Double Doom

[Astilious]

So, I was victorious with the Exodian Blade, but I think this time I need to ramp things up. I'm going to give difficulty 10 another shot. I haven't won difficulty 10 before, so no promises of eventual victory on this one. And you can expect mistakes. Many, many mistakes. Anyway, on to the settings:

Expansions: All
AI 1: Diff 10 Everything
AI 2: Diff 10 The Core
Map: Tree
Planets: 80
Seed: 350264068
Ships: Complex/Everything
Minor Factions:
    Zenith Trader
    Zenith Dyson Sphere 4/10
    Broken Golems Hard 4/10
    Botnet Golem Hard 4/10
    Spirecraft Hard 4/10
    Nomad Planets 4/10
Modifiers:
    Reveal Random AI Types (there weren't any, but this is on...).
Plots
    None. I think the above will be quite sufficient.
Ship: Protector Starship
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeuESeiYl42tRH2Ym-ZlAkBzpeiigkYGf

I start off pretty normally, including my usual laziness about unlocking the first few techs. I build up my fleet and throw down turrets. There are two adjacent planets, one of which leads to a dead end (Kagea). Kagea has a CSG-E, the other, Oorha, has a Co-processor. One of the two planets off Oorha, Akiyunmurder, has a raid engine. A raid engine. Over the only way off my HW. Great.

The AI starts things off with 31 mk II-III bombards, followed closely by 65 mk 5 bombers. I'm immediately concerned about the bombards, but balling up my fleet and then charging deals with them nicely. The bombers come in with a spire starship, making them much more deadly. After they reach my main defence I realise I'd forgotten to build additional FFs. Obviously I lose moments later.

Savescum to an autosave just before the bombards. This time I send everything I have to meet the bombards immediately. This is a mistake - there aren't enough of them so they all just die. After a while I remember to put down some new FFs, but its already too late. Two losses to my own stupidity. Third try I actually put the FFs down early, try to ball up my fleet, and even eventually remember to unlock mk II and III mil command stations. The AI also sends frigates rather than bombers in the second wave. With my defences set up properly the attack isn't a problem. Uh... I slept poorly last night?

That embarasing start behind me I proceed to look for more methods of losing the game. I clear Kagea quickly, then move on to the raid engine. I have assualt transports dump my entire fleet right on top of it. Problem solved. However I also discover that the co-processor's supply block causes my transports to attrition every time they enter Oorha. Ouch. Largely due to this the transports don't have the HP to get the fleet out, and they die to pursuing EMP Guardians.

Also the special forces. Everything special forces is horrible. They have tackle drones. They have blade spawners. They have gravity drains. They will kill you. These guys are constantly delaying me as I try to avoid them. They also make sure I'm punished every time I lose a transport with ships in it. They are so nasty that I'd say Special Forces Captain/Everything would be one of the most brutal combinations the game has on offer. I guess that's something to try if I'm feeling masochistic one day.

The EMP gaurdians are now my no. 1 priority. Fortunately they don't go for me immediately, instead sitting with a threat ball. I rebuild and attack, popping in and out with my tranports, drawing the EMPs out from under the shield drones and eventually killing them. I then start working on the main threat ball. Before I finish they join an AI wave on attack, letting me kill them quickly.

Scouting out farther the only object of interest (aside from spirecraft asteroids) is an ARS 2 hops out from Oorha. Unfortunately between me and it is Jodemic, a mk IV planet with radar II, translocation command station, sentry eye and spire shields over the wormholes. I set to work, killing the non spire shield guard posts first. In doing so I attract 3 more EMP guardians. Is it just me, or are those way more common on diff 10? I also lose a ton of ships and get a reprisal wave of 1,261 neinzul railpods, which will come in 20s after 164 mk V bombers. And my fleet is pretty much dead. This is going to be interesting.

