One's Own Medicine

[Hearteater]

I just math out the number of Bombers or whatever needed to kill the target in one volley, pad it by 10% or so, and take the trade.  A lot of times I'm trading a quarter cap of Mark Is for something, and I'll take that any day.  I'm not too concerned about getting them back out.  Trickiest part is pausing in time to select all the ships and set the correct target.

[Winge]

This AAR is making me so happy

[keith.lamothe]

Ok, time to crack back into this...

FYI, wound up not dropping the detail level much; it helps me think through what I'm doing so I'm more efficient.  I did try to leave out uninteresting details

Steam updated to the 6.000 official, but that won't change anything in-game.

Going to try for some section headers and formatting to prevent eye-glossover.


=== (end of) The First Battle of Waydarkael ===

Resuming cleanup of the marauders, they've had to wait long enough in mid-firing.

1:01:00 Wow, those marauder frigates really do take a lot of punishment to kill.  I thought sending in my bombers to counter their Artillery hull would about handle it... not really.  But my casualties were low anyhow.

1:01:24 CSG-E on planet is down

1:01:34 Sending fighters and bombers against the SF post, with the accountants giving the fighters a headstart before group-moving, to cut down on bomber losses.

1:01:45 SF post down, AIP 77


=== The First Battle of Ipquienan ===

1:03:00 Positioning fleet for invasion of Ipquienan (mkIV).  Firing the scout shotgun to ensure intel coverage for threat eval.

Let's see:
Stealth Guard post; not a threat but something to bear in mind.
Very low fleet ship presence (maybe 1 cap between all the types)
11 MkIV guardians, including 2 zombie guardians.  This will require careful handling.
Ion Eye.  combined with low fleet ship presence: Lovely
Ion Cannon MkII.  Just in case I try to stay under the threshold.
8 non-WH guard posts, including the stealth post and SF post.  No spireshield posts.  2 command station protector posts.
Fort III Right Next To The Command Station
No CSG or other thing that would provoke a Special Forces response to my attacking it

Hmm, ok:
- First the ion cannon's got to go, shouldn't be hard with raid SS.
- That eye's got to come down, I can't afford the kind of fleet ship losses it would generate.
-- Shooting through 400M health is out of the question, so that means guard post kills.
-- Guard post kills would be pretty easy, since no shield posts, but that stealth post is a wildcard, I have no idea where it is.
-- But if I shake up the planet enough I can probably spot the decloaking-by-moving-out-of-range bomber/fighter/etc the planetary summary is reporting.  Unless the cloaked ships choose not to move, of course.
-- There are a few things we can do about reluctant cloakers, but we'll cross that bridge when the water gets to it.
- After that, start my ff on the wormhole, bring the fleet in, fight what I need to fight
- Then build some missile turrets out of range of the fort so I can bring the command station down without enormous casualties (or could just send the bombers in if there's nothing anti-polycrystal in there)
-- I am going to go ahead and take this, incidentally; it's good resources and on 7.3, what's 20 AIP between bitter enemies?
- After that clean up and prepare to move towards the ARS planet

1:04:12 Zombie guardian on the other side of the wormhole, let's try to assassinate it with my 4 flagships (bonus vs medium).  I'd also like some Raids in there for extra oomph, though I'll probably transp-

1:04:13 Dispatch Terry to give Accountants a pep talk about their not authorizing Raid reconstruction.

1:04:26 Flagships are super effective (relatively speaking), zombie and tachyon guardian down.

1:04:56 Not wanting to wait for the raids, I load my combat starships into a transport to go assassinate the ion cannon and last zombie guardian (parked conveniently nearby)

1:05:24 Targets Destroyed, moving on to guard posts... I wasn't watching for decloaking fleetships so I may have missed that opportunity
... actually I do think I saw one just now, will confirm by trans-dropping my scout starship on their neinzul regen and see if that's it.  Actually, yea, there's a resource spot next to the regen too, with nothing else.

Very Suspicious.

1:05:48 SF post down, AIP 78

1:06:00 Scout Starship paints red laser dot on stealth guard post.  Peekaboo!  Scout starship is fine there with no enemy tachyon coverage, so withdrawing the car.

