Been busy, y'know,
working on the game, but time to resume wrapping this one up.
Patched to 6.005.
Immediate priority items:
1) Finish the command station on Helin and get it set up so at least knowledge extraction will happen smoothly.
2) Get scout intel on Sucaelcen so we know what sorts of pain that HW has for us.
3) Get the fleet back to the northwest clust to take Kaladm, break the last CSG ring, and secure the Advanced Factory.
=== Courting Disaster ===3:45:36 Starships make a dynamic entry onto Mamaty (borders the two core worlds), slaying the tachyon before it knew what hit it.
Kilcave WH is not far, may as well clear that step of it too.
3:45:50 Ok, that tach is down too. For a brief insane moment I consider going through the wormhole to take out the other side's tach too, but then I remember the reason I've been avoiding military transits to planets with unscouted neighbors the whole game: Raid Engines (though they probably don't show up on this difficulty). It would be kind of ironic to stop caring when there's the possibility of a
Core Raid Engine on that unscouted neighbor
Back to Helin to regroup with the fleet...
3:46:05 Intel report on Sucaelcen is in, at the cost of many Bothans.
There is, indeed, a Core Raid Engine.
... phew
Although I guess it wouldn't have been too bad at diff 7.3 and 63 AIP.
3:47:59 After messing around a bit with normal flight through Aorew while waiting for my transports to build, the whole fleet is loaded into three transports and sailing for Bingbing.
The enemy demonstrated an eagerness to go after Helin during my antics on Aorew, but I think the miniforts and FF will keep stuff alive long enough for my many-building-science-ships to get the 3K knowledge fast enough.
Morale on Helin is obviously very high as a result of this.
=== Taking Care Of Old Acquaintances ===3:48:30 All 3 transports arrive intact in Bingbing. That highway's been kept pretty clear.
3:49:48 Transports reach Waydarkael, the closest jumping-off point (2 hops) for getting to Kaladm. I'm just gonna leapfrog Xuaelmas entirely I think.
3:50:00 Transports enter Xuaelmas. No scouts outside the transports so I don't have a count, but it doesn't look too bad here.
3:50:04 Except for the SF blade spawner that just spawned from the SF post and doesn't like my transports. But I don't think it'll do overly much damage.
3:50:15 Transports are now on Kaladm. Time to make ourselves comfortable!
1 Transport to unload on the wormhole.
1 Transport to the protector post.
1 Transport to the command station.
What could go wrong?
3:50:38 Protector post down.
3:50:40 Command Station down.
AIP 77. (off the floor now, floor is 67)
3:51:28 It just now dawns on me during the FRD engagement that there's an IonI on the planet. *facepalm* Oh well, at least it was only IonI.
3:51:52 Resistance is broken, bringing in the colony trans.
3:52:28 Rebangaeo command station falls to threat attack I didn't know about. Appears to be blade-caused or sniper-caused based on the FF still being there.
Sending the rebuilds from my HW in on FRD to take out the trash.
3:52:34 Kaladm command is online; rushbuilding defenses to protect the AdvFact.
=== The Middle Of The End ===3:52:58 The Core Shield Network Is No More.
Ok, 11k knowledge with 3k more coming in. That means I can upgrade 2 of my ARS types to mkIII and get the mkIVs for free. Though I probably also want mkII+mkIII+mkIV bombers just to accelerate the HW taking process. So 14000K, - (2500+6000) for bombers leaves 5500K free, not enough for that bonus ship.
Hmm, maybe I should just take another planet. Xuaelmas is right next to the AdvFact and would connect it with my main territory, so let's nab it...
Or maybe not. Let's see what fabs are out there.
Bulletproof Vs
Neinzul Scapegoat Vs
Teleporting Leech Vs
Experimental Engineers
Translocators
Beam Starships
Well, I know what Lancefighter would do. But I think I'll just take the nearby non-fab planet and call it good enough for gov't work.
3:53:41 Xuaelmas Ion down to starships. May as well bring everyone to the party.
3:53:50 Xuaelmas command station down.
AIP 97.
3:55:03 153 Fighter wave announced against Helin for 2:50 from now. Well, isn't that special?
3:55:59 Xuaelmas SF post down.
AIP 98.
Oh, I also finished its command station somewhere in there, and started gathering knowledge.
Ok, I've got the 14500+ I need for the bomber upgrades and one ARS type upgrade. To recap, my ARS types are:
Shield Bearer (already upgraded)
Spider Bot
Spire Stealth Battleship
Neinzul Scapegoat
Spire Railcluster
The Railclusters are the best fighters hands-down because they don't
do anything else.
But I think I'm going to go with the scapegoats, because they'll really keep my fleet ships alive. I think the combination of scapegoats and shield bearers in a tight stack with the rest of the fleet may well be the most OP thing I've had all game (
including the pre-nerf Terry Tate squad). The 1:1 regen ratio is pretty nasty for the guy on the other end of the stick.
Unlocked Bomber II + Bomber III + Neinzul Scapegoat III. 430K left, about 2070 still coming in.
Space docks and advanced factories all engie'd up and cranking. Time to make me a Starhammer.
3:56:48 70 ship mkIII counter wave finally hits Devi. Results of this battle are inconsequential, but I've dispatched a cap of core nanoswarms (on strict orders
not to blow up until they reach Devi) from Koce for old times' sake.
3:57:13 44 of 48 nanoswarms make it, and make the enemy attack force make look a whole migration of birds
really didn't like the look of their car's paint job.
Ok, Devi, you're on your own now. MilI+2xMiniforts has beaten worse.
3:58:02 The lone remaining accountant breaks radio silence from his hideout to inform me that our metal reserves have been obliterated.
Let them eat Crystal!
Oh, that fighter wave also hit Helin. Doesn't really matter if it holds, though I'd like to have the restrooms intact when my fleet heads down there for Sucaelcen.
3:58:52 Both Helin and Devi fall at basically the same time. Oh well. Energy reserves are holding fine. The wandering threat could be something of an issue. We'll see.
It's about time to give the AI something worse to worry about.
=== Operation Starhammer ===(operational security isn't one of my strong suits)
3:59:29 A few stragglers from the AdvFact are still drifting in, but my order of battle going into the transports is as follows:
48 MkI Fighters
2 MkII Fighters
234 Bombers (MkI-V)
48 MkI Missile Frigates
35 MkII Missile Frigates (courtesy Reclamations 'R Us)
240 Neinzul Scapegoats (MkI-IV)
48 Shield Bearers (MkI-IV)
96 Spider Bots (MkI-II)
10 Spire Railclusters (MkI-II)
10 Spire Stealth Battleships (MkI-II)
8 Tackle Drone Launchers (MkI and MkV)
4 MkI Bomber Starships
4 MkI Flagships
4 MkI Leech Starships
4 MkI Plasma Siege Starships
3 MkI Raid Starships
4 MkI Riot Control Starships
4 MkI Spire Starships
4 MkI Zenith Starships
4 MkI Scout Starships
2 MkI Cloaker Starships
2 MkI Enclave Starships (producing MkI needler drones, basically, though I guess I could have them pump out MkI scapegoats for extra cheese)
9 Mobile Repair Stations
And some assorted reclaimed fleetships; not enough to pay attention to.
842 ships in all.
Terry, if you will.
"
Everyone on the Bus, or I'll throw you to the AI Homeworld!"
Ah, auto-load is nice.
3:59:55 Busses are loaded. Set course for Sinuape in the northeast cluster.
4:00:00 autoprogress.
AIP 99.
State of the galaxy:
