Thanks
Before CPA hits i unlock Harvester MK IIIs , build 2 matter converters and most of my turrets and starships.
Cpa hits and its bit funny, for some reason AI has some MK I ships that it sends with the CPA. It also doesn't have enough ships and taps in to strategic reserve , for 50ish ships. Apparently it rather uses that than core ai's ships. Well that makes cpas much easier, i only have to deal with triangle ships and snipers. Building counter sniper turrets near anything important, and the cpa goes down easily.
Exo is announced soon after that. Euh, still on 2 planets, i should be able to handle it with ease but i'll pick up a hive golem anyway. As a bonus this eliminates deepstrike to 3rd arm of the galaxy , leaving just one with deepstrike potential.
Some generic CA guard post cleaning, traders stuff building(bhg, armor inhibitor halfway) and nebulae for hour or two, all but the last nebulae done. Champion has way lower XP than i'm used to , only level 31. Good thing the mod cost were reduced. I got 8 roaming enclaves from ravenous, no idea how they are supposed to behave, but they just sit on a AI planet between my planets. Well good enough, that planet is next to my HW so no guardians(they wont die) and the spawns fly all over from there. Don't know what will happen when i take the planet but for now they can just sit there.
While clearing up the last CA guard posts i get some deepstrike threat 1600ish . ABout 200 of those are MK V tackle drone launchers. I have 500 wasps ready so this shouldn't be a problem, but exo is at over 90% so i decide to save them and explore other options. I hear area mines are OP and i haven't used emp mines since they were made less ridiculous so i unlock those. First full cap of aoe mines followed by full cap of emp mines followed by full cap of regular mines, all between the wormhole with tackle drones and my command station. I lure the threat in and it rolfstomps me. Mines did almost no damage, it seems TDs are not mine immune so they just run ahead of the launchers and clear up all the mines. Crap, savescum.
Attempt 2 vs TDL fleet of death. Don't unlock mines this time . I lure them in, engage with nebulae/SS fleet and release the wasps. Wasps die in less than 5 seconds, eventhough ~all the enemies are shooting at my shadow FFs. I'm guessing that tackle drone explosions destroyed them.
Attempt 3 . I'll take offensive stance and decide to release the wasps in the threat ball from the other AI, the one with no tackle drones. Wasps slaughter those 800 ships pretty fast, and tackle drones attack my planet. They go after my hive golem... which can kite them endlessly thanks to logistics station. I take out the 600 something triangle core ships, and set couple of waypoints for the golem. 20 laps around the planet . 2 modular fortresses , nebulae fleet and champion. I eventuall wear them down and CPA announcment comes in .
5mins till 4 500 ship CPA hits and exo is at 96%. Can't be worse than that last threat ball was.