Edited to add some spacing- better than nothing.
May you live in interesting times: My first 10/10.
As a general rule, I won’t mention any reloads I have to do, unless it was because the AI absolutely wiped the floor with me later in the game. (That’ll probably happen many times in the first hours, so I won’t bother for that, either.)
Game summary:
10/10 (My first. Greatest difficulty yet played is a 9/7, ongoing, probably stalemate due to issues involving insane Special Forces blobs full of zenith bombards, and far too little room for fallen spire.)
120 planet Snake.
Seed: 898064337
Expansions 1-4
Ships: Complex, no swallowers, no parasites.
Epic speed, ultra low caps, total visibility.
Resistance 10, Trader, Devourer, Broken Golems, Botnet Golem, Spirecraft, All easy. Fallen Spire 5 (Hey, the AI has to have some 'fun')
3 Champions, Start ships: Sniper, Autocannon, Stealth Battleship, Raptor, MLRS, Shield Bearer, Tackle Drone Launcher, Zenith Electric Bomber.
No Auto Progress, No AI plots.
AI 1: Tag Teamer. AI 2: Neinzul Youngster.
Started under version 6.000.
This should be interesting.
Goals:
Trivia: First Loss, First diff 10 loss.
Hard: "I have a bad feeling about this"
Rather Harder: "Double Godlike"
I was inspired by the "Team Fortress" AAR.
So: On with the show!
Plan:
Stage 1: Wipe out all planets in-between my homeworlds.
Stage 1.5: Expand as far as reasonably possible along the snake to create as much of a buffer as possible before getting to the point where the AIP increase counters any gain.
Stage 2: Insane fortification.
Stage 3: Fallen Spire
Stage 4: Win.
Unfortunately, all the Data centres are too far down the snake to reach, as are most of the golems, all the ARS's, and all the useful fabricators.
I guess that's the price you pay for Snake.
There is however, the Botnet 4 jumps away from my furthest homeworld, so I'll definitely have that.
Investigation of AI ships shows acid sprayers, etherjet tractors, space planes and chameleons as their first unlocks. Nothing nasty, although the space planes and etherjets are of course immune to my Tackle Drone Launchers.
Finally, there is a single counterattack guardpost in the area I plan to take- it'll be going down early. Finally, I pick a fortress system- there's a planet 6 hops out with a nice big wormhole separation distance- all the systems before that have their wormholes far too close together for my liking, except the one right next to my most distant homeworld.
00:00 I quickly queue up manufacturing facilities to their caps on all homeworlds, and once they're built, my champions move to kick off the mayhem on Avarice. I want the warp gates on the middle planets dead quickly, as this will more than halve the number of planets the AI can attack. I reckon the wave size increase should be worth it. At the same time, I fill my Tackle Drone Launcher cap on the most distant homeworld, picking up metal harvester Mk2 to fund it. Finally, I queue up large minefields on the most distant homeworld, Wastelands Of Sorrow -it will be taking the waves for a little while. Some turrets also go up on the second homeworld to the right, as the gate raiding is likely to free Mk4 guardians to go after it.
00:06- Gate raids done, no waves announced. Good.
30AIP.
00:07-525-odd AI ships coming- even mix of acid sprayers, missile frigates.
00:10-1000 AI ships coming in. There are still 300 left from the last waves. Um...
00:11-TDL's have the remaining AI ships completely suppressed, and more are being built- but that thousand arrive in 30 more seconds. I've started filling in massive new minefields along the tackle-lines, as well as unlocking crystal 2 and metal 3 to pay for all this.
00:12-The 1000 are younglings. If the TDL's can keep up, the attrition should take care of things. I spend the next several minutes micromanaging new force field construction- fast building them just outside the old ones, and moving them inwards to protect.
00:15- The TDL's get the wave under control, I unlock TDL mk2's, and breathe a small sigh of relief. I did however lose a cryo pod, which is a shame.
31AIP.
00:18- With the Mk2 TDL's capping out, and 45 forcefields in place, I should be safe for the time being. I grab my champions and start killing guard posts. I also start sniper production.
00:21-775 Missile frigate/Acid sprayer wave coming. Not worried.
00:23-The AI wave almost gets to fire a shot before the TDL's exile it to the far reaches of the gravity well.
00:25-3000 ship wave announced. That'll be the younglings again, then. This time I may be a bit worried.
00:29-I monitor the wave closely, but do not need to interfere. The TDL's are able to keep the number of ships in range to about 200-300 at a time, and that few are unable to really dent the 50 stacked shields. Once the younglings attrition down, it's all over.
00:35-Snipers capped, starting shield bearers.
00:37-Shields capped, starting everything else. 2500 more younglings coming.
00:42-The TDL's kept on top of the wave, but there's nowhere near enough overkill, so I unlock fortress 1. I won't build too many of these here unless the M+C glut gets really bad, but 6-7 should help nicely.
00:49-Next wave has 900 cloakers. These are, of course, immune to my TDL's. Fortunately, I suspect they will have less luck with the turrets, ships and fortresses.
00:51-Ah. That's where special forces have got to. (I can't think of any on the explanation of the 300 ships that just forced my champions to retreat.) In other news, 49 cloakers have slipped past the Wastelands Of Sorrow, and are attacking a homeworld with only the starting forcefield and no turrets…
00:53-Champions save homeworld.
01:02-Gray Spire Gatling Nebula started,
01:08-2500 younglings. Yawn…
01:12-Gatlings destroyed. Champions now Lvl 11, got polarizers and plasma siege. (And, or course, spire frigate and spire modular fortress.) That is just insanely lucky.
