Following in the Footsteps of the Fallen.

[Volatar]

So, A couple weeks ago I began my first game of AI War in months. I decided to give the Fallen Spire campaign a try for the first time.

And man, is it fun. This is a very, very different way to play the game, and the Spire fleet ships are nothing short of awesome.

80 planet. X map. Normal unit selection. 1 AIP per 30 minutes.

Human Resistance Fighters, Traders, Broken Golems Easy, Spirecraft Easy, Fallen Spire. Core Shield Generators.

No plots. Epic speed. Normal caps. All expansions enabled.

AI's are 7/6, random easier and landed on Vanilla/Support Corps.


I put myself in a corner at start and felt like I was expanding quickly. Then I realized that it was 15 hours in an I probably wasn't nearly where others would be. I play rather slowly. 

Current status is below.



I have a Hive Golem and Missile Frigate V fab at my disposal, as well as enough resources to be pumping out mercenaries at a reasonable rate. My bonus shiptype at the beginning was Zenith Beam frigates, because I love those things.  I got Shield Bearers out of my first ARS.

Raexu has an ARS that I am itching to hack soon, as well as an Artillery Golem. Swode has a Data Center, Botnet Golem, Spider V fab, and Advanced Factory. Choosing which to take first is a really hard decision.

My first spire city resides in Yaqde, which made sense at the time, but now prevents me from placing my second city (which I have the colony ship for at this point) anywhere in my current sphere of influence. So, I must expand again. Too bad too, because Noda has served me well as a gauntlet. Nothing has gotten through for hours, and for good reason:



(Disclaimer: The Ion mk III and IV are not built, just bought, and Radar jammer is currently under construction. Everything else is in working condition)

There is so much in defenses sitting there I suspect that the entire current AI fleet could walk in and fail to break through. All the Exo Waves have failed to make it beyond the mouth of the wormhole.

[keith.lamothe]

So, A couple weeks ago I began my first game of AI War in months. I decided to give the Fallen Spire campaign a try for the first time.

And man, is it fun. This is a very, very different way to play the game

Very glad to hear you're enjoying it   In general I'm very pleased with how the campaign turned out.

and the Spire fleet ships are nothing short of awesome.

Oh yeah, those are my favorites.  I've used a variety of names for their main continuous beam weapons, but perhaps the most appropriate is "The Awesome Cannon"

I put myself in a corner at start and felt like I was expanding quickly. Then I realized that it was 15 hours in an I probably wasn't nearly where others would be. I play rather slowly. 

And 15 hours in game-time!  I know if it were me paused-time would probably double that.

Map looks like AIP is not really a concern to you

I have a Hive Golem and Missile Frigate V fab at my disposal, as well as enough resources to be pumping out mercenaries at a reasonable rate.

Mercenaries?  Reasonable rate? You're not helping the case for not nerfing the new harvesters

Raexu has an ARS that I am itching to hack soon

I imagine hacking can be pushed a lot further in an FS game just because of those capital ships and city defenses: if you can take an exo, you can take a lot of hacking backlash.

My first spire city resides in Yaqde, which made sense at the time, but now prevents me from placing my second city (which I have the colony ship for at this point) anywhere in my current sphere of influence.

Hmm, yea, it probably would have been better to put it in one of the little arms, but even there you wouldn't have been able to put more than 2 into your current territory (planets with only one wormhole are not eligible).

So, I must expand again. Too bad too, because Noda has served me well as a gauntlet. Nothing has gotten through for hours, and for good reason

That is an impressive defense, but no defense cannot be made more impressive by the addition of a Spire City   Just plant it (and the command station) in Murdoch right next to the wormhole leading to Noda, build 1 shard reactor, 1 hab center, and then 4 more shard reactors (you'll need to clear out the 3 neighboring AI planets), then replace all the shard reactors on Yaqde with shipyards.  The reason for putting all the reactors on Murdoch is that they can have defensive modules where shipyards cannot.  A city with 6 module-bearing structures is a tremendous amount of firepower and defense, particularly if you upgrade your forcefield, laser turret, and heavy beam cannon technologies.  The forcefields are particularly nice because they block enemy movement (and access to the wormhole) but also don't apply the 75% attack reduction to stuff they protect.

