Arcen Games

General Category => AI War Classic => AI War Classic - After Action Reports => : raptor331 January 18, 2010, 11:08:58 AM

: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 18, 2010, 11:08:58 AM
Ok I messed up last game, but today is a new one. I am ready this time, I have made some extra precautions such as Fortresses, Light Starships to reinforce wormhole defence, Swarm of Fighters on standbye near my Orbital Command Station, an emergency back up force field, and higher level turrents.
I am somewhat better off when it comes to resources, however the enemy has microfighters posted along wormholes, making scouting a bit difficult. I had to make quick raids to take out the microfighters just so my scouts can slip past.
My home planet's layout isn't as easily defended as the one I had in my previous game, but it isn't impossible to defend, so I am grateful for that.

Here is my planet:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_HomePlanetLayout.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/HomePlanetLayout.png)

Here is the galaxy:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_StartingPlanets.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/StartingPlanets.png)

What has me creeped out is the fact that the enemy keeps on sending in bombers to attack, I really dont like those things,they eat up force fields.

I've upped the standards on my wormhole defence as you can see:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_WormHoleDefence.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/WormHoleDefence.png)

I won't be conquering any time soon, my economy is sort of in a sag. But the upside is that I wont be over run very easily.

Current Standing Fleet
Fighter MK I - 100
Light Starship - 2
Frigate MK I - 15
: Re: Here we go again.....
: Terrible Terrible Damage January 19, 2010, 11:21:45 AM
Wouldn't it be a bit easier/more fruitful to just slap down a handful of tractor beams at the holes, whilst getting the max ammount of mark 1 fighters out, setting them to free roam defence, soemwhere inbetween all 3 wormholes.. not tanking out your economy, and allowing you breathing space to build more ships to help secure yourself a decent planet?

I always find early starship building a bit of a meh experience, and when mixed with turret building as well :O thats gonna leave you sore for crystal.

Also, and this may only be due to perspective, but it looks like you build your turrets really quite close to the wormholes, allowing them to be shot at by whatever comes through, from my own experience it's usually best to place them so that they are just within covering range of the wormholes, often out of range of whatever comes through.


The great thing about this game is that many things seem to work just as well, and maybe i'm missing the advantage/fun of early starship building et al. - i can just never seem to get a starship, AND enough turrets to defend without crashing out on all resources.

Prove me wrong :D
: Re: Here we go again.....
: RCIX January 19, 2010, 04:24:28 PM
from my own experience it's usually best to place them so that they are just within covering range of the wormholes, often out of range of whatever comes through.

That usually works, except for those annoying high-shielding ships. My turrets then decide that they can't shoot against them :(
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 19, 2010, 05:52:23 PM
Wouldn't it be a bit easier/more fruitful to just slap down a handful of tractor beams at the holes, whilst getting the max ammount of mark 1 fighters out, setting them to free roam defence, soemwhere inbetween all 3 wormholes.. not tanking out your economy, and allowing you breathing space to build more ships to help secure yourself a decent planet?

I always find early starship building a bit of a meh experience, and when mixed with turret building as well :O thats gonna leave you sore for crystal.

Also, and this may only be due to perspective, but it looks like you build your turrets really quite close to the wormholes, allowing them to be shot at by whatever comes through, from my own experience it's usually best to place them so that they are just within covering range of the wormholes, often out of range of whatever comes through.


The great thing about this game is that many things seem to work just as well, and maybe i'm missing the advantage/fun of early starship building et al. - i can just never seem to get a starship, AND enough turrets to defend without crashing out on all resources.

Prove me wrong :D

Actually Light Starships are extremely cheap as starships go. I can have 2 MK II Engineers and it still wouldn't put me into negative production with either metal or crystal. Same with the Raid Starship, it just takes a little longer. It's even easier to build turrets on the MK III level than starships, its just that you dont build them all at once. And fortresses are easy to build, you jus turn them on and off so that your resources don't get too low.

Now on to the wormhole defence, accuracy diminishes over distance(might not be with turrets, but I am too lazy to find out) and my turrets normaly kill any wandering ships before they even get a chance to do some serious damage. And a little bit after I made this topic, I increased my tractor beam count to 10 per wormhole. Not only that, I now have 100 Fighters on standbye for any ship that made it through
: Re: Here we go again.....
: Kjara January 19, 2010, 07:26:06 PM
The big thing to realize with light starships is that though they only take 1k energy each, the building to generate them takes 10k.  So you want get them kicked out and that building in low power asap.
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 19, 2010, 07:47:38 PM
The big thing to realize with light starships is that though they only take 1k energy each, the building to generate them takes 10k.  So you want get them kicked out and that building in low power asap.

Yup, the lower the power you use, the better, helps with managing your resources...
: Re: Here we go again.....
: eRe4s3r January 19, 2010, 07:52:00 PM
from my own experience it's usually best to place them so that they are just within covering range of the wormholes, often out of range of whatever comes through.