01:14-I wipe out the warpgates on the two middle planets of the 4-block, to see how the waves react- they're going down at some point, regardless.
41AIP.
01:15-I'm now going to wipe out that counterattack post I mentioned earlier. In hindsight, should have done this before the two warpgates.
01:19-Couterattack sends 450 Mk3's to Seizewell, one of my middle homeworlds. While the best one would of course have been The Wastelands Of Sorrow, Seizewell should be fine- it's got quite a few grey spire ships, some turrets, and of course the champions. I'll still beef up the defences though, so I pop down some fortresses, turrets and another 4 forcefields.
01:22 ~2000 fighter double wave to Wastelands of Sorrow. Hmm. At 41 AIP for that, and… younglings… Hmm. I unlock Mk3 Tackle drones.
01:25 4018 younglings. Engineer assistance puts out enough tackle 3's to help control things, but it's still closer than I would like (Though not nearly as bad as earlier). Looking at the wave sizes and AIP, I've decided that my first major fortress should be the planet next to my homeworld- at this point, I don't think the extra system's resources and capturables are worth the AIP. Therefore, I'll conquer the System, Sajuuk's Glory, after the counterattack wave hits, fortify it, then clear all the AI worlds between my homeworlds.
01:32- with the counterattack wave arriving in 30 seconds, I pull everything except the TDL's, snipers and shield bearers towards Seizewell from The Wastelands Of Sorrow.
01:38- The wave proved a bit harder to kill than I had thought, spreading out over several planets before being destroyed by fast-built turrets and my incoming thousand strong main fleetblob.
01:47-I unlock Mk2 forcefields, Mil-Command Mk2,3, then take Sajuuk's Glory, and start building my great fortress.
61 AIP.
01:56- 6400 younglings. This is going to be rough, but if they do break through, I can still retreat to The Wastelands Of Sorrow- all defences there are intact.
01:58 Ookay. I don’t know what’s going on, but the majority of the younglings have fled offworld. The majority won’t attrition down, of course, since they’re still in their carriers, but it’s still rather baffling.
02:03- Those younglings (About 5000) are still heading dead away from my planets- 10 hops and counting. I’m currently building fortresses. Many, many fortresses.
02:09- 4906 younglings incoming.
02:11- The majority of the younglings flee again.
02:17- Hmm. One of carriers looks like it might be heading back, but it’s 16 hops out, so I’ll reserve judgement until it politely pops on Sajuuk’s Glory.
2:20- I’ve now got a full cap of spire modular forts on Sajuuk’s Glory, and I’m adding more standard forts. I reckon I can risk popping the block of four AI worlds now, so the champions will move in.
02:22- Halfway through the block of 4, a 5251 ship wave of fighters and missile frigates is announced (AIP 92)
02:24- About 2000 ships flee the planet upon arrival.
02:25- Another 1500 ships have fled offworld. Threat counter has hit 10,000.
02:27-11,674 younglings. I hope the trader is coming this way- A black hole generator on Sajuuk’s Glory would be VERY useful.
02:28-I’ve pulled every fleet ship (Apart from the TDL’s) back to The Wastelands Of Sorrow to make attacking Sajuuk’s glory more tempting. It works- the youngling wave comes straight in, thus also calling in the 1200 threat from the other side of the wormhole.
-Or maybe not. Ten seconds after I typed that, another 5000 ships worth of carrier disappeared into AI territory.
02:42-The devourer golem just nudged 3000 threat onto Sajuuk’s Glory, so that’s a little less I have to worry about. Good. That’ll pay me back for the full Mk1-3 cap of TDL’s he ate. (Oops.)
02:44-15744 Younglings coming.
02:46- The wave arrives, and the majority promptly disappears into AI territory. I am not looking forward to when all these go threatfleet. At the same time, I’m consolidating my hold on the block of 4 systems with Mil Command 3’s- better resources than econ 1 or 2, and I don’t have the knowledge to spare on Econ 3 considering I won’t have enough planets to cap them.
02:47- Threat is now at 28620, AIP at 125. It’s still got another 32 to go.
02:52- 5525 wave announced, missile frigates and acid sprayers. Tired of the perpetual crystal shortage, I unlock crystal harvester 3.
02:53- There’s 12 carriers of ships coming back towards me, 5 hops out. I wonder if they’re going to join the wave?
02:54- The wave arrives. Half of it runs of beyond the wormhole. However, looking at the major threat concentrations reveals they are all heading towards my territory again. Um… Ulp?
02:56-The carrier group has stopped and is holding position on the other side of the wormhole.
02:58-The mil command 3’s on the block of four have finished, so I start preparing to mine the asteroids on the middle two planets- I’m thinking attritioners. Between asteroid availability and caps, I can build four mk3, 15 mk1, and 32mk2. That’s 300*15+600*32+4*900=27300 attrition per second, plus feedback, which should complement the TDL’s nicely, although it obviously won’t match the fun times I had in my other game with attritioners and a grav drill.
03:01-11667 younglings arrive. Blah, blah… You know what, I’m going to stop putting these until they actually cause problems. In other news, 4382 ship CPA announced. I tremble before this massive and surely unstoppable… yeah right. Waitaminute... the threat counter just fell 12,000… Ah. 25,000 younglings incoming on Sajuuk’s Glory, (Including the wave)
10 seconds later: No, they’ve left again, along with half the wave. This is getting silly. Threat now at 37500 odd.
