[Won]Vanilla in the Dark --- 7/7 As Vanilla as possible

[carldong]

Preface

So this is my first AAR. This is to motivate me to finish an actual
game, after so long I have tested around all kinds of stuff in this
game. I would like the game to be as vanilla as possible(so I won't
enable Spirecrafts, Golems, or Trader), but still with all expansions
on. Also, I will make the RNG to be more "storyful", so Human
Resistance/Marauder will be on. I am going to play archipeligo style.
Here is the game setting:

I hope I can just copy the Galaxy Stats.

    Game Version: 8.023
    40 Planets
    **Not Showing Unexplored Planets**
    Map Seed/Type/Ships: 1474785886 / Realistic / Complex
    No cheats
    No auto AIP
    Marauder 4
    Resistance Fighters 4
    Disabled Swallowers(I hate them)
    Normal Ship Cap / Speed
    All Expansions Enabled
    Starting Planet: Ximirenan

# It all started in the dark

In the darkness of our vast galaxy map, one single dot stands. This is
our last stand, weak and vulnerable.

No longer it will be

Without much thinking, Mines are line-placed, and all Needler, Missile,
Laser, Sniper, and Tractor Turrets are placed. Our homeworld will take
all waves in our early phase of revenge, due to its nice 40% salvage.

00:01 Gravatation Turrets are unlocked and placed
00:02 Oh, force fields too!

What is out there?

16 seconds later, scouts have reported back our two adjacent worlds. AI
1 is Mine Enthusiast, AI 2 is Fortress Baron.

Huh, Troop Accelerator? Great to have it near my homeworld. Looks like
AI 2 has Etherjets too, but I am using starships so no problem.

Plan for the next hour: set up the defence, scout the entire galaxy.

6:41 Finally, the defence is up, and economy starts recovering. Now,
what about starting to build my scout team? BTW, using Youngsling
Weasels to face-clear mines sounds like a good idea.

7:00 First wave announced. 79 Bombers, 1 starship.
10:00 BOOM! Wave gone

10:30 148 Cloaked ships. Let's guess, Etherjets? Better get the tachyon
drone since I don't want to spend the K.

Why are Leech Starships immune to so many long range things? Must I wait
for it to finish shooting my 5 Grav turrets used for decoy and run into
my wall of death?

---

Hey there is a Dire Guardian Lair 4 hops away. Not good.

16:13 Oh, a Raid Engine too! Good Luck! See if I can turn this into a
Salvage Engine since it is MkI world. Make a snapshot of time, first.

16:24 One single Weasel was sent to the adjacent world. Raid Engine
triggered. See what will happen

16:25 Hold on, sent to . Backtrack time!

17:41 A Neuclear Eye too.

20:03 A Superfortress + Munition Boosting Command Station. Sounds like a
potential use of Armored Warhead

21:59 A Planetary Cloaker 2 hops away! The RNG really likes me. Hey, the
galaxy is already cloaked for me!

23:01 Huh, Attractor Drones. Attracts lasers?

24:28 Threatening Eye. Great.

So far I see Gravity Guardian + Shield guardian. Will be some trouble
(Please RNG, don't give me EMP Guardians!!!!)

26:40 Oh, first time to see a Warhead Interceptor. Hello!

27:55 Found a Core World! It has only two exits, which means...

An Orbital Mass Driver beat my Scout Starship down before it went
through the wormhole

30:24 Another Core World. However, the same happened again.

33:22 Another Superfortress. Not an important planet, though

36:17 Core World of another AI found. Now, it is time to expand. Let me

[carldong]

Hey, it would be nice if I can throw Markdown in this Forum

[carldong]

The Expansion

Now, my target is neutering Asihagto. Mine Enthusiast it is, so I start clearing mines. Well, the AI has Autobombs, may give me some trouble.

As a good early game tactics, I start the Youngsling Triple Cannon (a.k.a 3 Space Docks spamming my Weasels)

Well, special force is annoying. Time to get some heavy hitter --- Bomber Starships!

Look, I am low on energy... So one Matter Converter. My Metal is down to 740/s

Another Matter Converter, and I start building my full starship fleet. Now, unlock Zenith and Spire SS!

And another. NOOOOO!!!! I want the Zenith Power Generator!!!! Is there one seeded???

52:58 No, none are found. That will be a serious problem.

Hey, what about a "Raid... Metal Engine"? Let me think about flash building a Logistical Command Station and... That means Engr IIs

1:02:00 118 Missile Frigates. Let's wait until my starship fleet is up.
1:05:00 Bombers. Pphhhhhh

Oh, I should build Riots too, forgot that. 3 Standoff, 1 Arrest building.

Now, I group the fleet as following:

1 (Raiding) -> Raids
3 (Brawler) -> All 64 speed stuff (Flag, Z, S, Leech)
4 (Engine Killer) -> Riots
5 (Punch and flee) -> Bomber Starship
7 (Long Range Support) -> All 48 speed stuff (Plasma, Enclave)
0 (Invincible Fleet) -> 3 + 4 + 5 + 7

1:14:XX Fleet built. Wait for the economy so that I can flash up the station and its defence in one minute.

Oh right, cloakers too. I need them to hide my engineering team, which contains full MkII engineers.

Wait until metal cap up.....

Code Name: The Salvage Engine

Let's check the map while waiting. Well, that world is adjacent to... 4 enemy worlds, one of which is a MkIV world. All I want from this world is the Raid Engine next to it. Well, a Class D Core Shield, too, as a bonus. It has one Troop Accelerator, so that is 30 AIP in total. Then, I want my homeworld to take waves(for salvage), so 4 Warp gates. +20 AIP. Which means... 10+30+20=60AIP in total. How hard can it get, anyway? I have already found a few Data Centers, so the Raid Engine can be my stable source of income(well, risky thought). A wave of metal every 4 minutes sounds great!

Perfect! Cloaker Starships + Transports don't trigger Raid Engine! Now, in position and some more waiting. I have only 340M/s so...

400k metal. Let's try it! Snapshot time!

1:30:42 Control Group 0 warps in, Raid Engine triggered. Engineering team starts pouring out from transport.
1:30:56 Force Field up. Fleet running towards command station. 47 seconds to first wave
1:31:02 5 Sniper and 5 Missile turrets
1:31:16 5 MLRS in response of the Fighters and Autobombs
1:31:18 3 Gravity Turret up to slow things down
1:31:20 Command Station Down, 23 seconds to Raid Engine. Now, Logistics CS!!! Fleet go support!!
1:31:31 Collector up, MOAR TURRETS!
1:31:32 Wow, my fleet is BLAZING fast! Thanks Logistics CS
1:31:33 Oops, no metal. Salvage engine firing!
1:32:14 40 Marauders attacking? Pphhhhh
1:33:33 Fleet, engage the Marauders
1:34:30 Marauders defeated
1:35:00 Metal wave arrives!
1:36:XX Not enough salvage! I will blow the warp gates
1:38:43 Oh, damn. Gravity guardian + Fortress... Raids died. Reprisal 2. More salvage? Plan B, now.
1:41:00 Come on, Salvage Engine, you are sending too few ships! But my defence is still not finished
1:45:27 Instead of Raids, let's use Bomber Starships, cloaked.
1:45:50 BOOM! Now RUN!!!
1:51:00 I am only getting 70M/s from the Salvage Engine. BUT, somehow my HW got attacked? Well, my defence is strong.
1:53:00 Still, 30% of my econ now depends on that Raid Engine. 412 Threat somewhere, possibly MkIV. Not good.
1:56:06 Why do I get more and more threat? Does the Raid Engine do that?
1:59:05 No, not the Raid Engine, but escaped ships. Finally defence is up! I will fix the fleet and go clear the threat.
2:02:04 If it is not, what else can it be? More and more threat! Why??
2:03:19 What is that little red dot... The Troop Accelerator. Is it you?? Kill it and get more AIP and so Salvage, and probably less threat
2:03:20 Wise to start stockpiling Lightening Warheads. Isn't it?

