HotNotesNew objective: save as much knowledge as possible, at least two ZArchives worth of K (2*9,000). The role-play reason will be explained.
12:15:04Wave tanking, threat cleaning, turret building... And still some thread is hanging out there. The number of ships displayed on the top-right of the GUI (350, currently) is quite misleading because there is many starships, guardians and high mark ships.
Now that the bigger part is done, I'll send all my cloaked fleet on Nomad 4 with a bunch of RRebuilders. The rest of my fleet would continue the threat cleaning duty.
12:39:52Nomad 4 has been rebuilt and enhanced. My stealth fleet is back merged into my main threat cleaning / wave tanking fleet.
Threat is still at 350 ships, oddly enough, but the total strength is far below what it used to be.
Waves are scary-big these days. My fleet is going back and forth to defend here and there, but I will soon need some defenses improvements. 250 AIP is quite unusual for me, and I plan on rising it again.
However, I can still use my fleet for defense and letting offense to star-raiders, while being able to receive the threat and reprisal they would induce. If so, I'll need to change the OCStations along the way diving to the core from military to logistic. The speed boost will be useful for reaching waves from a side to another, but logistic OCS have less health and are much more sensitive to plasma siege starships. Or I could unlock the ZSTManipulator. Or I could gateraid the planet just after my ASC and having RingI mostly untouched by waves. We'll see.
Main problem for now: energy. I'm running one metal converter and I'm below 10,000 energy. The armored warhead is still near my Home OCStation, still eating 50,000 energy. I'm also supporting 3 fortresses at 90,000 each. I need more planets, but more non-frontier planets. I could also unlock the Economic OCStation MkIII, but it would take me away from the Knowledge achievement and I won't have place to put all them 6; I could replace the MkII but it still would be waste. My metal eco isn't bad, right now, so I guess I can run some metal converters until I find something better... like a ZPGenerator, maybe. There is one on RingVI, and it's near my path.
12:41:19Gate raided on RingI after the ASC. Aaaand... there is a warp gate guardian. Crap!
12:42:11AI OCStation blew up on the RingV side of the BridgeV-A, adjacent to my territory. There is a core starship constructor for a MkV heavy bomber. Nice, I'll blow fortresses with this!
Full fleet deployed; SForces are seen nowhere but I wait their strike before taking this planet.
Big 400 ships wave MkII declares... on RingI, ASC world. Sweet. Looks like the AI understand my plans. So bad: my raiders were chasing the WGate Guardian seconds before it declares.
Better back my fleet now (so much for the SForces bait) and transport it to RingI as soon as possible. I hope it won't be too late. I have 2:30 until warp.
Crap! Not enough energy for the transports. Second metal converter online!
12:44:54Wave hit ASC world. Transports are 5 hops away. TeleRaiders have been unloaded and sent ahead (why have I loaded them in the first place?); raiders are already here. Near 100 teleThings are on my FField.
12:45:18Well, not that bad. MkI/II Missile turrets in range of the OCStation handled the teleThings (they have no bonus against TeleRaiders but it's ok); the tractor beams kept the non-teleporting things under the fire of my other turrets and the military OCS is keeping away the remaining starships (ah, not the Zenith one) while the missile slowly hammer them.
My TeleRaiders teleport in but the battle is already over. I panicked for nothing; looks like MkII turrets were a good investment.
Transports sent back to RingV.
12:48:16Neutral planet on RingVI captured. (Core bomber starships are mine!) The SForce hasn't shown up.
12:49:56An EJet threat-grab mission went well when 18 HRFighters came to... help? The "battle" took less than a second: the threatfleet was passing by the wormhole, the EJets did a warp-in/warp-back and the starships got naked in a blink. According to HRFighters this was a battle and they decided to join it.
(Minutes latter: a MkIV flagship and a MkI spire starship was too much for them... So sad...)
12:53:48Wohoo! Full fleet assault on RingVI is shaking the hornet nest like a pinata party! A looooong procession of MkIII SFighters escaped during the ion-raid and is beelining toward RingIII, while a 600 ships Fire wave declares on RingII and a 450 ships Ice reprisal declares on RingIII (there is the core TeleRaider constructor on Ice's target). 2:30 before the pinat'hive explode. MkIII turrets? Nha, never mind, it'll be fine.