03:05- The threatblob has drifted off again- it’s now 6 jumps away.
03:10- Most of the attitioners are done, so I’ll move them into position as soon as I cler the last two AI worlds. I won’t leave them on Sajuuk’s Glory in case they get destroyed by fireflies while I’m not looking- they’ll be stored on The Wastelands Of Sorrow.
03:14- That CPA was released. One thing I hadn’t remembered was that the ships released would include those on the two planets in between my homeworlds. Fortunately, the champions were on the adjacent planet, and they were able to clean things up.
Game updated to 6.004
03:16- Uh oh. 14,000 younglings plus some missile frigates and sprayers, and they’re not retreating…
03:33- Well, I don’t know what was causing all the AI ships to flee off into the vastness beyond, but they’ve stopped. The threat attacks leave my fortress garrison and shield health seriously depleted just in time for a wave of 6000 bombers/acid sprayers. Then, just to make sure, the AI sends 17,000 more younglings (A wave.)
Game Over.
Right, now I’m going to reload that game from the patch point, and be a LOT more careful, as well as boosting the firepower on Sajuuk’s Glory as high as I can to discourage attack.
03:31- Right, here we go again. Starting narration from the bomber wave, except this time the fortresses are undamaged, and, also importantly, my TDL cap is full- even the new ones are making quite a difference against the bombers.
03:35- Another youngling wave arrives, and promptly vanishes into AI space. On the plus side, looks like the threat is spreading out again. (No idea why.)
03:39- I start ripping up the defences on my homeworlds to concentrate on Sajuuk’s Glory. All but one of the AI worlds in the middle is dead now, and I need that turret cap where it counts.
03:48- AIP capped at 157. All turrets and forcefields relocated. Still no waves since 03:35- the next ones are going to be big. Nebula time – there are 2 available within my territory, another one on the nearest AI world, and a fifth 5 hops out that should be reachable.
03:50- Right, the first nebula, Family Rhy, is the Mourners. Since I’ve only got frigates, I’ll be popping quite slow for this one.
04:10-Mourner nebula complete. I could have taken it a bit faster, since the starbase health was at 81% at the end. I get destroyer size, neinzul hull, neinzul modular, translocator, doom accelerator. My champions are now Lvl 14. I start capping the modular on Sajuuk’s Glory.
04:12- Starting the next nebula- White Sands. First, though, I upgrade to destroyer hulls, choosing Spire, with 3x plasma siege, 2x shield, 4x polariser – A starbase killer, in other words. I unlock the Mk3 shield, mk2 polarizer, and mk2 plasma siege cannon.
04:15- The nebula is shattered pillar vs dark spire vs neinzul astrids. Perfect.
04:19- Dark spire destroyed.
04:21- Neinzul Astrids destroyed. Champions advance to Lvl 20. Zenith hull, zenith modular, and paralyser modules unlocked.
04:24- Okay. 40,000 ships attacking Sajuuk’s Glory. Attritioners! Now!
04:26-About 10-15,000 AI ships destroyed, the rest have fled again. This does however give me the perfect opportunity to get into that fourth nebula, Akeela’s Dream.
04:27- It’s Epsilon Eridani. Easy, for these champions.
04:28- First offworld fallen spire survey initiated.
04:32- Golems. For the first shard- I can see where this is going…
04:34- Epsilon Eridani Nebula completed, unlocked slicer and interceptor bays. Champions now Lvl 25
04:36- Shard arrived at homeworld.
04:41- A wave that actually attacked! Shame the fallen spire threat doesn’t share it’s boldness- now there’s golems wandering around AI territory.
04:43- The next signal is on Grand Exchange. That’s the planet just OUTSIDE my front door. With 5,000 threat. And a core shield, to call in the special forces. This is going to be interesting. Let’s see… Survey ships aren’t immune to cloak, so I can slip that onto the planet. Then either distract with my fleet while the shard makes for Sajuuk’s Glory, or eat the AIP for an EMP warhead to knock out enough to let the ship tank it (Maybe?).
04:53- Correction: 15,000 threat on Grand exchange. (The galaxy total is um… Many, most of which is sitting 2 more jumps away. My transport shotgun is ready (160 transports, with 6 cloaker starships and 5 survey ships loaded onto random ones. Now I just need to re-cap my fleet for the diversion, and I’ll be ready.
04:56- Just thought of a much better way to distract the fleet- my champions are still on Akeela’s Dream, the nebula off Grand Exchange. Up for a game of chase, guys?
05:00- Survey ships deployed. I had to chuck in a cap of fighters to distract the snipers long enough for the cloaker starships to cycle, but they’re cheap.
Game updated to 6.005
An hour of experiment later: Nope, this isn’t going to work. My fleet dies in seconds, I don’t know why I thought otherwise, there’s far too much mk5 stuff for EMP to make any difference, and while it would be fairly possible to savescum the refugee ship to a location close enough to retrieve using champion shadow shields and modular fortress cover, doing so would be boring, and doesn’t address the real issue: With no access to AIP reduction due to the massive threatballs, there’s simply no way to stop the threat reaching the critical mass to overwhelm me again- the odds of the trader coming this far along the snake are pretty low in a useable timeframe now- there’s simply no way to keep it scared long enough.
Reloading to 03:49 – Threat at ~40,000 spread out, and thus bypassable with CARE. Plan is to hit all the nebulae and AIP reducers I can with champion deepstrikes. Threat is still going to be high by the time I get into AI territory, but hopefully not as bad as before.