After that, just rename Noda to "Raid Starship Immigration Processing" and re-equip accordingly

Of course, I don't think a 7/6 game is going to be capable of challenging you much after that, but it depends on how many cities you decide to build, as 5 cities would require either extensive expansion into the lower-right cluster or moderate expansion into 2 or 3, and defending "outlying" cities from exos can be very difficult.

[Volatar]

and the Spire fleet ships are nothing short of awesome.

Oh yeah, those are my favorites.  I've used a variety of names for their main continuous beam weapons, but perhaps the most appropriate is "The Awesome Cannon"

Hehe, no kidding. Combined with Raid starships they are devastating. Raid's hold everything at arms length and the Spire fleet picks them off. Much of my fleet is redundant due to this. 

I put myself in a corner at start and felt like I was expanding quickly. Then I realized that it was 15 hours in an I probably wasn't nearly where others would be. I play rather slowly. 

And 15 hours in game-time!  I know if it were me paused-time would probably double that.

Oh, I pause quite a bit, so add 5 or so hours to that number.

Map looks like AIP is not really a concern to you

Yeah, no kidding. AIP just means that it takes a little longer to clear out systems when my fleet travels.  I ate a 1700 ship CPA a couple hours back and only lost a dozen or so ships.

I have a Hive Golem and Missile Frigate V fab at my disposal, as well as enough resources to be pumping out mercenaries at a reasonable rate.

Mercenaries?  Reasonable rate? You're not helping the case for not nerfing the new harvesters

Well, reasonable to me. I have never been able to afford mercs before. I capped out Merc Fighters quickly but am FAR from capping out the others. I'd estimate I am putting out about two or three merc ships a minute on average.

My first spire city resides in Yaqde, which made sense at the time, but now prevents me from placing my second city (which I have the colony ship for at this point) anywhere in my current sphere of influence.

Hmm, yea, it probably would have been better to put it in one of the little arms, but even there you wouldn't have been able to put more than 2 into your current territory (planets with only one wormhole are not eligible).

Yeah, it made sense at the time though. I had not taken any of the surrounding planets when I put it there, so every wave, every CPA, every Exo came through there.

So, I must expand again. Too bad too, because Noda has served me well as a gauntlet. Nothing has gotten through for hours, and for good reason

That is an impressive defense, but no defense cannot be made more impressive by the addition of a Spire City   Just plant it (and the command station) in Murdoch right next to the wormhole leading to Noda, build 1 shard reactor, 1 hab center, and then 4 more shard reactors (you'll need to clear out the 3 neighboring AI planets), then replace all the shard reactors on Yaqde with shipyards.  The reason for putting all the reactors on Murdoch is that they can have defensive modules where shipyards cannot.  A city with 6 module-bearing structures is a tremendous amount of firepower and defense, particularly if you upgrade your forcefield, laser turret, and heavy beam cannon technologies.  The forcefields are particularly nice because they block enemy movement (and access to the wormhole) but also don't apply the 75% attack reduction to stuff they protect.

Oh, that's a really good tip. Thanks, I'll do that. I already unlocked Laser's II and HBC's II for Spire purposes. I'll probably upgrade those more the next time I get knowledge.

After that, just rename Noda to "Raid Starship Immigration Processing" and re-equip accordingly

I love your sense of humor.

Of course, I don't think a 7/6 game is going to be capable of challenging you much after that, but it depends on how many cities you decide to build, as 5 cities would require either extensive expansion into the lower-right cluster or moderate expansion into 2 or 3, and defending "outlying" cities from exos can be very difficult.

I am not sure where I will go after the second city. I might just locate the second AI HW and go to town. I do have a couple hours of hunting down Core Shield gens first though.

