[COMPLETE][WIN][1/1][TRIAL] Moving Faster: Go Go Shadow Rangers! (35:21)

[Radiant Phoenix]

The other campaign was getting tedious, so... woo, speedrun time! AI difficulty 1, with -300% handicap and +300% for me!

20 planet honeycomb with 4 nomads and 8 champions. Save available.

Offense will be champs and Spire, so I'll unlock ENG-2 for speed, Mil-2 for defense, and also a stack of turrets: Core-4 to 2, plus spider-1 turrets to nail attackers to the floor.

Build some Sci-2 for K-gather, as well as the survey ship. Spider-1 and missile-2 turrets in case of AI pokes, and some fleet ships for mobile defense (fighter and anti-armor, because I didn't think about what to select for bonus ship type). Also scouts for lazy-intel.

Champs will go pop nomad-2 to stop mk-4 reinforcements, then all the other non-nomad worlds that don't border core worlds. Colonization on the double!

... I think metal harvester upgrades might actually make sense this game, because I don't plan to have many interior planets. Let me math:

• Planning to take 7 non-homeworld planets right now
• Two will be interior = +1408 metal + 205000 E
• 42 harvesters = +1680 metal

If I go to Mk3:

• CS: +~4k metal, + 505000 E
• harv: +~6k metal

Econ looks nice. Let's do that now.

Huh, what's this exile intel thingy? Is that how this works? I'm seeing two likely candidates, one of which I will capture.

Hey, IMT is giving me 800M/s! Good IMT! Whoa, that's a lot of offroad ships to build...

Hmm... auto-scout-picket might work...

Engy-3s for the speed!

Wow, my economy is so far in the toilet it can see china. Econ-3!

Wow, that did something between "diddly" and "squat". Time to suspend turret-building on Nomad 2 for a moment...

Oh hey, an artillery golem!

Economy momentarily in the black. Build those fighters I got the fabber for...

Hmm... primary ARS unlock on Nomad 4 is space planes. Seems legit, let's take it!

Hey, Mil-3 time! Go!

Eh, did I just unlock Missile turret 3 instead of buildin it? W/e

Oh, and I found the blade. Maybe I'll turtle up and rebuild it... or maybe I'll ignore it and stomp a lobotomized cockroach with my own two feet.

Note: handling 8 champs with the current interface is awkward. Will probably not do again.

Minute 6, BTW

[Radiant Phoenix]

Oh, hey, more offroads. Let's start by building IREs. Also, spaceplanes, and rebuilding the ARTY golem.

Still only Shadow Cruiser. Let's take another planet.

Yet another subspace signal -- on Zalgo. Where's that?

Oh, huh, shoulda scanned that ARS before popping the CS. Oh well. Also, Zalgo has the Blade. Let's just go scan that...

Pooey, I could have had Zenith Devastators. Instead, I get Laser Gatlings.

Dangit, I've still only got Shadow Cruisers! Maybe if I caputer the LasGat ARS... nope.

Whatevs. Refleet into human Beam+Paralyzers. Wow, what a PITA.

Code: [Select]

for each champion:
    open "STATS"
    press "SWITCH UI TO" for $champion
    exit "STATS"
    open "CTRLS"
    open "Champion Unlocks"
    for i in {2..5}:
    click "HBC module"
    click "OK"
    click "Paralyzer module"
    click "OK"
click "Ship Design"
click "Copy From Disk"
click "OK"
click "Human Shadow Cruiser"
click $design
click "Switch To Form"
switch back to regular UI
Now, let's unlock better sniper turrets. And better other turrets. Mk3.

End minute 8

[Radiant Phoenix]

I think I'll try out a run on AI 2's HW soon. (It's the one without a Wrath Lance, and not guarded by a wall of subcommanders)

Also, more turrets.

... wait, I can build how many modforts?

Hmm... Nomad 1 seems to be moving nearby soon. Maybe I'll hack it and grab the beacon...

Economy no likey me. Harvester upgrades! ... I can't afford them.

Better kick the AI's teeth in some more and take some more of its lunch money.

... I have about three times as many ships as the AIs do. O_o

8:30

[zoutzakje]

difficulty 1? lol
There is something interesting you could try with difficulty 1 AI's even though it could be just as tedious as your other game (though probably will be done a lot faster). Turn every minor faction and plot on with 10/10 scaling and a fun map like crosshatch or something and a decent amount of planets. I tried that a while ago, was actually pretty fun.
can you guess what force will dominate the galaxy? It's not the AI's

[Radiant Phoenix]

difficulty 1? lol
There is something interesting you could try with difficulty 1 AI's even though it could be just as tedious as your other game (though probably will be done a lot faster). Turn every minor faction and plot on with 10/10 scaling and a fun map like crosshatch or something and a decent amount of planets. I tried that a while ago, was actually pretty fun.
can you guess what force will dominate the galaxy? It's not the AI's

Dark Spire. Maybe player.

[Radiant Phoenix]

Attacking FATZ with the champs. Wow, I almost couldn't find any sign of AI presence!

Capturing it and its Spire Archive. Battleships unlocked.