04:05- Mourner’s done, faster, higher health remaining. I call overpowered on three champion shadow shield teams- the lack of downtime is insane. Same unlocks as before, Lvl14. Switch to same loadout as before- only this time, plasma siege 3, not 2. Looking at the middle AI homeworld reveals a Core Grav Reactor- I’ll probably have to suicide that, then move up again- most of the AIP reducers are on the other side. Oddly though, there are no Shadow ships on its homeworld?
04:13- Shattered Pillar done, champions now Lvl 20.
04:19- Epsilon Eridani done, 2 champions now 26, other high 25. Same unlocks as before.
04:24- The AI’s great 19,000 ship local threatfleet falls victim to the standard bait-and-bypass – they abandon their perfect wormhole coverage when I start smashing in the adjacent system’s guardposts, and I do a quick run around them and pass into easy travel territory.
- The next nebula, Legacy of Hiigara, is Shatted+Grey+Epsilon V Astrids+Sorrows.
04:27- Neinzul Astrids Defeated.
04:30- Nebula Completed. Champions Lvl 29, I unlock Bomber bay, Cruiser hull. I decide to upgrade, choosing a spire cruiser with an additional 2 plasma siege cannons, and 2 polarisers, as well as unlocking mk4 shields and plasma siege cannon. The waves have been behaving ‘better’ since the 6.005 patch- they are more- well, attack-y.
04:37- Next nebula, Bad Debt, is Shattered Pillar V Citadel Ascendant.
04:41- Nebula complete. I get Acid Jet, Railcluster and advance to level 33.
04:46-Next nebula, Ceo’s Buckzoid, is Ravenous Shadow. I pause for a moment to outfit with Mk4 polarisers, then zoom off to join IMT’s attack force.
04:51-Shadows destroyed, Lvl 36 unlocked. Very few enclaves survived- The first shadow died just as the last one left the system, so they hunted pretty much at will. Also got insanity inducer and nanosubverter.
04:54-Next nebula, Tuscari Deserts, is IMT+Mourners V Dark Spire+Citadel Ascendant
04:58- Nebula complete. I unlocked Flak Module, Rail Cannon, and advanced to Level 40.
05:02- Next Nebula, Acquisition repository, is the big one. Battleship here I come. I won’t upgrade immediately- I’ll push through to the homeworld and see about that Grav Reactor first.
05:08- Nebula complete, battleship and heat beam unlocked, now level 44.
05:18- 33 jumps into AI territory, and I finally reach the first data centre. Boom. AIP 147.
05:23- Second Data centre destroyed, AIP 137. The list of worlds with threat no longer fits on the screen- global threat is ~77,900.
05:26- 40 jumps into AI territory, just passed the trader.
05:29- Third DC down, AIP 127
05:33- Fourth DC down, AIP 117
05:47- Just hit the AI Homeworld- and shattered. The Nemesis ships have appeared, the strategic reserve dumped 2,000 ships for starters, but those weren’t the problems. The gravity drones were. Not getting to that generator, I’m certain. But… Neinzul Shadow Battleships are immune to Black Hole Effects and Grav Effects. Furthermore, examination of the AIP reducers behind the homeworld show none of them are under forcefields, so Plasma siege is unnecessary. I switch to Neinzul, with a mix of light weapons and maximum shields. I unlock Mk5 forcefields, as part of this.
05:52- I pass the trader again, 7 jumps out this time. Looks like I’m soon to get lucky!
05:56- Dealer! I’ll take the lot! – I queue up 8 Superfortresses, 8 Mk5 Ions (I’ll never finish those, but it doesn’t hurt) 16 Orbital mass drivers, 4 black hole generators, 4 radar jammer 2’s (Redundancy), planetary armour inhibitor and booster, 10 counterspy’s. Somewhere in the back I can hear the sobbing of the economist. Once the trader gets to the homeworld, he’ll sob more- max Zenith power gens.
05:58- Huh. Apparently, the trader isn’t going past Sajuuk’s Glory. Meanwhile, on High Frontier, I’ve done my usual threatfleet lure to bypass it, and… The AI isn’t falling for. Oh, the fleet came through, but they’re now camping 15,000 ships on the forward wormhole, and another 10,000 are coming for the champions. (With about 2,500 on the exit wormhole leading back towards my territory.) Nice try, but my shields are too strong to stop me rushing it.
06:06- Threat just passed 100,000.
06:30- My persistent guard post vandalism pays off, as my last champion advances to Lvl 45.
06:34- There’s just been a youngling wave on Sajuuk’s Glory. The fireflies took out my spare radar jammers, all the Mk5 Ions, 6 orbital mass drivers, and 2 superfortresses through the forcefields.
06:50- I bypass the AI homeworld with ease.
06:52- Okay, I’m bored with killing all the guardposts. Moving swiftly onwards towards the AIP reducers…
06:56- Co-Processor 1 Destroyed. AIP 137.
06:57- Data centre destroyed. AIP 127.
07:03- Data centre destroyed. AIP 117.
07:09- Co-Processor 2 Destroyed. AIP 137
07:12- Data centre destroyed. AIP 127.
07:14- Last data centre destroyed. AIP 117. I scrap the champions, and go to take out the last 2 Co-Processors. Also, the Trader came back, so I topped up my build lists on Sajuuk’s Glory. I didn’t bother with the Ion V’s, though.
