Author Topic: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again (postponed)  (Read 4041 times)

Offline zoutzakje

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A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again (postponed)
« on: October 27, 2012, 01:07:51 pm »
Allright it's been a while. Real life kept me busy but AI war is one of the few games I always keep coming back to. Deleted all my old saves, time for a fresh start with some of the new stuff from the AS expansion.
My AARs tend to be quite long and detailed, so it might bore some/a lot of you to death :P But I'll try to add some screenies here and there.

These are the settings I play with:

Difficulty: 7/7
AI Types: Fortress King and Heroic
# Planets: 100
Map Type: Clusters - Microcosm
Campaign Type: Conquest
Map Seed: 618341767
Available Ships: Complex
Combat Style: Normal
Unit Cap Scale: Low
Visibility: Extra Fog of War
Show Unexplored planets: Off

Minor Factions:
Human Marauders 4/10
Human resistance Fighters 4/10
Human Colony Rebellions 4/10
Zenith Traders
Zenith Miners 4/10
Zenith Dyson Sphere 4/10
Zenith Devourer
Broken Golems (Moderate)
Botnet Golem (Hard) 4/10
Neinzul Roaming Enclaves 1/10
Fallen Spire 5/10
Spire Civilian Leaders
Spirecraft (Hard) 4/10
Dark spire 5/10

Auto Ai Progress: 5 every 60 min

Ai Plots: Avenger for both


So yeah, I'm going to get my butt kicked. 2 tough Ai Types I have never fought against and a strange new Minor Faction. Colony Rebellions are still pretty new to me also and I might actually get 3 exo's at once in this game. I will not play with the champion. I'm saving that for another time. I'm just curious to see what the champions from the Heroic AI type are capable of.
Starting with the Zenith Medic Frigate because it looks both interesting and useful and we're ready to go.

GAME START


Homeworld is called Atalanta. First thing I do is build 10 mk I scouts and 2 extra science labs. Sending 1 scout through each of the 4 hostile wormholes to see what my neighbours are like. Nothing special on the planets Blitz, Shade and Wild Gorilla, but Salt happens to be a mk IV world :/ It has a mk II Zenith Reserve on it though, so I'll be using that to my advantage.
Sending the remaining 6 mk I scouts to scout past Salt, only to find a mk III Ion Cannon and a Translocator eye on Ramses. Time for some unlocks then.

New Unlock(s)!:
Scout Drone mk II
Metal/Crystal Harvesters mk II and III
Advanced Warp Sensor
Grav Turrets mk I


Building 15 extra engineers to speed things up and making some fighters to defend this place in case some lonely AI ships pass by to say hi. Also building mk II scouts. I have yet to find a good first target.
1 minute later I get to see my first modulair fortress command station. They look... painful. I'm going to need lots of bombers this game.
Building some Missile frigs and later bombers while I'm scouting everything in the near area. What ships I build first always depends on how much excess crystal or metal I have got.

Current Scouting Results:
First ARS discovered on Kilia, 2 hops from my homeworld. Lucky.
Second ARS, first Spire Civilian Leaders and a Dark Spire Vengeance Generator (DSVG) on Poseidon
DSVG on the mk IV world Balm and mk III world Gargoyle
Nuclear eyes on Needle Egg and Iron


(11:40) 35 fighters and 1 starship to Atalanta

At this point my bombers and zenith medic frigs have been built and my grav and tractor turrets are online as well. Those 35 fighters are a joke. Oh right, musn't forget to build that warp sensor or my missile frigs won't know what wormhole to stalk.

New Unlock(s):
Bomber mk II

Wave has been dealt with and I decided I need those extra bombers to deal with the fortress command station on Kilia. I'll wait till i have a few starships ready as well before I attack Blitz.
At 15:37 the zenith traders come for a nice chat and a cup of tea. Bought a mk V Ion Cannon, OMD, Counter Spy, ZPG, Armor Inhibitor and a Radar Jammer mk II. They're all offline of course. Repairing bits and pieces of them whenever I have lots of spare resources.

(17:30) 36 fighters and 2 starships to Atalanta

I'm still building plasma sieges and mk II bombers so I'll just deal with this wave before I attack something.
Oh right, champion in the wave. These things are nasty. Full salvo from a caps of mk I and II bombers and mk I plasma sieges was not enough to destroy the thing, it needed a few more extra shots. And this was probably just the weakest kind of champion....

Blitz fell quickly to my forces and the survey ship I just build tells me that the subspace signal is on Giant Leech. It borders the DSVG world Balm so that might cause problems.

Nearly 30 minutes ingame and I'll continue tomorrow when I have some time.
Current state of the galaxy:


« Last Edit: December 03, 2012, 07:15:01 pm by zoutzakje »

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2012, 01:31:20 pm »
Welcome back :)

Yea, this should be painful ;)  But the base AI response is low enough on 7 that you may manage to survive.  And on 7 the heroic spawns shouldn't be too terrible.

The fortress king stations... well, let's just say that "pop the command station" is not the trivial activity it normally is ;)

Watch out for those Dark Spire.
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Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2012, 05:45:16 pm »
yeah I'm really curious to see what those Dark Spire will do. I got one DSVG on one of the "connection worlds" in this map type, so I'll inevitably have to get past that at some point.

Allright, just doing a little bit more scouting while I build some basic defenses on Blitz (4 tractor turrets, 2 grav turrets, and one of each attack turret except lightning and HBC for every wormhole. Also a few snipers near CC). Unfortunately scouting doesn't reveal anything interesting.

New Unlock!
Enginer mk II

Engineers are always a quick upgrade for me. I use a lot of them and especially the mk III ones can work wonders. Just building some more starships and then it's time to take Kilia.

(39:18) 34 enemy ships, 1 starship (III) to Blitz

Yes I did just trigger a counter guard post on Kilia. I'm not worried about it at all. I'm more worried about that fortress command station. It was slowly eating through my fleet when I entered the wormhole, along with a mk IV Ion cannon. Hoping I have enough bombers to get the job done.
Aaaaand a massive fail. Couldn't even get it's shield down. Rebuilding my whole fleet and then I'll try again. That single distrubution node I captured with Blitz comes in handy now.
Fleet has just been rebuild and a wave warning appears.

(42:35) 40 Missile Frigates, 2 starships (I) to Blitz

I know there's gonna be a champion with it, so I'll have to be careful. I still really want to try that fortress again first though.

(42:45) 32 bombers, 1 starship (I) to blitz

Ok now I need to be extra careful, saving just in case.

I just had to reload my save. Fortress command stations are officially impossible to kill with an early fleet. I'm going to have to get Rams somewhere or take a bunch of extra planets for a bigger fleet. Guess I'll make slower progress in this game than I had hoped. First things first, these waves have to die.
Right before the first wave hits one random champion attacks my homeworld with his slicer drones. Luckily my defenses could take him out even though it took a while.
The waves took quite more effort than I had thought, due to the champion. It just wouldn't die. I got 6 minutes left before the counter wave and I've decided I want to take Needle Egg. I just need to get rid of that Nuke Eye first. Only 3 guard posts guarding it, guess I'll go with Raid starships. Been a while since I used those.
Nuke Eye succesfully eliminated and 1 minute 30 to go till the counter. I'll strike Needle Egg after I dealt with it.

