Author Topic: Let's BLITZ  (Read 9452 times)

Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #15 on: February 03, 2011, 10:13:38 pm »


CPA has settled, but that would truely be an understatement. I used several EMP warheads on multiple fronts(forts are immune, remember that while on defense!), and a few lightning warheads prevented any critical buildup. now I just have to clear it out using my fleets. Resources are being used on building up colony ship. Only really noteworthy was that a colony rebellion deep in enemy space (towards top of map, the glowing light) was revealed two hours ago. I had already cleared a cloaking path and sent two cap waves of fighters to clear the planet mostly and to pre-neuter the nearby MK IV planet. Now I have my golem and about 50 fighters securing the planet. Meanwhile, I had my cloaker starship escort a colony ship all the way from my territory to the rebel planet. My golem is badly, badly wounded and must be repaired before it can link up with the other fleet on the mainlines.



Remember how I was say I need to sweep planets? This pic here is one of dozens of similar actions to take place on Harme. Dyson gatlings always run into this planet, and MK V AI now frequently hides here to compensate. Thousands of ships have been destroyed to maintain those two wormholes that are so close.



Planet "secured" but aside from a dozen resistence units and a MK III military station and 3 snipers the planet is soon to be on its own.  Meanwhile, the city hub is also being built on Ribmelboat



Golem has been repaired, and it is fighting to get back onto mainstream planets via Geninnow. It actually slammed to a fleet camping from the CPA so it forcibly cleared them out with help from the nearby garrison.


 
Whew! Things are so messy. I feel like I am just digging my grave because I now seem to always being hit by a strikeforce, and the CPA's are getting more frequent. I will have to focus on deep strikes to hit remaining civ spire structures and must also aggressive knowledge raid. I don't know if I should get more planets; I could use energy, but is it worth the AIP? In any case, I will strive to follow this to the end, and to maintain my philosophy of trying to keep moving forward and not get bogged down.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2011, 10:15:20 pm by chemical_art »
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #16 on: February 05, 2011, 08:02:50 pm »
No pictures, since I haven't really advanced.

I keep hitting three brick walls:

1. 8.3 is simply atrocious. I see I have to adapt yet another group of tactics for taking planets. I never expected the AIP to hurt so much at 350. Even 8.0 is so much easier.
2. All three options that enable exgalactic forces options keep sending so much threat. Next time I am certainly doing two at the most: There simply isn't enough economy/power to go around! *This one is killer*
3. Numerous errors regarding how I should have progressed with the Light of the Spire storyline.

I can take any one of the above three easy I think. Two errors would push me to my limit. Three errors...my game seems done. The momentum has shifted from my advantage to neutral, and I have no tricks to push it back to my advantage.

BUT! I promised I would fight this to the end, and I shall. No matter what, I will treat this like a brand new game. Just because you cannot take the game to victory does not mean you give up early. There is still more to do, and more to learn.
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Offline Solarity

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #17 on: February 27, 2011, 08:24:56 am »
Any more updates?  Did you manage to regain your momentum?

Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2011, 07:11:54 pm »
Any more updates?  Did you manage to regain your momentum?
I've left the game hanging for now; I've been busy with non AI-War stuff. Every week or so I reload it up to see if I can make significant headway, and I keep getting beat back.

Now it is actually obsolete, the tech +1 rollback has been pushed to 9.3, so now when I load up the game new waves and reinforcements are much easier...I could really jump back into this game!
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Offline ledshok

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #19 on: February 27, 2011, 07:28:22 pm »
It's been a great read - if you can muster the effort to give it one last crack I'd love to see this story played out to conclusion.  :)

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #20 on: February 28, 2011, 08:48:39 am »
I'm also following this with interest, I hadn't actually seen it until today, sometimes the forum software takes liberties with the meaning of "auto notify" ;)
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #21 on: February 28, 2011, 09:00:04 am »
I may try another round today, but thought I'd summarize the game since I haven't played it in a while:

ASSETS:
Armored Golem
Dyson Sphere
One city hub
MK III nenzul, fighters


LIABILITIES:
High AIP compared to total number of planets
Three exo-galactic timers
scarce energy, resources


Those three exo-groups really hurt (2 waves an hour, at least), so I figure I should use some downright cheap tactics using spirecraft. Those martyrs and penetrators will see a lot of action; they might as well since I have to deal with exo-groups about them! I suspect a planet grab while be the first order of business as I narrow my number of fronts.