Now, clear the threats

2:04:50 Starfleet warps into MkIV planet with ~260 threat
2:05:00 Terrible idea to include Bomber Starships in Brawler team. Dead in two seconds, with one Riot(Arrester with its tractor brings in all fire power), Reprisal 2. Also, the Fleet wakes the entire MkIV Planet. Not good but still doable.
2:05:01 Well, threat down to 250, but half of them are the new ones freed from the MkIV Planet. So, MkIV
2:06:00 Special Force comes into play too.
2:11:00 Lots of fancy clicking and kiting. No ships lost yet, threat down to 166, most of which are MkIV. One brave Enclave is at only 1% health.
2:13:21 Entire MkIV Planet is clear of fleet ship. No more losses. Probably not so much when I move back to my world, due to those two Missile GP covering wormhole. I lost the Bomber SS because of them. Redundant Subcommander...
2:13:22 Run for your life!!!!
2:14:05 Thanks for the drones clogging the target list, nothing was lost. My brave little Enclave is down to 1316. Time for a rest, both for the fleet, and me.

Quick Summary:

I found the great uses of starships from the last test game. They have lower cap DPS, but are MUCH MOAR sturdy. They don't suffer much engine damage. They can do engine damage. They don't lose firepower when health decreases. You see that? 13 MkI starships killed everything on a MkIV planet with a few guardians. Next, I will get some Mobile Space Docks for deep space repairs. In the test game I neutered almost the entire galaxy using mixed MkI/II starship fleet.

[carldong]

I really want to add Markdown support so I don't need to manually format this thing. What is the forum markup languange called? Maybe I can find that for my Emacs configuration.

More Expansion

Let's fix up some stuff.

2:15:03 Another Salvage Wave comes!

I checked the metal income. The 10% Logistics is giving me 235M/s, which is more than a third of my current economy of 685M/s. If I want more income later, I will upgrade the station. For now, let's neuter the planets! I don't need their guard posts, just the Raid Engine.

2:15:14 Oh, I need Tachyon turrets. Unlocked it.
2:16:51 Triple Youngsling Cannon set up on Demhakil. I will neuter that MkIV world nearby.
2:17:04 Wow, Triple boosted Younsling flies as fast as Spire Blade! Well, I hope I unlocked tanks instead of them... But now, remember the two Missile GP covering wormhole?

Weasels attracts missiles.

Here comes the Partial Fleet!

2:17:33 One GP down. Um, my enclaves are damaged somehow. I hope they won't just charge up when I issued an attack. Also, NOT ALL missiles are attracted... Why?
2:18:09 Ships pounding on the MkIII force field. will take a while.
2:18:10 IT HURTS!! Weasels are not attracting missile fire! My enclaves are hit!
2:18:34 Turned off Multi Planet FRD Patrol. I need the reinforcement

Looks like Weasels need to be close to my ships. Well. Smooth. After this planet down, there will not be any trouble soon

2:23:26 Unlocked Mobile Space Docks. I will need them in assault. And I don't plan on spending any more K in any short time.
2:25:12 Hold on, I don't have the energy to run them. Anyway.
2:27:10 WHAT? Marauders are immune to Gravity?

Before continuing, let's scout for some more. See if I can find a good planet to capture, and get the energy out of it.

2:33:48 While Tachyon clearing the RE planet... AI Deployed Strategic Reserve to defend. Look at all those MkV ships!
2:34:16 You know what? I have fought the RED AI: The Core in a test game, all the way up to HW assault. I am not scared of MkV ships! Even with a MkI Starfleet! SR killed.

2:40:04 I made an important decision.

The waves are too infrequent, so the 40% salvage of my HW doesn't really matter. What matters is the 125k energy I can get from the next world, since, if you look at my top left corner (Given that I can figure out how to upload an image)... It says 5192 energy. Not quite enough, you know. Now, go pop Asihagto

2:42:08 Another Logistical Station is up. This will also be a wave-taking planet, and Logistical actually flavors Long Range Attrition, while Military flavors Short Range Brawling. I am not losing too much effective firepower, but I can easily deploy army quicker, and in fact can get a much higher boost to my economy than Economic Station. Not stable, but ok.

Um, I am up to.. 30574 energy. Still low.

And metal is... -21361M/s at bottom. Let's see how that Raid Engine does after 20AIP?

110 ships. Let's see.

No, 200M/s still does nothing.

Let's wait........

3:06:29 That planetary cloaker is down from Raids. An Eye is on that planet, and a Co-Proc. Nothing interesting yet.

Wait.... What I have found?

Look at that planet called Orka. (Sorry, my screenshots are broken... Somehow)

Core Protector Starship Fab??

I will hack that.

Oh, I found a Core-Core world with a Spire Archive + Z Mirror fab. That Archive may be useful, but the Mirror... In my previous game it just gives 0.1X reflection damage, not useful.

3:19:55 Marauders attacking again. Damn it
3:20:42 They almost made it. I will never turn them on again anytime soon. My turrets are just not in place to deal with these, attacking my command station from OUTSIDE the gravity well.

3:28:00 CPA hits. Carrier wandered at wormhole and decided not to come in. Time for me to take it down.
3:30:31 While happily clearing CPA... THE AI IS POWERING NEUCLEAR EYE!!! NOOO!!!! Forgot about that, and still have the Enclaves running. SCRAP ALL DRONES NOW!!!

AAAnd there is no Zenith Power Generator in this map. Sad. Got to rely on the Raid/Metal Engine

3:35:00 Threatening Eye at doorstep gone. Nice.

And I am removing that Tractor from my Riot. It only hurts my fleet.


Operation: Deep Hack

Now, let's try a deep hacking. Protector starship is 4 hops away, and my plan is make 5 transports, put the hacker in one of them, and throw them there. Hopefully... We'll see.

NOOO!! Hacker dropped out. Quickly move out of Tachyon range.

Operation failed.

Let's try it again. This time, with Youngsling Cannon support. Due to energy constraint, I scrapped a MSD to give me energy for a Hex cannon.

Well... What about hack for Shield Bearers first? Nice idea. I have the HaP for both.

3:42:20 Cannons Firing! Wait for a while to send in the transports.
3:42:25 I am now running on energy level 724, metal -11M/s
3:43:00 Transports made it. Let's scrap them
3:43:00.01 NOOO!! Regular transports cannot be scrapped on enemy territory!! They can't come back anyways, so I will use them as decoy.
3:44:13 Ships coming. Maybe I should bring in my fleet too, oh well, let's see how this goes.

Oh, by the way, I have 75 HaP. Getting both fab means HaP -> 0. No problem, I will only do probably one more hack in this game, for Heavy Bomber Starship. If I happen to get more, I will get the Spire Blade Spawner. Then, I will try to capture some Core Turrets and just build them everywhere.

3:48:16 Hey people there are 550 MkIII ships floating around. Dangerous. Time to make a warhead
3:48:17 Oh hey I already said that once, so I HAVE warheads!
3:48:27 Hack done. Now, get rid of the transports and space docks for some energy. Time to clear threat, too.

Well, Starfleet with Artillery support easily cleared the MkIII threats. Now, Shield Bearer Vs are part of the Starfleet! At Cap energy cost of 14400, I will be down to 6986.

