The Stellaris Combat Masterclass!

Play WAR THUNDER NOW FOR FREE using my link: playwt.link/strategizer2 and get a MASSIVE BONUS PACK including Vehicles, Boosters and MORE!!!
The Stellaris Combat Masterclass!
The Stellaris Combat Tips Masterclass EVERYONE Should Know, This Video will explain the Combat Masterclass for Stellaris!
My Patreon: www.patreon.com/Strategiser
Edited by @harinion
0:00 Basics
5:55 Intermission
7:36 Advanced
#stellaris

[@Strategiser2]

Play WAR THUNDER NOW FOR FREE using my link: playwt.link/strategizer2 and get a MASSIVE BONUS PACK including Vehicles, Boosters and MORE!!!

[@Cutgoose]

I agree

[@Markusuk08]

Best stellaris content creator

[@shadowconquer-yv5yd]

I need help escaping thy snail

[@SomeOneUKnow-hh1pl]

would it be possible for you to make a video on good ship designs. also excellent video

[@ReganaldVonCluck]

@@shadowconquer-yv5yd here’s the neat part. You dontt

[@Themrlol2]

This video will be absolete in month

[@Strategiser2]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Strategiser2]

NOT AGAIN!!!

[@atomictomfoolery4400]

@@Strategiser2haha patch and rework of entire everything go BRRRR

[@aaronmcpherson1297]

Nope its been so for eons

[@aaronmcpherson1297]

Tyvm also hehe

[@Klaracbarack]

I have over 1.6k hours in the game and no matter how many tutorials I watched I never got closer to understanding combat. I always relied on having bigger numbers than the enemy. After years, for the first time ever, things finally make sense. Thank you.

[@cosmicbananas8084]

i recommend the "Better Combat" mod, it makes combat more thought full, for example because tracking is nerfed heavily on XL weapons it means i need dedicated corvette hunter fleets, otherwise its something like a 90% chance to miss even with best computer and sensors. i also like my corvette fleets that use the interceptor specialization that increases the price tag by 90 alloys but i get 100% faster ship speed, the extra ship speed does not equate to more evasion. i also have fortresses which are like the battle ships of defense platforms i also have fortress stations with orbital guns that shoot anything too close including transports and storage silos so i can store more materials there since otherwise ill get huge debuffs from being cutoff from the rest of the empire if the space station nearby gets captured. those two mods are "At War: Planetary Cannons" and "Under Siege"

[@clainoire]

@@cosmicbananas8084 ahh, yes!! finally i can make it more complex when i just gotta learn how it works!!!!!!

[@annonomeece6443]

Don’t worry, all of this is gonna be wrong in a month

[@Klaracbarack]

@@annonomeece6443 oh I’m aware, been playing this game since launch lol

[@JoaoPedro-ol7sl]

​@@annonomeece6443 what do you mean?

[@mackenziewheeler5777]

why am i studying for stellaris combat instead of uni exams?

[@Strategiser2]

lmfao

[@Hearstbane]

Same dude... Same

[@TheyCalledMeT]

because one is designed in an engaging entertaining way and one has a tendency to be very dry and tedious

[@crusader8102]

bro fucking same

[@SamTheApe]

woah no way had war thunder open while listening to a war thunder ad i need to go outside

[@jpheitman1]

*Go outside and leak classified documents FTFY

[@endarus6053]

@@jpheitman1 Thats not true. They don't need to go outside to do that.

[@brysoncoker4876]

Fun fact, when it comes to retreat points: if you select a close by retreat point and then, when in FTL, you change you destination to a further one, it will take the same amount of time to get there. Also you can change the destination while your ship is in combat from the fleet manager. Edit: I was wrong! They patched the first one with the most recent update. Second one still works though

[@Strategiser2]

WHAT, no way...i need to test this

[@brysoncoker4876]

@@Strategiser2 they have patched the in-transit one unfortunately

[@Adidas_der_schwanger_war]

Stellaris combat makes me feel like I am only the dictator of a Space empire that relies on admirals and technicians to do the rest.

