Hotnotes3:00:00First A-prime down. Everything is quite.
HaP: 31
AIP: 36
Knowledge: 12,250
Empire: 6 planets (1 home, 1 nomad plus 4 other), 4 on RingI and 1 on RingII.
Unlocks: Raid Starship MkIII and older.
Economy a bit low; one metal converter online, not every starship MkI built, many turrets MkI on many planets.
Plan is to get Nomad 4 which is now adjacent to my territory. Raid SShips already did a great job; two Needlers (IV) and one SSSphere GPosts protecting a parasite eye.
Then continue capturing planets on RingI, spining clockwise; first of them is an Ice's bunkerer with a ZEBomber DBU which will be ignored, unfortunately; then a Fire's A-prime with a Vampire DBU that WILL be downloaded for 75 HaP that I plan to have by the time (with one more Alarm destroyed after the ASC world); and then the ASC world itself, maybe involving a DGLair epic battle.
Then capturing this A-prime on RingIV would be the first step toward an archipelago empire; I hope I'll find interesting stuff after this planet, under the scout-fog, near the A/A' bridges. More tachyon raid would be required because I think Nomad 2 won't dive to the core soon.
3:09:58Sniper-beachhead on Nomad 4 was effective at getting the needlers and the eye down, with help of the starships.
However, the MkIV barrack opening turned pretty bad: many starships went off and the intervention of the (vastly outmarked) fleet was required. Big reprisal waves are declared, but with the current AIP level and my heavy (albeit MkI) defense, I decided to ignore it.
The battle started to balance in my favor when 40 marauders decided to come and bully my weakened fleet.
Cherry on the cake: Nomad 4 is currently under an Alarm range; I'll need to wait for it to move deeper in my territory before taking over it, which is why I absolutely need to maintain this beachhead against the (sniper immune) marauders.
3:12:16Marauders are now mostly destroyed but they wreaked tremendous havock in my fleet. Luckily it was quickly rebuilt but a siege starship in a reprisal managed to take down Back's OCStation, which is currently the only supplyer of the Nomad-4's beachhead, which is now offline. Metal converters were emergency-built, and luckily there is no more big threat on Nomad 4. (I hope the SForces aren't plotting anything tonight.)
Such a pitty, the reprisal wave is already ashes. I feel like there is something unfair at stake: my defenses were more than enough to hold this, and yet I'm heavily punished (energy brownout and unsupplied beachhead). It's not like if siege starships were a very special pain-plot that I enabled...
3:20:33Nomad Planet Wormhole Links Have Changed.
Time to take over my second Nomad.
Also, a 157 ships CPA is massing, hitting in 7:30.
3:23:24Low metal. Such a pain. I need a MkIII raider to take down this MkI ion canon under the Bunkerer heap of guard posts (gravity, sniper, missile, ...) and (OMG) 4 MkIII FFields to setup another beachhead (this beachheading is quite out of my tracks, good). But my metal deposit per planet is 12 (home), 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 1. This is near 2.5 per planet, not counting home. Seeded average quantity of metal per planet is usually around 4, ranging from 1 to 7~8. I feel particularly unlucky. Moreover, I need to supply two WJammer OCStations. Believe me when I say one MkIII raider is a huge investment.
My turrets on Nomad 4 aren't all out and my metal is already grounded.
3:38:38Raiders were sent neutering the second A-prime (let's call it A-second), one hop after the bunkerer. As there is almost only Missile and MLRS GPosts (and one counterattack... MkIII), the plasma eye won't be a problem.
However, the 4 MkIII FFields will take an eternity to break. I hesitate between unlocking sniper MkII or the translocation-immune Zenith/Spire SShips pair (SStealthBShip are also translocation-immune), or maybe go for a sabotage, however my HaP is quite precious in this long run of downloads. (Also, I'm growing convinced that downloading at least 5 DBUp is beyond possible in a normal game. We'll see where we'll be when download cost would be astronomically high...)
3:40:3015 Dissassemblers bumped in A-second.
Raiders on the run (one Missile GPost and the Counterattack were left alive). Armored warhead loading (and its own metal converter setup). Fleet commited to defense at Ice's bunkerer.
