Does less planets for the AI mean less reinforcing troops?

[Philo]

Just played our game "almost" through. We stomped everything except for the last main base and had everything secured. 5000 troops, Superfortress, a lvl 3 fortress and a million turrets guarding the only planet leading out. The AI just amassed an Armada of ships, there was nothing we could do.

Over 30 starships came in each wave. Around 24 of alien starships which I figure is Spire and Zenith starships. And 400 troops of mark V ships.
The waves came in every 30 seconds or so. In an hour we had lost all our planets and every planet had about 100-400 mark V ships with lots of starships.

I mean yeah, the AI progress was almost 2000 but the AI shouldn't be able to amasss such an army from just one planet, it's a little bit more unfair than the usual unfairness that there is in this game.

[SpaceJelly]

Hehehe, that's what happens when you stomp, stomp, stomp! Happened to me too (I have an issue with leaving hostile planets behind my lines) and the reason is on the AI homeworlds.

Look closely next to their command centres.... see that swirly, spinney thing.... Mouse over it and read the description

I'm new to the game, and I have to admit, it's refreshing to have to constantly adjust your playstyle to take into account that a big size 12 and stomping over every red spot you can see is NOT a good thing! (I'm still learning!)

[Philo]

Yeah but the swirly thing was always there, how the hell did they suddenly unleash a super armada attack when they have no more planets?

[TechSY730]

If you want an in universe explanation, it is because the AI has moved most of its forces outside the galaxy, doing some yet to be revealed thing with their massive armada (which all together, would be FAR more massive than all the defending ships in a single game plus hundreds of such waves you are facing, let that sink in and scare you a bit). When the AI sends waves at you or reinforces their planets, most of the time, they are pulling troops away from the whatever they were doing outside the galaxy and using it to deal with you or hold you back. AI progress is a measurement of how much the AI considers you a threat. Thus, the higher it is, the more the AI is willing to slow down its outside the galaxy "whatever" if it means it can get a better chance of stopping you.

In short, unlike human players, both story wise and game mechanic wise, the AI's production abilities is not limited by the number of planets they have.
This is a BIG reason why "curb stomping" the galaxy is not recommended. As the AI will "freak out" (rightly so), and start sending HUGE waves and HUGE reinforcements to try to stop you, especially for their home worlds. 2000 AIP is not unwinnable, but the AI will really start laying on the pain, as you have proved yourself a major threat.

[TechSY730]

Oh, and for a more detailed explanation for all of this, you can check out Chris' story oriented explanation of the AI and its behavior at http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_AI_Story. It should give a better explanation on why the AI seems to be so much more powerful yet doesn't go all out until you really start scaring it, or why it doesn't seem to be limited like the humans are.

[Philo]

K, read the wiki entry. I guess next time I'll just try not to destroy the core worlds so they send only mark IV reinforcements mostly and not Mark V like when I alerted the home world. Or better, not to even alert the core worlds while taking out their guard posts and clearing the path to the home world.

[Sir t]

Be aware of the mechanisms of alerting worlds too. Its possible (though unlikely) to send in a small force and kill the guardposts) on the core worlds without putting the homeworld on alert

[Philo]

But the homeworld won't stay in constant alert if I just neuter all the guardposts and leave the CS alive in the core worlds right?

[Mánagarmr]

Didn't they add a Raid Engine guard post in a patch? That might explain the brutal frequent waves.

[Red Spot]

Didn't they add a Raid Engine guard post in a patch? That might explain the brutal frequent waves.

The only time you will be certain to see raid-engines is if you play vs a Raid-engine AI.
Any other AI can have, it seems up to 1 raid-engine on the homeworlds (have never seen both homeworlds have one, but I do see 1 having a raid-engine and the other a CPA-post .. pick your evil .., and they can be randomly seeded here and there at random.

[zoutzakje]

yes, try not to put the homeworld and coreworld(s) on alert for too long. Will make the enemy reinforce massively and just crush you like a fly. also, if you were getting a lot of waves in a very short time, the enemy is likely to have a raid engine or CPA post on it's planet. These things are very annoying and I always make them my first target.
Btw, I once managed to destroy a CPA post with a cursed golem without triggering it to send me a wave... don't know if that's a bug or not.

[Commiesalami]

Try not to kill even the planets next to the core worlds if you have a botnet golem and/or a dyson sphere.  The zombies/dyson spawn will wander into the empty system and put the core world on alert.

I'm currently in a game where the only core world is on alert with 800 - 900 ships.  Its a little too much for my blob to handle (Zenith Shredders included) so I'm going to try to use an attrition spire craft in order to lure all the ships out of the system and kill them with the blob.  While I'm reinforcing my losses, I'm going to use spirecraft scouts to put a large number of other worlds on alert to 'thin out' their reinforcements.

Its probably too much effort, but it should be fun to see if it works.