So, booted up the new version, and I get 26,900 extra juice... about what I had before. And only one converter, too, nice. I might fork up a bit and build another one. How much ARE these things to build, anyway... Oh, that's pretty cheap, cool. Turn my now power-free Human Home Settlements back on for a bit of economy back... And where the heck was I?
Ooooh, with the extra juice I can fire up the Leech Starships on Blackstone to help with ship steals. Sweetsauce.
Alright, no, really, what the hell was I doing? Oooooh, right. I'd cleaned out Marik and Earth, was looking to open up craps... Which really doesn't have many guardposts on it. You know, I might as well just bum-rush 'em with the fleet.
Oh, right, MK III Eye. Ow. That cost me a bunch of fleet and I didn't take out the Mass Drivers fast enough so the one post under glass wasn't able to be taken by the Raid SSs. The fleet did pop a SF post and the Mass drivers, though. AIP 55. Noone made it home though, time for a refleet. Stupid Tractor Guardian. Well, that falls under the header of 'not too bright'. Of course I'm about to do it again on another planet, too... Three Kings. Though, I'm going to leave the maws out of this one.
Since the nerfing, the 5 maws are too expensive for their utility. Oh, don't get me wrong, they'll account for roughly 100 ships/wave in suction, maybe 150. But in the micro-fights they're just not as useful but they're OH so expensive to rebuild. And against Eyes they're practically pointless, they simply get the Eye to spawn more, but don't eat fast enough to deal with their own work.
With the fleet trying to do final cleanup against the Casino (Poker, Blackjack, and Craps all in one area, kinda amusing) I get a 1100 ship wave announced for Blackstone. The Maws are near the entry under glass, and I've got 3 new leech starships to help out on reclamation for eventual usage.
Woot, 146 Rebellion Fighters come to help me. The fleet was able to open up Hacker, but when they hit Poker they REALLY woke the planet up and got wrecked. Meanwhile, the defense held... ish. It probably would have barely held on its own but I'm happy the resistance got there. I do, however, have a MK III EMP Guardian enroute. Joy.
Final count on reclaimed untis:
67 Fighter IIs, 6 Bomber IIs, 8 Beam Frigate IIs, and 3 Missile Frigate IIs. Well, they'll eventually come in rather handy, I'm sure. The bombers will end up in the main fleet since I'm actually cooking those up myself.
However, the next wave just announced. 1559 ships to Blackstone. AIP is 56. It's 6:30 game time... with an EMP Guardian enroute. Oh, LOVELY.
Happily, a small flight (10 ships or so) of humans went to Eridani to meet the inbound MK III swarm from Poker I woke up. They don't get far though. I might be officially screwed.
At 23 seconds to wave the EMP gets pushed through by the threat of the human rebellionists. Oh, GREAT. All of my AoE is dead. Half the mine-line is down. The fleet's enroute to try to help but... ugh. 5 seconds of paralysis for the wave.
Finally, we're able to kill the massive amounts of MK III Guardian that came in from Eridani... 1000 wave ships left as the carrier pops. I'm running REALLY low on Rebellion backup here, too.
With an "Oh my god" defense and the fleet running point defense near the station, we're finally able to stop the wave + drifter. Threat is around 300 out there, apparently all over the place, there's no one place that has the majority. I head home to refleet again. I also ship the Science II out to Hacker to see what that ARS can provide me.
I decide this is probably the best time, since most of the mid-range turrets are dead, to move back the mid-range stuff to hit ships that escape the main line; the idea being that they won't get alpha'd to death by the longer range units and can actually apply weight to the ships as they 'drift out' of the pitcher plant of tractors at the entry wormhole. Half my tractors are under glass, half aren't, so what happens is I get a slow 'drift out' from the entry point. Besides, this will work better when I drop EMPs up there.
There is still enough firepower on Poker that I can't push past it into the further systems with 11 Scout IIs. Joy.
Hacker's ARS gets: Mirror ( Youngling Vulture/Shield Bearer)
Hm. I was really hoping for a raider of some kind. Heck, I'd even take teleports at this point.
6:42 still refleeting/re-turreting.
All this down time gives me far too much time to plot and plan. I keep looking at the access points into Three Kings... and I think I'm going to swing around the back. Clean up the two Fact IV systems, blow the ARS system in Kerensky to 'wide open', and cleanup Janeway so I can get the raids into and out of Jumping Jax (and its resultant deep strike) quick and clean to pop that Data Center.
I need to take Three Kings apart eventually... but I could also just suicide dive the Raids at the CoP when I'm ready, too.
