Arcen Games

General Category => AI War Classic => AI War Classic - After Action Reports => : zoutzakje December 03, 2012, 08:00:22 PM

: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 03, 2012, 08:00:22 PM
Yes that's right, this is going to be a 1/1 game. I've been planning to do this for quite some time now, just to see how chaotic it can get. I put my other AAR on halt for now so now is the right time.

These are my settings:

All Expansions
1/1 Golemite/The Core
Map Seed: 613433689
Number of Planets: 100
Map Style: Crosshatch
Available Ships: Complex
Unit Cap Scale: Low
Extra Fog of War
Auto AIP per minute: 1 every 15 minutes

AI Mods:
Schizophrenic
2 X Waves
Nuclear Command
No Wave Warnings
Cross Planet Waves

Minor Factions:
Human Marauders 10
Human Resstance Fighters 10
Human Colony Rebellions
Zenith Traders
Zenith Miners 10
Zenith Dyson Sphere 10
Zenith Devourer
Neinzul Rocketry Corps 10
Neinzul Preservation Wardens 10
Neinzul Roaming Enclaves 10
Fallen Spire 10
Spire Civilian Leaders
Broken Golems Hard 10
Spirecraft Hard 10
Botnet Golem Hard 10
Dark Spire 10

AI Plots:
Avenger
Hybrid Hyves 10
Advanced Hybrid 10
Astro Trains 10
Beachheads
All of these are for both AI's

Personal Rule:
Ironman Mode (dead is dead)

So yeah. I have nearly no idea what to expect here. This could be really easy or this could be over in 5 minutes. No second chances.
Things I know I have to watch out for:

Pain Trains, Cargo in particular. If intensity 10 really only gives you about one and a half hour time for the first H/K, I better make sure I expand quickly and get some Implosion Artillery ready. That and Bombers should hopefully do the trick. Using Rams to deal with the Golems.

Hybrids and their plots. Hybids have always been annoying and I can't wait to see what they're like at intensity 10. Also the Dyson Sphere plot surprised me last time when it was newly introduced. I won't let that happen a second time.

Triple or Quadriple exo's. Dif 1/1 but still, I don't know how bad intensity 10 is.

Nuclear commands. Can't have allmy ships go boom at once.

Everything else I'm just curious to see what happens. I know I haven't picked the most chaotic AI types, but I wanted to play against a few I would enjoy.
I click new map seed until it would show a bonus ship at one of the corners of the crosshatch. And the first one is Zombards. Awesome, I'm taking it.
Homeworld is named Drake and I'm ready to play.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aklyon December 03, 2012, 08:11:10 PM
*looks at the list*
...Oh dear.


And yet I'm interested anyway. How hard can you manage to make things on 1/1?
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 03, 2012, 08:28:00 PM
You could rename that:

"The rule of the <hostile to everyone> faction" game.

Heck, Dark Spire 10/10 does that already.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Wanderer December 03, 2012, 10:39:13 PM
 :o

Dude.  That sounds like SO much fun!!!   :D  I'm going to have to try that!
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Coppermantis December 04, 2012, 02:58:33 AM
I was going to try this a while ago but decided that a few certain factions on 10 would make it unbeatable. You are a braver man than I, and I wish you luck.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Minotaar December 04, 2012, 04:04:19 AM
When I was thinking about doing this game, I thought I'd call it "Everything But The AI War".
I am awaiting colorful descriptions of your death  :D
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 04, 2012, 10:32:05 AM
I was going to try this a while ago but decided that a few certain factions on 10 would make it unbeatable.
Games like this have nothing to do with "beatable" ;)

I predict the AI and humans will be huddling in their respective corners, cowering before the galaxy-filling Dark Spire.  While everything else goes crazy.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 04, 2012, 10:57:36 AM
Yeah I'm really surprised nobody has tried this before. I mean, It would be THE most obvious thing to do when intensity scaling got introduced.
I hope this is going to give me at least some of a challenge. Waves and taking planets shouldn't be any trouble at all, but my playstyle tends to be quite slow and rich in AIP. We'll see where this goes.