1:06:24 several guard posts down from trans-hopping, but transport is at 45% so pulling back for repairs or switching

1:06:43 starships unloaded, patched up, thrown in the other car.  Once more unto the breach.

1:07:39 244 Anti-Armor wave announced for my homeworld, 2:50 on the clock.  Hmm, this could require a tetanus shotmore turrets.  The accountants will get over it.
- I saturate the sole possible wormhole with tractor turrets and place a FF to further protect them from damage (picking an angle such that the AI ships will displace to a location within tractor and turret range)
- I build the rest of my MLRS (anti-light-hull) turrets in range of the wormhole
- Good enough for gov't work.

1:07:45 Just as my transport closes in on the last guard post, I see the Blades Of Death speeding across space to chew up my car.  It would appear the Special Forces Have Arrived.

Terry: "Jumping Jehosaphat!"
Yep, I unloaded too close to the Fort-III.  Back in the car! Back in the Car!

I make a run for the wormhole to my space.

1:07:58 my transport dies to blade, but I've got another empty one coming in to meet it.  It's low enough that it might not make it too, so I send in the third to bridge the gap.

1:08:08 yep, second transport died, picking up with third

1:08:15 starships make it home!  No casualties, except the two transports.  Terry encourages Accountants to see the bright side.

Those blades are rough in numbers (7 spawners), but nothing my fleet couldn't handle if it could operate freely (i.e. no eye).

Actually... idea!

Unlocked Grav Turret Is.  7750K remaining.


=== The Second Battle of Ipquienan ===

1:08:35 starships fixed up, loaded in a newly built transport while the other self-repairs (can't repair it directly)  Also loading Terry in to scatter the enemy fleet ships a bit.

1:08:40 last of blade spawners (if not blades) seen exiting enemy system, so I give the re-invasion order.  The threat fleet will presumably turn right back around, but we'll see.

Engaging guardian pile on other side.

1:09:14 Unexplained drop of my selection count from 23 to 19.  I don't have any cheapies, and my lowest ship was at 49% with everyone losing only gradually, so something is very wrong!  Hop in the car and retreat.

Post-unload analysis reveals the loss of 3 flagships, 1 bomber-star, and 2 riots.  Accountants are beside themselves.  Looking at the MkIV planet I don't see anything other than the Fort that could have wrought such havoc in a single salvo, let alone anything in range.

Could those AI Area Mines have done that?  Hmm, will have to bear that in mind.


=== The Third Battle of Ipquienan ===

Change of plans, done playing games with those guardians, loading up the rest of the starships in one transport to kill the last station-protector (which is also the eye-supporter) and my bombers and fighters in another transport to take out the command station (bombers, really, fighters for cannon fodder if the need arises).

1:09:36 Deploying again.  My budget shall be avenged!

1:10:14 Protector destroyed, Eye is down! Unloading fighters from bomber transport, rushing the bomber transport through fort field of fire to the station, calling in spider Is to clear the minefield the old-fashioned way.

1:10:19 wave of 205 Tigers announced for my homeworld in 2:48; 10 seconds left on the anti-armor wave clock
- I'll drop some more laser turrets to ensure rapid detigerization

1:10:29 anti-armor wave hits (I wasn't actually paying attention)

1:10:39 Ipquienan station is down, AIP 98

1:10:42 anti-armor wave has already sustained 29% casualties and inflicted none in return on either tractors or MLRS, so I'm disregarding the remainder

Calling in the rest of the fleet to secure the wormhole on my new planet, bringing the builder+ScoutStar through to set up the FF+grav while I build a colony ship (forgot to do that)

1:11:18 new command station dies in construction; I underestimated the need to have the ff up first

1:12:28 taking a break for dinner, but I've got the beach-head up and siccing all my bombers+bomberStars on the fort to whittle it down while the TDLs and stuff clean up the rest of the planet.

Ok picking back up.  Adding grav turret to homeworld incoming-wave wormhole because tigers will hit in about 40 seconds.