07:20- Last Co-Processor down. AIP 72 (The floor). Reduction from the coprocessor was only 90, though- the description still said 120, so it obviously got hit by the recent AIP reducer nerfs on 10/10, but with no description change. I switch my champions to their final form: Spire battleship, 2 Polarisers, 2 Lasers, 4 Railguns, 5 Shields, 4 Plasma Siege Guns. (All Mk5)
07:24- Looks like the AI has unlocked medic frigates. Also, Trader went further this time, so I was able to start those Zenith power generators.
08:10- Not much to say- still building trader stuff, and wearing the threat down. They all had 22 group speed for some reason, making them stupidly easy to kite.
10:49- Everything is done apart from the superforts and Zenith Power Gens, all the threat is dead. I start the first shard.
10:53- Regular and youngling waves combine with the Chase Exo. Still not too difficult to hold off- regular waves are only about 4,000, and younglings 7,000, at this AIP.
11:10- Colony ship signal is on grand exchange again- but this time, total threat on the planet is… lower. My nebula fleet proves quite sufficient to obliterate all resistance, cover the survey ship, then the exogalactic waves (Which included the game’s first hunter killers (Only Mk1’s)), losing about 25 ships out of 850.
11:29- Ooh! New journal entry for Fallen Spire! (The Ancient shadows ones.) Next shard is on “The Citadel”- the planet beyond Grand Exchange.
11:43- The Nebula fleet once again proved sufficient to protect the shard on it’s way home- it arrived with 76% health, although the nebula fleet took about 300 casualties this time. Most of the Exo-Galactic forces spawned too far away to reach the shard in time, owing to the nature of the map- some were still 10 jumps away when I looked after the Shard got back to my nearest home command.
11:50- No, it’s no good- my defences just can’t kill the AI ships fast enough. The AI fleet breaks through the fortress and enters my homeworld. GAME OVER.
Reload to 11:38. Cancel survey, return nebula fleet to homeworld. I’ll finish up my superfortresses, unlock and cap Mk 3 forcefields, unlock and cap mk1-4 heavy beam cannons, and next time, I’ll make sure to deploy my attritioners- that feedback should add up nicely over a fight like this. I place the HBC’s outside the standard forcefields protection, opting instead to rely on the forcefields of the modular fortresses, which the AI never breached in its attack- it just drilled straight through the middle.
15:10- My last superfortress is finished. Hopefully, the additional 130,000,000 or so DPS of them and the HBC arrays should do a bit better against the AI’s Exo-Galactic might.
15:21- Shard now on homeworld- the exo response was a bit lighter this time, it seemed to me. Still, better wait for it to all come in before starting the city hub.
15:30- Most of the Exo-Galactic forces have been obliterated, chewed up and spat out by my fortress world without more than scratching the shields. A major improvement- a slight problem that presents itself is that ‘most’. There’s 5,617 firepower of threat sitting on the other side of the wormhole that I’ll have to budge somehow. I sense repeated refleets in the near future.
15:33- Okay, my entire nebula fleet did basically nothing, and the firepower has somehow gone up to 9,712. I need to think about this.
Game updated to 6.006- The Carrier bug is fixed- YES!
Okay, I ended up asking on the forums, Faulty Logic pointed out the existence of Martyrs. I'm not going to use them just yet- it seems a shame when they'll do just as good a job with the larger dregs that'll be left over from the hub start strike force- I just needed to know that I could clear it quickly. Continuing:
My favoured Spire vessel designs include railguns, so I unlock spider turrets and cap them on Sajuuk's glory.
16:25- The nebula fleet is finally rebuilt, so I'm ready to call the next Exo. Hub started on Elysium of Light. Okay… Right. Hunter killer Mk3's, heading up groups of golems with a healthy helping of spirecraft and a dusting of fleetships. Should be interesting…
16:30- Laser turret Mk2 unlocked for the spire vessels.
16:34- Next signal is on Unholy Descent- the planet where the local threatfleet hangs out. Martyr time.
16:36- Next Exo is at 66% progress already. Bother. There's still 22,000 Firepower of threat in massive ships lurking out there from the last one.
16:38- 86% progress. Um…
16:41- Re-assuringly, the strikeforce is small- just another 2,000 firepower of massive ships.
16:48- Next Exo is at 68% progress already. Bother again. There's still 20,000 Firepower of threat in massive ships lurking out there from the last ones.
17:45- Okay, after some more experimenting and seeing a few more Exos, it seems that only the chase exo’s go into threat. Now, since I know that I can hold off any strength of Exo that it can reach at this point, I can sit back for a little while and wait until they become less frequent, cleaning up the loose Shard threat in the meantime. Then, I’ll do the retrieval of the next shard.
Reload to 16:37.
18:11- Okay, cleared all the CPA, Exo, and other miscellaneous threat out. Now just need to refleet a little bit, then Shard retrieval can begin. Annoyingly, it seems something killed the four martyr’s I’d built. No idea what or when, and I haven’t saved for a few hours. Oh well.
18:31- Survey operations begin on Unholy Descent. The devourer had just kindly cleaned out all the visible special forces, as well.
18:46- Shard retrieved. My spirefleet fought rear-guard while the nebula fleet escorted the shard, keeping it safe under a blanket of champion and shadow shields. Casualties were acceptable.
Game updated to 6.007- Having looked at the game in the bug report, I’m glad for the Imperial changes in this patch- I suspect mine wouldn’t have resolved under the old balance!
