Author Topic: Sanity Check of Doom  (Read 9418 times)

Offline Faulty Logic

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Sanity Check of Doom
« on: October 09, 2012, 05:03:01 pm »
Is 10/10 still possible without superweapons?
I suspect, with the strategic reserve and additional brutal posts (which look much nastier now that I can see their stats), that it is just barely still doable. I would play without a champion, but that unit adds too much fun to the game for me to play without now.

Latice 817722418 Tackle Drone Launchers (mixed reports on these, wanted to try them)

Resistance and Marauders 4, Colony Rebellions 6, Dark Spire 4, Schizophrenic, no plots
Edit: also Fallen Spire 4, but I won't go beyond the refugee outpost.

Experimentalist and Assassin. Complete visibility.

Unlock fighter IIs, warp jammers, and the adorable miniforts. Waves are not a problem after the first few.

I have three nebulae within one hop. First is the Shattered Pillar vs. Dark Spire vs. Neinzul Astids
I take a very passive approach to this one, because a level one frigate doesn't last long against a starbase. I follow each wave of implosion bombers and support them with the projected shields. Victory at 20 min. I am now level 6.

Next is the mourners vs. dimensional prisons. I let the enemies come in single groups, preserving the mourner fleet, then pop the last six controllers all at once. The base was virtually undamaged.

Next is the Gray Spire vs. Gatlings. I quickly dart back out to the waiting cloaked engineers to modify my armament accordingly (read: spam laser modules). I press to near the edge, then conduct a fighting retreat to the small starbase. When that gets overrun, I stop the gatlings at the large base with plenty of base health left.

The next nebula, two hops out, is Epsilon Eridani vs. Sorrow's Fang. I have had, let's say, sufficient practice with this one. I just kill the enemy fleets, and let my allies kill starbases on their own (occasionally supporting a large bomber group with shields.).

Now I have five nebulae at three hops out. Next one is Shattered Pillar vs. Citadel Ascendant. My human destroyer is woefully outclassed. I solo one starbase, then die. The Spire destroyer with plasma modules arrives in time to carry the day, however. Scenario finished with no small bases and the large base at 19%.

Next is the In Memoriam Terra vs. the Ravenous Shadow. Spire cruiser with 5 mkIV siege modules (and two shields, and an even mix of the basic three) kills it. It took a lot of micro+pause, though.

Next, we have the Shattered Pillar, Grey Spire, and Epsilon Eridani sandwiched between the Astids and Sorrows Fang. This is awesome. I assassinate individual small starbases in the rare lulls, and eventually the allies spool up their production enough to start winning. Once the last enemy small starbase fell, it was over quickly. Extra awesome: three facilities.

Next is the IMT+ NM vs. CA+DS. That was hard. I had both friendly large starbases left, but one was heavily damaged. Is this supposed to grant two facilities? It only gave the IMT. (see screenshot 2).

And now the brawl. It is indeed royale. The spire cruiser can swoop in on a small starbase, release a volley of 5 mkIV plasma bolts, then retreat, all without expending shadow charge. Starbases take 4 volleys to die. I do this until all small bases are dead, using shadow shields to speed up the process. I then wait until an allied pulse and use all 1000 charge to kill the first large starbase. Then it gets easy. Allied support ships distract the fire, and it is possible to bombard an enemy large starbase while only in range of two of them. Victory acheived with only 4 small starbases dead, and not so much as a paint scratch on any of the large ones.

After the last enemy large starbase is destroyed, there should be a gatling stream from the center. And then when that is gone, another ravenous shadow should make a cameo.

I will end this session on this high note. My champion+champion minion fleet will be instrumental in attacking the homeworlds.

State of Empire:
« Last Edit: October 14, 2012, 02:12:50 pm by Faulty Logic »
If warheads can't solve it, use more warheads.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2012, 05:14:29 pm »
Thanks, a sanity check is a good thing at this stage :)  Though it looks like it will be "how Faulty stomps the galaxy with his massive immortal ship of doom" but we'll see.  I probably do need to do something to make not all the nebulae available from the start.

