Arcen Games
General Category => AI War Classic => AI War Classic - After Action Reports => Topic started by: Cinth on August 01, 2012, 03:58:05 pm
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So I finally have another 10/10 at the point I started mt last AAR. This one is pretty much the same in set up.
First off... my only gripe so far is with the Exos. I like the new mechanic with the Exos starting off stronger. I don't like the power creep they have when AIP doesn't go up. I sat with 15 AIP through 4 Exos and the first pair came with ~230 ships @ ~40k firepower. The last came with ~240 ships @ almost 100k firepower. So much for being able to control what the AI throws at me in the early game by keeping the progress low. In one failed attempt, I did have Spire, Golems, and Botnet active. Needless to say, 3 Exos at the same time are especially brutal (game ended at the second Exo). The Botnet spawned 7 hops from my homeworlds, in a branch belonging to an AI homeworld so it wasn't even a planet I could consider grabbing early. And I'm not entirely sure the Botnet would have helped much in defending against those waves anyway.
Ok, with that out of the way...
Seed 86909121, X map. All you see available is mine. 10/10 Tank(green)/ Vanilla(red) (Golems/Spire hard 4/4, DS 10, HRF 10, Fallen Spire 4, Z Trader)
no plots complex ships ultra low caps. 120 planets, 16 HW.
The campaign thus far...
Start by establishing the beachhead on Murdoch. Build the fleet caps and start raiding with Raid SS. First goal is to clear all Eyes and counter attack posts while the AIP is low (15). Secondary objective is to get scouts on most the planets. ~25 hours later... complete.
Goal 2: Free Dyson Sphere and get more K for unlocks. I've popped 9 planets to clear a path from Murdoch(Ai controlled) to the branch that Dyson lives in. I've managed to grab 5 planets worth of K. Mk 3 turrets unlocked. I have 2 planets I can still gather K from without jeopardizing assets that will be critical for bolstering my defenses.
I have also grabbed 2 planets worth of asteroids, mostly Attritioners.
Dyson so far has been disappointing. His gatlings are getting run over all the time. HRF is definitely a better set. Hopefully when the NW branch is completely clear, Dyson will become a better overall help.
Right now I'm waiting on an Exo (206 AIP). Most the caps are built and waiting. 87%.... This one is going to be huge ::)
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Exo was ~125k firepower at 176 ships. ~150 in the initial wave. The blockade at Murdoch handles it nicely. Time to rebuild and refleet. As soon as my Raid SS count gets back up, I'm going to go pop some more planets. Secondary is hitting the DCs and Co-Processors.
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For the curious... the AI will clear out isolated planets.
Funny enough though, placing a remains builder out away from your OC can keep AI units occupied rather indefinitely.
Almost done clearing the NW corner. 6 planets to go there. Probably should pop the Co Processors next.
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Holy mother of micro....
I've cleared the NW area and moved into planets that don't have one shot constructors. I have and Exo building(75%) and I want to know that my line will stop any AI units from breaching that branch. If it does stop the flood, I'll have lots of goodies to use against the rest of the map.
556 AIP. waves come in around 30k ships. These feel a lot like Exos. Nothing I couldn't handle so far.
Still collecting K from my recent take... Unlocked a few more fleet ships, Fort IIIs and Econ Station IIIs. In the process of upgrading Econ Is to IIIs.
Things to do before the Exo hits.... build as many Fort IIIs at the blockade as I can. Produce as many Spirecraft as I can. Try to keep the fleet at caps. After the Exo (should I survive), pop the Co Processors and finish collecting the stuff from the NW area.
Edit: Exo 120 ships 192K firepower. The blockade at Murdoch held. Going to stop this game for now and pick it up later.
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And it is soon to start...
Shield network A is the last obstacle remaining. Soon I will take the fight to the AI homeworlds.
But first things first... those Co-processors. Then Network A. Then the first AI Homeworld (SW branch). Clear the AI presence from the SW branch and ride the ST down as far as I can. The plan is to keep AIP below 800 if at all possible.
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LOL can't wait to see how many ships the Core Raid Engines send! Or the CPA Guard Post!
mmMMM-BWAHAHAHAHA
EDIT: IF you even get that far ;D
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Teaser 8) .
The shield network is down, so I can hit the HWs at anytime I need to. Waves are damn near constant thought, 70k ships at about 50k firepower is nothing to sneeze at. The last Exo I stamped out had almost 900 ships at 170k Firepower. It blended nicely with waves already deployed and probably ended up being over 200,000 firepower :o.
If folks are interested, I'll post some more details when I get home later today.
Realized that the last game I AARed was lost early because I screwed up really big. Fixed that this go 8)
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LOL can't wait to see how many ships the Core Raid Engines send! Or the CPA Guard Post!
mmMMM-BWAHAHAHAHA
EDIT: IF you even get that far ;D
I hit those on both AI HWs when AIP was below 600... 71K ships from the RE and CPA (also killed a Parasite eye and an Ion Eye while I was there). IF I was inclined I could finish the game now BUT... I still have planets to clear off.
