Beginners Campaign

[Ktoff]

*****Updated 10-28******

Hey Guys,

so i finally make my way to the AAR-Forum (thanks to Revenantus) and i find the AAR forum to be conspiciously empty. So i will make an attempt to fill it with the contents of my first campaign.

Settings: 6/6 random easy, 80 planets, no Astro trains. Special unit space plane (I liked this for high speed and high ship cap and i found out - painfully - that they are not nearly as good for raiding as i thought due to their immense vulnerability to electric turrets which the AI seems to be spamming at every wormhole :-) )

I will post details about the current state of the campaign as soon as i get home tonight (GMT(+1)) along with a couple of pictures. Updates will be on an irregular basis, whenever i find the time to play/write. Feedback is very welcome, especially if you comment on errors i make or strategies i could improve...

Ok, here is where i am:
Time: 4 1/2 hours; AI progress: 101

My starting planet has 3 Wormholes, the one to the west beeing a MkIV Planet, the other two just plain planets with reasonable ammounts of resources.

Roshloci (3/4) to the south was the first to be mine, reasonable amount of resources and a low defense bordering on two MkIII planets. I then expanded gingerly to Iosref (2/4) and Ockqu (4/4) to boost my economy as well as to protect my homeworld.

I then found a data center three hops away from my homeworld seperated only by a normal system so i decided to punch through and take out the data center. Apparently i had not checked out the intel carefully enough, because on arriving i find a Mk IV Fortress (are there others or is that just the standard?) which i had missed and i find out what it can do to a strike force if aided by a couple of other ships. So after it started wreaking havoc among my ships i fled (a little panicked) and got 2/3 of my fleet out without really attempting to take out the fortress and decided to take the (super low profile 1 metal nothing else) adjacent plantet so i could build a bridgehead for the frickin data center. Once that was done i jumped in once more with a more sizeable force (3 Starships, one of each kind etc :-) a mobile builder etc. ) and brought along some more MkIII Bombers and discovered to my surprise, that a Fortress isn't all that strong. So after finishing the fortress i send the bombers on to destroy the Data center while space planes run around taking out outposts (staying well clear of the electric turrets :-) ). Also i decided that i now want this planet, as this will be part of a stable backyard later on, especially with the worthless planet i took (without need :-( ). At this point it gets late and i save to go to sleep.

In terms of research i fear i might have researched too broadly. I got:
Warp sensor - very useful to place defenses where they are needed.
Engineer MkII - The teleporting is superuseful for quick repairs and building acceleration
Scout MkII - no scouts - no intelligence. I found my longtime goal with it :-)
Fighter MkII
Bomber MkIII - the tutorial primed me on bombers, so that is probably primarily x4000s influence ;-)
Space Plane Mk II
Raider Starship - Which i use for attack but also for defense. A powerful ship that can quickly be where it is needed.
Dreadnaught Mk I - Well, i don't really know what to make of this, but it was cheap and i wanted to try it out....
Laser Turret - great range, can cover two wormhole at once in many cases. Also cheap in terms of knowledge.

Cross planet attacks always announced ~250-300 ships, but mostly just trickle in through my south planet. Once space planes got through and took out my command station when i was not paying attention, now build anew, no big deal :-).


So now for future plans: As you can see from the Galaxy overview, i am encircled by MkIV Planets and the only high value target (besides the Data Center i already took out) is an advanced research station on Arkuljo directly behind the MkIII planet to the east. Arkuljo also happens to feature a Data Center, so it is really worth checking out, i'll just have to punch through a MkIII world, but with a bit of troup massing, this should be feasible. I do not fancy taking Yolu since the only thing it has to offer is 1 crystal....
After that i am a bit at a loss. Even massed my MkII scouts cannot penetrate farther than they have and it seems i will have to take on a Mk IV planet to get to the tasty tasty stuff. (two hops to the west there is another adv. research station) So either take the long road through the lower part of the map, or punch through the Mk IV and afterwards take out the cut-off planet... We'll see first things first. Any suggestions are welcome.

Now back to the game to take that Adv. Research station. Also: Should i clean out my backyard (i.e. Yolu and Vilmarro)? Yesterday i thought this might be nice, but today i am not sure it is wort it.

Cheers,
K'Toff

[Ktoff]

Time: 7 1/2 hours; AI progress: 89; 7 planets

Tech Unlocks:
Cruisers MkIII
Mobile Research station
Summary: Two planets more: Miktailin - Backyard and mostly dead by the beginning of the Savegame and Arkulio - with one  advanced research station (MLRS) al the while the AI progress actually went down :-) I now know how to use Raid Starships more effectively. I still have no clue how to use Dreadnoughts. They seem weak, especially compared to raid starships, does anybody use them?

To get there i finished cleaning out Miktailin and build up some economy. Then I assembled a reasonably sized fleet of roughly 900 ships including my shiny new MkII cruisers a good mix of the Rest 5 Dreadnaughts, 2 light Starships and 2 Raid Starships (also 2 colony ships) to punch through the Mk III system to get the  Advanced research station. On the other side i experience the beauty of Mk III Tractor turrets and the wrath of the planet defense and by the time the turrets are toast my fleet numbers are down to ~350 and many ships of the system (long live Mk III) are halfway at the wormhole to push me back. To round it up a cross planet attack of over 400 ships is announced. So i retreat with the meager rest and try anew, this time cherry picking whom to send over and i start with the Star ships, then let Mk III bombers follow and take out most of the defenses before sending the rest through (good Mix with emphasis on higher Mk also 5 colony ships) and try making my way through enemy territory. By the time i clear the other wormhole of tractor beams i have lost more than half of my fleet including the two starships and 4 colony ships but the rest makes it through. On the other site awaits a lightly defended planet which i take without much problem and i get my beautiful advanced research center. The Data Center helps to keep the AI progress in check.

The cross planet attack arrives where i do not expect it, and manages to get past my defenses and to destroy two command stations as well as a powerplant. Easily rebuilt - but still. Coming from a low value target onto another low value target... Maybe i'll clean out the backyard after all.

The newly won research ship proves very useful for Knowledge stealing as it is nearly indestructible (well not really, but compared to the other science labs) and i discover the real power of the raid starships which i now use for their intended purpose - raiding. Two/three Raid SS can do quite a lot of damage, and without small ships to accompany them, the losses are kept at a minimum, and while you probably know that, this discovery opens new possibilities. Such as destroying another Data Center in a Mk IV world without any problems.

I have started to thin the defenses and the outposts at Iosdreti. Is it that important to destroy all the outposts? I get the feeling that it is not a good idea to leave any outpost in aware systems alive if i can help it in any way....

It's late so i appologize for incoherent rambling and hope you enjoy my musings a bit. The slow advances of my campaign will further be delayed by Life'n Stuff^TM and i probably won't be able to continue before the Weekened hits. Still i'll be happy to read your thoughts about what's going on so far.
Night!
K'Toff