AND Resistance Fighters came. When battle is over.

3:56:08 Why is my energy down to 5386? Did I reclaim anything?

Now, after Shield Bearers are made, I added them to the following groups:

8 to G3, 8 to G5, 8 to G7. All to G0

The downside of these things is... Sensitive to Engine Damage. Let's see how it goes. By which I mean go neuter some planets, especially those in my way to the Protector Starship

4:00:58 Now I confirm that SBs are not good for starship mixing. Why? The Engine Damage, you see. One by one they fall behind. But it will be neat when I use them on hackers.

Now, low energy. Trouble. Get one more Matter Converter.

You know... With lots of waves coming, I can safely get the metal for full caps of transports.

4:08:02 OHHHHH!!!! Mine Enthusiast!! And I accidentally selected my engineering team to here too, unacceptable. Save scam.
4:08:14 Well, this time I know where your mines are! But Hacker is still at 25 (0%) health, a breeze will shatter it. Luckily it is in space.
4:09:20 Hack begins. Shields cover the hacker, and turn off Auto Kite. All shields detach from groups
4:09:58 Wait, wrong hacker. I put down a Research Redirector... Changing that.
4:10:44 Oh, my Riots hurt from those Mines! And where is my Scout Starship! I think I brought one!
4:14:58 Hack successful! I have the PROTECTOR STARSHIP now! Let's retreat.
4:15:39 Riots killed by Minefield. Anyway, I am coming back with a truely invincible fleet!

WAIT, why don't I get the Protector Starship in Ship Design? I will try to build one and see what happens.

OK, I can design and save when I select a ship, but the tab is not added. I think this is a bug, but doesn't affect too much.

I loaded one of each module on each PS, with one extra Energy Shot interceptor. You know, my enemy is Fortress Baron. You get the point.

Counter laser and Counter shell are mainly for protecting the Shield Bearers from Riots, and as a bonus...

My fleet is now Counter-Everything-except-Mines + 24 MkV Shields on top of my regular fleet. I can already kill 100+ MkIV ships with the bare fleet alone, what about with this hell of defence?

This leaves me 0 HaP.

Let me have some rest, and so should the fleet.

[carldong]

Some self thoughts. I have Starships as Invincible Fleet. I have Youngslings for Streaming Attack and Artillery. What about adding regular MkI triangle fleet as... Turn Based Strategy? Send these, blow up as much things as I can, get the reprisal/salvage wave, and cut through hard clouds of threat with Invincible Fleet? I will try that.

[carldong]

The Deep Strike

Protector Starship is crazy. Core Protector Starship? More so. I am going to take down that Nuclear Eye to stop it from sending waves, and then fight the way to neuter everything.

4:44:37 Hey, AutoBombs ignore Protection!
4:44:38 And PS V has >4 times the DPS of my Raids

Fortress under shield with Bomber Melting Missile GP? No Problem!

4:50:00 Eye gone! Fortress MkIII can't hurt us.

After the Eye clearing, I tested my new fleet on some Threat... WOW! I am not even scratched! I think I will focus on defence tech now since my offence is multiplied sooo much by BS+PS. Now, I have some energy, it's time to add Mobile Space Docks into my fleet. You know, repair station and local artillery support.

5:32:44 After some time, I took Murdoch, as a future staging ground to HW assault. It is 3 hops away from one of the HW.

Science time. After some serious consideration, since I am REALLY low on metal, that Raid Engine will be kept alive throughout the rest of the game --- until I start the first HW assault. It also has a Group E CSG, so I will not touch any other Group E planets. I am going with distributed defence, get as much salvage as possible, mobile my fleet as fast as possible, and slow future AI Exos as much as possible. That means:

Logistics II

Now, each RE wave gives me 290M/s, and my total economy is only 939M/s

6:28:27 CPA of 279 ships declared. I am happily running my fleet around. Not invincible in front of MkII Fortress, though.

CPA easily dealt with. Lost a few SB to a Plasma Siege Starships, though...

OK, Plan. I have taken down CS-C and CS-D, and I will leave CS-E for later. So, next: Barkgin, the CS-A planet.

6:58:51 Logistic II up on Barkgin. New ship type: Mini Ram. Nice assasination unit! I also captured the MkIII Ion Cannon. Not sure how long it will last, though.
7:01:31 All defence up. Now go neuter adjacent planets. Soon I will unlock MkII turrets to help deal with the Marauders.
7:06:47 OK, I have suffered enough Mine damage.

Unlock Decloaker

Homeworld Scout

Now, it's time to take a look at the AI homeworlds. First, the AI 2 homeworld that is 3 hops away. 19 Transports are made, 4 Scout Starships stuffed in one of them. Oh, Transports are expensive, but anyway, the Salvage Engine is working nicely, I am almost capped with metal.

7:22:43 All Transport dead. 4 Scout Starship made it through the wormhole --- by when time froze. Let's see.

- Core Booster
- Core Grav
- ANOTHER Core Booster
- Core Electric
- Core Arachnid
- Dire Guardian Lair (??!)
- Core Raid Engine
- Coer Neinzui Spawner

Surprisingly, I am not afraid of MkV ships anymore after the game with The Core type.

Now, the same will be done to see the other AI HW.

Oops, transport stirred up 150 MkV ships as threat. I need to be careful.

7:28:09 You know, 150 MkV ships are jusst 1/4 stronger than 150 MkIV ships. And I don't even need the force multipliers to clear 150 MkIV ships. My fleet is not even scratched.
7:30:23 One brave Scout Starship made it to the AI 1's HW.

- Core Zenith Fortress
- Core Riot Control
- Core Electric
- Core Grav
- Core Leech
- Core Heavy Beam
- Core Spire Shield
- Core Threatening Eye

I don't have lots of HW assault experience, so I will have to decide how to do this. Invincible Fleet here is definitely Vulnerable Fleet there. I will need energy for Armored Warheads, too.

The Upgrade

Now, finally for those defence unlocks. I unlocked:

- Needler II
- Laser II
- Missile II
- Lightning II
- Heavy Beam Cannon
- Sniper II

And I am slowly exchanging the MkI's into MkII's

7:54:19 Finally, everything except my HW is upgraded. It is not taking waves, anyway.

I just noticed that higher mark HBC has way more health than a Fortress. It feels so strange... Hmmm, with 10250K left, should I try to play with that HBC IV? Or, maybe I should spare K for offence?

I will leave the option open. For now, fire up a Quad Youngsling Cannon and neuter some worlds.

Hey! Superfortress + Plasma GP + Plasma Eye under Force Field covering wormhole is unfair!

8:08:50 Bye bye, my Ion III
8:15:25 Fugioai with CSG-A down. Logistic II built, and I got --- Munition Boosters! WOW! RNG is really good!

Two more CSG-A to go, and CSG-B and CSG-E left.


Hunt the Dire Beast

Now, that Dire Guardian Lair will block my access to Experimental Engineers. Since AIP is low enough, I will take it now. A Lightning Warhead will help.

BTW, my salvage engine planet is regularly taking two waves of ~100 ships, giving me about 300M/s constantly.

8:23:55 Hold on a second. My total AIP is 139, and currently 79. The line to pass the MkII is 230. Why does the AI unlock Tachyon Microfighter? This is a problem. It will make my warheads much more vulnerable. Direct escord requested.
8:27:32 Wait... That familiar "8" shape... NOOOOOO!!!!! EEEEMMMPPPPP GUARDIAN!!!!!!

