My latest attempt...

[mmobley]

At the urging of some of the more expert gamers I am starting an AAR on my newest game and maybe the one after, so to show my strategies and get feedback as needed.

So... Here are the specs on the game:
6/6 Both Random Easier
7042283/Simple/Conquest/Normal
No cheats or auto AIP, no expansions.
Everything else default except Human Resistance Fighters set to 4
I chose Parasites as my special ship type.

First unlocks were:
Metal and Crystal mk 2
Adv. Warp Sensor
HFF mk 1
Spider Turrets, Grav Turrets, and HBC mk 1
Scouts mk 2

After some initial scouting I have found a rather typical setup. CSG - D on two of the 3 worlds bordering me (P2). The third world bordering me is an annoying mk 4 planet with nothing but resources of value. Asnoco and Ziperex both have CSG - A's (and ARS)(P9). Vinerasra also has a CSG-E. Hawa has nice resources (4/3) but a nuclear eye and an Ion cannon mk 3. In fact a lot of these worlds have Ion III's on them(AI type?).

13 minutes in and my first wave comes in. Fortunately I have my first fleet built up and ready to take it on . Easily killed.

My plan first is to hit Peudon(gate raid too) and Marthoonno with neutering. Then I will take Lyonquon(top next to Haasi), which has a CSG-D, and Asnoco, which has my first ARS and CSG-A. Next I will deal with Quicacu (neuter or take? Leaning on neuter...) and then take Ziperex for the second CSG-A and ARS. Hawa will get neutered and gate raided. Then I will scout out more, and report back.

[zoutzakje]

lucky that you find 2 ARS so close by. You don't need to neuter Martho if you're not actually taking Peudon. But if you take it then yea go ahead. I'd leave Zipperex alone for now since it's bordering that nasty mk IV world. Capturing that mk IV world would be unwise since you would have a lot of wormholes to defend then. The ARS at Asnoco is a good target to go to though. You can scout further from that and make new plans.
I might just be telling you stuff you already know though

Funny side fact: If you have CSG's on, all ARS worlds will have an A-type CSG. No exception. 5 ARS in a galaxy (always 5) means you have to take at least 4 of them to take out the A-type network. Just like B-type CSG's only appear on worlds with an Advanced Factory.

Good luck =) Curious to see how this goes.

[mmobley]

Yes, I found it to be very lucky to have two ARS close. Not so lucky however, that the AI has Snipers -.- (I blame Keith for that one ).

So, after landing on Peudon, then retreating and coming back with scout starships, I have successfully neutered it out. There was a Warp Counterattack post, so I'll have to deal with that in about 10 minutes. Now my energy is really low, so time to take Layunquon. Ugh, another Warp Counter.... And before I can knock out the warp gate a wave alarm goes off. Wonderful. So Layunquon is now dead and colonized. Soon as I dealt with the warp wave the AI tried to sneak in some border aggression to my newly taken world -.- but I handled it. The CSG-D is now dead, one type down 4 more to go . I had just enough time to drop some turrets in Layun before the first counter hit. Luckily my turrets in Haasi did most of the work for me; all I had to do was clean up .

Hit Asnoco until the 2nd counter alarm finished, then headed my fleet back to Haasi for a laugh . My turrets again did most of the work. This time my fleet didn't even touch the wave. Well I needed to heal my force anyways, so back to Asnoco. The ion cannon III was annoying, but my 3 raid starships knocked it out fast, as well as that pesky Spec Post. Also killed the gate first since I knew I wouldn't kill the AI here before they would send a wave this way. Easy enough. There are two more guard posts in here, and one of them appears to be a stealth one (presence of forces inside a forcefield, but nothing else). So I work on the visible one first, then head for stealthy. The reinforcements were annoying me so I went on ahead and took out the CC while heading there. My threat counter promptly went to ZERO as I cleaned up the remaining ships. Stealthy down, and the world is clear for colonization. Then a missile frigate wave alarm shows. Easy to deal with. Turrets cleaned them out fast .

And my new ship type is.... Raptors. Meh. First CSG-A down, and time to turret up.

Unlocked Scout Drone mk3 and Engineer drone mk 2. Still have K to spare, but I am going to wait until I have my strategy further planned. Speaking of strategy... Time to scout some more. My original plan was to do something about Quicacu. But I have been advised to leave it be for now, even tho they are directly connected to Layun. I will do so - for now, since I have a decent turret defense on that wormhole anyways. Vinerasra has a CSG-E on it, so that's clearly a capture target. Before I do tho, time to scout that whole area.