[@regencyrow1867]

That's basically what most real leaders job involves; delegate the minutae to subordinates while you deal with the grand strategy and long term planning.

[@connorm5862]

These videos are good and I like them. I do have to pause every 10 seconds and then rewind twice, and yes I do enjoy pain. 10/10 please continue to do what you do

[@cay746]

Regarding 1:40 : Apparently, thats not always the case. For some reason, picking PD on a destroyer comes with the cost of giving up an M slot, instead of an S slot. I was wondering for a while if there is a reason to that. Edit: Also, this only on the left section of destroyers for some reason. The right section uses the standard conversion rate.

[@Strategiser2]

nono, P = S M = 2S M = 2P

[@cay746]

@@Strategiser2 eah, but you get to choose between 1M + 2S = 4 and 1PD + 2S = 3. Thats what i mean.

[@Strategiser2]

wait...YOU'RE RIGHT WHAAAAT, the one glaring inconsistency lmfao (excluding menacing cruisers ofc)

[@grafeugenius]

It's okay IMO. It means cheaper destroyer for kiting missile built. It even make for good anti little shits defense

[@2013Arcturus]

To be clear, I bought Stellaris when it launched and have never won a game, and have over 1300+ hours in it lmao I have never known any of this and just always went with "bigger number better" and 95% of that time it works out. The game has gotten so complicated recently, and I'm playing the start that gives you access to relic tech, so I saw your video in my feed and said, "fuck it, I need to finally learn this shit"

[@Strategiser2]

full on guide may be useful to explain the new mechanics yeah lol, some are just so complicated that videos with this lenght is the only way

[@bigtoast5481]

Go with ringworld start as robots gives you a crazy economy

[@clydedoris5002]

Always quit midgame when it becomes a micromanagement nightmare

[@Little_Spooky27]

@@clydedoris5002 I only play a certain way to counter this lol, determined exterminator on a machine hivemind. No need to worry about happiness, consumer goods, food, and politics since everyone hates you. sector and automate as many worlds as you can since as robots you can colonize anywhere plus you'll be invading a lot. This lets you focus on war and the fun aspects of the game imo. Other than trying to min max 50 planets I noticed the world automation AI isn't terrible and will even auto resettle pops. My main issue is that by midgame most empires form a federation and it's almost impossible to win a 1v7 with their superstack federation fleets.

[@philkim8297]

​​@@clydedoris5002I play with most of my planets on the automation setting. Saves you the hassle of micromanaging all your planets

[@sanguineaurora8765]

Genova Suggestions is actually a checklist for Stellaris players.

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

Geneva Directions for me. These pre-FTLs ain’t gonna enslave themselves y’know.

[@danielgloyd4529]

I'd argue that with high stealth, you force the enemy to build useless starbases. If they do not build multiple high-level detection arrays with overlapping coverage. You can jump in snipe their one detection base and then cloak. If they build an extreme network of detection array citadels. Then just hit the upgrade button at a starport to swap that 1 cloak module for a few days per ship upgrade. Costing you virtually nothing but now they have multiple wasted starbases just costing upkeep

[@enriquegarcia7207]

Great video as always!!

[@xdeser2949]

they should definitely nerf how much detection range each starbase can have for cloaked ships. In the end that might just mean that cloak builds just nerf some starbases but then at least there'd be some real alloy cost in investing in cloak defense and eschewing it would have some risk attached to it

[@Strategiser2]

yep, i wholeheartedly agree

[@MayaWu44]

Now this one is your best... of those I've seen already. Although all your vids are pure fun to watch man!

[@scruffums123]

Fantastic work, well done! And thank you for going through the extra work to get us footage of the testing footage. It makes it MUCH easier to understand when you can see the ship behaviours. Also, what's the name of the background music used around the basics and intermission sections? Sounds like a banger remix of some Fallout 4 tracks. Other than that, keep up the good work!

[@Strategiser2]

thank you! Don't Forget What I Taught You - Into The Breach

[@timcarl5751]

Thank you for adding accurate subtitles.