Deploying scout coverage to Marbulrex, my next target, the ARS planet adjacent to the former MkIV.

Placing turrets (notably, missile turret covering fort position) on new planet.  Hope to be able to move the fleet out soon.

1:13:08 Tiger wave hits HW

1:13:39 Wave is holding up much better than the anti-armors did, but still no contest. Disregarding its fate.


=== The First Battle of Mabulrex ===

Anyway, need to threat-evail Mabulrex...
46 mkIII fleet ships.  Mostly immaterial.
10 MkIII guardians, not worried about the combat, but there's a starship disassembler guardian and 3 zombie guardians, so some care is required.  Thankfully the starship-disassembler is way out of the way.
Counter-attack-post.  No threat to the attack, but I need to bear in mind the impact of a mkIII counter wave at this AIP.
Barracks (155 ships) 155 mkIII ships will require some deliberate processing when it goes.  Terry has a grin on his face.
There's another stealth guard post out there somewhere.
Bomber-V fab: actually, the stealth guard post is probably right on top of the bomber-V fab because it's otherwise out in the middle of nowhere.  That would hurt if the post were not dealt with first.
CSG; immaterial to the combat, but indicates probability of SF intervention.
ARS; no threat, but need to scan with science ship to see if hacking is indicated.
2 Forcefields; will slow things down, but I have the plasma sieges.
 
Plan:

1)
- Trans-drop a scoutstar on the fab to see if my suspicion is correct.
- Briefly trans-drop a science II to check the ARS tab
- Trans-drop fleet ships to kill the counter attack post and adjacent starship disassembler
- Chain-trans-drop fleet ships to kill the zombie guardians

2) Use fleet to clean up guard posts

Remainder of plan depends on the hacking-desirability report.

1:15:00 autoprogress, AIP 99
transports transit to Marbulrex

1:15:10 ARS scanned: Spire Railcluster / Zenith Chameleon, MLRS

Honestly, given what I've heard about spire railcluster performance lately and my growing predeliction for a separate "starship fleet" combat component, this is a nobrainer: no hack.

The command station will be terminated as soon as the more threatening ships are out of the way.

1:15:31 ScoutStar scans area around Fab, no stealth post discovered.  Hmm

Zombie guardians are nearing my fleet ships attacking the starship disassembler.  Disturbing.  Bringing in starships to intercept the z-gs.

1:15:40 z-gs too close for comfort, loading the fleet ships back up
Apparently the starship disassembler died in their last salvo anyway.

1:15:50 z-gs terminated by starships, unloading the fleet shipsscratch that, you're already in the car, go after the station, the starships will have that counter post down soon.

1:16:01 9 spire blade spawners spotted.  The Special Forces Have Arrived.
Time to clean 'em up.

Actually putting the TDLs in stand-down until I get the blade spawners, don't want them sprayed all over the backend of Mordor (in an intact condition, at least).

1:16:23 all 9 blade spawners down, reactivating Terry.

1:16:47 most of the SF is dispersed... then the sniper component shows up, powering Terry back down.

1:16:55 Trans-dropping the 4 MRS's that I stupidly forgot again...

1:17:16 The MRS units have done wonders bringing all those numbers in my selection display up.  I appear to have lost a flagship in the fracas, but no other expensive casualties.  Time to mop up the snipers.

1:18:48 Snipers down (why didn't I think of using the raids earlier?), Terry back on.

1:19:35 Counter post down to the raids, counter wave of 110 mkIII assorted ships to Bingbing in 13:58.  Not too bad.

More spire blade spawners show up.  They appear to be focusing Terry, so I send in a transport to extract him.

1:20:08 Marbulrex command station down, AIP 119.  The SF should stop trickling in eventually, no longer considering this a valid defense target.  Unless the CSGs presence is enough; I forget.

1:20:33 Blade spawners down, redeploying Terry

1:21:20 About to start construction of FF and then station, just noticed that somewhere in there the barracks popped (probably with the station).  Good thing Terry was there to keep 150+ MkIII ships off my back.

