I will never see it coming.

[Trandrin]

I have decided I want to try something very painfull. I will boot up a new game and give myself several advantages. Then I turn on CPA waves and No wave warning. Then I add in all sorts of nasty to fight with in addition. Lets see how long it takes me to die.

I hold no hope of actually winning this. I just want to see how long I last when I can't even get warning of my impending death. A few things I have going for me is my champion and all it entitles me to, the easy versions of the golems(botnet not included, its on hard 5 for atleast one Exo source) and the spire craft. With the 1/2 Enemy waves on I might be able to live. Now for the other side of the coin.

There is such fun as Hybrids, and advanced hybrids. Everywhere. Wandering Neinzul "friends" who wish to drop their kids off on my planets for babysitting. Spire Civilian leaders giving me a 10 AiP every hour until I silence a few of them, oh and I get to kill both Avengers should I somehow not get glassed between now and then. To top it all off I also have the CSG up. Isn't life grand. Oh and the Astro trains, silly little things. The only way I see of surviving for any length of time is to rush and get a few golems and hope they can hold everything together while I try not to be overwhelmed..

Any advice for this sort of nonsense or just hold on and pray for a good ending?

Expansions: All
Size: 50 Planet, Realistic Hubs
AI Types: Vanilla x2 10/10
Ship Choice: Zenith Rail Clusters + Champion
Seed: 108574262
Ships Available: All
Game Options: Normal, Normal, Full Fog of War
AI options: Human Marauders 5, Human Resistance 5, Human Colony Rebellion 5, Zenith-Trader/Miners/Dyson/Devourer all 5,Spire craft easy, golems easy, Botnet Hard 5(For great Exo Fun). Neinzul Wardens,Enclaves 5, Fallen Spire 5, Spire Civilian Leaders
AI Modifiers: Schizo, 1/2 Enemy waves, No Wave warning, CPA Waves
AI Plot: Avenger x2(I will need to kill these to consider a win.), Hybridsx2 7, advanced hybrid 7 Astro Trains.



Will post more in a hour or less. Depending on how fast it mauls me.

[Trandrin]

Hour 1

I will need quite a bit of resources to withstand the damage that will be coming my way. Mk2/3 Harvesters are unlocked. I also checked and most of the wormholes for my Champion are a few jumps away. Not really a problem for now but later this might be dangerous to send it off and try and survive with it so far away from the frontlines. I intend to fortify my homeplanet quite well to support a fleet based defense. Most of the other planets will have lighter security except for one or two. I know I will need scouts on many planets if only to give me a heads up to large AI pushes. So I unlock mk2 scouts off the bat aswell.

My scouts 3 minutes in find the Dyson sphere. The world it resides on has a Gravity Drill Station. I think I can count out the gatlings this game. Darn. To the east I find 2 Zenith power gens, one next to a Core Fabircator: Reprocessor. The other on a lone mk3 world. Which amusingly will also be the first Fallen Spire Shard later on. First wave I think has arrived. And it has Spire Tractor platforms. This will get silly.

My fleet is literally dragged all over by a score of them. Divded and conquered they kill quite a bit of my fleet rather fast. I regroup and rebuild quickly. Just intime to see another wave has approached. Oh what did I sign on for. Watching my fighters get dragged off and pelted to death by all those small guns is a sad sight. Think bomber starships can counter those tractor platforms.I start building one to hunt them down in later battles. I hope it works.

Also the AI got Gravity Rippers. It went all out on the Spire tech apparently. Insult to injury my Champion is clogged up by a black hole machine while trying to traverse to a nebulae. I glare at it before returning home. Guess I need to find a alternate route to my exploration Wormhole. The other route I take hits a mk4 planet complete with gravity guardians and Rippers. My champion doesn't get far. Kills two Hybrid spawners though. I unlock mk2 Basic turrets and Laser Turrets so I can have the drones off my Neinzul Enclave.

Those mk4 ships I aggroed arrive about now and start wrecking the joint. Silly guards. My champion gets back to their planet, he gets to gun down some more Hybrid spawners before starting his first mission. It is the Eridani Remnant. A alright mission. The hybrids are restless though. And 8 of them camp one of my wormholes waiting to cause trouble. Their eagerness gets them killed when the fleet jumps in. I rush back to the mission and get there in time to avoid losing my first outpost.

I got in range for shadow shield just in time. Back home a large wave hits and tries to bring the hurt on me. Drones and the fleet make short work of them though. Soon the Civilian Leaders will tick in.Then my scouts find a godlike planet. It has a Mark 4 factory, 2 spire archives, A civilian leader, a data center, a broken Artillary golem and 5 Xampite. Thats all such good stuff. I will be claiming that as soon as possible. Just need to make sure there is nothing deadly to me waiting on on planets past it.

