I haven't psoted in a while but I've been watching all the updates over the recent pre-releases and can't believe how different the game feels to play now.
To begin with I played against level 1 and 2 ai's and enjoyed it but just the other day I decided to learn by testing myself and increased the ai's to level 6.
The game started well with a gradual process of building up my defenses in my home system and then taking a neighbouring one with just one wormhole so easy to defend. I then scouted the local planets and spotted and some advanced research so that was my next objective. I increased efforts on building my fleet up so I had enough to attack but still keep a small buffer force to defend my home world then I struck and after a fairly short battle took the planet and gained a new ship in the bargain.
At this stage I was grouping my ships together and relying on the correct ships attacking the ships they where most capable of hurting. Which seemed to be working well. One side thought I get annoyed when I set free-roaming defender mode because my ships attack Astrotrains. Would it be possible to change this behaviour.
Anyway to cut a long story short I have now got 5 systems and have targeted 3 more with research and factories. I again built up a sizable force with some Starships and went to war and using the above grouped tactic I got slaughtered. On top of this the ai decided I was no threat to the system and headed through the wormhole and started attacking my captured systems one of which was taken back.
At this stage of the game I nearly fell off my chair when the ai suddenly spoke for the first time talk about nasty and patronising.
I have since taken back the system and I'm now gearing up for a second assault. I will post how it turns out.
Linked to this do any players have tips and tactics for taking enemy systems.
Sorry for the long post and keep up the good work this game just gets better and better but I'm still struggling to play it over the net due to slowdowns I have tried with two friends and have the same issue's. But in solo play I'm it rocks.