However, all turrets weren't deployed on the targeted planets. I pause-built them (one more MConverter); 30 seconds or 1 minute build time? I've got the metal; it'll be fine.
12:56:36Ah, Fire's VClaws assassinated the ECollector; 3 MConverters ordered.
Oh, Ice's TeleThings are on the power-naked core constructor... 3 MConverters NOW!!!
Good team work from Fire&Ice. (I love this game!)
12:56:44Phew! (
Ouf!, as I would say) They were targeting the OCStation, but while it's a military one, it tanked the brief beating. Everything is fun... but my metal. Well, still 1,000,000 in bank, but I was 3,000,000 minutes earlier.
Yeah! The MkI/II missile turrets are doing wonders. I was afraid to see a bomber starship coming on the FField but they finished the TeleThings quickly and made short work of the offending starship.
12:58:01RingVI assault is done; the other end of BridgeV-A is neutered. I have to admit that the FField immune VClaws + Infiltrators are good to hinder enemy firepower when the full fleet attacks a GPost+FField+fleet combo (they attack the fleet under the FField while the rest of my fleet hammer the FField through the GPost and spare them some reprisal). Maybe it's not a big difference, but it helps.
This bridge end has a core VClaw fabricator. Good! However there is an alarm on a MkIV bunkerer SubCom near. On the other side, there is the ZPGenerator just near, but a MkIV obstructionist SubCom one more hop away. Troubles on the way.
12:59:45I lack energy. Really. I'm running 5 MConverters and I'm still in need of turrets and energy. Too many frontiers. I need the ZPGen, badly.
13:00:00O.o 1,370 ships CPA declared on this precise second. (There already is a 600 ships Ice wave on the far side of RingIV, but it's routine.)
Long hour. A lot of theory and planning. But things are going along the road.
HaP: 195 (enough for the next download)
AIP: 290
Knowledge: 28,500
Empire: 21 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 18 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV.
Unlocks: same plus Laser, Missile and Lightning turrets MkII, plus HBomber SShip MkV (fabricator).
When did Fire unlocked armor booster? This would fit more for Ice...
Nomad 2 and 4 are orbiting outside RingI, as always, and 1 and 3 are between RingV and RingVI. I'm a bit disappointed with their circular and regular pattern; I expected more chaos with them. Anyway, I'll need to deal with Nomad 1 and 3 because now I have a good graps on RingV and they are routing toward this "diving head". (More drilling than diving, after all.)
13:00:40Nomad 1 is in wormhole-range of my territory, linked to a less-defended non-frontier world. Luckily it's very lightly defended because it was (almost?) never alerted. I has a 100 ships barracks and a MkIV SSSphere GPost. I'll also remove its warp gate, but I'm not sure if I'll capture it. At least not now.
Oh, and 78 RFighters joined a EJet threat-grab mission on RingIII. No SShip is fearsome here and they are numerous. Let's see how they'll do.
13:02:46Nomad 1 WGate is down, but 200 TeleThings are on my raiders! Where do they come from? Threat? Or maybe Ice's RingIV warp? Probably because this wave has no TeleThings (unless TeleBS, but there is no TeleBS on Nomad 4). But if it's the case, they took the long path around the galaxy by RingV. Strange behavior. !!fun!! behavior!
I know that attacking ships have a logic where they can go for another target if the current planet is considered overwhelmed, but with teleporting ships, it made a very... !!emergent!! situation.
On RingIII, the HRFighters did a good job: they're 70 by now. But... and this but is huge... they are in route toward the RudeGesture SubCom's OCStation... which is a Troop-Accelerating one... with 10,000 strength sleeping around...
13:03:38Fleet cleaned the tele-mess on Nomad 1; RingIV wave was handled by the turrets (the OCS was near-naked, though).
Funny fact: while the HRFighters are pinat'hive-ing the Troop Accelerating SubCom, SForce are passing by without taking care of them.
