Warning: This the best part of 4 hours play.
10.00: Okay, after careful consideration I think I'm going to move the defensive lines again. Murdoch is now essentially cutting the graph, with threat from 3/4 AI worlds having to cross over it to get to Micvarape. It is also right in the path of any anticipated CRE strikes. So a warp jammer goes up on Micvarape, mil 2 on Murdoch. 1/2 of Micvarape's minefield and half of the one on Rakalurn are moved to Murdoch, along with any non-Mk. 5 turrets. This leaves 5 caps of Mk. 5 turrets on Micvarape, along with 4 forcefields - probably enough to hold off 1,000-2,000 ships in threat spawns from the AI homeworld next door.
Here are the defences on Murdoch. Not the greatest as the mines now need to spread across 2 wormholes, with the Zupreape one getting the priority. Not worth popping the warp gates on the AI homeworld though - even if I could get to them.
A couple of heavy beamers and half the gravs / tractors / snipers are still on Rakalurn.
10.05: 2,889 missile frigates to Murdoch. The defences are, of course, still building. Eh, at least maybe I can leech some of them.
10.07: 28 bombers starships. Kinda mean. Ah well, lightning turrets don't discriminate.
10.08: Done. Lost a few hundred fleet ships, but the 4 million scrap will kick start the defences and building my Mk. 3 & 4 sentinal frigates.
10.10: Man, getting a full fleet up is gonna take a while. I'm expecting the next CPA to hit before I'm done. Oh, did I mention that there's also 1,600 threat sitting somewhere and I don't know where? Well, it's got to be on one of the two homeworlds...
10.11: Scouts say it's all on Desenan. And is composed primarily of missile frigates. Hmm, wonder if I can move Lyudmila back to the homeworld and draw the threat in.
10.13: Apparently not. I wonder if the fleet on Murdoch is also counting for 'within three hops' strength, despite being on the far side of the AI homeworld.
10.17: 1,777 bombers. Shouldn't be an issue, and I could use the scrap to churn out the flagship 2s, railclusters and sentinels.
10.19: I do like those Mk. 5 leeches. I now have 200 more bombers than I started with. And Mk.2/3 at that - I never unlocked those. Surprisingly the broken armored golem hasn't died yet.
10.21.12: Let's ask a theoretical question while we're waiting for the fleet to finish building / a CPA to declare. What happens when you take 4 Mk 1/2 flagships, 2 Mk. 5 plasma starships, 8 zenith reprocessors and a couple of decoy drones and have a jumpship park them next to a grav reactor?
10.21.23: Answer - 11 seconds later, it explodes. In order to stop the spirecraft from attritioning I sent it back to Murdoch, time for an exfil.
10.21.27: Full disclosure - My jumpship got blown up. It was only a few seconds later that I realised there was a core Sentinel guard post firing 200,000 damage beams at my 18% of 100,000 health jumpship. At this point I save scummed, because that jumpship is vital to my future plans and I'd rather take 3 million metal worth of losses in starships than lose it.
10.21.57: Turns out you can do the same thing with one less Mk. 5 plasma - just. Even with the best part of 3,000 strategic reserve ships charging down on you. That saved me a cool 770,000 at least. +1 AIP, +10 floor (which is meaningless, as I only ever found 1 -10AIP progress reducer), and a 500 ship exo to presumably Micvarape.
10.22.30: Nope, apparently they come from Zupreape to hit Murdoch. I thought these were supposed to spawn on the same planet now?
10.27: A fleet of 1,600 ships sits on Murdoch. The sentinals and lightnings can probably eat the CRE on their own. Only things outstanding are flagships and that Mk. 5 plasma.
10.28: Flagships are built. Ding ding, round 2.
Also, the expected CPA just declared.
13,954 ships. I'm betting on less than half that showing up.