And yea, the neinzul facility is tied to the small neinzul base type due to how the mourner prison scenario is set up.  I just need to change that scenario to have a large base instead and switch the facility to rely on that, and rebalance it a bit to compensate.

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Offline Faulty Logic

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2012, 05:35:19 pm »
Yeah, I didn't realize that the latest patches made the champion-unlocked forces scale up so much when I started. And don't forget the 98 starship minions. And the 25 gatlings.

What level "should" the champion be after winning nine scenarios?
In previous games I was rolling in excess unlock points, but this time I am not even close to unlocking what I want.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2012, 05:49:46 pm by Faulty Logic »
If warheads can't solve it, use more warheads.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2012, 05:37:37 pm »
What level "should" the champion be after winning nine scenarios?
Depends on how well you do.  I'd say somewhere in the 20-40 range?  Maybe 50 if you did really well.  But I haven't looked at those numbers in a long time.
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Offline Faulty Logic

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2012, 05:45:10 pm »
Within parameters, then. I guess it was mainly having another set of 3-point unlocks that did it.
If warheads can't solve it, use more warheads.

Offline KDR_11k

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2012, 01:21:10 pm »
I'd call the champ a superunit even at low levels.

Doesn't Diazo keep trying 10/10 without superweapons or champions?

Offline Faulty Logic

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2012, 02:32:46 am »
Continuing the galactic champion stompfest:

I have unlocked:
Warp Jammers
Fighter, Tackle drone IIs
C harvester III, M harvester II
Miniforts
 
With the last nebula 7 hops away, I decide to save it for later.
I send out 5 science labs in transports to discover what the ARSs hold. One transport fleet also has raid starships, which take out another couple data centers. Faulty Logic kills 3 more.

ARSs: hops out: ship 1/ship 2/ship 3 other notable
2: shredder/scapegoat/corvette  vengeance generator
2: impulse reaction emitter/weasel/grenade  Acid Sprayer V fab, vengeance generator
3: miniram/maw/teleporting leech
3: cutlass/parasite/blade spawner  vengeance generator
4: railcluster/anti-armor/deflector

So, pretty good. I will hack for blade spawners, ignore the shredder ARS, and accept minirams, IREs, and railclusters.

So I decide to perform the blade spawner hack, despite the vengeance of the dark spire, because I suspect that tackle drones and spire blades will make an excellent combination.
Easiness. Tackle drones were made for hacking. Champion battleship vs dark spire= curbstomping human victory.

About midway through the hack, the first CPA spawns (2700 ships).
Finished hacking, withdrew fleet to the HW, stomped the cpa (Neinzul and Zenith mod forts, champion fleet).

Conquer the hacked ARS, placing a warp jammer.

Now that the nebula is only 5 hops away, I go do that. It is another brawl. Awesomeness. Champion minion fleet now consists of 147 ships (and 25 gatlings).

Hack three systems. Zombies weirdly run around the galaxy at random rather than attacking me when the hacks complete. They behave like the old special forces.

Unlocked riots II/III.

Recovered the first shard, then the refugee ship.

Take the advanced factory/spire archive world, bringing AIP up to 16. With 1000 knowledge left, a cpa (4500 ships) is declared.

Unlock basic/laser turrets II. Added Enclave and Mercenary Enclave starships to the fleet. Unlock TD launchers III.

The cpa targets the advanced factory. Fortunately, by the time it arrives, I have a spire mod fort, and half caps of turrets on the planet. And the Fleet of Ungodly PowerTM (TDs I-IV, Blade Spawners I-II, Riots I-III, Spire Frigates, and the aforementioned champion fleet).

Cpa repelled. 3250 k left, will hack another three systems for missile/laser turrets II and SBS IIIs, then start expanding in earnest. Things are going well.

State of empire:
If warheads can't solve it, use more warheads.