I'm not going to unlock the usual things at the start of this game. First of all no Advanced Warp Sensor, because I'm not going to know where waves will hit anyway. Also, no Harvester upgrades. I don't think I'll run into much economic problems. That knowledge is better spend elsewhere.
I do get Gravity Turrets right away though. I have a feeling I'm going to have to play very defensive this round.

Golemite AI has Tractor Platforms, which I'm very excited about... Yeah, bombers are going to be very important in this game.

Scouted my surrounding worlds a bit and noticed that Punch Ant has a Co-P.
An Ars right next to it on Scarlet Needle.
SCL at Hail


At 8 minutes I decide to send my fighters in to attack Punch Ant. They handled it all by themselves, increasing the AIP to 54. I took out the Co-P and the Nuclear Command trigger made the Train Station explode. I wonder how quickly I can take every planet I need. If a bunch of mk I ships is all that it takes...

10 mins in and I get a visit from some friendly Enclaves. How nice. I believe their default behavior is to defend my homeworld so that's what I'll let it do.
Meanwhile I discover that Iris has a Broken Artillery Golem on it. And it's at the same direction I'm heading towards. Nice. That should help against a lot of stuff. I should be very very careful of the Dark Spire there though.

At 15 minutes I take Scarlet Needle, mk I fighters still being the only ships I've got. Making everything explode with Nuclear command of course doesn't work when playing against The Core. Bunch of mk V ships entered my system but my quickly rebuilded fighters took care of them. ARS gave me Vampire Claws.
So far no sign yet of any ships attacking me. Waves won't be much on dif 1, but does it really take more than 15 minutes for the fist waves to arrive? Or maybe my turrets already blew them to bits without me noticing it.

16 mins: +1 AIP from auto AIP. So what, it's not counting the first minute? That's silly.
I unlock fighters, bombers and zombards mk II and Logistics mk II as well. It's time to build some ships instead of just defensive stuff.
Meanwhile my cap of mk I fighters is under attack by 3 mk I Tractor Platforms. Fighters seem to be winning though.

16 minute 30: Punch Ant is under attack by 35 Roaming Enclaves. Ok I really need to start building ships now.

17 minutes: 16 Marauders decide to join the Enclaves in their attack on Punch Ant. I still haven't got a fleet ready.
Some friendly Enclaves decide to help me out and win the battle for me. Awesome. I would have lost Punch Ant otherwise for sure.

20 minutes: Roaming Enclaves are attacking Scarlet Needle and my homeworld, but only a few of them. I have a feeling that this will never stop. No sign of hybrids yet, though I notice a lot of hyves. A bunch of trains also spawned on Wolfkin Cub, including 4 Cargo's. Ok change of plans. I need those harvester upgrades. Mk II for both unlocked.

22 minutes: More Enclaves and Marauders attacking Punch Ant. Friendly Enclaves are pretty much the only thing keeping me alive right now. I've decided I will leave the Artillery Golem at Iris alone, even though I will regret not having it's firepower. The intensity of the enclaves and marauders already scare me. I will avoid every Dark Spire planet like the plague.

Punch Ant is definitely the intruders target. Marauders and Enclaves keep showing up there nearly non-stop. And in pretty large numbers too. I've got a few bombers and missile frigs as well now, so combined with the friendly enclaves they're quite managable so far.
Still, at this rate I'm worried I won't even get to see the Cargo spawns. I'll probably be dead before then.

At 28 minutes I realize that I'm doomed. The hybrid hyves just spawned their hybrids, which are still sitting still on their worlds. I notice a total of 44 hybrids. When they strike, I'm done for. I should not have expanded yet. It would have been better to stay on my homeworld for a while and just heavily fortify it. Unlocked HBC's mk I. Maybe they'll do something good.