18:58- In the interests of a stress-test for my defences, I start the hub, with the regular exo at 86%. Should be interesting. To my surprise, a mere 35,000 firepower materialises out of the AI’s warp grid.
18:59-Inevitably, the AI decides now would be a good time to send 7,500 younglings.
19:12- Everyone who’s coming, has come. Defenses are intact. The AI announces a 13,464 ship CPA. Just about the lot of it must be coming from the strategic reserve- there’s nothing left on its planets, and it drained all it’s starting barracks dry long ago. Oh, and the next signal is on Unholy Descent again. First, though, I’ll have to clear the 4,500 firepower on the other side of the wormhole. So, I may as well cap my spire fleet to its new strength.
19:18-the 4,500 has gone threatfleet. Good- that means I can be the one camping the wormhole it comes through again. Waiting for threatfleet switch is now standard procedure.
19:22- As predicted, the CPA didn’t make quota- just over 9,500 ships are freed.
19:43- Another shard is now running for cover…
19:47-Shard arrives. The only noticeable difference between this retrieval and the last ones was the… interaction… between the Exos and the Spirefleet bringing up the rear. Last time could be tentatively described as a fair fight. This… wasn’t. (The spirefleet smashed the Exo’s into little bitty pieces.)
19:54- I start the next city hub. Galactic massive ship threat goes up to 41,000. Did I mention there’s a youngling wave in progress, and the timed Exo is at 83%? As a precautionary measure, I deploy my Spire Fleet to the planet.
19:59- Regular Exo arrives, putting the massive ship firepower to 56,000. It’s still on Mk2 H/K’s, though, so it isn’t even as strong as the Hub Exo’s yet, let alone anywhere near its final strength.
20:00- Shard on Unholy Descent. Notice a pattern, anyone?
20:25- I’ve nearly finished slaughtering the remaining threat when I am interrupted by the next Exo- which has now upgraded to Mk3 H/K’s.
20:57- Hmm. The next regular exo has H/K mk4’s. I believe the AI may be getting slightly irritated.
20:59- The AI also threw in Neinzul and regular waves to join the party. How thoughtful!
Game updated to 6.009
21:10- Starting next survey.
21:16- Another retrieval, smooth as before.
21:26- Fourth hub started. I won’t build all the shipyards on this one yet- I want all the shard reactors on Sajuuk’s Glory.
-Hmm. That’s odd. This hub Exo only has Mk2 H/K’s.
21:34- And it’s on unholy descent again. Surprise, surprise. I’ll retrieve it as soon as I’ve finished smashing the 98% progress exo to bits. Oh, and 15,000 ship CPA. It’s going to get those from where, exactly?
21:35- Exo arriving: Total incoming Firepower: 70,301. I wonder if it heard me mock it’s CPA?
21:43- I dispatch my Spirefleet. No subtlety, this time- I’m going to obliterate the warp gates on the route. No more flanking.
21:44- To my surprise, the AI manages to find 11,900 ships for it’s CPA.
21:46- Wormhole blockade cleared, grand exchange command station down. (To make way for the next city, and I’ll need the knowledge too, plus it has asteroids. Shame about the waves going to threat again, but with my current spirefleet, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.)
AIP 79
21:50- Survey begun. Warpgate on The Citadel Destroyed.
AIP 80
22:00- Construction of Fifth spire city begun on Sajuuk’s Glory
22:03- Construction of Spire Galactic Capitol on Sajuuk’s Glory has begun.
22:08- Spire Galactic Capitol Completed. I unlock the battleships and the fourth tier shield from the capitol, and Laser 3 from the regular research station- I’ll have to go and rip the knowledge for my dreadnaught design out of five more AI planets, that lot cleared me out, and I need HBC4. No hurry, I won’t have the resources available to build them for a while- I’ve got finish shipyards, cap the battleships, and recap the little stuff first! Since I don’t want the exo cap from another city, I decide to build a second habitation module at the last city, not a fifth reactor.
22:13- Final shard located on Hatikvah’s Faith- the nearest of the coreworlds. (I admit, I did some save+reload for that- the first two times, it was on underhall, the one on the other side of the first homeworld- Exo galactic defence forces? No, thank you! It’s still 51 hops out, anyway- You can’t exactly call that easy!)
22:14- The regular Exo is coming- just over 100,000 firepower, all told.
22:46- The regular Exo is coming- just over 130,000 firepower, all told.
22:48- Hmm. The first squad of H/K’s (3 Mk4, 21 Mk1) managed to get close enough to open fire- and, hunter killers being hunter killers, they managed to break the relatively light forcefields protecting one of my HBC batteries. They would have done worse, but I set my spirefleet on them. Still, that doesn’t bode well… The slight rebuild also reminds me that I haven’t capped the Mk3 laser turrets I unlocked, so I rectify that error.
23:00- The rest of the hunter killer squadrons do less well- I was ready with the spirefleet. Last fortresses are rebuilding, HBC’s are done, Laser 3’s are done, spirefleet still capping.
23:05- The spirefleet obliterates the camping threat. Next, the threatfleet. (After spire battleships done)
23:12- I suddenly realise, to my embarrassment, that I’ve neglected to upgrade my modular fortress shields. Oops! I start the upgrade on a rotation basis, and fit mk3 rather than mk1 lasers on the spire fortresses while I’m at it. (The other types mount missiles)
23:24- The devourer cut a swath through the threatfleet for me- more than a third of its firepower was obliterated in one fell swoop.
