My First Time With Fallen Spire

[Coppermantis]

I finally got Light of the Spire! Yay!

Anyways, I'm starting a Fallen Spire game. Note that I only have a rough idea as to what I'm supposed to to. (Based on random talk on these forums and on the mothership description, I believe it involves building cities and somehow making a Spire-Human Alliance.) Because of this, I'll probably be stomped into the ground, but we'll see.

Specifics: 50 planet concentric map. Spire Stealth Battleship as my bonus ship type.

Minor factions: Fallen Spire, Golems (Hard), Spirecraft (Easy), Human Resistance, and maybe Rebel Colonies. I forgot already.

AI Plots: Avenger, Advanced Hybrids (This is probably a mistake. However, they're not proving much of a problem in my current games, so It's worth a shot.)

Oh, and AIs are Zenith Descendant and Attritioner.




(I'll important events and/or major battles, just to make it a little more interesting. Later in the game, though, the narrations will probably get shorter, and less frequent as interesting things happen less often. Or will they happen more often? FS will probably suprise me.)



An urgent message from Telemetry Lab popped up on the High Command viewport, Titled "Subspace Signal". The message described an unusual signal that had been discovered, and requested more research equipment in order to investigate further. The request was acknowledged, but since defenses were lacking in just about every way, construction of a Survey Ship had to be put on hold until some defensive emplacements could be completed.

It took four minutes to decrypt the signal. What appeared to be a message faded out quickly, but another signal, more distant, was detected two hops away from the Human base. Problematically, there were hordes of AI Ships in the way, and there was little chance of slipping a Survey Ship through undetected. We would need to, as the message from Telemetry put it, carry a big stick.

Alternatively, Cloaker Starships might do. An AI Wave is incoming, so defense is again our immediate priority. With luck, our defense will be adequate and the odd signal can be pursued.

[keith.lamothe]

50 planet concentric map.

A little small, but reasonable.

Spire Stealth Battleship as my bonus ship type.

In your favor.

Fallen Spire, Golems (Hard)

Probably not in your favor

Spirecraft (Easy), Human Resistance,

In your favor.

AI Plots: Avenger

Notable, but not as significant if your pursue the FS stuff.

Advanced Hybrids (This is probably a mistake. However, they're not proving much of a problem in my current games, so It's worth a shot.)

 

Oh, and AIs are Zenith Descendant and Attritioner.

The Attritioner's probably no big deal, but the ZD could lead to some significant pain with the exo waves due to increased fleet ship variety.

We would need to, as the message from Telemetry put it, carry a big stick.

Alternatively, Cloaker Starships might do.

Heh.

[Coppermantis]

Oh, I also have Spire Civillian Leaders on.



Aaaannnnddd, my cloaker starship disappeared. Completely. I sent it and the survey ship through the wormhole, and only the survey ship came out. I'll just take the planet.

[keith.lamothe]

Aaaannnnddd, my cloaker starship disappeared. Completely. I sent it and the survey ship through the wormhole, and only the survey ship came out.

Have you checked your kill/loss stats to see if it shows up as having been destroyed?  It shouldn't just not go through at all.

You don't actually have to take the planet, but it can be easier early on.

[Coppermantis]

Maybe it did explode, I tried it again and now I have both the surveyor and a cloaker sitting on the planet. Only problem is the attrition emitter. No need for unnecessary AIP Increase by taking two planets.

EDIT: It was a minefield. Of course.

[Coppermantis]

Part 2: Shard


The Survey ship, under cloaker protection, managed to locate the source of the signal. A mysterious crystalline shard was found floating in outer orbit. With the cloaker starship escort, we brought it back to our home planet. However, the shard was slow, and massive amounts of AI Ships came pouring in, looking for it. Did they fear our posession of it? Or did they want it themselves? Either way, it must be very powerful.

Warheads dispatched many of the Powerful AI Ships, but over 400 remained as the shard approached our planet. They were mainly missile frigates, as the warheads had cleared out all the non-AOE immune ships. These were not a problem, but a horde of Eye Bots decided to return. Several Cryo Pods were destroyed by the missiles. Due to the nature of cryosleep, they could not be evacuated to the Command Station or either of the two cities. Shame they had to be lost.

After the force was defeated, the scientists began producing another structure that would search for more of these shards, if more exist. The nature of this first attack suggests that the AI desperately fears our posession of these artifacts. Their attacks will undoubtedly grow more and more intense. Whether we will be able survive is questionable, at best.

[Coppermantis]

Part 2.5: For the Greater Good

After the construction of a Subspace Reciever, A second shard was located, again two hops from our homeworld. Remembering the near-disaster triggered by the first shard, we set out to improve our military capacity. In the opposite direction of the shard, several asteroids were found, each made of strange materials that would allow us to create a variety of unique and powerful ships. These ships, which we have named Spirecraft, seem like something that could turn the tide of any battle.