 My fighting inside the nebulae is fierce and I win around the 53 minute mark. I lost none of the outposts. Gained Intercepter drones and Doom acelerators. I look at one of my neighboring planet.. 27 Hybrid hives. Think I have to prune that. I send in the fleet and kill 17 before withdrawing. Rebel Fighters jump into the fray and kill a few more. Gotta love the resistance. Except when there are carriers involved. I gather my strength and hit another world that has 11 on it. We get them all before they can run. I expect a lot of Hybrids this game, if these early battles are any indication. A neinzul Warden stops by, says hello, explodes. Silly Warden.

The marked planets are as following, p1 Nebulae wormholes, p8 Zenith Power gens, p9 is the 2 spire archive world. What would that world generate for knowledge? Kinow is the black hole machine planet. But that is one hour down.

[Mánagarmr]

This sounds like a recipe for massive pain.

[LordSloth]

What, no stealth masters? For shame...

More practically speaking, I see a few options for the Gravity Drill/Dyson sphere.

My first idea of a sniper beachhead is probably entirely nonsense on 10/10. But it is a smaller map on the other hand. The grav drill isn't immune to snipers.

Alternatively, penetrators or other spirecraft should be able to help in the gravity drill system. The asteroid spirecraft are immune to gravity effects, and so can outrun everything even without their cloak. Or you could send in some other type of spirecraft, I suppose.

[Trandrin]

Hour 2

You ever seen what a spire rail cluster does to Neinzul swarmers. Kinda funny how it guns them down. I sent my fleet to kill a few neighboring planets,while I was away 15 hybrids charged my lines in a frenzy to kill me. Nasty stuff. I get them with my Enclave. To the north my shadow frigate kites 10 Hybrids through a mk4 system. They chase him like a dog chases a mailman. Having no wave warning leads to surprises. Like the 300 strong ships knocking on my homeworld shields.

 I disengage my fight with the mk4 world and try to peel these attackers off. It is not easy. I survive their atempt at my life. I advance back on the attack and watch as the hybrids continue to replenish their ranks quite fast. The neinzul drones are most effective in destroying them though. Guess having 4 caps mk1/2 of those with heavy armor bonuses are nice. As I am fighting against this I watch my threat meter rise as the waves appear and attack. Those Tractor platforms are strong. But they keep snagging my drones off the Enclave ship. Its funny when it realizes the mistake and gets shredded for it. It has heavy armor.

I decide my first capture will be the black hole generator world. It will claim me a usefull defence tool and allow me to kill a CSG. I get a surprise of the cookie monster coming through a wormhole while fighting there. No knowledge he was coming to nom on me till he was there, kind of like a coolaid man. My fleet died to the ship. While they were dieing I watched those Enclave ships drag a fortress to its death, is funny. Death by a thousand bites. They are almost like having the friendly nienzul Enclave assisting. Only better because I can tell it to run away when the battle goes south.

Capturing Kinow goes well once I rebuild my forces. After I set up shop the Hybrids decided to welcome me to the neighborhood and struck against the station. They slowly whitteled themselves away against the turret arrays. Cruelness incarnate, as it worked like a roach motel. I send out my raid starships to gib a DC on the Dyson planet. The special forces responded en-mass. And promptly tarpitted themselves in the system due to the Gravity Drill. While crazy gatlings slowly spawned and moved towards them.

I am losing count of the hybrids. There are atleast a dozen on all my neighboring worlds. Everytime I try to advance they pounce. I have enough anti-heavy that I usually win such battles. Rarely does one or two fly off after being beaten so soundly. I finish preping Kinow with a basic defense array. Remembering why I came here, I destroy the E-secondary CSG and move my fleet to cleanse a few neighboring worlds of the Squating Hybrids. At the end of the hour I take another ping off the civilians. Think it might be time to do something about them. I decide to unlock Spire Star ship mk1. 1.2mil damage every 8 seconds will really ruin the day of something big and ugly. Such as the hybrids. I hope they burn in their abyss I send them to.

Hour 3

At start of hour I unlock MLRS mk2. Thats three kinds of drones I can make now. They have proven their worth to me. The giant thump I hear now in the distance is a emp guardian. And its coming right at me. My Champion solos it with his shield ability until the fleet drives by and finishes the job. This game is full of "fun".. As Dwarves would say. My fleet engages another border world to clear out those Hybrids. Then a abnormally strong hybrid is reported in the galaxy. Lovely. Also the mining golems showed up. Gonna have to break those. Full of exictment this game.

A 900 strong threat tide pushes me back to my home world. Where I stand with 300 ships and win. Also Human Rebels found one of those mining golems. Its dead now. Then they went to another planet.. And killed that mining golem as well. . Did I mention there were over 140 of those resistance fighters currently up. Patroling my two worlds. Kinda silly. My champion picks a fight with another Nebulae. Its the Mourner scenario. Ech and I am still in the base ship

The nebulae goes well, I open 2-3 containment units at a time and fight the waves. My prize is a Shadow Destroyer+Nano Subverters and a neinzul Mod Fortress.I target a few mk4 worlds to cut down on hybrid productions. As I am destroying the last one I get another warning.. Its the Hybrid plot. I scramble scouts to try and find it.. And then I see it a nice super Hybrid on Piracavecu.. I mark it for death.