10.28.47: The second grav reactor goes down. The crowd goes wild. Strategically, was popping them right now the best move? Probably not, but damn if it wasn't cathartic. And I'd rather have them taken out now than possibly lose the plasma 5 fab later. Unfortunately the remaining 2 grav reactors have core shields around them, so this tactic won't work on them. However the one unshielded core raid engine @ only 6 million (1/10th) of the health...
AIP: 132
HaP: Still -2, unfortunately. Still gonna need to pop that warp gate.
10.29: Exo hits Micvarape this time. Lyudmila and the turrets handle it.
10.33: Okay, let's think about spirecraft and raid engines. One is easy to pop; 6 million unshielded health, just get a plasma or a few reprocessors in there. The other is covered with a core shield. So, penentrator time for that guy. One of the two remaining ebonite goes towards making two more Mk. II penentrators - they'll be useful when attacking Zupreape too. The last will go on 4 more Mk. 3 rams. You can never have enough rams.
7.36.30: 2 minutes to CPA. The entire fleet gets moved to Rakalurn - hopefully that'll make Murdoch a juicier target.
7.38.30: CPA hits.
72 Mk II ships,
398 Mk IV ships,
and 4,225 ships from the strategic reserve.
I'm fairly sure I've had waves larger than this. Heck, I'm fairly sure they'll be so frightened they won't even attack me.
7.38.40: Uh ... there's only 2,600 threat. And I started off with 1,400 or so.
Someone please take a look at this and tell me what I'm missing, as this looks like a normal CPA spawn to me:
*Computing MaxStrategicReserve for player 8
baseStrengthFactor = 19.8
specialDifficultyFactor = Game.Instance.Options.TotalSpecialDifficultyModifier (based on difficulty, homeworld count, handicap) = 6
aiTypeFactor = 1
effectiveAIP = (since Lazy-AI is not on, this is always 200; if you don't like that take it up with chemical_art) = 200
maxStrategicReserve = baseStrengthFactor * difficultyFactor * aiTypeFactor * effectiveAIP = 23759.77
*Computing MaxStrategicReserve for player 9
baseStrengthFactor = 19.8
specialDifficultyFactor = Game.Instance.Options.TotalSpecialDifficultyModifier (based on difficulty, homeworld count, handicap) = 6
aiTypeFactor = 1
effectiveAIP = (since Lazy-AI is not on, this is always 200; if you don't like that take it up with chemical_art) = 200
maxStrategicReserve = baseStrengthFactor * difficultyFactor * aiTypeFactor * effectiveAIP = 23759.77
**Doing Strategic Reserve Deployment to (Post-filling CPA)
maxAllowedReserveDeploymentPercent = 1
playerMaxStrategicReserve = 47519.53
playerCurrentStoredReserve = 23753.98 (49.99%)
existingStrategicReservesStrengthOnPlanet = 0
strengthToSpawn = Min(playerCurrentStoredReserve,( playerMaxStrategicReserve * maxAllowedReserveDeploymentPercent ) - existingStrategicReservesStrengthOnPlanet) = 23753.98
maxTargetPopulation = 11750
currentPopulation = 0
allocating 0.02 out of 1 (533.54 strength) for role: None , eligible types:MissileShipII, ArmorShipII, EyeBotII
allocating 0.03 out of 1 (800.3 strength) for role: AntiBomber , eligible types:FighterII, MicroFighterII
allocating 0 out of 1 (0 strength) for role: LongRange , eligible types:
allocating 0 out of 1 (0 strength) for role: CopperPlatedBastard , eligible types:
allocating 0 out of 1 (0 strength) for role: Tractor , eligible types:
allocating 0.03 out of 1 (800.3 strength) for role: Gravity , eligible types:SpireGravityDrainII
allocating 0 out of 1 (0 strength) for role: Reclamator , eligible types:
allocating 0.91 out of 1 (21608.24 strength) for role: DefenseCracker , eligible types:BomberII, SpaceTankII, ZenithSiegeEngineII
allocating 0 out of 1 (0 strength) for role: RiotControl , eligible types:
actually bought:
51 ArmorShipII @ 4.36 each, so total for line = 222.53
58 EyeBotII @ 8 each, so total for line = 464
55 MissileShipII @ 4 each, so total for line = 220
213 FighterII @ 4 each, so total for line = 852
190 MicroFighterII @ 2.67 each, so total for line = 506.54
171 SpireGravityDrainII @ 8 each, so total for line = 1368
1172 BomberII @ 4 each, so total for line = 4688
1136 ZenithSiegeEngineII @ 24 each, so total for line = 27264
1179 SpaceTankII @ 4 each, so total for line = 4716
Grand total: 4225 ships, 40301.07 strength
Remaining reserve: 0 out of 47519.53 (0%)
Also:
effectiveAIP = (since Lazy-AI is not on, this is always 200; if you don't like that take it up with chemical_art) = 20010.39: 2,776 bombers to Murdoch. Yep, that's more than the CPA.