First shard in 3 seconds. Better be ready. Wait... what? Only 10 ships? Strength 21? What? Pathetic! I'm in more danger from mismanaging my economy!

Oh, 614, there we go. Also, Harv2.

Wait, most of that threat is enclaves. :facepalm:

Why does the Spire Archive say it gathers 20K/s when it's only gathering 5K/s? TO THE BUG REPORT MOBILE!

10:28

[Radiant Phoenix]

I think I'll nuke the AI homeworlds. Don't wanna deal with those fort-3s

Hmm... my Champs should be theoretically capable of popping almost any core guard post in one volley. Let's see if that holds up... after I've fortified a bit.

Oh bacon, that shard is dawdling. 'Aint nobody got time for its lazy butt! We'll just have to use other assets! To the Nomad Beacon!

Hmm... a fort-3 on a planet I want to take. *sigh*, I guess it's time to respec the champs into Neinzul assassins... with nanosubverters.

Oh, tedium. Wait, why did my Offroad structures momentarily blink down to single-champ caps? Whatever. I want to buiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild... Illumins.

Wow, the Blade is pokey. If I intend to use it to [REDACTED], I'll clearly either need to bring down the Lance, or do it to AI 2.

Build ALL THE FLEET SHIPS! And some starships as well!

Hahah! What's a fort 3? ASHES! Hack time!

Also, more light Offroad ships. Can never have too many of those.

14:06

Even for this short run, I must sleep.

[Pumpkin]

Fun project. I remember my first (and last) diff 1/1 game; I was toying with younglings + mobile space docks. It was a big map (maybe just 80 planets, but with diff 1 it felt really empty) and when I realized that diff 1/1 was not a sandbox but just a box (with not even sand in it), the MSDocks beelined to the AI homes and swarmed the core GPosts from afar.

This strategy proved effective at normal difficulty, even during home assault.

Speaking of tedious game, why 1/1? Anyway, have fun!

[Radiant Phoenix]

I'm starting this idea with 1/1 and plan to work up as I get more familiar with moving quickly. Someday I hope to beat 10/10 in trial mode.

[Radiant Phoenix]

A new day has dawned, and we are back in business. Cue music

I plop down a couple more turrets on Wetzel, and now it's time to have some of my champs go mess with some data centers. (Like that matters)

Hmm... raptors or Zombards... Raptors, probably. DEE PEE ESS!

Also, more music, this time from a game I played when I was younger.

What's that? Roaming Enclaves on Wetzel? Fleet! I choose you! Also, champs: pop the CS on Jim's Restaurants, so I can capture it. And science vessels! Unlock Harv3! (minor inconvenience)

Jim's Restaurants captured! Very ship! Wow! Such unlock! How convenient to be facing 2x chivalric AI! Oh, huh turret controllers!

Also, advancing to building acid-type offroads in addition to lights. Maybe a rally post is also warranted.

Oh look! Shard finally dawdled its way home! Let's do its thing too! Maybe I'll put a bigger FF over CS-home too.

Hmm... still a minute left on the bacon hack, so I'll send the fleet in and have the champs go offense somewhere else. Somewhere like a core world.

Beacon hacked. Capture it and the core world... which also has the botnet golem. Beacon and botnet captured. Oh, hey, Mk5 flagships!

... wait, I thought Mk5 turrets were switched to per galaxy. Guess not! Let's put 'em on half my planets!

Anyway, time for champs to invade a homeworld: Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits!

Wow, I'm actually slightly outgunned here... better solve it by going fast!

Artillery golem is finally online! Send it to my homeworld!

... nomad links have changed. Apparently they never link to each other.

Champs got eaten by a fortress. Why wouldn't they shoot it from outside its range?

Wait... why aren't champs affected by speed settings?

Ooh! Money! Let's spend it on the Beacon! Shiny!

Subspace signal on Lee Roy Selmon! Go go survey ship and escort fleet!

Champion refleets are fast, so there goes the Fort-3. Now I just need to get the AIHCS... Why can't I get Mk5 forcefields?

... what was that flash? Oh, it was just the HCS dying... I didn't know they did that.

Send in the respawned champ, and...

25:37

[Radiant Phoenix]

Invade Nomad 3.

The Beacon isn't punching my economy hard enough, so let's do the Blade too. This time with 5x Mk3 engineers.

Whoa... that was fast: Exogalactic response in 30 minutes! ... like that will ever happen!

... I suppose I could bear to sacrifice Nomad 2 or Nomad 4...

Anyway, Champs! Hop to Domino's Pizza before the link breaks!

Oh, look, my economy is completely flopped. Maybe I should slow down the Blade-building...

I will build the refugee outpost, though!

Offroad fleet: pop Iz Dolan!

Oh, hey, I unlocked PSCs and can do that with my champs! Time for some tedium!

28:31

[Radiant Phoenix]

PSC+IRE+Spire done.

Economy still doing the limbo, so it's time for the Shadow Spire to attack! (Also, some matter converters can be scrapped, and some Milcoms changed to Econcoms)

More attacking, and I have roughly 20x the AI's ships. Pizza cake!

Time to pop a Wrath Lance! Done. One champ lost. Keep going!

VICTORY! 35:21