Author Topic: Newbie AAR  (Read 4146 times)

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #15 on: May 09, 2012, 08:52:28 am »
much better, thanks :P
and yes, it's very important to keep your threat low. The same thing goes for keeping enemy numbers low on bordering worlds (mainly mk III and IV). Both can easily go out of control when left alone for too long. When I first started out I would get stomped by this often lol. I remember once putting a coreworld on alert at the beginning of a game, thinking it wouldn't matter much lol.

Offline barryvm

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #16 on: May 09, 2012, 09:10:34 am »
I made that mistake all the time when I just started with the game two weeks ago.
Just letting my fleet sitting around for defence while the AI is massing thread at several Mk IV border worlds is something I couldn't recover from.
I now try to raid all non-wormhole guardposts and scout all adjacent planets before engaging any planet (I've had several unpleasant accidental encounters with raid engines and coreworlds while raiding).
In this game it all seems to go according to plan.

Offline barryvm

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2012, 06:07:46 am »
I'm now five hours in the game and I'm slowly making progress:
- the first AI's homeworld has been found: it's on Isioryo and it's hairy to say the least (12 guardposts  :o ?!).
  Better not alert it too early.
- the second AI's homeworld is either at Xiasire or Ascavequa.
- The Dyson sphere has been located at Cino.
- Another ARS has been found at Jelanc, so I think I've located all five of them.
- I've done some serious gate raiding: 2 Datacenters raided and I've found 3 of four Coprocessors.

I decided I had to expand beyond Soafrlea which served as my whipping boy for the first few hours and blasted through Thovar.
This planet had a black hole machine and a Mk I Ion cannon so I figured I would make it my new whipping boy, thus keeping incoming waves nicely out of the path of my eventual assault on the enemy homeworlds.
Are Ion Mk I's effective enough to make any difference and can they fire on Mk II ships and higher levels ? I don't know but I figure it can't hurt to keep them alive (actually it did a while when the military command station I was building got "delayed" by a counterattack from the Mk IV world nearby).
The fleet then cleaned out Asmir and partially neutered it.
I decided to leave Asmir's command station for now and first partially neuter Tolzi and Marweg, its neigbours.

I had to stage a raid on Sworape first because of a Raid engine built there and destroyed it before its first wave timer expired.

I wonder if any raid engine wave has actually been launched because I then had a badly timed CPA which decided to spawn just after I cleared Asmir and it's two counterattack guardposts and was at the receiving end of two regular waves.

The total amount of attacking ships was about 3000 (of which 1000 warped into the homeworld) but about 1000 of them decided to wait (because they were afraid of the Hive golem ?) at Asmir next to Thovar as my fleet retreated to defend the worlds at the bottom of the map.
The fleet then made some additional raids to neighbouring planets and the hive golem popped through to Azmir for a friendly visit to the gathered CPA ships there.
This brought the thread down to a puny 12 ships.

Planned operations:

- Fortify Thovar
- Capture Asmir and it's ARS (nearly done: only the command station still stands).
- Free the dyson sphere ?
  Does this help a lot ? I've never freed one before and since it is not bordering my worlds will it be of any help ?
  I don't know of I'm supposed to help it clear its planet of guardposts / ships or if it will be able to do this for itself. At least it will anger the AI some more  :).
- Carve a way to the second ARS
- Keep monitoring the two Mk IV planets to make sure they don't backstab me.
- Find the last CP and hope it doesn't border the coreworlds.

I also got the deep raid warning a few times: is this bad ?  it doesn't seem to heighten thread all that much.

Thanks to some tips received earlier,I've been significantly more succesfull than at the beginning (Thanks for that).

A screenshot taken some time after the CPA, I forgot to take a screenshot at the end.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2012, 06:09:30 am by barryvm »

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #18 on: May 11, 2012, 08:46:42 am »
if you don't have any planets bordering the dyson sphere and you're not planning to do so, then don't bother freeing it. Friendly dysons don't very often travel through enemy worlds.
Oh and there is a bug with the dyson sphere in the current version, which significantly reduces it's impact on the game.
So you could probably just leave it alone.

Offline barryvm

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #19 on: May 29, 2012, 06:15:10 am »
Well, after some time of inaction (work work work), the last part of this AAR.

I captured all remaining ARS's and got spaceplanes and am now using them to search and destroy threat and important structures impeding the way to the homeworlds.
The other ARS yields microparasited which I'm not able to use effectively.

Meanwhile I sniped the Datacenters and coprocessors with transport and raid starships and brought the AIP back to the mark I level.
I then researched fortresses, sent my fleet in to clear and partially neuter the worlds surrounding the core worlds, taking care not to alert the core worlds themselves.
Both Pitlock and Yerabang are captured and several forresses and shipyards are positioned there to keep back the eventual counterattack when I assault the homeworld.
I now have a Hive and an Armored Golem and they are transported to Yerabang, since I finally learned how to use the teleporting leeches (I now have several caps worth of reclaimed ships guarding the whipping boy).