[Volatar]

Good news: The second AI Homeworld has been discovered. Many Bothans brave scout pilots lost their lives to bring us this intel.



Bad news: OH GOD EPIC THREATBALL



This one is going to be a blast (literally) dealing with. 

[Wanderer]

Mixxed MK II/III?  Nice.  Out of curiousity, how did you get them to NOT invade?  That should be big enough to attack, well, anything.

[Volatar]

Mixxed MK II/III?  Nice.  Out of curiousity, how did you get them to NOT invade?  That should be big enough to attack, well, anything.

Well, my fleet is 1700 strong as you can see, and contains a lot of mk III, Merc, and a spattering of mk V ships, as well as a lot of Spirecraft and two Spire shipyards worth of Spire fleet ships. The several hundred turrets and full Hive Golem helped as well. Pretty much everything I have is on that planet.


Well, that went quick. I pulled my fleet back one system to bait an attack. They didn't attack. 

Then I realized that I had left my full Hive Golem on the planet, and the AI was (correctly) assessing it as a major threat. So I pulled that back too. Then they attacked.

2200 ships is a bit much even for my super turret ball and armor inhibitor. My tractors only grab hold of 1500 of the attackers.



Luckily (due to my gravity turrets) they don't get far before my wasps arrive. This is the point where some of the AI decides that it is a good idea to retreat. My fleet doesn't contribute at all in the entire fight. Only turrets and wasps. Only 181 AI ships escape alive.

Total casualties on my side: 60 odd turrets, most of my mines, and 50 wasps. That's it.

Onward we fly!

[keith.lamothe]

Ah, Fallen Spire Threatballs.  You'd think that 2000+ ships would be enough, yea, but when I played it through (with cross-planet-waves, so mega-threat-generation there) I saw 3k and 4k piles stacking up outside my two spire-city-defended chokepoints (I was playing concentric, starting on the outer ring), and they generally would still only come through when a big honkin' exo got the party started. 

And at that point they definitely were capable of defeating a spire city, a bunch of turrets, 50-75% of my fleet ships and starships, and 50-75% of my spire capital fleet and going through the wormhole that the city had been covering while the tattered remains of my forces regrouped for a chase through my (soon to be former) worlds to my homeworld.  The homeworld, that is, where the enemies discovered to the answer to the question "Why haven't we seen any sniper or spider turrets?" among other philosophical stumpers, and my mobile defenses from that arm show up right behind them itching for a rematch.

Those "hammer and anvil" defenses were really quite entertaining, but eventually I found other ways of dealing with them.  Generally it would work fine to send my spire fleet around to attack the threatball's planet from another wormhole and they'd obligingly charge the city planet.  Of course, I really had to chase them down quickly with the capital ships due to their intensity of focus.  Getting caught between two walls of Spire Photon Lances is a special service we provide to our most enthusiastic customers.  One interesting part about that tactic was that withdrawing my (substantial) capital fleet from the system for the go-around did not budge the threatball: the rest of the stuff there was enough to hold them off.

The safest approach I found was to build an EMP (I or II, generally), postion my capital fleet right on the wormhole leading to the threatball, send the EMP through, and follow through with the capital fleet (and potentially some fleetships/starships I could round up) and play turkey-shoot for a minute or so.  It's kind of disgusting to face a group of fleet ships so large that it takes an entire capital fleet a significant period of time to kill them all even when they're all in a big pile and aren't moving or shooting back.  Disgusting, but effective.  Far less risky than waiting for an exo to bring them in, or even than the go-around tactic (which naturally doesn't work if there is only one way in or out of your territory).  The only cost was the AIP, which honestly didn't matter much to me at that stage.

[Eternaly_Lost]

Ah, Fallen Spire Threatballs.  You'd think that 2000+ ships would be enough, yea, but when I played it through (with cross-planet-waves, so mega-threat-generation there) I saw 3k and 4k piles stacking up outside my two spire-city-defended chokepoints (I was playing concentric, starting on the outer ring), and they generally would still only come through when a big honkin' exo got the party started. 