28 minute 30: Punch Ant is under attack again. 40 Enclaves and 40 Marauders this time. Their numbers are still increasing. Luckily I got 5 Friendly enclave units so they can spawn a lot of younglings. Maybe even enough to stop the few hybrids that are on their way to my worlds. I don't even have the time or resources to do proper scouting.

And that was the first 30 minutes of playtime. Everything seems stable now for a few seconds. I don't think I will live through the next 30 mins.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aklyon December 04, 2012, 11:02:28 AM
Since this is 1/1 and very likely to fail, should we expect an MK3 nuke at the end? :P
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 04, 2012, 11:08:12 AM
Since this is 1/1 and very likely to fail, should we expect an MK3 nuke at the end? :P

I think this game will be over long before I even get the resources to build one :D
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 04, 2012, 11:10:17 AM
I was going to try this a while ago but decided that a few certain factions on 10 would make it unbeatable.
Games like this have nothing to do with "beatable" ;)

I predict the AI and humans will be huddling in their respective corners, cowering before the galaxy-filling Dark Spire.  While everything else goes crazy.

I hope I have shown dark spire are not enough to stop aggression. This would be.very interesting for 10/10,but I don't see how I can get.the colony ship to the.human rebellions sans jumpsuits. If only I.gif a tougher colony ship...
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 04, 2012, 11:16:34 AM
And that was the first 30 minutes of playtime. Everything seems stable now for a few seconds. I don't think I will live through the next 30 mins.
Dunno, that should be good for 5ish more ally enclaves; all 10 dropping full loads could go a long way to stopping 44 hybrids; and not all the hybrids will attack.

I suspect that if you hold out long enough, the ally enclave fleet could become strong enough to face down most threats.  Dunno about the cargo train spawns, though, that could be it.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aklyon December 04, 2012, 11:17:17 AM
Since this is 1/1 and very likely to fail, should we expect an MK3 nuke at the end? :P

I think this game will be over long before I even get the resources to build one :D
Aw.  :D
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 04, 2012, 11:21:27 AM
Since this is 1/1 and very likely to fail, should we expect an MK3 nuke at the end? :P

I think this game will be over long before I even get the resources to build one :D
Aw.  :D
The hybrids might be able to "just one more wafer-thin mint" the dyson early enough ;)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 04, 2012, 12:31:14 PM
oh right, hybrid+dyson plot does something similair to a mk III nuke in the end. I forgot about that since I've never actually seen it in action. More stuff to watch out for.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 04, 2012, 12:35:34 PM
oh right, hybrid+dyson plot does something similair to a mk III nuke in the end. I forgot about that since I've never actually seen it in action. More stuff to watch out for.
Oh, you don't really need to watch out for it, it'll just handle everything for you.  As Kahuna likes to say: Boom! Problem Solved ;)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Echo35 December 04, 2012, 02:40:27 PM
I... need to do this.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 04, 2012, 04:00:26 PM
I... need to do this.

I'm doing this right now!

Every minor faction on and at 10 if possible.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Minotaar December 04, 2012, 04:21:44 PM
Err.. should we make this an official lobby script and hold competitions or something?  :)
I'm going to hold off doing this until someone reports, though  :)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aklyon December 04, 2012, 04:42:46 PM
Err.. should we make this an official lobby script and hold competitions or something?  :)
I'm going to hold off doing this until someone reports, though  :)
A "Who can lose at 1/1 the fastest?" ???
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 04, 2012, 05:17:22 PM
*Nuclear Train goes off*

*unhandled errors*

I see have my nemesis
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 04, 2012, 05:26:18 PM
*Notes a nuclear train was made 20 minutes into a 1/1 game, and train stations were bording my two HW border planets*

I shudder for you normal train 10 users.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 04, 2012, 06:08:37 PM
*Nuclear Train goes off*

*unhandled errors*
Mantis with save? :)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 04, 2012, 06:28:26 PM
*Nuclear Train goes off*

*unhandled errors*
Mantis with save? :)

The save was vaporized with the nuke, but I'll be sure to build fallout shelters in case it happens again.

