Outside the insanity 1

[Malkiel]

The only things that I did differently involved slightly changed tactics due to different guardian spawns on "world 2" from my earlier posts.
situation report at 2:38:52
Planets: 11 (1 with a live sentry eye spewing out tons of salvage, that's P0, pictured in an earlier post)
AIP: 182
HAP: 20
K Reserves: 6000
Metal incoming per second: about 9k
All fleetships built
Starships: 2 bomber 2, 1 bomber 1, 1 cloaker 1
Golems: 1 Artillery, 1 black widow, both active at full health
Mercenary fleet: 71 parasites, 1 neinzul
Fortresses located at P0,P1,P2,P3,and P4
CPA not yet announced but soon. EXO at 96%

[Malkiel]

2:47:06
The Exo had a hunter killer. I had an armored warhead. It did not end well for the exo.
5 min left on CPA timer, a pair of waves coming at my tank world P1 two minutes after the CPA hits.

2:55:09
CPA kinda hit... I gave a lightning warhead 1 against several hundred etherjets on my tank world during a 12k threat attack, many where reclaimed due to earlier damage from my leech 4s (which had left rather early at  35% with the other apparently not having made it out), and the reclaimed forces mopped up before merc parasite could even have any fun.
Defenses might have held without the warhead, but eh, what's 1 AIP between friends? besides, I said I'm bringing my "A" game this time around.
7K threat nearing P2, 11K threat near P3 but not nearly dumb enough to come in when they're reading multiple active golems and a fortress. going after the smaller threatball first.. using a golem.
All threat numbers are strength, not ship counts, due to differences between spire stealth battleship (near starship strength) and fighters (str of 1 or 2, I forget)

2:56:51
widow has kidnapped half the threat from the world with 3.5K and is at 92%. going for the world with 7.9K next. 1.9K remains on the first world I hit due to tractor immunity and a spire starship making fighting there a bad option.

First run reduced health to 68%. repairing before second run. many armor rotters.
second run put golem from 100% to 55% but I got those pesky implosion guardians. repairing up again.

3:00:00 report
Planets: 11 (P0 under sentry eye attack per usual, P3 had a wave hit 1 second before the hour)
AIP: 189
HAP: 26
K Reserves: 6000
Metal/second: 9k income, 40K spending due to golem repairs underway. currently 1.6M
Fleet status: all fleetships built. starships same as before except 2 mk IV leeches added and neinzuls are now both built and at P3
Golems: artillery full health, widow at 74%
Mercenaries: 10F 10B 8M 10E 79P 5Z

3:00:36
widow at full HP, wave at P3 cleared.

two golems working together is basically a steamroller. ran over the closest p5 world, reclassing it as p6. moving towards the next p5 in this layer, neutering planets along the way.

3:40
bottomed out metal repairing golems after battle at second p5 world. there where about a dozen implosion guardians and four implosion posts along with 2 plasma posts at close range to the entrance. widow came home at 17%, arty came home at 7%.
only 2 implosion posts where slain, but widow took down the plasmas for me along with a few guardians before the fighting withdrawal began in earnest.

4:00:01 report
Planets: 13 (only unplanned combat is a lone leech starship on an interior world about to get needler turreted to death)
AIP: 205 (peaked at 234 but got a pair of data centers in the last couple minutes)
HAP: 72
K Reserves: 12500
Metal at 9k/sec or better, stopped caring a while back.
Rebuilding a few bombers from recent wave, past that fleet is topped off.
Starship count remains unchanged
Golems are both clearing the way, embattled on P9. arty hp: 91%, widow at 98%
Merc fleet status: 80F 70B 70M 80E 144P 40Z
unlocked gravity drain at most recent ARS
Exo charging reported at 59%

edit to correct that I used an armored warhead on the H/K, not a mere lightning warhead.

[Malkiel]

4:01:32
Space plane, powerslaver, combat carrier for options on final ARS.
Issued order for hacker to move out, it was on homeworld. This may take a bit. I have always felt neinzul combat carrier one of the strongest bonus ships in the game, and with a starship constructor under my control at P3.... yeah, gotta go for it. golems can handle things while I hack.