Yeah, we're going around the back for the systems I NEED instead of the one that's just in the way. Might as well bring this flock of Fighter IIs along with me, before the leeches cap 'em out. The two planets I own line up JUST right to keep me at 4 out maximum the entire time.
6:47... twiddle...
6:49 Oh, hey, Blackstone's back up, lookie that. Well, only one leech, but that's just 'bonus' anyway. Fleet's finishing it's refill here shortly as well.
6:50: Fleet's ready. Time to go hunting. I've got a MK IV planet that needs some chewin'.
Hm, I'm about 2 hours away from the Rebel Colony. That'll give me some serious raiders for anti-Mass Driver and anti-eye work.
First thing's first, we're gonna bait the MK IVs off Riker so I don't get a fleet wipe. Besides, the Raids need to pop the local Ion I anyway. Let's confirm... no EMP... no Eye... no Mass Drivers... Okay, good.
Damn, they won't bait. They won't stay active long enough. Hm. Can get a few to drift. Alright, second attempt...
Hm, annoying dance. I'm not used to only having Raid Is... IIs must give enough threat or something that they'll chase longer. Alright, I'll 'flash' the planet with the full fleet, see if I can wake it up and then take them out piecemeal in Marik as they chase me.
The entire fleet isn't enough to wake 130 MK IV ships. Alrighty then. Let's go plundering!
6:56 925 ships to Blackstone. Guess we'll see how that plan of mine works.
So, I'm swapping back and forth between main fleet and defenses. Merely moving the mid-rangers out of alpha strike range has significantly improved the defenses. Anything that drifts out dies, the FFs take the brunt of the assault (I need some more of those). I need to reduce the # of Tractors in the FF so I get more drifter, but this will work nicely. Just need to play games with the timing of tractor releases so they 'drift out' into the mid-range turrets piecemeal. I like this.
7:00 AIP 59 from auto progress and SF posts.
The fleet's down to about 50% now, all fighters lost, but we've nearly cleaned out the entire MK IV world. I'm down with that.
We hit low energy! Must be the captures on Blackstone. Time for a second matter converter. heh, yeah, that'll do it. 30 Beams, 1 Bomber II, 19 Fighter IIs, 2 Fighter III, 10 Missile II, and 1 Missile III. Cool. All but the beams will be added to main fleet. I wanted to keep pushing the fleet down into the next world and start cleanup but I don't want to push too hard here.
I'm glad I didn't and waited to get scouts onto Huge. 2 EMP Guardians. Yeesh.
Kerensky, a MK IV world with the ARS, is packing 222 units and 5 Ion cannons. Hm, that could be useful, depending on their position... dang, no joy. They're scattered all over the place. Nice idea though.
7:05... the fleet's home (and rebuilt when I get there) and in one minute 1500 ships land on Blackstone. The fleet's heading over to help. The carrier is going to be a problem. I've turned on auto-target carriers to speed-pop them at this point. I'd rather face the 10 starships or whatever they're going to dump then fight the same fleet twice.
Glad I brought the fleet. This one got UGLY.
7:11 Fleet's enroute to continue the path to Kerensky's ARS and the DC hiding behind it. Found another Data Center waaaay the hell up on Sushi. That'll be a bit.
I just realized I chose to go through two MK IV worlds instead of a MK III with Eye and Mass Drivers. Well, that says a lot right there.
Found another ARS way up on Arc Royal, near Hacker. I've been using my flight of Starship Scouts to drive into things that 'one' world deeper.
Another ARS way over in the Northwest, this one also packing a Data Center for added bonus, on Sox.
With the fleet having annihilated Huge, and at about half left, they head home for R&R. Kerensky's packing a pair of EMP IVs and I don't want to foul that one up. I do send the raids over to start picking off Ion cannons, though, since they won't wake the entire planet.
I manage to get four of the Ions and a good chunk of threat to release before the last two Raid SSs with barely any life run for home. Neither EMP woke up, woot woot!
21 worlds left to scout. Still no sign of the AI HWs or that last CoP... Sigh. Only 138 ships left on Kerensky though from the 220 that had built up. Time to plunder.
Just as I engage the fleet on Kerensky and we AIP to 60 for 7:30, another wave for Blackstone announces, 1,250 ships. Well, that should be ugly. I'm busy. I couldn't get the fleet there if I tried, particularly since they were engaged with a pair of EMP IVs.
AIP 62 now from some more Spec Force post kills. Gyeah. Fleet's down to about 1/3 viability, mostly just polarizers left, but they're continuing cleanup on Kerensky. Without rebellion support, Blackstone held... barely. It's badly hurt though and if it waves before it's rebuilt I'm HOSED. The Science II is on its way to check out Kerensky, too.