Woohoo, I love it when there is a bit of chaos going on. The Cookie Monster entered Blitz the moment the counter wave hits. Thankfully the Devourer doesn't chase us but moves on to a different world. Also immediately a group of 40 Marauders spawned, also on blitz. Now those might prove to be a bit of a challenge for my fleet.
Only about 1/3 of my fleet dies, not bad. Those Zenith Medic Frigates really help keeping casualties low. Now I want to find Shield Bearers somewhere.
Needle Egg quikly succumbs to my power and basic defenses are online just before the 1 hour mark. 15 Extra AIP (AIP over time and all the SCL), bringing me to a current total of 68. I have yet to find the first data center or co-p. And I want to find the Botnet of course, it's been a while since I (ab)used it. But scouting isn't my priority right now, I already have a target.
Now that Needle Egg is under my control, I can build Spire Rams. Quickly created 12 of them (mk I) and now it's time to attack Kilia again.
Needle Eggs entry into Kilia is closer to the fortress command than Blitz' entry, which is fortunate for getting the rams quickly where they need to be but not so fortunate for the fleet I'm sending with them. This better works.
It did. It was over in just a few seconds, as I hoped it would be. The Alpha strike from the Heavy Beam Cannon modules actually took down 2 of my rams and about 2 dozen of my ships, but after that it was over.
Before I captured the planet I checked to see what my possible choices are in case I would have hacked the ARS. Not that it would have been possible with that fortress command breathing in my neck, but I like to know what I missed out on. ARS gives me Zenith Siege Engines, with the other options being Deflector Drones and Chameleons. I'm more than pleased with the Siege Engines, now I get to try out another new unit.

Meanwhile I had another lonely champion attacking my homeworld, this time with bomber drones. It's odd, you don't get any warning from their attacks, not even in the threat. Their behaviour looks a bit like that from the hybrids, except champions don't seem to be running away when they're dying.

This is where I stop playing for now, Medieval II is asking for the rest of my time tonight.
Current state of the galaxy:



Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2012, 06:41:58 pm »
This time I will start with the neutering, which might appear to be more tougher than it sounds. Those Dark Spire could prove to be a handfull... if I discover what they actually do.
And the neutering starts with Origin. I move my fleet on the planet, safely outside the Fortress command station's range. I start with blowing up some guard posts and send in my rams for the kill. I gotta blow up that warp gate with something. My Raid Starships won't live through the alpha strike and I'm not planning to sacrifice my fleet to get them through.
Allright, I need a new tactic. 7 Rams won't survive the alpha strike either. Guess I'll just build a few cloacker starships and send the Raid SS out on a suicide mission.

(1:09:00) 191 cloacked ships and 1 starship (I) to Needle Egg

Unfortunate timing, but allright. The cloacker and raid starships should be fine just by themselves. Or well, at least they should get the job done. Meanwhile my fleet will hold off the wave, though considering that such a "large" wave of cloacked ships is probably just a weak ship type, my defenses might actually be able to hold out on their own.
Wave turns out to be Autocannons. No my defenses wouldn't be enough for that. My fleet helped taking care of it while my raid starships succesfully completed their suicide mission.

(1:16:33) 56 Teleporting leeches, 2 starships (I) to Atalanta

Of course, just when I was busy destroying the warp gates surrounding my homeworld, I get a wave launched to my homeworld. With a champion in it too. Guess I'll finish up in Wild Gorilla and Salt before I retreat to defend. I'm not very worried about the leeches, but more about the champion. AIP is 100+ already after all.
I'm in love with the Siege Engines btw. Combined with bombers, they're capable of taking out a lot of high health stuff, such as shields. Sure, they have to stay still a while before they can shoot, but it's not too bad.
Oh great, right when I retreat my fleet to defend against the wave, the Cookie Monster stops by to say hello again. I move my fleet around a bit to avoid him and he luckily moves on. I couldn't get my fleet where I wanted it in time though, so the wave (which spawned with 2 champions) can get a few shots at my forcefield.
While I was busy destroying Shade's warpgate after killing the wave, 2 lone champions decided to attack my homeworld. One of them actually nearly managed to breach my forcefields. It reminded me that my homeworld needs better defenses.

With over 7k knowledge to spend, it's time for
New Unlocks!:
Scout drones mk III
Heavy Beam Cannon mk I
Missile Frigate mk II
Zenith Medic Frigate mk II


I had to choose between unlocking mk II fighters or mk II missile frigs. Fighters have a hard counter against teleporting leeches and missile frigs have a hard counter against autocannons. I consider autocannons more dangerous so I picked the frigs. Medic Frigates was already an obvious choice for me.
Now that my homeworld is protected from regular waves, I just have to neuter one more world (Dodo) before I will try to recover my first shard. I have decided that Iron will be the place where all waves will come from so I will start buffing Kilia with defenses very soon (hence HBC unlock).
I'm getting very worried about that shard recovery though. It will inevitably trigger a Dark Spire... I will build some more defenses before I try my luck.

(1:40:49) 118 Bombers, 1 starship (I) to Kilia

Excellent opportunity to try out the HBC's. I send my fighters there just in case, but the HBC's and Lightning turrets proved to be more than enough to deal with the bombers.
Dodo has nearly been neutered. The mk II fortress was easy to take out with my bombers and siege engines.
Meanwhile my homeworld finished building the counter spy I bought from the traders. Cloacked ships will no longer be much of a threat there.
40 more Marauders spawned at Dodo just while I was getting ready to kill the warp gate. My fleet is a lot stronger than it was before, so they pose no threat.

(1:48:50) 166 Missile Frigates, 2 starships to Blitz

Figures. Right before I kill the warp gate a wave spawns. I'm not scrapping my HBC's only to keep rebuilding them so my fleet will have to deal with it.
Destroyed the wave with only losing a few bombers and now my fleet is as good as ready for the shard attempt. The 2 hour mark just passed, so that's another +15 AIP, putting the total at 133 now. I need to start finding and capturing SCL soon or my endgame will be really tough.

Allright, time to trigger some Dark Spire. Sending fleet into Giant Leech. Started neutering the planet a bit before I send in the survey ship. Some awesome tension-building AS soundtrack is playing while the survey ship countdown has started. And the shard spawns at literally the other side of the planet -.- Brilliant. Now I'll definitely trigger the Dark Spire. I'll just send the exo's through Wild Gorilla, that planet has been neutered already anyways and it should speed up the recovery process. Now, let the exo's come!
The shard reaches my homeworld without much trouble actually. The quickroad to Wild Gorilla proved to be very helpful. I'm not sure what I should be seeing if I triggered the Dark spire, but nothing seems to happen so I guess I'm still safe. The shard actually reached my homeworld faster than most of my fleet did.
Whole fleet (well, what's left of it) is on Atalanta now, the remaining exo forces are still pouring in.

(2:10:04) 171 Fighters, 1 starship (II) to Kilia

It says mk II. That's new. My AIP isn't even at the mk II threshold yet, though I know waves get mk II ships in them already. First time I actually see the wave warning report a mk II wave though. But they're just fighters, so I won't even have to pay attention to them. More food for the HBC's.

(2:16:24) 266 Cloacked Ships, 2 starships(II) to Kilia

Autocannons again I assume. Let's find out if the HBC's and lightning turrets can take on the champion. Meanwhile the subspace receiver is nearly done. I wonder where my next fallen spire target will be.
The AI came with space planes unfortunately :/ My HBC's and lightning got wiped out, but I still had snipers to save the day.
New supspace signal is on Kilia, which luckily (and strangely) is already under my control.