Time for a SF-update: 2 H/K, 16 Disassemblers (8 MkI, 8 MkIII), 20 MkII Missile Guardians, 75 Riot (only?), and many MkIII ZMedicF (around 30), some Chameleon, Bombers, Gatlings (around 30 each) and 75 MkII/III ZEBombers. Oh, and maybe these 150 MkIII Standard and Tachyon-micro Fighters ahead of the twins are SForces too. Fearsome. They are routing toward the core, maybe on their way to Nomad 1. I need to take this SSShpere GPost quick!
13:05:55Done and out.
Intel confirmed SForces data. Fearsome, indeed.
I decided to build fleet and starship warpgates on my deepest world (11 hops from home), the one with the core HBomber SShip constructor.
13:07:47I wish I could go out with my raiders and take down some alarms and command stations to progress in my diving, but the SForce is out there and I'm forced to wait for the CPA.
13:13:02CPA hits. 1049 MkII ships freed + 321 MkII ships from SReserve.
A 800 ships carrier and a 250 one spawned on RingI; they can go for the ASC or for Nomad 4, and I can't defend none right now. That makes about 300 ships in CPA still invisible.
A near-400 ships will soon warp on Back; I hope it will hold it alone (fortress supporting).
An alarm was destroyed soon before, allowing me to make my first steps on RingVI. I'll do this after this CPA fighting.
13:13:30The carriers on RingI seems to separate, the 800 toward Nomad 4 and the 250 toward ASC. Good; I prefer losing Nomad than the ASC.
A regular threat cleaning is processing on Nomad 1, between RingV and RingVI. (It was released by the last alarm raid.)
13:14:18Threat mostly cleaned on Nomad 4; the SForce warps back. My fleet flew but many EJets came after them and grabbed many of my ships; fortunately, many swarmers (ACannon MPods and Infiltrators).
Energy brownout: 30 VClaws in the big wave of Back was attracted by the ECollecter like flyes by a lamp. But the lamp loose, this time. MConvertors ordered on home.
13:14:51Back took a beating; the OCStation fell and many turrets were destroyed, but the heavy fire-rain of my turrets hammered them flat. When the last survivors were insta-killed all at once by the snipers, the two MkII plasma SShips decided do turn back, but they were caught up by the long range missiles. The fortress is already repairing all it can around it; it's good support unit.
When I look back at the fight, I think Fire has a good support team with the ZMedic and the ArmorBoosters, however I think the ZMedic are less efficient within the fight, and more interesting in post-fight, or as escort and occasional extra tankiness on retreat. But the ABoosters in the hands of the AI are a true pain (I'm fighting against some in a parallel game with a friend).
13:15:08325 ships carrier detected on RingVI. 350 Fighters MkIII are threat-pilled on RingIII (the other half of the alarm-threat); I'll send the EJets, one day.
Also, I remark they tend to pile up on the clockwise side of RingIII. It's not stupid because to go from RingIV to RingIII, it's the shortest path. Maybe I should fortify this side rather than the other.
13:17:41This time, while the EJets were grab-raiding threat, Marauders showed up (instead of HRFighters). I'm going to make a second and last cloak-grab raid but then let them deal with the other humans.
A near-500 ships Ice wave declared on RingIII... anticlockwise side; the one I just lightened in benefit for the clockwise side.
My cloaked ships are already in route to help Nomad 4 (and my EJets are threat-grabbing), and I can't dedicate all the rest of my fleet to this wave because the carrier on RingVI will backstab me just when the wave will warp. So I'll need to defend RingIII with a third of my fleet. I hope it will stand the knock.
Side note: I remember this parallel game with a friend where he went full fleet and I went full starfleet, the Leeches MkI-IV were much more effective than I supposed in the first place (seeing only the MkI) and I ended up with near as many fleetships as him. I think I'll steal some Knowledge from the Red.Queen's share and get some high-end leeches; it would be much more K-efficient than unlocking fleetships myself. However, it'll require one more MConverter (I'm already running 3).
13:20:37The wave on RingIII was handled well, but I doubt the turrets alone would have saved the TeleRaider fabricator from the TeleThings or the starships.
("would have saved"? I
wouldn't have written it on an English school test... Is that correct?)
Nomad wormholes changed. Nomad 4 continue to turn along RingI; the carrier follow it; my stealth fleet is ordered to go further. Nomad 1 and 3 are no more an annoying bridge (and a defense perimeter flaw) between RingV and VI.
