New to the game, what I'm doing wrong?

[Elok]

Basically, I'm a big experienced RTS player. I've done the tutorial and I love AI War so far.

Still, I've started a basic campaign (2 AI enemies at 7.0 and 7.3), and I always get easily overwhelmed at about 200-300 AI Progress.

So far, my plan is usually to attack the adjacent planet of my home world except 1 (the highest lvl) and completely trap the warp gate. I usually attack the weakest sector that got the most metal/crystal but I think there's stuff I'm missing about controlling the AI Progress. After something like 5-6 sector captured, a Cross-over attack mixed with 1-2 +500 ship wave make it almost impossible to defend when I got an army of roughly 700-800 ships and about 150-200 turrets + minefield. I survived two of two so far but I doubt I'll survive a biggest one if I "dare" attack a new planet.

So, is there sector with special building I should avoid? Also, why the tutorial show me a data center to drop the AI Progress, but I don't see any in the campaign (I only encounter some special data-center that require that I hunt & kill all of them for the AI to drop).

Oh yeah, and that damn special AI ship that ninja my home world to shoot my HQ through the shield is goddamn cheap

[Haagenti]

Some tips:
1) Try to grab a bunch of planets that have few connections to the rest of the universe (it depends on your map type whether this is feasible). This really cuts down on your defense requirements.

2) Try to research more turrets. These are really cheap defense (use a rebuilding drone to rebuild them for half price). Use gravity turrets to ensure that the AI ships have to spend a long time near those turrets.

3) Try to play much faster. You should be able to conquer the 5-6 planets well inside the first hour. The sooner you conquer the first planet, and go on to the second, the less time all other planets have to gather reinforcements, the easier it gets.

4) Because you build so many ships so rapidly, ships *seem* dispensable. They are not (until the midgame). At start every ship is precious (except fighters). Every ship you lose, sets back your timetable.

5) Use fighters a lot. Fighters are very durable for their cost. Make sure that in the early stages you use plenty of fighters (but not exclusively). Use combat strategies like: first attack with fighters, once these are engaged, use the rest. This helps with #3 and #4.

6) Regularly weed out damaged ships and repair them with an engineer. Cheaper and faster than rebuilding. This helps with #3 and #4.

7) Plan ahead. Once a planet is cleared, there should be a finished colony ship plus engineers waiting near the wormhole. This helps with #3

If you plug a wormhole with a forcefield (you build the forcefield over that wormhole), enemies can't enter that wormhole before they kill the forcefield. This is the only 100% (well...almost) defense you have.

9) Mass. Always attack with much more than the AI has. Never give him an even fight. Look again at item #4.

10) Against waves. Learn what works against what. If you are hit by a cruiser wave, keep all your fighters out of harms way and attack with all your bombers. Same for other waves.

11) Production. As soon as you can possibly afford it, research the first Economic Orbital Station and use it. These will put your production on steroids. Never research the mining improvements. As soon as you can possibly afford it, research the second Economic Orbital Station and use it.

This should get you going....

[zebramatt]

I assume you're warp gate raiding planets around you to funnel regular waves into known paths - but if not then do make sure you do that. (Whatever you do, don't destroy all the warp gates connected to your planets - this is counterproductive.)

You'll also want at least a buffer of one friendly planet between your home world and every AI world, so make sure you're doing that.

The next most noteworthy element to bear in mind is how the AI reinforces its planets. If you destroy an AI world, all the AI worlds around it go on alert and start to receive reinforcements. They receive them at each guard post, wormhole and command station - so this can get out of hand pretty fast. They'll also go on alert if you do a number of other things, including parking a sizable fleet nearby. You can tell whether they're on alert from the Galaxy Map by hovering your mouse over the planets (as long as you have a scout there, I believe).

Scouting information can be invaluable for fending off CPAs. A scout in every AI planet connected to yours and every one just beyond that will tell you (by watching the numbers of enemy ships passing through using the filter in the Galaxy Map) where the ships which make up the CPA are going.

You'll want to try to create heavily defended choke points wherever possible, to prevent the AI from attacking you on multiple fronts.