Do you need advanced logging, or will the mushroom cloud be enough?
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 04, 2012, 06:58:31 PM
Do you need advanced logging, or will the mushroom cloud be enough?
Just something where I can reproduce the happening of the unhandled errors, thanks :)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 04, 2012, 07:47:19 PM
Do you need advanced logging, or will the mushroom cloud be enough?
Just something where I can reproduce the happening of the unhandled errors, thanks :)


Will do, however, my experience with trains is already drawing groins..

1) Having trains that can drag away your mobile forces, but not having your forces try to engage, is kind of a catch 22. You need to engage the train to save your forces, but to engage by default means their doom. However, even your defenses which are immune not attack means they move with impunity. Sigh.
2) Nukes are like Mining golems. Completely arbitrary. Both when they form, and when they kill your worlds. I can't give you a reliable save because they exist for a while (usually under the neigh invulnerable window / armor / munition trains) then, on a complete whim of the RNG, give a path that places them through your own world. Sometimes they form 20 minutes in a game, sometimes over a hour, same for when they finally hurt. Sigh.
3) The many more train stations. Influencing their stations is a real chore when you find one on every other world. Sigh.

I'm sorry Keith, but I find trains 10/10 like fighting mining golems. Usually harmless, then out of the blue (and with little influence from the player) get you in a spot where you are almost helpless to defeat them. This scenario has very quickly become not fun because A) My influence doesn't influence the pain, but rather the RNG does. and B) I don't have any "breathing time" between when the pain starts.

---
 I'm sure some players will like it, but I, as someone who has always enjoyed Dark Spire 10, can at least say I had some breathing room before the doom started. For this, its merely a manner of pure save scum, because even on 1/1 lobbing nukes with 5 minutes reaction time before hour 1 I can't do that much about.


EDIT: Just to clarify: 1) Trains are completely at the mercy of the RNG early on, and for higher difficulties with very many stations are even more at the mercy of the RNG 2) They ramp up in difficulty much, much more rapidly. Other factions either let you start the tempo even if you can't turn back the tempo (dark spire) or ramp up more gradually, and neither hit you full force without input from the player very quickly.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 04, 2012, 08:34:47 PM
don't forget the hybrids. They just keep piling up and piling up. I'm actually enjoying this little game a lot though. The AI is a pushover, but the chaos is definitely around. And it has only just started.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Echo35 December 04, 2012, 10:38:34 PM
I... need to do this.

I'm doing this right now!

Every minor faction on and at 10 if possible.

I might leave them at 5, but I'm definitely turning on every option the game will let me.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 05, 2012, 02:14:45 PM
After a day of simmering, I still somewhat stand by my opinions on nukes. They occur way, way too early. Even on a 1/1 game the trains themselves are present too strong a barrier to take on per hour 1. Hour 3 is better for it gives you time to make a heavy bomber starship fleet to counter it and/or have enough time to knockout train stations so they never hit you.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Mánagarmr December 05, 2012, 02:59:58 PM
I was going to try this a while ago but decided that a few certain factions on 10 would make it unbeatable.
Games like this have nothing to do with "beatable" ;)

I predict the AI and humans will be huddling in their respective corners, cowering before the galaxy-filling Dark Spire.  While everything else goes crazy.
That is pretty much my prediction too. xD Hilarious! Looking forward to the continuation of this.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 07, 2012, 10:56:01 PM
10 / 10 trains are quite cute.

I seem silly complaining about nukes now that I've encountered the more consistent threats they throw out.

I do wish military stations were immune to artillery ammo though.

Are the trains influenced by AIP in any way?
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 08, 2012, 10:32:11 AM
I'm making some headway in this scenario, however, I'm facing the aggravatingly hard situation of trying to micro the trains.

I made a thread in the general, but I have a setup where I can take on the trains, but every time I do I have to pain staking micro the attack.