In one games I managed to get 20,000 ship threat balls. Something about 8 cities 4 homeworld worth of a full spire fleet game with 10 Golems left running by mistake overnight can make some rather insane piles. There was more ships waiting to attack then there was in the whole Galaxy. Not even the EXO waves was enough to convince them to come knocking, and breaking though that many ships is not easy. Even my Spire fleet took 4 full cap waves to clean it up.

[Wanderer]

In one games I managed to get 20,000 ship threat balls. Something about 8 cities 4 homeworld worth of a full spire fleet game with 10 Golems left running by mistake overnight can make some rather insane piles. There was more ships waiting to attack then there was in the whole Galaxy. Not even the EXO waves was enough to convince them to come knocking, and breaking though that many ships is not easy. Even my Spire fleet took 4 full cap waves to clean it up.

My gods.  Talk about the need to go to Low/Ultra-Low caps.  Though, left running overnight says pretty much everything. XD

[rchaneberg]

Ah, Fallen Spire Threatballs.  You'd think that 2000+ ships would be enough, yea, but when I played it through (with cross-planet-waves, so mega-threat-generation there) I saw 3k and 4k piles stacking up outside my two spire-city-defended chokepoints (I was playing concentric, starting on the outer ring), and they generally would still only come through when a big honkin' exo got the party started. 

In one games I managed to get 20,000 ship threat balls. Something about 8 cities 4 homeworld worth of a full spire fleet game with 10 Golems left running by mistake overnight can make some rather insane piles. There was more ships waiting to attack then there was in the whole Galaxy. Not even the EXO waves was enough to convince them to come knocking, and breaking though that many ships is not easy. Even my Spire fleet took 4 full cap waves to clean it up.

Oh boy, I just started an 8hw fallen spire game. it's good to see that this is going to get "fun."
I normally emp then raid with my spire fleet as keith suggested.  However I find that for really serious threatballs I like to send a martyr to take the edge off, followed by my spire-fleet and full mk I-III Riot starships to make sure there are no stragglers.

[keith.lamothe]

I normally emp then raid with my spire fleet as keith suggested.  However I find that for really serious threatballs I like to send a martyr to take the edge off, followed by my spire-fleet and full mk I-III Riot starships to make sure there are no stragglers.

Yea, I didn't have spirecraft on in that game, or martyrs and/or jumpships (for flanking and repositioning) would definitely have factored in.

[Eternaly_Lost]

In one games I managed to get 20,000 ship threat balls. Something about 8 cities 4 homeworld worth of a full spire fleet game with 10 Golems left running by mistake overnight can make some rather insane piles. There was more ships waiting to attack then there was in the whole Galaxy. Not even the EXO waves was enough to convince them to come knocking, and breaking though that many ships is not easy. Even my Spire fleet took 4 full cap waves to clean it up.

My gods.  Talk about the need to go to Low/Ultra-Low caps.  Though, left running overnight says pretty much everything. XD

That was on low caps, before Ultra-low caps came into the game.

[keith.lamothe]

That was on low caps

There is no possible response to that.

[Wanderer]

My gods.  Talk about the need to go to Low/Ultra-Low caps.  Though, left running overnight says pretty much everything. XD

That was on low caps, before Ultra-low caps came into the game.

[Volatar]

Status update:



Murdoch has been taken, and the second spire city constructed on its still warm ashes. After building it up and defeating the first Exo wave outward expansion has begun again.

Took Raexu with little fuss. The ARS (which I forgot to hack but was happy with the unlock anyways) yielded Bulletproof Fighters (immune to Shell, which both Fighters and Armor ships use. Useful against these particular AI's). There was also an Artillery Golem in the system which I have recovered. Once those two are gone the system is all but worthless.

I am now in the process of taking Swode, and it's Advanced factory (which I have wanted for a long while). It also happens to have a data center, Botnet Golem, and Spider V fab. The Spider fab is sitting right on the enemy wormhole, so I suspect I will lose it the first wave that hits. I better make sure to build a cap of them first.