13:21:06The carrier on RingI, just after the ASC, unloaded its content as my invisible fleet pass by. The EJets are ordered to stop and deal with the unloaded fighters. Wait a second; they're not as many as the carrier told me they are. *check the planetary summary* 75 Raptors MkII? They're not tractor-immunes! Stick to the plan!
(seconds latter)
Ouch! I didn't notices the raptors have bonus against cloaked/refractive (they are refractive themselves, strange).
However, 32 HRFighters warped in.
Oh, and I've got two eye's warnings! Ah, it's ok, there is just two eyes (Parasite and Ion) on RingI, on my stealth-fleet path. Never mind. (You can't kill what you can't see.)
13:25:10Pre-battle summary.
All my stealth fleet (but EJets) are on Nomad 4 (near 2,300 str), in front of a big part of the CPA (near 3,350 str).
The Ejets (near 600 str) are in front of the rest of the last alarm threat (1,000 str).
There is a part of the CPA (1,800 str) in front of my lonely ASC.
On BridgeV-A there is some CPA (more than 4,500 str) against my main fleet, fleshly StarLeech-enhanced (8,900 str).
On the eco side, I'm running 6 MConverters and my metal is below 1,000,000 but with a +3,400 m/s (no salvage).
Ready for the big fight?
13:28:35Threat cleaned on RingVI, few casualties on my side. Interestingly, my leeches reclaimed a full cap (19) of ZEBombers MkIII and 66 SFighters MkIII, and some other little things. The Impulse Emitters MkV (their core constructor was destroyed a long time ago) are now 24 (out of 96).
Threat on RingIII flew when my EJets warped in; the EJets were assigned to another threat-grabbing mission on RingII, counterclockwise, this time.
A 400-ships Fire wave declare on back. It's far, my fleet is away, Back is well defended: it will hold without fleet support.
MFrigates (MkI-II) have been loaded into a transport and sent to threat-clean the world after the ASC: this threatfleet is mostly made of SFighters and Raprots and the frigates have bonuses against both.
Meanwhile, my main fleet will take out two OCStations on RingIV and fall back (hopefully) before SForces arrival, then capture them, then neuter the new frontiers.
13:31:41Wave on Back stood. Some EyeBots put some FField-immune missiles in the OCStation and the ECollector, but nothing was destroyed.
Threat-grabbing on RingII went good; starships are still an issue, though.
The RingVI side of BridgeV-A is neutral; the MkVI world with the ZPGenerator is being neutered; the SForce is still patrolling two hops away on RingV. Strange...
13:32:07The MFrigate assault on RingI went badly: there is still a lot of SFighters and Raptors MkII, and a StarLeech reclaimed 34 MFirgates MkII. I'll need to punch it harder; I'll do it latter.
13:35:38The ZPGenerator world is neutered and neutral; my raiders took down a MkI ion cannon on the A-prime world that I plan on taking soon and the SForces decided to come and see. Two worlds fell and they didn't give a sh*t; some raiders destroyed one little thing on a A-prime and they all come after them. AI logic... Anyway, time to fall back.
Ow, rude: all (almost) my leeches have been swallowed! (one MkVI and some MkI-II haven't) My metal is away from full, sadly.
Ice declare 250 ships wave on RingII. My fleet has nothing to do for now; I'll wait for the SForce to get out of the neutral territory before capturing it, so I can go help on RingII.
Threat on RingI after the ASC are spawning a warp relay (52%, nothing important).
Makes me remember that my stealth-fleet and the remains of the last CPA are still waiting around Nomad 4.
Oh, while swallowed ships don't count in ship cap (I remember beta-testing DoW and reading many complaints about the new Power Slavers, leading to this feature), they still count in the energy balance? Mantis?
13:39:04Wave on RingII is ashes, now. SForces are away from RingVI, but they seems to be in route toward RingIII, maybe RingII (clockwise side).
Threat on RingIII is spawning a warp relay? There is less than 1,000 strength... Maybe it's because they are here from a long time.