A new ctrl to attack even the 40 million ones would be super, and  one to attack any of them is great too.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Minotaar December 08, 2012, 11:18:23 AM
Does your setup involve outrageous amounts of EMP warheads?  :)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 08, 2012, 11:22:28 AM
Does your setup involve outrageous amounts of EMP warheads?  :)

A very fortuitous artillery golem, but that certainly is a backup  :D
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 10, 2012, 04:41:45 AM
Allright, it's been a while. Time to have my ass kicked.

35 minutes: More enemy enclaves, to Scarlet Needle this time. I managed to build a few zombards and some mk II bombers. My fleet is getting big enough to actually be able to deal with something. Hybrids are massing up at all my borderworlds, gotta find a way to take them down if I want to be able to expand at all. I also notice 5 more Cargo Trains... God this is going to get ugly.

39 minutes: I notice 15 ships are attacking Punch Ant, which turn out to be mk I fighters. I guess this would be a wave lol. Turrets can easily handle that.

40 minutes: I decide to attack Macroid. I need the extra knowledge to unlock mk III harvesters. Zombards are excellent for taking out hybrids. Luckily there weren't to many of them here yet, so Macroid falls quickly.

41 minutes: More enclaves and marauders attacking Scarlet Needle. I don't even have to pay attention to it anymore. 7 friendly enclaves will do the job just fine.

42 minutes: Doom is on it's way to destroy me. Major AI construction effort warning just showed up. And I don't even nearly have the firepower to destroy cargo trains. I better start building Implosion Artillery and Rams then. Gotta find a way to stop the H/K and Golems that'll come my way soon.

46 minutes: An Abnormally Strong Hybrid is somewhere in the galaxy. Figures. 46 mins ingame and already a super hybrid... that's really fast. I have no hope of killing it yet though.
Meanwhile at Ghost I notice the hybrids killing a few dark spire ships. I'm assuming the Devourer triggered it. Great. I unlocked mk III metal harvester since metal is the resource I'm lacking and desperately need. Don't have enough K for crystal yet.

48 minute 30: I get a warning that a Nuke Train is on Hail.... awesome. I don't have the means to stop it so I'll just leave it alone. Maybe it'll go away... it shouldn't path through my worlds anyway.
I'm using all the resources I got to build as much Implosions and Rams as I can with the few current asteroids I got.

50 minutes: Threat is getting out of control really fast. Dark Spire ships appear to be fighting the AI everywhere now. They seem to be having a lot of trouble with the hybrids though.

52 minutes: The first Dark Spire ships enter one of my worlds. Scarlet Needle is under attack by them. 9 Roaming enclaves are ready. I'm curious to see how far this escalates.

56 minutes: The Dark Spire (or something else, but I'm assuming it's these guys) destroyed a distribution node... and it was a trojan -.- There goes my 100k I had saved. They better destroy some good ones soon. Meanwhile on Ghost the hybrids are finally getting overwhelmed by the Dark Spire. Everything else is already dead there.

1 hour: Another Major AI Construction warning just showed up. This is where I stop playing for now. I'm surprised I made it through these 30 minutes alive. Next time I will report my destruction.

No screenie coming up, because not much has changed. I took Macroid and the threat is getting incredibly high. That's it. Haven't even done more scouting and I have a feeling I'm not going to get more scouting done at all before I lose.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aklyon December 10, 2012, 08:48:33 AM
So, lets count whats out there from just that update, shall we? ;)
1. Hybrids, lotsa hybrids.
2. Super Hybrid.
3. Nuke train(s).
4. Imminent cargo surprises.
5. Enough dark spire to overwhelm hybrids.
6. Sneaky Devourer
7. Enemy enclaves
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 10, 2012, 09:10:30 AM
yup pretty much. Hmm, I wonder... Can Dark Spire ships attack trains and their stations? If they can, there might still be some hope left for me...
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 10, 2012, 10:03:35 AM
yup pretty much. Hmm, I wonder... Can Dark Spire ships attack trains and their stations? If they can, there might still be some hope left for me...

