[7/7] (To Be) AI War: Missile Command

[carldong]

So, since I have done quite a few 7/7's, albeit on the order of 15 hours.

That is too conservative. Too conservative. Let's speed things up!

308187123 / Clusters-Microorganism / Complex
Spirecraft Moderate, Nomad Planet 4, Devourer and Dark Spire()

I disabled CSG, DGL, Parasite, Swallowers. Game on Blitz, complete visibility 1AIP/5min, 40 planets. Now that must be fast!

And it turns out, the Random All AI's give me... Alarmist/Spire Hammer. Nice to see spire frigates burning through my defense, huh?

Homeworld on Chrduip, with Saboteer, the one that explodes enemy ships by power failure. I don't quite know how to attach images, so let's skip that part.

Jump to 1:30:00. That's quick.

I basically conquered the two adjacent worlds for now, and Biaomik a few worlds away. Then, smuggled my fleet though the core world that blocks my way(which also has a Core Raid Engine on its home) and took Anadmbi, which... is basically because regular transports don't reach that far, and it is adjacent to a Dark Spire machine. I don't even remember enabling that, until I saw that on map.

Current researches are:
Triangular turrets + Grav up to MkII
Fighter II, Bomber II/III, Missile Frigate II, Mini Fort, Fort I, HBC I, Econ II, Engineer II.

What am I doing at this point?

AIP is 95, still acceptable on 7. Therefore, I still have the leasure to wait for the Fortress to finish -- they are used to deal with the Spire stuff, on all my fronts.

I plan on beachhead with Mini Forts and let them join my fleet. Of course, I am currently critical on metal, so that might not be the best idea.

I expect lots of missile flying in late game, as it happened in my previous long games too. I expect more so here, when threat and SF builds up.

BTW, unfortunately I cannot scale the window... The fonts are tiny on my HiDPI unless I fullscreen it.

[carldong]

1:36:00 -- I cleared that Core world of Tachyon stuff and many guard post. No warheads involved because of inconvenient placement. Reprisal 2. Now, I am cleared to warhead the first home station. Let's see if I can actually kick down its door, and see whether I can withstand the Exo with no defense in depth whatsoever
1:50:00 -- Refleet broken by that Devourer a few times, and my metal is totally abyssmal. Looks like high-mark fleet doesn't quite suite blazing through campaign, huh. Maybe I should really try to storm lightning on everything. I start stockpiling Armored Warhead, because I will use them on my first home assault. For now, take those auto AIP. I am going to storm through in late game. Besides, once Spire Hammer is down, my defense should be fine for up to 700 AIP.

An Armored Warhead II is ordered, and a Xamphite Spire Penetrator is prepared. The penetrator will kill the CRE, while the warhead will kill the Double MkV FF + Fort III + Spire Sphere. Yes, 6AIP, 15M Dmg. But there is no kill like overkill, you know. Hopefully that warhead interceptor doesn't create a big mess...

[carldong]

2:18:32 -- With another heavy casualty, Core Warhead Interceptor is destroyed. Nothing can stop me now. Just... Let me refleet, again.
2:21:35 -- Threat almost got one of my stations, and destroyed Zenith Mirror V fab. No big deal.
2:53:36 -- All warheads, one Armor MkI and one Armor MkII for offence, one "fleet warhead"  lightning II for wormhole support, and one defensive Armor MkIII are constructed. Fleet replenished, and AIP at 112. At around the 3 hour mark, my metal should be capped and I am prepared for the first assault -- to knock out the Spire Hammer. If anything is going wrong, my metal should easily spit out some warheads. Also, all constructors are stopped, because from past experience, turning constructors on when a home assault is happening is... Devastating, and sometimes requires me to use the time machine.

What can possibly go wrong?

[Mánagarmr]

What can possibly go wrong?

This is AI War. Likely EVERYTHING.

[carldong]

3:00:00 -- 500k to capping, but 1.6M metal... Might be enough. Let's take the risk. I am assaulting the HW from two directions. First, penetrator will come and blast up the CRE. From the same wormhole, Armored II will come and blow up the fort and Sphere. From the left side, MkI will blow up a few wormhole-camping posts, and then my fleet in transport, along with Lightning warhead should come in and kill everyone. Nice plan, how will it execute?

Action!

Hold on... Just read that there is Radar Dampening on CRE. Well, leave it for now and do the other things first.

3:00:51 MkI detonated, taking away two guard post. Transports preparing.
3:01:00 MkII forces through gravity guardians, imblosion posts, and fortress fire, and killed its designated targets.
3:02:04 MkII Lightning takes away a chunk of MkV ships. And NO WAY the Devourer joins!!!!
3:03:13 Oops, a total fleet wipe, due to that Devourer. Reprisal 3 plus Exo and a heck lot of threat will definitely make matter interesting. Maybe I should not turn on Devourer on a 40 planet map.

But before bracing the huge waves, an Armored Warhead is ordered. It will go for the CRE, while the penetrater is reserved.

3:04:58 1458 Fighters and 3 starships. Let me see. Is Lightning warhead better? Or Martyr?
3:06:01 A Threat invasion killed a command station. Still positive in energy, thankfully.
3:08:31 That CRE is finally gone for good. Now, I need to deal with reprisal + Exo + threat simultaneously, without fleet, with one less planets, with warheads cooling down. Hmm.
3:11:29 I think I am doomed. I lost another station, and an Exo is on its way. Let me get in some emergency gravity network
3:13:37 Holy SH!T! Two Dire Infiltration Guardian almost got my Home station! Down to 1% health! Fortunately my Armored Warhead, despite overkill, took it down!

I survived. And with 500K metal left, I made the strategic plan for the next part.

I will assault the Spire Hammer, with ONLY warheads, because its capital ships are too dangerous. And the next Exo is 25min later. Let's race the AI!

[carldong]

What can possibly go wrong?

This is AI War. Likely EVERYTHING.

You are correct. Up to now, everything except the Dark Spire seriously messed me up. Including but not limited to:

Spire Frigates
CRE in Armored Warhead II range, but not destroyed.
Devourer Golem wiped my fleet
Devourer Golem missed the AI threat which killed my two stations, by a range of <6000.
DIRE INFILTRATION GUARDIAN
etc

[carldong]

3:25:29 Armored warhead blows up a GP under shield. Lots of threat coming. Building cap of HBC at the attacked planet....

And no, nothing of my MkII-grade defense can hold back 30 Implosion Guardian V + 20 Grav Guardian V. I have to rewind time.

Let me figure out a way to beat this later. I think the strategy here is a bit.... too ruthless. A more conservative approach should not use an Armored Warhead, but along with a Lightning one, to bring down those guardians.