13:42:16A Nomad wormhole change made the threatfleet displaced and I thought it would be a good idea to attack them just as they get out from the wormhole, away from any GPost. However, Infiltrators and ACannon MPods (swarmer) were quickly destroyed by the very numerous MkII MFrigates (x6 against swarmers). However, the SStealth BShips tanked a lot, even if they are now almost all dead. The my VClaws are either (almost) all alive (MkII) or half-reclaimed (MkI) but while they are missile-immune (I didn't remembered) they are holding the distance quite well. The MkIII StarLeech will be a concern on the long term, however, and there is 300 MkII MFrigates left.
Albeit the fight took place in Fire territory, Ice is sending a 1,000 ships reprisal wave on RingIII. Needless to say my whole fleet is in route.
13:43:22No more VClaws to defend Nomad 4. However, there is "only" 200 MFrigates left on the AI side... And some more VClaws, I admit it.
Fire trigger a 800 ships reprisal on RingV (oops, no turrets here; I'll need metal and energy!) 2:30 after Ice's one. I guess the MkIII ZReserve will be useful.
13:45:18Ice's reprisal on RingIII was overwhelming. The TeleThings busted the FField, core constructor (TeleRaiders) and OCStation (energy brownout followed up). Looks like Ice targeted my attempt to mimic its teleporting ability. Time to handle Fire's one and protect the core Flak controller.
Arh! I can't build more MConverters on home. 10 of them, already?
13:46:49Guess what? Three warp relays are spawning and Fire decided to trigger a 750 ships wave on the other side of RingV (at least it's not far away from its reprisal target).
13:46:58Fire's reprisal is 4 MkI HBomber SShips and... near 800 MkII ZChameleon. My fleet's strength is 3 time greater, so I won't get the ZReserve.
13:47:48Wow... the Flak controller was scratched but nothing more. Time to fun to the second Fire's wave!
13:49:27Okay, this one was more schizophrenic and handled more easily. This severely delayed my RingVI captures, and I still need to make some threat-cleaning. Great!!!
13:52:23I neglected the warp relays and captured the two neutral planets on RingVI. I now have a ZPGenerator (I scrapped all my MConverters. My metal is back to 5,000 m/s!Phew!) and a MkV VClaws! (Wohoo! Their icon is very different from the MkIV one) It's time to rebuild the StarLeeches and clean that threat! Oh, and turrets placement time! (Ah, tractor, tachyon and FFields, why aren't you capped per planet?)
I scrapped all the needler and MLRS turrets (the one that I let to MkI for bonus choices) because I was near to entirely eat my ZPGenerator! So lightning, laser and missile turrets MkI and II on every frontier world, and no more needler and MLRS. MkI flak have also been scrapped; the MkV is so much more energy-efficient. Inner planets are left with MkI snipers and MkII missiles. Back, ASC and the two nomads have a special autorization for full turrets deployment.
Well, this is much better, energy wise, and with the clever turret types choice (at least I cogitated (oh sweet, this word exists in English!) on this) I think the firepower isn't too diminished.
However, I'm lacking FFields and tractors. While extreme knowledge saving is a personnal achievement in this game, I'm still refraining from unlocking tractors MkII and some more FFields.
FFields on tractors, I can go without them. However, tractors are a key component of my turret strategy, so I really need more. However, I think unlocking the tractors MkII would be a bit overkilling. *check their K-cost* Oh!? They're less than 1,000 K!?! They are twice as resilient (health, armor), have more than two times more tractors and a longer range! (And their build time is longer but their metal cost is the same... strange.) Well, I think I'll get the MkII, after all. Sorry, R.Q!
Sooo... How will we share these new tractors? I have 15 hostile wormholes to defend (not counting the nomads and counting as one the planets where there is two lined up, and counting the two on Home). And I will have more. Can I plan for a grand total of 20 wormholes? Let see.
First, I'll allocate an equal number of MkI and MkII tractors on each wormhole. With 10 (5 of each), I can cover 19 wormholes. That may sounds a bit short for my project, but provided I tried to stay with 10 MkI tractor per wormhole, I'll double the current capacity and improved already existing tractor packs with range and number of tractor beams. So 5 MkI and 5 MkII per wormhole sounds fine.
Also, with this improvement, I think I can remove the FFields from the tachyon/tractor/flak packs; I consider that if they get crunched, they're worth (barely) nothing, and if they don't, they were useless. It's a bit extreme, but as we're not playing Fallen Spire in a bottleneck, I consider this acceptable.