10.41.40: Wave handled, now the threat is attacking Rakalurn. Fleet to the rescue.
Oh, hey dire sniper guardian. I forgot about you.
10.43: Well, that was quite possibly the most ineffective CPA ever. I'm now overflowing with money, literally, and I need to add three more matter converters to deal with the amount of ships I leech. At least the spire rams build quickly.
10.43.30: Oh there's still 1,800 threat out there. But it's pretty much just sitting on Desenan like it has been for the last half hour or so. Okay, while I have 600 more ships more than normal and a massive +9,000 metal per second over my cap, time to throw their lives away uselessly. Everyone who's not a starship, maw, lightning torpedo frigate or sentinal moves to attack Zupreape.
10.43.42: 1,588 ships warp in. Objective: Take out the spire shield guardpost and tachyons around the wormhole exit, and any other unshielded guardposts you can get your hands on.
10.43.46: CREs fire. 2,100 ships each coming onto the planet in a minute's time.
10.44.02: Spire shield is down. The four tractor / widow guardposts are doing a number on the fleet though.
10.44.10: 3 penetrators come in and take down a guardpost each. Unfortunately the widows are out of range from the wormhole exit - I may have to ram those later.
10.44.14: 768 remaining fleet ships are told to retreat. Not sure how many of them can.
10.44.20: Reprisal level 1. 2,100 threat. 4,200 wave. 2 million in the bank to refleet with. 4 guardposts, a tachyon and an ion down. Worth it.
10.44.29: Last of the fleet goes down. I don't think any survived the widow posts. I'm waiting 30 seconds to let the ships move away from the exit, them bringing in a jumpship with a raid to take down one of the warp gates and exfiltrating the other jumpship.
10.44.38: CRE hits Zupreape. 6,174 threat. Oh, and the special forces of course.
10.44.43: Murdoch is under attack. Time for those lightning torpedo frigates to shine.
10.44.47: 2,304 space tanks to Murdoch. Now THAT's a reprisal. Martyr is uprooted from Rakalurn and moves to Murdoch.
10.44.57: 4,150 attack on Murdoch. The threat on Desenan has finally showed its hand. Spire jumpship is half way to the warp gates, and 4 rams stand by the hop into Zupreape under cover of cloakers to deal with the widow posts.
10.45.12: The broken armored golem goes down. Finally.
10.45.40: 4,488 attack. 750 outstanding threat and 2,300 wave. Martyr arrives on the scene. Rams jump into Zupreape.
10.45.45: The Martyr came out of the wormhole right behind the main body of the attack. It 'only' took 1,300 with it though, unfortunately, after getting shredded by carriers. The assault is not even halfway to the command station yet, so most of the turrets haven't engaged.
10.46.16: Rams start hitting home. One Mk. 5 tractor, one Mk. 5 widow go down.
10.46.20: Tanks hit Murdoch. 4,930 attack. I'm going to lose the fabs, but that wasn't exactly an unexpected outcome. Especially with 345 zenith siege engines pounding on the forcefield. Executive decision: All 448 mobile ships on the planet retreat to Rakalurn.
