General Category > AI War Classic - After Action Reports
Operation Cryptonite (10 Raid Engine / Vengeful // 10 Artillerist / Vorpal)
Kahuna:
Operation Cryptonite (10 Raid Engine / Vengeful // 10 Artillerist / Vorpal)
Originally the idea here was to try to find an effective and safe way to counter Zenith Siege Engines and Shield Bearers (I decided to man up instead of just complain about them, herp a derp) on 10 difficulty level. Unfortunatelly that didn't go quite as planned but I still got a challenging game. AI 2 surely gets Zenith Siege Engines and every wave sent by AI 2 usually has dozens of them. However it's Artillerist/Vorpal so it has many other unlocks too so the budget gets spread through out numerous ship types so I'm not getting beaten up by as many ZSEs as I'd hoped. And neither of the AIs seems to have unlocked Shield Bearers. Oh well. I'm still having fun and this is a challenging game as it is.
The last time I've really played AI War was probably like 2 years ago. I think my last AAR was like 3 or 4 years ago. Recently studying and fitness have taken vast majority of my energy and focus. However now that I have a 2 week vacation and I'm still recovering from a flu (in other words: no studying nor going to the gym) it seems like a perfect opportunity to reset my brain by slaughtering some robots.
AI 1: 10 Raid Engine/Vengeful
AI 2: 10 Artillerist/Vorpal
Settings:
I'm already 3 hours in but I'd say I'm still in the early game. The beginning is by far the most difficult phase against the Raid Engine AI type. Especially without any kind of superweapon. No Golems, Spire, Spirecraft nor Champions. Only fleet ships, starships, turrets and other normal stuff. The only real way to destroy the Raid Engines is to first send an Assault Transport with Fighters and Munitions Boosters to clear the way of Tachyon Sentinels. And then another Assault Transport with Raider and Plasma Siege Starships and Munitions Boosters to destroy the Raid Engine. Sacrificing Starships to get rid of a Raid Engine is expensive and takes time. And most importantly, increases the AIP. At the beginning the AIP is 10 so the destroying the first Raid Engine increases the AIP by 50%. On high difficulty level that increase is very noticeable and hurts. I've already lost a command station a couple of times (both Shark plots) and at least one cryopod (nope, didn't save scum).
Which is why I used the first 10000+3000 knowledge to unlock Mark II Economical Command Stations for more power and Mark II Needler, Laser, Sniper and Gravitational Turrets and Mark I Hardened Force Fields. Mark III Gravitational Turrets and Area Minefields were unlocked shortly after.
Here's the current situation:
This is how I usually use the "priority" things. However for me P9 doesn't always have higher priority than P6 for example. For me they're just a way to mark things.
P0 = Avoid this planet
P1 = Beachhead / Neuter
P2 = Capture planet
P3 = Data Center
P4 = Co-Processor
P5 = Super Terminal
P6 = Just something
P7 = Advanced Factory / Starship Constructor
P8 = Fabricator
P9 = Advanced Research Station / Core Shield Generator A (Not enabled in this game)
And my planets:
At the moment Swog is vulnerable to threat coming from from Anthem which is why I'm going to capture it. I will also move the Command Station and the defenses farther away from the Ascs G20 wormhole in case an AI wave/something decides to retreat from from there Swog. To protect Acsc G20 I will beachhead it's wormhole on Crysantheum (The one with P5 (it has a Superterminal (which I'll hack later))). To protect Ascs G20 even more and Anthem (when I have captured it in the future) I'll beachhead Crysantheum's wormhole on Revenge of the Lith.
I'm going to capture the planets marked as P2. With energy from the Zenith Power Generator from Acenstry VIII I'm going to beachhead all surrounding AI planets so I have more depth in my defenses against CPAs.
The problem is that I'm running out of energy and use Matter Converters. So I need the Zenith Power Generator ASAP. However the problem with that is the AS2009 planet (The one right below Ancestry VIII) marked as P8 (it has a Missile Turret Fabricator) which has a well protected Raid Engine. AS2009 is also too far for Assault Transports. The Assault Transport gets destroyed as it enters that planet.
At this AIP each Raid Engine wave is easily 3500 ships. So what I'm going to do is top up my metal storage with the help of Salvage, I mean Raid Engines, and then I'm going to capture Ancestry VIII with everything I have. I'm going to bring all the engineers and insta build all the defenses, send an EMP trough the wormhole and beachhead AS2009 with all the Sniper Turrets and focus down the Raid Engine. I'll probably have to use a couple of Lightning Warheads for defense as well.
I think that will be cryptonite enough.. don't need no Shield Bearers on top of that..
Other important notes:
-SH 2069-28.21 (Planet with P8) has an Advanced Factory which I'm going to hack for Mark IV Bombers late game. It also has a Laser Turret Fabricator which I'm going to most likely hack too.
-If I manage to capture those 3 planets marked as P2 I'm probably set up for the rest of the game. They say well planned is half done.
03h08m.sav attached.
