Mining for Achievements

[The Hunter]

Superterminals were pretty cool as long as being able to hold off zombie ships, though dunno how good they are after hacking update, haven't checked yet. And yay for spire city upgrades.

[Tridus]

Oh, with the firepower I'm going to bring to the party I can hold it a *long* time. I haven't installed the hacking update yet in this game, so I'm not concerned about that. (I don't want to do it in a game this wacky.)

Specifically I'll be throwing down a Military Command III, a Spire City (assuming it's not a dead end system, you can't put cities in systems with only one wormhole), likely a couple of mk II Fortresses, the full cap of mk II turrets, and all five warp gates so I can reinforce with my entire fleet. Before I actually cap it I'm going to clear the area out entirely so all attacks except the zombies have to go through my super chokepoint. By then the Superfortress should be done to help hold it along with everything else.

I'm hoping to get something like 400 AIP reduction out of it, but we'll see what happens. I need to get as much as I can out of it since AIP will be pushing 1000.

[Tridus]

Map update time.


Murdoch (at the center of the X) is my chokepoint and has pretty much everything that can be thrown at it. Superfortresses are surprisingly good at killing Astro Trains. I've wiped out pretty much all of the tractor trains, and most of the tachyon ones (so my mines are working sometimes). Does the AI get more trains if I keep wiping them out? Oddly the range on the fort with Z shows as wider than the actual range is. Not sure what's up with that.

In conquering Northeastern branch a piece at a time, I've picked up a rebelling human colony, a Plasma Siege V fab, a Factory IV, a Needler V controller (now have that and Lighting V) and Spire Corvettes from an ARS (not great when I've got a Fallen Spire fleet, but still useful). What's frustrating is that once I finish taking over this entire area, I'll still only have two SCLs. I expected more for controlling half the map. I will have the Superterminal at least, which will let me lower AIP below 1000.

I now have a lot of rocketry corps silos, and I discovered while dealing with those that military command stations (even mk I) can push back lightning warheads the same as it can starships. That has made dealing with the silos really easy.

Champion is up to the Cruiser level, I'm still missing two modular starbases and a lot of modules (no polarizers, IREs, photon lance, or insanity inducers). Also nowhere near level 40, so I don't think I'll be getting that achievement this game. Sadly don't have insanity inducers, so I'm flying around in a Zenith hull and blowing things up instead. Last nebula was Shattered Pillar three way fight, which in a destroyer is pretty easy. Particularly I soloed the Dark Spire bases, since if you run around them in a tight circle the photon lance does almost no damage.

Recent unlocks are Engineer III, Fortress II, Zenith Space Time Manipulators, and something I forget. Upcoming ones are HFF III, HBC IV and maybe Fortress III. Possibly also mini ram II and III now that I have the advanced factory. With AIP this high, the AI is giving the mini rams lots of targets. At some point I'll probably also grab econ II and III and throw them up in the spokes of the safer areas just because, but not until I have nothing else more interesting to buy.

I'm not going to take control of the Superterminal until I clear out the entire area, as I don't want any interruptions once I park on it and go nuts.

As for the vengeance generators... three of them are guarded by a Military Command II and a Fortress II (and some kind of forcefield). One of them is guarded by a Spire City (HBC II's in the hardpoints that allow it, laser III's and railguns in the others). Suffice to say, I don't worry about that one.

[The Hunter]

If i recall correctly, trains do respawn. Also how did you managed to not unlock all modular fortresses by this point. 
Good job on silos, do they keep EMP warheads away too?

[Tridus]

If i recall correctly, trains do respawn. Also how did you managed to not unlock all modular fortresses by this point. 

No idea. I guess they don't like me.

Good job on silos, do they keep EMP warheads away too?

Yeah I believe so. EMPs hit the entire planet when they go off so it's not as effective that way (the lightning ones aren't hitting anything), but it does keep them away from the wormhole if you put the command station on it so you can at least contain them.

[Tridus]

Okay. SuperTerminal time! Unfortunately I can't drop a city here, but I can put a lot of other stuff (including the other two recently unlocked modular forts).

On the way here I picked up an ASC.

Unlock: Flagship III, Raid Starship III. That gives me the IV's of those, and the already unlocked Neinzul Enclave Starship and Protector Starship. Oh, and Heavy Bomber Starship II & III, Plasma Siege II & III, Zenith Starship I, II, & III, Spire Starship I, II, & III, Gravity Turret III.

SuperTerminal started at 1312 AIP. While waiting for it, I was sniping astro trains. Since they basically all have to go through Murdoch, the AI's major project has been stalled for quite a while. I've also gotten rid of all the tractor trains, and most of the tachyon ones (he seems to get more of those occasionally). As a result, the trains aren't a big problem anymore.

During that, the AI attacks Murdoch with all its threat. 8000 threat or so! The defenses hold. It got pretty slideshowy. I did lose the Ion Cannon V I was building, but it wasn't very far along anyway. Honestly I only started it to see if I could finish one in a game this long.



Here's a screenshot of the Superterminal system when I finally had to stop it. From 1312 to 890 isn't bad! Unfortunately the game crashed at this point so I'm not sure how much time I lost.