I conclude my report for today with a scouting report. The mk III scouts I unlocked earlier have been put to good use:
ZPG's at Mermaid and Slayer
Advanced Factory at Yuan
ARS and SCL on Poseidon
Another SCL on Ocean Dragon
ARS on Gust
Super Terminal and Armored Golem at Ulysses
Regen Golems at Wyvern Chick and Wild Wolf
Arty Golem at Dark Sword
And the Botnet and another Regen Golem at Living Armor


So a lot of goodies. Next time I will start moving towards the Botnet, taking an ARS and SCL along the way. I must fill the galaxy with zombies.

Current state of the galaxy:



« Last Edit: October 30, 2012, 07:21:24 pm by zoutzakje »

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2012, 10:39:53 am »
I absolutely love the new music from the AS expansion. I'm already humming along with most of them. Is it just me or did the AS expansion deliver us more new soundtracks than LotS did?

Furthermore I really like the idea of the microcosm map. I can see parts of simple, concentric and crosshatch map types. Those appear to be the main three though, when generating new map seeds. I would love having x, spokes, lattice, etc to also be a part of it. That would kind of fullfill my wish to see a random map type option.

Anyway, it's been a week. Back to the game.

Being overly confident about my AI war skills, I decide to get the FS Refugee Ship back first, even though the time for auto AIP and SCL is ticking. Signal is on Kilia, one of my own planets. Full fleet is ready.

Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce Detected (50%) (Broken Golems - Hard)
Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce Detected (50%) Spirecraft - Hard)


one minute to go on the survey timer and I get a double exo wave warning. I was wondering when they would show up. Nearly 2 hours and 30 mins ingame is a bit late, especially with AIP at 100+ for quite some time already. The broken golems one must be from the botnet, since my other golems are on medium. Perhaps make the exo say Botnet Golem - Hard? To prevent confusion.

haha magnificent. second 'shard' spawned at an fortunate place, close to the wormhole. Not just that, every single wave of enemy ships entered right at my turretball. Lovely :D Easiest shard recovery ever.

Good, now where were we. Oh right, time to destroy Dodo (even though they are already extinct :P).
Dodo quickly falls since it was already neutered anyways and survey reports tell me the next signal is at Guardian Ball, which is of course at the exact opposite direction of where I'm expanding towards. I'll get that one later. For now all my attention goes to reaching that Botnet.
Right now I haven't even decided which of the 3 worlds neighbouring dodo I want to take. I've still got to many planets left unscouted in this area so it's time to do something about that.
And the Cookie Monster enters Dodo -.- Better get my full fleet out of the way quick. Fortunately he moves on without causing a fuss.

Scouting Results:
First Co-p at Wind Element
First Data Center at Rat
Second Advanced Factory at Druj
Adamantite, Fabricator Plane V and Spire Archive at Kuchinawa

First Coreworld at Ghoul

That's quick. I don't think I've ever managed to scout a coreworld in a 100 planet game within 3 hours. After scouting the coreworld, I picked the wrong wormhole and my scouts didn't end up at the homeworld, but at Kuchinawa instead. So I still know nothing.
It matters not, I have other priorities right now.
I have decided that Penguiner, Forge and Gust is the road I'm going to take right now. That will give me the first SCL and another ARS.
Looks like Penguiner might be some sort of a challenge already. It has a fortress command station which is protected by a command guard post, which is in range of the fort.

(2:42:39) 172 Missile Frigates, 1 starship (II) to Kilia

Nothing special, my turretball should be able to deal with it.

Rams have been build and my fleet entered Penguiner to try to deal with the command guard post. My Zombards from a zenith reserve are destroying the fort commands shield already from a distance. Are they supposed to be able to do that? Fortress command still has the external invincibility.
Meanwhile 40 marauders join the fight. Odd.. This is the third time I'm seeing marauders but I haven't seen any resistance fighters yet. Oh well, they are not a problem. In fact, they managed to destroy the command guard post for me so I'm happy :D Rams in and the battle of Penguiner is over. Out of the 12 mk I rams I send in, only 2 are still alive. Fort commands are sick.

New Unlock:
Tractor Turrets mk II

I desperately need them. I used all mk I ones already. 13 mins left till another auto AIP and SCL trigger. I'm hoping to have captured the SCL on Forge before then. Shouldn't be too hard to get that done. Forge has nothing dangerous on it.

Allright, I may have been wrong about that. First time I see the new special forces in action. 110 teleporting leeches suddenly appeared from the special forces guard post, along with a few others. It seems like they don't want me to have that SCL.
They managed to take out a few dozen of my ships and I quickly moved to destroy that SFGP, making Forge as good as destroyed.
I like what the SFGP did. It completely surprised me and I shouted "Holy Shit!" out loud. I'm looking forward to play against a Special Forces Captain sometime and I understand why they have been bumped up to be a hard AI type (used to be moderate right?).

(2:50:36) 219 enemy ships, 2 starship (II) - Post (Counter II) to Kilia

And with that, Forge is now really done for. To bad counter waves don't spawn at wormholes or my turretball on Kilia would have been able to hold it. Now I need fleet support. But 14 minutes is a lot of time to prepare for a wave so I'm not worried.

-3 AIP from the SCL. I made it in time.
Before I take the ARS on Gust, I have to neuter Gargoyle, Zagan and Wind Element first. I want as many regular waves as possible to spawn at Kilia. At least until I have the botnet.

(2:52:37) 374 cloacked ships, 2 starships (II) to Penguiner

See? -.- That's what I meant. Space Planes or Autocannons. I'll have to use my fleet either way.

New Unlock:
Fighter mk II

It's about time I got those. I want to neuter Gargoyle before the wave hits, but I'm once again worried about the fort command. 2 counter guard posts on it as well, which I will leave alone. I just want to take out the warp gate. Cloacker and raid starships seem to work great.

But I'm running out of time to play now so I'll continue next time.

Current state of the galaxy is attached

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2012, 07:32:42 pm »
Allright, back to the game again. I was planning to take out the tachyon guardian at Gargoyle with my fleet before sending in the raids and cloacker starships to kill the warp gate, but the timer on the cloacked ships wave is ticking too fast. Have to deal with it first.
The 374 cloacked ships turn out to be space planes. And they came with 4 champions! damn. Good thing I parked my whole fleet right in front of it. It's kind of odd because the wave warning told me there would be only 2 starships (one regular and one champ, like usual). Ah well, I like surprises.
The wave managed to kill exactly 108 of my ships, of which just one starship. Not bad. Those champions were without doubt tougher to take out than all the space planes.

My fleet moves in Gargoyle to quickly kill the Tachyon guardian and then retreat. And I'm now seeing the Dark Spire in action for the first time. Spawned a few ships, which killed some AI stuff, which spawned some ships again, but nothing special yet. I'm guessing ships on the Dark Spire world have to die in order for it to build up, instead of near the Dark Spire world like the tooltip suggests. Yeah this could get ugly if I actually have to kill a lot of stuff on a Dark Spire world. I guess making a world with Dark Spire on it your wave-eater world is out of the question too.
Cloackers and Raids move in for the warp gate kill and that's that. 3 hour mark has passed too, bringing my total AIP up to 211. Only one Datacenter discovered so far and it's not exactly within reach yet. I realize that my AIP will hit Tech II before I take that ARS on Gust. I'm going to have to make good use of that Super Terminal I found on Ulysses later.

Moved my fleet to Kilia to hold back the counterwave that's going to hit soon. I probably would have had enough time to neuter Zagan before the counterwave, but better safe than sorry.
Counterwave arrived and came with 2 Shadow Destroyers. They were pretty tough to kill and actually managed to get a few shots at my commands forcefield before they died. The rest of the wave was easy after that.

