This is the story of how quickstix learned what tanks were capable of.
Today I decided to bump up the difficulty a notch. I would take on two 7.6 AIs both on random easier, with our battlefield being a 60 planet map. All options at normal, ship types are advanced (first time for me) and no minor factions. My bonus ship type would be the Cutlass, something I've never used before.
So, things start off fairly smoothly. Of course the first thing I notice is that I have 4 wormholes on my planet, all evenly spaced from each other. This would be a challenge.
Wormhole defenses go up first and finish just in time for AI ships to slowly start streaming in every so often. Scouts go out next and are sent off on their merry way. Initial reports are not good. It would appear my opponents are a one way doormaster and fortress baron. What does this mean? Well, for the one way doormaster, they employ back hole machines on all their planets, which means once you go in you can't come back. I'm guessing a fortress baron for the other as he's got fortresses on most of his planets.
On the offensive side of things, as usual I've unlocked Mk2 Fighters, Bombers and Frigates in order to take on some of the tougher planets out there. With a group of 50 of each, I send them out to take my first planet. Here's my first mistake; in my rush I fail to notice this planet has 2 Flagships. I manage to kill one, but my fighters are dead by the time I start hitting the second one. The AI is none too happy about my being there either, sending a constant stream of ships to kill me (mostly due to the Special Forces post). I eventually decide to cut my losses and forget about those ships, because the black hole generator means they're not coming back, and I would prefer to capture the black hole generator than kill it.
My second raid includes a mix of 40 frigates, 40 bombers and 110 fighters. This time the flagship falls quickly and the rest of the planet follows suit. However, during this time the AI has decided to launch two waves against me. Frigates followed shortly by tanks. Unfortunately, my main force isn't coming back, so with my somewhat limited resources, I decide tractors and mines are the best option in addition to my pre-existing turrets and 20 or so frigates and bombers.
The frigate wave dies easily and I assume the tanks will as well. Apparently not. As I'm taking out the special forces post on the enemy planet I get the message my command station is under attack. I assume maybe some stray shots hit it, but when I check the station's health, it's down to 70%. Even more annoying is the fact my main forces cannot get back due to the black hole generator.
Responsible for this are the tanks, of which 30 or so get past my defenses and start hammering my command station's force field. I've also forgotten tanks are fairly effective against force fields and within 30 seconds, despite my small forces helping out, my station explodes and the AI asks if anyone was even home.
This is how I learned to be extremely careful of tanks, especially in the early game.