And boy am I glad I did! Next to Vinerasra is Aelro - a mk 3 world with another CSG-E. Killing Vinerasra would be a bad idea with this world alerted permanently, and to make it more interesting Edgiofu has yet another CSG-A/ARS and a DATA CENTER. Finally, Bangumca in the NE corner has the 4th CSG-A I need to take out. That was easier than the previous game for sure! Bang also has TWO Fabricators (Bulletproofs and StarBombs).

And some more news. Tioerpar in the middle is a Core world. That means Caucave is an AI Home, and Niwigpih is the other Core world. That is the best scenario one could hope for I think. Guess the RNG is being nice to me for once .

Shono has a CSG-C, despite being a mk 4 world, and a Laser Gat Fab. Not a bad place to take out either.

So, here's my new plan for now...
Achcharo, Hagta, and Vinerasra get full neutering (gates too).
Aelro and Edgiofu get killed and taken (neuter Yelocyae?).
Kinul gets neutered, Bangumca gets taken, Aechukin gets neutered. Both gates killed.
Shono gets taken, and Inifall and Cugorach get neutered. May scout further before doing this.
Aofu gets left alone.

[Mánagarmr]

I doubt you have border aggression already. It's much more likely is just remnant threat floating around. Always keep an eye on the threat indicator.

[mmobley]

I doubt you have border aggression already. It's much more likely is just remnant threat floating around. Always keep an eye on the threat indicator.

You are correct. My threat indicator has barely ever touched 100, and any wormhole attacks have been straggler ships just wanting to go to AI heaven .

So..... next update.

Achcharo and Vinerasra are fully neutered, but Vinerasra's worm hole posts are getting annoying. Mental note to clean those up later on...
Aelro had a Raid Eye, so I unlocked Raid Starships mk 2 . Eye go bye bye, and the planet as well. Edgiofu fell right after. Data Center too . Edgiofu's ARS gave me Vampire Claws. Not too bad at all. Better than Raptors . Grav Turret mk 2 is now unlocked, and when I get enough K I will be unlocking HBC mk 2 as well. Need the extra defense since a Core World is only 2 hops away.

Knocked out CSG-E and the second CSG-A, and turreting up my newest acquisitions. Time to head east to Bangumca. First stop is Kinul for a nice neutering. First I gate raided Yelocyae (do eyes count as warp gates?), then headed to Kinul. Kinul neutered, time to hit Bangumca hard. Easy as pie. With the Raid Starships hitting far off targets and my fleet chewing up the forces the planet doesn't have a chance. I'm planning on neutering Aechukin as well, since this has some nifty Fabricators in here. Soon as I colonize this tho...

Also scouted the planets for my next capture target - Shono. nothing of any value or serious threat. I will gate raid/neuter Inifall and Cugorach, and leave Aofu well alone .

I will post a screenshot next post. Working on this right now.

[Mánagarmr]

Eyes count as warp gates, yes.

[mmobley]

Eyes count as warp gates, yes.

Well that explains a lot! Okay, need to make a detour at some point...

Bangcumca is secured. New ship type is.... Infiltrators.... Bleh.
I'm going to hit Shono from Kinul since it looks ominous, No eye, but an ion II, so the raid ships go in first. They have enough health to take out the ion cannon and a couple of guard posts. So I send in my fleet, plus the reinforcements that I had come in from Asnoco through Hagta (taking out everything in their short path). Popping Shono shot my threat counter to over 100, but a cleanup of Shono and neuter of Hagte fixed that. Then I took my raiders to Yelocyae, which annoyingly shot my threat counter up by going through neutered planets -.-.

Shono secured, and I unlocked Grav Turret 3, HBC 2, and Basic Turret 2. I then turreted myself up and my fleet left through Kinul all the way to Yelocyae to eliminate the threat ships, and pick up my raider 5's . I have gotten several waves at Layun and Haasi, but otherwise quiet on my front.

I'm now finished with the NE corner of the map besides trying to scout south from there. The middle I won't be worrying about right now since there is a core world/home world/ core world there. Aside from scouting I have to think and plan my next move.

Here's my current sit-rep:
160 AIP (6 planets taken, 8 gates killed, a few SF posts, minus one Data Center).
Threat Counter at 21 (lowest I ever had in a game this far in ).
4 hours into the game.
CSG's C, D, E are killed. And I knocked out 3/4 of CSG-A's. Have the 4th located. Haven't found a B one yet.
3 ARS's captured. Every planet mined K.
4 Fabricators captured. No Adv. Factories found yet.
Economy good.