13:52:48Ouch. While my metal economy faceplant under the burden of the many turret relocations, Ice declares a 1,000 ships wave on RingIII (9 hops away from the head of my core drill). Turrets on RingVI are not deployed yet but there is no threat here to backstab... However, the risk is the ZPGenerator and the VClaws MkV. Well, just L-divide the whole fleet? It sounds enough. Let divide the fleet.
13:56:28The half-fleet was there in time. However, the many TeleThings put the OCStation's FField down and let the Military OCStation itself at 35% before being hunted down by the fleet and missile turrets. The non-teleporting part of the schyzophrenic wave destroyed almost all the 10 MkI tractors but were managed by the fleet and the turrets. However, three Zenith SShips tanked the heavy fire and achieved the naked OCStation. Tough wave for a regular wave. However, there is nothing important here, and my energy grid is now able to handle much more ECollector failures.
14:00:00I'll count the rebuilding planet as already rebuilt for the clarity of the hourly report.
This game is a long game (and the AAR writing make it even longer), but it's fun and, while at difficulty 7/7, the unusual (to me) AIP level stresses my defense skill and pushes me out of my low-AIP tracks. Great!
For this hour, more specifically, there were some progress toward the core, while much wave tanking and threat cleaning. Also, my thin "drill empire" is hard to defend at this AIP level, but it's thematic, and anyway, we're just at 7/7.
HaP: 247
AIP: 342
Knowledge: 26,750 (+3,000 available)
Empire: 23 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 20 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV, 2 on RingVI.
Unlocks: same plus Leech Starship MkII, Leech Starship MkIII, Tractor Beam Turret MkII (4,750 K spent this hour).
14:00:03Threat cleaned near RingII; the half-fleet is on its way to clean the warp-relay-spawning threat after the ASC.
Two threatfleets of 1,500 strength each are piling around Nomad 4 on RingI (and maybe more on RingII that I don't see). Threatening, indeed.
Note to self: don't try (again) to grab MFrigates with EJets; the frigates have a x6 bonus against them.
14:04:19While threat is being cleaned on RingI, after the ASC, Fire declares a 1,000 whips wave on RingV, targetting the core Flak controller. Good thing I let the other half of my fleet on RingVI.
Ah, still not enough metal for the Leeches and VClaws... but soon.
14:07:13Fire's wave was handled. However, the supporting fleet wasn't too much; the Raptors and VClaws are immune to tractors. This fight make me remember that there is still a big hole in my defense: tractors+tachyon take care of the regular and cloaked annoyance while the missile and snipers can protect the OCStation from TeleThings. However, the VClaws are immune to both tractors and missiles: they spawn, be uncloaked by the tachyon, pass the tractors and suffer minor injuries from the turrets, get away, under the missile turrets' range but don't care, eventually re-cloaked before being decloaked again by the Military OCStation, some are pushed back by its translocator ability but most manage to get under the FField. However, all they can do then is to assassinate the ECollector (the OCStation and the core controllers are immune to fusion cutters). Is that very important, now that I have a ZPGenerator? Maybe this hole can be let open.
Some raptors and other nuisances made it back to AI space. Pursuing them would put a core world on alert. I'll neglect them, for now.
The other half of my fleet is massing on Back, waiting for Nomad 4 to come in range and clean the threat around it.
14:10:24Ice wave on RingIV, 1,200 ships. I'll never be able to continue my digging, this way.
14:14:45Too much armor ships in the wave on RingIV. Fortunately, there is nothing irreplacable here. Near 50 armor ships escaped and joined threat.
Speaking of threat, the on I neglected to defend against this wave is spawning a WRelay on RingII. Many MkIII SFighters so I think a EJet grab would be enough.
Tachyon was carved on the adjacent planet on RingVI and a MkII Science lab was sent to scout the ARS: armor booster as a first choice, ZDevastator and NRailpod as redirection options. I'll save HaP and take the ABooster. However, I first need to take down two alarms, one on the middle world and one adjacent to a core world. We're carving ice, today!
That make me realize that all the MkIV core worlds are under control of Ice. Very appropriate for the turtle of the two.
