Mining for Achievements

[Tridus]

Probably marauders, yeah. Nothing else would have done that much damage to a fortress beneath a spire shield guard post.

Anyway... Only one direction left to conquer! I'm not taking the planets near the first Homeworld, just because they'd be very hard to hold and there's really nothing I need on them. (Two spire archives, but it's not like I'm short knowledge with 80 planets. I should be able to get to 110 planets without most of them , so I may have to cap a couple in the end just to reach that.)



The remainder of the bottom area gave me two more turret controlers (Missle and Spider), and a Spire Blade Spawner fab. That sounds fun!

I threw up a fifth city and now have a dreadnaught and 3 battleships. Upgraded my cities to the new tier of tech that unlocks, and built more core turrets at all dark spire worlds (of which I now have quiet a few). Then I cleared out 6000 threat, all of which was next to Murdoch. Game stopped running like a slideshow after I did that.

Then the Hybrid finished what it was building, which was a Dyson Antagonizer. It seems to be living up to its name, and making hostile Dysons. That's up at the last AI controlled main hub world. That world also has a black hole machine. That's awesome for me when I go to take it, because I want one there and can't build anymore (I already have two in places I want them). It's not so great for this purpose, since I don't want to attack yet. So no problem, I work my way up nextdoor. Then I send all my fighters, bombers, missile frigates, mini rams, SSBs, and Etherjets in to fight and distract the local ships while my Champion and Raid Starships sneak in to deal with the Antagonizer.

... then the special forces showed up.

I know it was them because of the H/K. That, and 2000 ships (and carriers holding another 4000) just showed up from next door. My distraction fleet did last long enough to get the job done, but they didn't do anything resembling the damage I'd have liked them to. Ah well, I chose those because they're a fast rebuild and don't really hinder my defense (which is still a super chokepoint world + spire fleet + starship fleet).

I should probably do something to shrink that though, 6000 ships just showing up can make a bad day. Guess I could go around the map and clear out all the special forces posts in my territory. Once effective AIP is over 1200 (and total is at 2500), it doesn't seem like a bit more is really going to matter.

Unlock: Galactic Capitol everything.

Achievements Earned: Control 80. I'm thinking once I get to 110 planets I'll go ahead and build the exogalactic transceiver, because I want to see if I can survive the siege that what by then will be 1500 AIP will create. <_< (Or maybe I'll just rolfstomp the homeworlds with this absurdly huge fleet, either way.)

[Tridus]

Trying to move forward, I ran into the special forces. Or they ran into me, however you want to look at it. That looked like this:





It went poorly. At that point I decided to go ahead and eliminate the special forces guard posts in my territory (and there's a ton of them) to see if I can't at least slow down the regrowth of this massive force.

I ended up playing cat and mouse with the special forces, goading them into starting attacks and then whittling them down. Eventually I took out enough of them to start pushing foward again. Moved up and took the last hub, which has a black hole machine. If I can get that fortified (incoming Spire City #6!), then I'll be ready to clear out the remaining systems and try to get up to 110. Then it'll be time to end this crazy game.

[The Hunter]

That's quite an amount of special forces, at least there's only one H/K though.
Also it would be fun to try going for that Exo-victory, maybe create separate save for that, for !!Fun!!

[orzelek]

That's quite an amount of special forces, at least there's only one H/K though.
Also it would be fun to try going for that Exo-victory, maybe create separate save for that, for !!Fun!!

That would be for !!Science!! to check how much !!Fun!! is lurking in this scenario.

[Toranth]

I counted 50-something Special Forces posts in your territory in your screenshots - at +5% each, that'd be +250% or more to the Special Forces strength.  Yeah, you might want to get rid of those posts or just plan on dealing with a few thousand SF ships where ever you go.

[Tridus]

That's quite an amount of special forces, at least there's only one H/K though.
Also it would be fun to try going for that Exo-victory, maybe create separate save for that, for !!Fun!!

I'm concerned about it turning into a slideshow, depending on just how much stuff the AI sends. But maybe!