8:36:24 Interplanetary Munitions Booster down. +5AIP. Dire Guardian Lair alerted. Just lemme take that Fortress now.
8:38:01 Fortress blown into pieces. Wow, Protector Starship!
8:40:23 Fleet warp in DGL planet. DAMN WORMHOLE MINES!! Have a rest for a minute to fix stuff
8:43:23 Neutered, threat cleared. Warheads entered orbit.
8:45:33 DGL exploded. Time freezes.

- Dire Infiltration
- Dire Laser
- Dire Spider

I made a terrible mistake.

I should have brought Armored Warhead instead. Anyway, blow them up!

WHAT?? My entire Invincible Fleet lost to 3 Dire Guardians? Dispite that I used TWO warheads? No, that is unacceptable. Anyway, let's not rewind time for this turn, and see what Reprisal 4 looks like.

8:46:55 No! It is Reprisal 5
8:49:00 Hey, something got on my homeworld. Why?
8:49:11 It is threat.
8:49:58 4533 Attractor Drones. Interesting.
8:52:31 BOOM wave gone.
8:53:49 Everywhere is attacked. Where are those Dire Guardians?

You know, I am going to bring an Armored Warhead with my fleet. I will dig out those missing Dire Guardians. I am taking lots of waves so it is fine to bring up another Matter Converter.

I will scout the entire galaxy for those things.

9:09:51 I made another important decision

Apparently my economy is way too fragile so any wrong action will cause way too much pain. Apparently this only costs me wall time to fix it: the DGs are not attacking. If it is not, it is just wasting my wall time. Let's rewind

8:41:41 An Armored Warhead is up. I am going to sneak it in.
8:45:02 Neutered again. This time, an Armored Warhead is in place.
8:45:27 Lair exploded. Instead of Spider, it is Sniper guardian.
8:45:27.00001 BOOM! No more Dire Guardians.

8:50:05 I don't have enough Scouts. Scout Starship to the last one. Oh, an EMP Guardian. Under Superfortress. I still have a lot of Data Centers in the universe. That means... Armored Warhead time. OR... I just ignore this planet for now.

And I am finally adding Munition Boosters into my fleet. Wait, MBs are not immune to instakill. Oh, well at least I have Flagships.

9:02:33 No way, I am not allowing anything to gather at my doorstep while I cannot just clear it. Building Armored Warhead.
9:05:42 BOOM! No more Superfortress and EMP Guardian

Core Shield B

Now, I will take down the CSG-B. Also, I unlocked Econ Station II because... Well, the Raid Engine wave is just too small to make use of the Logistical II. Economic Station is more economic, for now. I hope the Logistics II is not wasted.

Target: Zis. After that, the Raid Engine is surrounded. However, I am building defence so that I can still salvage metal. Also, I learn that for this purpose, I should NOT have blown all thous Data Centers

9:34:19 Econ II down. Two MkII FFs are put down. The Advanced Starship Constructor is at a position very vulnerable to Marauder, but anyway.

Well, yeah, Econ station is SLOW... When I am accustomed to Logistic's speed. When I can gather 300M/s from the Econ station using Raid Engine salvage, it will be about right time to swap for Logistics.

Core Shield A

10:00:00 Third CPA hits. Let's see where it goes.

Well, easy enough. Me, my fleet, and my defence needs a rest for now.

[Toranth]

Protector Starship is crazy. Core Protector Starship? More so.

Yup, I think Protector Starships may be the most OP unit in the game right now, and that's after they've been majorly nerfed once.  Originally, each counter-shot countered one incoming shot, no matter how powerful.  Now each counter-shot can only counter a limited amount of incoming damage.
While it was neat to match Protectors shut down Mk V Hunter Killers and Superfortresses, it was a little too much.  Now, they're merely very powerful, but high end units can shred them - as you discovered 

- Dire Infiltration
...
Where are those Dire Guardians?

This may be close to the top of the list of phrases you don't want to see together.

[carldong]

Protector Starship is crazy. Core Protector Starship? More so.

Yup, I think Protector Starships may be the most OP unit in the game right now, and that's after they've been majorly nerfed once.  Originally, each counter-shot countered one incoming shot, no matter how powerful.  Now each counter-shot can only counter a limited amount of incoming damage.

Well, they are not that powerful. Two of them with my standard one counter-energy loadout cannot break MkII Fortress(with 5, maybe). However, they do make my fleet a LOT stronger, especially with engine-damage protection for my shield bearers. But still, I have to be careful when facing melee units and in this game, Mines.

Just thinking if they have Ion protection for my Munitions Boosters too...

While it was neat to match Protectors shut down Mk V Hunter Killers and Superfortresses, it was a little too much.  Now, they're merely very powerful, but high end units can shred them - as you discovered 

- Dire Infiltration
...
Where are those Dire Guardians?

This may be close to the top of the list of phrases you don't want to see together.

No... They never attacked. I think they actually came for my Homeworld, bringing all threat on the map with them. But by the time I lost my fleet they have... about 5000 health left, each, so I suspect that they are killed by my defences. Otherwises I would have been lost.

The threat has been silent for the entire game, the DGs are the only thing that may actually motivate them to attack: despite that the DGs allllmmmost exploded.

HOWEVER,  >D if the EVIL idea of Dire EMP Guardian comes true... Just think about it(maybe, say, EMP all adjacent planets?)

[carldong]

Out of curiosity, I made a save, detonated a MkII nuke randomly somewhere and drove AIP +500 to about 600, and see what the waves will look like.

Alright, it is Diff 7. If I remember correctly, waves were about 700 each. Wow, just that? My fixed defence should easily take it! That means....

- Heavy Economic unlocks (Archipelago empire)
- Heavy Offensive unlocks (Defences are already enough)
- Warheads flyling! Saves soooo much time! (How much Lightning's can I use when I can handle waves after a MkII Nuke?)
- Hack the heck out of the AI(MOAR K, MOAR ships. Looking at you, Heavy Bomber Starship V and Spire Blade Spawner)

[carldong]

Science Plan

Hmm. EMP guardians, you say?

Let's analysis. I am on 366,676 energy, enough to power 3 Fortresses, but not enough to make the full use of a cap of MkI Fortresses.

On the other hand, one single Modular Fortress is nice, but then I need to decide where to put it: with its 4 extra super-powered Heavy Beam Cannon modules.

On offence, I really don't want to wake up a whole planet every time I pass through a planet now. That means...

- Assault Transports. Soon.

Cloaked transports actually work quite well, too. I will further delay my plan on it, until I need my first real deep strike.


Hacking plan

At 92 HaP and having done a few hacks before, this might well be my last hack.

There are three potential targets:

- Isaor, with Spire Blade Spawner and Sniper Turret
- Juhung, with Heavy Bomber Starship
- Duyaq, with Neinzui Scapegoat and Missile Turret

- A fourth one is Yaqrane, with Armor Booster + Experimental Engineers

Isaor is adjacent to one of my planets, so I may just take it. There are a few Data Centers out there so it might be acceptable. However, that will happen only after I make the way to AI 1 HW staging ground, which happens to be Yaqrane.

Duyaq and Juhang are in perfectly undefendable places. So...

If I take Isaor and Yaqrane, I will be on HaP 137. However, unfortunately I can't avoid a double hack. If I hack for Bomber Starship first and Scapegoat+Missile second, I will not be able to hack anymore in this game. On the other hand...

Who needs to hack on an AI Homeworld? Can I even do a sensor hack there?


Strike on Yaqrane

10:23:27 Transport exploded as soon as warping in. Maybe I should post a message:

Transport deployed 56 unit on Yaqrane

10:23:56 Oh right, I have Core Protector Starships! Not fleeing, charge!
10:26:10 That MLRS GP overwelms our counter-missile machine gun. However, what it doesn't know is that we also have Shield Bearers!