(3:10:14) 202 Missile Frigates, 1 starship (II) to Penguiner

Figures, right before I kill the warp gate at Zagan. It matters not, my bombers are nearby anyway.
As usual, missile frig waves are pretty tough to kill. I don't have mk III bombers yet so I needed the support of my main fleet to destroy them all. Meanwhile my homeworld has finished building the OMD from the trader toys. That should help with the champ attacks I've been getting there regularly. Yes I do have to much resources, even though I never use econ commands.

Exo waves are at 84%. I still have enough time to neuter Wind Element and maybe even enough time to take the ARS on Gust.
I'm just going to kill the co-p at Wind Element already. This is only a 7/7 game after all, so I don't really care about AIP. I would have waited in a 9/9 game.
Right when I move my fleet in to neuter, a bunch of roaming enclaves attacks my homeworld. First time I'm seeing them in this game but that's only natural for 1/10 intensity scaling I guess. My defenses on Atalanta should be able to take them out. Allthough, they do come with a massive group... hmm. Moving a martyr there just in case.
Awesome, Cookie Monster came in and saved the day. My defenses would have held out, but it would have taken a long time to kill all the enclaves. Devourer stopped by and destroyed them all in a matter of seconds. Thank you Cookie Monster =)
Meanwhile my fleet finishes killing all guard posts at Wind Element. Moving in cloackers and raids again for the warp gate kill.

(3:20:03) 329 cloacked ships, 2 starships (II) to Forge

Of course. The AI seems to do it's best to avoid my turretball. I'll have to be faster with neutering stuff from now on.
20 seconds before the wave hits, 3 Mining golems Appear. Wild Gorilla, Blitz and Gust are their targets. I'll leave the one on Wild gorilla alone, I'm sure I won't need that planet. I don't get why people have trouble with the miners. Once again they spawn either at one of my planets or adjacent to one of my planets. Of all the bad stuff Minor Factions can throw at you, the miners are definitely the easiest to deal with.
The wave turns out to be space planes (once again) and brings 2 Shadow Destroyers with it. It really takes a lot to kill those bastards. My homeworld also got attacked by one and it made me realize I need to buff my defenses there. Without the OMD, the champ might have destroyed my refugee outpost.

I took care of the Mining Golem at Blitz and the exo waves are at 95%. I got a bunch of martyrs ready and waiting so I'll attempt to take out the Mining golem at Gust first. If I'm lucky I can capture the ARS there in time too, allthough a fortress command is blocking the way.
Miner at Gust dies (it was close to the wormhole) and the SFGP spawns some leeches again.
According to my science lab, the ARS' options are Teleport Battle Stations, Infiltrators or Zenith Reprocessors. Nothing I really want to have so I'll just go with the default. I can use those battle stations to defend my homeworld.
Exo's are at 98% now so i have no choice but to retreat my fleet and prepare for the exo's. I'll destroy Gust's command station later.

The exo's spawn a few groups which all head straight for my homeworld. Cutting my fleet in half might have been a bad idea. One shield bearer and a bunch of siege towers were the lead ships. The first wave nearly took out one of my Cryogenic Pods, but got killed in time thankfully. Used a martyr to blow up most of the slower attacking force and the rest of my fleet arrives to kill the rest. Yeah, double exo's can be tough. People that play with 4 exo's must have a hard time.

(3:34:40) 211 fighters, 1 starship (II) to Kilia

Good, my HBC's will take care of that.

Destroyed the fort command at Gust with some Rams. The Barracks on Gust released all it's ships and a whole bunch of them made it through on forge, along with 16 Marauders. The basic defenses I had there pretty much took care of them though.
And with that the Teleport Battlestations are mine. I didn't even notice the bunch of Xampite and Ebonite on this world.

New Unlocks:
Tachyon Beam Emitter
Stealth Tachyon Beam Emitter
Riot Control Starship mk II


First time I'm going for the Riots mk II. Usually I would have unlocked a new fleet ship mk III with the 6k knowledge I had left, but I like the mk I Riots a lot so we'll see how this goes.
Started neutering Lizard Fighter, which has nothing special except a mk II Radar Jammer. Resources got drained and the distribution node I captured a while earlier was a fake -.- oh well.

Scouting Results:
Data Center and a Sentinel Frig Fabricator at Guardian: Wind

Also, for some reason the forces at Yuan are incredibly high. Over a thousand ships on it. It's like they want to protect that advanced factory at all cost.

That was my progress for today. Galaxy now looks like this:

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2012, 08:00:19 am »
I have decided that these are going to be the next planets to take and in this order:
Wind Element
Serpent
Living Armor
Ocean Dragon
Angel Swordian
Dark Sword

This is all still in the lower left area, but they're nearly all planets with a target I want. And it enables me to easily take care of both datacenters. I'll need that because AIP will be pretty darn high after this.
The Mining Golem destroys a Wild Gorilla. Apes should learn not to mess with golems.

(3:52:49) 215 bombers, 2 starships (II) to Kilia

I wonder if my still mk I turretball is capable of killing that. I don't have the K to upgrade my HBC's so we'll just have to see. I'll send my fighters there just in case.
Opened a distribution node to be able to quickly build some rams for the fortress command (and mk III shield) on Wind Element. I actually already tried to just kill it with my fleet blob and it worked, but my losses were too severe for my liking. So I'll just kill it with rams instead.

Ok I underestimated the wave. The bombers were easy, but the champs managed to break through and kill several of my command stations. Luckily a group of 80 resistance fighters joined the fight and killed the champs for me. I don't like the fact that turrets often target the champion's drones instead of the champ himself. Otherwise my turretball would not have died.

New Unlock:
Heavy Beam Cannon mk II

Easy choice to spend my newfound knowledge on. Wind Element's fort command dies with a few rams and my turretball gets a serious buff. Those HBC's better be capable of stopping a few champions now.

(4:03:39) 231 Fighters, 1 starship (II) to Wind Element

My fleet is already working there anyways so not to much trouble. Still wish I neutered Serpent faster though. I want to try out my upgraded turretball.
Gotta love Riots mk II btw. Not only do they kill enemy ship's engines, they also paralyze them with the tazer. I like paralyzing targets. Hope I will find a Black widow somewhere.
Funny, after dealing with the wave I moved my fleet back to Serpent to destroy it, only to find out the Marauders were actually already doing a pretty good job with that. So far I think the Marauders have helped me more than that they annoyed me.

Captured Serpent with a Logistics (as usual) and used the newfound knowledge to get some
New Unlocks:
Gravity Turret mk II
Force Field Generator mk II


I had no choice since I ran out of mk I for both. always feels good to get some fresh new tools.
I'm running out of all the mk I turrets. This would normally be a big problem and force me to upgrade higher mark turrets (especially with champions occasionally attacking me out of the blue), but I find myself right next to the Botnet. Defence won't be an issue anymore very soon. But first I want to neuter Gaurdian: Wind and take out the datacenter there. AIP is 319 now, better do something about that.
Guardian: Wind has an interplanetary Munitions Booster. No wonder my fleet is getting shot to bits, not to mention the big Dark Spire trigger too.
Oh crap, just when I was about to get my fleet back from finishing up with the Dark Spire, I notice that the massive amount of ships that was defending Yuan is now making it's way to Guardian: Wind to attack me. I assume these are the Special Forces, as I just destroyed a Special Forces Rally Guardian. My half dead fleet won't be able to deal with this. I better retreat and get my martyr ready.
Never mind, the moment I retreated the enemy ships move away and spread out across some AI planets. Let's see what happens if I put my ships back in. I only get the massive stream of bombers to me, which was still making it's way to Guardian: Wind. Well, better take them out.
Oh right, musn't forget to build raids and cloackers to take out the warp gate here.
Strange thing I noticed. So far Dark Spire seems to be at Fortress King's worlds only. This is advantageous to me since Dark Spire ships get destroyed by the fort command pretty easily.