1:22:09 was just about to complete station but thankfully remembered that the bomber-V fab would be DEAD MEAT if I did that now, and scrapped the station

14 rebels showed up to help me; good, that will save me some casualties cleaning up here.

1:23:23 a bunch of sniper turrets online on the new planet to help clean up

1:25:04 I notice a zombie guardian under a forcefield that I'm approaching, and happily have time to call off the assault; I should just pick it off with raids... apparently all my raids died.  I wish I knew how that happened.  Send in the sieges, armtwist the accountants into authorizing the raid rebuild.

1:28:57 SF post down, AIP 120 The last resistance on Marbulrex has been crushed; and the only cloaked thing with a gun is the stealth guard post positioning fleet on top of fab and starting FF and colony ship on top of the fab

1:30:00 autoprogress, AIP 121

And gonna stop here for now, about to capture Bomber-V fab and ARS for railcluster I and II, so not bad in terms of getting more muscle.  Not to mention the 12k+ knowledge I'm sitting on, with a bit more to recover from the planet.  Also sitting on way too much m+c but I've used manufactories to keep from hitting the m cap, and once I have the aforementioned new ship types I'll burn through that fast.  How fast can a Core Bomber cap be built?  We're about to find out!  The Accountants Shudder.

Got some more targets for next time, but I really need to step up the scouting (I periodically send the free cap after a planet adjacent to what I've scouted, but they're getting bogged down) so I know where to hit when I have a proper hammer.

(No animals were harmed in the making of this post, but regular expressions were employed in the formatting)

State of the galaxy:

[Faulty Logic]

Gaaa... the AIP. You have more in the first hour and a half than I do at any point before the HW attacks (in a non-superweapon game). How are you not dead?

Diff: 7.3/7.3; I'm no superman

Wuss.   

Oh, right.   

Special Forces Have Arrived.

I am really, really happy with the SF changes; they simultaneously make guerilla raids harder, play up the insurgent feel, and add tactical depth.

<Transport/reload discussion>

I see an opportunity to make TransportIIs worth it. I think ships from transports (mkI) should have to reload only in enemy territory, though.

Here, you'll need this MkV Smartass software module.

You think I don't already have one of those?

Terran Confederation Ship, my favorite sci-fi space-naval designation (just in front of RMN, probably), from wing commander.  Just a joke, here, really, as if there's any governmental structure on the player side in AIW it's way more dictatorial than a confederation

I just use FLS (Faulty Logic's ship).

I had a planet named Archmurdermurder, and, even more ominously Murderusoon.

That last one is especially hilarious.

And appropriate, given the games you play.

Yeah, seeing that name was the last straw, and I switched to my altplanetnames list.

Before each of us is a red-hot poker, and a white-hot one.  The difference between us is merely that I have chosen the red one, and applied it to the heel of my foot, where you have chosen the white one, and eaten it

See the response to sanity. I stand by my signature.

You, Dichotomy, are remarkably perceptive.

[Dichotomy]

You, Dichotomy, are remarkably perceptive.

Why thank you. Keiths game seems pretty normal to me, maybe a bit faster than I would go.

[Coppermantis]

Regarding murderous planet names, four of the planets in my multiplayer game (on a 70-planet map) have murder in their name. 


And yeah, you seem to play a higher-AIP game much like I do.

[KDR_11k]

You're playing very cautiously, most players would probably just fleetball most of the situations you're facing because that's less work.

[Mánagarmr]

You're playing very cautiously, most players would probably just fleetball most of the situations you're facing because that's less work.

With recent changes to guardians, simply fleetballing might be excessively painful

[keith.lamothe]

Gaaa... the AIP.

I could be keeping it much lower with DC raids.  It's partly a morbid curiosity to see how long I can get away with semi-wanton AIP and absolutely no attempt to chokepoint (no gate raiding yet, etc).  The defensive part has been really easy thus far, even when Terry's on the offensive line.

Here, you'll need this MkV Smartass software module.

You think I don't already have one of those?

Point.

You're playing very cautiously, most players would probably just fleetball most of the situations you're facing because that's less work.