Oh, we have 500 Threat from last CPA left. No EMP guardians so I will just ignore it.

10:28:50 Yeah, I need a Cloaker. Scrapping a distant one
10:34:06 Command Station killed. Colony ship on "that side" goes in. At this moment, I am going with a Military station because I am protecting something. I will switch to CS-LogII later.

10:35:58 Experimental Engineer and Armor Booster are mine.

Hmmm, Exp.Engr are VERY expensive. I will put them in my engineer team, and free up those MkII's.

So, some extra MkI Missile turrets are also put down to defend against Marauders. This leaves me 395,226 energy. Really not much gain.

10:37:12 You have to know that CS-Log II gives more bonus than CS-Mil I. At the cost of one extra Tachyon turret.
10:38:20 Hey, Exp.Engr's are not cloaked!
10:38:43 Engr II's, you are free from the Mobile Engineer Team! Now my Homeworld gets half of them, and each outpost gets a quarter.

AI starts sending Tachyon Microfighters. It makes things dangerous.

10:42:15 Wicauini station goes Boom too. AIP: 132.
10:44:23 Another CS-Log II goes on Wicauini. It is Logistical because it is supposed to be my highway.

10:45:52 40 Marauders attacking Zis. My Adv Starship Constructor planet. My fleet is on the other side of galaxy.
10:46:03 A new Transport is made and Fleet goes in.
10:46:16 Hey, they are going to crash right into my defence!
10:46:40 Hell, they ignore gravatation effects. Despite that they don't have the immunity. Ten Heavy Beam Cannons are ordered.
10:46:54 Oh, I underestimated what Lightning Turrets, with its Polycrystal 3, can do!

Marauders repelled.


Core Shield A Investigation

Now, let me decide which CSA world to get. One of them is near a Core world, and comes with a Spire Archive.

Up on inspecting that, I found that I made a terrible mistake.

Murdoch, the first outpost to AI 2 HW, is also 4 hops away from AI 1 HW.

That means, Wicauini and Yaqrane doesn't need to be taken.

Oh well, this is Diff 7. At least I get some extra K, power, Exp. Engineers, Armor Boosters, and Electric Shuttles.

Anyway, let's make a MkII Science and inspect those ARSes.

- Mirmaty: Shrike, Tiger, Blade Spawner

Not much interest. I will go for Akiplu without even thinking because it has that juicy Spire Archive.


Hacking

This is my (possibly) final two hacks.

10:50:22 Threat blew up my Transport. Yeah, I need Assault Transports now.
10:51:20 Tech unlocked:

- Assault Transport

So, we are not using Wicauini/Yaqurane as staging ground. Let's swap Wicauini station to an Econ II. You know, MOAR energy! Running at 501,986 now. Ane my Engr team finally gets a brand new Assault Transport.

10:52:32 Threat just keeps escaping Zis. Not letting it happen any more! 3 HBC's camping each wormhole from now on.
10:53:33 Yeah I did that again. Trying to scrap an engineer scrapped my Command Station. Reloading.


10:58:26 AT warps in Juhung. Blew up Tachyon post.
10:58:40 AT drops fleet at gravity edge.

Um, I will clear threat once they have Strength > 1500.

11:05:06 Time for the hack. Saved.

Oh, BTW, that Mercenary Enclave is really good!

11:12:16 Hack done and response cleared.


More Hacking

First, we need to deal with the Threatening Eye on Duyaq.

Fleet parked at Amavi-Duyaq wormhole.

11:19:54 Bomber Starships killed the Needler. Oh, I can start building MkVs, too!
11:24:00 4 Bomber Starships coming to wreck the Spire Shields.
11:25:23 Eye is gone!

Before I do anything, let's clear that threat first.

11:28:27 Oh hey threat? You are feared by my force and you go attack? Terrible, terrible idea!

11:30:13 Its time. This is my last hack.
11:34:01 Tachyon blanket. As if it would really hurt my hacker.
11:35:15 Hacking successful. HaP -184. Aaand I am going to do something about the Threat gathering.

Unlocked:

- Spider Turret

At HaP -184, no way I am going to get positive ever again. However, just so you know, I am using a heavy starship fleet. That means... I need more that can be suicided/stream attacked. Plus I would like to keep my Munitions Boosters alive for longer.

Scapegoat I's are expensive. Not worth it. But what about V's?

520 Metal. 240 Cap. Not really powerful combatant. However, 240 SG virtually gives me 240 more lifes to my small fleet ships: even if I am just talking about MkI Bombers.

Bombers are 1600 metal. Scapegoats die for them.

Munition Boosters are 900 metal. Scapegoats die for them.

Aaand Marauders are attacking Zis again. Dock cannon time.


It is time to replenish my fleet with the newly arrived Scapegoats, Munition Boosters, Electric Shuttles, Bombers, and Missile Frigates. I can afford losing them much better now.

My fleet has 547 ships. 3 Assault Transports are useful. Next target is Akiplu, so fleet go park at Murdoch.

Microfighters are really making trouble.

Don't Do this: You are warned!

Hmm. What happens if I continue to hack?

Made a save.

11:52:09 Hacker in place on Afrni. Let's try a sensor hack. At HaP -184. BTW, if sensor hacks don't cost 10HaP, but 1HaP, I will use the heck out of it.
11:52:10 Tachyon blast. Twice.

Large Exogalactic Strikeforce reacting to Hacking. Twice.

Waves are declared on almost all worlds. Including Home.

Holy *&%*! Threat strength 155180?! What the heck is that?

11:52:30 Computer starts seriously lagging. 854 Raid Starships are sent towards... Wherever it is. Numerous Exo waves are sent everywhere. Computer freezes. Switch to "Extreme Low" profile.

Homeworld gets attacked by... Whatever it is. There are 18779 Threat.

11:53:17 You Have Lost

Of course, I am not supposed to repel a wave like this. That is needless to say. However, I hope that instead of crashing my computer to death, it should send more powerful stuff like, Hunter/Killers. I have never seen one, though.


Last Core Shield A - Preparation

OK, you did not see the previous section.

11:51:58 Shhh, an EMP Guardian on Toothpih! Just near that MkIII Fortress!

Hold on. That Fortress is covering the wormhole. I must take it down. You know what it means.

Oh, I have Core Missile Turrets. Forgot that. Placing them.

This warhead is going to blow up lots of things.

BOOM! No more Fortress, Force fields, Guard posts, and Mines!

OK.... Bomber Starships will be the star after looking at scout reports.

11:58:13 Um, Special Force is coming. Bomber Starship should outrun them.

Hey, I think the better way to do this is Assault Transport! All fleet inside!

12:00:49 Indeed. Since ATs preserve strength, I essentially have 3 cloaked carriers.
12:01:40 CARRIERS! Right, it completely preserves my firepower, blowing up that MkII Force Field in....

I didn't finish writing it, and one of them is critical. Run for now!

12:04:14 Eye gone. Transport to the edge of planet.
12:04:15 WHAT? ITS NOT GONE?
12:04:26 Fortunately, I shuffled everyting inside before the Raid Eye fires.
12:08:19 Eye Really Gone. Unload!

Everything exploding violently.

12:09:48 Special Force is completely destroyed.

Hold on. Aren't Scapegoats supposed to die instead of my Bombers/Missile Frigates?

Does that not include Insta-kills from Ion Cannons? I lost almost all bombers and frigates!

Anyway, I need to clear Afrni out of threat, now.

Threat cleared, with all reinforcements. Lost many, many fleet ships, though.