Currently 15 million scrap on Murdoch, by the way.
10.46.28: Command station goes down, ooks like I'll be picking up that scrap later. Just hope I didn't leave retreating the lightning frigates too late. 39 Mk. 2 engineers are build on Rakalurn to build ships ASAP, and the warp gates are in full swing.
10.46.39: 2 more widow guardposts go down to the rams. I'm getting worried about the slow pace of the jumpship - I need that warp gate killed and the raid off-planet before the 4 minutes are up.
10.46.46: The original, long trapped spirecraft jump ship escapes. Hugs and tears all round.
10.46.51: 1,088 cloaked ships to
. Always nice to have more threat.
10.47.07: Area mine fields, beam turrets, snipers, lasers and grav turrets start going up Rakalurn. I still have 1.8 million in the bank, so hopefully they'll get built in time this time. Sadly only 13 lightning torpedo frigates and 18 sentinal frigates escaped, that's going to hurt.
10.47.36: Close defence turrets around the command station are up. Mines, not so much. The attack starts.
10.47.38: Warp jammer command gets swapped out for a Mil 2. Attack boost and tachyon coverage is essential at this point.
10.47.41: Command station is finished. Amazing what 39 engineers can do.
10.47.50: All 39 engineers feed themselves to the attack while trying to build mines. Come on, guys...
10.48.12: Dammit, forgot about the raid. Too late now, he'll have to sit there otherwise another wave will spawn.
10.48.48: 2,000 attack. 2,887 threat. 1,000 wave. Fleet ships focus fire the zenith siege engines.
10.49.01: Oh hell.
MICVARAPE command station goes down. Yeah, turns out that 1,400 of that threat wasn't beelining for Rakalurn. Lyudmila makes for the exit with all available speed.
10.49.10: Human resistance show up again on Rakalurn. Hey guys, is this your vacation spot or something? Only 900 attack left there.
10.49.42: Warp gates are disabled. We need a fleet to go help Micvarape. 3,000 threat outstanding, 1,000 of it on Murdoch.
10.49.45: Last attacker on Rakalurn dies. 900 fleet ships still on the planet.
10.50.01: 600 attack on Kuer. I quickly move the lightning missiles out of the way. Lyudmila is on duty, we should be okay here.
10.50.05: Penentrator on Kuer takes a shot at a Mk. 5 core starship. First useful thing its done in about 6 hours.
10.50.25: Rescued jumpship start shipping starships and snipers to Kuer. There are a lot of starships as part of this attack.
10.50.37: 8 reprocessors you say? Yes, I think that'll help with the bomber / warbird starships smacking on the Kuer forcefields.
10.50.54: 59 ships remaining. The forcefield around the impulse fab / core missile controller is at 10%.
10.51: Last bombers starship goes down. Fabs are exposed to open air.
10.51.13: Command station pops, just as a few engineers come online and start repairing the forcefields. 27 attack left, all of it starships. Luckily half of it off chasing Lyudmila around the grav well again.
10.51.27: Forcefield pops. Lyudmila at 32%.
10.52.20: Last ship on Kuer goes down. Lyudmila is at 9%. That was desperately close. There's still 2,200 threat somewhere out there, but for now it's time to start rebuilding Micvarape.
10.56: 800 ships warp into Mudoch to take care of the 300 or so threat there.
11.00: So, that was intense. The loss of the lightning turret controller and railcluster fab is a blow, but not a massive one. Once I get the two command stations back up I estimate I'll have access to a combined 30-40 million salvage, which should ease the rebuilding pain somewhat. I'm going to have to eat another two CREs before I can access the AI homeworld - there's one tractor, one widow, 4 spire shield and one needler guardpost left on Zupreape. So one more fleet wipe to get them, then the sabotage hack, then penentrate the translocator station followed up by a super-quick command station build out and a jumpship / penentrator run to remove the raid engines.
Should be fun.