I'm playing very cautiously on a tactical level, partly because it's fun to see how I can (for example) take a mkIV planet with a mkI fleet with minimal losses, and partly to allow more boldness on a strategic level because I'm not waiting on refleets.  As my resource income increases I may adopt a more steamrollerish approach to tactics, at least with the cheap ships.

[keith.lamothe]

Alrighty, let's see where I left off...

Timer's down to 03:29 on the 110-ship MkIII counterwave to Bingbing.  I don't know how many of those will be blade spawners or whatever.  I consider deploying Terry but I'd like to see if the smattering of turrets (and a few fleet ships diverted from replaced losses) can hold it.  If not, can just stop it further in and rebuild the planet later.

I'll throw another FF onto it, though.  And since I'm now out of those...

Unlocked Hardened Forcefield Generator MkI. Knowledge is now 11,610.

1:30:21 Marbulrex command station is up,

Unlocked (automatically & for free via ARS) Spire Railcluster MkI-II.

Time to build some of those lovely, tasty, no-longer-half-ship-cap Core Bombers.  At a high-calorie 26.4k m+c per bomber (that's about a quarter of a mkI starship).

Oh, dear, several Accountants just had a stroke.  Oh well!

Hmm, there aren't enough engineers here to dump my entire economy.

Unlocked Engineer MkII. Knowledge is now 10,684.

1:30:36 there are now 63 engineers assigned to that core bomber fab, and my per-second flows have stabilized at -13,854m + -1,576c per second.  Should be about a bomber every 2 seconds.

While I'm plundering the treasury, time to get some more scouting done... oh, and crush that CSG.

1:31:01 CSG down.  Scouts are moving out there.

In the meanti-

* Terry busts another hole in the wall, right next to the first one.

"Hey boss!  When we gonna get that Tackle Fab!"

You started it as a question and then used an exclamation ma- oh nevermind.  Yes, the tackle fab is up next, partly because it is also adjacent to the MkIV we conquered to stage for Marbulrex.

Time to get the band back together for an assault on Dorcave.

1:31:41 My metal reserves are finally depleted, but that's alright.  I've built 36 out of 48 core bombers and they look mean.  Will back off on the engies to give the accountants time to come out of their coma.  Then we'll hammer them with the railcluster costs.

Oh, need to get scout picket on Dorcave...

1:32:17 Band's on the way, and scout report on Dorcave is in.  Oh, look, Ipquienan's FortIII is down to 19% from my five missile turrets.  Long ago I built the harvesters and it only killed one of them, so not in a hurry.

So, Dorcave threat eval...

=== The First Battle Of Dorcave ===
(seriously who thought that was a good name?  Is it a door-cave?  Or a dork-ave?  Or a dork-cave?)

70 MkII fleet ships.  Not worried.  They have a blade spawner, but just 1.
CSG-C, means the SF may show up.
IonIII, means send the starships first.
TackleFab, means make absolutely sure it's secured before claiming.
2 command station protectors; they can never make it easy
counter post; nope, can never make it easy
Spire shield guard post, to give my core bombers some target practice
11 MkII guardians, including a carrier guardian, but no zombie/starship-disassemblers; not worried
BUT there is an EMP guardian.  Need that DEAD.

So, plan:
1) Trans-drop starships to kill EMP and counter post (it's right there)
2) Trans-drop starships to kill Ion
3) Trans-drop fleetships to kill one protector post
- Trans-drop starships to kill the other protector post
4) Trans-drop something to kill station (may convince SF to not deploy)
5) Make sure fab is clean, start a FF or two over it
- Clean up remaining posts/ships that could threaten fab
6) Colonize

1:33:03 starship transport completes wormhole transit to Dorcave

1:33:19 EMP guardian and counter post down

Counter wave, 175 mkII ships, announced for Ipquienan in 13:57

1:33:30 Ion cannon down

Interesting, backwash is actually going Ipquienan, probably because the AI fort that's still there makes them think they've got a firepower advantage.  Cheese potential, if I wanted to bait threatballs.  But I don't, kill them all!  After that, send the fleet transport through...

1:33:44 1 protector post down

oh, at some point the counter wave against Bingbing spawned, will check back when they get into the same zipcode.