Speaking of my fleet, it is pretty nice. It has Raids and Heavy Bombers for, raiding. It has Zenith for brawling, Spire for heavy hitting. Protector + Shield bearer for protection. Mobile Space Dock for reparing and Artilery support. Riots for slowing. Enclaves for long range drone spamming. Also has Decloakers, Munition Boosters, and Armor Boosters. Now it adds Electric Shuttle for AoE, Scapegoats to regenerate fleet ships. Next, I am adding in Mercenary Beam Frigates, too. Once I capture the other systems, I will get Zenith Mirrors,  Translocator Starships, and Blade Spawner. I mean, what can possibly go wrong? Most of my fleet are actually Mk V!

Before I go attack Akiplu again, let's explore that one last wormhole. The last Core World missing is now there. I am going to alert it permanently, once I take it.

Let's do some calculations.

9000 K from Spire Archive, at +5/s, means 1800 seconds to finish. 30 Minutes, that is how long I need to defend it. To do this, I am actually going to split my fleet and take both easily accessible SA.

That means, I am going to get the Blade Spawners, first.


Blade Spawner

To get Isaor, my plan is beachheading. I am not fighting its Munition Boosting command station the hard way.

I build in this order:

MkII FF - Sniper II - Missile V - Needler II - Laser II - Grav I - Spider(These should be first)

And the Special Force is having an interesting experience.

Oh, and what is a beachhead if it doesn't have 5 Heavy Beam Cannons?

12:25:22 Command Station killed by Sniper. Another CS will be put down. Let's choose one...

It's not really my planet for attacking. Econ II it is.

Now, it is time to rearrange all turrets in the galaxy. Things are going to be serious, soon.

12:31:49 Yaqrane switched to Econ II station.

Marauders attack Zis again. Now meet my MkV defence!

12:38:01 I run out of eyes.

Unlock: Scout Starship II

They will also provide nice Counter-Sniper coverage for my ever growing fleet.


I neutered Afrni.

Wow, Beam Frigates are really powerful! That makes it worth the metal!


Co-processors

It is AIP 156 now. About right time to kill the coprocessors. However, all three of them are on core worlds. Oh, wait, Core Raid Engine. Negative.


The Last Core Shield A, and Spire Archive

Finally, I think I am ready to take Akiplu.


Aaand apparently those Assault Transports still wake the planet.

12:49:43 It's time. Assault Transports ordered to attack Command Station.
12:50:38 Logistics II up
12:50:41 FF up.

Now everything is up. Question: can it live without fleet support? Let me test that.

Hold on, I forgot those fabs. Fleet go back.

Oh, BTW, I got Vampire Claws from ARS. Another nice assassination unit.

And I have Mirrors for fire attracting. Pretty much useless, I'd say, because of that 0.1X reflection damage.

Poke the Core

Just... What happens when Spire Mini Rams and Neinzui Scapegoat goes together?

Nothing special.

13:00:00 769 ship CPA declares.

What about Zenith Mirror V's? Are they specal? Like, 10x reflection damage?

No. Useless.

13:12:34 CPA imminent, SA still not extracted. Build 3 matter converters, just in case.
13:13:44 SA extracted. I am going to move the station. For now, just let me get scout intel on Core world.

Yaqrane is attacked. NOOOO!!!!

13:14:24 Engrs warp in, HBCs ordered.
13:15:10 I lost the Fabs and CS. Engrs are now irreplacibles, so they are ordered to retreat. Bye bye, Electric Shuttle!

Apparently many MkV ships freed when I poked the Core isn't something that can be overlooked. At least, not unlocking Grav III's when I have 23250 K is unwise. Very very unwise. Lesson learned.

Low energy: -27907

Now it is time to change roles. Experimental Engrs to homeworld, and 46 Mk II Engrs will be in mobile.

HBC I's are too weak for liquid defence. It's time for MOAR.

Unlocked:

- Grav II/III

Every front line planet gets interspersed Gravatation network.


Prepping

Time to enhance my liquid defence a bit. Which means:

- Heavy Beam Cannon II
- Munition Booster II
- Engineer III

Leaving me 11250 K. I will decide which things to unlock later.

Full cap of Engr MkIII is put on Akiplu. Construction line is also moved there. Most importantly, a Missile Silo is put there.


First Strike on Core World: Erarlu

This is the first time I use "conventional" weapons on Core/HW assaults. Let's see how it works.

A cloaked Lightning Warhead warps in, and parks near wormhole.

Cloaked Assault Transports warp in.

Nothing happens.

Remember my starting ship? Youngsling Weasel?

Dock Cannon time.

Strategic Reserve comming to defend.

Boom! 70% Remaining.

13:34:35 AT's destroyed Orbital Mass Driver and fled from the Fortress.
13:35:20 Recloaked Transports are ordered to attack that EMP Guardian

It's time

13:35:32 Unload
13:39:43 Neutered, except for a Spire Shield. Heavy losses to those Ion Cannons because Scapegoat somehow doesn't regenerate them. Actially I never see them regenerate anything.

Probably Youngsling Artilery don't blend well with Scapegoats. Lesson learned.

Oh, wait! Electric Shuttle is still there, but Armor Booster is gone.

13:40:58 Oh, Fortress MkIII blocking way towards Homeworld. I am looking at that Missile Silo.

And it is a nice time to stockpile metal.

Too much threat near Yaqrane. If I lose it again, I may be in trouble. A lightning Warhead is being made.

I scrapped the HBC's. Threat motivating. But they just don't know... Let me try this run without the warhead.

13:51:44 Escaped threat are Boomed.

Mr AI, Strength doesn't say everything. You know that?

13:53:15 I see Riots attackcing. Is that the Special Force? It shouldn't attack isn't it?

Now, at peak time, my Salvage Engines are gathering 300M/s. Not enough to justify LogII, yet.

Time for that. Armored Warhead sneaks in Erarlu, and ordered to hit that Fortress.

Boom! Fortress gone, but Force Field and Spire Shield is still there. Time for attack.

Enemy under FF? This is when my Electric Shuttles shine.

And I will pop that Barrack!

Scapegoats are working. I did not lose any Bombers or Frigates in this battle. But I did lose my Raids.

First Homeworld Assault

14:07:31 Just ate a reprisal wave. Now it's time for the first HW Assault!

Wait, Core Threatening Eye... Retreat!

14:07:56 Dammit Black Hole Machine! I am going to eat the eye the hard way!
14:07:59 *headdesk* Arghhhhhhh MINE ENTHUSIAST!!!!

Where is that BHM??? I can't find it!

"External Invincibility 8x"

WHAT??!!

Remember me saying that Raid Engine will be killed before I start HW assault?

Remember Core Shield Generator Group E?

I got to find that BLM, NOW.

No, I can't find it. It is not on the list. I am going to lose the fleet. If so, I need to make sure all other things die. Looking at the Grav Reactor.

Everyone is scheduled a vector.

Fleet rapidly shrinking. So is the AI's Strategic Reserve.

14:12:40 Grav Reactor Booms. EVERY SURVIVOR RUN!!!
14:15:39 That is amazing. All Scapegoats are dead. All MkI stuff are dead by Ion pounding. However, my main fleet still has 104 survivors. I am still on HW, but let's have a rest and let that MSD do some repairs.
14:16:17 I escaped. Grav Reactor was that "Black Hole Machine"

Terrifyingly amazing: None of my starships were dead, and most of my big ships survived! Who cares about 240 Scapegoats dying?

It's time to end the Raid Engine.