Kahuna:
During the attack to Ancestry VIII I lost my command station on Swog to a normal wave and a few Raid Engine waves. Losing the Command Station triggered an exogalactic strike force in addition to the Raid Engine on AS2009. Half of the exo attacked my homeworld SHC-2511 and half attacked Ancestry VIII while I was still building the turrets. I had to use a full cap of Mark I Lightning Warheads to keep the Zenith Power Generator alive. I had to reload once because an Infiltrator Guardian snuck by and sniped the Zenith Power Generator. But not the second time. Now I had my Scout Starships in place to detect those sneaky bastards.
Before the last Warhead:
After the last Warhead:
Well that didn't do much.. At least I got rid of most of the AI Starships which were by far the biggest threat on that menu of destruction.
Thanks to strong defenses and salvage from thousands of AI ships on all of my planets I managed to finish building all of the defenses on Ancestry VIII. Now I need to clean up the planets, build more Lightning Warheads and beachhead AS2009 ASAP. I most likely wont make it before the next Raid Engine wave though.
Defenses built on Ancestry VIII, 37 seconds to the next Raid Engine wave from AS2009:
Mean while on my homeworld..
This after destroying the exo galactic strike force which had dozens of starships and a flagship booster Hunder/Killer. Defenses still stand strong however.
Now off to beachhead AS2009.
This is what I mean when I tell you to "beachhead it"!
Meanwhile 4000 Missile Frigates from the Raid Engine are attacking Ancestry VIII:
Already managed to destroy most of them. Focus firing those Carriers. I gate raided Juliet November (the planet above Ancestry VIII) during the attack to make sure I don't gate waves from that wormhole. It's the closes wormhole to the Zenith Power Generator on Ancestry VIII. I also unlocked Mark II Force Fields. Scrapped some Mark I Force Fields my homeworld and replaced them with the Mark IIs. Built the scrapped Mark I Force Fields on Ancestry VIII to protect the Command Station and the Zeith Power Genrator. Mark IIs were too big since they would have covered some of the turrets.
Dropped a Mark I EMP and then an Assault Transport filled with Engineers and Mobile Builders. I tried to focus build Mark II Sniper Turrets while stuff was still EMPd but building them took quite a while so I wansn't successful this time. I got the Raid Engine down to 76% health and managed to soften up some of the shields covering it. The main problem were the Ion Cannons. Will have to do another run but I think the next one will do it. Might have to use a Lightning Warhead or two. The next Raid Engine wave will come in 41 seconds.
Oh and now the Zenith Miners decided to come visit too! Got 3 Miners: on Ancestry VIII (of COURSE!), on Juliet November and on Reggeth. Looks like all of the stuff hit the fan at once.
Time for another beachhead. Oh great, I triggered the Raid Eye too. And nearly 6000 AI ships have been announced. Yeah definitely all of it hit the fan. Like all of it. Also there's only 442 AI Missile Frigates left on Ancestry VIII which are conveniently retreating on top of this beachhead.
The Raid Engine is down to 54%, EMP will last for 4 more seconds and about 60% of the Sniper Turrets are 47% built. Also Raid Eye's wave has been announced and it's nearly 4000 ships. Might be a time for Mark II or even III Warhead.
Aaand done. Ok now I just need to survive the fallout (not that I'm going to nuke or anything).
The AI has a very nice coctail going on. There was nearly 200 Eye Bots, nearly 100 Zenith Siege Engines, almost 20 hybrids, 15 Raid Starships and a lot more. All of that was boosted to 240% attack power by AI Munitions Boosters which I tried to focus fire with Laser Turrets.
Yep that was close. I waited until the last second before I detonated the Lightning Warhead. Would have died wihtout it. I actually had to reload once because I forgot to focus fire the Zenith Siege Engines and Munitions Boosters fast enough. The Zenith Siege Engines (thanks to that ability they have) destroyed the Counter Sniper Turret next to my Home Command Station which allowed all the Snipers and Sentinels to start bombarding the Force Fields. I died a couple minutes after that.
Now I just need to clean up this dirt and I can take a breath. Or so I think. It's almost 4 hours in-game time so it's time for the second CPA in an hour or so.
Ancestry VIII I managed to save by order all Engineers to build a Mark I Lightning Warhead and a new Mark I Force Field NEXT to the Command Station and other Force Fields (See the selected force field). Because buildings can not be built under a Force Field that has taken damage in x amount of time. So I built a new Force Field next to the other ones and took everything (including the kitchen sink and my fleet commander's pet hamster) and focus fired the last AI Carrier that was about to drill trough the Force Fields and ruin my day.
Peace has come at last. Defenses are rebuilt and metal is flowing. For now. After that it feels strange to see only 423 threat.
The AIP is already 138. We'll see how far I get this time.
And wow that was intense. I feel drained. Off to sleep. Will capture the rest of the P2 planets tomorrow.
03h39m.sav attached.
keith.lamothe:
Good grief, it's like wrestling a grizzly bear made of razor blades. But, somehow, you plow through.
Kahuna:
For this success I thank the last second Lightning Warhead detonations, the hero Force Field which saved Ancestry VIII and the Zenith Power Generator and the Munitions Boosters. I had to reload a couple of times here and there whenever I forgot to take something into account. Forgetting to focus fire specific ships, forgetting to put scout starships in place to detect stealth ships and mistakes like that.
Also I accidentally put the same picture twice. "Before the last warhead" was twice and there was no after. Fixed that.
Atepa:
Score! Reading material for when I get home!! :D
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