My first AAR and post 7.0 game

[TIE Viper]

Well after messing around a bit with some of the new stuff and getting my butt handed to me a few good times trying to start a game I think I found one I have a good shot at playing successfully.  I started out trying to find a concentric map with no terribly long stretches in between its jumps to different rings (I really like the concentric maps.) 

Galaxy stats:

60 planets-makes for things nicely spread out but not take as long as an 80 planet map since my play style tends towards long games usually.
AI 1 -- Vorpal / Extreme Raider
AI 2 -- Crafty Spire / Experimentalist
Both on difficulty 9...always gotta go for the achievements! 
Non-Lazy AI

Minor Factions:
Human Marauders - 4
Human Resistance Fighters - 4
Dyson Sphere - 4
Zenith Traders
Botnet Golem Moderate   I may activate it, I may not, the decision is usually made mid game.
Broken Golems Hard -1   Exos on a low AIP game can be...quite challenging to say the least.
Fallen Spire - 1   Not sure if I want to go that way or not so I usually put it in as an option in case I feel like it.
Spire Civilian Leaders (auto AIP /unit of time is set to zero if I play with the civy leaders on.)
Showdown Devices

Single HW start, bonus ship = Zevastators since I haven't played with them yet.
Normal+Champion, 0% handicap for the AI's and myself.

The Attachment is my galaxy map and given my starting point the AI HW's should be in the dead center and on the outer ring at the approximate ten o' clock position.

I don't have enough time to write the other half of this before work tonight, but more to follow after I get back!

[TIE Viper]

Ok, getting setup I start fleet building and spend my 13K research points on the Mk. II of the triangle ships and the Mk. II Zevastators, Scout II's, Raid II's for their missile immunity and the Mk. I Spire Starship.  I neuter my borders and a few others beyond to try to be productive with my time while I am doing the preliminary scouting runs.

FIRST OBJECTIVE:  Get as much of the galaxy scouted primarily to find the Spire Civ Leaders but also to plan my mid game strategy.  While continuing to neuter branches up to deepstriking, I send my champion with a few Raid II escorts when possible much deeper to raid for Tachyon Guardians.  As I continue to expand my scouts' range by removing tachyon coverage, I start on the secondary part of Objective One by raiding the Tachyon Guardians specific to the five ARS systems.  Doing this allows me to send a Science II vessel to see what ship they get me for capturing or hacking them.

I get distracted enough while doing this such that I don't give the first CPA much thought.  It doesn't turn out to be very large since the Data Centers I ran across during my scouting, raiding and neutering still have kept me at 10 AIP balancing out the +10 AIP/hour from the Civ Leaders.   However my fate is sealed by the 100+ Spire Stealth Battleships from the CPA that utterly cream my homeworld.  I am forced to reload some time back because of the timing of the last auto-save (seconds before my death.)

Upon reloading I immediately set out to remedy this issue before the AI curb-stomps me again.  Luckily the backup for the SSB's happens to not only be within reach but also happens to be one hop further than one of my first two target systems for expansion.  This one is the ARS one, the other is a stepping stone system with unfortunately nothing important in it but perfect for extending non-deepstriking range while not having to protect anything important either.

I happily design corrupt and remove the SSB from the equation thus ensuring my survival past the early game.   

What had me distracted in the first place was discovering how the RNG treated me upon galaxy creation...

Bad news first:

AI 1's homeworld -- A Core CPA Post, I have yet to deal with one of these since they were changed to drop virtually instantly upon activation.
                            -- A Tethuda pretty close by the wormhole, not too bad.
                            -- A Core Sentry Eye...meh...
                            -- A Planetary Armor Booster,    well, damn.  I'm probably going to sensor hack then sabotage hack to remove that little nugget of joy.

AI 2's homeworld -- A Core Shredder Drone Post.  I don't have an opinion on this yet.   
                            -- The Mk. III Fortress / AI Home Command is very in range of either wormhole.   
                            -- 2x Wraith Lances...yuck.  Just yuck.      Or rather,    just 

Also, no Arty Golem.     But why RNG?  Why??

OH WAIT...the GOOD news!

No backwater nebulae on AI HW's
A very lovely selection of fabs for me to take or hack (see the 2nd screenshot.)   