(4:26:28) 474 cloacked ships, 4 starships (II) to Kilia

I'm a bit worried that this is still to much for my turretball to handle, even after it's buff. My HBC's can handle the cloacked ships, but I'm not so sure about the 4 champions (if not more) that will come with them. I'll just send my whole fleet just in case. Not making that mistake again, champs are tough.
The wave came with 3 champs and 3 regular starships. Wave warnings fail to make any sense with amount of starships when playing against Heroic. Also the champs seem to make my turretball pretty useless. they destroyed the grav turrets in mere seconds, letting the space planes do as they please and fly literally everywhere (space planes and their stupid tractor immunity). I'm glad I made the decision of bringing my fleet to defend.

(4:30:00) 664 ships massing for Cross-Planet attack

Such an unfortunate timing. I had hoped I would be quick enough in getting the Botnet golem before the first CPA. But that's not going to happen now most likely. Regular wave is dealt with and now I better take the Botnet world, Living Armor, as quick as possible.

(4:30:23) Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce Detected (50%) (Broken Golems - Hard)
(4:30:23) Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce Detected (50%) (Spirecraft - Hard)


Just awesome. Hopefully the CPA hits before the exo's (it should). I'm not going to survive it if everything shows up at the same time. Guess I should pump out some more martyrs (like I haven't got enough already).
Meanwhile I have started my assault on Living Armor. the AI's fav ship seems to be neinzul scapegoats. I see those buggers everywhere. There is no Forcefield protecting the fort command (besides the one he already got) so I'm going to destroy it with my fleet alone, instead of the usual rams. I don't have time to make rams. I want that botnet fully operational before that CPA hits, and otherwise at least before the exo's hit.

(4:35:56) 269 Missile Frigates, 1 starship (II) to Kilia

Good, this is from the fort AI so no champs. I have no doubt that my HBC's can take care of this by themselves.
Destroyed the Fort command at Living Armor but I have no time to capture it and defend it, so I'll leave it neutral for now. It's to bad, but at least I get to use the Botnet for the next exo's. Got my martyrs ready and splitting up my fleet in half. One part off to defend the homeworld, the rest stays at Serpent.
Exo's are at 61% when the CPA hits, so I guess I will see those exo's in about 55 minutes.
332 mk II ships get released and another 332 mk II ships get added from the strategic reserve. I guess the strategic reserve makes the tactic of letting low mk planets build up forces kind of pointless now, right?
Most of the threat is on Mermaid, moving it's way to my homeworld. I suppose these are the ones from strategic reserve, since they spawned out of nowhere. My homeworld is ready for them... I hope.

It doesn't happen often that I don't know what's going on, but this is one of these moments. Somehow I'm causing deepstrike threat from a planet called Thunder Sword (which I haven't even scouted yet) and I have no idea how that happened. The AI in this game doesn't use ships with tractors. Maybe a tractor guardian, but you'd figure I would have noticed that. Well, I didn't. Weren't many ships of mine on that planet and most of it got destroyed by ions it seems. So that's over now. Still some threat here and there but the CPA is as good as dead. Brought in a few champions as well, those bastards. I'm surprised I didn't have to use a single martyr.

I had hoped to capture the second SCL on Ocean Dragon before the 5 hour mark, but the CPA completely ruined that plan. The AI is devious. Revisiting a few neutered planets to get rid of the threat, after which it's time to finally take that Botnet. There is still about 180 threat left, most from the deepstrike I assume. But I can't see where they are yet so that's a concern for later. Besides, my homeworld defenses are very capable of killing 180 ships at once, so I'm not too worried.
To bad I don't have the knowledge for mk II logistics right now. I could have used it with 4 wormholes to defend.

(4:55:00) 251 Impulse Reaction Emitters, 2 starships (II) to Living Armor

I'm actually happy that I got the champ wave to where my fleet currently is. Such a shame that the botnet won't be finished in time. I will protect the botnet with full force and I don't really care if the wave destroys the Regen Golem that's also here. We'll see what happens.
I don't get it. The wave completely wrecked me. My fleet, though outnumbering them with 2 to 1, got wiped out. The Regen golem died as I predicted and not even a half rebuilded fleet could stop the 3 champs from destroying my command. I'm not allowing this, time to reload. My fleet should just destroy the champions, like it's supposed to and normally also capable of.
The second attempt I'm actually winning with my fleet (How? Makes no sense since I'm doing exactly the same thing), but I still get to much losses. IRE waves are deadly, I am aware of that now. Really could have used a fully functioning botnet. 200 zombie IRE's would have eaten through those champs in no time.
The third attempt I just blow up all the IRE's with a martyr and have my fleet do the rest. Easy, should have done this from the start. 40 Marauders also spawn and attack Living Armor but these guys are a joke anyway. Even the Regen Golem actually managed to survive this time.
5 hours of playtime have passed, increasing my AIP again. Because of the uncareful way I play this time, I have reached the point that I probably actually need the Botnet to win. But that's ok. I was planning to abuse the Botnet from the start.

(5:05:26) 498 cloacked ships, 1 starship (II) to Living Armor

Figures, right when I was busy neutering Sea Hedgehog, a wave warning arrives, spawning from Sea Hedgehogs wormhole. Oh well, probably would have picked one of the other still functioning wormholes here at Living Armor otherwise. I'm still not going to have that Botnet finished in time for this wave. It sure takes a lot of time to finish it, even with mk III harvesters.
Allright, I'm kinda stupid for opening those barracks at Sea Hedgehog with only half of my fleet. I can't handle 160 mk IV ships with just 220 mk I and II ships. And the time for the wave is ticking too. Well, we got martyrs for a reason I guess.

I've got to hurry up with that botnet... Exo's are at 94%. I actually think I'm not going to make it in time. I kept needing resources for other things. I'll neuter just one more planet (Corona) and if the botnet is still not finished after that, I'll have to cut my fleet in half again. One half to protect my homeworld and the other half to protect the botnet.

Allright, this is fun. I will conclude my post for today with a bug report. And a pretty massive one too. Botnet golem got active with exo's at 99%. However I just suffered the +100 AIP from the botnet. This is not supposed to happen since I am playing botnet hard, without doubt. I already get the extra exo's. My regular golems are on medium so I'm guessing the botnet still uses their logic too. I put it on mantis.
Now this game will be some challenge. I just suffered an extra 100 AIP, even though I do get the best golem for it in return. We'll see where this goes.

The moment I started writing todays post, I told myself I wouldn't stop until I got the botnet operational. I finally did it, so here's the current state of the galaxy:

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2012, 09:03:56 am »
Now that the Botnet is repaired, I no longer need to protect it. So I send the remaining ships from Living Armor to my homeworld, though I don't think they'll make it in time. I'm kinda hoping the botnet gets most of the force of the exo.
Exo spawns 4 groups that all appear to be heading to my homeworld. One of the groups has an Artillery Golem. Splendid. I hope it will fire at my starships and not target my home command.

YOU LOST

Figures. Ok let's try that again shall we? I was to late in building those extra FF's around my home command. Arty golem needed just 1 shot for each shield so that was a disaster. And here I thought I could handle a 7/7 pretty well. Ah well, nothing a good old savescum can't fix.