We first created five Shield Bearers, to escort the Shard back to our homeworld once it is pinpointed.
 
Followed by an Attritioner, to aid with defense while our fleet was away escorting the shard.

Then a Siege tower, also primarily for defense.

Finally, several rams and one martyr were constructed, to take out heavy targets or large numbers of fleet ships.

This last step would prove invaluable.

The Telemetry lab soon detected a massive AI ship inbound for our homeworld as part of an Exogalactic wave. Based on warp readings, it's escort was unstoppably powerful, in both strength and numbers. The martyr lived up to it's name and legend, wiping out the entire escort. A single ram made short work of the Flagship, a Spirecraft Siege Tower.

However, while this raid caused little damage (save for a lot of destroyed turrets), Hybrid Hives and Neinzul Roaming Enclaves are on an almost constant attack against our homeworld, Even our Spirecraft have taken heavy damage. It is becoming apparent that we will need to take more planets with more defenses to provide more shock absorbtion against future waves.

Meanwhile, a relay system of cloaker starships lies in wait over hostile planets in preperation for the rapidly nearing moment when we will pursue the second shard...

[keith.lamothe]

Ah, the good ol' get-out-of-jail-free martyr   At least they cost 4 times as much as they used to!

[Coppermantis]

Ah, the good ol' get-out-of-jail-free martyr   At least they cost 4 times as much as they used to!

I guess It's good that I'm only getting it now, this way I can't miss the old martyrs, since I never had them.

[Coppermantis]

This will be a short summary of my plan as I go forward.

The attached image is my galaxy map.

The subspace signal is on Arrano, marked P3. My main fleet is massed at my homeworld and Melvuri (P2). My homeworld and where I guess the AI Homeworlds to be are marked P9. While the homeworlds are of less importance in a Fallen Spire game, I still want to know where they are.

I plan to take the entire outer ring, as well as gate-raid Aeogiwar, Laude, Vulbang, Demroad and Noom to delay reinforcements.

Melvuri had a Cursed Golem, which will be useful. It also had three Xampite Asteroids, one of which I used to make a mk. II Shield Bearer. This will go with my four others to protect thesecond shard, since they're so painfully slow.
 
(Shameful note: I know it's not really a shard, it's the refugee ship. I went for it with only a cloaker starship, like i did for the first one, but since it keeps shooting I couldn't hide it and it blew up. So I had to save-scum it, I really didn't want to have to stop this early. Make fun of me if you like, it's just my preference. But this is why I decided I needed so many shield bearers.)

Oh, and another exogalactic wave happened, two martyrs took care of that. Thankfully, I took two distribution nodes beforehand, so I had the resources to build both the Golem and the Spirecraft.

[keith.lamothe]

Sounds like you've got the hang of this part, once you figured out how to cover the refugee

I plan to take the entire outer ring

That's exactly what I did in one game too.  Mostly just for the knowledge, in no way could I actually hold that many distinct chokepoints against exos.  Of course, I didn't have martyrs (spirecraft was off).

Oh, and another exogalactic wave happened, two martyrs took care of that. Thankfully, I took two distribution nodes beforehand, so I had the resources to build both the Golem and the Spirecraft.

The m+c isn't the real expense for those martyrs, it's those asteroids that aren't gonna rebuild themselves

[Coppermantis]

Just had my first encounter with an EMP Guardian. The Spirecraft and Cursed Golem softened the blow a lot though, so no biggie.

[keith.lamothe]

EMP Guardians are one of the AI's favorites, yes

[Coppermantis]

Part 3: The Rockets' Red Glare

Things proceeded uneventfully for quite a while. We should have guessed that this was not a good thing. During this silence the AI was waiting, and slowly massing on unscouted systems. Then, suddenly, our telemetry lab reported an incoming wave, astronomically larger than anything encountered yet, with the possible exception of the Shard Interception Wave. The cross-planet nature of this attack would mean that a single warhead or martyr could not do, as ships would be coming in intermittent streams rather than a single wave. Our homeworld was only defended by a small garrison and the Golem. The rest of the fleet was too far away to arrive in time once the attack hit, and even if it could, we would still be outnumbered three to one. Quick action was needed.

This may not have been the best way to deal with the situation, but it worked. The AI seemed to be sending ships just outside the wormhole, presumably gathering until their forces outnumbered ours. This provided a great opporutunity to blast the ships to smithereens, essentially resetting the buildup and allowing creation of another missile.

After a few times doing this, there were only a few hundred AOE-immune Missile Frigates, which one of two martyrs took care of. While this defense was successful, it also caused our resources to plummet and AI Progress to skyrocket. Our forces will continue to advance around the outer ring until it is fully captured or otherwise taken care of, then we shall go for the second signal. With luck, our forces by then will be adequate to escort anything anywhere without trouble.

[keith.lamothe]

While this defense was successful, it also caused our resources to plummet and AI Progress to skyrocket.

More AIP means more FUN!   Especially with Hard Golems...