The furthest ARS system (8 hops from my HW) will give me Youngling Shrikes, or I could research redirect hack for Munition Boosters or Vorticular Cutlasses.  I'll go for Munition Boosters.   

The next closer ARS system (7 hops) has hacking options for Eye Bots or Teleport Raiders.  However, not hacking will get me Protector Starships!   

The next one closer (6 hops) will hack for MLRS's or Grenade Launchers but I think I'll stick with the Zenith Chameleons for not hacking.   

The next one (4 hops) and 1/2 of my first expansion targets hacks for Youngling Commandos or Spider Bots but will give me Electric Bombers...   

The closest one (3 hops out) has options for Tackle Drone Launchers or Spire Corvettes but given my stellar lineup I think I'll go with Space Tanks.   >D

The only thing the RNG has yet to give me bomber-wise is Zombards and Ziege Engines!!!

...best...RNG...roll...

EVAR!!!!!!

ONWARD TO THE SECOND OBJECTIVE!

Part A - Expand to the two preplanned systems with everything in between neutered.
Part B - Neuter every Civ Leader System and their borders.
Part C - Free Civ Leader systems outside the reach of any Dire Guardian Lairs, gather research to bolster fleet strength.
Part D - Eliminate Dire Guardian Lairs bordering or on Civ Leader systems and free the rest of the Civilian Leader systems.

More to follow then.

See you, Space Cowboys.   

[keith.lamothe]

Datz a lotta bomber!

Yea, pretty schizo RNG there.  Like a guy who walks up, punches you in the stomach, and walks away.  Then you realize he left a hundred dollar bill in your hand.

Still, 2x Wrath Lances.  Ow.  Beatable, but ow.

[TIE Viper]

Well, I believe I'm seeing a pattern here.  Exos even  on 1 out of 10 that combine with a CPA are virtually impossible to survive with only a one system economy.   

I...almost came close to surviving.

I really don't want to start this game over or abandon it so I'll reload as far back as I can and take a few of my near neighbors hopefully in time for the economy boost I'll need to ride out the coming hell storm alive.

And BTW Keith, I think I fear Dire Guardians a lot more than Golems.  While Golems are a little bit beefyer, usually you get to see them coming and/or have more time to be strategic with them.  With DG's, not so much.  Those are more like a Pandora's Box of destruction nearly every time.

Ugh, sleeep calls, and a hot shower, not in that order though.

See you again in a little while, Space Cowboys.

[TIE Viper]

Upon reloading I find out by comparing my other save where the CPA has already dropped that I have about 45 minutes until it announces at 4:57.  I waste no time in killing my right border, the connecting middle ring system, and the Mk. IV subcommander system to the next immediate left.

I have to scramble to make the most out of knowledge gathering quickly, unlocking Mil-Cmd II's and pause all my construction so I can get them online ASAP.  Then after taking out the subcommander system and gathering its knowledge, I unlock Mil-Cmd III's and once again pause construction to switch to them.  I don't pick more fleet ships because I know I won't have time to build what I unlock and even if I did, I fear it wouldn't be enough.

The economy boost they give me grants me precious income to fortify!  With two FF's on each expansion, a handful of turrets on my HW's border whipping boy, and almost every other turret I have onto my HW, I'm as ready as I will ever be...

[TIE Viper]

The last turrets finished as the exo came through.

With the additional firepower of the Mil-Cmd foldouts and the turrets I was able to afford to power, I survived with minimal fleet losses and no lost systems.

Giggity! 

Now, onward to objective two...

[keith.lamothe]

Congratulations, you've survived to die another day!

[TIE Viper]

Not if I can help it!   

[TIE Viper]

So I think in order to preserve their lives after unlocking Mk. III fleet ships, I think the Dire Guardian Lairs sent a Dire Infiltration Guardian to blow up my car's battery to keep me from playing AI War for a few days...

...It's SUPER effective!!!   

Too bad for them it's only temporary.   >D

[keith.lamothe]

All garages need tachyon and sniper coverage.