I take out the bombers OK, but they come in with a mk IV zenith starship, which stubbornly won't die. This isn't helped when the railpods come through and snipe all my turrents shockingly quickly. At last the EMPs come through, and with the zenith starship still by my command station it's game over. Savescum and give it another go, this time prioritising getting some scout starship out to block those railpods. I use my tattered fleet to delay the EMPs and threat while my turrets take out the zenith starship, neinzul and bombers. The EMP still come through, and my command station is exposed. The mill command foldouts translocate the threat fleet away, but the EMPs are immune and batter the command station. It looks like they have time to kill it, but some engineers come online early (not sure why...) and are able to build a new FF to save it. A narrow victory.

I move back to Jodemic and start work on the spire shields. First I try blocking the translocator shots with a scout starship and anti shell protector starships, but apparently they don't count as either. I then try to take one of the shields from out of range, but that proves agonisingly slow. After a number of attacks the spire shield is only down to 50%. And that one isn't even in range of the translocator command! The other one, which blocks the way to the ARS, is well in range. I realise my efforts are futile, so decide to come back when I have a bit more power.

Akiyunmurder, in the other system, should be much easier. I just hope I find something useful behind it... Overall this has been a rocky start, both due to my own mistakes and what is honestly a pretty bad starting position. Hopefully I'll make more progress next week.

Time: 1:30
AIP: 18

[Draco18s]

How many total planets?

[Astilious]

Ah, forgot that. I'll edit the original post.

[Astilious]

This week I started by continuing my assualt on Akiyunmurder. This planet has a Spire Shield and fortress, so I deploy the fleet to kill the spire shield. Special forces show up and everyone dies (tackle drones). That's not going to work - I can't have my whole fleet die every time the special forces shows up. I throw down some matter converters to use the scrap from the huge AI waves to build a fleet of starships. This proves enough to clear out Akiyunmurder, however during that time the first CPA announces at 6,826 ships.

From my past experience I don't expect this to be too much of a problem, but I'm not used to difficulty 10 everything AI CPA. The actual release is 300 mk V, 1.5k mk IV, 2k mk 3 and 3k mk II. Threat goes up to 160k strength. I'm still reasonably confident warheads will see me through, and have 6 mk I lightnings ready. However as the AI ships come in the situation gradually devolves. Carrier after carrier comes in with 2-300 ships, and despite my best efforts, and doing maximum damage with my warheads, there is still 90k threat when I run out. Worse, a huge swarm of bombards and sentinals has accumulated outside of turret range and is slowly working down my shields. Eventually I succumb to the inevitable. I give it a savescum and try again, but despite varying up my strategy I don't get much better in terms of remaining threat.

Well, that's an honest loss. Usually the AI either snipes something critical or overwhelms shields in moments without even bothering to fight the turrets - both of which feel a little cheap. That wasn't the case here. I was able to throw everything I had at defending against the AI, but it simply wasn't enough. The sheer number and variety of AI ships was more than I could handle. The Everything AI is just good at everything, which makes it a brutal opponent and apparently more than I can handle. Perhaps one day I'll give it another go, but for now I'm going to switch it for something milder and give diff 10 another shot.

Oh, and another map. That map setup was horrible.

[Astilious]

Alright, a new difficulty 10 campaign. Only two differences to the last one: new map, and the Everything AI is replaced with a Mime AI. Let's hope neigther AI unlocks tackle drone launchers.

Expansions: All
AI 1: Diff 10 Mime
AI 2: Diff 10 The Core
Map: Tree
Planets: 80
Seed: 1552644394
Ships: Complex/Everything
Minor Factions:
    Zenith Trader
    Zenith Dyson Sphere 4/10
    Broken Golems Hard 4/10
    Botnet Golem Hard 4/10
    Spirecraft Hard 4/10
    Nomad Planets 4/10
Modifiers:
    Reveal Random AI Types (there weren't any, but this is on...).
Plots
    None.
Ship: Protector Starship
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeuESeiYl42vnC8klHY7tgam6V9kdtUwg

I begin by building my defences and scouting. The start is much better - firstly the initial few waves give me no trouble, and secondly there are actualy useful things to take within scouting range. There is a gravity drill adjacent to my HW on Gesro, but at least it's not a raid engine.