[@Strategiser2]

thank you for noticing it!

[@83athom]

1:50 Not quite, there is one example of a section being either under valued compared to the others; the PD Bow on the Destroyer which a slot value of 3 (2 small + 1 PD) instead of the 4 of the Gunship ( 2 small + 1 medium) and Artillery (1 large) bows. 2:25 Also lasers.

[@kalebbateman]

Incredibly useful video, as I'm trying to get back into Stellaris after a few updates, and I haven't understood combat well since like 2.1.

[@SeeAndDreamify]

Chance to hit from line combat computer being dual purpose contradicts what Montu always sais, that increased chance to hit does nothing if you have 100% accuracy, and it does not affect evasion.

[@Strategiser2]

it does, chance to hit is involved in a wonky math calculation and CAN counteract Evasion somewhat, just indirectly by adding to the final accuracy after it's subtracted by evasion

[@oneangryblacktemplar7040]

Is that the Into the Breach's Ost I'm hearing ? Great taste also perfectly chosen for this specific video

[@scarletsence]

5:37 me trying to explain combat in stellaris to my friends without scaring them.

[@StarboyXL9]

Missed you bud. Bring it in!

[@vojtapro4843]

Ngl you sound like the nerd emoji.

[@Strategiser2]

lmao, yes i do, for the entire 19 minutes too!

[@lavasurfer6548]

I like the way his voice sounds

[@rispruffcuts2306]

great work go ahead

[@tuskular]

Strat you are honestly funny af

[@Blundabus1337]

What's neat is using troop transports as canonfodder really isn't going against the spirit of the game because this is exactly what happened in Ender's Game.

[@joshnoshhosh]

Don't forget to upvote guys, this dude puts in so much effort on top of everything else we have going on in each individual life

[@fox_0685]

such an informative and amazing video. my brain feels less smooth now ty ❤

[@andrewrobb3258]

So due to engagement range its still a good idea to bring one or two carriers with the fleet. Thou they take a bit to ramp up in long battles they would still come in handy. Wish they gave more hanger slots thou even if it cost us other slots.

[@star_scream9349]

I like the information density

[@jonathanwelch4460]

Halo music earned you a new subscriber!!!

[@andrewrobb3258]

Somthing to note is the plasma torp long range i find pares well with a cruser biuld when you also fill the small slots with missiles.

[@hanneswiggenhorn2023]

Don't the swarm missiles perform better against most targets? I'm not sure if I got the stats right in my head, but I think the m slot missiles do more damage even against cruisers

[@AndrewSmith-ub6xs]

i think cloaking still gets unfairly hated, if you get psionic or dark matter (fallen empire) cloaking and a good admiral, and take subterfuge; your scientists, corvettes and frigates cant be uncloaked by an enemy unless they flip control of a starbase via combat while your cloaked fleets are hiding within it. even max detection starbases with a scientist helping them with decloaking you can just go straight through it. pair that with psi jump drives and you can jump all your fleets (you can cloak battleships and titans with psi/fallen cloaks) around pretty much the entire galaxy by staying within nebula clouds. cloaking is also fantastic during the inevitable endgame gateway spam for getting your weaker fleets away from the larger AI fleets, you can just cloak them before the AI reaches the system they are in and it usually buys you enough time to jump/FTL out because they have to flip control of the starbase before you get 'revealed' to them. they can also be great for pre-positioning several different cloaked fleets at important trade chokepoints for an economic strike that's more powerful than hitting their capitol system (although you should do that as well), particularly potent against megacorps and gestalts because they tend to get their main resources from outside of their 'population economy'

[@andrzejwysocki609]

seeing how armour is the meta now + the halo music i sorta want to install the unsc ship model mod and play stellaris as the unsc with kinetic\strikecraft n torpedo boated ships

[@vaylinwindsor4571]

Love that you're using halo music for a Stellaris vid. it suits it surprisingly well

[@garethsentry]

Nice one

[@kufesska]