ORDER OF BUISNESS:
-Make penetrators, pop all ai worlds with civ spire towers. - This will add over 100 AIP, but make me lose a lot over time. This alone will make the game from the current state of "2 big problems simultaneously at any time" to "2 big problems per hour (in the form of exo-groups)"
- Fortify "core interests" - mainly referring to my MK IV factory floating by a Dyson sphere surrounded by two hostile border planets.
-Follow spire story line quickly - They are the only path to real economic growth and firepower to topple the AI



EDIT: Holy crap! Just loaded it up. I apparently pulled a miracle every 20 minutes here or something, I wonder how I managed to even get this far with +1 tech. On the one hand, I already have a shard with only 6 (7)? active planets. On the other hand, everything is so much more a mess compared to the dabbling easy games I have tried since last loading this. This is why you never completely abandon games!
« Last Edit: February 28, 2011, 09:09:56 am by chemical_art »
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Offline Red Spot

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #22 on: February 28, 2011, 12:46:28 pm »
ORDER OF BUISNESS:
-Make penetrators, pop all ai worlds with civ spire towers. - This will add over 100 AIP, but make me lose a lot over time. This alone will make the game from the current state of "2 big problems simultaneously at any time" to "2 big problems per hour (in the form of exo-groups)"

I would save before I set out doing that. I am not sure Chris found it an exploit or it is something that 'acts up' in my or others games, but I really have to take a planet in order to get the Leaders to stop giving me an extra 1 AIP/hour and start giving -3/hour.
Bonus with them in a FS campaign is that you'll not only be neutering a lot of planets, but take even more, so eventually you will end up with at least 3. Which is enough to result in an overall bonus of -2 AIP/hour (+7 vs -9 AIP).

Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #23 on: February 28, 2011, 05:18:25 pm »
ORDER OF BUISNESS:
-Make penetrators, pop all ai worlds with civ spire towers. - This will add over 100 AIP, but make me lose a lot over time. This alone will make the game from the current state of "2 big problems simultaneously at any time" to "2 big problems per hour (in the form of exo-groups)"

I would save before I set out doing that. I am not sure Chris found it an exploit or it is something that 'acts up' in my or others games, but I really have to take a planet in order to get the Leaders to stop giving me an extra 1 AIP/hour and start giving -3/hour.
Bonus with them in a FS campaign is that you'll not only be neutering a lot of planets, but take even more, so eventually you will end up with at least 3. Which is enough to result in an overall bonus of -2 AIP/hour (+7 vs -9 AIP).

I have heavily debated it, and am aiming between -3 and -6 AIP per hour while defending three posts. This allows an active minigame of defender almost in that if I can hold the posts I keep getting rewarded. Having the AIP be neutral is what I expect from holding no posts, which I think I have accomplished below should I somehow lose all my posts. Keep in mind I have used trump cards from three sources that cost me 3 rounds of exogroups to reach this point. And I must in the future deal with the carriers that the  ai neutralized worlds have caused. 40- 50 AIP in warheads were used to escort the crystals.

I highly doubt I would ever reach the floor; I would first accelerate my plans by warheads and/or rushing things to counter the dropped AIP. As it is, I am defending three spire posts the hard way, so I would want to at least want to somehow neutralize other civ spires to make a neutral proposition a good one for me.

[Pictures coming]
« Last Edit: February 28, 2011, 06:14:28 pm by chemical_art »
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2011, 06:43:32 pm »
I just noticed my new play sesion started at 11:15, while the orginal actually went on to 12:00...

Imagine this as  "new set of eyes" experience that would have happened 45 minutes ago with and sudden shift of power in the players favor due to changing rules (Yea! MK II instead of III!)





Things are a mess! Units scattered everywhere! Warp gates, everywhere! so...many...mk III units...at 380 AIP. Scary.

