Alright, savescummed to 1:48:53. Things went horribly horribly wrong last time an hour from now.
First thing's first, where the heck am I at?
-- State of the universe --Econ: Famine
Research: 11,000 K available
AIP: 83Research unlocked:
- HBC I
- Spire Corvette II
- Harvester IIs
- FF IIs
- Mini-Forts
- Grav Is
- Tachyon Turrets
Well, that's pretty weak.
Universe:
Local pathing and CPA attack vector:
The problem is Solaris VII is sitting on a massive Barracks, so is, I believe, one of the unscouted planets along the north rim.
Matrix Defenses:
The main fleet, which currently consists of merely MK I triangles and MK I/II Corvettes is currently parked at Poker. I believe they just helped remove a wave attack. They get sent back to Strana to reinforce.
This is before I popped the remaining Warpgate and Eye on Nero's Fiddle into Poker and the 'wrong path' warp gate on Skye into Matrix.
I've got two Raid SSs waiting for their third partner, and they'll go Ion/Gate hunting on Skye to bring that into line. That leaves an immediate threat for Poker. That needs to get re-arranged quickly.
-- Preparations --Change of plans for the main fleet. The triangle brigade will help to deal with released threat in Poker. The Corvettes will need some repairs and then are heading in to start Eye gouging. A good chunk of my econ is currently going to rebuilding the mini-forts and FFs on Poker.
Remembering the constant econ problems I had last round...
1:50:00 Unlock MK III Harvesters. Research: 6,000 K remainingWith the econ still floored and my corvettes waiting for repairs, it's time to check in on the Raid SSs.
-- Raiding Skye --1:51:00 The Raid SS Is take off from Strana's shipyards with a mission. Kill the Warp Gate on Skye, and preferably the Ion cannons as well for later. Items of note on Skye: Warp Gate, Attritioner, Sniper Guardian, 2 Ions, 5 Medic Frigate IIs and a siege Frigate II... and they've got a Raid SS II as well. Lovely.
1:51:20 The Raids enter Skye. Shift-Pathing is ignited to the Warp-Gate, the Ion IV, the Ion III, the Attritioner, then back to Sarna via Matrix and the defenses there.
1:51:15 The Warp Gate falls. 63%/23% for the Raid group.
1:51:36 Ion IV down, 2 Raids left, 76%/72%
1:51:44 Ion III down, 1 raid left, 78%. Ditch the attrtioner attempt and RUN you fool! He escapes with 32% left. Skye mission accomplished.
AIP 88-- The Battle of Nero's Fiddle and its All Seeing Eye --1:52:00 The Corvettes head for the first attack on Nero's Fiddle. This will be a bit grindy.
1:53:25 Having done nothing but abuse the entry defenders, the Corvettes have lost all shielding at this point to the MK III planet. They are currently making their way down to the first base and have dealt with the Sniper Guardian.
1:54:06 The Corvettes have dealt with the two harassment guardians and taken out the first post. There's two Spireshield Guardposts here. I'll counter those after they head to Poker for repairs in a few, I want them to take out a line of posts first.
1:55:00 I'm forced to micro the corvettes into concentrating fire and taking out the harassers.
1:55:38 SF Post down.
AIP 89 The Corvettes are heading to Poker for repairs, and their HBCs are removed for Siege Cannons for anti-Spireshield Posts.
1:56:48 The Corvette fleet has returned to Poker and snuggle up with the Mini-Forts for repairs. Nero's Fiddle is down to an Ion I, a Parasite Eye, a Warp Gate, 1 Tachyon Post, and 2 SpireShields. Knock on wood, no wave announced YET.
Econ is also FLUSH at around 390k/350k. It's time to bring Flagship Is online for the main fleet and a SS compound on Matrix to build Leeches for wave defenses.
1:57:30 Corvettes have returned to Nero's Fiddle and prepare to finish the job.
1:59:23 While micro'ing the Corvettes to clean up the harassment and work on the shield, a 707 + 2 (MK II) ship wave announces for... wait for it!... Poker. Dammit.