4:19:26
Hack was successful for research redirect, so I will have combat carriers this game! I lost 2 hackers just trying to get a hacker there.
Also, P9 is cleared, but repairing golems before colonizing in addition to allowing time for research to hit 3000 from normal labs before taking it and triggering archive gains. 6K more at 5/sec means 1200 seconds.. that's twenty minutes to get all the research.
I might need bigger fortresses just so I don't have to waste time golem camping here... or full marks of combat carriers... with regular enclave starships also full marks to back it up. that should be enough firepower, considering it's enough to hold against showdown at a hardpoint for me normally.

*unlocked Enclave Star 2
*unlocked Enclave Star 3
*unlocked Military Command Station 3
*unlocked Fortress 2
*unlocked Combat Carrier 2

4:48:47
The second Exo has launched.
Had to deploy the P3 armored warhead on the world just inside that part of my territory, exo is not behaving the way I expected lol.
Deploying 1 lightning warhead to P1 and P4, hoping the reserve deploy at P1 will prevent it's application.
A mark 5 spire at P1 forced my hand on the warhead. While it only took 100K damage, it's area was cleared allowing for focus fire to bring it down. At P4 I just decided to make it expedient since it was going to waste resources winning the traditional way, and popped a warhead. Also, I didn't know if Threatfleet was going to jump in at P1 and wanted my fleetships freed up.
The Exo.. is dead. 5 AIP from warheads was a relatively minor cost to pay.

4:54:43
*unlocked Combat Carrier 3


5:02:05
I got distracted speedbuilding a forcefield and stopping the constant attack for the few seconds I'd need with a warhead I missed the hour mark! (archive was on the wormhole to a core world is why)
Planets: 15
AIP: 257 (that core world.. has the final coprocessor, but another is 3 hops outside my space, so could be a pain)
HAP: 90
K Reserves: 5,675 with 5,775 more coming from the new archive
Metal per second: 15K (9.7K is from my salvage operation) currently spending twice that repairing hive golem though.
Fleet Status: fully built except for mark V mini rams, which I just got the fab for.
Starship Status: all marks of both neinzuls built, 2 protectors, 1 bomber 1, 2 bomber 2, and old faithful, the cloaker starship from early game who hasn't died yet!
Golems: Artillery 97% Widow 94% Hive rebuilding at 42%
Merc Fleet Status: 169F 169B 176M 163E 144P 90Z

[Malkiel]

5:35:53
threatfleet consists of 1,606 ships totaling 19,097 strength.
3,548 ships massing for cross planet attack in 9:07

Threatfleet has abandoned it's camps by P4 moving towards P3, which is now down a pair of mark 2 bomber starships due to a suicide run taking out that distant co-processor.
a few merc etherjets took out the CP by P5, and the mark 1 bomber starship did a quick in and out job for the last one. (the original had been on P0)
Fleet is otherwise in good shape. missiles are spread a bit more thin than I would like but nothing to be done of it now.
Golem healths are all above 90% and they are positioned on P9.

The core worlds have been stripped of warhead intercepts, OMDs, forts, and posts. The way is lit, the path is clear.

Going to bed, tomorrow I will tank the CPA then engage in the part of this game I can barely tolerate. (I did mention earlier that I win via exodian blade or showdown, right? the no cloaky, no snipey rules of homeworld attacks ruined the normal win for me, made it a chore. Also, the CPA countdown on those is just annoying.)

[Pumpkin]

1 Archive and CSG-clean at the 5th hour mark? That's impressive. (Well, maybe Golems in the equation are shifting timings.)

*unlocked Enclave Star 2
*unlocked Enclave Star 3
*unlocked Military Command Station 3
*unlocked Fortress 2
*unlocked Combat Carrier 2

That's a big defensive stance! I like it! (I should play with MkII/III OCStations more often.)

Going to bed, tomorrow I will tank the CPA then engage in the part of this game I can barely tolerate. (I did mention earlier that I win via exodian blade or showdown, right? the no cloaky, no snipey rules of homeworld attacks ruined the normal win for me, made it a chore. Also, the CPA countdown on those is just annoying.)

