Had my quickest loss ever just recently - got owned by the first wave. What happened? The AI outsmarted me in an incredibly clever way, that's what.
Early scouting indicated a Raid Engine a couple hops away from my homeworld, but I had no plans to expand in that direction so I figured it was okay.
I get the first wave warning - cloaked ships, and a decent number. Probably minipods or microfighters, I figure. I throw up a bunch of tractor beams and my usual turrets + fleet defenses, and out of the wormhole comes... Etherjets. Well crap, those are tractor immune. Not yet realizing how utterly screwed I am, I just throw some more ships at them; Etherjets have pretty weak attack so I figure I can just attrition them to death. They have other plans.
Those who have played AI War for a while probably know how this story ends. Instead of sticking around to fight, the Etherjets abscond with about 60 of my ships. Straight to the Raid Engine planet. The resulting Raid Engine wave quickly wipes me out.
Just wanted to say, thank you for the invigorating game, Chris and Keith. Just when I had fallen into the lazy assumption that I could handle anything 7/7 can throw at me, the AI reminds me that I am NOT smarter than it.
