Late-game advice for a newb?

[Harry]

After a two-year break, I'm enjoying AI War very much.  I figured I'd ease myself back in, start at 4/5 AI (Vanilla/Tank) instead of 7/7.  But just as with 7/7, I'm having trouble taking an AI Homeworld.  Here's my situation:

It's a 60-world map.  I've destroyed all the required CSGs.  AIP is 181; I've destroyed 2 or 3 Data Centers but no Co-Processors.  (I don't hit AIP II until 260 or so.)  I've taken 12 worlds and neutered one more, which is home to a helpful Dyson Sphere.  I got Acid Sprayers for my free ship.  I've unlocked Fighter III, Bomber III, Frigate III, and I have a couple Advanced Factories churning out Mark IVs.  Other tech includes grav turrets, Mk II stasis turrets, Mk 3 crystals, Mk 2 Force Field -- maybe too much defense?  I have a few cool golems, my favorite of which is the Hive Golem, but I have that particular Golem defending a besieged world at a crucial intersection (with 4 hostile wormholes).  I'm nervous about bringing that thru 2 enemy worlds to the homeworld, because the Golem then needs to get to safety after releasing its waspy payload.

 I've also got three fabrication plants, one producing Fighter Mark Vs, another Zenith Electric Bombers V, another Mini-Ram Vs.  I've taken roughly every other world in my path to hold down AIP -- but I wonder if I should've indulged myself and taken a couple more worlds for more knowledge.  I'm now 3 hops away from the first AI Homeworld, and the two intervening worlds have nothing of interest; I've cleaned them out of ships pretty easily. 

But the Homeworld itself is brutal!  I have managed to take out (1) an Ion Cannon, and (2) a guard post in two raids, but that's it.  (Will they respawn?)  My fleet is about 600 ships, mostly Mk III-V; the Homeworld has 300 plus a barracks with another 150, but they're almost all Mk V.  My Mk IV and V ships die fast the minute I enter the system.  I tried bringing a Spire Shield ship with me, but it didn't last long either.  Should I bring along a Mk II forcefield?  I thought about a Mobile Builder for turrets, but that won't work without supply, will it?  (I don't want to put the Homeworld on alert, so I'm attacking from 3 hops away.) 

Should I just keep hammering away, trying to knock down one guard post per suicide attack, lol?  Should I take more territory to get more knowledge so that I can build more ships?  Should I suspend this assault, work my way close to the 2nd AI, and try that one instead?  (Actually, I'm already about 4-5 hops from the 2nd AI too.)  Any general advice on how to pop into a very nasty homeworld system without being instakilled?

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

[Bognor]

Mk II stasis turrets, Mk 3 crystals

Not sure what you mean by these. 

(Will they respawn?)

No.

Should I just keep hammering away, trying to knock down one guard post per suicide attack, lol?

Maybe... So long as you take down a guard post each attack, you're making progress.

My Mk IV and V ships die fast the minute I enter the system.

Do you know what's killing them?  Maybe a Wrath Lance, or a Fortress near the wormhole?

Any general advice on how to pop into a very nasty homeworld system without being instakilled?

I see you've got Spirecraft enabled.  Groups of Spire Rams (the ones you make from asteroids, not the fleet ships) are awesome for taking out core guard posts.  You can send a sacrificial transport or three in front take hits for them.  Note you don't need to own a planet to mine its asteroids - you only need supply.  I bet you've got plenty of unmined common asteroids in in-supply planets you've already neutered.

[Harry]

Thanks for the very helpful reply.  I meant Tractor Beam Turret, not Stasis Turret, sorry.  And yep, I do have Spire.  I have brought various Spire ships along for these raids, but I think I've made only one big Ram.  I'll try making more.

Hmm, I'm not sure what's killing me so fast.  I see an AI Fortress III; Core Leech Guard Post; Core Missile Guard Post; Neinzul Spawner Guard Post; Booster Guard Post; Core Teuthida Guard Post; Tachyon Guard Post; Exo Galaxy Wormhole (I assume I can't do anything about that); the AI Home Station under two Core forcefield emitters; and of course regular Wormhole Guard Posts.  The closest target to my wormhole exit is the Booster Guard Post, then the Fortress/forcefield combination.  Not sure what to target next.

[Mánagarmr]

Well, the fortress likely eats anything that gets near it, aside from ships with Polycrystal hull, so it could be that. I guess the Teuthida post causes all kinds of awesome annoyances as well, but in that case you should see oodles of zombified ships.

[Harry]

I killed the Neinzul Spawner on my next go through, which spawned 1400 ships or something, and my fleet quickly died. But I had no trouble handling the 1000 or so ships that poured into my nearest system as a result.  So next I'll try to get the Leech, I think.  The Teuthida looks nasty, but it's got a lot of health, so I figure I'll focus-fire on the easier stuff first.  LoL, I'm up to three raids and counting.

[Mánagarmr]

I killed the Neinzul Spawner on my next go through, which spawned 1400 ships or something, and my fleet quickly died. But I had no trouble handling the 1000 or so ships that poured into my nearest system as a result.  So next I'll try to get the Leech, I think.  The Teuthida looks nasty, but it's got a lot of health, so I figure I'll focus-fire on the easier stuff first.  LoL, I'm up to three raids and counting.

Welcome to the AI Homeworld. Please take your number.

[Harry]

LOL, thanks.