So, there's a starship constructor on Wizi (3 hops), a hive golem on Roquoritus (3 hops, past the gravity drill), co-processor on Rinla (2 hops) and a laser turret V controller on Heroadul (3 hops, past the gravity drill). I decide to go for the hive golem, as I think that will help the most when the CPA comes in. The gravity drill has to go, it's in too much of a choke point. I clear Gesro and pop it, taking some early AIP I really didn't need. The trader passed by so I started work on a ZPG. My HW is at a major intersection, so I expect the trader will be back soon and don't worry about pre purchasing everything I'll need.

I manage to get some scouts onto Nomad 1. I don't know the nomad mechanics, but I've heard something about controlling their movement and crashing into AI planets or something? Regardless the controller is here, so that's something to keep in mind. There's also a spire archive, a data centre, 3 adamantine and 4 ebonite. I want that planet.

I clear my way to Roquoritus and begin my assualt. The planet is far enough out my assualt transports are low, but I slowly work it down. With no tackle drone launchers around I'm able to actually deploy my fleet, which makes the whole process much less painful.

I also notice a bug. Assault transports have a number of attacks proportional to the MAXIMUM number of ships that have EVER been in them. This is reset when you load a save. I'm attempting to ignore this discovery and behave as though assualt transports function as intended.

That's it for now. A bit short, but I did end up doing a mid week post due to my reset.

[Astilious]

Ok, so when we left off I was working my way toward taking Roquoritus with its hive golem. It's a mark III "The Core" planet with a fortress next to a laser post and 2 missile posts, in addition to being a fair way out of transport range, so it's a bit of a project. Also a barracks with 444 mk V ships. I slowly grind it down, continuing to scout as the opportunity arrives. There's a hive golem and youngling firefly hab next to Roquoritus on Mato, an armoured golem 3 hops from the HW on Bingosqu. data centre and teleporting leech V fab 3 hops out on Mimirex, ZPG 3 hops out on Citootha and needler turret V controller 7 hops out on Ervo (scouted via nomad planets). I also scout the remaining nomad planets, but only nomad 1 really has anything useful on it.

Generally things go smoothly, until a The Core wave comes in with a mk IV spire starship. Of course I don't notice until I jump onto my HW and go "Hey, my sheilds are way more damaged than that fighter wave should have managed!" It's too late to do anything, so I lose and savescum. This time they only get a mk V leech starship, and the wave is as ignorable as I expected.

I finish clearing Roquoritus, using a lighting I warhead to deal with the barracks. My ZPG also finishes up as I take the planet. It's 1:40, so the CPA should come in soon. Hopefully this time I'm better equiped to deal with it. I build up Roquoritus and clear out neighbouring Mato (regen golem). However during this process a couple of new waves announce, one of which is 775 mk V fighters (2 mk V starships) to Roquoritus. That's alot of mk V ships, and proves to be a problem. I move everything back, but despite my best efforts both command station and hive golem go down.

The planet past Mato, Wohagarran, has a DC and artilliary golem (+ dire gaurdian lair). I pop the DC ASAP this time to reduce the wave size this time, and get 289 mk 5 "cloaked ships". Doesn't sound too bad right? Well it was eye bots, which bee lined the hive golem and popped it under the 3 FF before I could do anything. Sigh. Reload. I decide to move my CC right on top of the hive golem this time, but an AI bomber starship comes in and snipes it during the rebuild timer. Reload. This time I put down FFs before moving the CC, but the wave comes in super early, so that my defences aren't completed when it fires. This time the wave is 569 mk V fighters, but somehow I manage to keep things under control, and take them out. The other part of this wave was 1.5k missile frigates, I'm guessing the AI was punishing me for only giving it one attack route for so long.

Nomad 1 comes by, so I pop its DC, bringing AIP down to 20. Slowly I bring the golem online, while working on Mato and Wohagarran. At last the CPA announces at 6.8k. I prepare by sitting the golem on my HW and clearing the remaining adjacent planets with my fleet. The CPA comes in at... all mk II? Are you kidding me?! That's just too easy! A mere 50k FP, compared to the 160k I got last time. I simply unleash the hive golem when a few thousand AI ships arrive and the problem is solved. I move off to try to save Roquoritus as well, but that proves premature as another small but non trivial group of ship comes in, forcing me to use a warhead.