I have four islands of planets so to speak. They have no political names. One island is at the top of the galaxy, a rogue rebellion I had to re-power via planet capture. The golems and fighters had already triumphantly stomped and then deepstriked through 6(!) AI worlds through sheer speed and attrition.A cloaked colony ship (and engineer escort) then went through 6 ai planets safely. Now the rebels are recharged.

However, the golem and fighters must be reassigned. A skeleton fighter group will do a delaying action, while most fighters will escort the golem to "main land" player space.

[No picture]
They proceed to smash their way through the AI via brute force. AI bombards and space tanks hurt, but they don't chase you through the galaxy. The golem and a few mk IV fighters make it back to a distant island away from the "main" island chain with the player homeworld. The golem is absent for the next 45 minutes being repaired. This island chain gets hit occasionally by an exogroup, but is mostly isolated through AI gate raids and a very active resistance movement. The local fort helps as well.






As soon as the golem leaves, the AI rushes in on the rebel world. The planet falls within the hour as super MK III and IVs rush the planet. But the rebels hide, their fighters protecting my own home world. The fighter drones and temporary command stations are all replaceable, while the colonies, and my homeworld, are not.







The tech III AI sends vicious exowaves on to a expendable planets frequently. This wave crashes against numerous well tended but wounded gatlings.

Meanwhile:

[No picture]
I head an fighter and nenzul task force to annihilate all AI presence on Harme, a previously neutered AI world. Dyson gatlings and resistance fighters can now operate freely into my homeworld with a planet chain of 5. The fighters and nenzul quickly fly to the homeworld, to defend against exowaves.








Those fighters were needed, as only minutes later the homeworld was under attack. All available units but the golem was there. The planet held, but the black widow (!) bursted out of the hole to terrorize and slay wounded bombers was impressive, if costly on the ai's part.


Meanwhile

[no picture]
Spire craft penetrator successfully deepstriked 8(?) planets to neutralize an AI post holding spire civilians. I hope their worth it, the reinforcements of the nearby planet will soon make a whole part of the galaxy inaccessible for human hands.







...

Fighters to clear out the last planet of my current city hub held by the AI. The operation would later be abandoned due to it viewed as not worth alerting the nearby MK IV planet.

Meanwhile

-City hub built first habitat, allowing a jump in economy.








Homeworld hit by the penetrator's target defenders. Annoying, but no real threat compared to the firepower there.







Homeworld begins replacing missile frigates, MK I and II z-bombers due to booming economy. Golem kept in cold storage as deterent / lack of need.







New gravity defenses are being phased in at all fronts. Keep in mind timestamp [11:46]. This particular front is isolated from even AI exogroup; consequently no potential help from anything except a distant fleet. It defends 3 military MK 2 fertile worlds.


meanwhile

[no picture]
Z-bombers and high lvl fighters slam into a border world with AI eye, their brute force gets the firepower: 300 group down to 80 and disable about half the guard posts. Previously unacceptable, but with a booming economy now just a pause since there is no golem to repair.




'


Now those gravity defenses are put to use!







If you were paying attention to my pictures, two exo timers were ticking and almost complete. I never mentioned them till now because I was mostly oblivous to them. Well, not really, I mean my fighters and nenzul were there at my homeworld were half always hit, but I still didn't plan ahead for it too much.

Anyway, after I cleaned up the frenzied defense for the homeworld, I then came to see the next door planet still holding out minutes having being first being attacked by an exo wave. MK III Military stations + MK III forcefields yields [minutes of blind defense]




The planet was trashed, but the valuable gatlings were not damaged. Thankfully, I did stockpile for the waves apparently because I had tons of reserves.


Meanwhile

[no picture]
At the other end of the "great chain" of planets, my city hub built MK I and II bombers. These bombers are destined to smash the super fort of the MK IV world. Until that super for goes down, the hub cannot expend.






LASTLY, here are things right now. Only an hour as passed, and the galaxy is different! The blitzing spirit lives on, but now there is a booming economy to support it!

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Offline Panopticon

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #25 on: March 01, 2011, 04:32:02 am »
Great stuff!

I love the sudden turns of fate in this game.

Well done, man. Well done.

Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #26 on: March 01, 2011, 09:30:20 am »
Time for another strategic evaluation (in no particular order)

1. This game serves as a prime example of the change in diffficulty in +1 tech and normal tech can be. I can tell you the difference is night in day for almost everything in the game changes. THankfully, for this game it worked in my favor.
2. Under my own self-imposed penetrator rules, I have three spire posts to defend. As long as I defend them all, I can enjoy a reduction of AIP over time (like -3 and hour, or something.) BUT I must defend all three for the rest of the game, which sucks because one raider can one shot them through shields. So I can't count on them forever.
3. Aside from either an armored golem or CPA, my game seems fairly secure right now. I must remain vigilant in my defenses, but at least I don't have to used my warheads I have stashed everywhere.
4. Until I at least neuter that MK IV world with the superfort, I cannot safely capture the last planet blocking expansion of my city hub. For that, I need bombers. I don't know if I want to sink in 6k knowledge for mk III and IV bombers, or just EMP warhead the planet for five minutes instead. We'll see based on the price of MK IV bomber mercs compared to their effectiveness.
5. My armored golem can do anything...which is good, for it still takes up 75% of my econ with one engineer repairing it.

...

Long term:
Acquire more firepower; as of right now, I lack firepower to beat the AI homeworlds. I suspect the spire can help with that  8)
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #27 on: March 01, 2011, 09:32:14 am »
Long term:
Acquire more firepower; as of right now, I lack firepower to beat the AI homeworlds. I suspect the spire can help with that  8)
Oh, yes.  Very yes ;)
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #28 on: March 01, 2011, 10:02:01 am »

Oh, yes.  Very yes ;)

Well then they are worth warheads to speed up their acquisition! A MK IV superfort AI world is a quite unique offensive challenge, but there is only one in my game. Warheads can be used to help ease the difficulty. Warheads shall return with a vengeance.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Let's BLITZ
« Reply #29 on: March 01, 2011, 02:16:36 pm »
I saved a ton of pictures of for only a little game time, but the summary for 45 minutes was pretty simple:

Three worlds popped. All were around the super fort world. The city hub's neighbor, the MK IV world itself (via some help from strategic EMP's) and a nearby ARS world. AIP has spiked again, but now in the future I can tap into another ARS, not worry about a superfort MK IV world, and can expand my city hub. I have a megablob of golem, spire craft (not spire ships, the asteroid ones), and a regular fleet as well.  All in 45 minutes! This is a brisk pace. All planets holding against exogroups and waves. The only real trouble spot is that I have a rebel colony deep in enemy space that must be repowered within 15 minutes, but it should still be fine.


Pic of game as of right now:



If you want the other  19 or so pictures, you can find them here: http://s1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Chemical53/3111/




Oh, if I haven't said this before, AI bombards are quite micro heavy. Boy, they do sting. Only my spire ships can remove them quickly.

Next few objectives:

-Claim the knowledge, ARS, destroy shields, etc. of my liberated worlds
-Blob my fleets; then find a use for my mega fleet
-Consider how I can advance spire story while giving my AIP a chance to drop
-Consider how to advance my tech tree
-Consider shifting defensive assists

...

Tactically, spire fleet and golem fleet shall meet at rebel world Tchladm. They shall oversee construction of mk I base. These fleets will hold Tchladm up to re powering of rebel's cloaking. Once this is meet, both fleets shall group leave and return to regroup in friendly space.

Meanwhile, human fleet ships shall regroup and defend neutral world Rarran, and sweep at brisk speed other planets once Rarran is secured via post and shield. Once whole fleet arrives, planet sweeps shall be pursued vigorously, ensuring damage to ai while simultaneously dropping AIP myself....Or maybe not. When will the CPA strike...they need ships...why sweep now? I am not even playing and am already seconding guessing myself!

Offensively, I want beam weapons, they look so awesome. Those defensive cannons will be used...at rarran? Why not, it will not absorb too much anyway. The planet will take its neighbor's human shields, and cannons could use 2.0 damage boost. But first I must reposition econ planets to ensure correct military MK III slots. The two destroyers and future cruiser of spire ships will all use high lvl shields and cannons, making a tough fleet. All in good time...


Lastly, for my exo waves, I have two at 80%. They will crash likely as my golems and spire bug out. Perhaps the expansion of Rarran will wait, as the human fleet must camp at homeworld now.
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