1:34:06 other protector post down, command station down.  AIP 141.

The backwash onto Ipq is getting a bit troublesome in terms of my ability to build a mobile builder and colony ship right next to the wormhole.  But my turrets can protect the station, so I'll just build the stuff there and trans it in.

=== The Second Battle Of Bingbing ===

The counterwave on Bingbing is pretty scattered.  The mkIII spire starship is somewhat concerning, but my triple-FF is still strong, and I have the firepower I need there, I think.

1:34:42 after two salvos, my core bombers take down the spire shield post

Oh, someone announced a normal wave for Bingbing; 35 snipers in 2:50

And the counterwave is actually beating up those FFs pretty good now.  Between that and the incoming wave I think I'll flash build some railclusters (*muffled Accountant screaming*) and trans-drop them over there.

1:35:12 starting FFs around fab; MRSs do excellent job of repairing fleet ships.

1:35:23 deploying Terry on Ipq to deal with backwash.

Bingbing looks about to fall, but it still has some resistance to hold them until the railclusters can join in.

1:35:26 Bingbing command is down.

1:36:02 Dorcave is mostly clean, but I'm short on turret cap to protect the station site.

Unlocked Basic Turret MkII. 11,000 knowledge left.

1:36:11 Deploying railcluster+others reinforcement to Rebangaeo to deal with some attackers that came from Bingbing, before proceeding to re-secure the latter.

... Actually, the local defenders had it under control after all.  The station died, but the attack is over.  Well, I'll greet those 35 snipers in about a minute, then.

Took a break, back.

=== The (very short) Third Battle Of Bingbing ===

1:37:33 sniper wave hits Bingbing, about to trans-drop my railclusters on their head

... the snipers insta-pop my stalled-rebuilding command station, restarting the stall timer.  Interesting.

1:38:02 wave obliterated

1:38:13 went ahead and built station on Dorcave, claiming the Tackle Fab

* Terry cheers.

I can build 4 Core Tackle Drone Launchers.  Each costs Five Hundred and Forty Thousand m+c.

* Accountants consider jumping out the airlock.

1:38:45 I need more m+c.

Unlocked Econ Station MkII+MkII. Knowledge now 2,028.

Of course, it will take a few minutes for the upgrades to take (due to rebuild stall), so will have to phase them in.

1:39:56 177 Bomber wave announced for my homeworld, hits in 2:43.  Unconcerned.

=== The ... wasn't really a battle of Sekhung ===

1:42:41 Took it easy a bit, rounding up some loose ends and getting my fleet concentrated on my homeworld in preparation for an inter-cluster recon-in-force operation.

Which meant they were on hand for the bomber wave.  Will hold them back to see how the defenses do, initially.

1:43:51 Half the wave is down and the bombers haven't even uncovered the tractors from the FF.  Time for my fleet to move on, though I'm still getting organized.

1:45:00 autoprogress.  AIP 142.

Will keep going, but figured I can post this now.

State of galaxy:

[Oralordos]

Well I can say that I love your method of formatting your posts. Defiantly helps to avoid wall of text issues.

[Mánagarmr]

Your accountants are crying

Well I can say that I love your method of formatting your posts. Defiantly helps to avoid wall of text issues.

He cheats. He knows regexp. That's one thing I've always wanted to learn how to use, but my brain just implodes on itself everything I try to understand them.

[Oralordos]

Does regexp work on these forums? I'm not seeing it. If you mean to process the message and add the tag automatically, perhaps. I could probably write a python program that uses it's regexp abilities to do the same.

[Kahuna]

Well I can say that I love your method of formatting your posts. Defiantly helps to avoid wall of text issues.

Yeah so true. Often when I see a wall of text my brain says TLDR Then if I just try to read my brain is like *blaablablalbla I don't understand anything you read TLDR blaablalba*.
Well not exactly. But I'm not a kind of a person who reads a book in few days.
You need to make more AARs!

[Wanderer]

Agreed on the formatting.  I need to adopt some ideas from this, I DEFINATELY have a bad habit of wall o' texting.