The silence is deafining. Even the space crickets are quiet.
Whatever. I'll just continue with my current plans of capturing the backwater cluster. Let's start by replacing the AI command station at Mu Herculis with my own. Pop!
Let's build an excessive amount of defenses (read: more guns then what is protecting my homeworld) to defend against the ships that never actually end up attacking!
For a MKIV system, Zeta Lepons is very poorly defensed. The most notable thing on the planet is the Ion Cannon, which I am going to just destroy instead of capture because it's in my way and I won't need actual defenses for a backwater such as this.
There's also the guns on the guard posts, forcefields set up around a couple of the guard posts, a single bomber, and a few riot control starships in a nearby system. The guard post guns will give me a bit of trouble, but other then that...this is a very lightly defended system! No guardians, no mobile sources of pain, and my bomber starships can easily deal with the odd guardian or riot starship.
Time to try out this 'beachheading' tactic proper for the first time in my career.
The majority of the beachhead proves to be very redundant. A full cap of sniper turrets rips through the defenses like butter. The guard posts didn't stand a chance. The handful of MKIV fighters sent after me didn't stand a chance either. The battle was over before it began.
Command Stations are immune to sniper fire, so I can't just pick it apart with my snipers like I did the rest of the system. This means I actually have to send ships down to kill it the normal way! Ugh, effort. The beachhead is no longer needed, so I'll just scrap it and move on.
While the AI Command Station is still alive.
Oops. Apparently this counts as having my stuff destroyed the normal way.
82 fleet ships?!? Considering that I am playing with Very Low Unit Caps, and thus that is almost 4x my cap of MKI Fighters, this is a much heavier wave then what I should be fighting at this point in the game. Also lemme guess the starship is another Plasma Siege. Meanwhile, AI 1's systems are very poorly defended and easy to attack.
Both AI's are
Mad Bombers. They can't be backdoor hackers or counter-spies because I would of seen those things immediately upon start. Unit composistion isn't right for a feeding parasite, stealth master, or vicious raider. A teleporter turtle won't be sending waves against me at all, attacks from both of them have basically been the same, and the other types aren't valid options for AI picks this game.
Welp. At least this means that Starnet won't be able to dislodge my beachhead in the Castor system because the Mad Bomber personality lacks defenses. Similar attack plan as before, only I won't use all my fleet ships and instead use my starships.
The bomber starships quickly clear out the riot starship and beam guardian, leaving the guard posts defenseless against my attack. I then learn that siege starships are quite squishy, but last a lot longer when a group of fighters are tanking the damage instead.
The Fortress proves to be annoying to attack due to its high HP and impressive 0.01% damage modifier against polycrystal hulls, but it eventually falls to a mix of sniper fire and bomber torpedos.
Meanwhile, threat starts to buid up in the Zavijava system from the cross-planet waves. I tried sending in my micro-fighters, but those got murdered without even destorying a single AI ship. The wave ships seem to be just sitting there, as if they in fact don't want to be vaporised by my homeworld defenses. How strange.
Hmm. I wonder what ship class the 16 cloaked ships are? I'm honestly not familiar with basic unit types, having played with complex exotic expansion pack bizarro units for so long.
Finally! It is time! Time to do what I cam here for!
I'll just use the existing turrets on the existing beachhead and hope nothing goes wrong. After all, it's not like getting overwhelmed and having all those angry robots slamming into my rear flank is much of a problem. Nope, not at all.
...Thankfully, everything goes smoothly and my defenses hold.
Success! Well, I don't need you anymore AI subcommander you can die now kthnks
Look at my new toys!
The mini-cluster is now robot-free! Now I can finally move in, capture the ARS, and start gathering metal and science and redeploy my fleet elsewhere and umm why is the ARS moving towards my new command station? This is new. It better not try to ram me or anything!
...Fortunately the ARS merely parks itself right alongside my command station, just waiting to be captured. Command station online, planet ownership changes, and the ship blueprints in the ARS becomes mine.
...Raiders? I can honestly say I have not fought with or against these things before. I can easily picture the AI causing havoc with these but I have no idea how to use these myself.
How to use in your fleet
The Raider is eponymously designed to make runs at AI guard posts and hound at isolated heavy targets. One might consider them as nimble mid-range Bombers, and use them for effective Guard Post hunting (although not gate-raiding). It may be a weak ship by itself, but it can to used to both kite and hunt down long-range vessels.
Raiders and Space Planes fill similar niches: the former can serve better as a general combat vessel, while the latter is more specialised (and possibly somewhat better overall).
How to counter when in the AI fleet
Defenses against an overwhelming number of these ships come down to effective Gravitational Turret placement. They are not strong individually, and will lose to both Fighters and Missile Frigates when caught.
Really? These will serve me quite well then. I can has bulletproof fighters next?
List of things to-do:
Adjust pacing of this LP! The early-game is over, so I'll focus less on detail and more on overall events.
Zoom in more when taking screenshots.
Immediate Goals:
Clear out the Zavijava system of robots and establish fortifications + command station
Expand outwards somewhat, build multiple defensive lines
Get scouts deep into robot territory
And try not to get murdered horribly. Bloodstains are so difficult to clean up...