Next area up is the Southwestern branch of the X, as that has the remaining coprocessors, four SCLs, and has a better layout to try and blockade the homeworld there while I work my way up to 110 controlled planets. Unfortunately there's going to be a delay before I can do that, since while moving ships around back to Murdoch to start that, I happened to fly past the Devourer Golem by accident. Significant refleeting time now. :\

Unlock: Economic Command II & III.

[The Hunter]

Wow, that's some massive attacks, also building ion mk5?... Not worth it imo unless you really have nowhere else to use resources, ions maybe instakill ships but their rate of fire is rather meh, forts and even normal defenses are much more useful.

[Tridus]

It also costs over 200 million m+c. It's just a project for when I have nothing else to build.

And yeah, AIP over 1100 leads to !fun! Attacks when things build up.

[Tridus]

16 hours in now. Captured a bunch more SCLs (P1 on this map for the new ones), set up a new base. The AI was kind enough to leave a black hole machine at a hub.

Only now I have a problem. See that Rebel Colony a long way away, next to a core world? I'm really  not sure how I can hold that even if I can take it, given where it is. Warp Jammers can offer wave protection, but not protection from the thousands of ships of threat running around (at least until they build up enough to attack Murdoch again and I clear them out).

Anybody know if I have to hold that world to keep the rebelling colony safe, or do I just have to free it from the AI?

[The Hunter]

Haven't had any experience with Rebel Colony, but from what i know you need to cap it and as long as you have station here colony will be invisible. Maybe spire fleet can help?
Also why you are not using your resources, build mercenaries or something.

[LordSloth]

Regarding Rebel Colonies, some information that may be out of date (they'll be in my next game, not this one).

Taking the planet resets the timer. Losing the planet starts the countdown again. The Rebel Colony might be vulnerable to EMP (Guardians). Generally speaking, if the command goes down, it's not an instant loss of the colony, you should have 30 minutes to get back there.

[Tridus]

hmm, okay thanks. I'll cap the area I just flattened, grow the city at this hub, and then get up there. Time to test out assault transports! Unforutnately I can't put a fifth city up there because it's a dead end, but we'll see. Hopefully the warp jammer and a solid defense will convicne the AI to leave it alone.

TheHunter - I am building mercenaries. Lots of them. But I have it in a control group so that it only runs when I'm about 1,800,000 m+c so that anytime I need to build something else, I can rush build it. Also depending on what mercenary is being built, the numbers can still look positive just due to how many engineers are helping it.

64 planets is quite a lot of resources, you have to really try to make it negative. That includes mercenaries.

[Tridus]

Alrightie. Take control of the surrounding area. Unlock Spire Stealth Battleships. Lets see if they're as annoying to the AI as they are to me. Also get Sniper V turrets and drop those on all my dark spire worlds (and a few other places).

Take out the surrounding worlds on Rosa, and the coprocessors nearby. City grows. Good stuff. While doing the coprocessors, I ran into the special forces. They were not a match for my fleet.


So I tried to get to the rebel colony. It seems someone else has been attacking the AI's forts:



No dark spire on that world, so I really don't know what did that.

Anyway... that didn't work out. It's too far away for transports and civilian ships to get there. Second attempt was to try to take a planet on the way, build a warp jammer, repair, and head out again. The AI responded to that by sending all the ships. Quite a lot of them from the next door core world, and core ships are a problem when I'm trying to get somewhere rather than engage in a head on fight. There wasn't any time to get up any kind of defense here before I attacked, so bleh. The fleet survived, the base did not. Oddly when I tried to bring up some rebuilders in a new assault transport, the AI on the world in between took the out anyway as if they weren't cloaked. Odd.

So I think I'm going to just let that colony die. Yes, 100 AIP sucks. But I'm going to be into tech level IV before I finish this anyway, so it doesn't matter as much as it could otherwise. Plus I really don't believe I can hold that world if the AI tries to attack it, given the layout right now puts it way too far away to get fleet support and I don't have time to work my way there right now. So, that's how it goes. Going to finish taking control of the bottom area that I'm already working on, then go from there.

Soon it'll be time for city 5, and then the AI will get to say hell to my dear friend the Spire Dreadnaught.

[Tridus]

Alrightie. I actually managed to get up there and save the rebel colony. Once I withdrew my fleet to go start doing stuff again, the AI came and flattened it. So nuts to that, I'll have to let it die. There's just no way to build a defense that remote that can survive the firepower that 1000 AIP throws at you, considering my best stuff is already defending elsewhere.

Anyway... took out a couple more branches of AI stuff. There's a lot of vengeance generators down here, but on the upside I'm gettng more turret controllers so defending them is getting easier.

Picked up Etherjets at an ARS. Also got fabs for Tractor Platforms & Medic Frigates. I know I'm getting TDLs, but I don't have them yet. Some more area to clear out down here before I can move to the last area, build my fifth spire city, and really get things moving.

[The Hunter]

Might have been marauders, they can attack AI if i recall correctly, devourer, which just all over the place or enclaves, which can be not only on one of sides but also hostile to both. Or maybe random dark spire ship went through wormhole here, all could have happened.
Also, aw, colony.