Scouting time..... report in a bit.

[zoutzakje]

you got maxed resources and you haven't suffered much losses so far. You sure you're making the game challenging enough for yourself?

[Mánagarmr]

Eyes count as warp gates, yes.

Well that explains a lot! Okay, need to make a detour at some point...

You can always check the tooltip for buildings to see what they do. If they have "Warp Gate" in their list of abilities, then there you go.

[Mánagarmr]

you got maxed resources and you haven't suffered much losses so far. You sure you're making the game challenging enough for yourself?

Hey, sometimes all you need is that morale boost of seeing "YOU WIN!" on occasion

[Mánagarmr]

Also, I see you are playing a "Simple" map type, you know you can change the map layout, yes? If you have nothing selected on any planet, go to the galaxy map and hold ALT and press right click. You should get a menu with "Galaxy Layout" as an option. Switch to "My Layout" and you can now drag and drop planets to make more sense of it and clean up the connection mess.

[mmobley]

Also, I see you are playing a "Simple" map type, you know you can change the map layout, yes? If you have nothing selected on any planet, go to the galaxy map and hold ALT and press right click. You should get a menu with "Galaxy Layout" as an option. Switch to "My Layout" and you can now drag and drop planets to make more sense of it and clean up the connection mess.

I see the option, but I can't seem to drag and drop planets. Keeps going into the planet screen instead.

you got maxed resources and you haven't suffered much losses so far. You sure you're making the game challenging enough for yourself?

Hey, sometimes all you need is that morale boost of seeing "YOU WIN!" on occasion

I have played a few games similar to this one, with a good strong position, only to be crushed during the end game. Don't judge me .

Back to the game...

I found both an Adv. Factory and a CSG-B!!! Murdoch in the SE corner of the map. Now the bad news...
A. I can't seem to get my scouts any farther on any front, and I have 16 more planets to scout, plus I still need to know where the next homeworld is, and find any Data Centers if possible.
B. CPA alarm just went off . 429 ships. Not to mention a wave at Haasi in 3 minutes.

The CPA is 13 minutes out, so no need to immediately focus on that. Right now I need to make my next move...
Quicacu needs to be smacked down. I am going to full neuter, rather than capture. A badly weakened mk 4 planet is less threatening than 20 more AIP before I am ready for my end game...
I went in through Aohasdark, to light neuter first, then I hit Quicacu with little trouble. Decided to remove a few of the wormhole posts to make my travel easier. Now the way is much clearer for my scouts, so I will send them forward while I clean up. Even hit Ziperex and cleaned it out, then neutered Marthoono and Peudon (again) as I was heading back to Shono to deal with a Counter wave I triggered... Almost didn't make it before my command station and my Gattling Fabricator would have been killed, but I did just in the nick of time .

The CPA came in slowly and massed at Aohasdark, so I came in and hit it from Quicacu. The stupid AI sent half the force IN to Haasi while leaving the other to futilely defend against my fleet. Neither one lasted 10 seconds in battle LOL. When everything calmed down again my threat counter was at 3. I know too high right?

I had found the last CSG-A at Foae (2 hops from Ziperex) tho it is rather pointless now since I finished the final one I needed to wipe them out. The ARS and Fab. would be nice, but at this point I doubt they are worth the extra 20 AIP. Speaking of ARS the one at Ziperex gave me MLRS ships (ugh - bad RNG no timer for you!). Also found a Data Center at Ickic, so I need to plan a raid there. Still have 10 more planets left to scout, and having trouble getting scouts to survive long enough. Perhaps after taking Murdoch I can make it...

[Hearteater]

Also, I see you are playing a "Simple" map type, you know you can change the map layout, yes? If you have nothing selected on any planet, go to the galaxy map and hold ALT and press right click. You should get a menu with "Galaxy Layout" as an option. Switch to "My Layout" and you can now drag and drop planets to make more sense of it and clean up the connection mess.

I see the option, but I can't seem to drag and drop planets. Keeps going into the planet screen instead.

Hold down shift to drag planets.

[Fluffiest]

If you're fed up of ARS bonus ships sucking, send in a science lab (Mk II is good, because it's cloaked) before capturing the world to see what it'll give you. This lets you assess whether a ship hack is worthwhile.

[Mánagarmr]

If you're fed up of ARS bonus ships sucking, send in a science lab (Mk II is good, because it's cloaked) before capturing the world to see what it'll give you. This lets you assess whether a ship hack is worthwhile.

This, absolutely.

Hold down shift to drag planets.

And that. I forgot about the SHIFT-thing. My bad!