Upwards and Onwards

[Mad Rubicant]

Having finally won my first 7/7 game, I noticed that it was actually really easy. So, I'll doing a series of games on successive difficulty. Starting, of course, with 7.3/7.3. I doubt I'll go past 9, though.

Game Settings:
Complex, all ship types except Swallowers enabled
Minor plots:
Zenith Traders
Dyson Sphere 4/10

AI Modifiers:
Schizophrenic
Reveal Random AI types

No AI progress over time
No AI Plots

Map is attached (speaking of, how can I get my attached images to show up in the post?), 80 planet Realistic; seed is 1613409929. Game version is 7.016, with all expansions. I'll let the game choose my planet and ship for me. Gotta see what's useful, after all.


Start the game, and I've rolled Neinzul Scapegoats. I've used them before, they're decently useful. AI types are Neinzul Cluster Bomber and Support Corps. This should be fun. At least I only have to deal with half as many waves.
First wave declares at 6:55, 62 ships and 1 Starship. Sounds like Neinzul + the support troops (It wasn't Neinzul).
After preliminary scouting, I find that AI 2 has Sentinel Frigates, and AI 1 has Vampire Claws, Teleport Raiders. There's an ARS 2 hops out, on Sicmurder. There's an Advanced Factory 3 hops out(!) on Uvma. I use my starting knowledge to unlock Mil IIIs, Bomber IIs, and Enclave IIs. I'm seeing a lot of fortresses and shields.

I get a science lab to Sicmurder. The ARS has Electric Shuttles, or hack for Polarizers/Impulse Emitters. I think I'll stick with shuttles.
A huge thorn in my side while clearing out the planet, however, are the Sentinel Frigates. I know what I'm sabotaging, as soon as I find it. And something I forgot about: Support Corps renders minefields nearly useless. Anyone *cough* Kahuna *cough* know how to deal with that?

Sicmurder gets colonized at 52 minutes. Time for more scouting. At least, if I could get my scouts past all the Sentinel Frigates.
New unlocks: Scout II, Scapegoat II (They're really good at protecting my fleet from Sen Frigates).
Lo and behold, Cotusro has both an ARS AND the Sniper Controller. Now that's a nice RNG roll. Unijidur has an ARS, contents to be announced. Xiswo is another amazing roll; Missile Controller, Co-Processor, and Blade Spawner Fab. There's an Impulse Emitter Fab on Hama, a Flak Controller on Dooriustuc, a Sniper Controller on Mondhaswo, a Lightning Controller on Shocavetol, a Tackle Drone Launcher Fab on Labarkde, a Mini-Ram Fab on Cadin, and a Laser Controller on Asnoqa. Oh, and a Bomber Starship fab on Wigpoyar.

Current state of the galaxy in second attatchment. P8 is ARS (and the Dyson), P7 is Advanced Factory/ASC, P6 is Fab/Turret Controller, P5 are Data Centers, P4 are Co-Processors, and P3 is the ST.

[Mad Rubicant]

So, I abandoned that game when I realized some purchase mistakes I'd made. Time to try again.

SETTINGS
7.3/7.3 Random Moderate-Easier -- Random Easier on both AIs, with random types revealed
80 planet Honeycomb, seed 1701782037, patch 7.017, low caps.
All expansions, all ships sans swallowers
Schizo waves
Zenith Trader
Dyson 4/10
Spirecraft Medium
Botnet Medium

No AIP over time, no AI Plots

In the theme of getting better, I'll be choosing a random planet and ship.


I rolled Stealth Battleships. The AIs are a Gravity Driller/Mine Enthusiast and a Fortress Baron/Turtle. I see a lot of raiding in my future.
Initial unlocks are Bomber IIs and IIIs, Scout IIs, Assault Transports so I don't get destroyed by all these forts and Grav drills,
AI 1 has Neinzul Vultures and Electric Shuttles. As it turns out, having a non-wave secondary AI type doesn't stop it from sending waves
I buy the ZPG from the Trader when he shows up at 10 minutes. If I'm lucky, it'll finish by 2 hours. I also buy a Counter-Spy and pause it, to build later.

