One last attempt.

[Volatar]

Fortunately they do not use that reserve to hit me at the same time as the chase. The chase is hard enough, though on the way back with my fleet quite a few of them conveniently line up for my photon lances and Zenith beams.



I manage the chase, though the last bit decides it doesn't want to attack and sits in Synchrony on the wormhole, taunting me. So, I pull my fleet back a system and they decide to actually join the party.

I now have the colony ship to build my second spire city.

And that's where I leave off for the night. It's late.

[Volatar]

Not much to say from tonight's play. I built my second city on Arkintoofle. The third city shard appeared in Flargathon as well, so I grabbed that. I managed to forget to take it all the way back to my homeworld though without noticing (probably caught it in a selection accidentally) until I went "why the heck is this chase lasting so LONG?" 

Currently expanded over to Hawalius and preparing to build my third city there when I hit the resource cap again.

[Volatar]

I moved up my entire defensive setup, mines and turrets and grav turrets and shields and everything.



And then I find out that I need to move one more system out, because APPARENTLY I need TWO systems between hubs, not just one.

Whoops.

Well, heres a map status update since I located my first ARS.



Luckily that huge buildup of AI ships seems to be the Special Forces reserve, so they may not commit to that fight. Still, it's a ways out and has an Ion IV.

On the other hand, blade spawners sound cool. Never seen those in action before...

[Volatar]

When I move my entire defensive line forward a system to Bespin and set up my third city there, I also poke scouts out and discover an ARS on Oakka.

Wellllll then. That sounds nice.

I fly my fleet out and eat a counterattack guard post. It sends a wave to the empty world next to my HW.

Well crap.



Anyways, in Oakka I grab the ARS and it's shiney unlock, and all the knowledge from the system before I run back home to defend against the simultaneous counterattack wave and Spire Exo.

The next shard is, again, on Flargathon. Prepping for taking that now.

[Volatar]

Behavior I am witnessing currently in my Exos:

A Spire Shield Bearer will have a group with it, and will move at really high speed until the shield gets killed, at which time the group will resume normal speed.

I wasn't aware that shield bearers were speed boosters too. What the heck is going on?

EDIT: Looks like Exo's are just really fast, and my Riots slow things down once they lose shield coverage.

[Volatar]

I have recovered the fourth shard. This is now the farthest I have gotten in AI War AND the FS campaign.

Previously I was considering the concept of taking a four-city fleet and hitting the AI homeworlds now.

I no longer want to do that. The FS story has now hooked me, and I want to see it to the end.

[Toranth]

Behavior I am witnessing currently in my Exos:

A Spire Shield Bearer will have a group with it, and will move at really high speed until the shield gets killed, at which time the group will resume normal speed.

I wasn't aware that shield bearers were speed boosters too. What the heck is going on?

EDIT: Looks like Exo's are just really fast, and my Riots slow things down once they lose shield coverage.

Not sure you you already know this, but Exowaves have some special rules applied to them.  Namely, in order to make sure the entire wave stays together, all ships in the group assume the speed of the 'Leader' (most powerful) unit.  When you see that group zipping along with the Spire Shield Bearer, it's because all those ships are grouped under the Shield Bearer.  When you kill the leader, the rest of the ships become 'free' and will move around at their normal speed.

Incidentaly, this speed-matching overrides things like Grav turrets.  So a gravity immune unit, like the Spire Shield Bearer, will keep its followers moving at full speed through a Grav Turret's range, even though the ships would be slowed under normal circumstances.

[Volatar]

Behavior I am witnessing currently in my Exos:

A Spire Shield Bearer will have a group with it, and will move at really high speed until the shield gets killed, at which time the group will resume normal speed.

I wasn't aware that shield bearers were speed boosters too. What the heck is going on?

EDIT: Looks like Exo's are just really fast, and my Riots slow things down once they lose shield coverage.

Not sure you you already know this, but Exowaves have some special rules applied to them.  Namely, in order to make sure the entire wave stays together, all ships in the group assume the speed of the 'Leader' (most powerful) unit.  When you see that group zipping along with the Spire Shield Bearer, it's because all those ships are grouped under the Shield Bearer.  When you kill the leader, the rest of the ships become 'free' and will move around at their normal speed.

Incidentaly, this speed-matching overrides things like Grav turrets.  So a gravity immune unit, like the Spire Shield Bearer, will keep its followers moving at full speed through a Grav Turret's range, even though the ships would be slowed under normal circumstances.

Ah, yes, that explains all the behavior I have seen. Thanks.

[Volatar]

So I began pushing out to make room for my fourth city. Here are some screenshots.

First, I spotted the special forces several systems out.



That's a lot of stuff.

They withdraw before I reach that system though.

When I enter the system (with it's ARS) suddenly my game slows down significantly. I pause and look in task manager to make sure no other processes had popped up and sucked down my CPU. Nope, seems it was AI War. I didn't know why though.

And then I found out.



Oh hi guys. Glad you showed up to the party.

They shoot me up, but my spire fleet ships shoot them up far faster.

Then the Sentinels show up. OWOWOWOWOWOW.



I rush at them to take them out, but after the battles are over I find I have lost over a third of the fleet ships and two of my spire frigates. That was a lot of shooting.

Anyways, looks like I have pretty well smashed the AI at this point. Now to consolidate, eat the Exo and Counterstrike waves, and put down my fourth city.

[keith.lamothe]

Dazzalotta-Sentinel-Fire!

[Volatar]

Dazzalotta-Sentinel-Fire!

Well, they DID have ten ship caps of the things.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, SF keeps part of its budget just for long-range stuff, if there's any to be had.

[Volatar]

Bloody effective it is. You made the SF pretty darn evil. 

[Volatar]

In fact, you made them so evil, that by the time I had to go back into Ericon to

A) Clear it out so that the neighboring city could grow
B) Grab the Fabricator (Blade Spawners. I get to see these in action finally)
C) Grab the ARS (Got Raiders)

That when I poked by head back in there, the SF attacked again with their full force. Of 3000.

Here they come:



Again I fight them off. FS stuff is crazy powerful. (I haven't bothered bringing Bombers to mk III because photon lances eat any forcefield I encounter in seconds.)

Readying for the fifth shard now. It's behind my lines so all I have to do is survey and defend. No chasing and running this time.

Also, I looked at the firepower counts for once, and I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this one here is a bug.   



Want the save Keith?

[keith.lamothe]

I think that firepower count is from the parasite eye, which is more than a little botnetish in that regard