[Philo]

What I first do when I start is scout the few planets around me ofc. What I look for is:

1. Distribution nodes : Destroying these will give you a great beginning fund of 300 000+ both minerals. And being this early on you can use it for a few Bomber starships (or use it for Raid starships if the Command Stations are under Force fields) to easily and fast take out the CS near you.

2. The mark level of the planets, if they are Mark IV planets around me with lots of guardians I dare not touch them before I have almost a full cap of Mark II bombers + full cap of all other mark I and some good turrets to hold off the counter attack. Mark III is not to be taken lightly either but you'll usually survive these even early on if they have less than 100 troops.

The Data Centers are actually quite rare. It's just one of the many things that can be on any given planet.

--

First good unlocks:

Beam Cannon Turret - The most powerful basic turret there is, very effective against most small craft that you'll see in the beginning of the game and very cost effective.

Economic Orbital Command Station Mark II/III . Usually I unlock these the first second I get a planet. The Mineral income is just so good.

Bombers Mark II . Can't go wrong with these. Good against Force fields, most Guardians, Frigates and other big ships.'

Mark III Military Command Stations under a force field will hold off lots and lots of troops so if you can spend the Knowledge then it's good. But usually you need a second player so the other gets a Econ CS Mark III and the other Military CS Mark III.
---

Yeah and try to funnel the waves into one point by destroying all warp gates except one, this is most easily done with raid starships.

[x4000]

A few general things that I've written that may help:

http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Fast_Facts
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Starting_Out
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Choosing_A_Difficulty_Level#Like_Chess.2C_A_Game_Of_AI_War_Has_Three_Abstract_.22Phases.22

So far, my plan is usually to attack the adjacent planet of my home world except 1 (the highest lvl) and completely trap the warp gate. I usually attack the weakest sector that got the most metal/crystal but I think there's stuff I'm missing about controlling the AI Progress. After something like 5-6 sector captured, a Cross-over attack mixed with 1-2 +500 ship wave make it almost impossible to defend when I got an army of roughly 700-800 ships and about 150-200 turrets + minefield. I survived two of two so far but I doubt I'll survive a biggest one if I "dare" attack a new planet.

So, is there sector with special building I should avoid?

Watch out for Counterattack Guard Posts, if that's what you're running into.  And Raid Engines, too.  If you can anticipate them, you can do well.  Also, don't forget about minefields, tractor beams, and even warheads if things start getting really desperate.

Also, why the tutorial show me a data center to drop the AI Progress, but I don't see any in the campaign (I only encounter some special data-center that require that I hunt & kill all of them for the AI to drop).

They very much exist, but you have to scout around for them.  Most of them will be very far away from where you start out.  200-300 AIP isn't really that high, I tend to end my games at 600-800, but others go a lot lower with theirs.  It sounds like mainly you need some work on defense and creating effective bottlenecks -- and like you might be running into a lot of counterattack guard posts or similar at bad times.  Make sure you know what will happen based on all the big special ships and guard posts at a planet when you attack them, or you can get some nasty surprises.

Oh yeah, and that damn special AI ship that ninja my home world to shoot my HQ through the shield is goddamn cheap

Raid Starships?  You have the same ship!  You can do that to the AI, going under their forcefields, too.   The best strategy for them is to make sure that you've got significant enough buffer around your home planet, with other planets you control and defend, that the AI can't get that ship TO your home planet, though.

[chemical_art]

Oh yeah, and that damn special AI ship that ninja my home world to shoot my HQ through the shield is goddamn cheap

Those sound like Raid Starships. Your best counter will be the sniper turret. It is the best because it can puncture the Raider's heavy armor, it gets an attack bonus, its infinite range makes the raider's high speed less important, and you can make them from the start. I always have at least 10 of these in my homeworld so that this cheap tactic is countered and defeated decisively. They are not cheap so you don't want to build too many at once (that WILL kill your economy), but if you put them on the outskirts of your systems they'll be left alone for a long while and help all defense.



EDIT: What was your starter fleet ship, Elok? Your chosen chip very strongly influences what tactics are effective. Some strategies always work because they use only triangle ships, or bombers fighters and frigates which everyone has. But specialized units allow specialized tactics.

[Elok]

My research tree : When the game begin, Orbital Economic Station Mark II/III (I don't really need anything at the beginning anyway). Then I usually goes for the Mark II/III ship to help strengthen my fleet. After this, I usually mix with what I need (Mark II Shield, engineer, Crystal and Metal mine).