They'll land at 2:02:00'ish. I redirect the fleet spacedock to FRD to Poker to support the defenses. It's currently packing a Mil I, 2xMinifort, 11 Gravs, 20 Laser Turrets, 20 MRMs, 20 Snipers, and two tachyons... and the MK I triangle fleet. It probably won't hold but it will do some nice damage on its way out. The Corvettes will stay on track.
2:01:00 AIP 90 from autoprogress. The First spireshieldpost + Heavy Beam guardian just fell to the Corvettes. Wave lands in 3 seconds. The corvettes are sic'd on the final spirepost... well, actually on the dual heavy beam and medic frigate hiding under it to kill them as soon as possible, THEN the spirepost.
2:02:40 The last shieldpost is down, Corvettes stand at ~50% health, and the Warpgate on Nero's Fiddle Falls.
AIP 95.The battle for Strana rages on and the Corvettes move to help deflect/defend.
-- The Defense of Poker and the Siege of Strana --2:01:03 707 +2 ships land on Poker. 91 Bombers, 208 Cutlasses, 141 fighters, 125 Frigates, 140 Vultures, 2 Siege SS IIs, and a Spire SS II. someone lied to me about the # of SSs. Econ currently sits at 153k/350k.
to add to the pain, 14 threat pops in (including a MK II Flak Guardian) from another wormhole to support the wave.
2:01:29 360 ships get up on the miniforts.
2:01:38 There are no more miniforts.
2:02:04 The Mil I on Poker falls. The Main fleet is directed to Homeworld to guard and Poker is temporarily abandoned.
Initial contact on Strana is 137 Fighters and 72 Vultures. The 202 Cutlasses follow VERY quickly.
2:02:49 The entire enemy fleet has reached Strana. 440 ships. 29 Bombers remain, 131 Cutlasses, 110 Fighters, 118 Frigates, 49 Vultures, 2 Siege, and the spire SS still alive. My fleet has been neutered. All that remains really defending the homeworld are two miniforts, 20 Basics, 20 snipes, 5 HBCs, and 20 LRMs. Things don't look good for the home team.
2:03:49 We were semi-holding our own until the dual siege cannons popped the Space Docks under glass next to the home CC. Houston, we have a problem. There are still 227 enemy ships left in system.
2:04:08 The Corvettes make it home, to the resounding cheers of the command center. They immediately get put on FRD.
2:04:25 The hastily erected space dock outside of the FFs comes online and begins mass fighter I production. Cannon Fodder to the rescue!
That was CLOSE, but I'm finally in a position to strike out at the world.
-- Rebuilding Poker and tactical evaluations --Alright, step one, ship some Rebuilders out to Poker and begin the healing process. The Corvette fleet heads over to cover the rebuild in case any of that 76 threat gets some ideas, though all of the visible amount of it is parked out in Skye from the Raid run.
Is there any particular reason 5 rebuilders just blew PAST the cc scraps and went straight for the farthest turrets they could reach? I can't seem to force them to hit the CC scraps, either.
At
2:06:20 Poker CC is operational again. The nearly dead corvettes snuggle up to the mini-forts and wait for some much needed repairs.
Scouts can't seem to stay alive when I get the 4 Scout I's left to Solaris VII. I realize part of the problem and nuke the two scouts on planets I already own. The Home Space Dock is now set to produce all ships again, including Scout Is. Let's try that again with 6 of 'em.
Solaris VII, in the very brief moments I can see it, has 700+ ships on it and is a MK III. That needs to go... but first, is there anywhere I can harass a SF prize? Answer... not easily. Alright, I've got a few immediate tasks.
Let's review my immediate goals for the next 45 minutes.
1) Nerf Solaris VII so half+ of the CPA doesn't pour in the back door.
2) Pop the two Data Centers I'm aware of on Argyle and HotStar
3) Bring up a second Whipping Boy down on Sox to seal the cluster against CPAs and Threatfleet
4) Rescout the eastern rim of the home cluster.
5) Take a whittling team over to Arrakkis with its 217 ships and smack it around a bit.