My immediate neighborhood is scouted by 0:23. The results: Armor Booster Fab and an Advanced Factory on Chuudonzi. It also has a Gravity Drill. Speaking of drills, do those stack with Logistics stations? Even if they don't, that's a pretty defensible Factory.
There's an ARS on Apeumlau, but it's in deepstrike range, so I'll find out the contents later. The Dyson is on Osmichenan, so that'll be a good pit stop. There's also an ASC on Gesdesplu.
As for priority markers, P6 is Fab/Core turret controller I want to hack, and P1 is just core turret controller
And oh boy do I spy a lot of Fortresses. And Superforts. And Gravity Drills.

My first move will be freeing the Dyson, and using that planet as a staging ground to free the Botnet. The Botnet's planet has a superfort. I may grab the Factory before that, for those sweet, sweet Bomber IVs. I really hope there's a bomber fab in this game.

I just noticed that the Dyson planet is a rude gesture subcommander. On a planet with a Grav Drill. I guess I'll use my Assault Transports to get up to the command station and deal with it. The bombers take out one post. 13 Mk III ships and a Starship, plus reprisal level 2. On the bright side, the (Mark 3) force field is down to 15%. After that point, though, the rest of the posts were easy to get rid of. Fleet drop, kill a post, back into the transport. The last post dies at 1:10, and the planet goes with it. The barracks lets out 83 MK3 ships, and they head to fight the Dysons. My money's on the Dysons.

Right about here I realized that I hadn't updated to 7.018, and that's why the SF Guard Posts still said "+1 AIP on death". Is there any reason the hostile to all Dyson Gatlings don't target the SF posts?

Second counterattack post hits. Another Plasma Starship. Wave 3: A Zenith Starship this time. Last wave: Another Zenith, and it's only a Mark 2.

Then something weird happened. All my ships are on my planet, and have been for about 10 minutes, when a reprisal wave is announced. Are Dysons supposed to count for reprisal now?


The Botnet is on another Rude Gesture planet
With a Fortress 2. And a Superfort
Today is just not my day.
I think I'll just get the Advanced Factory first.

Reprisal level 3. Oops

Observations and notes:
The AI really seems to love Plasma Starships. I had at least 3 waves in a row with a Plasma. It's kind of ridiculous, especially with how they just tear through static defenses that aren't Forts. As in, almost 50% of the waves seem to be sending in a Plasma. Fortress Baron and Turtle are a brutal defensive combo. And I'm really glad I'm not playing in the era when Gravity Drills had a speed limit of 8.

[keith.lamothe]

Grav drill, mine enthusiast, fortress baron, turtle... the RNG is setting the stage for a lot of frustration, I think

Speaking of drills, do those stack with Logistics stations?

I don't think so.  The drill does a flat cap on speed, the logistics applies a multiplier to it.  I think a ship will wind up with the lesser of the two results, but not the combination of them.  I could be wrong though.

Right about here I realized that I hadn't updated to 7.018, and that's why the SF Guard Posts still said "+1 AIP on death". Is there any reason the hostile to all Dyson Gatlings don't target the SF posts?

Before or after 7.018?  Before because that would cause AIP.  After, if they still don't kill them, probably because most minor factions are sworn off guard posts to avoid releasing threat that goes and kills the player 5 minutes into the game, etc.

Then something weird happened. All my ships are on my planet, and have been for about 10 minutes, when a reprisal wave is announced. Are Dysons supposed to count for reprisal now?

The AI's salvage efficiency ramps up from basically 0% at the beginning of the game to its normal (difficulty-based) amount at about 2 hours in.  Its efficiency is applied during the spending of the salvage, rather than during the collection (like yours is), so as that efficiency rises the salvage it already has may cross the threshold.

Reprisal level 3. Oops

It'll just be a flesh wound

[Mad Rubicant]

Well, it turns out that the level three reprisal wave was only 100 ships. The Starship was a Plasma Siege. 2 of them.
The ZPG finishes at 2:24. The Counter-Spy was killed by a Plasma Siege sometime earlier. Now I can actually build turrets on my home planet. Turrets come online at 2:40; now I feel safe being offensive. I should probably unlock Area Mines at some point, too

The counterattack post on Chuudonzi falls at 2:45. In the wave it spawned was yet another Siege. Getting real tired of those things. Maybe now I can finally get the Factory.

