Hey Pumpkin, good to see one of my inspirations is checking in
Outside is a nod to your AARs, Insanity is a nod to Red Queen's.
I really liked how in your AARs, you are forcing yourself to use different tools than your normal methods, and different methods/settings.
For myself, I took that to a lesser degree... I took away my exodian and showdown devices, for example, as they're my 2 main roads to victory, but I left my golems intact.
The addition of auto-AIP is directly taken from Red Queen, and is a huge departure from the normal way I play. I've found it's already greatly changing the way I perceive warheads.
The main story behind my AAR will receive more focus after the first CPA, for right now I've committed to getting far enough along that the project gains traction within my priorities... I was also holding off until my vacation, which just started 4 days early. It directly references the second Red Queen "Incident".
1:21:47
Used Younglings to fly through a couple mk IV worlds and knock down a data center. got greedy and went for a post on the target world, didn't get it and lost remaining younglings.
1:23:27
Due to youngling combat clearing threatfleet, Reprisal Level 1 announced.
1:24:46
Sacrificed a pair of raid starships to take out another Data Center.
1:26:15
87 ship reprisal headed for my staging system in 2:28. Threat deemed minimal and plans shall continue towards expansion.
*Unlocked Heavy Bomber Starship 2
multiple needler posts, a swarm of cloaked etherjets, a counter spy, and a sentry eye means the next op needs a lighter touch than has been my typical.
The raid went reasonably well, taking out 2 needler posts, a counter spy, the remaining tachyon detectors, and bringing the final needler post to 4% hp, all at a loss of 1 heavy bomber mk II starship. This should free up a large number of ships into local threat making that system far safer to traverse in the future.
System past that analysis:
laser post under forcefield
mlrs post under forcefield
cloaker post
missile post
radar damp (everyone)
primary defense ship: bombards
3 backups
planning advisory:
insertion method: uncloaked transport rush
destroy command with younglings, their speed will help counter bombards, assisted by radar jammer cutting bombard range.
take out cloaker post and missile post using frigates.
leave remaining posts up until a better takedown plan is devised.
during that combat, I will have both marks of fighters assaulting the system I just weakened, aiming to remove the needler post, the arachnid post, and a spire implosion guardian. new younglings will be routed to the neutered system prior to it so any fighters carried away by etherjets will be heading into systems where I have active combat forces to rescue them. adding 1 flagship to accompany younglings.
Operational results where mixed: the threat piling up in the neutered system was bad for my efforts to control space there, SF was flying through the entire combat area when the attack was launched, 2 level 1 reprisals where triggered, but every single targeted item was destroyed.
The fighters and missile frigates are also in overall excellent shape following the attacks, though the younglings did all die (I threw the remainder at the shielded posts since there was no getting them home at that point)
1:44:13
I have taken control of the system with the 2 shielded posts, gaining mk V MLRS turrets, which have been deployed in core worlds.
Looking forward, the next 2 systems on my strike list both possess fortresses and data centers. the first is an ARS world, the second has Spider Turret V and Artillery Golem. the one past that has my beloved Black Widow Golem, though I have yet to review it's defenses.
world 1 has a fort 3 by the command station, a fort 1 by the data center and specops post, and a shielded MLRS post in the middle of nowhere.
world 2 has a fort by the data center with a needler post, another needler post nearby but out of missile blast range. It's 3 MLRS posts are near the command station shielding post, I might be able to catch 2 of those and the shield post in a single, well placed warhead strike. if that will not work, I can definitely get 2 MLRS posts with the missile, though I question the value of such a strike with it being a rather soft world in general.
Reviewing the defenses of world 3, it'll be a nightmare scenario:
counter spy, gravetric command station, all posts clustered around the station, radar jammer 2, anti starship arachnid post, widow post... 187 units in barracks and the world is mk IV. Did I mention it's all under a pair of mk III ai forcefields?
