Ways in which you lose to the AI?

[allmybase]

Just curious how do you guys lose to the AI? How does it surprise or overwhelm you or cause you to quit?

For me some ways I lose are

a) not prepared for CPA from multiple directions
b) something cloaked and immune to tractors slipped by to my command station
c) get annoyed because there is an unbreakable planet
d) not well defended against special forces patrols

[ShadowOTE]

The 2 most dramatic:

1. Scouting unlocked roaming special forces, which destroyed a home command station and started a cycle of massive raid -> lost home station/core station -> AIP spike -> new, BIGGER raid. By the time we finally lost, we had 4000 ship raids coming in (diff 9 experimentalist ai + 260 AIP less than 2 hours in).

2. wiping out a tier 4 adjacent to my homeworld, only to find upon colonizing that the next world out was a tier 3 (and which could actually spawn tier 3 ships, since it wasnt directly adjacent to the homeworld). THAT was a mistake... tier 1 ships vs 600+ tier 3 ships (and probably 250 bomber 3s) with no substantial defenses = quick way to lose.

[x4000]

Usually the way that I lose is when there is a huge wave all at one planet (a few 1-2k ships at once in 4 player), and my team thinks we have the defenses under control, but it turns out that some ships slip past and run into our interior planets.  Then if our secondary defenses are not enough, we wind up losing one home planet command station... or more.  Other than that, it is mostly by CPA.

[superking]

'Should we move to defend?'
'Naaah, bro, dont worry, my turrets will handle that wave no problem'

five minutes later...

'OH GOD THEY WHAT HOW ACCIDENTLY THE WHOLE GAME'

[allmybase]

'Should we move to defend?'
'Naaah, bro, dont worry, my turrets will handle that wave no problem'

five minutes later...

'OH GOD THEY WHAT HOW ACCIDENTLY THE WHOLE GAME'

 

Love it.

[Kryzite]

All ill say is i hate the AI when they have vampires unlocked.

Not enough of a ship cap to be all the useful to a human player but they are the one ship type that seems to manage to catch me offguard, get behind my defensive line, and smear me all across the galaxy.

~Kryzite

[superking]

Not enough of a ship cap to be all that useful to a human player

agreement

[Mánagarmr]

My personal fears in big CPA's or large waves are Etherjets, Planes and Vampires. Ether and Planes because they are cloaked and always find that weak planet without a FF and kill it and then the AI hits hard to break through the defense-chain. Vampires because they simply ignore everything I try to do to them. They just slip by my defenses, slide under the forcefield and kill the command station (or worse, power gens and all my FFs drop EVERYWHERE. grrr)

[Voodoomancer]

Not building up enough defences on a wormhole to a III system because I'm going to go capture it anyway in a minute, then getting an 1800+ wave because I have both a gravdrill and a Z spacetime manip on the planet...

...no one told me wave penalties were stacking 

In My current game, I did it again for fun, just to try and see how long it'd last. I've ended up keeping it, 'cause the 100+ spider turrets kill everything before it gets even close 
Although the AI is starting to use more sniper immune ships against that planet, which I am finding increasingly concerning...

[drum]

usually its 'cause I'm not paying attention

i need a big AWOOOOGA siren for when I'm looking elsewhere and my home is attacked

[ShadowOTE]

Personally, I hate cutlasses. They seem to take forever to kill, and you end up with absurd Benny-Hinn situations where 400 cutlasses are chasing a MRS in a circle for 10 minutes while a fleet gets micro'd behind them (yes, I have had this happen). That said, it's only an issue in the early game, before you can get enough turrets up...

[superking]

cutlasses are like, no threat 

[ShadowOTE]

Well, if they decide to ignore your fleet in favor of power generators, they get annoying, and the microing is tedious (at least until turrets go up in enough numbers to clear them out at the gates), but its true they aren't a major threat.

[soMe_RandoM]

1 black widiow golm ai controlled sent into my home planet after i sent 1 scout in it slow made it way to my home planet then i had reasonble fleet 400. all wasted then it left the system after damaging all engines then  about 50 ships went in with longer range then my ships maby it was raptors. then it came back to and sat thier wating for ships to spawn so it can make them useless. then i lost after wave of boombers came. :}