A 91 ship CPA declares at 3:10. The Chuuponzi command station falls at the same time. Time to clear out the threatball. An unfortunate  side effect of having the Superterminal next to my home planet is the Strategic Reserve (and probably the special forces, too) like to deploy there.

3:27, an ARS, an Ebonite rock, and a Protector Starship design backup are found on Lodu. The CPA is nowhere to be seen. I can only assume it started on a homeworld and is passing through a lot of gravity drills.
I find another ARS on Omnobo, along with a Data Center. Sweet. The CPA was passing through when my scout got there, so at least I know where it is. It finally reaches me at 3:35, and goes off like the scared threat it is. Killing it is a piece of cake, even with 10% of the reserve backing it up.

Chuudonzi colonized at 3:42. Between the grav drill and warp jammer station, I'm not worried about the factory. Bomber Mark 4s and Core Armor Boosters join my fleet a few minutes later.
Then I notice: Hardened force fields have 500,000 armor, and aren't immune to armor boosts. Please tell me this is intentional
In any case, HFF I unlocked

Then the Trader shows up on my home planet, so I buy the Counter-spy just because.

4 hours: My current target is the Botnet. It's protected by 4 Mk4 counterattack posts and a missile command station. And a Fort 2. And a Superfort. At least there isn't an Eye. The first attack ends about as well as you'd expect. I break through the Mk3 force field and damage the superfort to 83%. This is going to take a while. And bump me up to high reprisal levels, too.

The reprisal wave came with three (3) Plasma Siege Starships. That was scary.

Attack 2. This time I don't send in my starships to die. Except for one Leech that got in anyways. The reprisal wave is nice and easy to kill. I've really got to thank the AI for all this metal it's throwing at me.

Why am I not sabotage hacking this thing?

And now there's one less Superfort in the world. And one less Fort 2. Now I just have to deal with 4 more counterattack posts.

State of the galaxy attached.

[keith.lamothe]

Then I notice: Hardened force fields have 500,000 armor, and aren't immune to armor boosts. Please tell me this is intentional

It's intentional   HFFs are pretty nice unless caught by stuff that's good vs structural AND has infinite armor piercing.  Then they die like 5x faster than normal FFs.

Strange that it's throwing Plasma Siege Starships at you quite that often.  An Artillerist would do that, and probably a Mad Bomber too, but neither are in play here.

[Mad Rubicant]

Right about here I realized that I hadn't updated to 7.018, and that's why the SF Guard Posts still said "+1 AIP on death". Is there any reason the hostile to all Dyson Gatlings don't target the SF posts?

Before or after 7.018?  Before because that would cause AIP.  After, if they still don't kill them, probably because most minor factions are sworn off guard posts to avoid releasing threat that goes and kills the player 5 minutes into the game, etc.

After. Still, I don't think I've ever seen a special forces post with ships on it, so it might not be a problem there. I don't make a hobby out of watching the AI's reinforcement patterns.

Then something weird happened. All my ships are on my planet, and have been for about 10 minutes, when a reprisal wave is announced. Are Dysons supposed to count for reprisal now?

The AI's salvage efficiency ramps up from basically 0% at the beginning of the game to its normal (difficulty-based) amount at about 2 hours in.  Its efficiency is applied during the spending of the salvage, rather than during the collection (like yours is), so as that efficiency rises the salvage it already has may cross the threshold.

Ok, that makes sense. I thought the ramping up was in the collection.

Strange that it's throwing Plasma Siege Starships at you quite that often.  An Artillerist would do that, and probably a Mad Bomber too, but neither are in play here.

I think that around half of the wave starships I've seen have been Plasma Siege. I don't remember this many from before the patch messing about with waves.

[Mad Rubicant]

Well, the threat from hacking was dealt with by the Dyson. One less thing to worry about. Xuslov, the planet with the Botnet, happens to have 4 Plasma Siege Starships on it. And 3 Zenith Starships.

