Some people feel Raid Starships are too weak, especially after the Guard Post buff. I beg to differ. This game is all Raid Starships, all the time. If it shoots, it can't enter any system until I've built a Command Station there. Once I've owned a system, it is fair game for anything. I'm allowed to move any unit through AI system in Transports, but I have to put them in powered down and scrap them all if the Transport is destroyed in a system I've never owned. Self-destroying units (Rams, Martyrs, Warheads) can be used only when I'd normally use them, with a preference to never using them if possible. Once I attack a homeworld, I may open up my offense on the homeworld itself. But if I can do this all Raids, I will.
Difficult: 8/8 Both Random Medium (Camouflager & Feeding Parasite)
Ship Types: Complex
Bonus Ship: Zenith Siege (eh, I'm only allowed to defend, so why not, mainly picked for location)
Map: Maze D
Factions: Spire - Hard 4 (need Exos to keep it interesting and at least some Spirecraft are useful)
AIP: +1 per 15 minutes (to keep me honest)
First hour involves claiming two systems, defeating four waves-ish waves, running a few gate raids, and clearing out a few guard posts for the future. Waves are a non-issue since I'm setting up my entire fleet for defense only, which is why I don't really know how many have hit so far. Since Raid Starships are crystal heavy, I've unlocked Crystal Harvester III, but left Metal Harvesters at Mark I. I also unlocked Mark II Scouts, Gravity Turrets, Tachyon Turrets, and eventually Mark II Raid Starships.
I'm trying not to use Raid Starships as disposable at least while my economy can't afford to pop out replacements constantly. That's okay, because so far only Missile and MLRS Guard Posts have given them any pause. Mostly I can shift-click all the Guard Posts and let them clear the system. Pull them back for repairs and then send them in with FRD to clear out ships. This is the slowest part, and a Camouflager doesn't help.
I'm planning on taking all the P5 planets, so almost the entire Linpih branch south of my homeworld. I'm leaving Zazing alone and plan to have that be the locations waves eventually come from. It doesn't have any resources or anything else of value. Making this full sweep nets me CSG-E, 2xCSG-A, a decent bit of asteroids and a fair number of resource nodes. Once I've got this cleaned up, I'll start pushing out to find the rest of the interesting stuff. Sadly, Zamund has a AF not an ADSC. That would have been too perfect.
Capturing Admbanburn was interesting, partly because it had a Ion IV I wanted to keep alive since I wanted that for my whipping boy. And that's tricky when the AI is a Camoflager so tracking down everything that can plink it isn't very easy. Second, there was a Needler Guard Post covered by an MLRS Guard Post. Since I didn't feel like throwning away my Raid Starships yet (I want at least Mark IIIs before I do that) I decided to use a Mobile Builder to build a Force Field around the Ion Cannon. Then drop a Command Station there. Once the Command Station was built, I moved in and cleaned out the system. Somewhat cheesy, but this is only a Mark II system so I wanted to get on with it and see something really tough like the IVs. Also, I learned Mobile Builders count as fleet ships and can be killed by Ion Cannons.
I should note that gate raiding Wane (which I'll be capturing later) involved a Gravity Guardian, which concerned me at first. Thankfully, Raid Starships hurt those pretty bad so I was able to kill it and complete the raid without loses. Lastly, taking Admbanburn trigger a Special Forces Alarm Post in Zazing. Not a huge deal, but it did appear to add a touch of threat. I can't actually recall what they do now with the new special forces. It appears they release special forces ships into regular threat.
Current AIP: 65
Time: 1:01:47
