AI Eye grind

[Varone]

Just bring a transport or 2 full of bombers and some flagships/Zenith ship for the damage boost. Should easily get it down. Doesn't matter if it spawns some zombies.

[Sonorus]

Ok, now I've been reading this thread going "those poor suckers" for a couple of days, until I realized that I'm in a very similar situation.  On the way to one of the home planets is what looks like will be a nearly impenetrable world.  Here are the a couple of the numerous goodies that are at this Mark III world.

AI Eye x1
Ion Cannon IIx1
Ion Cannon IIIx1
MARK III SPIRE SHIELD SPHERE GUARD POST  x2
4x other guard posts.


I haven't even begun to approach this world yet, but it is in the way of the home planet, and has the last core A-shield generator that would not be way out of my way, so I have to take it.  I can find no conceivable way.  Those Mark III spire guardians have 336,000,000 health.  There's always a direct kill of the Eye, but it'd take AGES with all the defenses on this planet. Any advice?  I don't even know where to start here.  (This is my 1st game btw)

[TechSY730]

I mentioned in an earlier thread that human force-fields were buffed, and as such AI force-fields were too. Spire shield guard posts were designed to be a certain amount tougher than AI force fields. But then, they realized they made AI force-fields too tough, so they reduced them to have 3x times the health of their human counterparts, down from their previous 5x. But the Spire shield guard posts were not scaled down accordingly with this change, so right now they are disproportionately durable. I think re-balancing the HP of these should fix some of these complaints.

[Ozymandiaz]

Ok, now I've been reading this thread going "those poor suckers" for a couple of days, until I realized that I'm in a very similar situation.  On the way to one of the home planets is what looks like will be a nearly impenetrable world.  Here are the a couple of the numerous goodies that are at this Mark III world.

AI Eye x1
Ion Cannon IIx1
Ion Cannon IIIx1
MARK III SPIRE SHIELD SPHERE GUARD POST  x2
4x other guard posts.


I haven't even begun to approach this world yet, but it is in the way of the home planet, and has the last core A-shield generator that would not be way out of my way, so I have to take it.  I can find no conceivable way.  Those Mark III spire guardians have 336,000,000 health.  There's always a direct kill of the Eye, but it'd take AGES with all the defenses on this planet. Any advice?  I don't even know where to start here.  (This is my 1st game btw)

Step 1: Send in Raid starships to kill Ion Cannons and Non Spire Sphere Guard Posts. Raids might die, so rince and repeat if needed. MK II helps here as well. (Spire Stealth Battleships can do musch the same as well, even teleport leeches helps me a ton in ninjaing guard posts if I got em, but Raids are a given in every gaem ).

Step 2: Send in transports with loads of bombers and kick the shit out of the Spheres. Let you main fleet stay outside to not provoke Eye too much. Rinceand repeat as needed.

Step 3: Clean up when Eye is gone (due to lack of guard posts) .


Might be a bit "grindy", but sometimes thats how it is and should be .

[BobTheJanitor]

I've found I can usually handle these now either with cloaking units, or a cloaking starship combined with some high power units, or with teleporting units. Basically anything that can get to the guard posts without having to engage everything en route to it. But those spire shields... there's just no good way around them. Just plink away at them with a small fleet forever. If you get one with nothing but ships under it, at least you can rely on the fact that they stay frozen until the forcefield breaks so you can almost leave your ships unsupervised there chipping away at it while you do other things. Of course if it has an ion cannon or a fortress or similar nasty under it... well then it's time to consider how much you really want that world.

[Nalgas]

Of course if it has an ion cannon or a fortress or similar nasty under it... well then it's time to consider how much you really want that world.

If it has an ion cannon under it, raid starships can take care of that fairly well if there isn't anything nearby that's going to kill them, and then you can deal with it like usual.  With a fortress, you can actually treat it exactly like usual, because they're amazingly ineffective against bombers, which are what you'd be parking next to it anyway, whether it were a fortress by itself or a shield by itself.  It does take a while to get rid of both the shield and the fortress, but as long as there's nothing else harassing your bombers, you can mostly just leave them to do their business while you go deal with something else somewhere else and check in on them occasionally to make sure they're ok.  Most stuff you bring along that isn't a bomber is likely to get wrecked, though.

[LordSloth]

Actually, if you happen to have the Spire expansion, Implosion Artillery Spirecraft will be a wonderful help even at mark I. Try 'em out! They may have trouble -finishing- the job, but they can get it off to a great start.

[chemical_art]

Ok, now I've been reading this thread going "those poor suckers" for a couple of days, until I realized that I'm in a very similar situation.  On the way to one of the home planets is what looks like will be a nearly impenetrable world.  Here are the a couple of the numerous goodies that are at this Mark III world.

AI Eye x1
Ion Cannon IIx1
Ion Cannon IIIx1
MARK III SPIRE SHIELD SPHERE GUARD POST  x2
4x other guard posts.