You want to push yourself out of your tracks? Win a 7/7 vanilla game: no MF (not even the least), no plot, no Auto-AIP, no AI types. I have to admit: I needed to relearn the game before winning without golems, especially the HWorlds assaults part. But now I never use them; I think it's too easy to end a game with golems. Trust me: AI War is a different game without power-goodies. And not a less fun one.


For the lore side... Well, okay. But I want more! >D
So after Red.Queen was gone nuts and bananas, the Golden Shield AI... did what? What is this first war? Did the Golden Shield saved humans from Red.Queen? Or from the Exodian AI (the one behind the two sub-AI that are target of regular AIW games)?
Anyway. I like the LCZSO name.

[Malkiel]

I took the day to watch Jessica Jones on Netflix. Also played a bit of payday, since the not fun part is all that's left of this game.
no MF.. meaning modular fortress? I have _never_ used one. I don't gate raid, as a rule even when it was popular, so I have never needed 3K knowledge worth of firepower on 1 planet.
no plot (done it) no auto aip (done it) no AI types- what does that mean? I always go random all (including technologist).. does that count?
Also note this game was made on a 60 planet map to keep it short (and honestly since I dont care much for unlocks I usually play with CSGs turned off because I don't value the ARS as much as most players.)
With the settings you describe, I believe I have already done that actually, one of the main reasons I leave golems on is because I find homeworld assaults tedious and unfun. The enforced CPAs after you deal significant damage to any post has a few effects I dislike and feel are detrimental to the experience

I have won on those settings on 8/8 btw, in my neinzul game off which I wrote a steam guide.

All these extra features where added to homeworlds as players got new toys, but the most recent add on was brutal posts. if I could turn off brutal posts, or turn off that counter CPA behavior (without going full lazy AI) I might not feel so strongly for alternate paths to victory. With the way they made HW attacking... I'd rather spend 30 minutes defending against all hell breaking loose following by 2 super H/Ks because it's less "unfun"

People have shown showdown can get nastier than final attacks in fallen spire campaign. Just saying.

-------My Rant about why I hate the *newer* homeworld mechanics-------
1) artificially inflates the value of the CPA post because you absolutely can't take 2 CPA at once, forcing you to alpha CPA post so you'll only have to take 2 inside 10 min. god help you if 2 CPA post spawn... if that hasn't been hard coded against.
2) forces mode switches between offense and heavy defense. I'd be fine with this happening once, but repeatedly you are basically forced to switch rapidly due to the 30 minute intervals on ever worse CPAs. This can stalemate you into defense and cost you a game because the artificial difficulty increase, my problem with that being that it happens only after several hours have been sunk into a match. If some arbitrary "U Lose" mechanic is going to screw me, do it before the endgame.
3) The deployment of reserves at all power to defend homeworlds means they're a tough nut to crack and having to switch into defense mode lets off pressure allowing them to rebuild. This means more tedious clearing at the offensive portions of HW assaults before you can even get close to a post.
4) No artillery/ other really great post cleaners on HW assaults.. so, force me to do it the slow way while running an artificial clock mechanism? That's punishing good play by not allowing it to work.
5) no cloaking on homeworlds: this is just a copout because spirecraft penetrators were deemed too powerful. Heavy anticloaking I could understand. a post type that has planetary tachyon so I can take it out early, I could understand. putting the anti cloaking on the final thing I kill, which I cannot kill earlier than last? that's bull. This particular gripe has a silver lining, it justifies the existence of the sensor hack.

[Malkiel]

***2 weeks prior***
"General, long ranges scans are indicating combat activities are beginning in sector 37, but there were no remaining signs of human life there"  the ensign said.

General West glanced up from the documents he had been reading; "Are the AIs fighting among themselves? If not, then who or what is fighting them?"

"It appears to be following combat protocols from sector 2 liberation activities, sir. Since we have not detected any signs of extended range mobility developing there, we can only assume they are using the same remote hijacking methodology we developed here."

Another ensign rushed in "Sir, the heavy AI data streams we intercepted... There's a third AI, known as Red Quest- based in sector 2. Due to ddos style attacks and data overloading efforts on both sides of the communications, along with heavy encryption, that's all we have determined so far."

