To Derail a Train with a Tank

[Trandrin]

Hour 11
Due to a mistake on my part the game is now over. Tired yesterday I booted up AI war to continue my game, and began working on the home world. Not thinking properly, I installed the latest patch(s). Didn't really bother me until the cpa was announced that pointed nearly 9k ships right at me. The barracks mechanic is nice if one can chew away at it and not get one giant plate full of ai fun. Suffice to say even with save scumming like mad I would not be able to handle this. GG. :/ I will try a new game later.

Thing of note that I found bothersome. Occasionally I would find I was not building any mk4s? I would focus on the planet to find the factory dead. This perplexed me for quite a while. Several times I had to reload and lose considerable chunks of time. Even left my teleport group there to hopefully kill the raid starship, that might have been getting behind my line. Kept happening. Whenever I wasn't looking something killed it. And fast. All the while astro trains just flew past shooting at my force-field/defenses. Never once while I was watching did they shoot at the factory. Until the last time when they shot it to death under while I was replacing some harvesters. My engineer crews all station there never once bothered to repair it while it died too. Finally found the trains to be something more then scenery though.

[Trandrin]

Round 2, The Train is still going loaded with Tanks, so another shot is given. With a bunch of human freedom fighters to boot.

Diff 10/10, Tank and Train Master(again)
Single HW, Started in Game Version 5.073
Realistic 50 planet, Complex ship types, no CSG
Schizo, 1/2 waves, Avenger and Astro trains.
Humanity fights back. Human Marauders/Resistance Fighters/Colony Rebellions.(Found out these were in the base game, so in they go.)
Still no Expansions
Ship of Choice, Munitions Booster
0 AIP Auto-progress.

Should I win or lose at this one I will keep starting new games. Only everytime add a new expansion until I have worked up to the full gambit. Wanted to feel the effects more strongly. To know just how much easier or harder the game goes as time has gone on.

Hour 1
Going off what I learned last round mk3 harvesters were overkill. Atleast before the parasites went to work and pushed me well beyond normal energy consumption, resulting in 4-5 conveters just to keep the fleet flow going. This time I don't have my parasites so I can afford to be more lax with my resource harvesting. Although in future I will have the fun of a colony rebellion, which I have never had before so I will see how that goes. Opening moves see me starting my exploration and first unlock are mk2 harvesters, Zenith/Spire Starships.

The first ai sends the fruit basket greating. It is full of autocannons and spiders bots. Not the most friendly greating. I think this round I will try out leech starships. I have never actually gone past the mk1. Will wait to hear if its a bad investment or not in future posts, before I put my Knowledge where my mouth is. Second AI feelings left out, sends its warmest regards. Looks like this battle will have alot of stealth as opposed to teleportation like my last game.
It has Space planes. With parasites rounding them off. So for enemy bonus ships I will be fighting Tanks, Armor Ships, Space Planes, Autocannon Minipods, Spider Bots, and Parasites.

So far my scouts have seen much that interests me. In nearby space, 2 wormholes distance are 3 ARS. 3 wormholes out, 2 DC and a Gatling V Fabricator. Downside lots of fortresses. Gogo Mandatory Mk2 bombers. Did anything change recently with amount of threat generated? I have had more then the usual amount of ships enter my world as I try to purge my neighbors. I also make the choice to unlock Munitions booster mk2. Good force multiplier having all your fleet under damage boost. On a flip side, Boosters, Leech starships, and Merc Parastis are funny effective. I get my parasite goodness afterall. My economy is gonna get ugly.

By the end of the hour I have cleared 3 of the 4 worlds bording my home system. I have even started my goal of capturing one of those ars worlds to turn into
a whipping boy. AIP is at 25, Last wave to hit was almost 200 ships.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2.

Hour 2

I make my move on Polar, killing the station and cleaning it of any residue belonging to the AI. I Hit Nepi's DC and Barracks. 500+ mk3 ships rush my homeworld.
They die gloriously. My AIP is now at 35, wave sizes roughly 500 give or take a few. Great unlock from the ARS. Tachyon Micro Fighters. These Spider bots the ai
has are putting a great strain on the repair abilities of my Engineers. Mk2 unlocked to help lesson the burden. Another wave hits Polar before I can get its defenses set or any of the warp gates so the fleet takes the brunt of the damage. Minimal losses and the ai got 200 some threat off the planet before I killed it.