Time to begin the oh-so-wonderful process of killing a rude gesture planet. Raids in Assault Transports will (hopefully) work.

In the meantime, I'll begin clearing a path towards the first ARS. I need more fleetships, so Missile Frigate IIs unlocked. Down to 500 K

Raids get slaughtered.
I scare myself on Unudonde, starting the countdown on the Nuclear Eye. Crisis was averted, though.

Now that I've cleared a tachyon free path to Onnobo, I can find out what's in the ARS, pop the data center, and clean the planet for possible hacking. Inside the ARS is a munitions booster, to go with my armor booster fab. I could hack for Gravity Rippers or Reprocessors, but they don't seem too useful this game.
The special forces showed up while I was neutering Onnobo. With all their Riots. Real fun change there, that one.

Onnobo dropped at 5:31, colonized at 5:36. These shiny new Munitions Boosters are going straight into my static defenses. Unlocking Missile IIIs and IVs so that I can deal with those blasted Zenith Starships as well. I have inadvertently split the AI's territory into 3 parts. I see no possible way this could go wrong.

It's time to try Operation Free the Botnet again. Maybe I can take out a counterattack post, and if I'm lucky, a shield. Operation Free the Botnet, phase 1 is a success. One shield and one counterattack post destroyed. Mark IV counterattacks are going to be fun. Especially when there's some Core bombers mixed in.
Second counterattack post goes down at 6:12. And then a CPA is declared at 6:16. 182 ships, this time. Still MK1, though. Counterattack 2 hits, another Plasma Siege, but no Core bombers.
I'm almost able to take out the last shield with the third counterattack post, which goes at 6:26. CPA in 2 minutes, and the AI is split by a planet. This can't end well. And reprisal level 4, oh my.

Oh wow. The AI ran out of Mark 1 ships, so it freed a few mark 2s. A regular wave decided to sync with the reprisal, for some chocolaty goodness. 500 ships coming at me on low caps. Will I survive this? _probably

Map and waves attached

[Mad Rubicant]

Well, the two waves threw themselves uselessly on my defenses. CPA is still hiding though.
Third counterattack wave hits, and there aren't any Plasma starships. There is a Zenith though. After clearing the wave, there's 1.5 million scrap floating around Mberasroad, for a juicy 7k metal a second

Found the CPA. It's on Onnobo, what a surprise. The planet is screwed, that's for sure.
Or not? The entire fleet just ignored my command station. Do they do that with Warp Jammer stations now?

Anyways, it's time to get myself a Botnet. I might want to get another ZPG first, though. 800k energy is steep.
The last counterattack post falls at 6:48, and the command station with it. I also released around a dozen high mark starships as threat.

That traitor trader sold the AI a OS Raid Engine, and it's hitting Chuudonzi. Meanwhile, my fleet is on the other side of a grav drill. Somehow, 10 sniper turrets repelled it. Gravity drills are amazing on defense.

You know how I said there's an ARS way down on Apeumlau? 10 points if you can guess what kind of planet it is.
That's right, it's the third Rude Gesture I've dealt with this game. There's also a Dire Guardian Lair on Leacaveasno that I have to deal with now. Of course, that planet has a superfort on it.

The fleet is entirely rebuilt for the first time in ages. It's time to kill a Dire Guardian Lair. 2 Dire Artillery Guardians and a Dire Infiltration Guardian. The first Artillery dies when I pop the lair, and I kill the second one halfway to my planets, tripping a threatening eye in the process.
The Infiltration Guardian is just hanging out outside of my homeworld. It's probably waiting for a wave.

Before it can find a wave big enough to piggyback onto, I kill it and the threat it was hanging out with.

Rather than deal with another 4 MK4 counterattack guard posts, I decide to get the ARS on Ludos. So of course, it has some bizarre and not too useful pickings: Attractor Drones, Gravity Drains, or Space Planes. I'm really at a loss as to whether I should hack or not.