"Thank you both, you may return to your posts" ordered the general. He then looked back to his tablet and began writing a letter to the defense ministry, highlighting the earlier AI activity pattern changes in sector 37, the reveal of a new AI serving humanity in sector 2, and the engagement of hostilities in sector 37, and requesting the AI room be made available to analyze battle data from sector 37.

[Malkiel]

*12 days prior to current*

"General, just because sector 2's Red Quest.." the senator began

"Queen actually, the technicians had it wrong at first..."

"Red Queen" continued the senator, annoyed by the interruption "has established contact with the AIs and begun fighting a proxy war in sector 37 does not mean there is any new threat to us here in sector 1. The warp grid is sealed off via those ancient devices, even if they are practicing warfare we are immune to attack. If they somehow try establishing a foothold, the outcast will find them and destroy them."

"Humanity once relied on well armed outside support in warfare, that is how this all began. While the Exodian Blade has not yet turned against us, it openly admits being cast out of their society, and none of us even know the reasons. Not knowing the reasons, our trust is poorly placed, regardless of it's performance against the AIs" countered general West. "We should reactivate the golden shield protocol until the enemy falls back into well known, well understood patterns of activity"

"Command doesn't agree about that. Running an AI, even in a sealed room with only a display for outputs and disposable data cards for input, is still considered asking for extinction by the people. Furthermore, the outcast was willing to sacrifice it's own existence to stop the AIs if need be. That was proof enough, and we have asked the exile to assist with decompiling the ongoing communications between Red, White, and Black. We shall continue to watch the battle unfold in sector 37."

"With all due respect ma'am, the red moves recently make no sense. We need that processing power to figure out what it's game is against White and Black."

"It is the opinion of the council that would not be in the best interests of humanity at this time general. You are dismissed."

[Malkiel]

*10 days before current*
A loud buzz sounded on the intercoms "General West to the defense council chambers, immediately"

The general continued down the corridor at a quick walk. He had known this would happen, had feared it would when Red's seemingly illogical strategic decisions revealed to have been issued to save a human colony. A colony that Red had destroyed with a nuclear weapon immediately after defeating the second AI in sector 37. The council had clearly been watching as well.

As he entered the council chambers, quiet conversations hushed. The chairwoman stared him down intently "I presume you're aware of the situations in sectors 2 and 37?" she began.

"37 I am regrettably aware, but I was not watching sector 2 as there was no combat there to the best of my knowledge."

"Sector 2 wasn't a battle, it was wholesale murder. Red opened the airlocks. The other AIs are attempting to turn Red into an ally via a series of wargames it would seem, and have already caused it's attitude to shift against humanity. We are re-authorizing the golden shield protocol. Have it study the entirety of Red's battle plans, along with the buildup you reported prior. Continue feeding it live sector scans so it can try and predict the next sector where the AI intends to do these practice runs."

"Yes ma'am. Might I ask what we should do if we detect another war game being set up?"

"Then we will intervene militarily under your command, general."

"Senator, how do you propose we do that? We're off the warp grid. Also since my life is not necessarily on the line for this one, how can I be certain politicians won't interfere should a war break out?"

"The outcast has been preparing a one way gate that can launch our command station into a different system, but there would be no way home. With proper equipment on the far side we could beam in mercenary forces from sector 1 though. When we go, we are taking golden shield with us."

"You evaded my second question, senator."

"In the event that we launch, only I will be coming along for the politicians, the rest will be remaining behind. We will also be enacting Martial Law. Under those circumstance, would you agree to accompany and lead this expedition, general?"

"I can only agree hoping it doesn't come to pass. I'll get simulations running."

"You are dismissed then, general."

As general West left the chambers heading back for his command briefing room to issue the orders, he silently prayed he wouldn't have to fight in another war.

8 days later, his prayers were answered.... with a resounding "NO"

[Pumpkin]

no MF.. meaning modular fortress? I have _never_ used one. I don't gate raid, as a rule even when it was popular, so I have never needed 3K knowledge worth of firepower on 1 planet.
no plot (done it) no auto aip (done it) no AI types- what does that mean? I always go random all (including technologist).. does that count?
Also note this game was made on a 60 planet map to keep it short (and honestly since I dont care much for unlocks I usually play with CSGs turned off because I don't value the ARS as much as most players.)
With the settings you describe, I believe I have already done that actually, one of the main reasons I leave golems on is because I find homeworld assaults tedious and unfun. The enforced CPAs after you deal significant damage to any post has a few effects I dislike and feel are detrimental to the experience

I have won on those settings on 8/8 btw, in my neinzul game off which I wrote a steam guide.