Well, first CPA down, and in general things are going super smooth compared to last time. I may have a chance at a win (if a savescummy one) this time.

[Astilious]

All is not sunshine and rainbows this time though, as the Mime AI finally shows off its cheese. Its reprisal wave comes in the form of 2520 ships, which are mostly hive golem wasps! The description did warn me about how Mime combines with golems, but I didn't see THAT coming. Fortunately they attack Roquoritus, which goes down swiftly. Unfortunately 1.5k of them stay in carriers, and are therefore able to travel through wormholes. Fortunately they decide to hang around my homeworld as threat, so I just send in my transports to poke them until they deploy. Once out of the carriers the wasps can be left to attrition in peace. Still, I'm not sure if it would even be possible to survive a reprisal wave of wasps that directly attacked my HW...

With the hack done I go ahead and secure Nomad 1, netting spire archive, 3 adamantine and 4 ebonite along with the nomad beacon. The following journal entry tells me that the nomad beacon is actually a golem and will be able to move when I activate it. However the AI will also go crazy if I take it off a nomad planet, and said nomad planets will attempt to hit and blow up whatever planet it's on. Still, I wonder if it'll be worth activating just as a defender for Nomad 1. I've no idea if it even has any guns, but if it does that would certainly be helpful.

While I fortify Nomad 1 I leave my hive golem there to handle attacks. I also start work on some spirecraft penetrators - hopefully a counter to AI golems and HK later on. While all this was happening Nomad 1 connected to an unexplored chunk of AI space. I send in my scouts and spot a few useful things, including an ARS and some fabs. However they wont be relevant for a while. What does matter is a DC a few hops out on Durneilik. I send the transports immediately, but they arrive to find it under a FF and fortress. Probably should have checked for that before coming. The transports pull out for a while, but only until I can bring up the hive golem with a load of wasps. They easily clear out the FF, and my transports follow up by taking out the DC.

In the mean time my fleet heads out to clear out Wohagarran (bar the dire gaurdian lair) in preparation for taking it later on. I'll need that ZPG if I'm going to power the nomad beacon. Metal is a problem, and not one I'm used to having in AI War, so I don't bother to take the planets. They wont serve any purpose until I have the metal to bring the golems online and I don't need the continuous eye bot/infiltrator waves to be any LARGER.

The hive golem has filled up quite a bit, so I decide to deploy it on a recently nomad connected planet with a lot of ships. I have my transports pop the tacyon so I can get in without taking damage on the golem, then deploy a few hundred wasps. I'm shocked to find they lose and a swarm of mk V gaurdians and starships pour out and wreck nomad 1 (including the archive). Savescum. This time I take a better look at the planet. Oh. That's a core world. That explains it. I still pop the tacyon gaurdian so I can get scouts through to peek at the AI homeworld. Tethusula post, 2 forts, 2 gravity posts, arachnid post... doesn't look fun, especially with those gravity posts.

Some quick counting indicates the other AI homeworld is far off at the end of a particularly long chain on the other end of the map. Behind a gravity drill and raid engine, of course (for obvious reasons I'm not sure what comes after that). I continue scouting, so that I can locate the ARS and plan my mid game. While I'm doing this I clear some threat, leaving the golem to protect Nomad 1. However, while I'm doing this a wave does actually come in and I forget to actually unload the Hive Golem immediately. By the time I look the spirecraft penetrator constructors are gone. Savescum.

This time the wave on Nomad 1 doesn't even spawn, so I proceed as normal. However a wave does attack my homeworld with 2 mk IV zenith ss, 2 mk IV plasma seige starships, some bomber starships, flagships and leech starhips. Apparently I haven't been clearing my threat enough. There's nothing I can do to stop the plasma's fast enough, so savescum.

Not a great end to the set (this AAR goes up to video 17), but as I said, I haven't beaten diff 10 before. I expected many, many savescums.

