woohoo, thanks to the 5.024 patch I just won my hybrid game
Man, what an epic battle was that. I had been stuck on this 7/7 Teleporter turtle and Gravity Driller game for quite some time. Thanks to the new hybrids my mid-game changed drastically and the antagonizer (which makes the dyson sphere your enemy until you kill the antagonizer) got me killed. Thanks to the new patch where friendly dysons can shoot mk V targets (hence, other dysons), I was finally able to stall the enemy long enough to win.
First I send 3 mk III martyrs to the wormhole where all enemy dysons would come out. That had a major impact on their assault, killing nearly 100 of them. My friendly dysons managed to kill all remaining enemy dysons. But since the enemy had unlimited acces to them due to the antagonizer (which I couldn't find) and mine were limited (let's say about 200 or so), my friendly dysons were rapidly going extinct. And I had yet to take both homeworlds....
The first one was a piece of cake, despite the fact that it had a Core CPA guard post on it. I don't know if this is a bug or not, but 2 golems entering the homeworld triggered the CPA, sending only one in however didn't trigger it (cursed or armored, didn't matter). I've used this to my advantage in several past games as well, but never thought of it as something that could be a bug.
after the Core CPA guard post fell, the rest was over literally within seconds. Armored Golem, cursed golem, artillery golem and hive golem make a very deadly combo.
right after the first home command station fell, a regular CPA warning popped up. Crap. I knew there wouldn't be enough dysons left by the time the CPA would hit me. So I placed my botnet on my homeworld for precaution and rushed with the rest of my fleet towards the second homeworld, leaving the unused Superterminal behind (it was on a bloody coreworld -.-).
the second homeworld had a Core Raid Engine on it. I figured I was strong enough to deal with the coreworld and the Raids at the same time. I was right - barely. A hive golem with about 350 wasps in it saved my life. Because of the wasps i had enough time to deal with the raid and all the guard posts from the core world. I could finally take a very short rest on the coreworld and repair my golems. It was then that I realized that the leftovers from the CPA and a wave that hit earlier (about 900 ships in total) decided to stalk me, meaning that I got trapped on the coreworld. A lot of stalking enemies at one side, the homeworld at the other side. I had to do something, and quick. Luckily I had one martyr and an attritioner left. Attritioner quickly in and out the enemy homeworld, and then waiting for all the ships to pile up at the wormhole. They were to afraid to attack me because I had 4 golems with me (botnet continues to defend my homeworld).
Martyr in and it blows most of them up. some Mk V mini rams and some guardians survived unfortunately. They could do sick dmg on any of my golems so I knew I was going to lose at least 1 of them. I decided to sacrifice the hive golem. It had only build up to 150 wasps and I wasn't going to wait till it had filled up. So I release the wasps as I enter the homeworld and see my hive golem exploding within a second after the release. I send in my armored, cursed and artillery golem right after the wasps killed the remaining guardians, having them shoot around a bit, destroying a few guard posts. At this point the Core Raide Engine's timer reaches zero again. Crap I think, to late. Reinforcements spawn and my cursed golem dies, at about the same time the Raid Engine's wave hits. My main fleet was waiting back at the coreworld, waiting for my golems to take out that AI Eye.... The 900 stalking enemies decided to attack at the same time as the Raid wave, destroying most of my fleet from both sides.
But It was to late for the AI, I already knew i would win. With my arty golem taking out any forcefields / fortressses, and my armored golem taking out any reinforcements and guard posts, this wouldn't be to hard. the Core Raid Engine fell and soon after that I had finally gotten 5 new achievs
phew, can't believe a double dif 7 made this game so hard for me in the end. I seriously blame the new hybrid plot for ruining any plans I had lol. I was gonna use the superterminal... instead I ended with 800+ AIP -.-
I got a few screenshots, but I'm running out of time. It'll have to wait.