No.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 10, 2012, 10:05:43 AM
Zoutzakje I do offer a different sliver of hope:

(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/578975265779150689/52B5617C3F3764C607F681AD7A1DEF147C756035/)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 10, 2012, 10:32:01 AM
what's that then? Dark Spire can attack mining golems? meh, that's not gonna help me. Miners have never been an issue for me. To be honest, I find them the easiest to deal with compared to other minor factions.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 10, 2012, 10:52:41 AM
Who done it? (I know the answer already)...

(http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/578975265779738690/5A9B05B71184E57B080074CD5C68CF127396730A/)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Hearteater December 10, 2012, 11:57:53 AM
Maybe botnet exo waves should say botnet instead of broken golem.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 10, 2012, 01:00:13 PM
yup, I noticed that in my previous game. Was kinda confusing at first really. Not to mention the bug the botnet can cause right now. Play botnet with hard and golems on medium and you'll still get exo's AND +100 AIP for the botnet. It shouldn't matter if both factions have the same difficulty though.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 10, 2012, 09:16:09 PM
You already seem to be 2 hours in your attempt Chemical... that's longer than I will last for sure. I'm so not used to complete chaos. And I don't even have trains runnning in and out of my systems yet.

1 hour 4 minutes: While I'm getting ready for the doom strikeforce, I notice that the Dark Spire threat stopped increasing. In fact, it's getting less and less. I look around and notice the mk III fort at Hail. It's killing a lot of Dark Spire, but is slowly dying. We'll see how long it lasts.

1 hour 6 minutes: The wave of doom has spawned. 3 Massive ships with a total of 3866 Firepower are on their way to my planets. Awesome. Well, that's gonna get ugly. I ty to make a few more bombers, but I doubt it will be enough to stop this. Also used last knowledge to unlock mk II forcefields and stacked em deep over my home command. I only got 3 mk II Implosion Artillery, hope I can take down the H/K far enough with them. I also got 11 enclaves. I hope they provide the H/K with enough units to kill.

1 hour 12: The Cargo Strikeforce is finally in sight. I still think the sprite of the H/K is too small. It doesn't look threatening enough and is actually easy to miss in a crowd. Unless it's meant to be a sneaky Assassin.
Also got an Artillery golem, Armored golem and a bunch of core starships heading my way. That Arty will be the first to munch through my forcefields. To be honest, I had hoped both Golems were Artillery ones. They have less health and are therefore easier to kill with my rams. Now I will have less rams left to deal with the core starships.

1 hour 13: The strikeforce is getting awfully close. I notice none of the ships have mines listed in their immunities so I figured I'd quickly build a whole bunch and hope it works.
30 seconds later they arrive. Rams do their work excellently and the Golems die within seconds. The mines will hopefully take care of the core starships and guardians. Then all that's left is the H/K.
In reality the Enclaves took care of the starships, while everything else (especially Implosion, Bombers and Zombards) took the H/k out. The poor bastard only managed to kill 1 of the 12 forcefields protecting my home.
Well that proved to be quite effective. I guess defending against a H/K is indeed possible at less than 1 hour and 15 mins in the game. Granted, I had lots of friendly enclaves.
Allright, I think I got about 10 minutes until the second Cargo Train Strikeforce launches. I better get some more asteroids and pump out some rams. I actually even have the time and resources to do some scouting.

1 hour 16: I scout my first ARS, located at Aska. Also with a Broken Regenerator Golem on it. It's got Dark Spire too though, so I'll have to leave it alone at least for a while. The Dark Spire destroyed every single tachyon guardian in a wide area, so scouting is even easier than normal on 1/1.
It's funny to see that the threat has dropped below 100 now, while it was over 500 first, mstly from the Dark Spire. I guess that one mk III fort (maybe there were others) did it's job well.
Data Center and the Dyson Sphere found at Cannon. Magnificent find really. One I'm done setting up a nice set of coreworlds, this is where I will go to, smoothly bypassing the Dark Spire along the way. Intensity 10 Dyson Sphere could really boost my defense big time I think. I just gotta destroy whatever the super hybrid is going to build.

