Everything + Regenerator golems: how big can your fleet get?

[atomjack]

I've just finished a most enjoyable FS game (diff 8.3, random AI types, Hard golems). Through pure chance, one of the AIs was an Everything type. Through further pure chance, there were 3 (count 'em: three!) regenerator golems on the map, one right near the starting HW. And it's an FS game, where you take territory all over the place alleviating otherwise crippling energy issues.

I spent my initial knowledge on all the Leech starships I could carry, and went shopping. The Everything AI ensure that there were *lots* of ship types I didn't have a cap of yet, and the Regenerator golems ensured that I never lost a ship that I'd reclaimed(*). By the mid-game, excluding the Spire fleet, my main fleet had north of 6000 ships in it.

Now OK, even 6000 assorted mk I-IV ships can't cope with the larger Spire waves later on, but everything else was just toast. I love this game...

(*) Multiple Regen golems and a strong economy are way OP with a touch of micro. As soon as a golem drops to 50% health, power it down and assign 60 engineer IIIs to healing it. 5s later it's back up at full health, so power the next most damaged golem down. Rinse and repeat. You chew through the resources, but it's like quadrupling the effective hp of your fleet.

[Chthon]

(*) Multiple Regen golems and a strong economy are way OP with a touch of micro. As soon as a golem drops to 50% health, power it down and assign 60 engineer IIIs to healing it. 5s later it's back up at full health, so power the next most damaged golem down. Rinse and repeat. You chew through the resources, but it's like quadrupling the effective hp of your fleet.

Why would you power it down?  First off they will never kill themselves regenerating another ship.  Once they hit 10% they stop regenerating other ships.  Second their attack is very long range, and has vampirism effect, so by powering it down and not letting it participate in a combat, you are actually wasting your money as it can repair itself.

Instead turn on auto-kite for them.  They will stay out of range of almost anything.  If there is something truly threatening to them, move them out of sector instead.

edit:  Also, if you set up a safe beach head on the border of your territory, you can use wormhole guardposts to repair lost hp on your Regenerator golems, saving you lots of money on repairs.

[atomjack]

If you have two regen golems, then you can resurrect 720M health worth of ships before both golems power down and you start losing ships permanently. If you power one down and repair it sooner, then you can dump 300-400K resources into it while the other one is still supporting the fleet, then bring it back online at 100% health. You have to power it down because you can't repair it while it's resurrecting ships.

 If you started with a pretty full resource pile, then you can get 1.5-2 billion worth of ship resurrections before you run out of golems+resources.

OK, in most normal campaigns 700M health worth of ships takes you a long way, but in an FS campaign with a full Spire fleet and 6000 supporting fleet ships defending against massive incoming Spire waves it would surprise you how quickly you can burn through a billion health worth of ships, especially once you start losing Spire battleships . In this situation the vampirism attack of the golems is meaningless, especially if it risks them getting into range of a Mk V implosion guardian!

Note that this was in a fairly special situation: I had a massive fleet, but 90% of the fleet was effectively irreplaceable as I couldn't rebuild them if lost. Microing the golems let me ensure that I managed to keep all I had gained...

[Chthon]

I honestly don't think I've ever seen anything larger than a spire frigate get rebuilt by a regen golem.  The simple fact that the regen golem only rebuilds fleet ships should attest to that fact.

[RockyBst]

The largest thing I've ever seen a regenerator rebuild?

That would be a botnet golem.

[ZaneWolfe]

Regen Golem, MSDs and MKI -  MKIV Nienzul Railpods. If its not a golem, or just immune to Sniper, it is dead until your Econ runs dry. A single Regen Golem will fully regen a cap of every mark twice fully, and about half of them on the third run. (At least on my Ultra Low Cap test) Then the MSDs kick in, healing your golem and pumping out Railpods. Anything with radar dampening is to be manually targeted so the Railpods get in range. My test run had them shred about 50% of an Exo from the First Spire City. A Regen Golem will also regen Enclave Drones, but I've been unable to get it to regen Spire Blades, Tackle Drones, or Lightning Torpedoes.