14:23:13 Raid Engine is dead. It's your turn, Superterminal!
14:23:29 Orbital Command Station down. I ran out of Econ II's. Hmmm.

Unlocked: Econ Station III


Really, Last CSG-A

Yeah, I missed that one just next to this planet. Last CSG-A on Dekalno. My AIP is 202.

After taking that, I am swapping stations with Econ IIIs.

Sorry, this is not quite an archipelago empire. It should be if everything are not so packed together.

14:32:37 Command Station goes down. Econ III goes up

Unlocked: Combat Carrier. Oh REALLY THANKS! I am gonna wreck the AI with these!

14:38:24 A Data Center is popped.


The Science Branch

I am going to do heavy drone bombing. That means 6500K will be spent on Combat Carriers and Oh Crap I only have another 6250K!!! Hope that I didn't unlock Scout Starship II... No knowlege hacking, of course.

Let's do this.

Unlocked: Combat Carrier II/III. This also gives me IV.

I hope that my turrets will be able to hold up anything that is brought by HW assault.

Armored Warheads, Combat Carriers, and Merc Beam Frigates, are being made.

Plan: Fleet go distract. Armored Warhead Boom the Fortress, Heavy Beam GP, and Eye. Oh, Lightning Warheads may be used to BOOM the Special Force and Strategic reserve.

14:49:50 Transports warp in. Move further.
14:49:51 Warheads are in. Orders given.
14:50:09 Boom! No Eye. Unload!
14:50:26 Heavy Bombers ordered to kill that Ion Cannon under Zenith Fortress.
14:51:10 Zenith Fortress Booms! Wow, Heavy Bomber V is really really powerful. Now, why not blow that Riot too?

No, it is under Core Force Field.

14:52:05 Remember Protector Starships? Everyone, 480 ships, circling around the force field.
14:52:16 Core Riot? What Core Riot?

Wait, that Fortress was not hurt. What did I target? An extra Warhead is ordered.

14:52:33 Core Leech down. Lots of Guardians reinforcing.
14:53:02 Everyone turn circle around that Core Spire shield!
14:53:26 No more Spire Shield.
14:54:08 Warhead is here. Try that again.

The Fortress, The Home Command Station, everything under Core Shield. Helplessly firing everything at the "almost impossible to kill" Armored Warhead.

14:54:38 Boom!
14:54:44 Core Electric down. Everyone, attack Home Station!
14:55:30 AI 1 Home Station is down.

Everyone have a rest, let the MSD fix you guys.

AIP 235. I have 300 ships left.

Let's count what I have lost. 5 Bombers. 20 Frigates. 15 Munition Boosters. 163 Scapegoats.

Scapegoats shine here! So is Protector Starship! And Massive Drone Spamming! But Blade Spawner... Since the AI have unlocked Grav Guardian, it is pretty much useless. Also:

ARMORED WARHEAD!

Next step

Now first, I will harvest the K from AI Homeworld. Engineering team going to harvest K.

Actually, Sci MkII is better. Building 5 and sending there.

15:05:52 The moment I move out the fleet, Threat attacks Akiplu.

Pretty puzzled. Why sometimes Threat does not attack while it outstrengths my world, while this time 100 Str of Threat attacks my 6000+ Strength world?


Drones. More Drones. MOAR DRONES!!!

You have Strategic Reserve?

Neinzui Spawner, too?

Grav Reactor?

And Core Raid Engine?

Hey, let's see who has more drones! With the newly harvested K, I am at 9250. Let's spend them on...

- Neinzui Enclave II/III
- Riot Control II
- Plasma Siege II

Now I guess only I can spam drones. At 500k energy surplus, and several pending Econ III's, and that juicy Spire Archive untouched, I think I am fine.

Riot II's with "Ave It!", one Shield module, one Havoc, one Machine Gun, two Lasers.


Spire Archive II

15;11:58 Fleet ready to warp in. Once this process starts, both core worlds will be on alert, permanently.

Mr. AI, are you ready for the final impact?

Next CPA is imminent(20 minutes?). Maybe I should wait for it. Meanwhile, let me make up some Armored Warheads, and Beam Frigates.

15:14:42 A Data Center popped by Youngslings.

15:18:39 Fleet kills Data Center. Also neutering planet.

15:30:01 No CPA declared yet. I will just wait for my metal to cap.

Meanwhile, I start popping down Econ III's. Anything that does not need to be a Logistics will be an Econ.

It's 15:42:01. Still no CPA. I will not wait. Go attack Afrni!

AI suffers from 10 times more drones than its ships.

Special Force pours to support.

Grav Drains? I am using slow drones.

15:48:26 CS down. Unfortunately I don't have enough FFs...
15:48:54 Logistic II up.

How do I defend IF a CPA hits now?

Well, Liquid defence using HBC II's and Engr III's are great.

Threat thinks: I am strong! Let me attack!

All a sudden, Heavy Beam Cannons pop up from nowhere.

And it is gone.

Oh, CPA is THREE and a half hour, not TWO! That means, half hour to next/final(?) CPA!

16:10:09 SA extracted. What should I do with the K?


Core World Strike: Asidedu

I am taking the way from Asidedu. It has a arachnid under two Force Fields. What does it mean?

I know, there is a Core Warhead Interceptor. But it cannot see me!

16:17:44 Boom. And freed a whole lot of threat.

What about now?

16:19:13 Fleet warps in. CRE fires.

Um game bugged, and Assault Transport is jammed between the two Spire Shields.... I have to reload.

No, still jammed. This is a bug. Transport of Death powers on. And the Transports are dead, with the two shields.

I lost something to that Orbital Mass Driver. Reprisal 2.

Turns out it is one Enclave and a Combat Carrier

16:20:30 CPA declares. 954 ships.
16:22:33 1925 Attractor Drones, 4 Starships to Murdoch.

16:32:30 CPA hits. Where will it be?

Ahh, at Etticsharp. But it is too afraid to attack.


Core World Strike: Neutering

Time to completely neuter the world.

16:36:09 Fleet warps inside Homeworld.
16:36:26 Grav Reactor down.
16:36:56 Booster down. Bombers ordered to attack that N-Spawner/Ion Cannon/Fortress II
16:37:33 N-Spawner down. Now, Fortress, it's your turn!

Everyone stay put. Artilery support is here! N-Scapegoats starts replenishing. So are Bombers and Frigates.

16:38:15 Under heavy drone support, Core Warhead Interceptor down. Fortress desparately trying to kill the Bomber Starships.
16:38:23 Core Raid Engine gone by Bomber Starships.
16:38:28 Core Electric died. Armored Warheads coming.

16:39:12 Warheads come. Targeted these respectedly:

- Core Arachnid
- Fortress MkIII
- Just float around right now. Added to Group 0

16:39:22 An EMP Guardian spawns, sitting there.
16:39:33 What? Arachnid can fire at Armored Warhead? Armored Warhead at 50%. Already in range.
16:39:35 Arachnid kills warhead. Warhead explodes, bringing the Arachnid and the adjacent Electric with it.
16:39:49 Fortress not down. Force Fields down. Remaining AW, go!
16:40:02 Fortress in range. Warhead at 12%.
16:40:08 Warhead brings the Fortress.
16:40:08 Mr AI? This is your end!

622 ships storming at the command station.

Translocator Starships pushing incoming ships away.

Hundreds of drons firing at everyone.

Beam Frigates firing dense red rays everywhere.

16:40:58 YOU WIN!!!


* Aftermath

Just be curious. Can I blow up that Dire Guardian Lair with impunity?

Boom.

- Artillery
- Implosion
- Spider

10 seconds later, my fleet killed all three with no loss.

Conclusion will come later.