Good news: Zingdaku has ARS number 4, and the Experimenter Engineer Fab.
Bad news: Zingdaku has a Gravity Drill. Yet another painful planet to take

Observations: Grav drills are OP. Mines appear to be weaker on lower cap levels, and EMP mines are probably stronger. Rude Gesture is an absurd subcommander

Per the usual, map is attached

[Mad Rubicant]

Well, I think I'll hack for Space Planes. They at least have a bonus against heavy and ultra-heavy, with cloaking and radar dampening. They'll probably be decent for alpha strikes against forts.

Hack starts at 8:11. Onnobo dies. The Chuudonzi command station is destroyed by a Raid III, but the Factory is miraculously unharmed. I lost the gravity drill, unfortunately. 300 threat at the end of the hack.
Factory killed by threat. Let's try this again.
By actively killing the hacking response rather than just watching it, I'm able to keep the threat down. Not quite sure why I didn't do that in the first place. Onnobo still dies, as does the grav drill. I really need to hack that sniper controller. Lodu falls at 8:26

This is an out of the way planet without any capturables and not on my path; it's getting a Mil 1 station. Onnobo dies again.
*Checks Space Plane stats*
Oh crap, these things have radar dampening lower than their range. And they have a bonus against Ultra-heavy. They're the perfect fort killers. Praise the sun.

6500 K, but I'm not sure what to spend it on. Forts and/or Miniforts would be a good idea, but I still don't have any high mark ships with a bonus against medium. I could get fighters II-IV, or I could get planes II-IV. At the moment, my static defenses are holding, and I really hate fortresses. Space Planes it is. Their reload speed is atrocious, though, at 9 seconds.
14320 damage * 86 cap / 9 second reload = 136,836 cap DPS * MK level.
Combined cap DPS is 1,231,520 DPS. I think. Hey Keith, how's that look, balance-wise?

Onnobo dies again. Good thing I'm not playing with Shark

Well, it's time for Operation Gimme: Hack the Sniper Controller. And the Micro Parasite Fab, too, I guess. Hack begins 8:52. I manage to take out two data centers while I'm at it. AIP back down to 30.
Hack complete. It's time to build Sniper Vs on all my planets. And MicroParasites, but I have no idea how useful they'll be. Seriously, there's no reason not to use them if you have the energy. I'm pretty sure a cap of Snipers don't outdamage a cap of Sniper Vs (same with Spider turrets). Is there any reason for not having Sniper IIs and IIIs?

Observations: I hate gravity drills with a passion. I'm just really glad I didn't roll something like Grav Driller/Fortress Baron. That would have been awful.

And here's a map, as usual

[Mad Rubicant]

Microparasites take a long time to build. They do count as MK V for reclamation purposes, right?

Anyways, with my new fleet of 800+ ships, it's time to clear a path to Zingdaku. First I have to get through Darksamu, a MkIV planet. Fortunately, it's only an eye planet with the Paranoid subcommander, so my Assault transports are easily able to take care of the guard posts. But the command station is a translocator, which kills one. The one full of mostly Space Planes. Losses are minimal.

How does the AI assess the strength of planets with a warp jammer on it? Because there has been a stream of threat just passing through Onnobo, and getting slaughtered by the Core Sniper turrets.

Zingdaku ARS: Has Raiders, or hack for Space Tanks or Teleporting Leeches. I think I'll get a science lab down to Apeumlau before deciding, seeing as I'm at -12 HaP. Unfortunately, I need to clear a tachyon path. I'll just neuter Zingdaku first. As an added surprise, there's an experimental engineer fab that I didn't notice earlier.

CPA declares at 9:37. 279 Mark 1 ships. It's still only going to tickle, but I'd better clear a tachyon path to Apeumlau first.

Apuemlau has a translocator command station. And it's a rude gesture. I would willingly go deeper into negative HaP if I could sabotage hack counterattack posts. Science lab gets there: Etherjets, or hack for Teleport Raiders/Shield Bearers.

CPA drops.
Next to my home planet.
And immediately beelines to Chuudonzi. Oh no you don't.

CPA is dealt with. Now I just need to find that last ARS. I'm going to guess that it's in the right branch of the map.

