my first 7/7 game

[madcow]

Hey guys, I had previously asked for some tips on picking the right difficulty that would be fun and challenging for my second game (my first was 6/6 and felt way too easy), and decided I might as well post some of my newbish exploits and mistakes here.

I'm playing 7/7 against random easier AI, they ended up being a sledgehammer and a tank. As far as ship unlocks for them, I've seen teleport raiders, tank, munitions boaster, armor boaster, and space tanks.

I started with raptors - I love those little guys.

I have avenger and astrotrains enabled. Medium spirecraft, Hard golems, rebels, human colonies, and Dyson Spheres all on. Though as of yet, I've seen no sign of Dyson Spheres, or any other humans.

I'm two hours into the game, and only just saw a comment about an Exogalatic force at 50% strength coming in. Which I'm going to defend, then strike out against a few juicy planets I've picked out. As you can see, I've explored my entire side of the galaxy, there was only one ARS (Lancpeboat), which also had an armored golem as well as some asteroids on it. Naturally I went out to claim it, and ended up getting spire gravity ships as my unlock. I'll use the mark 1 ships in place of having to unlock the gravity turrets, which seems nice. I've not seen how they fare in combat, so that should be interesting to see. I already fixed up my golem there, and once I strip-mine all the asteroids (making some penetrators there at the moment) I'm going to completely pull back and let the AI just have it, not worth defending really.

The P1 level planets both had data processors, which I took out already. The P7 planets both have data processors which I'll take down, but other than that there's nothing on the right side of the map worth taking.  I haven't taken down the warp gates on Tiza, or Nowanwep yet, I'll do that so any hits against my homeworld have to go through Iusvo, which happens to have a mark IV ion cannon defending it.

In terms of other unlocks, I'm Mark 2 in my fleet ships, my raptors, and my spire gravity ships. I have Mark 3 scouts, and mark 3 crystal/metal harvesters. I've been building econ-stations, but I'll likely replace them with logistics when I have more planets.

Once I do set out to attack, I'll be claiming the P8 planets, which have fabricators. Netho has Mark IV blade spawners, Raenei has Mark IV Star bombers and a regenerator golem, and Owsuo has Star Warbirds, and an experimental translocator. I will take Netho and Raenel, Owsuo I'll save for later if I decide I need the help. I'll probably just take those two planets, then scout out further rather than developing a big secondary core of planets. Though I'm toying with the idea of taking  the whole area, as it will probably be easier to defend - I doubt its worth the AIP to do. We'll see.

First, I'm going to concentrate on defending this exogalatic strike force, building up defenses, and warp gate raiding so my home base is safer. And this post is getting a little more long-winded then I intended, so I'll cut this post off for now. I'm sure I'm missing something, oh well!

The post where I asked for advice on what difficulty to play, and initial "how my game went" is right over here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,10323.0.html

Edit: I called the data processors AI-cores. Fixed now, but oops! My bad on any confusion there.

[Diazo]

Looks pretty good so far.

My only question would be what are AI-cores?

And ya, that exo-galactic strike force will be your first real test.

D.

[madcow]

Hmm, I might have forgotten what they're called, if they're not cores. When you blow them up you get -20 AIP a pop.

[Diazo]

Ah, Data Centers.

Yes, those are lovely structures. 

D.

[Wanderer]

Once I do set out to attack, I'll be claiming the P8 planets, which have fabricators. Netho has Mark IV blade spawners, Raenei has Mark IV Star bombers and a regenerator golem, and Owsuo has Star Warbirds, and an experimental translocator. I will take Netho and Raenel, Owsuo I'll save for later if I decide I need the help. I'll probably just take those two planets, then scout out further rather than developing a big secondary core of planets. Though I'm toying with the idea of taking  the whole area, as it will probably be easier to defend - I doubt its worth the AIP to do. We'll see.

Sounds like a solid start.  AIP is reasonable still, and you've got your econ rolling.  Which CSG's are up on the P7s?  I wouldn't go after them for a while, as you might find a 'stepstone' world along the way that will be more beneficial.  I usually don't pop CSGs until very late in the game, hoping I'll find a place I can pop one AND get a strategic advantage for it.  CSG-As of course are a different story.

For Netho and Raener, make sure you pop Netho first.  Why?  Deepstrikes.  Since you're already taking Netho and that's just inside your 4-world limit for deepstriking, that will give you a 'stepstone' to Raener without having to endure deepstrike threat buildup while you take the system.

By the way, which exact Grav Ships did you get from the ARS, Rippers or the other one (brain failing... too much work this weekend...)

[madcow]

Oh sorry, the P7s weren't CSGs, I had meant they were data processors. I'll pop the processors, but won't take out the systems due to them being out the way without much of anything else worthwhile there. I'll be going after the fabricators (P8s) and then scout out for more ARSs from there. I haven't really been worrying about the shield generators yet.

The ships exact names are "Spire Gravity Drains", it looks like the same thing as the gravitational turrets, so I'll be using the Mark 1s as defensive turrets rather than unlocking the turrets.

[Wanderer]

The ships exact names are "Spire Gravity Drains", it looks like the same thing as the gravitational turrets, so I'll be using the Mark 1s as defensive turrets rather than unlocking the turrets.

Ah, cool, you got the good ones.  Nice.

Try coupling them in group move with Missile Frigates or as an interdiction force for Raptors.   It's a beautiful thing.

[zoutzakje]

yup, gravity drains are the good ones, they can be a major help in slowing the enemy down.
Also, keep in mind that they're called data centers, not data processors. Not that it matters much, but it could cause confusion, since there are similar looking structures called Co-processors.
Good start so far ^^

[keith.lamothe]

Looks good thus far.  Upcoming events could be overwhelming, but that's at least half the fun in this game

[madcow]

Looks good thus far.  Upcoming events could be overwhelming, but that's at least half the fun in this game

I'm somewhat hoping they are! I haven't had a chance for further play just yet, but this weekend I ought to get a chance at putting a good dent in the galaxy.