Caslon Crunch

[phatkarp]

In two of the three games I've played of Legends, I've found myself saddled with a terrible Caslon shortage. I keep sending my fleets to refuel, but they don't refuel. Why?!? Because there is no caslon.

I was wondering if other players have run into this dilemma, and what measures you have come up with to deal with it. In my first caslon crunch, I suspect that I had simply over-expanded my fleet. The second caslon crunch is more obviously the result of raids on my mining stations. I am considering designing a particularly heavily armed Gas Mining Station, and manually building those stations over crucial caslon supply sources. I'm also thinking about building defense bases next to those sources.

[Astax]

Yes you should. I do the same. I build many Gas stations, well armed, that way I do not ever have a shortage of fuel.  But at the same time you should build equal amount of steel mining stations because building so many gas stations may create a steel crunch!

[phatkarp]

Doh! [X(]

[feelotraveller]

I generally go for one or two caslon sources per colony. Maybe more for systems which are major shipbuilders.

Rather than building defensive bases station some of your fleets there (when they have nothing better to do). Pirates do like hitting gas stations. Some starfighters and extra shields can also be good.

Also once technology allows convert either military or civilian ships to hydrogen, but make sure you have sufficient hydrogen sources.

[phatkarp]

I typically add a few blasters to my mining stations, which is good enough to deter most pirates.  In my case, the main enemy fleet stopped by and started blasting all of my caslon miners while my small fleet was off guarding a front-line starport that was under construction.  I sent them back, but they weren't able to arrive in time.  I simply didn't have the fleet capacity to defend both points, and my fleet was too slow to go back-and-forth in time to save the stations.  Thus my thought to make strongpoints out of my caslon mines. 

There's probably no perfect answer to this dilemma.  Really, it's just a problem that illustrates what a great game DW is!