Ultimoos,
In 4.0 first ninja airfield appear is scripted on 3+ difficulty, not sure wich research topics can do this. Im on 3. difficulty too and for me airfield become fortress only at the middle of the second year or so. They builded 2 more airfields at the beggining of the 3 year.
- Ninja Balancing: No longer extra 3 Ninja bases appear due to tech progression. Last scripted base appears later on Blackbeard+ now. However, bases can appear endlessly with a small chance from 2603 onwards.
If first ninja base appeared right next to your base in early game it's better to start a new game. They will strangle you with sieges sooner or later.
Otherwise i would say just relax and play, ninja bases can generate several "govt defense" missions wich can bring you to -6000 or so. Anyway you will not loose a game until you get -500 score or -1kk money twice in a row.
Save items with short research time like data disks for tough monthes in early game, i think each topic with # gives you 250 of score and you can shoot'em several times to fix your rating fast.
Unlock all missions asap. Its possible to do ~4-6k of score per month just by doing missions and ignoring pogroms even in bad monthes.
In mid game score problems mostly become errelevant.
Also if you plan to build any passive defenses take in account that for example each Ninja Landcruiser have 2850hp, so you need arround 12 vulcan batteries to be able to defend from them. I will recommend to build just 2 hideout shrouds and 2 vulcans for your outposts to defend them from hobos until you unlock something like SAM sites or Laser Defenses. If you plan to shoot down incoming ships with craft then you need something beefy to tank damage like swordfish/kraken. As for Bykes and Seekers - Seagull missiles can bring them down quickly.
Greep,
I have found the harvester useful for downing zepellins, armored patrols, and military convoys, but only when fully decked out. But yeah, it's mostly either going to be cars/pirhannas/jetbikes/shadowcraft.
Yeah, it should be packed with 14mm x3 and a good pilot, but after this its basicly mini Convoy with 4 HWP. You can shove into it stuff like 4 Hyenas early. My harvester are able to crawl in to the airfield and shoot down all 3 interceptors and then proceed to siege. On the usual battlescape its just op fortress. Harvesters = <3
Really curius about early game stuff like buckaroos/bombers. Anyone used them? Like outpost with wing of 3 buckaroos or something.