Strat, you missed something about disengagement: bigger damage = more likely to kill, BUT small damage(like stikecaraft) make chance to successfully disengage much smaller per try(check your screenshot from wiki 15:02) while there are only few chances to disengage for each ship

[@Strategiser2]

that is the common sentiment yes, but it has been shown time and time again in testing that small damage weapons actually cause more disengagement you can see this the most in Disruptors, low damage per shot, yet forcing enemy disengagement so consistently

[@TheDecree93]

learned so much from one video

[@Nomadic_Gaming]

this is why corvettes were so good w missiles and such given they had to close range period usually to me they would fire otw to swarm range and eat enemy aggro and shots then just start dumping shots along w whatever you put on them for their other slot at least pre combat rework or your on console it was great for just taking lil chunks out of enemies before your battleship fleets w a titan came in and started chunking enemies which the strikes from those would absolutely just delete the now weakened enemies given they already had dmg meaning that first volley may make alot of ships disengage asap or mean they die hard before getting off a second return volley w the current pc combat setup a screen fleet is still effective used right and makes your losses cheaper to replace vs your big heavy hitters it made a screen corvette fleet really cheap to use vs heavy

[@Rotblattchinchilla12]

I thought I was a casual, why do I know already about most of that? D: And why can I not forget he new stuff? x.x

[@felixgoudreault7053]

Thanks for the theoretical details. Though it could be nice to have a live example explaining what you do when you enter at war. It's nice to see what every component do but harder to apply them in a game as a noob.

[@Strategiser2]

hmmmm, that's actually a good idea, i'll think about a guide focusing on the actual actions in war

[@igrvks]

Return to monke, corvette spam until enemy disappears

[@shaka2tu]

Menace corvette with nano missiles

[@user-vl9ju3vx9u]

9:01 Actually, "Median" has a crazy bug. In this pattern, computer may think 30 or 125 is median. If you assign "Bow,Core,Stern"order, weapon slots will be readed as that order. And if you assign weapons from left to right, they're like below. Bow(120,120),Core(30,30,125),Stern(120,120) →120,120,30,30,125,120,120 Then, "Median" is 30. What a crazy bug...

[@shaka2tu]

Is this median is a joke or real? Not sum?

[@gabe75001]

@@shaka2tu Yeah, check out Strat's recent iceberg video and near the end, he explains how this bug works.

[@shaka2tu]

@@gabe75001 i will check it later. Is that mean if i use x slot, 2pd, 2hangar. It will has 30 median?

[@prodhero]

i've never been more excited and terrified to delve into a feature in a game in my life

[@prodhero]

i'm either about to nerf my entire fleet into the ground or beat the hell out of my friends

[@joshnoshhosh]

Sorry Strat, this video is too good that I'm actively not telling my friends about it before our next match 😂😅

[@huntersawyer9324]

Specifically watching this video instead of warthunder videos so i dont get my in game audio confused. Then you play warthunder clips lmao

[@2kDVI]

Into the breach music goes hard

[@Zzigny]

after going through the "basic" part i've decided that i want to have fun and therefore will only play singleplayer, however thank you for the suggestions

[@ecogreen123]

my only tips are always have strike craft where possible and torpedos and frigates are mostly useless.

[@michelpignot1157]

About starbases and platform target priority, it's quite true and honestly not that hard to test and I've had it happen quite a lot in my own games, fleets will do a 180 to target literally anything else that can fight before firing on starbases and platforms, even going so far as ignoring the starbase they were previously shooting at, but that doesn't mean they won't *shoot* them, always remember the AI will fire if something is in range, only not doing it if it's a non-combattant and there are combattants in the fight Though yeah it does mess the AI computers a bit because it's a combattant

[@justarandompersonininterne6583]

you fool i already wasted 3 years of my life on war thunder,but you deserve a subscription for making these videos

[@iqrus9125]

music from this video is from the steam game “Into the Breach”

[@battlecruiserna]

the bigger the pile of hp the more useful regen is. Don't recommend ever using for in combat purposes unless you are not running shields.

