I'm near the end of a campaign I've been really unlucky with stargod RNG. No SG crackdowns, no bases, no battleships. So I thought I'd take a crack at the silver towers and found myself woefully unprepared. I came here and couldn't really find much in terms of a solid strategy, so I decided to figure it out and post it here for future lazy bastards like myself
I don't know this for sure, but it seemed like none of the silver towers in my game spawned as hunter-killers, so you can plan and influence which crafts it shoots at, which is nice.
My first attempt was with dragons and devastators with the heaviest damage stuff I could cram in them. Then I realized none of them could catch a Silver Towers, lol. That was a costly oversight.
Next attempt was with 1 Sabre with tesla cannons and meteor missiles, and 3 brave whalers with avalanches. I figured the sabre could tank shots and get in close to start hitting the shields, then the brave whalers could overwhelm it with 9 avalanche missiles. I couldn't even drop the shields with this fleet. The sabre didn't last long, and I'm sure some of the avalanches missed. I was using a gal pilot, so maybe a lokk with max stats and an extra shield generator or two would make this more viable. I couldn't make it work, though.
Third time was the charm. This time I went with 4 sabres, all with tesla cannons and meteor missiles, and that did the trick. If you're good at pulling damaged craft away until the UFO targets something else you can even keep all the ships alive. I had to savescum a bit, but I wanted to see if it could be done. I think the key is having high bravery pilots to make the quickest approaches and retreats. And reactions, of course, to dodge the attacks. The weapons are both 125% accuracy, so I don't think high accuracy is that important. I had one sabre pilot that was either normal or mostly bold for approach and I had a hard time keeping that one alive since the fall back until it switched targets was so much slower. Then reapproaching took a lot longer. The sabres could take 4-5 shots before they were toast
At the time I had forgotten about medusa missiles. 6 missiles per launcher instead of 3, 100% accuracy (worse than meteor but good), and roughly double the damage to shields that the meteors caused. Looks good on paper, but then those 9 avalanches looked good on paper too
Haven't tried it, but it looks like a better option.
Assaulting the ship once it's down is a bitch and a half, but in the end I was able to bag an operator and the coordinator, so I was happy. Speaking of operators, where else do they spawn? This was my first time encountering one this campaign. I figured a cruiser at least would have one, but none of the ones I assaulted did. Just bad luck?
Also, I did this on L3. I'm curious to hear what others have used to down these beasts
TL:DR - not an optimal strategy probably, but 4 sabres with teslas and meteors will get the job done. Bring high bravery and reaction gals and do a little juggling in the interception window if you want everyone to come home