1 hour 17: I forgot that I'm dealing with nuclear command and accidentally blew up my whole fleet when taking Fizz. Better rebuild it quickly. I gotta build those Rams too. Silly rookie mistake really, but I guess it's late.

1 hour 20: Data Center, Broken Artillery Golem and Broken Botnet Golem on Doomsayer. And of course also Dark Spire. Hmm. The Botnet is going to be useless in this game anyways, so I might just destroy that Data Center at some point but leave the rest of the planet alone.

Anyway, I realize I should just go to bed to prevent any more newbie mistakes. I'll probably continue somewhere tomorrow. Now that I survived the first Cargo wave, I'm curious to see how far I can get. Still alive so far.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 10, 2012, 09:22:24 PM
Zoutzakje I find the key to dealing with this challenge is to get Mil III stations and mini forts to start. You need your worlds be to be built to absorb the constant abuse the various minor factions will deliever. A Mil III station under a single MK I shield with mini forts will knock out any romaing enclaves for example, and the lack of tachyon's + mini forts + 1/4 of your mk I turrets will be fine for your border worlds against the dark spire incursions.

The trains will be your bane in this challenge in the long run once you deal with the rapid but fairly weak dark spire and others. The construction projects are the only thing that can deal you any offensive before AIP 1000. So you need to expand very aggressive in the start so you can gobble up as much K as you can because you need to be able to deal with 3k firepower waves after about an hour or so. However, hold off on angering any dark spire worlds until you have at least half your borders locked down if you can, because once that ball starts rolling it will be hard until the AI are pretty much wiped out and thus the dark spire stop spawning too.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aklyon December 10, 2012, 09:29:25 PM
>12 forcefields on home
>1/1

This just proves how absurd you guys have managed to make 1/1. :P
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 11, 2012, 08:11:40 AM
haha yeah, better safe than sorry :D
The AI's themself have become completely irrelvant already, after just 1 hour and 20 miutes. I don't know how far the Dark Spire got, but I think they killed everything, everywhere. Maybe just a few mk III forts alive somewhere but that's pretty much it. Most of the hybrids and their hives are dead too. Only the super hybrids still roam the galaxy.
I think my threat is dropping because there is simply nothing left to kill for the Dark Spire. Except me, but I'm better prepared.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 11, 2012, 08:41:19 AM
Sounds like you are ready for the next phase. Make some planet grabs if you can to narrow your fronts to prepare for train attacks
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 11, 2012, 12:24:41 PM
You guys are loony ;)

Glad to see you can find so many ways to play this game.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 12, 2012, 12:08:12 AM
You guys are loony ;)

Glad to see you can find so many ways to play this game.

A whole set of strategies are in order, yes.

At 10/10, during various phases of the game, different minor factions impact more noticably.

For example, the Dark Spire have 0 impact at the start, make a BIG impact once activated, then after waves gradually receed to a managable state.

On the other hand, some like enclaves just build up and up for the player.

However, the most fun is by far when the factions interact...like when your friendly enclaves unleash their thousands of drones critters to deal with a dozen dark spire...on a dark spire world...and then proceed to decay to nothingness...now you have unleashed a thousand dark spire onto the galaxy.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: zoutzakje December 13, 2012, 11:20:50 AM
1 hour 21: While I'm trying to rebuild my fleet and colonize Fizz, I get another Cargo warning. This will just keep going on and on forever right? Gives me little time to advance before I have to prepare again. I'm suspecting there will be no asteroids left in the galaxy if I somehow manage to win this game.
Scouted a Data Center and SCL at Red Bat.
SCL and a few fabricators at Dew
SCL at Calamar
Scouting is really the easiest thing ever right now.

1 hour 28: Cargo wave spawns. The strikeforce has a lot less firepower than the previous one so I suppose no Artillery Golem in this one.
Data center at Nightmare
Co-p and a functioning Armored Golem from the Golemite at Shadow.
The wave comes with 2 black widow golems this time. Yeah rams are the only thing that can save me.