So, I'm nearly done conquering this area except for the homeworld zone. Threw up a 7th spire city just to get enough shipyards for a second dreadnaught (and fourth battleship) Up over 100 planets now, and 110 is in sight... then I encounter this:



Four mk IV Counterattack posts, on one world. The other planet I don't have yet in that area has two more. Ugh. I wonder if throwing up warp jammers before popping them would let me try to guide them to my chokepoint. I could take them fairly quickly if they all went there, but spread out to the other worlds I can't do more than one at a time because at this AIP they're absolutely massive waves.

That's going to slow things down some.

As for other stuff, I now control 9 SCLs and the 10th is liberated but not capped yet. I picked up the laser V turret controller, which I think is all of them. Picked up fabs for Laser Gatlings, Spire Teleporting Leeches... and something I don't remember. Oh, and Murdoch's Ion V is now over 15% completed, since I had no ships left to build.

Unlock: Everything I didn't already have. (Literally.)

Achievements: 24 hour game.

Next up is to clear this out, then cap enough worlds to reach 110 to get that achievement.

[Histidine]

I see you have met the infamous "Rude Gesture" subcommander.

Although in this case, the old proverb about "sticks and stones" comes to mind  >D

[The Hunter]

I see you have met the infamous "Rude Gesture" subcommander.

That, at least those are not mk5 posts.
Also there totally should be achievement on completing ion mk5.

[Tridus]

I see you have met the infamous "Rude Gesture" subcommander.

Although in this case, the old proverb about "sticks and stones" comes to mind  >D

rude gesture was right.

I cleared these out, which was something of a slog. When I popped the last one (so two waves up, a few minutes apart), this happened:
- Two waves were declared
- A CPA was declared
- A Rebel Colony appeared
- The Devourer Golem got between where my fleet was and where the counter waves were going
- Two Dyson Antagonizers appeared
- An exo finished charging

... ouch.

[The Hunter]

I cleared these out, which was something of a slog. When I popped the last one (so two waves up, a few minutes apart), this happened:
- Two waves were declared
- A CPA was declared
- A Rebel Colony appeared
- The Devourer Golem got between where my fleet was and where the counter waves were going
- Two Dyson Antagonizers appeared
- An exo finished charging

... ouch.

AI Sync: maximum!

[Tridus]

AI Sync: maximum!

Yep! These are not small waves either. They're stuff like 2300 missile frigates & 6 starships, at mk IV. 3000 attractor drones. Counter attack waves of 2000 mixed crazy. The CPA was 5500, half of which was mk V. Even a Spire Fleet can't walk through that.

Miraculously the game kept running. Once I clear it out I'll have time to free the rebel colony and kill the antagonizers, and that should also be enough planets to move to the endgame.

[Aeson]

You only have seven Spire Cities up? But ... but ... you have space for 17, with number 18 on the way ... Just think of the endless Imperial Spire fleets you could have had ...

(and yes, I know that more cities make the exo-waves more difficult)

[Tridus]

I've got what I need.

So I got into position to hit the train master homeworld. In hindsight that probably wasn't the best one to hit, but it's at my weakest chokepoint so I wanted the stronger part of the fleet there in case stuff went wrong.

... which it did.

First was a core CPA post. No problem, I expected that. Divide the fleet, deal with it.

Once that's cleared up, I move in. That's when the AI deploys the strategic reserve, and this happens:



If you're keeping score at home, that's one Mothership, 6 H/K's, 3 artillery golems, a bunch of other golems, and a whole pile of other stuff.

This turned into a run and gun back several planets, to the chokepoint. At that point the extra help from reinforcements and the chokepoint's firepower (Fortresses, Spire City, HBC 4, mines, you know the drill) won the day. Rebuild and go back in and it's a matter of mop up, though refleeting did take some time. I'm over 40,000 m+c/s, so I can pump out reinforcements REALLY fast. The AI can't recharge the strategic reserve nearly as quickly as I can get a fleet going again, particularly since I didn't lose my bigger Spire ships.

One down, one to go!

Achievement Unlocked: Control 110 (which oddly required 111 planets).

[The Hunter]

That was one strategic kind of strategic reserve. I wonder how many H/Ks would FS Ending Exo spawn.

[LaughingThesaurus]

It required you to control 111 planets, because you need to control 110 outside of your homeplanet(s).