Sorry, I didn't paid enough attention to my writing: I meant Minor Faction for MF. My point was to suggest you try a vanilla game with no superweapon and no painful plot. Just humans VS AI. Homeworld assaults may indeed be frustrating or tediously difficult, but I swear there is fun there, and this fun may only be unearthed by foregoing superweapons. As I said: it took me many defeats and a deep relearning of the game, but I managed to do it, and now I rarely play with golems.

All these extra features where added to homeworlds as players got new toys, but the most recent add on was brutal posts. if I could turn off brutal posts, or turn off that counter CPA behavior (without going full lazy AI) I might not feel so strongly for alternate paths to victory. With the way they made HW attacking... I'd rather spend 30 minutes defending against all hell breaking loose following by 2 super H/Ks because it's less "unfun"

People have shown showdown can get nastier than final attacks in fallen spire campaign. Just saying.

Mmkay, you're a defense guy. I love AI War because of that: many different players may find many different ways to both win and have fun. Hey, you make me want to do a showdown campaign again. I did it only once and I was rather newb beck in the days (I mean, even more than today). I guess I found my theme for my Outa Tracks MkIII.

-------My Rant about why I hate the *newer* homeworld mechanics-------
1) artificially inflates the value of the CPA post because you absolutely can't take 2 CPA at once, forcing you to alpha CPA post so you'll only have to take 2 inside 10 min. god help you if 2 CPA post spawn... if that hasn't been hard coded against.

I already withstood a double Teuthida. And a double Wrath Lance. That was rather !!fun!! .  There should be achievements for this kind of nasty double-trouble homeworlds.

2) forces mode switches between offense and heavy defense. I'd be fine with this happening once, but repeatedly you are basically forced to switch rapidly due to the 30 minute intervals on ever worse CPAs. This can stalemate you into defense and cost you a game because the artificial difficulty increase, my problem with that being that it happens only after several hours have been sunk into a match. If some arbitrary "U Lose" mechanic is going to screw me, do it before the endgame.

Attack guys are rewarded for running a complete Homeworld assault in less than 30 minutes (as I often do at 7/7). Defense guys are able to take down a Homeworld with more time. For me this mechanism isn't insanely hard.

3) The deployment of reserves at all power to defend homeworlds means they're a tough nut to crack and having to switch into defense mode lets off pressure allowing them to rebuild. This means more tedious clearing at the offensive portions of HW assaults before you can even get close to a post.

My strategy is barely alway to ignore Strategic Reserve and go for the GPosts.

4) No artillery/ other really great post cleaners on HW assaults.. so, force me to do it the slow way while running an artificial clock mechanism? That's punishing good play by not allowing it to work.

I don't understand that. You mean you can't use artillery on HWorlds? But-but-but... Artillery Golems (is this kind of artillery you're talking about) are working for HWorlds assaults! ... IIRC...

5) no cloaking on homeworlds: this is just a copout because spirecraft penetrators were deemed too powerful. Heavy anticloaking I could understand. a post type that has planetary tachyon so I can take it out early, I could understand. putting the anti cloaking on the final thing I kill, which I cannot kill earlier than last? that's bull. This particular gripe has a silver lining, it justifies the existence of the sensor hack.

Yeah, that's an artificial mechanism for avoiding cheezy attacks.

* * * Lore bits * * *

All right! Nice! The scene is being built. I like it. So Red.Queen is going bananas and general West is warped in with an army to clean the mess. Am I right? Am I?
Can't wait to see the rest of the story! (and the rest of the game, of course)

Well, I bet I have my MkIII setup pretty well established. Thanks for cheering me up in the AAR field! I was a bit sad and lonely since Mal and R.Q suddenly disappeared.

