16.05: Quzi is back up, and building some rams to take care of that mining golem problem. Meanwhile, a dire sniper guardian and his friends are attacking Rolikkill. As I have no mobile ships over there, I might have to rely on the dark spire to kill it off.
16.12: Oh dear, the antagoniser has been upgraded to a disruptor. Time for everyone's favourite then, the 3 golem 2,500 ship battering ram.
16.17: Well, the idea was to start the assault with dual Mk III lightning warheads, take out the 38 super hybrids. However my ships have been floating outside that world for the last four minutes waiting for a succession of tachyon astro trains to pass by. Eh, let's throw the golems at the dire guardian lair while we're waiting. Dire tractor, laser and MRLS. All dead within 20 seconds.
16.20: Lightning warheads explode, 38 super hybrids die. Was that worth 6 AIP? Probably not, but it was enjoyable.
16.22: Boomed. Four counter-attack post waves hitting in 10 minutes, but the command station is down. Reprisal 2. Golems make a dash for the wormhole exit, switched off and under cover of the cloakers that escorted the lightning missiles in.
16.23: Hunters are here. But they can't see me. This plan is flawless. Unless a Tachyon astro train happens to pass by.
16.23.10: 10 H/Ks, 100+ Mk V missile guardians and ... a tachyon astro train. Typical. Ah well, golems got out in time and assault transports are skirting the edge of the grav well enough to escape. Dropping a few ships to distract the hunters help, too.
16.24: 2,200 youngling tiger reprisal to Jubuvi, the world with my brand spanking new advanced starship constructor. Luckily I have the time, money, asteroids and inclination to build Martyrs.
Oh, and there's also this little trick. Yup, that's a spirecraft translocator herding those lovely immobile Neinzul rocketry corps lightning warheads into position.
16.24.14: Exhibit B
16.24.16: Exhibit C.
Unfortunately I didn't notice the 1,000 loose younglings going up to kill my engineers.
16.24.45: Problem solved. Turns out I didn't need the Martyrs after all.
Oh, and a 1,800 ship CPA. Which is ... well, nothing.
16.24.55: Of course, in retaliation the AI does this ...
Why yes, that is 1,200 ships caught in an unholy morass of Tractor/Widow astro-trains. Right after their transports exploded, moments after escaping the hunter fleet. Which they are promptly getting dragged back towards. The ship's struggles end when I realise all 1,200 of them are about to be dragged onto the core world. Right next to the Core Raid Engine. An instant 1 million scrap value, indicating that those were actually worth about 10 million metal.
On the plus side, I destroyed them on Eliuan. The planet where I just wiped the AI command station. So no salvage for you AI!
16.31: Command station goes back up, then down again, on Boatark. Another two hours on that shield.
2,000 ships on my homeworld ready to fend off the 3k Mk IV ships in the counter-attack. My one regret is that the new salvage cap means I'll get at most about 5 million metal from this.
16.33: A slight moment of worry there as they attacked from three different directions and with a rather large number of raid starships. But at the end of the day, nothing much can stand up to 97 enclaves and their 2,000 drones. Definitely worth their constant probing attacks.
I do like the more restrained salvage pace. No more 200,000m/s firehoses that I need to work out how to direct. That said, telling 10 engineers to repair my Mk IV ion cannon was a bad idea, as 2 million metal is sucked out of the economy in about 10 seconds.
16.37: CPA? Oh, you mean that practically unnoticeable bump in my threat level. I know that I'm used to diff 9 rather than 7, but CPAs do seem rather ... weedy nowadays. The only ones that have ever really challenged me are on diff 10, when I remember a year ago having to work hard to take them on at ~8.3. Maybe, after the addition of core turrets and everything else, CPAs need buffing too?
16.42: Command station is up on Eliuan, and spire archive merrily ticking away. D class shield network down, that means that the home planets are now available.
Of course, the very first thing I do is slap four spire frigates into a jumpship and wipe out the Core Raid Engine on the closest homeworld. And the OMD which is handily sitting right next to it. The core raid is an utterly paltry 352 ships. I mean really, I know it's diff 7, but that's all I get at 314 AIP?
16.42.30: Total wave: 3,700. Just standard waves. Half of which is hitting Aosrinamr ... where the cookie monster is sitting. Thanks, friend!
16.43: Oh dear, beachhead waves. Rebel frigates come to the aid of Jubuvi and manage to bring the shields back online when the advanced starship constructor has just 96,000 health remaining. Aosrinmar is not so lucky, devourer golem notwithstanding. For reference, he still doesn't eat ships in carriers or beachhead ships. Still, he at least cleaned up all 1,500 ships for me after the command station went down.
16.47: Anyway, what was I doing. Oh, right, throwing 2,400 ships and 3 golems at a core world.
16.53: First 30% of the strategic reserve chewed through, most meaningful guardposts removed. Way to the first homeworld is now clear. Inevitably, however, I did lose 900 ships to tractor astro-trains.
Time for a spot of refleeting and contemplation I think ... spire archive is about halfway done. Let's have Mk III and IV protector starships (heck yes), and that leaves me with 8,500 knowledge on the way. Flagship IIs, Missile Frigates II, III and IV, I think.
16.55: Reprisal coming in, 3,400 youngling tigers to Jubuvi. For the first time in my entire AI war career, I unlock advanced warp sensors. Why? Well, it helps to know which wormhole to shepherd these lightning missiles on to...
16.57: Worked like a charm. Two Mk. III lightning warheads take out 3,000 tigers. At no AIP cost to myself. This has to be one of my favourite new cheeses.
Right then, looks like the entire H/Ks fleet is sitting on Eliudonu. Of course, as soon as I enter the planet they decide there's nothing worth fighting and make a tactical retreat. Of course. Eh, they'll be back for the ultimate showdown soon enough.
17.00: Can I finish up this game in the next hour, before the colony rebellion? We'll see. But I'm in a position to start wiping the first AI homeworld now. And the long overdue hunter fleet royal rumble is definitely on the cards.
State of the union:
Huh, I should probably rebuild Quzi and Geoasi.
