Please Advise on How to Proceed

[Coppermantis]

I was doing well in my current Fallen Spire campaign until this happened.


In case it's too small to see, that's an exogalactic wave, a marauder attack, a rebel colony, a cross-planet attack approaching and my existing rebel colony is close to being steamrolled.
 My fleet of resistance ships from the last colony combined with merc ships is the only one close by to Path, the battlefield in the screenshot. A Mk. I fortress may be able to help, but it's doubtful. Also not shown is the 200 ships in the carrier that's inbound.

The Rebel colony planet is reachable and has an ARS so I was planning on taking it anyway, but this is sooner than I'd like. It has an AI Eye and Mk. III Ion Cannon so taking it will be tough.

The screenshot is a result of allowing buildup for hours on a planet I had assumed I neutered but left unscouted. It had accumulated almost 1,000 ships, so I nuked it, having no other viable option. (Moving my fleet in would have been costly and exposed my main front to attack. Perhaps I'm underestimating the power of a Spire city+fleet, though. In any case, that nuke is seeming like a worse and worse idea as stuff keeps piling on. My AI progress is approaching tech level III.

How would you guys recommend dealing with this?

[zoutzakje]

I'd just build a crapload of martyrs and station them on every planet i own, waiting for the exo and cpa to hit (martyrs can blow up marauders too right?). You've got plenty of resources anyway, time to use them. Use your fleet to defend your rebel colony or take control of the other one. Maybe build some implosion stuff as well to deal with the big and nasty stuff from the exo.
If this doesn't work, I'm sure you can find something else that will work with the amount of resources you have.
at least you won't have to fight the exo and cpa at the same time, so this might be less harder than it seems

[Coppermantis]

Thanks. I forgot about Martyrs. Unfortunately, The CPA just hit since the timer was almost zero once all the stuff hit so I'll have to hope my fleet can keep the incoming ships at bay until I get more martyrs up. I am running low on asteroids, so I'll have to expand to get more once this blows over.

[keith.lamothe]

Ah yes, martyrs.  There is no problem which will not yield to the adequate application of explosives.

[zoutzakje]

indeed, I always have a few of them stationed on some of my most important planets. Just in case something nasty happens (whoops, didn't see that CPA guard post there...)

[Coppermantis]

Alas, I did not have enough time to get martyrs up before the storm hit. Fortunately, I'm not above save-scumming, so I can still use the advice.

[zoutzakje]

same:D I always make double or triple saves if something challenging is about to happen. I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to really help you, unless I can take a look at your save. So I know what you have unlocked, how many planets you have, your defence, your fleet, etc.
"RuntimeData - Save" is where you can find your saves in the AI war file.
I'm not a pro though, so I still might not be able to help. But at least I can try ^^

[Wanderer]

I'd have to agree.  Without seeing the map, existing whipping boys, available unlocks, it's hard to advise you in this situation.  However, a few things you CAN do.  First, use a 'funnel' technique for the CPA.  If you've got a few worlds on the border, put your fleet into side systems and let the CPA start to hit one between them, then pour your forces into the system they're hitting.  It'll help you deal with them in smaller chunks.

The Exo has about 10-15 minutes you can work with.  It's long enough to deal with the CPA but it won't be long enough to rebuild heavy losses.  Let systems fall instead of losing your fleet.  Slam Grav turrets all over the place to buy yourself time so you can handle the CPA piecemeal.  Rebuild those systems after you're clear.

If you don't have fortresses, get them soon.  They'll chew up the 'extras' in the Exo wave.

Get your scout fleet up and picketed for at least 3 worlds deep in all directions.  Scout 2's are cheap.

Get yourself a full bank of Raid Starships (with fortress + spire fleet it isn't hard to knowledge raid) and whittle down the Colony system.  Watch for deepstrikes.  Not seeing the map I don't know how far out of position this is going to get you.  You CAN simply pop the local command station and deal with the repercussions.  If you get a command center into that system for even a second and then blow it up you'll reset the 2 hour cloaking timer.  You have time.

Start prepping to put in a 'final stand' on all the homeworld surrounding systems.  Get tractors into place on their wormholes.  If you've got destroyers (or better, cruisers) get them snipe happy so you can pop between wormholes and get maximum effect as the ships drain into your areas. 

You'll probably end up doing a fighting retreat if you don't have hardened choke points all the way to your own core worlds. 
Do your best to keep the fleet alive and handle the CPA piecemeal so you have enough fleet left to handle the Exo as well.  Trade systems for time.  Also you might throw up a ton of Logistic Is just to slow the enemy down.

[Coppermantis]

Advice thus far has been helpful. I already have fortresses all over the place. Basically on every border world and scouts on quite a few planets.

Screenshot of map attached.

Caumaty and Aeopedes are my weakest spots. Dimaan and Path are my primary damage absorbers, Dimaan having a Spire City, fortress, major fleet and fortress and Path having a smaller fleet of merc ships and rebels plus another fortress. Caumaty has a Cursed Golem and a Spire destroyer. I do apparently have a Spire Cruiser, another Destroyer and six frigates on my homeworld, so those might be able to be moved up. My worry though is that if I pull back from Dimaan, the threat build up at Apex will attack. Maybe the Spire city will keep them at bay though, I am unexperienced with them and don't know how powerful they are.