I slowly start cleaning up the spilled threat. While doing do my raid starships take out DCs. My AIP goes to 30. Had to kill another warp gate. I decide to pick another fight with a barracks. I use transports to get up close and unleash the fury. All went well until the AI Parasite eye on the planet decided it didn't like
the way I looked and began firing. It stopped once the barracks went up and our fleets were almost equal. As I destroyed these barrack ships I slowly retreated more and more of  my forces into transports to prevent the eye from getting too angry.

On closer examination I decided to move my Whipping boy to nither. This will net me a decoy planet for waves to crash against on the left. And a Ion MK 3, along with the ARS. The capture goes well. And the Teleport Battle Stations have decided they want a encore. The new ion cannon waits patiently for the enemy fleets to arrive. Another wave strikes on my homeworld. Don't really have any defence in place but the fleet drops in and kills everything.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2

Hour 3

AIP up to 61, last wave 700+ ships. Fleet once again engages. My losses are appalingly low. Less then 100. I reclaim 160 ships. Munition boostered fleets are scary things. Thinking I will need to upgrade my economy due to parasite acitivity. So I unlocked Crystal+Metal harvester mk3. The whipping boy is going to be a good one so far. My Munitions boosters also give their advantage to the turret mass. So I leave several of them around the bulk of said turrets for 100% boosting power. I hunt down another Barracks for 500  more enemy ships to kill. My scout are making poor progress and I will probably have to start splitting off my fleet from their current activities to buy the scouts some wiggle room. Had to kill another Warp Gate, 66 AIP. Waves still holding around 700. My first CPA is happening 49 minutes into the hour. 2.6k ships. I should be alright on my homeworld and whipping boy. I will probably lose the ars world, but its a easy fix.

I don't wait around for the wave to hit aswell. I move my fleet onto a mk4 world with a barracks and raze it. Thats over 2k ships killed from barracks alone.
I will have my revenge for last round. My Raid Starships hit another mk4 Barracks throwing another 400 ships at me. They attack my planet of no worth. I let them cluster around my Command Center before I unload the transports full of ships right ontop of them. Very few survived of the mk4. At the 2:59 mark the CPA will hit. I hope Killing nearly 1k mk4s helped. Also I get to update after the CPA.

[Trandrin]

Hour 4

Well I survived. Just as I predicted the outer world with no acutal value got bogged down in over 1.5k ships. The other 500 ships decided to pick a fight with my whipping boy. They were all slain. Then the 1.2k of remaining ships from the fights outside my homeworld began their assault. My fleet met it hard while riot starships did their work on as many as they could buying me time. In the end I was done to 500 ships remaining in my fleet. Killing those barracks didn't seem to have any effect. Full amount came at me. Thankfull only mk2. I didn't have to worry about scraping any capital ships due to increased energy costs from the update. Most of them got killed in the battle.

I rebuild my forces and began worrying away at Aeocuenan's guardposts to remove the pesky AI Eye.I destroy the last post and glare at the mk3 fortress the ai has installed by its command center. Large 1.4k+ wave hits my whippping boy. Fleet is sent to engage and the resistance shows its face with moderate showing. They arrive in the battle area in time to help me save my Command Center/Ion Cannon. After I fix my base a bit I send the fleet into Aeocuenan to purge it for colonization. Another wave hits for 2k ships after I take Aeocuenan, they easily burn it to the ground. Then funnel right into the whipping boy.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2

Hour 5

Do to unforseen picket line shortages I needed more scouts. At first i didn't think I would need them too much, but a rogue wave of I think special forces ships made me decide otherwise. Also needed heavier defence at the whipping boy so Mk2 Basic Turrets and HBC mk1 were also unlocked. The rogue wave did a number on me and I had to take some time to repair losses. My fleet moves to a far world on the north part of the galaxy and breaks another barracks. Heavy losses but they got the job done. Then a 3k wave was anounced. Oh fun times this will be. My defence should be able to handle it.