[Toranth]

Good job surviving your first Mimic evil - but remember, it can always get worse.  Losing golems can be VERY bad, and you may come to regret turning the Dyson Sphere on...  Still, at least you don't have Imperial Spire or the Exodian Blade to risk losing.

[Astilious]

I'm too worried about not having resources later on to let a Golem die and not savescum, so that likely won't come up. The Dyson Sphere though... that's a concern.

[Astilious]

Well, I'm back about 25m due to the last loss, so I try to clear threat this time. I didn't mention it, but last time shifting Nomad links left my Hive Golem somewhat stranded. This time I wait as long as possible, which proves wise as a wave of eye bots come in, then leave with 4 of 6 spirecraft penetrators. Unforunately after I'm gone the AI decides the threat I haven't dealt with would be best used on Nomad 1. 3 mk V powerslavers, a spire starship and a flagship go right for the nomad beacon, which is currently out of range of my main defences (which were set up with the spire archives in mind). I can't get any ships there to support, so savescum.

This attempt I unlock mk II needler, laser, mrls and later missile turrets, along with mk I HBC. 6 HBC go on HW, 6 on Nomad 1. I also begin moving the CS defences accross to the nomad beacon. In the mean time I clear threat.

A CPA announces at no less than 13,438 ships. I prep my defences and brace for the onslaught. 5 mk I (yes, just 5), 4.7k mk II, 5.1k mk III, 3.6k mk IV at 121k FP. Still less FP than the CPA that killed me in the last campaign. Everything AI = brutal. The CPA comes in focussed on my HW, though a few thousand ships attack Roquontus (taking it out) and Nomad 1 (where they die to the hive golem). I pop 5 mk 1 warheads on a big group of ships, then try my best to micro against priority target. The fighting lasts almost 20 minutes, but at last the CPA is down. Just in time for the Exo.

The spirecraft penetrators decimate the "big" stuff, but the hundred or so starships come on unimpeded. Including raid starships. Which snipe the ZPG. Savescum. This time I get to work on mk II lightnings before the wave, and unlock mk III turrets to help out. The wave comes in, and things go much as before. It also seems the mark numbers were a lie, as I was attacked by about 4k mk V ships, which I suspect were most of the "4.7k mk II ships", which mostly came from the strategic reserve. I needed a mk II lightning and a mk I lightning to deal with that, but the turrets were able to take the rest. Roquontus still goes down, of course.

Next up is the Exo. Not 1, not 2, but 3 black widow golems! 2 hit Nomad 1. The first is mostly killed by the spire penetrators there, but the second is more trouble, getting the hive golem down to 37% before I bring it down. That's going to be expensive... luckily I'm rolling in salvage right now. The last black widow comes in on HW, where my other 4 spire penetrators snipe it. The rest of the starships are managed by turrets or wasps, depending on which planet they hit. All that done I rebuild Roquontus and plan to take the regen and arty golems with my piles of money.

I start out by knocking out Wohagarran's dire gaurdian lair, tanking the dire gaurdians on Roquontus. Then I take Wohagarran, skipping Mato for the time being as I want that ZPG. I move Roquontus defences to block the Mato WH and take out Mato's warp gate. A nice layered defence is in place, which should make holding the area a little easier. The AI has definitely noticed the higher AIP though, a wave coming in at 1.3k fighters. Fortunately that's not a problem for my mk III turret defences.

Things are looking OK, but a double spirecraft/golem exo is coming up. Hopefully it's no worse than the last exo plus CPA.

[Astilious]

Take your bets! How many times will I savescum on the double exo?

Nomad 1 is rolling back in to my space by now, so I have the hive golem clear a couple of nearby planets. This gets my scouts far enough to spot another ARS on Hexi, 4 hops out from the HW on the same branch as the armoured golem. I also find a sniper turret V controller and the eye bot backup 4 hops out on Etcaqa. The artillery golem finishes repair, so I take Mato. Instead of working on its regen golem, I start on the nomad beacon in the hopes it will help with my Nomad 1 defences when it's complete.