I do have one other thing working in my favor. A Dyson Sphere is right next to the colony planet and the command station is unshielded so I could free the golem and get a powerful aid in helping the colony.

I will attempt the advice given thus far and see how it goes.

[Wanderer]

Caumaty and Aeopedes are my weakest spots. Dimaan and Path are my primary damage absorbers, Dimaan having a Spire City, fortress, major fleet and fortress and Path having a smaller fleet of merc ships and rebels plus another fortress.

Is there anything down in the SE corner you can afford to lose?  I notice the P7 in the back, I assume it's a fabricator of some kind?

Caumaty has a Cursed Golem and a Spire destroyer. I do apparently have a Spire Cruiser, another Destroyer and six frigates on my homeworld, so those might be able to be moved up.

I'd definately recommend moving these forward, at least to Caumaty.  You can always bring them back to the homeworld but you might as well keep them useful.

My worry though is that if I pull back from Dimaan, the threat build up at Apex will attack.

Perfect!  You want to bait them in so you can deal with them piecemeal.  Drop back to Aeopedes, let the 300 or so come in.  Reverse course, and lay waste to them.  Rince and repeat as necessary to deal with the CPA.

Maybe the Spire city will keep them at bay though, I am unexperienced with them and don't know how powerful they are.

Pretty powerful and the AI may decide that it's still too tough a nut to crack with just those ships.  Which is a shame, because you want to bait them into wherever you have as much firepower as possible.  You can't hold back the flood of 3500 ships.  All you can do is try to encourage them to come in pieces.

I do have one other thing working in my favor. A Dyson Sphere is right next to the colony planet and the command station is unshielded so I could free the golem and get a powerful aid in helping the colony.

I will attempt the advice given thus far and see how it goes.

Freeing the Dyson now will give you very little in immediate benefit, unless the comment in the 5.021 release notes about fixing Dyson Friendly pathing is a significant difference.  They'll be trying to get themselves cleaned off for a bit, and you'll have to spend resources and attention to clear them up.  I'm not entirely sure it's worth it.

One of the things I'm noticing is you use neutral systems a lot as buffer zones.  I don't recommend this except in extreme circumstances.  For 1/4 the AIP gain you can just whack the Warp Gate and nerf the system (including wormhole guardians) particularly with Spire Flagships.  That's a lot of AIP you've got there when you haven't even started building the paths to the AI Homeworlds.  Once you survive that threat, you might think about doing a few deepstrikes and taking out any datacenters you can find.  I'd concentrate on AIP reduction and supply lines to the AI Homeworld once you've gotten things settled down.  Well, unless you're looking at doing a FS alternate victory via the Galactic Citadel, but you're not in a defensive position to really handle that. at the moment.

[Coppermantis]

Neutral systems are either a) a place where I nuked (bad Idea, I know, I was desperate) or b) Holding a valuable target but haven't had the opporutunity to colonize yet. The two Near Aeopedes have a Z-gen and something else and the ones near Dimaan have a Spire civillian leader and the other has another factory IV, which is a low-target since I already have one but the buildup means I can't take it for the time being without it being instantly lost.


And regarding my priority indicators, I lost my reference sheet but I do remember that P5 is anything valuable (Fabricator, Golem, ARS, etc.), p2 is an AIP reducer (Civillian leader, Data Center, Superteminal) and p7 is "Nothing of value at all here". In the SE corner I have one rebel colony, which would hurt a lot to lose, but Path can hold its own for now. Resistance ships are awesome.

After playing a minute or so into the CPA I discovered it always decides to cut through Aeopedes. I moved a small Spire fleet into position there and it seems to be holding out well. The fortress fell, but the spire and the standard subfleet are holding out rather well. Etvarran has a botnet golem and its support fleet, so it should hold out pretty well, barring a swarm of bombard ships which the AI does have, unfortunately.

Tryan is hosting a really heavy AI section of the CPA though, almost 2000 ships plus a few carriers. I fear it may attempt to attack Path, but I do have that one martyr there so if I detonate it right as they're all build up I may be able to take out a lot of the threat. Unless the # of ships it can kill are limited to the # of tractors, which I don't think is the case.

My thoughts on the dyson were originally that it would draw fire away from your recommended strikes on the Colony world. but I've remembered that the AI has basically limited ships and that while this tactic might work on a Human enemy, it's a little inneffective against the AI. I might want to free it once I'm read to take the colony planet, since dyson gatlings coming in would make defense more difficult.

Regarding AIP: I plan on only taking planets with P5 makring from here on out. I've already dealed with the Superterminal, which took me down a few hundred AIP points. Yunvin's Data Center is already gone, so I might as well remove that marking.

Another thing working to my disadvantage is the fact that I've recently acquired Starcraft II and gotten used to the tactics one would employ in that game which are different from those useful in AI War, for instance I've gotten used to the hotkeys there and the fact that units cannot fire while moving. Humourously, my habits gained from AI War are spilling into SCII as well so I ende up being bad at both games.

[zoutzakje]

once you've dealt with threat and waves, it's not a bad idea to free the dyson. If all of your planets are connected to eachother, they will make a massive defensive force over time. If there is a botnet golem anywhere in your galaxy, make that a high priority. Dyson gatlings and the botnet can't fire at Mk V targets, but the botnet's zombies can. have the dysons and zombies build up and defense is a piece of cake.

[Coppermantis]

Already have a botnet.