This time the exo spawns 6 groups, none of which has a golem. To bad, I kinda wanted to try it again against Mr. Arty. I should have this covered, despite of the fast moving Spirecraft Shield Bearers. Everything appears to head for my home again, but I already send the botnet there. Hope he will get a small part of the action before this fight is over.
Aand I lose again. Yep, double exo's are tough if you're not defending what you're supposed to. I'm just going to keep trying till I succeed.

Third attempt is probably going to be even worse. Exo hits and suddenly some of the AI worlds have a pretty decent Dark spire threat. Odd. Also the exo comes with a Black Widow golem. Awesome. Yeah this is a clear loss.
I thought something like this might happen. I knew I should have put more resources into some rams before completing that botnet. But I wanted to have zombies so very badly. I could still restart from before botnets completion but where's the fun in that.

Attempt number 4 goes better. The exo groups all go a different way instead of rampaging at my homeworld and they bring no nasty golems with them. Dodo and Living Armor command stations get blown up, but my homeworld appears to be safe.

(5:24:08) 273 Impulse Reaction Emitters, 2 starships (II) to Kilia

Good, some food for the Botnet. I still need to clean up threat at Living Armor but this wave comes first.
And I let my botnet get destroyed. Once again I underestimated the champions. I'm not going to be able to win this game anymore without the botnet most likely (especially after suffering that +100 AIP), so I'll just restart and try those exo's again.

Attempt #5 spawns 2 Artillery Golems. I can pretty much already call this a loss but I at least want to try.
And I actually won :O Good god, what a close fight that was. I had to order my engineers to fix ONLY forcefields. I had stacked 5-6 forcefields on my home and each shot from an Artillery golem would kill one. There are only 2 reasons why I won this fight. The Artillery golems did not show up at the same time. I had killed the first one before the other showed up. And the second reason is because the golems did not exclusively target my home command station. My engies weren't fast enough to build forcefields all the time. I'm very lucky the arty golems targeted my starships, my ZPG (+10 AIP even though I didn't get to repair it yet) and even a lonely missile turret once. They had a free shot at my home command at least twice, but they didn't take it. It's like they wanted to give me a chance, because they were capable of easily destroying me. The AI is toying with me. I better get my act together.

(5:24:08) 354 Fighters, 4 starships (II) to Kilia

I learn from my mistakes. I'm not going to send the botnet there alone this time. I'll bring my bombers with me.
Now I can finally save the game again. I'll upload the save from right before the exo's hit, in case anyone feels like trying it too.

Allright, I handled that wave much better than I handled that IRE wave from the other attempt. Keeping bombers in the background and moving botnet around in circles to zombify all the fighters without getting shot to bits by the champs. Luckily the fighters didn't stay inside the champs forcefields. The moment all the fighters were turned into zombies I moved my bombers in and finished up. Done.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2012, 10:12:43 am »
Wow, those exos weren't being friendly ;)  I guess that's not what they're paid for.

Interesting on the botnet causing the AIP too, will need to take a look at that.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2012, 11:29:22 am »
Yeah it's the double exo's. I can't imagine the pain from 4 simultaneous exo's. Must be devastating.
Thanks for looking into the botnet issue Keith ^^ I was hoping you would :P bug report with appropiate saves are on mantis in case you need it.

Now that the exo's are taken care of, I can finally continue with my plan: Starting a zombie apocalypse.
Gust is under attack, probably from the deepstrike threat from earlier. Gravity and tractor turrets hold those 80 ships off long enough for my Botnet to arrive. My main fleet destroys several champions that were stalking the wormhole to my homeworld and with that any threat is as good as gone. For now.

(5:35:49) 706 Raiders, 1 starship (II) to Serpent

Perfect, the god of golems is going to love this. By now, most of my fleet is back at Living Armor and I'm building raids and cloacker starships to take care of the warp gate at Corona. I should start expanding again after that. I'm not even far in the game yet, though I should be able to make easier progress now.
I barge into Ocean Dragon with my whole fleet + botnet. Lots of mk IV zombies here. I storm the fort command with my whole fleet. Zombies and botnet absorb most of the damage. Fort command dies and the alarm post at Slayer gets triggered. Not that Slayer had many guards anyways.

New Unlock:
Engineers Mark III

I always unlock these the moment I have my first golem. They're extremely useful and now they also have a higher caps than they used to.

(5:51:58) 597 Raiders, 2 starships (II) to Kilia

Busy killing the spawns from the barracks at Slayer when this appears. I'll send the botnet, hopefully the zombies he creates will kill the champions. 40 marauders appear just when my fleet is having trouble with the mk IV ships from the barracks. Making serious losses but I'll win the fight.
Botnet survives with 1% after the wave. Those champions were shooting very powerful long range missiles. That's gonna be costy to repair. Remaining champions killed my command at Kilia. My zombies better finish them off quickly.
The champions managed to destroy Needle Egg and Blitz too before they crashed themselves into my homeworld defenses. I nearly lost the game because of the energy brownout the champions had caused. Forcefields didn't work. Luckily I saw it coming and already started building some energy collectors on a few different worlds. They finished just in time.
6 hours have passed in total and that means my current AIP is now 498. And I still have a long way to go.
I'm surprised how many zombies suicide in an attempt to destroy a single champion. I thought they would kill it a lot quicker. Lost half of the zombie force I had build up, so I better tick off some AI world.
Oh right, I also play with the Cookie Monster. I guess streaming my empire with endless zombies won't happen that easily.

(6:04:22) Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce Detected (50%) (Broken Golems - Hard)
(6:04:22) Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce Detected (50%) (Spirecraft - Hard)


Again. Well, I'll make sure I'm better prepared this time. A dozen Rams should do the trick. Maybe I'll even scrap some HBC's on Kilia and use them on my homeworld. I'm planning to move my turretball somewhere else anyways after I'm done in the lower left part of the galaxy.

Meanwhile the Cookiemonster is stalking the world I want to take. He's been here at least 7 minutes now, chasing after every AI reinforcement in the system. Good thing he isn't doing that to one of my worlds now.
Exo's are getting ready faster than I had hoped. I guess that's to be expected with such a high AIP.
I also notice to my surprise that Ramses has an OS Raid Engine. I'll have to be careful when I expand that way.

(6:07:12) 762 Cloacked Ships, 1 Starship (III) to Living Armor

Mark III. I guess the mark number in the wave changes when more than 50% of the wave will be mark III. Makes sense as I'm over halfway to tech III with AIP. Well, won't be any champions in this one so just repairing the botnet a little more and then send it there to deal with the wave (probably space planes again).
The wave turns out to be minipods for a change and they are now a part of my undead army.

The Devourer has finally moved on so I can start my assault on Angel Swordian.
I notice my resources have been draining while I'm building nothing. Turns out Zenith Medic Frigates are trying to repair the Botnet. That doesn't seem right. I'll suggest on mantis to make a certain M+C/s rule for medic frigates.

(6:13:27) 527 Enemy Ships, 2 Starships (III) - Post (Counter III) to Serpent

This counter I just triggered on Angel Swordian should hit before the double exo. Angel Swordian succumbs quickly to the power of my botnet. I'm not building any defenses here besides gravity and tractor turrets. There are plenty of zombies patrolling through my worlds already. I have a feeling that everything until the endgame is going to be pretty easy (botnets are useless on the AI core/homeworlds).