1 hour 34: cargo spawns arrive and the next cargo wave is as good as ready -.- I don't even have time to expand at this rate.
Implosion Artillery works wonders against those H/K's. I got a few more of them now and they really deal the most damage.

1 minute later and the next cargo wave spawns. I'm gonna test my luck and try this one without my fleet to support. See if 7 Implosion Artillery (mixed mk I and II), 10 rams, 17 enclaves and about 200 mines can do the trick. I need my fleet to try to expand.

1 hour 42: Emp train detonates on some far away planet. They better not come close. Finally unlocked mk III crystal harvester. Doesn't leave me with enough resources to sunlock mk III scouts, but I'll get to that soon.

Cargo wave hits a minute later. Unfortunately the 10 rams aren't enough to take down the 2 golems this time. Black widow survives with 1/4 of it's hp and takes a bunch of enclave younglings away. Not that it matters, they'll kill the widow in no time. The H/K almost breaches through my forcefields, but got killed in time. No new cargo waves have been announced so far, meaning it's time to capture some planets.

My plan is to take Eclipse, Hail and then free the Dyson Sphere at Cannon. I hope the dysons will provide me with a significant force. Better kill a bunch of Train Stations first though. I'll upload a screenie after next post.

: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Fluffiest December 13, 2012, 12:10:42 PM
Since the 1/1 AI's waves are so puny, might it actually be worth rushing to destroy huge numbers of train stations to try to slow down the construction projects, and just suck up the AIP increase?
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe December 13, 2012, 12:45:41 PM
Since the 1/1 AI's waves are so puny, might it actually be worth rushing to destroy huge numbers of train stations to try to slow down the construction projects, and just suck up the AIP increase?
Destroying train stations doesn't directly slow it down; each time a cargo train leaves a station it increments the cargo counter; regardless of how long it took getting there or whatever.  So what you want to do there is increase the minimum and/or average number of hops (more precisely, the actual in-space distance) between train stations (or just kill all but one station, but that's pretty involved).

It's kinda like an inverted Travelling Salesman Problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem) :)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Fluffiest December 14, 2012, 02:29:34 AM
Really? Yeuch.

I don't actually like the cargo trains mechanic at all, I'm sorry to say. It just seems like a particularly opaque form of countdown timer on a large attack, rather than a subsystem that it's possible to interact with and disrupt.

(I do have suggestions for alternatives, if you're interested.)
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: kasnavada December 14, 2012, 07:24:28 AM
To interact, keep a train station on your territory and make them suffer the death of 100000000 cuts.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Mánagarmr December 14, 2012, 11:59:28 AM
(I do have suggestions for alternatives, if you're interested.)
Suggestions are always welcome. See my sig for how to make one.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: chemical_art December 14, 2012, 01:10:52 PM
Really? Yeuch.

I don't actually like the cargo trains mechanic at all, I'm sorry to say. It just seems like a particularly opaque form of countdown timer on a large attack, rather than a subsystem that it's possible to interact with and disrupt.

(I do have suggestions for alternatives, if you're interested.)

I do think there is something wrong when one minor faction at 10/10 launches more attacks then all the other minor factions combined, and that is in addition to insta-killing and insta disabling your worlds with normally untargetable attacks. At 4 hours in I have 15k firepower bearing down on me, and I'm at the give up point.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Mánagarmr December 14, 2012, 01:15:47 PM
Well, trains are brand spanking new. They still need some balancing, methinks. Even though it's at 10 :D
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: Aquohn March 20, 2013, 09:09:28 AM
Tries out game mode.

Devourer appears on home planet at 3:40.
: Re: 1/1 Chaos Rules the Galaxy
: keith.lamothe March 20, 2013, 09:26:05 AM
Tries out game mode.

Devourer appears on home planet at 3:40.
Apparently you were baking cookies!