[Malkiel]

5:45:00
CPA Launched
5:51:27
CPA dead

*unlocked firefly 2
*unlocked firefly 3
*unlocked commando 2

6:00:00 status is similar to before but about 220 of each merc ship type now (trying to attach pic failed and wiped my post, doing this from memory as I take notes directly into the post during play)

decide to knock out the core world I have to pass through because muni boost command post is annoying. Also that gets me the K I needed to:
*unlocked commando 3

used mk 2 and 3 youngling spam on AI HW to take down the mobile post and the anti starship post (note that at 1M damage a shot, it's really meant as anti golem)
flew youngling waves in transports across system to hit Tuethida post 1 repeatedly until destroyed.
Flew in lightning warhead 2 to take out zenith fort post and electric post as well as barracks ships and a chunk of reserves (shot barracks with widow golem quick to trigger release early then withdrew widow)
then started youngling spam to distract the defense ships to cover for a pair of mark 2 lightning warheads being applied against the exo as it tries to fly out a different wormhole. catch about 70% of it, rest will break on my defenses. also arty sniped out it's flagship.
got annoyed that I couldn't use wasps as a distraction, HW instant killed a full load from my hive golem. this happens every time I get a hive golem lol.
Gathered strength and waited for reserves to get put away. moment they where, rushed with younglings covering a lightning warhead 1 to take out the heavy beam post under a shield and catch most the reserves. took widow around wide to deal with riot control post and tuethida #2, then had it come back to kill HCS
total time used by attack: 15 minutes.
Total warheads used: 2 for posts, 2 vs cps, 4 total
AIP total of said warheads: 7
golems are all above 70% and back in friendly territory. Homeworld #1 is down.
Time: 6:18:37
now to get this war fleet to attack point 2, which i think was classed as P9

[Toranth]

used mk 2 and 3 youngling spam on AI HW to take down the mobile post and the anti starship post (note that at 1M damage a shot, it's really meant as anti golem)
flew youngling waves in transports across system to hit Tuethida post 1 repeatedly until destroyed.

Younglings are a favorite method of mine to deal with Cthuhlu posts - quick, strong, and immune to reclamation!  They also clog the AI's targeting lists, which can be almost as good during Homeworld assaults.

got annoyed that I couldn't use wasps as a distraction, HW instant killed a full load from my hive golem. this happens every time I get a hive golem lol.

It used to be that Hive Golems were basically an instant-win on AI Homeworlds - pop through the wormhole, unload, pop back out.  Golem is never in any danger but the AI loses everything.  So that got, er, 'countered'.  I'd prefer the anti-Wasp mechanic to be less arbitrary (maybe have it auto-kill all minor drones AI or human?) but it solved a major problem.

Gathered strength and waited for reserves to get put away. moment they where, rushed with younglings covering a lightning warhead 1 to take out the heavy beam post under a shield and catch most the reserves. took widow around wide to deal with riot control post and tuethida #2, then had it come back to kill HCS

Huh.  Must admit, I've never tried going way to get the reserves to pop out as a strategy before.  That's a good idea - depending on where the AI HCS is, it could pull them halfway across the system...  Nice one.

Mmkay, you're a defense guy. I love AI War because of that: many different players may find many different ways to both win and have fun. Hey, you make me want to do a showdown campaign again. I did it only once and I was rather newb beck in the days (I mean, even more than today). I guess I found my theme for my Outa Tracks MkIII.

-------My Rant about why I hate the *newer* homeworld mechanics-------
1) artificially inflates the value of the CPA post because you absolutely can't take 2 CPA at once, forcing you to alpha CPA post so you'll only have to take 2 inside 10 min. god help you if 2 CPA post spawn... if that hasn't been hard coded against.

I already withstood a double Teuthida. And a double Wrath Lance. That was rather !!fun!! .  There should be achievements for this kind of nasty double-trouble homeworlds.

Double CPAs can be dealt with, easier than double Wrath Lance or double CREs in my opinion.  First strategy is kill the other AI first, of course.  But CPAs are slow to build.  If you're truly in the endgame, you often have time to kill the entire 2nd AI Homeworld before the CPA actually threatens to kill you.