[@ssgoko88]

My girlfriend has a small slot but i manage fine fitting a large weapon in

[@Zzigny]

the other way around for me: i dont have a girlfriend, i have a small weapon :( my corvette still has a great personality though

[@westernbody]

Dang i fell asleep twice trying to watch this

[@mrfatmancory]

Pls add your Ost's used to description or something, I think I spent like 20 minutes racking my brain over what started to play at 8:00 since it sounded it so familiar. It was one of into the breach's themes btw.

[@Maccouille]

best weapon is "phased disruptor" "lightning cloud" and "focused arc emitter" with that, 200k fleet can litteraly obliterate 1m fleet

[@xiaohuang3062]

Hi Strat would u like to take a look in to Menaing destroyers? Hence they have 1G,1M,1S,1P also uses 3 M defensive slot with 2A slot. Possibale staking the current Cruiser carrier/torp meta? 💗

[@MageOfGaming3]

this to a degree actually helped me kill the crisis in my hivemind game thank you very much, btw what backround is that at 17:30 - 18:30?

[@Mardols]

Even with guide this seems complicated. 😀 but thank you so much.

[@marcelgrabowski5939]

Despite 2514 hours in stellaris i do not knowed about fact that ship speed increase speed at wich reinforcements arive. It seems that watching this video made sense after all.

[@zavhytar9333]

You should do a video on fleet-comp

[@snackymcgoo1539]

Edit: Just changed from Line Combat Computer to Picket on my cruisers, now they close distance and fight in the middle of the fleets mixing it up. Now their medium slot auto cannons are firing. I can look at the combat stats after a fight and my large auto cannons never fire a shot. Why is this? I have found the stated facts on stellaris wiki and also here kzbin.info/www/bejne/o17XhWB5i9OMiZY are not accurate. For example, I have a fleet of cruisers with MM/PPH/SS. L auto cannon = 40 range, P Barrier Defense range = 30, Basic strike craft = 125 range and S lasers at 40 range. That is 30, 30, 40, 40, 40, 125 where the median would be 40. But the 40s never shoot. The cruiser is using a line combat computer and stops way back only launching fighters and never getting into the fight which they were kitted to do. Ultimately, the wiki and game notes and the community are wrong.

[@joaobatistaperinjunior953]

So what you are saying is Tachyon lances on every ship on every stack

[@ChristopherKayser88]

you get a subscribe for the intro music.

[@DavidHughey-xu2ce]

I've seen people stack juggernaut/star devourer with regen since their hp pools are so big, 2 devourers soloed an AE starbases I saw fighting a purifier in my games, is this a dumb strat or actually smart to include these sorts of components on giant ships

[@hanneswiggenhorn2023]

Personally I like to put boosters on my juggernaut, because it can do some insane kiting with the range boost. What I do for regen is normally fleet buffs on titans, because I figured that should be more efficient than giving each ship one individually

[@shaka2tu]

Its better to use battleship with maximum speed and x slot with carrier computer. Why not artillery? Because it use medium distance formation instead maximum distance, they will back off when the enemy get closer instead always keep their distance like carrier computer. (Bad at kiting) So for more weapon range use admiral buff. Wep range and sublight speed is the king for 25x crisis. (Kiting meta)

[@Killahnator69]

Ah, yes, Strat, the Westpoint of Stellaris. Weststrat.

[@kingvinoda3896]

You probably know how combat works in Stellaris better than Paradox themselves.

[@musicking1408]

I hate it when the terravore crisis uses all their envoys to get full intel on everyone and the level 10x actual crisis kills them

[@louiswinterhoff334]

Make more videos Strat!!

[@Strategiser2]

working on it!!!

[@BloodyCrow__]

Ive tried missiles and disruptors in all my battles the total damage is pitiful compared to old fashioned single autocannon and full energy weapon.

[@andredicarlo3310]

"EmOTIOnal damage"

[@jinsu9004]

Thanks for making these videos. I'm too dumb to understand the arcane arts of stellaris combat especially every time I come back to the game half my knowledge is no longer relevant.