I guessed right. The ARS is on Vapamoat. The fun part is seeing what's in it. A stealth raid by space planes is able to clear a path. Shame that they died, though. Inside the ARS I find Infiltrators, or hack for Electric Shuttles/Zenith Cameleons. Infiltrators shoot through shields, which is kind of useful considering the AIs I'm up against.

10:07, and I finally found all the ARS planets. Currently leaning towards Infiltrators, Space Tanks, and Shield Bearers, but Etherjets might be more useful. Next unlock will be Scout III/IV, so I can scout my brutal picks and Fab locations. I might get the Botnet at some point, too. If I take Etherjets, I'll have a lot of cloaked units.

Observations: Space Planes are way better than I thought. Microparasites are useful, but they die fast. I still haven't unlocked SSB IIs.

Speaking of SSBs, has anyone used them to great effect? They just don't feel strong.

[Mad Rubicant]

Vapamoat will be the first ARS that I take, since I'm not hacking it. So of course it has a Grav drill. I'm really beginning to hate those things. Good news is that there aren't any annoying structures on the adjacent planets, so I can just pop it and be done.

Vapamoat command station destroyed at 10:17. I'm close enough to the projected homeworld position to avoid deepstrike. Planet is colonized at 10:22. Data Center on Sickabu is also popped, keeping my AIP at 30.

I unlock Scout IIIs. Time to see those homeworlds. There's also 150 threat outside my homeworld, on the Superterminal planet. I should probably deal with that soon. Aaaaand, a core world has a Grav Drill. A chokepoint Core world, Urnbi.

AI 1 homeworld, Mikock. Brutal pick is a Teuthida. It also got 3 Leech guard posts. Wonderful.
AI 2 homeworld, Uocatus. Brutal pick is a Core Raid Engine, and it got an Arachnid post. At least the Arachnid post isn't with the Teuthida.

I clear a path to Hanu and Uocatis, popping a data center along the way. Down to 26 AIP, the floor. The next goal is actually the ARS on Apeumlau, since this is the smallest those waves will get. I just have to deal with a few forts, and the threatball. Or, as it turns out, just use Space Planes to kill each post. MkII planes can kill a counterattack post in one volley, before the command station kills them.

Gescu has the Superterminal on it, so the Special Forces and Strategic Reserve come out to defend it. I wonder what would happen if I set up a beachhead? Would the SF just throw themselves on it?
Trying it with a cap of Sniper Vs, the planet doesn't go on alert. I probably need a fortress or something.

Now that Apeumlau is guard post free, time to hack it for those shield bearers. After this, I'll hack Zingdaku for Space Tanks, and from there, it's planet hopping to the homeworlds.

Operation Gimme Shields: Hacking the Apeumlau ARS has begun. The AI is still only throwing MkIII zombies at me, for some reason. Never Marks 1, 2, or 4. Just three. Every hack, too.
Hack completes without incident; now the hard part is killing the command station. Well, it's not that hard, I only bumped up to reprisal level 2.
Apeumlau colonized at 11:53, Shield Bearers unlocked, and a Youngling Shrike V fab captured. The A-Prime CSG network is down, leaving E-Secondary, D-Secondary, and C-Secondary. The Botnet's planet has a D-Secondary, and I'll end up hitting one on my way to Mikock.

Space Planes and Bombers are extremely effective at killing superforts. The bombers just don't die from the shots, while space planes have radar dampening lower than their range. Together, they kill the Leacaveasno superfort and fort. Then I gate raid the two planets adjacent to Apeumlau. I don't want to worry about this place.

What to buy, what to buy. I have 4750 K. All I have for distributed defense at the moment are Sniper Vs, so I think I'll get miniforts. I'll probably unlock another MKIV fleetship once I capture the last ARS.

Current goals are the last ARS, and the first Spire Archive. AI homeworld summaries attached.

[Mad Rubicant]

The threatball took me for a little game of tag, running away from my fleet. But it's dead now.