The fleet fights its way to Piracavecu and destroys the Super Hybrid and the Command station. This will be another of my planets. Just need to get Colony Pod over here. Civilians hit me again I am at 70 AiP. The waves are gonna start geting rough. better beef up my defenses.

[Trandrin]

Well I got bested for the time being. I will probably try again against it tomorrow. Strangely it was the AI's choice of bonus ship that got me, not all the extra flavoring I added in. Is it normal for the AI to throw strong ships such as the Spire Shipyard types in such large numbers. Had 80+ Spire Platforms. Picture is after engaging them on two other planets and hitting them with a Marytr. Was kind of insane trying to stop them all.

[keith.lamothe]

Is it normal for the AI to throw strong ships such as the Spire Shipyard types in such large numbers. Had 80+ Spire Platforms.

Tractor platforms aren't Spire Shipyard types; if it was throwing Spire Shipyard stuff at you (as the Spire Hammer AI does) you'd be seeing some fairly ridiculous photon lances.  Tractor platforms are just normal fleet ships, albeit low-cap.

The quantity is probably due to the AI sending a couple waves or so of that particular ship type.


An interesting story thus far   I like the high-chaos setups.  Add in unexplored galaxy and shadow master AIs and you'll be seriously paranoid the entire game

[Trandrin]

I meant the Spire craft we build with our normal Shipyard, my bad.  Sadly I lost this game a few to many times. Couldn't quite seem to kill them Tractor platforms+20 some hybrids, in addition to the 2 normal waves that I think helped the CPA. I believe it was my slow pace that mostly cost me though. I am used to more slow expansion and I was taking my time to do the Champion stuff.

 Started a new one with just a few alterations and it seems to be going much much better now that I am moving quick to secure my future. Added the Dark Spire to the mix and reduced the normal hybrids by 2. At 7 they spawned like crazy. Already had the Dark Spire spawn once in my game that I can see. The AI planet is now a dead husk, dunno what happened to all the Dark Spire though.

I dunno about unexplored galaxy, got mining golems and colony rebellions. I would go crazy without knowing where those two were to spawn. I hate the Mining golems noming my planets I loaned to the AI. Give it another hour or so and I will post the first 2 hours of the second try. Also love the reclaimed Gatlings. Wish I could get more.

[keith.lamothe]

Mining golems, colony rebellions, and the advanced hybrid dyson plot are probably things I would avoid in a game like this anyway, just because it's enough chaos trying to keep the swarming enemies on the other side of "the walls".

But in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess

[Trandrin]

This is my second attempt at this No warning/CPA wave "fun". I changed very little since last time. I dropped the Hybrid normals to a more reasonable 5.. I do hope the AI does not get the Tractor Platforms again. Those brought me my end last round. Other then that most things stayed the same. I wanted some Younglings as well, so first one I found on a seed I took.

It happened to be the Commandos. I don't get to play with them as much as I should, and I do rather like them at times. Wish there was a Merc version of them. Would use them all the time. Oh and I brought in the Dark Spire. Heard they might have been fixed a bit so I wish to see the damage they can cause.



Expansions: All
Size: 50 Planet, Realistic Hubs
AI Types: Vanilla x2
Ship Choice: Youngling Commando + champion
Seed: 1970322582
Ships Available: All
Game Options: Normal, Normal, Full Fog of War
AI options: Human Marauders 5, Human Resistance 5, Human Colony Rebellion 5, Zenith-Trader/Miners/Dyson/Devourer all 5,Spire craft easy, golems easy, Botnet Hard 5(For great Exo Fun). Neinzul Wardens,Enclaves 5, Fallen Spire 5, Spire Civilian Leaders, Dark Spire 4.
AI Modifiers: Schizo, 1/2 Enemy waves, No Wave warning, CPA Waves
AI Plot: Avenger x2(I will need to kill these to consider a win still.), Hybridsx2 5, advanced hybrid 7, Astro Trains

Hour 1

I start off unlocking Harvesters mk2, Grav Turrets mk1, and Scout mk2s, this seed I start with 6 entry points onto my homeworld. Preliminary scouting of imediate area reveals Munition Boosters, Armor Rotters and Reprocessors. While to the far east is a z generator, p7.To the south east is a fabricator/ars combo. It has Younglings weasels, P9. Younglings for everyone. To the North east lies the Dyson on a ARS/civilian world, P8. For siliness the AI also unlocked Youngling commandos. To the west is a Special Forces Alarm Post, P0.

