Need help in attacking HOMEWORLD with 400AIP

[Majere3]

How do I destroy AI homeworld in less than an hour? 

I already build a beach head in the Core world for the nuke.  After spend an hour to Nuke homeworld.
I was so disappointed by the nuke.  The Nuke doesn't kill anything.  I see alot of Mark IV ships.
I was hoping to use nuke to destroy AI homeworld.  Sadly Nuke doesn't do anything.

If I keep grinding it away, the AIP will progress to very high. 

This is my first game 60 planets.  I am facing AI difficulty 7.  Because I take too long, AIP is now 400.
I have about 25 captured planets.  See attachment for my autosave game.
Is there no hope? 

[ArnaudB]

AI homeworlds are completely invulnerable to nuke, by virtue of homeworld guard post, command stations, and ships mark V being 100% immune to nukes.

Lightnings and Armored warheads does work.

You can wait till your resources are maxed and launch a beachhead + your fleet into the homeworld to grind down the strategical reserve. Avoid fleet wipe and make raid to lower the strategical reserve down to 1%, then there will be far less ships to bother your fleet while you go killing the AI guard posts.
Otherwise it's up to raiding the guards posts with not-too expansive fleet ships (perhaps a couple flag) through transports, possibly using other transports as a distraction, with your fleet maybe swapping in and out of AI homeworld.

The strategical reserve is the huge thing, it's what you can throw warheads at to reduce, and once you kill it, it's much easier to hold a beachead on the AI homeworld and finish it.

[Kahuna]

Build a beachhead next to the Core planet(s) with a lot of Gravitational Turrets to delay the Special Forces. When they're stacked up thanks to the Gravitational Turrets you can just pop them with a Lightning Warheads. Or you can just keep EMPing them as they come.

Cloak Lightning Warheads with Cloaker Starships and destroy the strategic reserve on the Core planet(s) next to the home world. Then send your whole fleet in Assault Transports and Lightning Warheads cloaked by multiple Cloaker Starships to the Homeworld. Let Assault Transports absorb the Alpha Strike and then unload. Use the Lightning Warheads to destroy the Strategic Reserve. I don't remember if Lightning Warheads can damage buildings anymore.

Then if you can, beachhead the homeworld. Build Turrets, Docks and a Missile Silo to build reinforcements. Or you can just keep sending reinforcements with Assault Transports (keep them in stand down mode so they stay invisible (herp a derp)). Send more Warheads with Cloaker Starships. When going trough a wormhole use group move and send Cloaker Starship first.. then the Warheads and then another/more Cloaker Starship(s). This way all of the Warheads will stay invisible when going trough a wormhole.

[Bognor]

Do the tricks with Cloaker Starships still work, now that AI Homeworlds have planetary tachyon coverage?  I'm not sure how the cloaking super-booster interacts with tachyon beams.

[Kahuna]

Do the tricks with Cloaker Starships still work, now that AI Homeworlds have planetary tachyon coverage?  I'm not sure how the cloaking super-booster interacts with tachyon beams.

Cloaking super boosted ships will stay invisible even if they're in range of a tachyon beam as long as the Cloaker Starships are alive. The Cloaker Starships can't cloaking super boost each other so they will be visible and vulnerable. But that's why you send the Assault Transports first to absorb the alpha strike and then unload so there will be as much cannon fodder for the Cloaker Starships as possible.

So Lightning Warheads will be invisible even on an AI Homeworld as long as the Cloaker Starships are alive. Which means Strategic Reserve = Sad Panda.

[Alex Heartnet]

AI homeworlds are completely invulnerable to nuke, by virtue of homeworld guard post, command stations, and ships mark V being 100% immune to nukes.

I can't help but notice that one of the AI homeworlds in my game has a MKIII fortress.  While the fortress itself is technically nuke-immune, nukes remove something important to continued functioning of said fort.  So no, homeworlds aren't completely invulnerable to nukes.



Also there are more defensive there then when a last checked, there was only a single MKIII force field there and now there are multiple Core Force Fields <_<