Does the AI Go for the Kill?

[CautiousChaos]

Hey folks,

I'm playing a tough game right now and I suspect that I am not going to be able to take down the defenses of the AI's easily.  I've collected 4 planets (out of 60) and have advanced the AI counter to 114.  Things are getting tough.  I was wondering if your experiences show that the AI goes for the kill when the player is down.  I'm seeing waves coming at me, but frankly they are nothing more than a nuisance (I don't even bother checking in anymore).  The AI is bulking up close to 1,000 ships in neighboring stars.  Has anyone seen the AI throw those types of numbers in an attack against a human planet or do they solely focus on keeping a strong defense?

-CuriousChaos

[darke]

At the moment they just keep building up their defenses, they never really go on assault unless you do something silly, like fly into that planet and take out the command center, then they go for the kill.

It's been mentioned as somewhat of a problem in another couple of threads that the AI really shouldn't build up to massive numbers, but rather just start throwing surplice ships at you after it hits a certain amount on a planet, because otherwise it ends up being the case that you simply can't defeat a planet after a while.

No doubt The One Known Only As X will get around to making the AI do something irritating whenever he gets around to the next release to compensate for the massed defenses.

[Haagenti]

Strategy tip: The AI bulks up only in adjacent systems. In one game, I was surrounded by three heavily populated IV planets, so I built up all my fleet, used turrets to defend my home colonies, built a few colony ships and sailed through the one planet that had no Ion cannon to fresh planets beyond, which were much less defended.

[CautiousChaos]

I've been eyeing up the use of transports to do the same thing...  Good idea.
-cc

[Admiral]

The AI is bulking up close to 1,000 ships in neighboring stars.

Not to answer your other question, but 1,000 ships in an AI planet isn't very much.

First, realize that those 1,000 ships are likely to be spread out all over the planet. There will be a bunch around each wormhole, a bunch around the orbital command station/wormhole generator, and a bunch around each command post, of which there are probably going to be at least three or four.

In my experience, the hardest part about assaulting a planet is getting your scout in and alive. Sometimes it's not even possible. Then, you just pour your entire fleet through as fast as possible from the other side of the wormhole and establish a beachhead. You will probably take the largest losses at this point. Then, send in your engineers (or mobile repair ships; I prefer fleets of Engineer IIs and IIIs, although IIs have the effect (benefit?) of distracting enemies from attacking your fleet).

Once you have your engineers parked off in some innocuous corner and a scout somewhere hidden, you're now good to go. Your fleet of 400-800 ships (depending on level) should be able to walk through the planet as you'll only encounter 100-200 ships at a time. The AI might even be silly and send a steady, light stream of ships from each of his clusters, allowing your cruisers to pick them off as they approach individually.

Cheers!