Or
How I learned to stop worrying and love movement 2...
tldr: How do I kill the gravity guardian?My game has just topped the 6 hour mark against two easier level seven AI's and things have started to get difficult. I was a bit gung-ho with planet grabbing at the start to get economy to golem-resurrection levels since they look like pretty cool tech, but I did one very important thing compared to my other recent games... I haven't touched the Spire campaign. My two most recent losses happened while retrieving the parts for the first colony ship (I've no idea if there's more than one), first to multiple core starships and the next one to a single raid starship while taking out the core starships...
I'm in the final phase of the game, with both AI homeworlds within striking distance. The Northwestern planets are behind heavy fortifications so should be safe while I strike, and to the Southwest there's a structure-less path to the core worlds defending the first AI homeworld I stumbled across... and thanks to a liberated Dyson sphere hidden by that intel screen I feel confident about rapidly forging through them when the first AI has died its painful death.
GALAXY STATSGALAXY MAPThe red circled planet is mine, captured for the factory required to take down one of the shield networks, and it's a nice staging post for hitting the AI planet in concentric yellow rings (although I honestly haven't a clue what if any shields are still up).
There's been a snag though, and it's going to be a big 'n'.
A core gravity guardian.
THE TARGETIt's thwarted all attempts to scout the AI homeworld, and I suspect it will cause big problems if I things take a turn for the worst and I need to do a runner!
Here's the fleet I've prepared to tackle the homeworld, with a quick rundown of my use for them! I'm listing them from left to right, taking a new line when I reach the end of an old one.
FLEET COMPOSITIONAnti-starship arachnid: The keen eyed among you may have noticed the fabricator in the unit list... it's been pumping out these arachnid things, allthough I'm not sure what do with them... oh well, extra DPS for the blob o' death! I'll keep half an eye out to see how they perform
Armour booster: Included for the sake of completeness, it's all that left from a group picked up after popping a Z-Reserve. Into the blob it goes...
Armoured fighters? Not certain if that's what they are, but they're part of the blob.
Autobombs: I'll probably just shove them in on FRD mode. If I have the resources I may spam factories on the planet and then send through a stream of autobombs. They should also keep the surrounding planets clean as they pass through! Fully unlocked, but their damage seems somewhat lacklustre...
Autocannons? Unlocked from an ARS, but not fussed with them. They would have been more useful earlier on though as part of a raiding party... thinking about it, I may try to micro them round the side for some mischief! If they perform well then I'll unlock mark 2 and fill them out.
Z Bombards: Nice ships, but not very many of them from the Z-Reserves. Blobby time.
Bombers: Fully unlocked, with an AF trying to pump out more. Blob.
Fighters: Blob. They're a counter to the counter of bombers, so I don't think too highly of them... they're there just to pad the fleet out a bit.
Frigates: Unlocked as the bombers, and blobbed.
Tank: If things look rough, he's my back-up plan. I dread to think what the AI will do when I unleash the terror that comes with a single tank...
Blob Beam frigates: Blobbed.
Z Electric bombers: Blobbed.
Z Polariser: All the support that Thomas the Tank, Engine of destruction, will need.
Z Shredder: Gift from a Z-Reserve and then they replicated! These dudes will likey just be told to go into FRD mode as soon as they hit the planet, following after the main
blob fleet has taken out immiediete hostiles. These more than any other vessel will need to wait until AFTER the gravity guardian bites the bullet
s.
Leech starships: Their last hurrah before I install the MEGATON update. Although since I'm facing a core world, I doubt that they'll be capable of very much...
Armoured golem: IIRC it was tasked with taking out an AI eye on the planet about to be assaulted... not certain though. It's proved a potent weapon of destruction, and should help massivley in the assault.
Black widow golem: There were two AF planets... one had little of interest, the other had the arachnid fabricator and this. So I picked this planet. I've yet to run the ship through her paces, so it's going to be a trial by fire on the core world! She'll probably wind up working in tangent with the martyrs to hunt down the nastier fleet ships.
Spire rams: They'll get dumped into the teleporters and then visit the gravity guardian with
tea and crumpets fiery death.
Spire siege towers: Meh. I haven't seen them do anything really amazing, but they've survived for a long time with the fleet so I hold nothing against them. However, for raw DPS I'm happy with the fleet ships and it can't match the raw awesome of martyrs or the big-game hunting ability of the rams.
Spire transports: Rams get in, transports teleport to guardian, rams kill guardian, there is cake.
Spire martyrs: These are my favourite ship. No contest with ANYTHING that I've come across. From the ability strip a wave to nothing and dump them infront of my turret ball to taking out the cross planet wave that's gathered in a nice circle round a wormhole... they're amazing. Due to a recently found love of level 1 logistic command centres they perhaps seem better that they are in a hostile environment... I'll see how they do in the upcoming battle, but I'm expecting great things! I don't have a way of keeping track of how many I've built*, but they've racked up 2577 kills. The only thing that beats them are the autobombs, but I can promise you that I've built less than 19,197 Martyrs
*
Bug for the day: Under the built/kills with tab under stats spirecraft don't count as being built... not really a big thing, but it's a bug so I'll mantis it!
So, the fleet is laid out, time to attack! Rams, get onboard the transports! No, not beside them, in them! No... I... wait. You mean they can't get in? The best laid plans of mice and men...
Okay, so the rams know have the task of taking out the fortresses. The two mark 2s I have can handle the level 3 fortress between them! But what about that dratted guardian? I select the ships that should be capable of killing it, and check the reference tab.
...and find to my astonishment that the most effective weapons I have are the anti-starship arachnids! 13 shots to kill, but I only have 10 spaces available and there's a 7 second reload time... which in the middle of an assault might aswell be an aeon. Oh well, they're core so atleast 3 of them should survive to get off that volley!
It's actually a rather pleasant feeling to realise that everything really does have a use
Plan mark II: Basically the same, except the rams will be mixed with the Z - Shredders to avoid the brunt of the AI's ire, and they can then move in and take out the level 3 fort. 10 arachnids will board the teleporting transport, and then try to kill the gravity guardian. I've only jsut noticed that the wave is directed at the planet with my fleet (the planet I'd taken with the armoured golem on it was the only other one adjacent to a warpgate, and its' undefended know so I'm not surprised it fell), so they'll have to stay behind. handily enough the fleet can then handle any angry core ships that decide to exact revenge!
06:01:35 - Plan has been readied, and manoeuvring is underway.
06:02:18 - Ships are in place, arachnids are loaded, transform and roll out!
06:02:23 - Planetary arrival is achieved. Forgot to pause... quickly remember to move the transports over then unload and attack!
06:02:43 - ...and it's dead!
Wait, no, the guardian is unharmed. My arachnids and transports are dead though... bother. What on earth happened? Searching reveals:
- An EMP guardian adjacent to the gravity guardian.
- A planetary armour inhibitor (worth noting, as that's put a stop to having wave 2 bringing the armour booster)
Either transports have a unload time, or the EMP allowed the spire transports to move freely but paralysed the arachnids... I clearly need to think about this some more!
I've used up my allotted *play AI war* time writing this, which has been a pleasant change of pace, so I'll take a break for now. Comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated... anything from my current situation in general to
taking out those homeworlds would be greatly appreciated!
- Pineapple