Thank god for artillery golem.
by precise strikes I could knock out the command stations of worlds 1 and 2, putting the fortresses on world 1 offline. Then I'd only have to deal with the one on world 2, but the issue with this method is world 3 becoming alerted making for an even greater nightmare when I am forced to take it on. A brief test indicated that counter spy does not, in fact, take out armored warheads. this means it will be possible to hit the command station with one on world 3 with relative ease, which would knock out the fortress on world 2.
then the only time-intensive portions of clearing would be 1) the shielded MLRS on world 1 and 2) the 187 mk IV ships released from barracks on world 3.
Goal for 2 hour mark is to neutralize all 3 worlds inside the next 15 minutes utilizing 1 armored warhead and 1 lightning warhead 1 to clean up the barracks ships. AIP should end up in the 150-160 range at that time.
Attack Plan:
World 1: Younglings kill command station and retreat to strike point, later second fighter wave knocks out tachyons, then colonize.
World 2: transport of 70 bombers knocks out command shield post, transport of 24 bombers knocks out command station, bombers attempt to flee to strike point but no survivors are expected. Youngling spam to distract while second wave bombers clear MLRS posts and bulletproofs clear needler posts. send starship support.
World 3: transport of fighters takes down tachyon, heads back to world 2 taking out tachyons. after second wave of fighters clears remaining detectors along the route, armored warhead hits command station. when youngling spam arrives, roll a lightning warhead in to clear threat while they are distracted.
1:50:24
Special forces intervened, as should be expected. the sudden surge into world 2 prevented my first fighter wave from taking out any tachyon posts.
worlds 1 and 2 where both removed from AI control, but the detection net is still intact. also, there was a plasma eye on world 2 I had not noticed before, thankfully it didn't activate during the battle due to SF boosting AI ship count. Threat is at 423, 237 of it at world 1 where SF has decided it'd be nice to hold a campout and sing kumbaya.
going to try slipping that armored warhead into world 3 despite the obvious detection issues, counting on it's large health pool to make it reach the target. once that threat piles in, it will easily be enough to prompt an attack against my strike world, where I will be preparing to receive them and holding on to that lightning warhead.
Also, Exo was announced at 50% charge... you know, because the AI wanted to cuddle.
1:54:35
at 93% health my armored warhead has made it onto world 3, where I only now notice the flaw in my plan... there is a command station shield post here.
SF has withdrawn further into AI territory and threatfleet was crushed on my strike world. Threat currently stands at 380 with about 4k total strength.
1:56:12
Bomber starship run took out the first 2 data centers and is on it's way back to strike point. it also cleared the detection network out to planet 3.
I don't know if counter spy can kill a cloaker starship, but that lightning warhead is getting escorted to planet 3 by 1. hopefully I can use that to knock out the shield post and the armored to kill command station, but if this works I may just use 3 more lightning warheads instead.. 2 for station 1 for barracks fleet. Downside to that is construction time would put me behind my 2 hour mark goal.
1:57:16
the missile/starship combo is indeed not falling victim to counter spy. a wave hit my staging world, logi 3 station survived at 90% (shields took a siege shot)
Began working on a mk II lightning warhead to deal with that command station, and it's time to work on colonizing the first world in the line.
1:58:41
lightning warhead takes out target. bomber starships are securing world 1. construction of mk II lightning warhead is complete and cloaker starship is en route to rendevous for delivery escort.
2:00:01
Cloaker is mostly through world 2 on way to pick up warheads. World 1 is building a command station and has bomber starships neutralizing the two fortresses.
Hourly Report:
Planets: 7 (1 building 2 clearing)
AIP: 131 (with 23 more incoming asap followed by 15 reduction when I hit that last DC)
HAP: -46
K reserves: 7905 with about 6K more incoming (9k more after taking world 3 down a peg)
Metal Harvesters: 43 with 12 more in near immediate future
Metal on hand is regularly exceeding the 2 million mark.
Fleet Status: fighters and bombers still rebuilding from my disastrous recent campaign, all other fleetships at cap. starships built include all bombers, 1 flagship, 1 cloaker, 1 neinzul, 1 merc. neinzul.
Mercenary forces include just 21 parasites.
