Settings :
10/10(hybrids/4) random revealed, scizo(neinzull viral /alarmist)
80 crosshatch
marauders
resistance fighters
traders
rebellions(3)
fallenspire
spirecraft(hard)
all at 4 apart from rebellions.
selfimposed rules : i must defend every planet i get to the last. No retreat, must do my utmost to keep them all going at all times.
This is 3rd attempt. First one i got knocked out by spire hammer in 8mins or so. Should really remember to check the ai types and prepare accordingly. Second... had dark spire on and it genereated 45000 threat in first hour. Once those things got going they just spawned ships nonstop at least couple of versions back.
I decided to pick one of the new bonus ship types, and went with zenith medical frigates. Unfortunatenly that means that my homeworld is one hop away from middle of the map. Well at least i get everywhere easily.
Plan is simple : Build fortress, docks, and some turrets on every planet and get a neinzull of some type as soon as possible. Unlocking harvester MK IIs and zenith medic mk II.
Brief scouting reveals 2 nebulae in first ring around my homeworld and 2 in next ring. Also 2ARS in second ring. 21/80 planets scouted in first 3 minutes. Maybe this in middle of cross thingie wasn't such a bad idea.
Champion immediately goes to work on nebulas while i build up my defenses in HW. First 2 nebulaes cleared in around 40mins , notable rewards : 15 dyson gatlings and neinzull modular fortress. 2 ARS's scouted, one has Spire Railcluster(new ship and pretty nice , one of the AIs has autobombs and acid sprayers, both close combat) and the other has grenade launcher/doomshroom/armor rotter. Change of plans, not going to unlock fortresses, instead going to unlock mk 2 missile turrets and mk2 basics.
Fleet of nebulachips/dysons/zenith medics/leech&riot SS go to hack & capture some doomshrooms while champion clears out the next 2 nebulaes. The fleet ravages things pretty badly. Medics keep stuff from dying pretty easily and dysons just mow stuff down. Hack ends without issues and i'm up 1 planet and some doomshroom. Champion still tied in nebulas, i build up some defenses and send the fleet to take down the railcluster ARS.
And face viral swarms. Oh 100 of these things ,no worries , they die in seconds. Only they don't, after seconds there are ~500 of them. Pause. Oh these things have 60x hp of what they used to have and still replicate with every hit or so, uhoh, i'm never going to take these down. I retreat and soon the swarm is assaulting my HW which is only saved my home FF's gravity effect. In hindsight i should've just scrapped my medics as they were only unit not immune to fusion cutters.
After capturing the second ARS fleet goes around DC hunting /clearing paths while champion does the same on its own and clears some nebulaes. Scouting reveals group of 3 connected planets with 2ARS and 1 advanced factory. And another group with 3 nebulae and 3 DC. Fleet goes to prepare the former to capture while champion begins to work in other cluster.
Game is progressin way faster than any of my previous 10/10 games. I have 2 pretty good fleets which have 0 expenses after initial building of nebulaes ships and 8 starships. Sure repairing might cost some but... its pretty neglible, they don't even take that much damage. Also because i have no need to refleet offensively or unlock anything there i have plenty of K and resources for defenses. At 20 something AIP the Neinzull fortress with MK II misiles/shields is able to pretty much hold the home CMD alone with 30ish turrents to help. Leaves lots of turrets and fleetships to help my 2 other planets.
Champ dies and goes off to fight threat it released couple of times but that doesn't really matter. Fleet faces bit bigger problems... Neutering 2nd planet in group goes well untill i wake up the parasite eye. BAM 4 seconds later i lose 2 marks of zenith medics. Uhoh , and what do i see here, freaking huge streams of special forces coming in... combined with the AI's new very powerful medic frigates i stand no chance and have to run away.
I come back with champion + fleet and clear & capture those 3 systems. A & B shields cleared , adv factory (no MK IIIs) space tank and space goats acquired. I need more defenses , unlocking missile turret mk III and military cmd II. Also unlocking Harvester Exo shields , defense on every planet is focused on command station, harvesters get destroyed so often that these are absolutely neccessary. Resources capping every now and then and i build some spirecraft. Space tanks i havent really built at all, havent had any need for any kind of bombers.
~3hours in at 6 planets, 2 modular fortress (one HW, one advanced factory) and my nebulae etc fleet has grown to 90 ships. 40 of them dyson gatlings. First CPA just gets announced , 2500ish ships . Well that is more than all the cpas combined in my last 2 games. I park my nebula fleet on advanced factory, it will defend it and 2 surrounding planets while rest of the fleet is split between remaining 3 planets. Champion is tied in nebula for the start of CPA and i also have around 1k threat hanging around, which is sitting on pretty tricky mk IV planet next to my factory. I lose 2 planets, one due to inattention (the 1k threat took out a planet next to my factory) and one because of overwhelming power. Around 2k ships continue to my homeworld and i need some major defenses fast... so i scrap my champion. Godlike defense in few seconds. I don't think this should really be an option. Champion , mod fortress + shrooms make short work of 2k ships.
Next to capture last 3 planets for CSG s . 2 of my chosen targets are next to coreworlds, one has maw fab and another spire archive. I don't give crap about putting coreworlds on alert at this point, i'm ready for endgame and aip has been low all game. And power of my fleet is pretty awesome.
I jumpship champion to the last nebula which is in coreworld. After clearing the nebula the champion goes to clear some neinzull clusters in the coreworld... and then do same in homeworld + clears out the mass drivers. It clears 4 womrholes of stuff and clusters and mass driver. And the current build happened to be neinzull cruiser without any shields. Better ship could've probably neutered whole planet by itself, this one maybe could've as well if i had microed properly, it gets pretty huge regen from guardians. vampirism + 5x modifier versus medium armor tends to do that. It eventually dies but that was really just lack of skill/attention. HW had eye/cpa post, cpa is 1000 ships which sounds pretty tame.
Clearing & capturing last 3 systems goes pretty well, apart from releasing one one emp guardian with champion. But didn't really matter as champion spawns immediately so it got to intercept the threat by itself. First exo wave gets announced somewhere around here.
At around 4:20ish i notice raid engine warning. At 5seconds remaining. What the .... I haven't even left my planets in last few minutes. I believe AI bought OS raid engine at border world. Well anyways, it ticks out and i get kicked in the nuts 20-40seconds later, lose my planet and maw fab. I scave scum couple of times trying to figure out a way to save a planet in 20 seconds with no possible outside reinforcements. Take couple of takes but then i build 3 docks and unlock doomshroom mk III s. with 3 docks and 7 engineers doomshrooms turn 15second rout to 2minute victory. And about 70ships reclaimed.
After this i'm ready for final asault. Extremely confident that this will be easy, 2cpa/1cpa-eye , HWs, extremely low AIP, etc.
Screenshot on HW defenses at the beginning of the end. Now i know that this is pretty damn early to begin final assault and i have ridiculously low aip(partly due to extra DC's from alarmist and me leaving alarm posts alive on my planets, doesn't really matter if AI gets some extra warp gates if i'm defending everywhere anyway.) but those are still pretty damn lousy defenses. 217 fleetships. This ai had neinzull ship types, not sure if that affects the amount but jeesh, that is 2 caps worth of triangle ships.
