It has been a while.
10/10 Bully/Experimentalist (No secondary types today).
70-planet Honeycomb (1510662138) Tackle Drone Launchers.
Schizophrenic, complete visibility.
No plots, minor factions, or champions.
===Operation Fade Out====
Unlock MilIII stations and enclave starships mkIII with my initial 13,000 k.
Repelled first waves with no problem.
The AI has left me a Christmas present: it unlocked shield bearers and placed the backup server next door. I download them.
Repelled next waves with no issue.
Raided two data centers, then conquered an ARS world (youngling commandos).
Raided another data center, then conquered an ARS world (tanks).
Raided two more data centers, then conquered a spider turret controller.
Unlocked warp jammers, TDLIIs, and ShieldIIs.
AIP 30.
Carved a path down to a sniper turret controller and hacked it. I also sabotaged a spec alarm post.
CPA declared, 700 ships.
While I wait, I raid another DC.
It splits to three attacks, two with 200, one with 300.
The 300 head for home, while the two 200s coordinate to attack the spider controller.
The fleet is able to kill most of the home attack, then get to the controller in time to save it.
Time for the Archives. I always like to get them right after a CPA, as early as possible.
The nearest is two hops away from my spider world. Neither the archive world nor the intervening planet have anything threatening. Archive world colonized with a warp jammer. It comes with a missile controller, which was why I chose it first. Extracted with no issue.
TDL and Shield mkIII unlocked.
My economy has been spent getting core turrets up everywhere. I do have my non-raid starships built, but resources are very tight.
The easiest way to the second archive is to go through the core world. I raid the tachyon post next to my planet, send in the fleet (in cloaked transports), wait for the threat to pour into my missile turret world, then pull the fleet back, killing the threat before it kills the controller.
Now I can cloak most of the way to the second archive (and advanced starship constructor) after a tiny scuffle at the exit tachyon post. It has a threatening eye, but I kill the four guardposts reasonably quickly. Colonized and extracted.
I bring the fleet down in transports (zombards kill them, but all 20 ensure the fleet makes it) to another ARS world (youngling shrikes). It also comes with decoy drones. Unlocked shrikeIIs. The youngling stream, core turrets, and milIII stations are sufficient to repel waves for now.
Carved down to the advanced factory/beam starship fab, colonized it, then raided the co-processors. Unlocked shrikeIIIs.
AIP 70.
A 1366-ship CPA declares at 4:07, as I'm building my shiny but expensive TDLIVs.
Stopping here.
So this is quite a solid start. My plan is to go over and hack the nearer remaining ARS for vultures, making my "anywhere, cheap" fleet up to a significant force (three younglings I-IV, decoy drones). Then I'll conquer the translocator+Core Shield Bearer( >D) world, followed by the Core TDL planet. Then I'll see. Eventually I'll have an open but contiguous empire with warp-jammed outposts. I hope that's feasible.