However, my focus is on the Exos. They come in with 50k strength, but new groups just keep spawning after that. I'm completely overwhelmed on HW. Savescum 1. That was way worse than I expected it to be, based on the first exo and CPA. Second attempt I make sure to bring my newly completed artillery golem over to help out. A cursed golem spawns and solo kills me from the edge of the map before the artillery golem can bring it down. Savescum 2. This time I bring EVERYTHING to homeworld, even though it leaves my other planets exposed. The AI apparently notices this and sends some of the exo to take out Wohagarran's ZPG. It hardly matters, as 2 arty golems spawn and snipe my home command anyway. Savescum 3.

At this point I'm feeling like the only way to get through this would be to roll super lucky with the AI golem spawns, which would feel cheap. I need a better strategy. I unlock mk IV turrets and grav IIs. There isn't enough time to get them all done, but I do get turrets done in time on HW and Roquontus. The AI manages to barge through with some raids and end this attempt early. Savescum 4. Next attempt I try the same thing, but the AI notices Nomad 1 is a little weaker and takes it out instead. Savescum 5. I leave the fleet on Nomad 1 to discourage the AI, so it just crushes the defences on both HW and Roquontus. Savescum 6.

At this point I'm getting desperate, so I apply the only other strategy I know: Use more warheads. The idea is that I should be able to take out all the fleet ships and small starships with warheads so that the turrets only need to DPS down the big stuff. The careful application of 5 AIP of warheads does just this, while the spire penetrators maul a HK IV to <25% hp (why are those immune to artillery golems?!). The turrets are then JUST able to pop everything before they reach the home CC, though that HK still got alarmingly close.

With that done I consider my next step. As far as I'm aware Exo waves do not scale with AIP, and currently Exos > AIP in terms of threat. So I need to grab golems. I move on the armoured golem on Bingosqu. The planet is already cleared, bar a fortress, ion cannons and orbital mass driver. I make a brief bid to keep the OMD by using only fleet ships, but that ends when the special forces show up. I pop the OMD and kill the special forces with the hive golem and fortress with the artillery golem. The golems then head out to secure Hexi's ARS with wasps, which proves no challenge. I take it (spire rams) and clear the adjacent planets. The regen golem is completed, so I get the armoured golem underway. Also, the AI unlocks blade spawners. Damn.

One of those adjacent planets has a protector starship V fab, which I decide to hack. The first attempt the AI tachyon bombs and kill the hacker, so I savescum and do it again, this time putting down a grav turret and FF to prevent such a loss. During the hack the AI announces another CPA at 19k ships. There really isn't much breathing room on diff 10.

[Toranth]

Warheads are the solution to all of life's problems.

With that done I consider my next step. As far as I'm aware Exo waves do not scale with AIP, and currently Exos > AIP in terms of threat.

If I remember correctly, the strength of the Exowave is determined by game time, but they come more often at higher AIP.
There are some older notes about how they work, but I think there're mostly accurate.

One of those adjacent planets has a protector starship V fab, which I decide to hack.

Protector Vs?  A lucky Fab for you, especially with your chosen starter.  I love getting these.  A full set, properly equipped, can almost shut down an H/K.

There really isn't much breathing room on diff 10.

Nope.  That, there isn't - at least, until you survive the first 8-10 hours or so.  At that point, unless the AIP is too high, the CPAs have used up almost all the available fleetships.  You get the Reserve portion, and that's it.
Of course, you turned on Exowaves, so you're stuck with them forever, so, yeah.  No rest for you.

[Astilious]

Protector Vs?  A lucky Fab for you, especially with your chosen starter.  I love getting these.  A full set, properly equipped, can almost shut down an H/K.

I'm planning on building up my protector starships a bit more soon. I think I've gotten so focussed on the golems I haven't been taking full advantage of them.

Nope.  That, there isn't - at least, until you survive the first 8-10 hours or so.  At that point, unless the AIP is too high, the CPAs have used up almost all the available fleetships.  You get the Reserve portion, and that's it.
Of course, you turned on Exowaves, so you're stuck with them forever, so, yeah.  No rest for you.

I was wondering if that still happened eventually. Weaker CPA would help at least.