[TIE Viper]

Prior to the whole Dire Infiltration Guardian car battery incident, completing objective two was going very well.  I took out the systems with no DG Lairs on them or their borders and used the K to get Mk. III fleet ships according to plan.  Those additional triangle ships definitely made the crucial difference when trying to tackle those DG's.  With only one DG Lair I care about remaining, I freed all of the Civ Leaders which put the system where the last currently important lair is located on permanent alert also raising my AIP close to 300.  I don't remember exactly how high but I'm at 10:15 game time and AIP is 276.  The AIP floor is 102 at the moment.  If I don't destroy anything that raises or drops AIP, it will take 18 hours to drop to the floor.  I honestly don't plan on waiting that long but as I neuter as much of the galaxy as I can, waves and CPA's will only get smaller for every hour that ticks by.  I unlocked Zenith and Spire Starships, Mk.  III Zevastators, Decloakers, Mini-Forts, and HFF gens with the K gained from the rest of the Civ Leader systems I freed.  I also took the ARS system in the top right corner of the map because I won't lose anything important if it gets overrun and got Z. Chameleons.  I unlocked Mk. II and III of those as well.  I'm going to hold off on taking any more ARS systems for a bit because all of the others have something like a fab or Civilian Leader I'll have to defend.  I want to let the AIP go down for a while before I split my stationary defenses up to cover more targets.

The only thing left for Obj. two is killing that alerted DG Lair.  However, I must wait on my second (or is it my third?) CPA to drop.  It is almost 7000 ships.  Any singular Dire Guardians that get launched in the mean time shouldn't be enough of a threat to cause any worry.  After CPA clean up and finishing Obj. two...

OBJECTIVE THREE: Part A -- Neuter every planet that is not a deepstrike with the exceptions of the AI HW's border systems.
                              Part B -- Complete all nebula scenarios.

Oh and just to give you viewers a heads up on my galaxy map notation, it's as follows.
P0 -- ARS system
P1 -- Adv. Factory or Adv. Starship Constructor system
P2 -- Broken Golem system
P3 -- Fabs and/or Turret Controller system
P4 -- Two or more different types of P2, P3 and/or P4 desirable capturables in a system
P5 -- Unfreed Spire Civilian Leader system
P6 -- Data Center system
P7 -- Co-Processor system
P8 -- Super Terminal or unfreed Dyson Sphere system
P9 -- Dire Guardian Lair system
Also, generally the P1 notation overrides P2-P4, P0 overrides everything but P5 + P9. and P9 overrides everything but P5.

I'm glad to be back in action!
See you after, Space Cowboys.

[TIE Viper]

Well one of the AI's have unlocked Tackle Drone Launchers ...guess I know what hacking I'm doing IMMEDIATELY.  Luckily the backup spawned at my HW's border.  More schizo RNG love I suppose.   

[TIE Viper]

Or not.  No time for hacking.  Survival is questionable.  This latest CPA is repeatedly beating me down hard core...ugh.  I'm going to have to find a strategy that gets me more money and energy for protection, I think Fortresses possibly could be key here, in the 15-17 minutes I'll have before the massive quantities hit.  Everything else I've tried so far has not let me survive.

See you after I find my way out of this one, Space Cowboys.

[TIE Viper]

Okay, the first change of strategy I tried, which involved mostly more system depth wasn't working.  I refined it a little bit.  I destroyed/took the first planet past my left border and colonized the Space Tank ARS system I had freed earlier for the Civ Leaders, unlocked Mk. II and III Tanks, and colonized the system to the immediate right of the ARS one which I also had neutralized earlier giving me the Sniper Turret Mk. V Controller.  After popping all of my Distribution Nodes to fund my furiously scrambled defensive buildup, (this is starting to become a trend in this game...) I have Mini-Forts and 48 Sniper Mk. V Turrets on all of the planets I own and have finished building my fleet back to max.  The CPA is set to drop in 4 seconds upon resuming from pause.  I will see where the biggest part it comes from and try to build one, possibly two Fortresses to bar the path into my territory.

Once again the stage for the battle is set as good as I can make it.

If I can't survive it like this, I don't think this game will be possible to win.

One way or another...
See you on the other side, Space Cowboys.

[TIE Viper]

I

STOPPED

THEM!!!

Finally...

I had a bit left to clean up, but time during that to hack the Tackle Drone Launchers away and 1/2 of the Tractor Platforms.

Time for some well deserved sleep.

Goodnight and, well, good morning also Space Cowboys!