They appear and only carriers are seen. I am confused, by the time I realized they were all Autocannon mini pods it was too late they were already bringing ruin to my command center. My fleet pushed towards them. Then my defences finished ruining the carriers, as they were the only thing visible, spawning all manner of nasty. Mk5 ships, Guardians, mk4 starships were among the fun. To much chaos, had to reload a earlier save. In exchange I get a 1.3k wave of more normal proportions. And then another wave of 1.9k. Fun times. I fully recover and move production of everything up to my whipping boy. As it is now center pivot point of my empire. I use a small fleet of Mercs and Starships to do "safari" runs on many planets. They have a lot of reclamation power and harvest many new ships for me that I can't build.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1

Hour 6 Part 1

My fleet provokes another barracks into action. Results are similiar to other actions like this. They all die. Scouts are ecking away at the unexplored parts of map but progress is still stunted. They did manage to fully explore the upper left portion of the galaxy though. AIP is now at 76. Waves vary from 1.5-3k+. Depending on how many swarmers are coming in it. Also I found the AI's staging ground for special forces. 2k+ ships. I might have to do something about those. A CPA is anounced a half hour into the hour. 4.2k ships. This will not be pretty.

The CPA destroys my two non-important world before the AI scraps nearly 2k+ ships into carriers.. Which then fall right through my Whipping boy and began destroying it. My fleet does a fighting retreat all the way from my furthest world to homeworld. Parasites and leechs earn glorious tally among the enemy space craft, buying me time as the reclaims are left to die. Eventually I make a last stand at homeworld while the fighting rages around my two worlds. The defenses on the whipping boy kill nearly 2000 ships before they start faltering. Resistance decides they might wish to intervene and deploys about 50 of their ships against nearly 800 remaining hostiles. They don't make much difference.

My homeworld is secured by the fleet who mauled all that fought them. They then headed north to the whipping boy as it burned. The ai flanks to my homeworld stalling the advance. Forcing me to send them back and keep the home world alive. The remaining defences and production facilities on the Whipping boy defeat the remaining CPA forces on their world. While my fleet warps to neighboring planets of the homeworld to kill ships building up there. Slowly I win against the CPA and take a moment to breath. Most of my defences are in shambles and I have serious rebuilding to do. Then the double wave is anounced. Nearly 3k more ships to assault my broken lines. This is a batttle for another day I think.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1

[Mánagarmr]

Ouch, this will not be pretty.

[keith.lamothe]

Sounds like the AI got up on the wrong side of the drive this morning!

Some pretty fierce attacks.

[Trandrin]

Hour 6 part 2

I fought against the double wave and lost. They didn't really pause when they overwhelmed my whiping boy with the entire fleet supporting. Thing I blame most, is my actions. After the CPA was handeled I didn't go speedy about repairing the damage. Instead going about it slower while I sent the fleet to scour threat from neighboring worlds. So both my fleet and defences were bare boned when the waves came. So I decided I would try again. This time I loaded my game from about 3/4s of way through the CPA and began repairing even as it was reduced to embers. Instead of sending reclaimed ships to their deaths I carried them with me. Allowing a stronger fleet at the end. After surviving I even set up a Missle Silo. With intent to EMP should things go awry when I had to fight the double wave.

In return for my actions, the double waves came sooner. But smaller, as I had multiple ingress points. Instead of over 3k. I fought a more modest 2.3k ships, 6 starships.. Wish the ai would send more starships. Also geting everything runing faster meant my economy was already healing and pumping out fresh ships/turrets. When the waves struck they hit the bait planet and dallied about killing resistance fighters and pushing though the forcefield. My full 900 ship fleet and about 300+ turrets gathered on the whipping boy. The enemy wave bunched up then enetered the system. Fighting was fierce on the wormhole before I had to force my fleet to fall back to the command center.

My Riot starships and Spider bots did a number on many engines crippling large numbers of space craft allowing me breathing room to try and not be crushed. Almost all the turrets died out and the wave moved onward towards the command center. My repair crews kept rebuilding turrets causing some to linger and fight the fresh defenses. Those small road bumps didn't last long. This was a better fight then the last time. My fleet never made it away from the wormhole the first time.The fleet staying just ahead of the point firing back the entire way. By the time the fight reached the Command Center I had lost nearly half my ships. Not even fighting the main force of the enemy fleet. On the plus side the entire enemy mob was stretched due to lots of engine damage, and I was right next to a large influx of fresh ships from my shipyards. That is were my fleet stayed and fought.