Hrmm, my fourth raid was  complete bust, even though I had my biggest fleet yet.  I think the Teuthida is really the source of my woes.  Those drones swarm me and zombify most of my fleet in seconds.  I do have a number of ships immune to reclamation: Spire Rams, 20 spire mini-rams, Spire Teleporting Leeches, plus various starships.  Getting kinda worried, though.  None of my main fleet ships is immune to reclamation.  Maybe I should just leave them behind until i figure out how to get this Teuthida down?

[Mánagarmr]

Maybe I should just leave them behind until i figure out how to get this Teuthida down?

That is pretty much the standard tactic for the Teuthida. Going starship heavy on it is an advice. If you have any knowledge to spare, the higher ranked Bomber Starships are great for that.

[Faulty Logic]

Note you don't need to own a planet to mine its asteroids - you only need supply.

You don't need supply.

[Bognor]

The other nasty thing about the Teuthida is it's got a powerful set of infinite-range railcannons.  The shots from these things hit their targets instantly, so if you're not sure what's been killing you, these sound likely.  I presume (haven't tested) these should be fully countered by the counter-sniper abilities of Scout Starships and Cloaker Starships.  Note Mark II Scout Starships only cost 250 knowledge to research.

Note you don't need to own a planet to mine its asteroids - you only need supply.

You don't need supply.

Oh wow... I've been wrong about this since forever!  So I don't need to capture a planet to mine that out-of-the-way Titanite  .  Thanks Faulty!

[Faulty Logic]

Oh wow... I've been wrong about this since forever!  So I don't need to capture a planet to mine that out-of-the-way Titanite  .  Thanks Faulty!

Happy to help. For a while, if you were out of supply, the mining options would appear red (but still work). This has caused some confusion.

[Harry]

On my fifth raid, I got the Teuthida outpost down to about 8% before I succumbed.  I rushed to prep my next raid, and while the AI did repair the outpost up to about 20%, I got there in time to finish it off.  That was SO satisfying!  I know I'm only playing on AI 4/5, but this was a great challenge for me, and I loved overcoming it.  A terrific gaming experience.

After that, mopping up the remaining Teuthida drones was easy.  With them gone, I was able to bring in my fleet ships.  I took out most of the remaining outposts, but I still wiped out on the Fortress, which was guarded by two Core force fields and lots of angry Core ships (that heal, I guess near the Fortress).  On raid 7, I got rid of the force fields, and the Fortress itself came down surprisingly easily.  After all that, the Core Station was almost anticlimactic -- it exploded after a few shots. 

Heh, I've got 120-plus hours logged in this game on Steam, but this was the first time I'd ever taken down an AI Homeworld.  Sad, huh?  In my first plays, two years ago, I got hopelessly bogged down in my middle games and never finished.  And this time, I'd pretty much forgotten everything, so it was like being a newb again.

Of course, I'm not done yet, but I'm already 5 hops from the other homeworld, AI Progress is around 270, and I see two Core Fabricators right on my route to the second homeworld.  Things are looking up!

 

[zoutzakje]

yeah, nothing is more satisfying than succesfully destroying an AI homeworld I remember my first 7/7 victory and I was really proud of myself lol (heck, I even was proud of my first 1/1 win...)
I still have not encountered any of the new Core Guard Posts. I really want to see how nasty they are. I'm especially interested in the Wrath Lance. Teuthida seems fairly easy to handle with starships/rams, but I'll have to see for myself.

[Harry]

I won!  At last, lol.  I followed the advice here and took out the harder AI first (Vanilla with those Teuthida drones, ugh), so the second seemed like a cakewalk.  The second AI was a level-4 Tank with a Raid Engine Guard Post, a Fortress, and a few other things.  It still took me 3 or 4 raids to kill it, but each raid achieved something constructive, unlike my comical efforts against the Vanilla AI.

Also, I took another piece of advice I see a lot here: I used Transports to attack the Homeworld, from 3 hops away.  Wow, I wish I'd tried these earlier.  I packed up three of them, and was happy to see that even starships fit inside.  (Some big Spire ships did not, though, so I left them behind.)  The transports zipped through the two intervening systems so fast that I was at the Core-World target before I knew it! 

If I had to level a criticism at my own gameplay, I'd say I'm waaay too slow.  It took me 24 hours to finish this 60-planet map.  And yet I took only 14 planets!  That's barely more than a planet every two hours, whereas x4000 says he takes one every 45 minutes.  My cautious nature is my undoing.

Also, 14 planets might have been a bit too conservative; I was probably unduly hyper about my AIP, which ended at 417, after killing the second homeworld.  At this difficulty level, I was never close to getting to AIP(III), which wouldn't have kicked in til 700 or so.  I could have used the extra knowledge and crystal/metal.  Metal/crystal was a problem the entire game, what with all those fabricators and starships building (and the occasional merc ship and Trader-bought goodie).  I amassed only 53,000 knowledge.  Could've used more.

My raw score was 3.2 million; adjusted score only 91,406, lower than one of my losses on Defender mode!  (I took a hit for difficulty level, for using Easy Broken Golems, and other things.)

Anyway, thanks for all the help in this thread.  Now the question is: what next?  I'm thinking 7/7, as this did feel too easy, except for the epic fight for the first Homeworld.  I have all 4 expansions; I might want to enable Complex ships (had Normal this time).  But I'm also interested in trying the Spire campaign.  Is that a good challenge?

[zoutzakje]

7/7 with fallen spire can indeed be decent challenge. Will keep you entertained for a while
congratz on your win ^^