I was thinking this fourth hour was too quite. SForces and PVegas are in the place to make it !!fun!!
3:42:26Scout reports SForces are gone. Better let this warhead finish, just in case the devil would be more evil.
Fleet waiting on Ice's bunker; raiders sent back to work.
3:45:08Oh, look like I was wront by a factor of 10 about warhead's cost. MkIII raid starship is 328,000 and armored MkI is 1,000,000. ><
(Attack/Health were divided recently... I feel like it would be nice to divide metal by 10 for the next expansion.)
Obviously, warhead construction was paused. SForces aren't showning up any more.
Anyway, Counterattack triggered (10 minutes, targeting home) and plasma eye vanished.
For the 4 FFields bunker, I'll save-try a cloaked lightning warhead MkI.
3:48:47The lightning did it! While the FFields are still mostly unafected by it, everything under them but the (Translocator) OCStation, the WGate and the DBUp is metal dust. Now it's time to throw everything that is translocation-immune at it! Wait... Forget about the translocation-immune; throw everything!
3:52:09Okay, maaaybe it wasn't the best idea I had in my life. But job's done! Mostly thanks to the raiders, but they needed something to divert the translocation shots. A 228 ships reprisal wave is perfectly lining up with the counterattack. If I was fighting a human, I would hardly suspect him of using some sort of bot.
CPA just vanished, if you were wondering. I don't know when, but I once saw a carrier roaming my frontier but when I bring my fleet to play with him, he silently walked away. Now my threat indicator is very low and I can't remember an unexpected wave somewhere. Maybe my heavy energy investment in turrets is worth something, after all.
The Home Counterwave is only 16 ships, albeit MkIII. I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal one and come for help if things go badly... Wait, if things go badly on my homeworld... Never mind. I'll concentrate my fleet on the reprisal and I'm sure nothing would go badly on my homeworld. (
I bet I can do politic like this.)
4:00:00One more nomad planet; one more step on RingI.
HaP: 74
AIP: 79
Knowledge: 17,250
Empire: 8 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 5 other), 5 on RingI and 1 on RingII.
Unlocks: Zenith Starship MkI, Spire starship MkI and older.
Things are going accordingly to the plan, however a bit slow, I think. Ah, too few metal (12,5,4,3,2,2,1,1 now, and A-second will also be 2).
Also, I feel I stash too many knowledge, but I lack the metal and energy to supply everything. I unlocked the Z/S starships because of some idea passing by, but I didn't built them yet. This K isn't wasted, but I really feel tight in this game. I hope I'll be able to scrap some turrets on RingI when I'll reach the ASC to save energy for my fleet, but metal will always be an issue. The plan is to go starship and micro enough to optimise metal spent per kill.
4:00:13Planet wormhole changed. 2 is on RingI and RingII, away from unscouted territory. 4's wormholes are all connected to my territory.
4:02:27Vampire download on A-second with 74 HaP in bank, needs 75. Raiders gone on the Ice's DGLair world after Fire's ASC to blow up an Alarm. Raiders MkII were sent to escort MkIII which was sent to oneshoot the alarm. The MkIII fortress took it down in one salvo: warning reprisal and alarm death-triggered (on a MkIII world). Great.
4:03:24Beachhead building, my fleet torn apart by EtherJets, Fire send 300 ships reprisal, Ice still has a level 1 warning, economy already faceplanted by MkI rebuilding (oh, beachhead!), Ice's alarmed ships joining... Oh, and some marauders are attacking my world just behind A-second (reinforcememnts are handling them).
SForce detected on RingIII heading... Away from the hacked world? On no, wait, there is only one AI-controlled bridge between RingI and RingII, so I guess they are going the long way. Make me think that if I take that bridge (at least one half), SForce won't be able to reach RingI and if I hunt down every SForce GPost on RingI, it'll be out of SForce reach... unless they use a nomad as a bridge. Ah, if the planet behind Back would have been neutered and I have more economy for a bigger army, I would have sent them a nuke on their path... (Intel gathering... Sooo important... I'll do AAR for every game, even if I don't post them)
Anyway, SForces Intel Report: 20 Missile MkII, 9 Riot, 2 H/K (mind you) but no Disassemblers for now.