[@weewarasinchai4509]

You know what just look at number tech and spam your edict

[@daviddragneel7318]

Omg thus is so helpful I watched my battle ships plow threw a enemy fleet to hit the Starbase completely ignored the fleet that was killing them the whole time luckily I have back up fleets and jumped in to help take out bas3 fast to engage the main enemy fleet. I've plays 3 games so that was NOT helpful and nothing much on actual vanilla combat.

[@steamavila1818]

Returning player, I played the game a few times long time ago, So much stuff to relearn that its so overwhelming, I did try a "blind" game run, right at the start some Ahole Alien neighbor decided to destroy me, right at the start! now I'm here trying to get ready for battle and conquer those Aholes lol

[@Alageild]

i'm sure i've learned something from this but i don't remember what

[@lilnoir4213]

Love your voice !

[@kw8295]

Is cloaking part of a DLC? I've been playing many games and still have not had the tech come up. But now that you say it's kinda useless I think I'll just stick to my big damage strats.

[@avefreetimehaver5154]

Sponsorship! Woot Woot! War Thunder ftw!!!

[@MulderStarling]

Great and useful information but the repeating cadence is stressing me out

[@ZLEEP2324]

Goddamit I cannot escape war thunder

[@dammy4403]

how did you spawn enemy fleets ?

[@ryanstewart2289]

I use cloaking on my science ships and that's it.

[@gonavygonavy1193]

I read somewhere else that chance to hit bonus is added to accuracy, the sum of which is capped at 100, prior to being substracted by evasion. This makes it pointless to stack chance to hit on a 100% accurate weapon. Chance to Hit = max(0, min(100, accuracy + "Chance to Hit") - max(0, evasion - tracking)) Is this not true?

[@gonavygonavy1193]

So according to my formula, adding auxiliary fire control to weapons with 100 accuracy has no effect, but according to yours, it has effect?

[@Strategiser2]

"Chance to Hit" does NOT add to "Accuracy", it's added separately after

[@sommmeguy]

Stellaris is a typical paradox game. Have more than your enemy. That's it. You can tweak all day and assemble and reassemble, size still wins. It's a grand "strategy" game, not a tactics game. The micromanaging is fun and sometimes makes a difference, but "the 300" will get crushed everytime.

[@grafeugenius]

I WILL STILL USE HEALING A SLOT. VIVA LA BLITZKRIEG!

[@sanssherif8452]

i hear the real ship design meta is having zero shields

[@Strategiser2]

🗿

[@machixius]

Wait, 8:59 don’t normal small missiles have only 100 range?

[@Strategiser2]

good catch, that was an editing mishap yes, it should have been 100

[@khinev3128]

Did not a masterclass with memes😮

[@zheka7691]

can you please make the music a bit louder in next vids? i can hear some voice talking in background....

[@man2meandyou]

Coming from EVE Online, I didn't think any other space game would come close to its complexity of combat. Welp 😂

[@Argenomius]

haha, funny numbers and letters, lot of them (i don't read anything help me)

[@JohnCena-fd5yw]

so what do i do against bots?

[@RagnellAvalon]

Congratulations on making the national security watchlist!

[@patmalloy3569]

Information overload

[@Babagush68]

This is mostly for multiplayer isnt it? Against AI is more simple unfortunately. Still learned a lot though.

[@antontribelgorn3641]

the only thing I don't like about stellaris combat that this video doesn't help on is the lack of a testing ground where you can decide for yourself what works and what doesn't. I would love combat in this game so much more if there were a way to test your fleet and ship designs without mods and without having a friend help you in a playthrough. Best example of this for me is point defense and flak, there is barely any way to test how much either of those are worth taking, or how much they actually defend. the missiles/strike craft gunned down counter doesn't help much either, cause you don't know how many the enemy fired in the first place. because of this i honestly just stick to a 1 Titan, 5 Battleship, 20 Cruiser, 10 Point defense Destroyer fleet even if it's sub-optimal, just cause I can't test if there is something better for myself