I spot a Nebulae Wormhole right next door and send the Champion on its way. There are 3 of these wormholes on my side of the galaxy. The rest are on the other end. That doesn't boade so well for the Champion. I enter the Nebulae and it is the Dyson Gatling scenario with the Gray Spire. I win the mission easy as it is the first one. 17 Gatlings to play with, they are awesome. I also Unlocked the Spire Shadow frigate, Rail Clusters, And the modular fortress. All in all a good bunch of unlocks. Gotta say the main gun of the Spire Shadow ship is mean. Turns hybrids to scrap.

Then I notice a lone Dark spire ship come into sensor range. Somewhere out there one of them has activated.  My scouts find the world I think they came from, Diec. Not much left there, but one of their cruisers and a empty world. The fleet is sent to capture the world next to the Dyson planet. They set off a EMP guardian which flies straight at me. My Gatlings intercept it with ease. I was glad I got it before it reached the home world, as a wave assaulted just ahead of it. The gatlings finish off the wave as well. Towards the end of hour I unlock all three of the mk2 versions of the triangle ships.

The trader also decides to stop by, giving me my Zenith Generator and other goodies. Unnoticed to me till I moved over it, but my scout on the dyson world has killed the AI defenders. Those hostile-all gatlings destroyed them. I free the Dyson planet and begin pruning some hybrids near my homeworld. I move to the Dyson planet and capture it to turn the Civilian Leader before they tick and grant me 10 AiP. Instead I will get 6.

For my ARS on the planet I unlock Mini rams. Those hybrids are done now. I secure the Dyson world by taking a neighboring planet and using it for the supply to build here. Works well. Now to just kill the Prime A CSG. Time for hostile gatlings, no? I capture it and my fleet destroys the shield generator before I can even finish building the Command post which I scrap. No hostile Gatlings.

 At end of hour I am sitting at 56 AIP, a cursed golem repairing, the dyson freed, 1 Civilian Leader in my care, 1 nebulae down, 1 ARS, 2 planets. For my second attempt at this No warning game I am doing much better then the first. Guess reducing the hybrids by 2 points and not fighting those massive Spire ships has been a great help.

Hour 2

10 minutes into the hour a 1.6k wave apparently is brewing and my Cursed Golem is up and running. I expect by end of this game, for good or worse. I will have many golems fighting at my side. This will be interesting. The wave arrive at my base.. All Missle Frigates. I lose two Cryo pods. I can live with that. My own fault for not puting down more defenses. Using the slightly cheesy effect of Spire Scout ship. Think something might need to be done with these. I reveal the rest of the map.

I find a raid engine guarding my next golem, a Black Widow. Fun. I find the Botnet in the upper left hand corner. A regen golem in the center pivot area between the two sides. A wave appears for 1.1k. My fleet moves to engage and summons both the Reisstance in force and the marauders. All three began destroying each other while I move out of system laughing.

My economy can't handle the strain  from trying to build so much, so I unlock mk3 harvesters. Using my Jumpship I destroy all 4 Co-Processors and a data center. I need heavier shielding, I have the knowledge so I unlock the Hardened forcefields. A massive build up of waves is slowly growing outside my homeworld. They refuse to attack even with 2100 ships waiting. I send in the mini rams to kill the carrier followed by a matyr to kill everything else.

With the waves held in check I distribute my scouts throughout the imediate area to give me constant field reports on ai planets. Preparation of all my mini rams and fleet is begun to take the Z generator world followed by the ARS Dark spire husk to the south.

As I do this the Spire Civilians tick in and I am done for the hour. My progress is good. Co-processors dead, AiP at 43, 3 DCs left, so many golems on the map. I need that bot-net though. Soon its exo will start ticking down.



AI Ship list: Munition Boosters, Armor Rotters,  Zenith Reproccesors, Youngling Commandos.
Unlock order: Crystal/Metal Harvester mk2, Grav Turret mk1, Scout mk2, Frigate Mk2, Bomber Mk2, Fighter Mk2, Crystal/Metal Harvester Mk3, Hardened forcefields mk1

Note: I find it kinda bad how the Spirecraft Scout works. I am making some use of their more lasting vigil over a few worlds this game mostly due to the CPA and no wave warning effect. But normally I don't see them to be very useful. Their ability to fully explore a map with no repercussions or cost is a bit extreme too.

[Trandrin]

Hour 3

I start the hour destroying a few command stations and two more DCs. I also begin another Nebulae mission. It is the Shattered Pillar mission. One of my neighbors has a 150 some threat in mk4-5 ships. My fleet engages and loses. As I rebuild the Allied gatlings attack the planet and kill everything. Thanks guys. My nebulae scenario goes well.

The Spire Shadow frigates main gun with a bit of the shaodw shield, destroys a few outpost on its own. This tips tide heavily in the zeniths favor who scrap the remaining ships/stations. I win and get Destroyer hull chasis, Zenith Modular Fortress, and bomber bays. The AI sends a wave at my second planet. Only to have 50+ Gatlings and the Zenith from the nebulae jump them and bring about their anihalation.