4:05:56Downloader took down one minute before completion, hacked following. Overwhelming EtherJets and pivot Spire Starship MkIII. Let's rebuild and reconsider this hack. Beachhead is ashes.
4:06:54250 chameleons (and some MkIII nastinesses) on my tractors, one hop next to A-second. Turrets are doing wonders but offender is overwhelming. 130 ship reprisal toward RingII's bridge end, 550 on Back. Economy abysmal: don't even think about lightning warhead. Fleet nearely empty (good, I have energy!).
4:07:19OCStation down. Good thing the sharks are not there.
4:09:47Back's defense is doing wonders... BUT THAT DAMN SIEGE STARSHIP KEEPS KILLING THE OCSTATION IN TWO SHOTS!!! THIS IS UNFAAAAAIR!!!
80 HRFighters spawning on Back. RingII attack is ashes (but the damn missile-immule leech). 100 Chameleons and the MkIII Zenith SShip (22%) hammering my furthest world below A-second. Economy unable to keep up.
4:12:54AAAAAAAAAAAH! THIS DAMN ZENITH SSHIP REFUSE TO DIE!!!
The HRFighters are loose and some decided get this far-end world back
now. I sacrificed my half-fleet to suport them: the chameleons were already badly damaged and were quickly achieved, but the MkIII SStealth BShip are tough and THE ZENITH SSHIP IS 3% OMG KILL IT NOW!!! And the HRFighters continue to suicide one by one on it while tring to scratch the SStealth BShips. ><
4:14:14Zenith SShip finally down, but HRFighters continue to suicide on SStealth BShips. I sent my pathetic fleet at them (maybe 20 units) and... oh, they are not immune to tractor beams... Come to my unscratched world one step behind, I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR ALL THE METAL YOU ARE COSTING ME!!!
4:16:00Economy still below zero. I have no starship and barely 40 fleetships. I feel the game isn't giving me the weapon to fight it. No: I feel the game isn't giving the very basic tools to even play! I have more knowledge than I can spend, I have enough energy to support every single planet with full cap of all MkI turrets (I'm lacking energy for fleet but its a choice) but I'm lacking the very minimum metal to
play! It's not the first time: I trully feel the earlygame economy is unbalanced. It's not a question of difficulty: it's a question of "I feel unable to PLAY"! And it's UNFUN!
(Sorry to rage, I'll calm down, but I'm sincere. It's not difficult, it unfun.)
Two 50 ship regular waves hit RingII bridge one after the other, but it's a breeze. FField isn't even scratched.
4:18:30Sloooooooow rebuilding. And that damn stupid RRebuilder going back and forth between snipers and forward turrets. I should be having an epic hacking fight with the AI, and instead I'm looking at that morron.
4:22:3116 Disassemblers spoted on the AI's RingI-RingII bridge, going toward RingII. Seems like the SForce abandoned the counterhack dutty.
4:24:32"Fleet" rebuilt, 0 metal. Well, 5 caps of MkI ships (and no starship) that are barely able to hold the enemy for more than one minute. Call that a fleet if you want. I can't wait for the starships. I don't want to wait for the starships! Salvage is supposed to solve that "unfun waiting during rebuilding". Guess what? It's not.
4:30:25ARS on A-second contains NYWeasel, Infiltrator and TackleDL. Know what? I'll redirect it to spare the latter expensive infiltrator download.
But what I need now is metal. More metal. I'll go for a tachyon carving and aim to take something near the distant RingIV A-prime to begin my archipelago empire. But wana know what? I'll need metal for the raiders!
4:35:03Two MkII raiders are ready to launch for tachyon carving. (10 minutes for being able to play again.)
4:38:51Tachyon rampage turned short: after one world, there is a OMDriver + Eye combo on Ice planet, just adjacent to RingIII A-prime.
SForces apeared on RingIII going counterclockwise toward RingII and maybe RingI. 2 H/K, 16 Disassemblers, 15 Riots, 20 Missiles. Is there a point in killing them? They seems to spawn as soon as down to reach a fixed amount.