Offline Kahuna

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2012, 09:21:20 am »
set /A diff=10
if %diff%==max (
   set /A me=:)
) else (
   set /A me=SadPanda
)
echo Check out my AI War strategy guide and find your inner Super Cat!
echo 2592 hours of AI War and counting!
echo Kahuna matata!

Offline KDR_11k

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2012, 10:14:17 am »
Cpa repelled
How?
The cpa targets the advanced factory. Fortunately, by the time it arrives, I have a spire mod fort, and half caps of turrets on the planet. And the Fleet of Ungodly PowerTM (TDs I-IV, Blade Spawners I-II, Riots I-III, Spire Frigates, and the aforementioned champion fleet).

Offline Kahuna

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2012, 10:37:22 am »
Cpa repelled
How?
The cpa targets the advanced factory. Fortunately, by the time it arrives, I have a spire mod fort, and half caps of turrets on the planet. And the Fleet of Ungodly PowerTM (TDs I-IV, Blade Spawners I-II, Riots I-III, Spire Frigates, and the aforementioned champion fleet).
Right. He's playing Fallen Spire campaign. What kind of sanity check is that?
set /A diff=10
if %diff%==max (
   set /A me=:)
) else (
   set /A me=SadPanda
)
echo Check out my AI War strategy guide and find your inner Super Cat!
echo 2592 hours of AI War and counting!
echo Kahuna matata!

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2012, 12:00:33 pm »
The cpa targets the advanced factory. Fortunately, by the time it arrives, I have a spire mod fort, and half caps of turrets on the planet. And the Fleet of Ungodly PowerTM (TDs I-IV, Blade Spawners I-II, Riots I-III, Spire Frigates, and the aforementioned champion fleet).
Right. He's playing Fallen Spire campaign. What kind of sanity check is that?
He's not playing FS, per the OP.  I'm not sure what "Spire Frigates" means here, I'm guessing either spire champions or the normal spire starships.
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Offline Faulty Logic

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2012, 01:51:28 pm »
No, I mean spire frigates. From Fallen Spire. I just won't do anything beyond the refugee outpost. I forgot to list it, but I always play with FS, to prevent a stalemate from ever developing.

I hardly consider the frigates superweapons; they are barely noticeable beside the shadow battleship.

Besides, this game is now the galactic champion stompfest, not any kind of balance check, and I am having fun with it. Though arguably it is a sanity check, but of champion power instead of the possibility of a non-superweapon game.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2012, 02:02:23 pm by Faulty Logic »
If warheads can't solve it, use more warheads.

Offline Kahuna

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2012, 02:24:51 pm »
No, I mean spire frigates. From Fallen Spire. I just won't do anything beyond the refugee outpost. I forgot to list it, but I always play with FS, to prevent a stalemate from ever developing.

I hardly consider the frigates superweapons; they are barely noticeable beside the shadow battleship.

Besides, this game is now the galactic champion stompfest, not any kind of balance check, and I am having fun with it. Though arguably it is a sanity check, but of champion power instead of the possibility of a non-superweapon game.
Spire fleet ok. That explains what you said about exos and cpas before.
set /A diff=10
if %diff%==max (
   set /A me=:)
) else (
   set /A me=SadPanda
)
echo Check out my AI War strategy guide and find your inner Super Cat!
echo 2592 hours of AI War and counting!
echo Kahuna matata!

Offline Dichotomy

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2012, 04:56:37 pm »
1. Four frigates is hardly a spire fleet.
2. You AARers, especially Faulty, are insane. Certifiably. I can't see a single 7/7 game here.
You are all insane. In. Sane. No argument.

Offline Winge

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Re: Sanity Check of Doom
« Reply #14 on: October 14, 2012, 04:58:26 pm »
1. Four frigates is hardly a spire fleet.
2. You AARers, especially Faulty, are insane. Certifiably. I can't see a single 7/7 game here.

I will admit that I felt wholly inadequate posting an 8/8 AAR on this forum ;)
My other bonus ship is a TARDIS.

 

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