As my fleet assaults the ARS world a massive battle takes place. My fleet, the AIs+special Forces, the Dyson Gatlings, Zenith Pillar, and dark spire all war for this world. It is glorious. My side wins, dyson gatlings bring great victory. Also on the planet was another nebulae which I begin. Mourner Scenario. A 1k+ fleet appears and moves to attack me. The combined fleet action breaks it before it can even get out of my tractors by the wormhole. My defenses still need a boost and I want my Neinzul Drones.

So I unlock mk2, Basic/Laser/MLR turrets. I capture the ARS world. Zenith Chameleons. I have never used that bonus type before. I win then nebula and get Neinzul frigate, interceptor bays and neinzul Fortress. I also unlock mk2 Engineers. I am lacking the ability to build stuff as fast  as I want or with enough resources. I decide to put in for a mk2 econ Command Center. A 3k CPA shows up. Not overly worried. My gatlings/Golem/Champion with the fleet break it.

Hour 4

This hour just sees me securing and fortifying the things I already own. I have report of a Super Hybrid and then dyson plot. My fleet moves to destroy this Strange Hybrid Facility on Enanoorcave. One of the planets next to my homeworld possess nearly 500 ships. All under the commands of the hybrids. I had to do something about such a massive number of enemy craft.

 So the fleet attacked. I lost bad, the first fight 40+ hybrids and their attendant fleet beat me out of the system. The second pass I had both my Golem and Gatlings offer support. The Hybrids melted. I have a small group of mercs/starship/reclaims going around harvesting the threat around my worlds. I claim a few Zenith Medic frigates, Reporessesors and Muntiions boosters. All good things to have, this keeps the build up of ships around my borders from getting to large.

I send out my jumpships laden with heavy hitters to kill a Raid Engine I spot on a world nearby. They easily mulch it and I debate whether taking the planet. I decide for and destroy the command center. I notice that there is a barracks here and a Dark Sprire generator. I sacrifice my ships to activate the generator to stall the barracks spawn. A massive wave hits and kills two of my planets. Thankfull neither had anything of importance.

The Resistance picked this moment to show up in force so I had a massive patroling defense fleet on my worlds for awhile. Sadly the cookie monster eats them all. Think I might need to turn off one of those two. They do not mesh. A wave of 2k youngling commandos blitzes my lines. I almost lose one of my Spire Civilians. That is bad. Fleet and champion reposition and hold off the wave. I build a Modular fortress at the planet for future attacks. My fleet continues it assault. I need another golem. A Exo force is approaching.

I clear another world in my way, reports come in of mining golems. Nuisances will suffer for their hunger. I secure another Civilian world. Now generating -2 AIP a hour. Good stuff, I place my last Modular fort there. So far I have built all 3 of my modular forts. I am thinking about unlocking normal forts aswell to further defend my lines. But for now I unlock hbc mk1s to supplement my defenses.

At the end of the hour the Exo wave has 10% left to go, AiP is at 109, My cursed golem is still alive, my Gatlings are still alive(they almost count as a golem on their own). 3 Modular forts, full fleet, spirecraft here and there, 3 Civilian leaders under my control. Depending on whether the Exo kills me or not we will see what the future holds. If I still live after the Exo I will start barracks raiding, P1 on the map are barracks. Great fun.

[Trandrin]

Hour 5

I start the hour by claiming my widow golem. I had to blow up some Distribution nodes to do it, but its done. Small cost for a strong ally. Thats two golems. The widow planet also had a ARS. So I now have teleport raiders. Another ship I haven't tried before. With 4% left on the clock the Black Widow golem is active. Cost me 2 AiP from distribution nodes.

The fleet engages a heavy marauder force on a highway planet. We fight it out and I achieve my victory. I need more heavy defenses so the Fortress is unlocked with the knowledge I gleaned from here. The Gatlings are deployed to the last mining golem in a attempt to get it before it blows up the planet.  They are not close enough.. Then I realize the mining golem itself is not immune to other golems.. My pair of heavy hitters break the miner like a twig. Was close though, didn't realize he was going at it with only 3 minutes left on the clock. Got distracted. The Exo wave attacks.

So many big ships. So many spirecraft. My fleet, golems, and gatlings all engage. At first I am winning. Then the H/K shows up and my Golems/Gatlings fall back while the fleet acts as a rear guard. The fleet dies. The golems spend the next 5 minutes being chased through systems by a angry H/K. The gatlings outrange the dangerous ship and slowly whittle away at it until we arrive at my home world where it finally dies.

I take a breath as whats left of the enemy fleet mulchs on my defenses/golems. I have won. Then a CPA of 3k ships hits. The golems/Gatlings/Champion all kite this massive deathball around slowly whittling it away. The Black widow dives towards the mass grabs a full tractor load and pulls it in range of the Gatlings/Champion while fleeing.It is dangerous and I almost get killed a few times attempting but in the end I emerge victorious. My losses are not pretty though. A few forts no longer exist and I lost my mk5 Fabircator.