The defense of my main world is usually 6-8 tractor beam + same amount of the shockwave turret that do 800 dmg around. A dozen minefield, a few dozen missile turret between the wormhole and HQ, and a few dozen sniper turret far in the corner. With this, I'm able to to survive easily a raid of 1000-1500 ship with about 500 defending one. I also put team of engineer and "reincarnation drone" (The little guy that resurrect dead ship) on the "patrol?" mode.  I take advantage of the fact that shield can recharge completely if they aren't damaged for a few seconds by moving them around. I never really researched new turret but I usually start to get problem before I can.

For factory, they are on loop to concentrate on Mark I/II fighter/bomber, but they build anything that die. When I get high on resource, I also build all the star ship available (except the scout)

I also never destroy building that give me resource/ship for a little AI raise.


And about that Raid Starships )It that how that ?&%$/" bugger is called?). It's just frustrating when I attack/defend other world then I get a "My HQ is under attack" message and no ship is around to kill him fast. I've lost 3 time already because of this f*****er and had to reload.

[x4000]

And about that Raid Starships )It that how that ?&%$/" bugger is called?). It's just frustrating when I attack/defend other world then I get a "My HQ is under attack" message and no ship is around to kill him fast. I've lost 3 time already because of this f*****er and had to reload.

Put some sniper turrets on your home planet, especially near to your home command station, and that will fix him up well.

[Echo35]

And about that Raid Starships )It that how that ?&%$/" bugger is called?). It's just frustrating when I attack/defend other world then I get a "My HQ is under attack" message and no ship is around to kill him fast. I've lost 3 time already because of this f*****er and had to reload.

Put some sniper turrets on your home planet, especially near to your home command station, and that will fix him up well.

Yeah. I usually leave Sniper and Missile Turrets on all my vital planets. The two together can chew through a lot of the faster, Tractor Beam dodging ships.

[Elok]

I was wondering if it was the difficulty (7.0 easy AI + 7.3 standart AI) so I started a new game with 6.0 and 6.3 instead...

Damn...it's way too easy >_<. I was able to rush about 5-6 world before they first decided to attack me with something like 40 ship what the heck? I'm now in control of about 50% of the 80 system universe and no real thread so far.

At 7.0 - 7.3 they send me two +200 ship attack after the first captured world.

[Cyborg]

I was wondering if it was the difficulty (7.0 easy AI + 7.3 standart AI) so I started a new game with 6.0 and 6.3 instead...

Damn...it's way too easy >_<. I was able to rush about 5-6 world before they first decided to attack me with something like 40 ship what the heck? I'm not in control of about 50% of the 80 system universe and no real thread so far.

At 7.0 - 7.3 they send me two +200 ship attack after the first world.

The game begins on 7.0, in my opinion. Levels 1-6 are really great for new players, but you seem to be noticing the teeth really show up on level 7 and above.

[Hearteater]

It is the AI luring new players into a false sense of security.  "See, difficult 6 isn't so bad.  Why don't you try 8?  How much harder can it be?"

[Elok]

Err I got another problem in my new "easier" game.

I was pressing one of the two AI, I was about to reach his homeworld when I reached 1000 AI Progress (Not sure if it's related). Now, the bastard send me 1000-1500 waves non-stop (I destroy it, I get a message that he'll send another one in a minute. The text is written in yellow like Cross-world wave).

Is it normal (I'm kinda stuck on the defensive) and how can I stop it?

EDIT : Here's a screenshot of one of those wave warning : http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2792/2011071800002t.jpg

EDIT2 : Nevermind, just found the cause in my own screenshot. Damn AI Core Raid Engine >_<. Gonna build a huge transport fleet and destroy that fu**er

[Commiesalami]

If you have Spirecraft on it may be easier to send a jumpship with a few bomber starships down there to take down the raid engine.  That way you can also have your main forces available to defend the incoming counter attack.

And your 1000 AI progress is a very major factor in the size of those waves.

[Elok]

Nice....after 3 unsuccessful attempt, I just found out that I cannot damage the building until I kill the the "Core Shield" in all adjacent planet...

I don't want to sound critic or anything, but there's a lot of "bad surprise" in this game...