(6:23:54) 286 Bombers, 4 Starships (III) to Kilia

This wave and the counterwave will hit almost at the same time. Hmm... Botnet to Kilia and fleet to Serpent then I guess. I just finished neutering Satrage anyway.
Omg, I just noticed Mermaid has nearly 2.5k AI ships on it. All SF ships I assume. I should let the Botnet loose on that at some point.
Bomber wave came with 6 champions! all with those powerful long range missiles. Botnet golem is getting a hard time but he's already finished his work. Time to pull it back. The zombies have a hard time with the champs, even though they're mostly bombers. I'm not surprised if they'll manage to destroy a few command stations again.
Meanwhile the counter wave spawns a carrier which contains a higher mark champion, the Shadow Cruiser. 5 of Them. Right. Let's see how fast my fleet fails. Very very fast it seems. Entire fleet got wiped out and all 5 champions are still very much alive. Rams are on their way, both for the old and new champions. The weaker champions just killed Kilia Command.
The stronger champions just killed Serpent too. My botnet arrives in an attempt to kill the rest of the counter wave, but I forgot about the fact that champions move faster in neutral territory than the Botnet, and it gets destroyed. Restarting from 5 seconds before the bomber wave hits.


This time I'm smart enough to already send my rams right away. Rams destroyed the champs while the botnet cleaned up the bombers.
The Counter Wave still destroys me though. didn't bring enough Rams (nor had the resources to build them), only managed to destroy 1/5 of the champions. Serpent dies again and I'm sending the Rams I reserved for homeworld defense to try and stop them. 80 Resistance fighters show up to help me, but that's not gonna make much difference at this point. I need that Artillery golem at Dark Sword, and I need it fast. Mr Arty will be the main defense against champions.
Oh right, I had a few Rams with 20% hp left on my way to the stronger champs as well. They managed to take out 1 of them, which leaves 3 more and a whole lot of regular ships as well. Botnet, martyr and rams better make it there quickly.
CRAP! The devourer ate my rams. Ok now I'm done for. We'll see how much this counterwave kills. And if it's too much I'll have to reset again. and the champs destroy my botnet again so goodbye.


Third attempt. These champions are really starting to piss me off. I don't think dif 9 Heroic is actually possible without an Artillery Golem. Maybe only if you take very very few planets. Or if your main force is composed of rams and martyrs, which isn't the case in my game.
Allright, the wave of bomber dies from just one martyr and 5 rams. My botnet was already on it's way back to Serpent, and so are 2 martyrs and 15 rams. If this doesn't do the trick, then I don't know what will.
Nope, another failure. Martyrs blew up the regular ships of the counterwave, but my Rams died before they could even harm the stronger champions. My fleet was also completely useless, even though it was just the 5 champs. But I still have an idea.


Attempt #4
This time I will use cloacker starships to cloack my rams and let them go boom when they're next to the champs. First wave dies the same quick death as in third attempt. I guess that is the best way to deal with it indeed. Counterwave is about to hit and everything is on it's way.
And it's a succes! With 2 martyrs taking out most of the counterwave, only 5 strong champions and 66 missile frigs were left. The champs managed to destroy Serpent command but that's when the Rams arrive. They sneaked up on the big bastards and took them out one by one. I brought 13 rams with me and only 1 survives. But the wave is over and that's what's most important.

And here I thought I had the game all covered now that I have the Botnet. I better not let my guard down again. The exo's are at 83% so I still have a little bit of time. I'd like that Artillery Golem fully operational, though I know I have to buy more rams too.
While my fleet is failing the attack at Dark Sword (fortress command right next to the wormhole), the SF decide that their power is needed here and send most of their force. More than a thousand ships come streaming in, right where my botnet is waiting for them. The zombies stalled the fort command long enough for my fleet to take it out.

(6:37:17) 398 Fighters, 1 Starship (III) to Kilia

Nothing special. I will send my botnet there to deal with it. Exo's at 93% so he needs to start flying back Home anyways. My rebuilded fleet quickly follows as well, the zombies will take care of the remaining Dark Spire at Dark Sword. The 4 mk II Rams I had build and sent to my homeworld earlier have completely vanished. So I guess the Devourer had something to do with that. No rams for me this time then. I'll have to survive with my fleet and botnet alone. Or reload an older save if that fails to much. Hmmm. I'm thinking about scrapping my HBC's and placing them at my homeworld.
A whole fleet of SF ships is making it's way to Dark Dword, where my zombies are still fighting. My botnet can't be at 2 places at once, so it'll have to wait.
Fleet is in place. Botnet just finished up with the fighter wave and moves to Atalanta. Scrapped all of my HBC's and are being rebuild to cover the wormholes from both Wild Gorilla and Salt. Roaming Enclaves attacks Ocean Dragon, Blitz and Angel Swordian, but I got loads of zombies and they attack with just one ship. Exo's are at 99%. Bring it on.

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2012, 11:56:02 am »
Double Exo Attempt #1:
The exo's spawn 8 groups and their lead ships have a total of 100 FP. So no golems. All the groups head straight for my homeworld, making it an all out battle. Spirecraft Shieldbearers are without doubt the most annoying to deal with. First they move fast, causing the ships it protects to move just as fast (exo logic). And the shield protects the ships inside from botnet fire, tractors and gravity effects. Fortunately I have my whole fleet +2 martyrs here. And martyrs can hit stuff underneath those forcefields.
Still, the exo groups get far before they die. They kill all my trader toys except the OMD. They kill my refugee outpost and they kill all my constructors. Luckily no cryogenic pods or human settlements get killed. 2-3 exo groups moved through my homeworld to other planets, but they didn't get very far because of the zombies.
Yup, I need Rams for next exo's.

(6:44:00)
Mining Golem will destroy Slayer
Mining Golem will destroy Rat
Mining Golem will destroy Lizard Fighter


I have to kill the one at Rat, but I can leave the other 2 alone. I'll get it done.
I can't kill the stalking champion at Salt because I would trigger that OS Raid Engine in doing so. And I'm not ready for even more champions. I'll just move my fleet to Dark Sword and let my turrets deal with it eventually.

New Unlocks:
Hardened Forcefield mk I
Logistics command station mk II


I ran out of forcefields again and I really needed the better logistics. Dark Sword is my end stop in this direction for a while and I want it protected better than the rest. Also, zombies don't really fly through here so I have to defend it better.

-3 AIP from an SCL. Always a pleasure.
My engies complete repairing the Artillery Golem, even though they drained my resources for it. Now I finally have a real anti-champion weapon, instead of having to suicide rams all the time.

(6:50:57) 369 Missile Frigates, 2 starships (III) to Kilia

Perfect timing. I'll send in the botnet and artillery. Let's see how tough those champs are now.
Another -3 AIP from an SCL. Awesome. Not that it matters much anymore at this stage. I still have that Super Terminal as an option though.
Artillery golem moves incredibly slow. He won't make it in time, but when he finally does arrive it's goodbye for the champs. Botnet will take care of the frigs.
-20 AIP from the Datacenter at Rat. It would be a waste of time if my fleet wouldn't do anything till the golems are done. Neutering Rat is all that's left to do here for now anyways. Means I can finally scout a bit further and hopefully that homeworld too.
The wave comes with 5 champions, which get one-shot by my arty golem. They all want to go after the botnet but they die before they even reach him, giving him the opportunity to turn the frigs into zombies.
Meanwhile 40 Marauders arrive at Rat to try to make my life there miserable. It won't work. I blow up the Mining Golem there, which for some reason causes all the remaining guards to attack me. They get wiped out quickly, just like the forces inside the barracks. And that's that.
Crap, last reinforcement pulse at Rat while my fleet is still there. The Fortress King now has Blade Spawners -.- More stuff I can't zombify.