My champion attacks a mk4 factory world. The special forces respond in mass. 2k ships. I would have been afraid. If the cookie monster weren't right next to the warp in dispatching them for me. He eats the entire special forces army. I decide to pursue the shards up to the refugee outpost. My fleet and golems provide the defenses while I bring back the Reciever shard. I get distracted and lose the Youngling fabricator. Thats both Fabs lost. Hard to keep them intact with such a spread line.

Hour 6

I claim another civilian and my Advanced factory. As a bonus I get A zenith mirror fabricator. Not even gonna bother trying to keep the fab. They break far to easyily. My point is proven when a enemy ship jumps into the system and blows it up half a minute after I capture it. Worthless production facility. I unlock mk2 Forcefields as I need further shielding for my new acquisitions.

I repair the regen golem and add it to the golem fleet.I still need to claim 3 more planets before I can even begin thinking about attacking the AI homeworlds. Fun times. The Super hybrid reappears 30 minutes into the hour and tries another shot at the dyson plot. He won't last long. I look over my routes and pick out 4 more planets. These will get me another black widow, Hive golem, botnet, and one more spire civilian leader. The fleet moves to silence the Super Hybrid only to have the Special Forces advance enmass. I lose the entire fleet. Regen golem was knocked to half health.

My champion finds another nebulae to perform in and deploys. It is the Eridani Remnant. One of my spire civilians is taken out by a Emp guardian who fries the forcefield over him.. It was right above a hostile wormhole aswell. Silly placement. My reward for the nebulae was not worth the effort sadly. Flak modules and Paralyzers.I send my regen golem to the homeworld. Enroute a 1k+ wave spawns right ontop of him.

They don't kill it. Guess having 200 million hp means you can shrug off alot of damage. They do chase him though, right to my front door were the fleet does a greet and shoot. The two forces fight hard against each other. I had a regen golem. They did not. I won and retreated back to my home world. regrouping I pursue my Refugee Spire ship. It goes well.The regen golem keeps my fleet topped up while I clear the worlds and activate the survey ship. Then it sorta fell apart. Regen golem got beaten down into deep red and most of the fleet falls while doing a fighting retreat. I haven't had the time to raid barracks. I might need to change that.

I reroute my champion to kill the Super Hybrid. He achieves it at cost of a few shadow shields. Spent some points to unlock higher level of the Paralyzers to try. The ship shoots a few to many of the rounds at each ship, causing a lot less mayhem then I originally thought it would. Wasted points. 

Hour 7

Lose a spire civilian and all the fabricators. I didn't even have time to build anything off any other then the Youngling weasel. My fleet trounces about destroying worlds here and there. Start prelimenary work on the Botnet planet. That thing will be mighty needed. Worlds are fortified a bit heavier. All in all not much of note to be done this hour. Then a CPA. Well this will hurt. 1.7k MK5 ships.. Ah god.

The Golem battle group+gatlings fights it out with most of this stuff on my Advanced Factory world. It doesn't help. 18 hybrids enter system make a beeline for the factory and kill it. Greatly anoying. They all are destroyed for their efforts though. The golems have been taking a pounding. My widow keeps tractoring ships that are immune to  the paralyzation. So it sadly pulls them along while I do a retreat. A few other worlds fall but no big losses. I send colonization squads to each and rebuild.

For most of the hour my two golems and their support forces fight it out with the CPA. Then another wave of 1.5k ships adds in. There are engine dead spacecraft everywhere in my galaxy. The widow has some nasty engine ruining ability. The main fleet is gone. Speed train came through a system I was in while I was kiting. They bought the golems time to flee.

I have about 900 some ships left near the end of the hour to kill. All my fabricators are gone, the Adv factory is no more, 2 spire civilians left under my control, three golems in varying states of disrepair. Spire Refugees station at homeworld. Only the attrioners on the homeworld are still alive out of my spirecraft. Such a painfull hour.
The only barracks left on the galaxy is p1 on the left.



Note: fabricators make me sad. They go splat even with heavy defenses placed on the world due to all the CPA fun I am using.

[Trandrin]

Hour 8

The 900 ships finally dies. I am on the road to recovery. I decide I really need that Botnet. It is the first thing I will do. Due to all the combat I wasn't able to stop two mining golems from breaking worlds sadly. The second Adv factory world and a Artillery golem world are gone.

 I claim the botnet planet geting a spire archive to boot. There is a fabricator and a spire civlian here aswell. The spire civilian dies off the bat, didn't notice the special forces post under it. Start working on bringing the botnet online. It comes online just as two waves attack.

It eats them all. Good lord is it a scary golem. I then discover where the special forces rally to.. The golem consumes them all. As I rampage for this hour with the golem the Rebellion happens. Right next door to my homeworld again. I claim the world with no trouble.

Wasn't a lot actually happening this hour.