At the end of the battle I survived. Saved by engine damage and entire resource pool gone building fodder to hold the AI at bay. Now time to rebuild. I send out a scouting party while I replace losses. Finally find a Adv Factory. Hidden away on the right side of map. Between me and it are a mk4 world. Not a hard clam to open. But I will have to wait a bit to take it. Rebuilding is nearly finished. My Reclamation team harvests several worlds tripling their numbers with many mk3/4 ships. They like to hunt threatballs. My Raid Starships begin hunting barracks again. Blowing up a few, and my fleet counters any push the ensuing threat nightmare causes. My parasites really enjoy the mk4 barracks.. Got several ships from it. The latest one brings with it the marauders though. Whose 80 ships are actually a threat. Until they explode. They do that a lot sadly. My raiders strike another barracks.. And it was a coreworld one. Alot of ugly came flying out of that at my base. 603 ships. Good fight to be had. My scouts slip past in the fight and enouncter the first AI homeworld right at my doorstep.

 Good news all around. Now to find the other and hopefully a DC or two. Both the worlds neighboring the first AI world harbor nothing deadly to life. I only need to contend with a AI eye and a Fort Mk3.While out raiding my Raid Starships provoked nearly 1k ships of the special forces staging ground to move to "protect" a world of interest. My fleet intercepted them and a glorious fight was to be had. Half my fleet died. 1k special forces ships gone. Will repeat step to try and get other 1k to support their favored worlds.

I get another Mini Pod wave. This time I am ready with Tachyons. They all die glorious bullet ridden deaths. My scouts explore some more and uncover all but the last world. Which is the second AI homeworld. 10 minutes before the end of the hour a 1.2k wave is anounced. The wave runs right into the whipping boy and is reduced to scrap. My Raid starships are preped for another attack against a barracks. It has to be running out of ships at this rate for CPAs. I have plans to do a few knowledge raids. Capture at most 3 more planets. Atleast 2. One for the Advanced factory. The other for a steping stone to avoid deepstrik status on the second AI Homeworld. THe third should the desire arise. AiP is at 66, I have 2.5k free knowledge and all is looking well.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1

Note: I have yet to see any Human Colony rebellions? When about do they happen?

[Trandrin]

Hour 7

This hour sees me continuing my barracks hate. My raid starships travel far and wide blowing them up and depositing 500+ ships on me each time. Its like a endless stream of mini waves punctuated by big ones. Very odd event. Several of nearby worlds now possess nearly 500+ ships. They are just sitting there. Not threat or anything. Think the Special forces are acting odd. Gonna have to go murder crazy on them. One of the planets off my Whipping boy now has over 1k ships. Just sitting in it.

Not threatening or anything. Just loitering. I moved my fleet to engage one cluster and they all instantly aggroed. No change to threat just ever increasing number of attack. They all died for their actions. All of them. My scouts decided to drop by the Ai staging ground.. It is completly empty. Guess it decided to stop hording and sent them all to their deaths. Some more barracks fall. I refuse to be smashed by another massive CPA. So they must all die. Another wave is anounced. 900 ships. Not so bad. I take 160 of them as reclaims.

My fun goes on for most of the hour bringing destruction to AI worlds. Then, finally I get a rebel colony. And low and behold. Right next to my homeworld. All nearby worlds are razed. And the entire 1500 ships of my fleet move to claim this place. I have never done this before, I don't wish to take any chances at all. I see the hefty AI progress on losing this thing. There will be no risks. My fleet arrives. My colonization forces move in and set up shop. Hefty little guys these resistance ships. I build them all and combine them into the fleet. With this and my future claims to be done I need more defenses. The Fortress mk1 is unlocked. And will be stationed on the Whipping boy. 9 minutes to the hour almsot 2k ships are anounced as a wave. They hit the bait planet. And died for their trouble.
I am now working on carving up the various defenses that lay between me and my steping stone/Advanced factory on the right. AIP is now at 86. By the time I start working on homeworlds it could be around 126+. This might sting a little.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1, Fortress Mk1.

Hour 8

7 minutes past the hour. 6.4k CPA anounced. My barracks hunting has gone to extreme lengths. Yet the waves continue to rise. Thought removing Barracks weakened these? Regardless I start preparing to face massive damage. When it arrives I notice it is still mkII for the most part.. But it threw in a few mk1s and couple hundred mk3s. Guess it lost a bit of its higher level stuff then if it had to resort to scraping mk1s together. So the raiding has mostly hit the big stuff and it has helped. This makes me happy. Now to kill 6k of ships. As the ships pile up. Ai scraps together 5 carriers. Oh the fun we will have. My Rebel fleet meets 200 ships at the homeworld and doesn't even pause. These things are monsters.