While I want to take the ARS first, I'm at -15 HaP, so I'll take the Spire Archive first. 9000 knowledge is nothing to scoff at, after all.
The planet, Yoifiow, has a translocator eye. And a gravity drill. Wonderful. CPA declares at 12:29, 373 ships. Why do these things seem so small?
The Eye goes down at 12:52. Now I can actually deploy my ships
Planet goes down at 12:55, and I start building a command station.
Command station up and running at 12:56.35. 5 and half minutes until the CPA. CSG group E-Secondary is down.
Yoiviow actually has 5 Ebonite. I have no idea what I might use it on.

CPA drops at 13:02, 1500 knowledge is out of the archive. This should be interesting. Especially when the AI doesn't have enough Mk1 ships, and instead uses Mk2. It spawned below my home planet, far, far away from the archive. It just loiters outside my home planet, too.

OMD finishes at 13:23, with the archive right after it at 13:26. I'm now at 12750 knowledge. Just barely not enough for 2 MK4 fleetships. I unlock Fighter II/III/IVs. My army now has no glaring holes in its damage coverage.


I haven't bought anything from the trader recently, so I get an OMD for my home planet, to deal with those pesky starships.

Now it's time to hack for Space Tanks on Zingdaku. I'm at 5 HaP. The next hack costs 78.5. I don't think I'll be doing much hacking after this. The hack itself is uneventful. I saw a tachyon nuke though.

Zingdaku falls at 13:54. Colonized 13:56, and Space Tanks I-IV unlocked.

Time to carve a path to the other AI homeworld.

Observations: Why do Microparasites have less HP than a Mark 1 fighter? Experimental Engineers are beautiful. Just beautiful. I'm sad they don't have cloaking, though.

[keith.lamothe]

Observations: Why do Microparasites have less HP than a Mark 1 fighter?

Their stats probably have never been updated for years, as experimentals tend to be pretty rare.

Given the that there's a MkV Parasite fab, I may actually try to make a new unit out of Microparasites.  Not sure.

[Mad Rubicant]

Observations: Why do Microparasites have less HP than a Mark 1 fighter?

Their stats probably have never been updated for years, as experimentals tend to be pretty rare.

Given the that there's a MkV Parasite fab, I may actually try to make a new unit out of Microparasites.  Not sure.

Maybe make them something that can reclaim starships? I dunno, the description does say "high value targets". Right now all they do for me is die and pick up the occasional ship.


Anyways, back to the game. First on my path is Darkti, which has a Dire Guardian Lair. The planet next to it (Tioshozar) also has a Dire Guardian Lair. Hooray. Tioshozar Lair gives me an Artillery, a Raider, and a Shield guardian. The Artillery and Shield guardians are slower than my fleet. They die. The Raid guardian is faster. It doesn't. It instead makes it all the way to Onnobo, where the sniper Vs kill it.

Darkti has a Mark V Ion cannon. Darkti is also the location of my next hop. The Darkti lair gives me 2 Gravity guardians and an Implosion guardian. They're all obliterated within seconds.

Only 2 hops to go before I hit the archive world.

I go through yet another gravity drill world. I'm getting real tired of these things.
And then I screw up: there's an OMD, and I don't notice it. There go half my starships.
The next planet, Barkti has an Ion eye. And a guard post under a MKIII force field. Oh, and a fortress. I sense a fleetwipe incoming.
Or, I can use some of these asteroids to make some rams, and kill the rest of the guard posts.
One Ram Mk2 causes a reprisal level 1. I have 3 more to use. Then I screw up with the last 2 and they move out from under the cloak. GG rams, GG.
One shot Raid Engine to... somewhere.

4 more rams later, the eye is down.

I move on to the next planet, Ticmatyrev. It's one before the archive world, but as far as I can go without deepstrike. So, down it goes.

Aohoko, the archive world, has a threatening eye. Oh joy.
I use assault transports for most of the posts, and rams for the ones under shields. The counterattack post is funny, 33 Mk3 ships to my homeworld. Aohoko is mine. I get the spire archive and a an Armor Rotter V fab.

I am now in range of both Homeworlds. The endgame begins now, at 15:49. I also have enough energy to reactivate the botnet, finally.
And by that, I mean in a few minutes.
Observations: 3 experimental engineers can set up a command station in seconds

[Mad Rubicant]

The order I'll be doing this is Botnet, AI 2 Homeworld, AI 1 Homeworld.