14:20:47Aouch!!! 3 MkIII and 2 MkIV raid starships (all I sent) was destroyed by the bunkerer on the middle planet; Ice declare a reprisal warning level 1 ("only"; but it's because the AIP is already pretty high). Anyway, all the alarms I wanted down are down; I can take this ARS and the middle world (with an AdvFacto) without triggering anything. Now, I just need to take them... while handling the WRelays that are spawning on RingI and RingII.
Arh! Nomad3 is in range of both my two worlds on RingVI
and the ARS world. Guess what? Nomad 3 is an Ice bunkerer with an alarm.
14:21:29Threat grabbed on RingII. Excellent mission: there is only the starships left and the EJets sufferet very few casualties.
The MkIII SFighters were grabbed in human territory and brought under the turrets's fire. Seeing that, marauders thought it would be a good idea to attack now.
On the other side of the galaxy, Fire sends in a 550 ships wave after the ZPGenerator. Fortunately, the Nomad wormhole is almost lined with the other wormholes, so if they warp there they would be handled by the turrets.
14:21:50Aaaand Ice sends a reprisal wave just next to the ZPGenerator (750 ships), 30 seconds after Fire's one. Nice!
14:24:28Epic battles everywhere! Wohoo!
On RingI, two hops after the ASC, one hop deep in AI territory: the threat that was spawning a Warp Relay followed Nomad 2 and my half-fleet pursued them. Forces are barely equivalent but a Parasite Eye will soon change the balance if I don't fall back on Nomad 2 fast enough.
On RingII, maybe the less epic, but still uncertain: the EJets lured the ungrabbable Marauders in the turrets, but the Dagger Frigate stay out of range and I needed to engage them at closer range, sacrifying most of my tractors. The fighting isn't finished.
On RingVI, the VClaws made short work of the ECollector. Fortunately, the ZPGenerator is immune to them. But not to the eyebots. My other-half-fleet managed them but there is still living fire out there! Starships, ABoosters and ZMedicF are quite resilient. Howerer, under my MkII FField, I think the ZPGen is mostly safe.
Ice's reprisal will warps in 15 seconds on the planet next to this one but around 50 MkIII TeleThings are already chewing the FField protecting the core VClaw constructor. I need to move my fleet sooner than expected!
14:25:13Good bye, MkV VClaws. On the long run, Ice proved much more lethal than Fire. I admit I expected Ice to be much harder on defense. More than the half of its wave is MkIII, despite it announced a MkII wave.
14:27:10Tough times.
7 Dagger Frigates are out-ranging turrets on RingII (Radar Dampening > Range is cheating!), Parasite Eye is cancelling Nomad 2 retailation, Ice on RingVI is utterly (discouragingly) overwhelming (I had to shut down my warp gates) and its EJets are tearing my forces and bringing them under Nomad3's MkIII ion cannon, two warp relays are spawning...
14:28:22Ice now warps 900 ships toward RingIV. 3 minutes to prepare and metal is faceplanted.
At least, the Eye on RingI was GPost-killed with starships and the rest of the fleet can come and clean the planet. At least on thing not so bad.
14:28:28Ice followup on the deepest RingV world (with core HBomber fabrocator). Forget about the good thing. Time to blow up a pair of DNodes. Nuclear option is slowly raising in the list of conceivable options.
14:29:25A lightning warhead was emergency-built but couldn't save the HBomber fabricator. It couldn't even make a serious dent in Ice's army. 80 HRFighters spawned but didn't lighten the night.
14:31:23RingIV's target of Ice didn't stand a chance. The two DNodes' metal is already swallowed by my fleet's rebuilding and the high-end starships aren't out yet.
I realize I'm really not tailored for high AIP games. Next time, I'll do it my way.
14:32:15Oh, turrets on RingIV disbanded the wave! The OCStation was first to fall, but even without the military bonus, they managed to tear through the MkII/III army. Impressive. I think it's because this planet is much closer to its hostile wormhole; tractors and lightning did wonders.
But now the army on RingVI is climbing back to RingV. The economic OCStation on the middle won't last long. My fleet is gathering on RingIII, originally preparing for RingIV.
Oh, and just to achieve pissing me off: RingI is already reinforced and a part of this reinforcement turned to threat as my fleet was exiting this theater. All that for nothing.