If you can't handle it that way, you can actually use the CPA posts to make the HW assault easier:  Trigger them with just a few units, then kill the CPA with warheads + fleet.  Each time the CPAs trigger and die, the total number of AI units in the galaxy goes down.  Half of each CPA comes from the reserves, so after a few triggers the reserves are mostly gone without even needing to fight them on the AI HW.  If you aren't prepared, it can be difficult to kill the CPAs quickly or without losses that take time to replace - but if you are ready, it is a lot like tricking the AI into throwing its forces away.

And Pumpkin - Play around with the Brutal AI - randomly encountering Wrath Lances just a hop or two from your homeworld can be real !!fun!!.
Almost as much fun as Turtle-Bouncer Diff 9+ dual AI on a highly connected map.

[Pumpkin]

And Pumpkin - Play around with the Brutal AI - randomly encountering Wrath Lances just a hop or two from your homeworld can be real !!fun!!.
Almost as much fun as Turtle-Bouncer Diff 9+ dual AI on a highly connected map.

Héhé.
I tried the Brutal AI once -- never finished the game, thought (barely begun). I was so disappointed I posted this mad idea on Mantis. I need to give it a full try.

Double Turtle-Bouncer on Lattice? Noted.

[Malkiel]

lol Toranth, that's dwarf fortress fun right there! Sadly that game's ui is just too counter intuitive for me. I figure out a bit more each time I come back to it, but I'm completely incompetent there currently.

Units reached P9 by 6:25. knocked out the crippled core world and moved for HW assault.
the brutals where CPA sitting next to a Tuetha with a wrath lance in the deep south.
I thought I'd be able to ignore the wrath lance with it's range listed at 14,000 but was rapidly disabused of this notion.
With the excessive leftover threat in the galaxy and another CPA coming, I ordered a couple planets to decolonize to prevent shark issues. At times it was touch and go on the defenses, where more warheads where used than in the HW fight. P6 and the core world next to P5 where decolonized, the core world I barely made it out in time due to lack of warheads in the region. P6 there was never a battle there but I didn't feel like chancing it.

I used a lightning 2 to knock out the mobile posts that came right up close to the entrance for me like good dogs. I used an armored warhead to take out the wrath lance in the deep south (HCS was at very high 12 o'clock, entry was at 4:30 slightly near the mid)
after that I was delayed waiting for the next armored to build at my staging world P9 (I literally scrapped 23 engineer 2's at the HW to rebuild them on P9 to beat the CPA timer) and during the wait I tried slipping a lightning 1 into a beam and neinzul cockroach post. This did not go well. I got my armored in and pointed it at the CPA post, hoping to make it in time. the exo hit and the AI got an armored golem.
Golems are thankfully slower than molasses. it was going north to not face my staging world, I knew I had about a dozen hops before this would hit.
put widow after the 2 posts my missile had failed to reach, then to the final heavy beam post. youngling have been streaming in ever since the lightning warhead that didn't make it, and I had all but 1 enclave star 1 of my enclaves and carriers 1-4 present. arty finally ambled his tail in after the armored warhead wiped both it's targets and most of the remaining reserves (I had struck during a CPA)
Due to Arty being late to the party I redirected widow to take out ion cannons while arty chewed through shields to get at the fort to stay out of it's range.
widow ended up stealing the fort kill and made short work of the HCS after, I think the exo made it 2 hops away in that time.
final time: 6:47:25
Top 5 kill generators:
Heavy Beam Cannons 118,801
MLRS Turret 21,661
Golems 9,528 (note there was 2887 under experimental, I bet that's the wasps)
Heavy Defense (forts) 9,113
Warheads (35) 5,474

Would like to put in a picture but attachment bug keeps eating my posts...

[Toranth]

Double Turtle-Bouncer on Lattice? Noted.

60, count 'em, 60 little Bouncers in this system 

final time: 6:47:25
Top 5 kill generators:
Heavy Beam Cannons 118,801
MLRS Turret 21,661
Golems 9,528 (note there was 2887 under experimental, I bet that's the wasps)
Heavy Defense (forts) 9,113
Warheads (35) 5,474

Ah, HBC love.  Only 20 times the kills of your Golems.  If they had just a little more range, I might try using the Mk IV offensively, even on HW assaults.  Who'd need Golems at that point?