Hour 9

I start by doing another Nebulae. Lord of the Colony Ships, this one is new to me. So many colony ships. My reward are heat beams and cruisers. A exo appears. It is packing a wide variety of spire craft, star ships and a hunterkiller mk3.. The Botnet golem is completly useless against those sort of things amusingly. The normal golems make up for its lack of performance. They eventually win with support from a few fortresses and other fleet craft.

Starting to have my doubts as to the worth of the Champion now as well. Noticeable size increases from its 20%. But it doesn't feel like it has made much of a dent against such large waves later on. He works well as a light trouble shooter though.

 Mining golems approach again and the Champion is sent to deal with them. I need more economy. Mk3 Eco command stations are unlocked. I also unlock mk3 bombers and mk2 missle turrets. The fleet is rebuilt and goes here and there puting out enemy waves. I have almost rebuilt myself back to full strength. The champion takes down the Super Hybrid. Took me quite a few scouts to actually find him.

Another CPA shows up. 1.5k Mk5 ships plus a variety of other marks. The AI is not messing around with its heavy hitters.

Hour 10

The fighting is fierce on a few border planets. But zombies and gatlings handle most of the spare aggression. The main push happens on charursa. The fleet, golems, Resistance, marauders, gatlings, and zombies all fight to the death. As the CPA dies however fresh waves appear. The Botnet golem removes a few extra waves that try to hit me while I refleet.

I attack my last Nebulae. It is the Epsilon Eridani, duplicate. No zenith Hull for me. I win it easy. Get Nanosubverters and Doom Accelerators. After finishing the scenario I have to deal with multiple waves. One right after another... I think I might have tripped a raid engine. Distracted I forget about the Exo that was building. Until it struck.

Hour 11

The exo appears. They have a armored golem and a hunter/killer. Funny guys. I kill 2 more AI command centers, this should finish off the last of the CSG. One had a counter attack post that deployed 1k+ ships next to my homeworld. The Botnet found them and was made happy. Another Exo force is anouncing. I am not afraid anymore. I have their measure and it is found wanting.

I fully invest in another civilian planet. It has 3 fortressses backed by many many turrets. I do hope it lives. Ai attacks the homeworld. Fleet+regen golem fight the wave. Mining golems appear again. Champion hunts them down. Zombies keep geting munched on by the Devourer. Bloody cookie Monster. My champion destroys the last CSG. The homeworlds are open. The AI is already dead. It just doesn't know it yet.

Hour 12

The second black widow golem repairs nicely. Almost finished only 12 minutes into the hour. The fabricator on this planet, gives me speed boosters. I actually might like those and start producing them. I don't expect to hold onto them for long but a few on the homeworld will help I am sure. The fabricator dies a few minutes later due to a wave. I get the full cap of the ships out of it first though.

As my ARS unlock, the youlings make a surprise second appearence. I get the vultures. I decide I wish to have the Hive golem. My Champion starts peeling away the layers of defenses on the planet. The AI laughs at me. Sends a CPA, 3k mk5 ships to slay me,. The golems will have stiff words with them. These ships rush my Spire Civilian fortress world. It dies hard. Nothing of mine survived.

My economy is healthy right now though. Allowing me to make large use of high cost things to try and keep my resource pool from maxing to much. I lose a gatling due to the Widows grabbing non paralyzing ships again. Got to love 100 some Spire Railclusters being pulled into range.

The Champion finishes the hive golem world off and I move in to repair the golem. I think two more planets should suffice, then its on to knowledge raiding and finally homeworld assault. A few strike teams of strong ships deploy in jump ships to each of the home worlds and breaks both core raid engines.

Hour 13

Hive golem online and slowly building up its surprise packages. The world has no more use for me now. The two worlds I still need to take are the ADV factory world that got smashed by a mining golem and a artillary golem position. A super hybrid tries its hand at the plot. No dice. Champion ambushs and ruins it. The Hive golem is nearly full and a Exo wave is 2% off from attacking. The wave hits. It has a mkIV Hunter/killer. Interesting. I deploy the wasps.

I am surprised by the results.. Everything died in seconds of them attacking. Golems are evil. I realize something this hour.. I have the AI coreworlds on alert.. Have had them that way for several hours.. This is not pretty. Many thousands of mk5 ships everywhere. Now I see why the CPA's have been so brutal. I really need to do something about this. Plan change I need knowledge for Warp jammers.

Hour 14

I capture the second spire archive planet to unlock warp jammer command stations to stim the flow on mk5 spacecraft. It is a back and forth for me as I try to hold onto these far outposts near the coreworlds. Over the hour I lose them many times only to bring in the Champion and Jumpships with new colony pods. Eventually it stabilizes.

Towards the end of the hour a CPA is loosed. 4.5k MK5 ships. I retreat everything to a key world were the AI has tried to destroy me before. Murdzorbal. I have 2 black Widows, 3 matyrs, 1 cursed golem, 1 hive golem, the fleet, a cruiser champion/one mod fort and nearly 600 zombie ships parred off against 10k+ ships. Nearly half of which are mk5. The battle will be fierce and I might not survive it. The picture is after I had already fought one carrier full of fun.