[Cyborg]

Congratulations!

[carldong]

Summary

First, I kind of finished the game using only human superweapons. Of course, I consider my ARS unlocks/Fab unlocks extremely lucky. What can be better support corps?

- Protector Starship V
- Shield Bearer V
- Munition Booster
- Armor Booster V (Some survived to the end, thanks to ...)
- Neinzui Scapegoat V

What can be better at long range storming?

- Combat Carrier
- Blade Spawner V

What about close combat?

- Vampire Claw (not actually used, but I guess it is nice for clearing threat)
- Electric Shuttle V - Melts everything that actually manages to get close. Even under Force Fields

In fact, I dare to make Starfleet of Death only because I got Protector Starships + Shield Bearers. I start including expensive Merc Beam Frigates only after I got SGs. At the end game, I think I have at least 30 of them.

MVPs

1. Armored Warhead. Nothing works better to quickly deal with nasty combinations. I still don't get used to Lightning Warheads yet because they are too fragile
2. Protector Starships. Amazing. Amazing and fun. This makes MkI tiny fleet the MkI Fleet of Doom
3. Shield Bearers. What if Protector Starships cannot block that attack? Another layer comes!
4. Merc Enclave Starship. This thing, is the main output of my early fleet. Before I got Protector Starships. All my fleetball is actually making cover for the starship, and all MkI drones are in fact cover for the MkIV drones.
5. Scapegoat V. Needless to say. I lose about 200 of them during each of the Core/Home strike. Those 200 would rather be my Bombers, Frigates, Beam Frigates, Shield Bearers, Blade Spawners, Munition Boosters, Armor Boosters, Electric Shuttles...
6. Spire Archive. A total of 18000 K transforms my Fleet of Doom into... Whatever you call it. In a few seconds those drones easily outnumbers 70% of AI Strategic Reserve
7. Riot Control Starships. These slow LOTS of AI ships, and make my slow starfleet easily kite them. With drones or with Plasma Siege shots.
8. Mobile Space Docks. Sitting still, the fleet performs like a beachhead. It stops thousands of ships, and can sneakily repair my valuable fleet, very very far in the galaxy.

Now I think I have gain enough experience... I should be able to do the same thing without those support units, just with some other unlocks(I noticed that the AI ships almost never touch my fleet. Except when I order it to directly charge at the enemy). Next time, after I try the Showdown campaign, I will try a game on 8/8.

Oh, and I permanently banned the following AI types:

GravDriller - Nice chokepoints given, but tooooooooo sssslllllloooooowwwwwww for my game.
Cowardly - Yeah, I hate threat escaping even for normal AI's. I consider "Threat Clearing" is a dumb job that is not even tactical.

Thoughts

Zenith Mirrors are USELESS. Really. Please really fix the bug! The description clearly indicates that Mirror is supposed to "deal significantly more damage than it receives", and likely 10x reflection damage. 0.1x damage looks just like a bug.

Threat... is annoying. I don't know the design reason behind making the threat that cowardly, but checking 3 hops away from current planet is cheating. In a "connected empire" style, 3 hops can well be a large portion of your territory. Yeah, you may exploit that and mobilize the forces to trick the threat come in and warp back and kill it. But what difference is it now? I move out my mobile force, and blow up some turrets to reduce the strength. As threat warp in, turrets are immediately reconstructed, and the same thing happens.

Actually, now I am keeping a "threat clearing" planet that is far away, and has cap of Heavy Beam Cannons as extra defence. Typically it is at 6000-8000 strength, and when threat reaches somewhere like 3000 strength, I scrap those turrets. Threat immediately takes the bait and warps in. Guess what? Engineers are already waiting there! Just when they are about half way to the turrets, those HBCs are put back, and most of the threat will just bump into the brick wall immediately and get slaughtered. Is that what you call "minimize micromanagement"? Is it less exploitable? Is it less microing than warping fleet out, and then warp in?

[carldong]

Oh, and transports holding my fleet will wake the entire planet as threat. Not sure if it is intended.

[Toranth]

Congratulations on another clean win (with only a little suicide experimentation along the way).  Time to move up a level, right?

First, I kind of finished the game using only human superweapons. Of course, I consider my ARS unlocks/Fab unlocks extremely lucky. What can be better support corps?
- Protector Starship V
- Shield Bearer V
- Munition Booster

Yup, those three.  Even by themselves, they can easily change the entire course of a game in your favor.

Actually, now I am keeping a "threat clearing" planet that is far away, and has cap of Heavy Beam Cannons as extra defence. Typically it is at 6000-8000 strength, and when threat reaches somewhere like 3000 strength, I scrap those turrets. Threat immediately takes the bait and warps in. Guess what? Engineers are already waiting there! Just when they are about half way to the turrets, those HBCs are put back, and most of the threat will just bump into the brick wall immediately and get slaughtered. Is that what you call "minimize micromanagement"? Is it less exploitable? Is it less microing than warping fleet out, and then warp in?

That's... odd.  HBCs aren't that strong, so if scrapping the HBCs is enough to convince the Threatfleet to attack, that it probably meant that it was almost at the level to attack anyway.  I wonder if this means that HBCs are not being valued correctly in the Strength calculations?  That said, if you've got the Gravity effects present to keep the AI slow enough so can have time to rebuild, then this seems like a pretty good strategy to me.  It's no more an exploit that the AI getting a Reinforcement tick during your attack against an AI system.

[carldong]

Congratulations on another clean win (with only a little suicide experimentation along the way).  Time to move up a level, right?

First, I kind of finished the game using only human superweapons. Of course, I consider my ARS unlocks/Fab unlocks extremely lucky. What can be better support corps?
- Protector Starship V
- Shield Bearer V
- Munition Booster

Yup, those three.  Even by themselves, they can easily change the entire course of a game in your favor.

Actually, now I am keeping a "threat clearing" planet that is far away, and has cap of Heavy Beam Cannons as extra defence. Typically it is at 6000-8000 strength, and when threat reaches somewhere like 3000 strength, I scrap those turrets. Threat immediately takes the bait and warps in. Guess what? Engineers are already waiting there! Just when they are about half way to the turrets, those HBCs are put back, and most of the threat will just bump into the brick wall immediately and get slaughtered. Is that what you call "minimize micromanagement"? Is it less exploitable? Is it less microing than warping fleet out, and then warp in?

That's... odd.  HBCs aren't that strong, so if scrapping the HBCs is enough to convince the Threatfleet to attack, that it probably meant that it was almost at the level to attack anyway.  I wonder if this means that HBCs are not being valued correctly in the Strength calculations?  That said, if you've got the Gravity effects present to keep the AI slow enough so can have time to rebuild, then this seems like a pretty good strategy to me.  It's no more an exploit that the AI getting a Reinforcement tick during your attack against an AI system.

Cap of HBC I have at least 2000 Strength value if I remember correctly. My strength of one planet was around 6000(and that was because I forgot to scrap them after the previous panic defence(which failed. You know which planet it is)), and scrapping them drops it to 4000+ or something like that. And that 4000 strength Threat comes to attack, and 78 Engineers MkIII warp in from distant galaxy and.... Built a cap of HBC II's. AND the threat splits up and half of them attack this planet and half attacks the next planet, which also has about 3000 Strength in defence. Maybe it is an intentional mistake made by that Diff 7 AI?

Accually, I think one HBC does not give that much strength and won't make too much difference in an attack, just like any other turrets. However, all 12 of them (or even 6) can make a big difference since AI usually blob its fleet together. One focus fire and 40-50 ships are gone, or that annoying high-HP Spire Starship explodes.