Man the AI is EMP happy. Janeway's got one too. The fleet heads home after nerfing Kerensky. I need to rebuild before taking on Janeway.
I just HAD to say something.
1,704 units to Blackstone, announced at 7:38. I grab what's rebuilt of the fleet and send 'em over. I've got 265 ships still out in the middle of NOWHERE though. I send them via Eridani to come in and support Blackstone... they'll get to the fight eventually.
Blackstone is completely fubar for defense. About 60 Rebels, most of the turrets are dead. Oh good grief.
The carrier of 700 ships burst about halfway down the mining path. It tore through all the rebuild turrets on its way just because it could. GYEAH.
The fleet pops up from Eridani right in front of the main push. time to Maw Micro.
At 330 enemy left massive amounts of the enemy run for Eridani and escape as threat. Good, I'll kill you later.
Whew, survived that mess. Tons of the fleet are getting Engine repairs and we're heading back to Misery for R&R.
Kerensky ARS: EtherJet ( Space Tank /
Blade Spawner)
Hello my baby, hello my darlin'... hello my ragtime gal...
*KISS*. C'mere BABY! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a HACK to do! Now how the hell am I gonna GET it there without waking up half the damned universe as hack response? Dammit, going to end up going through Three Kings ANYWAY. Sonofa... Dammit.
7:45 500 ship CPA announces. Joy.
Not being overly concerned with the CPA and the fleet ready to go again at 7:53 with Blackstone whole, I set off to go pop Janeway in the jaw. The entire CPA is MK II, so I'm safe there, as long as they don't stack up with a wave. I will need to keep an eye on threat points against Blackstone.... and the majority of the enemy is going to Eridani. That's just great. Lucky, so are my left over human rebels. They're cleaning the problem up pretty well and any drifters that make it in are dying.
When I hit Janeway, an EMP III makes a break for it, and is heading towards me. I'm not sure where it's going yet but best guess would be Blackstone. I just hope the Rebels can deal with it before it sets off on Blackstone. Yep, just went off on Eridani... and he got ganked.
1018 ships to Blackstone at 8:00, AIP 63. A relatively easy defense.
While brawling on Janeway I noticed i was getting pounded on by a sniper guardian. I fired half of my remaining polarizers to go hunt it down and kill it. Shockingly they did it in short order. Nice. Also, learning my lesson about Suicide Guardians, I make sure my Raids hunt that PITA down and keel it.
Remembering the purpose of this entire endeavour, my raids make their run at Jumping Jax. One dies on entry. A second dies enroute. the third one barely survives long enough to get the kill shot on the Data Center. AIP 43. Olly Olly Oxen Free.
The fleet gets obliterated by the MK IV guardians the raid releases. the Maws high tail it for home, hoping not to release more threat.
8:06 813 ships to Blackstone. Didn't I just pop a DC?!
Well, it died easily enough, but still. Yeesh. Also got 85 ships reclaimed off that wave, nice.
It's 8:11 at this point, and I'm basically just treading water until I find out where the Rebel Colony's going to drop, and let my fleet finish rebuilding. I need to punch a hole into Three Kings anyway, so that'll give me something to do. The Transport won't make it all the way around to Kerensky and I really don't feel like fighting hacker response moving the ARS hacker there.
So, Three kings. Fort, Eye, 2x Mass Drivers. One Driver's on the CC, the other's on the Kerensky wormhole (another reason I was working my way around the back). Drop the fleet in, wake the planet, pop one Mass Driver, then run. Then send in... something... when the smoke clears and get the other Mass Driver down. Then raid the place to death.
8:20, fleet's in position. Go boys go.
Wormhole's cleared of the Grav Guardian and the Mass Driver. Some 150 Zombies are now spreading throughout the galaxy, but no planet awakening. Alright. Fighters, GO!
Errr, or not. Only 30 left when they hit the Mass Driver and the damage was negligible. Hrm.
Did wake/clear a TON of guardian out though, that'll help. Let all that float off towards Blackstone. bye bye. Now, for a Polarizer II run... or not, they can't damage it. Crap. Narf, they shoot dark matter. Bomber Is away! 50 make it to the target through the blistering attacks of dual Ions.. and kill it. Now for raid work. The fleet heads home, its job is done.
Lost one Raid before I could even pop a GP to dual Arty Guardians. I buzz all the posts to free the planet out and run the raids home... none of 'em make it. The fleet, however, is rebuilt by the time I get home. They travel over to Blackstone as a prep point for running the Hacker over.