Even if I lose here I still had fun. Will post results of my battle later.

[Trandrin]

Hour 15

That was probably the most unfun battle I have ever had. Seems zombies just love blowing up carriers. Within minutes of the fighting starting between my golems and the CPA they managed to kill 5 carriers in rapid succession. The only way I survived was the mayrtr taking out 3 of the carrier spawns one right after another before the numbers reached too high.

It took me atleast 15 reloads to get that lucky. Each round before, the Zombies destroyed all the carriers too quickly for me to handle and I would die to multiple enemy golems/spirecraft/hunter killers. I really did not enjoy that. Could the Ctrl effect to target carriers be allowed to effect Zombies/Resistance ships?

Back to the actual victory over the CPA it was not pretty. Two extra waves of nearly 2k popped up shortly after its release. They burned every world on the western side of the map. Only geting stopped in a protracted battle on Murdzorbul. My fleet is gone, only remnants remain. They died allowing my Hive Golem to survive and flee. It had been cornered by two tendrils of the CPA.

The wasps it released did nothing to even harm the enemy fleet. So many Spire Railclusters they shot them all down before they could make a dent. The widows kept pulling 400 ships into range of their escorts (Gatlings,Nebulae bonus ships,Rebel fighters) Who would destroy many of them quite fast. I kited the vast majority of the CPA around this world and another, retreating when I could no longer stay ahead of the main body of their fleet.

The cursed golem was targeted on Implosion Artillery and Spire Rail clusters through the majority of the fighting. All three of the golems are at less then 30% health. Spirecraft jumpships tried a few times to recolonize my furthest worlds with their Warp jammers while combat was going on. But enemy ships would overwhelm the few defenders I sent along with the colony pods.

My Botnet golem ambushed two full carriers of ships trying to get at my home world. The ensuing combat between the Zombies and AI spared it any grevious harm. Slowly the enemy fleet petered out and I had room to breath again. I just need to get the warp jammers back up on my far left worlds and I should be able to survive any further CPAs easyily without the AIs Mark 5 spam.

Edit: Scouting just now and I found the zombies did get a few of those carriers to spawn golems. 2 armored golems+some change waiting on another planet for me to move my golems.

[Trandrin]

Hour 16

I have recolonized my Core world Jammers. I sent all three of my golems and all the bonus ships I had to spare to ensure they don't fall for now. My advanced factory died during the CPA. I didn't even notice. Shame. I unlock some starships with a bit of spare knowledge I had on hand. Suddenly another Rebel Colony appears. Also next to my homeworld. I send some ships to liberate it.

My hive golem drops a full 500 wasps on the first homeworld. I retreat before I die but the death toll is staggering. The golem fleet engages a coreworld and tears it apart. The special forces try to intercept and get hit by the cookie monster. Atleast thats what I thought had happened. In reality those mk5 ships were fleeing out of system through another world. I realized they had been let loose on me, and gone around my fleet.

I scramble to get in their path before they start breaking something important. I meet them on Parisius. The fleet and the golems both tag team against almost a thousand mk5 ships. I win, but fail to destroy them all as they flee out of the system. I chase them down with the black widow golems and eventually destroy them all.

I have opened up a path to one of the AI's planets. I have to buckle down a bit after this move and fortify these warp jammer worlds. I unlock Fortress Mk2 and begin placing one at each world. These extra defenses help me retain them more easily.

Hour 17

A cpa is announced, around 5k ships. It only has 2.4k Mk5 ships. Quite a drop from last time. Still they destroy all but 4 of my worlds. My forces were far out of position. My Botnet and its entourge defend the home world, while the fleet and the golems battle it out with the other 3/4 of the CPA at my foward production facility. Located near the core worlds.

I barely pull through and then the Exo hits. Hunter killer mk4+mk5 spirecraft hit me while I am realing. The hive golem is deployed to stem losses. Even then though I lose another gatling. One by one they fall. I get half my worlds back up in operation when a normal wave appears. Zombies intercept with the help of gatlings, they focus fire carriers, destroying 3 and spawning the usual pile of hurt. The Golems have to be sent to intercede on behalf of the fleet.

The golems get all torn up handling so many massive ships. They push around normal fleet craft easy enough, but all these implosion artillery and spire craft shield bearers the carriers are spitting out are taking their toll. I start rebuilding on a few planets I lose during this.  The worlds that are around the core areas are still going on and off. Mining golems appear again and the champion is dispatched to try and stop them.



Note: The game is on pause for a bit. The combination of the settings, plus the allied ships hunting carriers to ruin my day, has made me decide to take a break. Very exhausting putting out so many fires one after another. Not really having that much fun with the current game. I will probably wait a bit before I try to finish it. Going start a more normal game to relax for awhile.