New - looking for advice

[Jester]

Hey all...

Recently downloaded AI Wars for something new to occupy my time, got a friend to get it at the same time so we've been playing together. We're mostly finished our first real game, after the debacle of our first trial game - spending the first 4/5 minutes just looking at all the different things you can build kind of ruins you for that first wave  - playing on 7/7 and looking like we should win.

However, we're going to have to go back to a recent save and try again. At 5.30am this morning, when we were both getting a little tired, the end of the game was almost, but not quite, in sight. We decided to go balls-to-the-wall and just zerg the two homeworlds in quick succesion so we could have the game finished before we went to bed. Bad move. We took the first homeworld, and had cleared all but one core guard post on the other when our homeworlds were destroyed :-(

My question is to do with end game strategy. Before our late night brain fade, we were in what we thought was quite a strong position. Homeworlds located, all core shield networks taken care of. Planets from which to make our assaults prepared with 4-6 space docks each to pump out replacements for our losses. AI progress at from memory about 150.

What is the best approach to taking the AI homeworlds and ending the game. Is it best to take them in quick sucession, or as long as AI progress is low enough is it fine to just take one and then take as long as we need to rebuild/prepare for the second?

Hope that makes sense, still a little tired :-)

[keith.lamothe]

Welcome to the forums and to the game, glad to hear you're enjoying it

For very challenging games a "double-kill" on the AI homeworlds is common: clear out all the core guard posts and other annoying stuff on one homeworld, then do the same to the other, then kill both command stations very quickly so you don't have to eat any waves at +100 AIP.

As far as more advice, there are a variety of general things to keep your defense from falling (cover critical objectives in tons of forcefields, run waves through one or two chokepoints, grav turrets, maybe logistics stations, fortresses, use minor faction rebel ships or dyson gatlings to patrol your area, use human-colony-rebellion player-controlled ships as a backup defense fleet, etc).

But which bits of advice most apply depends largely on exactly how the AI killed you

[Wanderer]

For better advice, as Keith mentioned... what killed you?

However, it all depends on what the universe looks like etc etc as to suffering +100 AIP for a while or double double-stuffing the AI.  My recommendation under *most* circumstances is the simultaneous destruction.    Clean off the homeworld of EVERYTHING... then do the same on the other one.  Prep a fleet (or whatever) on both planets and simultaneous kaboomage.

Now, with more description, perhaps we can decipher a better overall strategy for y'all.

[Jester]

Thanks for the replies guys... what killed us was just our own impatience, like I said we were both tired and tried to rush the final assaults so that we could have it finished before we called it a night, since we might not have a chance to pay together again particularly soon.

The main issue was that we'd got slack clearing threat towards the end and when we pulled our fleets to zerg the second homeworld we didn't have enough to defend the backdoor.

For now we're having enough fun trying to work out strategy on our own and it was only our own impatience that killed us, I was just wondering whether there would ever be any reason not to go for simultaneous destruction if it's possible?

[Wanderer]

For now we're having enough fun trying to work out strategy on our own and it was only our own impatience that killed us, I was just wondering whether there would ever be any reason not to go for simultaneous destruction if it's possible?

Nope, no reason whatsoever.  Sometimes the map dictates it's just not available as an option though.  That's rare, however.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, if you were playing a snake map starting from one end then one AI Homeworld would be roughly halfway between you and the other AI Homeworld.  That doesn't stop you from neutering the midway one and proceeding, but it can get mighty inconvenient.

[PokerChen]

For now we're having enough fun trying to work out strategy on our own and it was only our own impatience that killed us, I was just wondering whether there would ever be any reason not to go for simultaneous destruction if it's possible?

There are edge scenarios, mostly map dependent. If it does become more convenient to defend your territory to liberate their homeland, despite (1) the exo-galactic wormhole on the AI home, and (2) the >110 AIP associated with it, you can consider that option.

For example, given a semi-open map where you can paradoxically reduce your fronts by taking the AI core planets, *and* you are very capable at defense right now.

= = =
Edit: Essentially, I can think of two marginal cases:
(1) You don't need fleet ships for defense and want to anger the AI or see what the Spire Archives do. (i.e. you are playing at a leisurely difficulty.)

(2) You can close off an entire sector from AI attacks and still be able to defend against the higher AIP. Several maps do this, and boil it down to a minimum of 2-wormhole defense (exo-galactic and chokepoint).