I haven't even begun to approach this world yet, but it is in the way of the home planet, and has the last core A-shield generator that would not be way out of my way, so I have to take it.  I can find no conceivable way.  Those Mark III spire guardians have 336,000,000 health.  There's always a direct kill of the Eye, but it'd take AGES with all the defenses on this planet. Any advice?  I don't even know where to start here.  (This is my 1st game btw)

nuke the planet. If you seriously are worried about time, that's what you gotta do. Or drop a EMP warhead to form a beachhead/alpha strike.

[Sonorus]

nuke the planet. If you seriously are worried about time, that's what you gotta do. Or drop a EMP warhead to form a beachhead/alpha strike.

Eh, it has an Adv. Research Station on it, so I'd rather not nuke it.  Riot ships are doing pretty well so far, just takes a while to manufacture them after each time, as they rarely survive past one guard post.  Making progress though, and it is a fun challenge.

[Lunaro]

If you are using the spire expansion I found a really nice way to deal with AI Eye planets (in general a good way to decimate enemy systems with a blaze)

Use Spire Craft Penetrator

Those ships are simply awesome for tactical strikes. Send in Scout battleships to the planet you want to get rid of the eye, build 7-8 of those Penetrators then send them to 1 shot any guard post that is in system followed by 1 shotting the eye. They are perma cloaked, high health and 1 shot most anything. Perfect solution against high defended planets. Works like a charm in my games. I usually combine them with Spire Martyrs that i send over to tractorbeam the wormhole guard ships and then let them explode when the Martyr goes up in flames

I was able to storm an IV Planet when I only had 1/4 of the enemy ships and MK 2 at max level as well as some spire Stealth BS and some Starships as support.

The Penetrators got rid of most of the guardposts and the eye. Then i sent in Martyrs that took out at least 2/3 of the enemy forces.

The only big issue I currently have are AI stealth battleships they always manage to slip tough (even with tach guardians and cloak detectors somehow) and 20 of those instantly tear trough my home station. I have a map currently with realistic wormhole connections so 9 front systems open for attack at difficulty 9. Its hell to defend and keep the home station safe. The only way to deal with Ai eye planets so far was with Penetrators and Martyrs.

[Orelius]

nuke the planet. If you seriously are worried about time, that's what you gotta do. Or drop a EMP warhead to form a beachhead/alpha strike.

Eh, it has an Adv. Research Station on it, so I'd rather not nuke it.  Riot ships are doing pretty well so far, just takes a while to manufacture them after each time, as they rarely survive past one guard post.  Making progress though, and it is a fun challenge.

Last I remembered, advanced research stations are immune to nukes, so you wouldn't lose them in the explosion.

[Shrugging Khan]

Hive Golem. 500 Wasps. 3 Minutes.

The only Eye that managed to survive was the one that had a shield guard post guarded by a gravity guardian. All else: No more Eye. No Grind.

[Entrenched Homperson]

I've had alot of experience against AI Eyes in the last week or so, and this is how I've been beating them.

I took on a planet with Ion Mark IV, Spire Shield, 2x Missile Guard Post, 1X MLRS, 1X Short Range. 6X Tachyon, and a no starships because the AI had Spire Rams which render starships dead in seconds.

How I won:

Shredders. Easy. The shredders create a disturbance and soak up Ion fire for the rest of my fleet ships to maneuver around the battlefield. With chameleons as my fleet ship I was able to zip around the system, neutralizing the missile guard post with a spire shield (took awhile, but a detachement of 20 Mark IV Shredders ensured I had no problems with any opposing fleet ships that should spawn) and the AI was down in about half an hour game time. This strategy has worked well for me with the 2 other Eyes I encountered right near bye.

I just have to not die now that my AIP is getting higher xD

[wtfitsnotbutter]

I guess raid starships are left as a unit that can shoot through forcefields, but with that fortress sitting right there, I'd be lucky to fire off one shot before getting plowed. I could send in a bomber meat shield to aborb all the fire... but that many ships would set off the Eye.  I've decided to just start a new game for now and pray for no unlucky Eye-Forcefield combinations in it. Maybe some rebalancing will come about later and I can pick up that other game.

i found bomber starships to be a great tank for fortresses is you want to use raid starships to bypass the shiels

[zoutzakje]

I guess raid starships are left as a unit that can shoot through forcefields, but with that fortress sitting right there, I'd be lucky to fire off one shot before getting plowed. I could send in a bomber meat shield to aborb all the fire... but that many ships would set off the Eye.  I've decided to just start a new game for now and pray for no unlucky Eye-Forcefield combinations in it. Maybe some rebalancing will come about later and I can pick up that other game.

i found bomber starships to be a great tank for fortresses is you want to use raid starships to bypass the shiels

Or nuke the planet to take the fort out of supply :p
though I doubt a single fortress is worth the 50 AIP lol, I usually only use this on the last homeworld