Several scouting parties are reduced to space dust, but the intel they collect on the core- and homesworlds reveals a nasty surprise: both accessable coreworlds and one of the homeworlds (Isioryo) have an AI Eye on them and since most of my fleet consists out of swarmers that is not good news.

I decide to destroy Xiasire first bring my fleet to the system  ordering the core world.
After sniping the tachyon guardian with a few (caps) of missile frigates I send in the etherjets and spaceplanes and they slowly but surely destroy all the guardposts save one in the center because it's being protected by three Mk III fortresses, one of which destroys a complete strikeforce (Mk I II and III) of my spaceplanes trying to attack the guardpost inside ten seconds.

Enter the armored golem and it blasts the guardpost to bits in a few seconds, after which the Eye pops and the entire fleet charges in, carefully evading the central fortresses and going to the homeworld.
Having grown a bit impatient because of the slow progress I decide to attack the homeworld at one, not waiting to clear the Eye and quardposts first as it woudl probably take forever (6 million hitpoints ?!)
My fleet of about 3000 ships mostly low HP swarmers and the armored and hive golems charge in guns blazing.
That was a bad idea...

I don't know how the AI Eye determines the amount of zombies created, but I'm guessing it just keeps spawning them until they equal the attacking fleet in numbers.
So the amount of enemy ships goes up from about 250 to roughly 3500 (I did activate the hive golem when emerging from the wormhole) and they start coming towards me like a flock of locusts.



I panic  :-X and start sending starships to kill the guardposts as quickly as possible while the AI is having my fleet or breakfast.
The forward bases start pouring out reinforcements, draining my economy dry at an alarming rate and finally the armored golem reaches the last quard post right next to the eye and pops it.
My siege starships (my new best friends) and a newly arrived bomber strike force start pounding the AI home command station and destroys it.

After the battle I review the damage:

1 hive golem severely damaged (retreated it "safely" to the core world at the beginning of the zombie onslaught and had to bring it back in because the reinforcements where attacking it)
1 armored golem at 2% hitpoints (this one saved the day).
About 2000 high cap fleet ships destroyed.
About 700 more expensive ships  immoblilized by the two Ion cannons and those pesky anti-engine ships.

I start retreating as fast as possible as more reinforcements spawn through the weird wormhole but instead of attacking the immobilized fleet ships, they completely ignore them and go straight for the more valuable golems who barely make it to Yerabang moments before about a 100 Mk V's start engaging the fortresses.

Half an hour alter my fleet is rebuilt and the golems are back operational.
I decide to be more carefull this time and take no chances with the second coreworld (yep, also with an Eye on it), using the space planes to assasinate all guardposts.
The second homeworld proves a cakewalk  8): my fleet simply storms in, annihilates all 200 mk V guards and breaks the AI core shield in minutes after the hive wasps kill all the guardposts.
Exactly an hour after I decided to attack I get my first look at that lovely "You Win" screen...

...and I start the next game.

Many thanks to all people on the forum for their helpfull tips and comments !

PS: seems I was actually wrong about the AI type being the Retaliatory AI, they were revealed to be the Vicious Raider and the Tag Teamer.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2012, 06:29:14 am by barryvm »

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2012, 09:06:59 am »
congratz on your win, good job =)
The AI eye only lets you outnumber the enemy with 2:1
So if an enemy world has 200 ships and an AI eye, and you want to attack it with 600 ships, the AI will spawn a total of 100 zombies. When ships start dying (usually the second you enter the system), those numbers change of course. But the 2:1 ratio stays the same.

Offline barryvm

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #21 on: May 29, 2012, 09:25:12 am »
Odd, the homeworld number of enemy ships was about equal to mine, so the other ships would be extra reinforcements of some kind.
This would've made matters worse actually because these would be Mk IV/V, while the AIP level was II so it was spawning Mk III zombies.

Discounting the tactical error of assaulting the homeworld with the eye still up this was not a very difficult game so I figured I'd try hybrids.
At this point the AI's are grinding my fleet into dust using 1.5k Chameleon waves and spirecraft with the occasional touch of hyrid mayhem so I think I was suffering from a touch of post-win hybris when I started the new game  ::).
Any strategy at this point is still "trial and error" but at least I have a decent idea what objectives to set and accomplish in this game.
Thanks for the tips BTW, they were very helpfull.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #22 on: June 01, 2012, 12:27:32 am »
Congratulations!

I'm sure the AI/RNG is plotting revenge.

;)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline PokerChen

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Re: Newbie AAR
« Reply #23 on: June 01, 2012, 05:32:54 am »
*thumb up*
 Hybrids should give you a challenge. Or, they would if you let ~30 build up.

 

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