23:25- Attention all personel: Incoming AI Motherships. I repeat, incoming AI Motherships. This is not a drill! This is not a drill! (This newest Exo is a bit… scary. Custom search reveals 9 incoming motherships. The thing is, it’s not even the Motherships vast weapons arrays I’m worried about, really- those don’t even match 1 post-buff superfortress- it’s their warp gates. While they’re on Sajuuk’s glory, the AI is allowed to warp waves onto Wastelands of Sorrow, isn’t it? Ulp. I think I’m going to loose.)
23:27- AI Mothership 1 has arrived. Incoming Transmission:
“This is AI Mothership 6Y91D92. Please wait while your existence is terminated.”
23:28- AI Mothership 1 destroyed.
23:29- Ooh, there’s H/K mk 5’s in this exo, as well. Next wave is: ~35 golems, 30mk1H/K’s, 2 Motherships, 3 mk5 Hk’s, ~150 assorted spirecraft.
23:29- AI Motherships 2+3 have arrived. Incoming Transmissions:
“This is AI Mothership A35B23F. Please wait while your existence is terminated.”
“This is AI Mothership 7A2D9B1. Please wait while your existence is terminated.”
23:30- AI Motherships 2+3 destroyed, along with all the other stuff. That went much better than expected. (With a little help from the spire.) Something to note, though, which does still worry me: that exo was ~40 minutes charge. So it’s got another half it’s strength to go before maxing out.
23:32- Battleships capped. My champion captains have mixed feelings.
23:42- Okay, time for some Knowledge 'raiding’- Fallen Spire Style. (I.E, with extreme force, and 10 knowledge hackers.)
23:47- Local threat cleared, hack 1 initiated.- Ah, hadn’t noticed the supply thing. Right, fixing the problem…
23:50- Threatfleet attacking. I haven’t even got one point of knowledge yet! Okay. Abandon the hacking, kill the threatfleet, once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. (The spirecraft and golems, anyway.)
23:57- Right, maybe it’s that I’m a poor driver, but that was awful. Lost over half my spirefleet killing that lot. That provides a rather strong incentive to keep up with my threat clearance!
24:02- Hack 1 Re-initiated.
24:03- Hack 1 Complete.
24:04- Command Station on Emperor’s Ridge destroyed to let me get supply.
AIP 92
24:13- Here comes another 250,000 firepower. I managed to finish knowledge gathering on Emperor’s Ridge, and get 114 knowledge from Unholy Descent, before the vast AI juggernaut obliterates its way through my command station.
24:23- The AI savaged my retreating fleet, completely destroying it. While I might be able to survive this, the amount of time it would take to refleet from here is ridiculous. I’m reloading to 23:32.
23:41- Last mothership destroyed. AI announces CPA.
23:50- CPA launched, ~10,500 ships.
24:00- All threat (Apart from the new stuff from that CPA) destroyed, spirefleet still at full strength. (I was much more careful to kill the long range stuff first, was more carful with kiting, and made sure to keep all the ships at optimum range.)
24:03- Hack 1 Re-initiated.
24:04- Hack 1 Complete.
24:09- Command Station on Emperor’s Ridge destroyed to let me get supply.
AIP 92
24:10- Hack 2 Initiated.
24:11- Hack 2 Complete.
24:11- Hack 3 Initiated.
24:13- Exo-Galactic Strike Force incoming. A Few seconds later, hack 3 completes, leaving me with 12,000 knowledge- If I want the HBC4, I’ll need to take another planet, due to supply, and I’m out of AIP reduction, so it would be the full 20, and I really can’t see it being worth it. New dreadnaught design created, construction initiated. My fleet starts beating a hasty retreat.
24:15- Emperor’s ridge falls- the fleet that did it is scary again- 3 motherships, 80 H/K’s, including 4 mk5’s. Nonetheless, the spirefleet should be fine- they’ve got more than enough of a head start.
24:20- Oh dear. The exo’s have caught the fleeing bug. Pretty much every ship in that big fleet that crushed Emperor’s has disappeared into AI territory- they came to my fortress world twice, so they’ve lost their fleetships, starships and spirecraft, but still…
In happier news, the first Dreadnaught just arrived at Wastelands Of Sorrow.
24:27- Factoid: The spirefleet can kill a mothership with one volley.
24:37- The spirefleet finally engages the motherships and hunter killers that fled, on Lasting Vengence, 7 hops out from Sajuuk’s Glory.
24:39- AI forces destroyed. Spirefleet begins falling back to Sajuuk’s Glory. Now, I need to work out how to get a survey ship to Hatikvah’s Faith… It’s probably best to send as many as I can with every colony ship I can build as a backup, but it’s still non-trivial… The worst bit is going to be balancing the need to protect the survey and the shard with the regular exo, obviously… Hmm…
24:44- Exogalactic at 50%. 30 minutes- that means it’s at the strength cap. Yipee! Oh. Wait. Transceiver.
24:45- This is probably silly, but what about just glassing everything all the way to the homeworld? How bad could the waves be?
Checks wiki. Hmm… 48 planets… figure ~+950AIP… compare with… GGAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, not doing that, it’s definitely a silly idea. (It works out something like 15 times as big as the current ones, and I’d have to trigger counterattack guardposts too.) Hmm… What about the warp gates only? 47 planets, 235AIP. Hmm. ~four times as big… Don’t want to let them build up, but that might work… Definitely keep a backup save, though. (Save created)
25:15-Exo arrives. It’s quite spread out- I cautiously order the spirefleet to advance. This probably won’t work.