Changing my mind about immediate capture, I wonder if I won't take over Bridges II-A and II-B: there is 3 core constructors and 7,7,6,6,5,1 metal deposits, and it would let only one bridge between RingII and RingIII for AI not that far... Maybe I'll won't play as stealth as planned. Being bullied like earlier makes me want to take revenge. I wouldn't go archipelago and low-AIP, but rather fully connected territory and high AIP. Moreover, taking bridges and cutting route to SForces would be my pleasure.
However, there is a CoProc on RingII and I want to find the other. So tachyon carving first. <sigh>
4:40:46Twinws passing by the bridge after Back, still spining counterclockwise.
While looking at the tachyon carving possibilities, I realized that the OMDriver is on a wormhole, and if my raiders manage to get to it from RingIV and counterclockwise, they would warp
on the OMD and eventually blow it up with not too much damages. While this is doable by taking Bridge III-B, it would a long road and considered a deepstrike. But now there is Nomad 1 making a shorter route. It also would be the ocasion of getting rid of the SForces GPost and Tachyon Sentinels on Nomad 1. Let's do this. The (lonely) raider MkIII just joined up the team.
Little update: 23 missile for the SForces.
4:44:25OMD down! MkIII and one MkII sacrified, Ice reprisal level 2, Strategic Reserve deployed (Oh, I didn't told you? This bridge-end has the Superterminal!). Note to self: the eye is a translocator one; not the worst (albeit still bad as an eye).
So bad, I just have the metal for a second MkIII raider, and it would just be a rebuilding...
4:47:37Strange: threatfleet follow the same path as SForces. I tried to intercept some Bridge II-A but find some StdFighters ahead on the bridge after Back.
Ice's reprisal is less than 200 ships: no problem.
4:48:50Raiders neutering a Missile GPost while some Disassemblers came, going clockwise.
4:49:24Marauders attacking Bridge II-B, waking some threat.
16 Disassemblers on same world, still spinning clockwise.
4:51:00I love bullying AI when they are down. Marauders are down: my fleet enter the ring.
4:52:01The twins enter the Bridge II-B ring too. Time to get out, but the bullying was paying.
The four raiders and the two heavy bombers are assaulting the fortress after Back. The bombers blew up two Missile Guardians and the MLRS GPost under the fortress but 200 bombers handled them. Red announce reprisal 1 but the trade seems ok to me. I'll bring my firgates next time. Let see how 2x cap and Mk+1 is weak against the matching triangle ship.
(Haha, enclave drones scratched the paint of the twins!)
4:55:12Okay, 3 MkII leeches were more than enough to make the balance change. Also, many EtherJets were anoying but not very dangerous. Anyway, the 200 bombers are now 190, and there is 90 MkI firgates, but they provided a very efficient distraction: the heavy bombers were alone on the fortress... Until the Disassemblers came in. Fortress is 80% but I better move now; fortunately bombers are faster than the disassemblers.
4:55:49Agh! Not fast enough. Turning around the wormhole, trying to lure the disassemblers away and manage an oppening, some HRFighters came suicide here and the disassemblers were going toward the wormhole.
4:59:10One MkII Raider down, both bombers down again; Fortress 50%.
5:00:00No progress in one hour. Not even on the scouting table. Bad hour. Very very bad hour.
5:00:39Threat cleaning mission nearly turned to nightmare when 50 EterJets uncloaked and took my fleet away. Thankthfully, there weren't many more than my former frigates and some SStealth BShips.
5:04:37Fortress after Back: busted. Mission accomplished.Double border aggression on BridgeI. My fleet was engaged with a regular wave on Back, but (1) the wase was easy enough for my turrets to handle it alone and (2) I doubt the combined little threatfleets would be able to overwhelm my turrets on BridgeI. Let see how they do if I hold my fleet back?
Arh! Two eyebots were enough to take the OCStation down under the MkII FField. >< Energy borwnout.
5:06:47Two metal converters built; fleet warped in. Two MkII starleeches fled but were pursued and killed. Damn, even MkII and overwhelmed, they managed to take me some ships. Why my starleeches are never that good... Maybe I should unlock some high mark.
What did we learned so far? Eco OCStations on frontier sucks, but I can't afford to lose their energy and metal. Starleeches are great: unlock higher mark more often. Take more territory and more metal: you need it, badly. It's late, you're exhausted: you should go to bed... I'll post this before, it won't be too long.