My god, having a solvent economy is nice....
Another attack, 2 Raids lost, one GP down. Wish I could afford to upgrade them.
8:30 AIP 44 from time.
Building off the Ship Hacker and Transport, I run into energy problems again. Time for another matter converter.
Having knocked off all the Ion cannons, and realizing I'm not going to be able to Raid pop the MLRS under the fort reasonably, I send half a cap of bomber Is on a suicide mission to Three Kings.
Next wave announced at 8:34. 827 ships.
The Bomber Suicides do their job pretty well, leaving with 25 bombers left.
Mother of... Double Wave. Second wave is 1593 ships. Didn't I knock this AIP DOWN?! Dear lord. Here's hoping for Human Freedom Fighters. At least the Fleet's there able to help out.
Time to break out the stolen ships, too, I think.
With 350 enemy ships left the second wave hits as the FFs on the AoEs fall. My Stolen Beam Frigates are at the extreme edge of range (42 of them) doing what they can to help out, the rest of my stolen ships are right in the thick of things. My Fleet was doing a brake-stop near the turrets but they just Attack moved into the mob. No sign of the Freedom Fighters yet, either. I early popped the Carrier, too, forcing it to dump 500+ autocannons so they'd stop getting big and beefy. They're still here, hiding... somewhere.
8:42. Rebel Colony announced. Desperado, WAY THE HELL up in the north. I scouted it earlier. It's simply a Peacemaker/Eye planet. How lovely. Layout's pretty horrendous too. I can't get to it until I pop Hacker for the stepstone. The Raids are nearly done with Three Kings, too, working the last SF Post down now. I let that finish. AIP 45.
So, the Yellow Circle is where the two Fact IVs are hiding. Useless for now, no Tech III ships. Right next door in the bottom left of that is Kerensky with my Blade Spawners waiting to be hacked... but now I'm on a timeline.
Up north, the Purple line is as far as I can go without deepstrike threat. Once I take Hacker and the Mirrors, the sections outlined in blue will be the only remaining areas that I can't reach without deepstrike.
What I'm debating on, though, is taking Hacker AND Poker. With the two of them side by side, patrol fleets will be able to support both easily. It'll also cutoff any remaining threat 'leakage' I cause moving further into the galaxy, and lower the impact of single choke hits. Also, Warbirds (and thus a CSG-C) on Poker.
They'll help tremendously against this battery of tiny crap that's constantly assaulting me.
From there, striking out at Desperado (I expect it'll take me an hour to get into Poker and pop it) shouldn't be too bad. Desperado's going to be a PITA to take, though. I've got to go through Krupp, a Peacemaker planet, which also packs a fort that's protecting the Desperado wormhole.
So... I can't take an hour getting into Poker. I need 30 minutes, at least, to deal with Krupp and the intervening defenses on Poker. Then I need to raid down Desperado, all the while not losing Hacker, which has crappy econ (0/3). Desperado's a 2/3 and Poker's a 2/2.
The problem with this whole plan (and the Warbird factory) is how tight Poker is organized.
The Cyan circle around the Liao WH is where the Warbird factory is, and the Ion III I'd like to keep for defense is right next to it. If you look at the map above, you'll notice that I can't pop Blackjack's Warp Gate without Hacker being cut off from warp gates, defeating the point. I *could* leave Craps' warp gate intact, but that means anything that flees from waves runs immediately BACK into 'protected space'. This is non-joyful. Hacker's defenses are pretty much whatever I want to do with it, the one Ion there is way off in the distance.
So that's the dilemma at the moment. Risk escapees to Craps... when even Craps' wormhole isn't a 'great' position for defending the warbirds from, it's merely about an MRM in distance.
Now, the other option is taking Blackjack but that defeats the strategical purpose of the choke.
Here's what I think my next run will be. Get the fleet to Poker, jam a fork in it and leave it neutral for now. Immediately cut holes for the raids through Blackjack and Nero so they can suicide the Data Center on Sushi. Most likely rebuild. Crash through Poker and hit Liao's Mass Drivers. Raid the DC on Sox next. Krupp doesn't have an Eye so I should be able to just get my fleet in there and toss around a few steel-toed boots. That SHOULD open up Desperado to where I can suicide-bomber the two Mass Drivers down if I come in from Hoth, which has negligible (besides 3 Ion Is) defenses. From there, Desperado has 6 guardposts keeping the AI Eye alive.
If I do this right, I should JUST make the 2 hour timer. Gonna be tight though. I definately need the two data centers first, however, otherwise I won't survive the result of popping Desperado, not with my current setup.
