What are the exact effects of killing one AI home command station?

[Traveller]

So, in order to win, you need to kill both AI command stations.  But when you kill one, are you actually killing that player--or is it "okay, our team has two, and we can both keep using the other one"?

Specifically... Does killing one AI home station prevent that player from reinforcing?  From sending waves?  Obviously it doesn't make them stop caring if you kill their other planets--that would be insane--but is there any actual utility that you gain from killing off one station that could be taken advantage of?  I noticed that the flavor text on the home planet intergalactic wormholes says they keep letting ships in until both homeworlds are dead, so right now my assumption is that killing one player actually doesn't do anything useful at all.

I can see a few strategies where wiping out one planet in midgame could be useful, without committing to finishing the game on the spot, even if there's no actual game effects from doing it (aside from 'you don't have to do it later'), but this question is more about the actual game effects that happen when one AI player dies.


Bonus question: Is there ever a reason NOT to nuke the second AI homeworld, either right up front or after you trigger their reserves?  I just used a nuke for the first time last game, and was delighted to discover that yes, if you cut off supply from the enemy homeworld, their fortress (and maybe ion cannons) are permanently disabled.  That's a HUGE game changer, since I normally can't get that fortress out of the way until after I kill the station.  An extra +50 AIP when my fleet is sitting on their doorstep doesn't sound very big, especially when it almost certainly makes the difference between needing two waves or three to kill the bad guys.  It seems most effective after I've triggered their reserves, since those are mark <5 units and therefore quite vulnerable to the nuke.  Even if I don't nuke, an EMP to shut down the ion cannons seems really obvious.  I'm only playing on difficulty 7.0 and 7.3 for now, but still...it seems like nuking will be an integral part of every endgame for me, unless there's a good reason not to.

[keith.lamothe]

In general killing that first home command station doesn't really gain you much.  At least that I recall.  It would make the very end of the Showdown thing easier, but I'm guessing if you can kill one AI without the Showdown it's easier to kill the other than it is to do the showdown at that point.

And end-game warhead (nukes and others) gambits can be extremely effective, yes.  Sometimes people resort to multiple nukes and liberal usage of lightning warheads, etc.  But if the gambit doesn't work your chances of survival are often low

[Bognor]

Welcome to the forums!

I just used a nuke for the first time last game, and was delighted to discover that yes, if you cut off supply from the enemy homeworld, their fortress (and maybe ion cannons) are permanently disabled.

But be warned... This does not work for SuperFortresses.

[Kahuna]

Destroying one AI home command station doesn't do much. It increases AIP, makes the planet neutral, frees all AI ships on that planet, spawns the Avenger if it's enabled and stops that AI from sending waves ever again (someone correct me if I'm wrong here). I guess it could also reduce the amount of ships in CPAs since there's one less reserve where the AIs can pull ships from. But on the other hand destroying an AI home world increases the AIP so much that doesn't really matter. In my last game a CPA of ~22000 ships was announced shortly after I had destroyed one AI (and it's reserve).. so um yeah. All planets owned by the destroyed AI will keep reinforcing themselves.. including Special Forces (Guard Posts). Which shouldn't be the case IMO.

And no there's no reason not to use Warheads in that situation. Just spam the hell out of the AI home worlds. Nuke the home planet.. destroy the reserve with Lightning Warheads and Cloaker Starships and leave some EMP Warheads with Cloaker Starships on the surrounding core planets to delay Special Forces.

[Traveller]

Alright, I wasn't sure about stopping waves.  That does give an early strike a lot of potential, if I'm up against (for example) Support Corps and Warp Jumper.  At the very least, it certainly tells me which one I want to kill first.  Thanks!

Welcome to the forums!

I just used a nuke for the first time last game, and was delighted to discover that yes, if you cut off supply from the enemy homeworld, their fortress (and maybe ion cannons) are permanently disabled.

But be warned... This does not work for SuperFortresses.

Thanks for the welcome and the advice!

[keith.lamothe]

I don't think taking out an AI HW stops their waves.  It's possible I've forgotten something, but I was recently in that area of the code and I didn't see such a check.  Possibly it was earlier in a broader scope.

[Toranth]

I don't think taking out an AI HW stops their waves.  It's possible I've forgotten something, but I was recently in that area of the code and I didn't see such a check.  Possibly it was earlier in a broader scope.

Not unless it secretly changed recently.  I don't think it gets rid of the Reserves, either.  Of course, since Reserves can only deploy to a system that belongs to that AI, the other AI Homeworld won't get any (direct) help from them.

[Kahuna]

Ok then. Thats a meh.

[TechSY730]

I think the idea of killing one AI homeworld not doing much is that it mirrors what happens in multiplayer for humans. When your homeworld dies, but there are still other players around, you aren't out of commission, but you get a homeworld core that still can build stuff and give you resources and stuff spawned on an ally homeworld. It does give you some resources, but usually not as much as the HW you just lost.

While I could see a change to make the AI who lost its homeworld to have a temporary setback to mirror this effect, the AI who lost its homeworld being able to continue when the other AI still has theirs is not really unfair.