My riot starships blow out the engines of many ships outside my whipping boy. While my Parasite team handles a incursion on a periphary world.The riots end up encountering 600 ships outside one of my worlds as they jump in and take out every engine they can while peeling towards the edge of the system. Most of them follow. And slowly get slower. For their brave act the riot ships die. Buying me time. The main battle takes place on Polar. 1500 standard ships+80 Rebel craft vs 3k swarm. They just need to buy more time. The fighting is terribly damaging. I end up losing nearly 800 ships. 2k AI ships perish in combat.

They route my forces from the world, causing me to retreat to the home world. Once there the carriers pause while their fleets pour forth onto the bulwarks I have set before my homeworld. As our two forces battle it out the marauders take interest in the fighting. They send 73 of their best to be a pest. I fall back out of system and let the AI murder them at a loss to their ships. While they destory one another I regroup at the home world. And in comes another 1.6k ship wave. They decide to crash against the whipping boy.. Which has been untouched and is fully operational. They are already dead.

The wave hits. And is supported by nearly 600 more ships deployed off the ongoing CPA. Their strength is great. And the defences maul them. Another wave of 1.2k ships hit the system now. My defences strain under such a chaotic mess. Whats left of my fleet perform a break out maneuver on the home world. They fly through whats left of the CPA which had been ground to a paste and hit as the second Wave strikes the Whipping boy. It takes critical damage to its defence array and all production facilities are lost. The Ion cannon never stopped firing. Not once for 3+ minutes. But the massive forcefield barricades that I erected at last minute held. Barely. I still have 20 minutes left in the hour but that was some of the most frantic fighting I have had yet.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1, Fortress Mk1.

[TechSY730]

About the AI ships just doing nothing, that has been reported before, and it seems you found another way it can be triggered.
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9243

[Trandrin]

Oh those special forces ships were doing something. They were all bunching by wormholes just like normal threat. It just didn't register on the threat meter. Because once I moved my fleet off the world, multiple 100s of these silent ships all went on attack all over just like a waiting threat ship.

[Trandrin]

Hour 9

I am still rebuilding after that massive taste of warfare. My fleet is below 50%, but most of my resource/Command Centers are back online so I can push to get rebuilt quicker. My plan remains the same. Secure that steping stone. It will just take awhile. I get most of the fleet back up and scrap a few more planets leading to Savbark. It combines being a steping stone and geting me a advanced factory. Downside. It has a counter attack post on it. I should hopefully be able to handle something like this. It sends the 1.3k ships to my Human Rebellion planet. I should be able to easily fight this extra wave down and so I do. It doesn't acomplish much other then dieing.

After it a normal wave is anounced at 1.6k ships. While I wait for it to bleed on my battlements I send the fleet to begin knowledge raiding. I also unlock mk2 frigates. As I gather knowledge another wave is anounced for 2.2k ships. A little hard but I break it. My fleet finishes the first Knowledge hack and I use it on mk2 fighters. I almost lost my com center on the whipping boy when a raid starship snuck past the lines. It was stopped with quite a bit of force by the Human Rebellion fleet.

I sting another barracks on a core world. It attracts a whole lotta hurt and the rebel fleet dies giving me time to pull my standard fleet to support the world these ships will be heading towards. I also decide a update is in order and download it. Hope it doesn't break anything.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1, Fortress Mk1, Frigate MK2, Fighters mk2.

Hour 10

Fight a normal wave, bit more knowledge harvesting. Nothing really exiciting this hour, well except for the 8.3k CPA. That was not pretty. Also while it was ticking down another normal wave anounced at 1200 ships or so. I throw everything at the normal wave to get them out of the way before the CPA goes live. When the CPA hits I lose two of my worlds rapidly. My Human Colony is defended by my elite Merc/reclaim fleet while the normal fleet holds for the main ai push. And it happens right to my homeworld causing a massive redployment of my forces, to where I stand between a large part of the cpa and my homeworld. My fleet stations outside of the wormhole to my homeworld and fights them as they pour into my lines. I hold here till 3 carriers and their holds full of hurt break me and force a retreat back to my homeworld. I scrap all remaining forcefields on all worlds and deploy them to the homeworld. They still hit it hard enough to destroy a few of my cryopods.

