you get missiles, start building Hangars and set loadouts to Shields, Missiles, target Strongest, Shields.

From there on out it depends on what you get. One thing I didn't learn on level 1 is that you can tap enemy capitals and Disable, or Focus fire on them. Missile Fighters combined with Missiles from the base really melt them quick.

My first successful run I disabled an enemy Torpedo ship, then sent in the marines and captured it. Instantly warped it out, then brought it back in way behind my base to heal up a bit. That really helped. When the enemy boss comes in on Level 5, I changed all the Fighters over to attack his Turrets, which disables him pretty quick. Bombard him till he blows, then mop up enemy carriers (there were a few hiding out, but by this time I had like 3 battleships and they went quick.)

Challenging level.

Trolgar ships don't have shields.

And by the way, here is my wining strategy: Set marines to 20, pilots to 40, scientists to 20, and rest are engineers. When the game starts, build two bolters. On wawe 2 build third bolter. Then build 3 hangars, and a shuttlebay. Place all scientists to Projectiles, and when they discover all projectiles, put them to energy. If they discover gatling, replace all bolters whit gatlings. Capture carrier or torpedor. Equip all you fighters whit missles.When scientists discover missle, equip the rest slot whit it. Upon a sucessful capture, replace shuttlebay whit another missle.Missles targeting set to strongest, random. As reinforcements first order 2 battleships, then 2 missleships, and finaly, a capital ship.When the mothership arrives, put all your ships near it.