Mark IV Planets Near Homeworld

[Pluto011]

I just started up my first game using the Ancient Shadows expansion.

There are 2 mark IV worlds and one mark III world within 2 jumps of my homeworld.

Nothing of interest remotely near them except a advanced research center on the world colored green and a super terminal on the world colored blue.



I dont believe I have ever found mark IV or mark III worlds so close to my homeworld.
Is it because of the ancient shadows champion?

[x4000]

Nope, it's something that happens from time to time.  I believe the frequency goes up with the difficulty level increases, but I can't recall if that is true for sure.  At any rate, it's been a fun feature of the game since 1.0 and before, heh.

Having a Mark IV world gives you a couple of challenges/opportunities:

1. Starting out, that thing will be weak in numbers, even though it is Mark IV.  You can take that over if you do it right.  Since there are a fixed number of Mark IV planets in the galaxy depending on your map size and difficulty level, that actually comes out for you as a net win versus running into a heavily-reinforced Mark IV planet later in the game.  So there is an opportunity here.

2. Alternatively, you can just use transports to skirt through there, and make sure you destroy the warp gate along the way.  Then this is your own personal little bugbear waiting in your backyard, but you can probably take it out later.  This is more the challenge side.  Even so, it's one fewer Mark IV worlds somewhere else that you might care more about, so that can be positive.

Welcome to the forums, by the way!

[Pluto011]

Thanks.

[x4000]

You bet!

[Bognor]

In a way, it's nice having high-mark worlds adjacent to your homeworld instead of somewhere else, as homeworld-adjacent worlds never have guardians, ion cannons, or Tachyon Sentinels. 

[Draco18s]

Mk4 adjacent worlds are like gloriously empty pinatas.  Smash them now because you really don't want the candy they'll have later.

(Read: they'll be easy to take early and a b*tch and a half to take later, so do it now while it's easy and they're within targeting range)

[zoutzakje]

wow Chris, been a while since I've seen you on the Ai War board ^^ hope your other projects are going well =)

As for mark IV worlds near your home, yeah it happens. It can be both a good and a bad thing in my opinion. It's true that they're easier to take out than mk IV worlds further away, but you're also a lot weaker then when you would take those on. It can be difficult for early game mk I fleets to take out an mk IV world, depending on the structures and shiptypes there. I once started a game with 4 exits off my homeworld. 2 of them were impenetrable mk IV worlds and the other 2 were covered by nasty structures like alarms and raid engines. Maybe i could have found a way if i tried properly but at the time i decided to just give up
Try not to keep a mk IV planet on alert for too long if possible. The build-up can become nasty really fast, especially on higher difficulties. Either avoid em or take em.
And one more thing, be aware of Mk IV worlds that have 2 warp gates, they are nastier than any other mk IV world and an AI homeworld is always right next to it. Don't mess with them unless you are ready.

I might be telling you stuff you already know, but i figured I'd give some general advice about mk IV worlds. Better safe than sorry.