I think I'm getting to the point where I'm going to start using Raids again to pop planets. Even with my econ being what it is, constant waves and strong Exos can keep my resources low for awhile. With the fleet there and able to assist in the defense, even Exo waves aren't able to do severe damage beyond the FF "fence".
I'll grab some screens of a few incoming waves for giggles ;D
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Just a few screens to throw up here....
In order I attached them:
Normal waves at that AIP....
4 minutes and change later .... Another wave... the first is STILL on the way ... The AI does a real good job finding ways to combine ways sent in short order ... nothing like 150k ships in your face ::)
Few hours later an Exo ... 187k firepower ... need I say more?????
One down ....
And that is where I'll leave it for tonight ;D
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187k firepower? LOL
That means Golems and MarkV Hunter/Killers. I've never seen MarkV H/K. Does anyone know when the AIs start sending higher Marks of H/Ks? I think I've only seen Is and IIs. Maybe IIIs.
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Next Exo I will try and grab some data from the incoming waves ... it's at 85% and building fairly quickly so.. shortly
Edit: Full listing of HKs ;D
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This is about the point where the game window falls over at a 45 degree angle and starts flashing "TILT!" ;)
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LOL. That's probably an apt analogy. I had definitely hit the limits of what the engine can do smoothly... anything more than AI ships in Murdoch cause some seriously painful dragging.
Anyway :D
Some random comments about my game so far.
Grabbing K from the NW branch of the map (and subsequently expanding my economy) is probably what is winning this match (and why I gave up on the last one). Having all those extra assets to contribute to defense is huge.
I did take advantage of the Trader.. but only for a few toys... No Ions this go (I can afford to place up to Ion IVs).
Aside from the few constructors I lost taking the CSG-A nodes deep in the SE/SW area, the only one shot items I have lost were golems. Artillery Golem and one Black-Widow Golem. They died during a particularly nasty Exo (had over 800 ships). The Hive golem has proved useful atleast. The remaining golems have pulled back from the front lines and sit unused.
I still have the ST to take but the AIP floor is over 500.... unsure if it is going to be worth the trouble to use.
I hate knowing that it is pointless to claim the planets I just cleared off from the AI... I hate backdoor hacker and I'm not willing to pull defenses off Murdoch to block that...
I control 45 planets. The AI controls 35.
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I really don't get how you can avoid dying against a Diff 10 Backdoor Hacker with 1400+ AIP. I just don't get it :)
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If I take Unafr (was an AI Homeworld) then I would have a backdoor hacker type situation....
I abhor Backdoor Hacker AIs. The fact that the AI still has easy access to that branch of the X means I can't keep the planets in it. I am certainly going to take what I can from the region though :)
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If I take Unafr (was an AI Homeworld) then I would have a backdoor hacker type situation....
I abhor Backdoor Hacker AIs. The fact that the AI still has easy access to that branch of the X means I can't keep the planets in it. I am certainly going to take what I can from the region though :)
Oh, I gotcha, you didn't mean you were playing against a Backdoor Hacker AI (with an exo-wormhole on your homeworld), just that you were dealing with the exo-wormholes on AI homeworlds :)
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Yep. The AIs in the game are Tank and Vanilla like my last game.
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54:37:47
Tired of playing this one. So I ended it. Brute force Vs AI.
There is just way to much down time with AIP that high... wait for repairs, wait for refleets.... wait for an opening to attack (or skirt the incoming wave, fun fun). This game was really over a long time ago, I just wanted to push the AI out of the galaxy. Close... 21 planets left remaining.
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Yea, if a double-wave of a combined eighty-nine thousand ships can't punch through your chokepoint... kinda all she wrote ;)
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~chuckles~
That blockade at Murdock stopped EVERYTHING the AI threw at it. It almost failed the last Exo though... AI snuck an EMP guardian in and poof... ::) decided then after rebuilding, repairing, and refleeting that I was pretty much done with that game.
It is fun watching the AI send in 150k ships and watching them all go poof though :)
When I'm feeling up to it, I'll try and write up the game as a whole... and throw in the few ideas I had during it.
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Decided to not write it up lol... going to take my win and "go home".
Though some ideas I'll put down here.
Space Docks: Breaking up the I-III into 3 tabs. Freeing up space in the Space Dock so that ARS are something I would want (MOAR ships is always gooood)
And something to help break the micro in building lots of stuff.... Say I lay out a bunch of structures in stand-down mode. I assign some engis to assist building the whole lot of them. As it is now, I have to sit and watch and bring online each building as the engis get to it. Very time consuming. What if when the engis get to to next structure, it comes online and starts getting built? With the energy system change, I don't see browning yourself out placing structures to be a major issue. And you can set as many or as few engis to assist so you know how your m+c drain is going to run.
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what kind of amounts of ships did ai have in defense in the end?
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~180? and 2 golems.
Right after the CSG network went down, I took out the biggest threats on the AI Homeworlds. Some things you just don't do at 1500 AIP lol.