Pinning the AI

[Mylon]

I've taken to try a new strategy.   The AI can only reinforce between 8 and 30 planets (at least on difficulty 7) at a time.  Because of this limitation, what if I attrition the AI player?  Rather than allow them to do it to me, I jump into a low level system and establish a beachhead.  A bunch of turrets covered by counter-sniper rifles.  This works best when the merchant is visiting, then I can put up a force field and and build an ion cannon (or cannons) under it.  Thanks to the large health of remains rebuilders, they can happily rebuild turrets that are worn down and survive a bit of a beating, and will sit cloaked regenerating otherwise.

The AI in turns sees this presence as a threat and reinforces the system.  The ships generally die quickly to the established beachhead, especially so if an ion cannon is involved.  The important point is that the AI is not reinforcing other systems because of this.  At first, the AI will do a 4x reinforce on the system, but as the player spreads out more of these beachheads are required, and they in turn become easier to maintain.  But at this point the AI is generating even less ships.  Now when the player invades, the AI won't have many ships to defend with, and a few casual raids will have long lasting effects on enemy forces. By establishing a permanent presence on an enemy planet without wiping that enemy out, that enemy planet becomes an asset without having to hold it.  This strategy also seems to apply to warp gates.  A system with a warp gate will get flagged for reinforcements, and with only a few turrets around the warp gate, the interlopers can be dealt with.  This saves on AI progress by not killing those and further reduces their ability to reinforce other systems.

As a casual benefit to this strategy, more energy reactors can be built in the established beachhead to avoid the costly energy reactor 3s.

Has anyone else tried this strategy, or want to give it a test run and compare it to other strategies they have tried?

Thus far I've noticed the game become significantly easier after establishing a few of these, as now the enemy no longer rushes me as much and rebuilds much slower after a failed raid.  Though turrets, since they no longer require reinforcements to replace, can still be nasty.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Ion cannon is damned expensive for a decoy..might be a lot cheaper just to build more turrets.

[Terrible Terrible Damage]

i usually set up beachheads like this about 10 min in advance of my attack, so I'm pretty used to doing them.

Never tried doing it on multiple fronts though.

Will do this today in co-op with a friend a report back.

[quickstix]

In regards to warp gates, only warp gates on AI core/home planets get reinforcements, otherwise, regular warp gates don't affect the reinforcement cycle or receive reinforcements. Command stations get do get reinforcements though, alongside guard posts and wormholes. Source: http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_AI_Reinforcements

It's certainly a good idea. Making the enemy think you are active and in the area, when in fact you are not is a proven strategy. Thinning out AI reinforcements is a good idea, as the AI only gets a set number of them. However it carries the reverse of thinning out your forces on multiple fronts and the fact that attrition is always an expensive exercise. Also, the AI reinforces based on the threat of ships. So your main attacking force is always going to draw more of the AI's attention than a small beachhead. Starships and golems will also freak the AI right out, causing an instant alert. However, multiple beachheads will still potentially draw some of those reinforcements away, and that's never a bad thing.

That's the beauty of AI War though, there's so many different ways to play the game and not just one 'winning' strategy.

[Mylon]

Ion cannon is damned expensive for a decoy..might be a lot cheaper just to build more turrets.

200k of each, compared to roughly 50k of each for a starship.  Plus, ion cannons consume almost no energy and practically guarantee permanent lockdown of that planet.

[NickAragua]

Uh, "building" an ion cannon? Is this an expansion-only feature that I missed?

[Lancefighter]

apparently so :p

The Zenith trader comes around and you can buy ion cannons from him, as well as a few other things.
All ridiculously expensive..

[NickAragua]

Yeah, in that case, I certainly wouldn't waste an ion cannon on a diversionary beach head.

That being said, in our current coop game, my buddy and I have used beach heads to pretty good effect. The best part is that they're more or less self-sustaining as long as you leave a couple of engineers in there to fix up the force field.

[Lancefighter]

well, you can buy 3 mk1 ions (and 2 mk2), and they certainly are effective. For instance, I put an ion mk2 on my homeworld, and it more or less defends against anything that comes through (I also put a zenith powerplant there.. so thats twice the wave size >.> reaching 600+ currently)


but mk1 ions are fairly cheap in terms of what they could actually do; Id be more worried that the planets will decide to reinforce mk2 ships when your AIP goes up, and all the sudden you'll find a ton of hostile ships swarming your planets

[soMe_RandoM]

demond hands are awsome for this send 1 off on an low level planet anything lower than mrk 4 or 3 (depending on size) then let the do thier stuff they yust consitly yust kill and wont die, in an mrk 1 planet it doesnt matter what thier. and it will indefinatly stay thier while vampiring

[Sizzle]

demond hands are awsome for this send 1 off on an low level planet anything lower than mrk 4 or 3 (depending on size) then let the do thier stuff they yust consitly yust kill and wont die, in an mrk 1 planet it doesnt matter what thier. and it will indefinatly stay thier while vampiring

I wouldn't think a single Demon Hand would alert the AI enough to have them reinforce that planet.  Or at least in any significant numbers...  You're capped at 4, assuming you have the fab to build them as well!

[superking]

hey bro, I tried out this stratergy for about a month and then gave it up. if try to garrison lots of planets, you can only put a small porc on each, and when the AIP hits a certain level the reinforcements will wear down your turrets again and again, leading to a small fortune being spend on rebuilding. if you really go on a turret unlocking spree and fully garrison, not only will you have not unlocked enough ships and have a small fleet, but you will be spending a hell-load of energy on a sparse spread of turrets. when that big cpa or wave smashes through, none of the beachheads are especially tough and all of them just go down like speed bumps. it works up to about AIP 140? then it just ceases to be economical. it ceases to be economical much earlier if the AI has space tanks, armour ships, eyebots or electric bombers, too

[soMe_RandoM]

I wouldn't think a single Demon Hand would alert the AI enough to have them reinforce that planet.  Or at least in any significant numbers...  You're capped at 4, assuming you have the fab to build them as well!

not if it drilling all the ships on the planet and thier isnt any on it thus meaning if you are activle attacking or tricking that u are (turrets ) then they have to renforce and the Hand yust redrill the ships coming to destroy the turrets ecter. turrets do work asuming 1 snipa is attacking eg their command station(ifu want),gaurd post(most likely)