===Operation Midgame====
Things go ridiculously smoothly for a while.
I get rid of the five warp gates around home, channeling all waves to the chokepoint.
Then I conquer the rest of the P4 planets, getting me:
A StarIV constructor.
MLRS and Needler turret contoller.
3 ARSs: Hydra, Saboteur, and devastator
Fabricators for core protector starship, exp engies, armor boostV, nanoswarmV, and polarizerV
Dyson coverage
Lots of K (including a double archive).
AIP 310.
HaP ~400.
I spend the hacking on fabricator hacks for laser gatlings, scapegoats, and core saboteurs, a sabotage to get rid of a black hole machine, and 9500 K.
I did lose the needler turret controller in a 3000-ship cpa, but other than that the AI might as well have been asleep.
All 8 accessible nebulae complete.
Unlocks going into the end:
Starships:
flag, zenith, spire, leech, siege, bomber, enclave, and riot starships at mkIII-IV.
Fleetships:
Shield bearers, bombers, saboteurs, teleraids and zombards up to mkIII-IV.
Gravity turret IIIs, fortressIs and forcefield IIs/ hardened ffs I are my only defensive unlocks: the rest is taken care of by the fleet, 6 mod forts, and the 5 varieties of core turrets.
Colony rebellion declared on [world with 15 freaking marks of H/Ks]. Of course. Alright, that's a pretty definite time limit.
A look at the AI homeworlds:
The northern one has a pinwheel, shredder post, and CPA post.
The southern one has a CRE, a CPA, and a shredder.
So I should clearly take out the north CPA, then the rest of the north, then kill the south all at once. I stomp the northern core world, repair, and send in the teleraids to kill the OMD, and the champs to take out the post proper.
The last normal CPA had 3000 ships, so I assume it will be around that number.
When I trigger the post, I got this:
27,000 ships massing for a CPA in 10 seconds
WHAT!?!
===Operation We Have A Problem====
Fortunately, there are only 8,200 ships in the galaxy. Once it adds its strategic reserve, I'm only facing 10,000 ultra-low cap ships.
Of course, they don't all come politely to my chokepoint. Oh, and the mini-exo from killing the cpa post had an H/K. That combined with ~600 ships took out one of my spoke worlds. And that's when I remember: I have shark on.
The shark wave targeted my farthest hub, with a ZPG. I rush the champion fleet over to stomp it, and succeed, but now the hammers from the AI homeworlds (~2000 each) hit my planets between the choke and the AI homes. My normal fleet is busy defending the actual choke from the ~4000 ships headed there.
I lose the two outlyling planets, and then things really start going wrong.
Though the choke is holding against the staggered waves, most of my fleet is pinned there.
Two shark-waves attack my home (bringing another H/K) and the hub between home and the choke. I defend home (barely), but the other wave (which has another H/K) knocks out it's hub, triggering a brownout and another shark attack, and moves on toward home, joined by about 1000 ships that had been hanging out in small groups.
Experimental engineers quickly sort out the energy problem, but a new sharkwave targets home. At least it didn't bring an H/K. It brought an artillery golem instead.
I recall the fleet from the choke back home, and repel the attacks, taking many casualties.
2500-ship WAVE??
Heavily damaged fleet goes back onto the heavily damaged chokepoint.
Wave repelled, crisis over.
I lost my advanced starship constructor, and my nanoswarm and polarizer fabs. I also came really, really close to dying.
Rebuilt by 9:50, time to finish off the first homeworld.
===Operation Seige of the North====
Ah, teleport raiders. Just the right mix of expendable, fast, and expendable. They quickly wear down the unshielded core posts, with the rest of the fleet easily mopping up the mini-exos.
The north HW is now down to two core posts under glass, and of course the double ff/fortIII arrangement around the home station. I send in the entire base game fleet, leaving the champs and minions to repel the exos.
I take some casualties, but nothing terrible, and now the first AI home station is exposed. I rebuild, repel a wave (starting to get expensive), and now I only have half an hour until the rebel colony declares right next to fifteen marks of H/K. Real smart, guys.
===Operation Out of Time====
I don't have the time for another extended siege. So I do it the fun way. A whole bunch of warheads, the Neinzul enclave fleet, and the gravity network will defend home, and I'll just take the entire fleet to smash through the south core world, and onto the south HW. This will trigger a core wave and another super-cpa, but I should be able to kill the home station before they kill mine.
First, teleraids up to pop the north station. Oh, hello, avenger. Too bad you're too slow to make a difference.
Time to go:
Loaded every transportable ship into transports, then just group-moved to the south HW.
A bunch of them popped on the core world, and one of the champs died, but most got through.
The fortresses (mkIII, mkII, super) begin to shred the fleet, along with the twenty frigates, and of course the core posts and strategic reserve.
But it isn't enough. The remaining champion and minions destroy the far posts, while everything else is just swarmed. My planets are falling, but the gravity network is keeping the invading 5000 or so ships off my homeworld. One of the mini-exos gets there, but the neinzuls/warheads champion kills it before it does anything.
Victory at 10:46.