Of these, the Assault of the Data Centers will probably both be the hardest as well as most annoying.
I want to get a picket on Solaris VII asap. That's the first goal. Break open the front door, blow the tachyon post. It's only got an Ion I on it but really... that's enough. It's also got 9 guardposts and is a MK III... and a D-Class CSG and a barracks.
Let's get the band together while the Raids prepare a quick jaunt to Earth. The MK IV on Misery is the actual fatest way to the Sox area and I'll have to deal with it eventually, but I don't want to get tied up there. I'm better off boot shoving through Earth, Argyle, Sox, and finally HotStar with the fleet + anti-Ion Raids. I'll knock off 20 AIP on that trip, too, and get a better foothold for Sox for later.
So with the fleet rebuilding... Go Raids Go!
-- Raiding Earth and Solaris VII --2:09:18 The Raid SS I crew heads out for Earth to Ion Pop through Nero's Fiddle.
Earth appears to have a preference for cutlasses, zombards, and polarizers. That should be fun later. The Raids will need to come along for anti-zombard duty.
2:09:52 Two raids are lost on entry into Earth from the alpha-strike. The last raid finishes his mission and kills the Ion I... and dies immediately after.
Well, that was a quick mission. Threat's at 108 now, too. A threatball is forming on the entry to Poker from Nero's Fiddle. I'm preparing to have to deal with that when they just commit straight to Poker.
-- Poker learns to defend itself --You wouldn't think 15 ships would threaten a planet with 20 snipers, 20 Lasers, 20 MRMs, 2 Mini-forts, and a Mil I. Even if the DO have a Heavy Beam III, Arty Guard III, Flak III, 2 Laser IIIs, an Implosion III, and a Vampire III, with assorted small fleet for support.
You'd be right. They really didn't. Not once the missiles and lasers went to work. But that's RIGHT about at the limit of those defenses.
-- The Fleet goes to work --The fleet is rebuilt, and now includes 3 Flagships for a bit of extra oomph on the road. The fourth will rebuild eventually.
2:12:27 676 + 3 (II) head for Matrix in 1:40. They'll land at 2:14:07. The fleet is currently organizing on Poker for the strike into Solaris VII's entrance and then will head to Earth for a Tach Drill/push to Argyle.
The fleet hits Nero's Fiddle, and clears the entry way and assorted annoyances while traveling for Solaris VII's entry. They reach the entry with 15 seconds to go on the wave timer. I decide to hold off on aggravating Solaris VII in case things go horribly awry and I end up with a two front war again.
The wave consists of (all MK II)
104 Autobomb ,
43 Beam ,
29 zombard,
82 Chameleons (oh, they'll be a blast to hunt down later),
107 paralyzers,
82 Mirrors,
22 Bombers,
x Fighters (dead on entry),
104 Polarizers,
70 Virus,
8 Medics,
7 Reprocessors,
15 siege engines,
1 bomber SS I,
1 Leech SS II,
and a Zenith II.
(and a partridge in a pear tree)
I decide I'm not worried. Alright, Fleet, off you go!
2:14:30 The Fleet enters Solaris VII and challenges the Tachyon to its existance. It fails. The fleet, however, eats a suicide guardian and loses about 20% of the ships.
2:14:45 the fleet retreats back to Nero's Fiddle to challenge the threat-drift it just created, which was sitting at ~190.
Back at Matrix, the wave got some guardian support from Skye, who cut the corner on the long range turrets and chewed into them. Hm, this may not go so well, but there's only 172 ships left there. What could go wrong? Not much, actually. Matrix will hold. I need a few more Gravs to deal with Skye threat assistance, but they'll be alright.
However, back at nero's Fiddle, I'm staring at 400+ ships... which, btw, don't appear to show properly when they're SF.
Anyway, luckily they're not actually attacking me.
2:15:44 Whoops! Yes they are, RUN AWAY. The fleet retreats to Poker. I've got a serious SF problem on my hands at this point.
Stopping here for now. I've got plans to meet a friend for dinner and formatting like this takes FOREVER. Catch y'all later.