Large parts of my fleet are gone. But I have survived another CPA. Still over 1600 ships tied up at both neighboring worlds due to engine damage+engaging my fleet. While the rest cowers infront of my whipping boy. This game has seen me kill more ships then almost any of my other games. These CPAs are very brutal with nothing but standard fleet ships to battle. I miss my golems.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1, Fortress Mk1, Frigate MK2, Fighters mk2.

Hour 11

Another dull hour, finished another knowledge raid, destroyed a few normal waves. Almost got killed when a raid starship skiped past my main fleet and  killed a com center. Putting me in negative energy. Suddenly had a bunch of enemy teleport stations warp to my Home Command center and try to kill it. Got the hull to red before I got energy back up.

Unlocks: Crystal/Metal Harvesters mk2, Zenith/Spire Starships mk1, Bombers Mk2, Munitions Booster MK2, Tachyon Micro Fighters mk1/2, Engineer mk2, Teleport Battle Stations mk1/2 Scout Mk2, BAsic Turrets MK2, HBC mk1, Fortress Mk1, Frigate MK2, Fighters mk2.

[Trandrin]

Hour 12

For a laugh I decided to see what would happen if I boosted my AIP by 40+ more points. So it was now at 129. On the plus side I got 2 more fortresses for the whiping boy and parasites. Tasty parasites. I will reclaim a lot of ships. I also unlocked bomber+frigate mk3s. Now to get a advanced factory for fun and profit. After taking it and building up for a moment a 10k CPA is anounced. I prepare my battle lines.

And only 3k ships deploy to fight me. I think I have finally thined enough of the AI barracks. It doesn't have the power to punch anymore. My fleet of 1.3k meets them head on outside of any of my worlds. The fighting is harsh. But I break their strength. My fleet loses around 300 some ships. Parasites+munitions boosters are terrifying. Wave numbers are now in the 3k+ range. My fleet now has to support the whipping boy. But I think it might have been worth it for the fleet and knowledge.

Hour 13

Just me rebuilding from various damage dealt by the CPA and threat spikes. Lots of spare threat floating around that I can't seem to find. I Also claim my Adv Factory. Now to finish scouting last homeworld and launch the final assault. Last homeworld scouted. Nothing of any note to be threatening. Just a z fortress.

Hour 14

Finishing off the Triangle mk4s. Main fleet ball fully built. They will deploy to destroy guard posts. Star ships and munitions boosters will support them. My rebelion fleet will also provide cover. Before I can begin the AI throws 7k ships at my whiping boy. This will be ugly. All auto cannons. I litterally cannot kill enough of them before the carriers pop and unleash mk4+ guardians/star ship spam. In addition uncloaking so many of them litterally freezes my computer. Had to save scum to a normal fight, my normal fight is 4.7k ships. More reasonable, and no silly Auto cannon spam. Also must thank the Human Resistance for targeting carriers during waves. Makes reasonable fights a bit more harsh.

Assault, Hour 15+

I sent some of my rebel fleet to activate the neinzul spawner. The cockroachs spawn and overwhelm the small strike team before making a bee line towards my frontlines. My entire fleet meets and stops them. The rebel fleet enmass moves in and kills the Neinzul spawner and evacs out of system. I take time to rebuild the rebel fleet before I reenter the system and destroy the other guard posts. I destroy all the Post, leaving the home world and its fortress + Force fields for a later time . My attack on the second AI homeworld is delayed due to a CPA.

It anounces 12k. Deploys 4. I fight well and only lose a few non important worlds. My fleet switches sides and hits other Homeworld. Same method as before to declaw the cockroach spam. All went well until the barracks just activated with no stimuli from me. The mk4 fleet died fast while the Rebels fought on and killed nearly all the Barracks spawn. a 3K wave attacks and I am not in a position to handle it.. Lightning warheads remove them from the equation. I continue my home world assaults. One it slain with Lightning warheads, using my fleet as a decoy for them to shoot. The other by my bombers/Rebel Fighters, who straight up slug it out with the fortress and its guards to get at the home world.

At 17 hour, 2 minute mark my forces destroy the last AI home world.