That usually works, except for those annoying high-shielding ships. My turrets then decide that they can't shoot against them :(

You should consider using fortresses then ;) Not replacing your turrets but standing by at least in your homeworld for a while. It doesn't sound like a good investment, until you realize that it can repair and store, and soak up damage. So you get a free local repair ship to boot, which is helpful for repairing early raids.
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 19, 2010, 09:05:40 PM
That and it can dish out some damage, thats for sure ;) that's one of the first things i always unlock
: Re: Here we go again.....
: orzelek January 20, 2010, 06:44:35 PM
Just remember to keep squadron of fighters on hand around it and you're golden.
: Re: Here we go again.....
: eRe4s3r January 20, 2010, 06:49:22 PM
or inside it ;) Keeps em save and your losses down when no bombers are incoming
: Re: Here we go again.....
: orzelek January 20, 2010, 06:55:05 PM
Hmm right good point. I forgot it can shelter them now also.. and repair after.. :D
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 24, 2010, 04:00:01 PM
Ok I'm back, I havent been playing a whole lot over the past week. But I just now started back on my campaign today, and let me tell you: the results are very pleasant.

I went on to conquer the planet Leuh with a total of 425 Raiders boosted with 5 Light Starships. My forces creamed the wormhole defence while my Raid Starship slipped in an annihilated the Warp Gate, and turrets at key points of the planet.

Then to my luck, Marauders swooped in, so I temporarily retreated to let my two enemies fight. Then to my good fortune, came a small number of Resistance Fighters. I knew that if I hide while they fight, they would be slaughtered. So despite discouraging odds, I swooped in and began to annihilate the dagger frigates with my Light Starships. They proved to be no match, and to my ultimate surprise, 160 more resistance ships came in to aid me in my battle. The AI did not last long under our combined forces, and we crushed all that defied us! ;D

So far the planet is high in crystal deposits:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_MyNewPlanet.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/MyNewPlanet.png)

Current Standing Fleet
Fighters MK I - 150
Light Starship - 5
Raid Starship MK I - 1
Raider MK I - 29
Missile Frigate MK I - 15
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 24, 2010, 06:11:25 PM
OK, my fleet has been rebuilt, and the resistance fighters went on a kamikaze mission into a nearbye enemy planet........ ???

I am about to attack the planet Mafi, it doesnt have a lot of crystal deposits, but it is a neighboring planet to my homeplanet, so it is important that I capture it.

They have 268 ships, the odds seem pretty easy on my part so far....lucky for me

Here is the planet layout:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_Soontobemine.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/Soontobemine.png)

Current Standing Fleet
Fighter MK I - 150
Raider MK I - 425
Light Starship - 5
Raid Starship MK I - 1
Missile Frigate MK I - 15
: Re: Here we go again.....
: Lancefighter January 24, 2010, 06:35:45 PM
I note that you are using fighters, but hardly any other ships (well, light stars and raid stars..)

Is that because of anything in particular?
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 24, 2010, 06:47:56 PM
Actually I use mostly Raiders, they are listed in the Fleet List, but you may have missed that...

Why I use raiders is...well if you Multiply 200 by 5(I have a 5x boost thanks to my 5 Light Starships)
and then multiply that again with 425, you get 425,000 dmg per each volley if concentrated on a single target. Then you add the dmg that the Light Starship does and you got a formidable fleet. It's like a giant wreaking ball of doom.
: Re: Here we go again.....
: Lancefighter January 24, 2010, 07:20:23 PM
hrm yes, I notice it now.. Not sure how i overlooked them before.

But still - Why do you have fighters then?
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 24, 2010, 09:37:51 PM
They protect my home hq from bombers that slip past my defenses.
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 28, 2010, 09:39:33 PM
Ok I happened to take over the planet Mafi. The Planet is high in Metal Deposits and is neccesary for a defensive barrier.

With the marauders help, I was able to overun their defences fairly easy. I am also one planet away from taking over all adjacent planets to complete my defensive barrier for my homeplanet. It should be fairly easy, considering that it only has half the units that I have to attack.

Here is the current positioning of the enemy and me:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_CurrentPositions.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/CurrentPositions.png)

Current Standing Fleet
Fighter MK I - 150
Light Starship - 5
Raid Starship MK I - 1
Raiders MK I - 425
Missile Frigate MK I - 15
: Re: Here we go again.....
: raptor331 January 29, 2010, 02:10:43 AM
I have finaly destroyed all hostile ships on Murdoch. Due to a 505 Cross Planet Attack, I forced my production of ships into dangerous levels.....however, I was able to blow away the attack extremely easily(505? seriously, is that all they got?). My fleet is now much larger than before, but I am afraid that it is still relatively small(roughly around 700 ships).

Here are the current positions:
(http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/th_aiwar-20100129-002100.png) (http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy325/Raptor331/aiwar-20100129-002100.png)

Current Standing Fleet
Bomber MK I - 170
Fighter MK I - 170
Frigate MK I - 170
Raider MK I - 425
Light Starship - 5
Raid Starship MK I - 2