Trader visit my homeworld, so I guess I'll just buy all that stuff again. I'm even buying the ZPG again, even though I suffered +10 AIP from it last time. Anything to stall the enemy. Though the Botnet and Arty golem are an excellent combo to hold off any attack the AI can come up with.
It's been 7 hours since I started so I get a bunch of AIP again. It's back at 552 now.
I want to send my full fleet back to my homeworld, but the cookie monster is blocking the way. He keeps traveling through my planets and destroying zombies. The bastard.

New Unlock:
Scout Starship mk II

It's going to take quite some time until I get an Advanced Factory. And I've noticed that regular scouts can get much further when combined with scout starships, even if group move makes the regular scouts move slower.

New Scouting Results:
Second CO-P and fourth SCL at Sea Jelly
Black Widow Golem at Azul
ARS and Cursed Golem at Abyssion
Fifth SCL at Tonic
Data Center and Experimental Translocator Fabricator at Eddy
SCL number 6 at Skeleton
Third CO-P at Knight
ARS, Artillery Golem and Spire Archive at Mad Vermin


Black Hole Machine at Exbone
Raid Engine at Coreworld Roller Snail
First AI Homeworld Discovered at Kraaken


Well, that's some interesting stuff. I want that Black Widow and Cursed Golem before I try my luck with the Super Terminal. And the black widow is definitely a must for the homeworld attacks. Most SCL's and CO-P's are also at the cluster in the bottom center I just scouted. Also, all ARS have been scouted now. That bottom cluster is important after all, yet I'm not going to expand in that direction now. I want to be done with the upper half first, as both AI homeworlds are at the lower half.
The Raid Engine at the Coreworld is going to be a problem. It's from the Heroic AI type so that will be lots of champions. Though it looks like that cluster of the map is crosshatch style so there might be a way to avoid it.
I like the fact that the first AI homeworld is called Kraaken. It has no nasty guard posts on it, but it does have a Core Translocator Eye (planetary tachyon so no scouts) which could be fun. Also, there is only 1 entrance to this homeworld, and it's right next to the fortress home command and mk III fort. Splendid. This homeworld is very much like the Kraaken; Once you're in it's grip, you won't get away. But this is a puzzle for later to solve.

(7:12:25) 877 Raiders, 3 starships (III) to Kilia

This is from the Fort King, so just my fully repaired botnet should be enough. The Devourer Golem has finally moved on, allowing my fleet to return to home command.
the Mining Golems destroy Lizard Fighter and Serpent, not because I'm to late but because I let them.
Oh finally, the lone champion that was stalking my homeworld decided to attack. Just when my fleet and Arty golem are stationed there. Silly champion.

(7:19:40) 496 Missile Frigates, 4 starships (III) to Kilia

My golems just never stop being busy. There'll be some champs in this one so Arty is coming too.
Wave spawns with only 4 champs and a few other starships. Arty makes short work of those and leaves the frigs as food for the botnet.

More scouting results:
Artillery Golem at Giant Bee
Seventh SCL at Druid
Dyson Sphere at Meteor!
Data Center at Living Armor (yes, Living Armor has been seeded twice)
Last CO-P at Torent
Data Center, Beam Starship and Yng Tiger Fabricators at Tentacle Plant
Warbird Starship Fabricator and 8th SCL at Heavy Armor
Data Center at Thor


Coreworld Archer with Nuclear Eye discovered

And with that, most of the galaxy has been scouted. This was very easy actually. The Dark Spire have already destroyed a lot of tachyon guardians, so my scouts could get through unseen. Also, the Devourer is killing off most of the 3k SF ships stationed at Guardian Ball. Hilarious.
Meanwhile I have taken Shade and my fleet neutered Iron, finally destroying the warp gate there. I'll keep the waves at my front now. The Nuclear Eye at Iron was powering up, but my Arty and fleet were faster with taking out the guard posts. For a few seconds I was kinda worried though. Till I counted the remaining guard posts and counted how many seconds the Arty would need.

(7:29:20) Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce detected (50%)
(7:29:20) Incoming AI Exogalactic Strikeforce detected (50%)


Oh good. This time I get to test my Artillery Golem on those exo's. Still, I'm gonna need something better if the exo's come with a bunch of golems.

New Unlocks:
Basic turret mk II
Bomber mk III


Bombers are a must and the basics are a cheap unlock. I completely ran out of offensive turrets so why not a few upgraded basics here and there.

Allright, now that everything in my galaxy is stable, it's time to save and quit for today. Uploading a screenie of my current galaxy. A lot has changed since the last screenshot, in terms of discovery.

Offline zoutzakje

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Re: A "simple" 7/7 to get used to the game again
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2012, 11:39:19 am »
It's been 2 weeks, time to get back into it. I made a bit of progress since last time, which I was writing here about. But then my laptop decided to restart out of nowhere so I lost all that. It's as if the AI doesn't want to be mentioned in the books and is trying to cover something up.
The planets Salt, Death Head, Poseidon and Fenrir now belong to me, the ARS at Poseidon giving me Electric Shuttles. I'm still not exactly sure on how to make progress. I know which planets I want to take, I'm just not sure in which order I want them. I'm afraid to let AIP reach tech III, so I'm gonna have to do something with that Super Terminal soon.
The double exo's just spawned and everything is ready at my homeworld.

Exo Attempt #1
it spawns 4 massive ships with a total of 930 FP. I got a mk I Hunter/Killer coming my way. Both my Golems are useless against it so we'll see where this goes.
Yeah the H/K was without doubt the biggest threat. It managed to kill 1/3 of my fleet and a lot of zombies. Luckily it died just before it reached my home command. And with that the double exo has been dealt with. This is the second time in a row I only need one attempt for the double exo. Nice. A mk II H/K would have killed me though.

New Unlocks:
Fighter mk III
Missile Frigate mk III


I had over 12k knowledge and couldn't findy anything urgent that needed my attention. Having a larger and more powerful fleet is never a bad thing.
Just doing some neutering on Wyvern Chick when a dreaded warning arrives.

(8:21:00) 1476 ships massing for Cross Planet Attack

That's a lot of ships and I'm expecting a lot of them to be mk III (unless the new strategic reserve thing prevents that if the threshold is not tech III yet). Well, I got my botnet and thousands of zombies to take care of that.
Meanwhile I have captured Wild Wolf. The 2 golems literally enable me to rampage through AI worlds. But I have to make a choice right now. SuperTerminal or a few more golems first? Arty is pretty much useless against hordes of enemies so that leaves just the botnet... until the ST spawns become mk V. Yeah, I'm going to get that black widow and cursed golem first. I'll head south first then. Hope my Arty and zombies will be able to handle the tougher champions for a while.

(8:23:46) 499 Fighters, 3 Starships (III) to Wild Wolf

Meh. Dif 9 would have send me at least 2500 fighters by now. Botnet will take care of the fighters after Arty cleaned up the champs. Guess I'll use my fleet to invade Luff. Cookie Monster is stalking Druid so I can't neuter it yet.

Something is definitely off. My Arty fired 7 shots, all aimed at the champions, yet none of them died. 5 of their shields gone but what happened to the other 2 shots is a mystery. I don't know what's going on, but I gotta report this.
I've been seeing this kind of odd behaviour throughout the whole game and it's really starting to bother me now, since it makes me lose the Arty like this. I hereby decide that I'm putting this game on halt until either i know what's going on or until it has been fixed.
I know I could easily try something else like Rams, but I just want my Arty to do it's job properly. Plus I already had to deal with the +100 AIP bug from the botnet.
I'll post a screenie of the current galaxy and hopefully I'll be able to finish this soon.


 

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