I'm going to be wiping a lot, so I need Harvester IIs and IIIs - 9k knowledge.
All CSGs are down with the acquisition of the Botnet planet.
15:57, CPA number 5 declares. 461 Mark 1 ships in 12:40. Still not scary.
Botnet comes online 16:09.34, seconds before the CPA drops. CPA is just hanging outside of the homeworld, as usual.
The botnet annihilates it. I love this thing

16:18, the second spire archive is done. I have 9250 knowledge; that's another fleetship type. I buy munitions boosters because of the multiplicative effect they have on my total strength. 1400 ships, all ready for killing the AI.

Operation Angry Houseguests: Destroy AI 2 has begun. First I'll have to make a guard post free path in the core world from my staging world to the homeworld. There's 2 fortresses.

16:27.41: Raid Engine declares.
16:28.41: Path is made, Raid engine launches. To the homeworld!
16:28.57: Entire strategic reserve has launched, as have 1500 Neinzul Cockroaches. Raid engine has 2:05 left to charge
16:29.34: Raid Engine goes down. The fleet is down to 500, and falling fast.
16:29.40: Core Arachnid post goes down
16:29.46: Core Sentinel post goes down
16:29.56: One of the Neinzul Spawner posts goes down

3000 threat
Reprisal level 4

Time to get out.
Not a single ship escapes

The reprisal wave is the biggest yet, a whole 180 ships

16:55: My fleet is finally rebuilt. Time for round 2. At least, after this Medic frigate stops playing with my minifort remains. Is there any AI logic for when something is just going in a loop, with no end in sight?

17:09: Launch time
17:09.50: Strategic reserve and Neinzul post both deploy
17:09.57: Neinzul post is down
17:10.23: Fort III is down
17:10.48: Lightning post is down
17:11.07: Implosion drone post is down
17:11.32: Second lighting post is down. It's the last core guard post
17:11.51: AI 2 Home Command station is destroyed

Approximately half of my fleet survived this time.

17:35: Core world Urnbi is completely neutered.
17:42.24: Fleet arrives at Mikock
17:42.45: Teuthida post dies. I lost around 300 ships as zombies
17:42.51: Core Sentinel post dies
17:42.59: Implosion Drone post dies
17:43.20: 1st Leech post dies
17:43.37: 2nd Leech post dies
17:43.55: Core Beam post dies
17:44.17: Last Leech post dies
17:44.55: Core Spire Shield post dies. All that remains is the Fort III and Home Command Station
17:45.45: Fort III is down

And victory at 17:45.49!



Oh, some notes. I was really slowed down in the midgame by all the Rude Gestures, Gravity Drills, and Superfortresses. The fastest part of this game was the homeworld assault, taking an hour and 20 minutes. It probably would have been faster if there weren't 2 Neinzul spawner posts. I didn't unlock SSBs past the mark 1, but it didn't help their cause that I was against two super defensive AIs. I mentioned Microparasites being wet tissue earlier.

Spirecraft: I got to play with Ebonite for the first time this game. Rams are good. Really good, even with them spawning reprisal waves. I've used Martyrs in my other games; a lightning warhead that doesn't cause AIP is also really good. Even with Ebonite, I didn't want to use the Scout, Siege Tower, Ion Blaster, Attritioner, or Jumpship. By the time you can get a good scout, you're at the homeworlds already. Ion Blasters have just way too little range. I've used Attritioners in games where I have a 1-planet choke; that damage on death ability is useful. Siege Towers have been done to death, but on Medium, their irrepairibility renders them even worse. I'm not sure how useful Jumpships are. I've been reading RockyBst's 10-planet game, and I can see how the Mark V is super powerful, but the Mark 1 and 2 just seem awful, attritioning on every planet in the galaxy.

Botnet Golem is as strong as ever, even when it costs 800k energy. It let me ignore the exo-waves hitting my homeworld (I haven't updated to 7.020 yet).

Dyson Gatlings have issues when on a planet with a gravity drill. They were also refusing to go beyond one hop from the Dyson Sphere.