25:20-Predicatably, that didn’t work. I did, however, note the timings of the planet crossings. It averages low enough to get the whole spirefleet out to the AI homeworld in ~30 minutes- so, given twenty minutes for the regular exo to come through, that’s quite doable- the problem is getting the shard back. Shard retrieval then will add the pursuit forces on top of the regular exo, and there’s simply no way to hold the line long enough. So, I’ll have to wait out the regular exo, leaving my fleet in AI territory, while the exo is repaired, then survey. So, most of the fleet will have to stay behind to deal with the exo. I reckon the best compromise is to send the dreads- they’re the least vulnerable to being picked off, and I reckon that’s about the least firepower I can send and be sure to get the job done. Once the regular exo is gone, I’ll scramble the nebula fleet to their location to help blunt the retrieval exo-they’ll be the ones to kill the warp gates.
Reload to 24:25
25:20- Huh. That’s really odd- I popped two carriers early during the exo, and their units spawned at the command stations on other worlds- quite deep into AI territory, in fact. Unfortunately, it won’t reproduce. I wonder if it was some kind of regenerator golem interaction?
25:28- Most of the exo is destroyed, I’m advancing the whole spirefleet. Once the counter reaches 55%, I’ll send the non-dreadnaught/battleship elements back. (I’ve amended the plan, half my battleships will go as well.)
25:39- Was severely delayed by a large AI fleetball on Cathedral of Xaar- Special forces, The Last CPA, several standard waves, and a couple of roaming hunter-killers. This has thrown me nastily off-timetable- even the spirefleet has to take some care with 25,000+ ships.
25:46-Why this didn't occur to me before, I have no idea: Deepstrike threat will have to dissipate before the retrieval as well. Bother.
25:47-Exo at 50%, lighter fleet elements heading back.
25:53-Light fleet elements have returned. Hmm. I severely misjudged the time that would take. Dreads&Co continue to advance, smashing aside stray golems, wormhole guardposts, minefields long range guardposts, ion cannons and the occasional Eye as they go.
26:16: 18,500 ship CPA announced. Slightly worryingly, the Exo still has a few percent left to go on it's charge- I thought an hour was the maximum?
26:19: Exo has arrived. The dreads are beyond the range of worlds it arrive in. Here's hoping it doesn’t double back. (And that the reduced defences hold, of course.)
New session note: I’ve somehow lost the save, so having to restart from 25:43
25:48-18,000 ship CPA announced- earlier, this time. I’m going to stop recording these, it’s not worth it.
26:02- I’m sending the light fleet elements back now. All battleships and dreads continue to target (Yes, I’ve changed the division again.) I’ve also snuck my survey and colony ships out to emperor’s ridge under cloaker starships to shorten their journey time.
26:19- Exo has arrived. The dreads are beyond the range of worlds it arrive in- but because I cut tings a bit finer with the light fleet this time, they… aren’t. Two jumps from home, and the Exo ships are coing fast… Oh, and there’s 17 carriers of threat on Grand Exchange ready to join the fun.
26:21- Fleet is now ‘safely’ at Sajuuk’s Glory. Now I’ve just got to hold on…
26:27- The first of the big waves of Exo hits, and the carriers I mentioned join in, accompanying the motherships, hunter killers and golem on their silent charge through the black.
26:29- First waves beaten off, but most of the defences have folded. I don’t think I’m going to survive the next two.
26:35-
Connection to Core Server established. Uplink secure.
>Mothership B73A837
>Status update: Fleet strength 69.54%
>Human Resistance: Terminated.
>Awaiting new directive.
Well, that was fun. I’m calling this game the AI’s win, now- there’s simply no way I’m going to win if the regular Exo’s can break my defences like that- while the absence of the dreadnaughts and battleships may have hurt them, when you consider the speed of the Transceiver Exo recharge, and the maximum of 150% strength, it becomes readily obvious that I wouldn’t be able to survive them even at full strength. There’s simply no way I’d be able to kill the AI homeworlds without it, either- I dread to think how big the exo-defence fund is by now, and conventional attacks-forget it, the supply line is impossible. Good game.
Post game notes:
• I’m never playing snake again. It may make defence easier, but the logistics are non-fun.
• The new post-buff superfortress is fun.
• I hate the ability of fireflies to penetrate shields.
• 10/10 is really fun.
• My computer hates 8 homeworlds +FS.
• Multi-champion nebula scaling is pretty broken.
A few bits and pieces from an alternate future:
For Imperial Spire Arrival:
Message to Human Home Command:
“This is the Imperial Spire Super Dreadnaught Service Of The Empire to Human Home Command. We are engaging the enemy.”
Message to AI Core Processing:
“’You have discovered an eerie wormhole. The space around it is alive with vortices of purple light and dark, boiling clouds. It recedes into bottomless depths.’
A song comes from the darkness within.
Enjoy your Happy Fun Stuff, and burn in hell.
After Darkness, Light.”
"My friends. We are gathered here, under this new dawn, to celebrate our victory in this AI War. With the help of the Zenith Remnant and the Ancient Shadows, we have held the line against the Children of Neinzul, and now, with the help of our spire allies, the AI has been swept from the galaxy. May the Light of the Spire lead us all to a brighter future."
(Yes, I know the flow's not that good, and Ancient Shadows is out of order, but hey- allow me my conceits!)
Spirefleet inspired joke:
*Knock Knock.*
“Who’s There?”
“Polly.”
“Polly who?”
“Polly-chromatic Doom.”
*Kicks down door.*
