I'm coming back, as the title suggests, after a while. There's been an expansion and a whole lot of balance changes since my last serious game, and a lot of the recent changes intrigued me, so I started up a new game. I play 7/7 Vanilla AI, with Medium Golems, Zenith Traders, and Human Colony Rebellions enabled. Usually I pick a bonus ship, but this time I let the RNG pick for me.
I get Neinzul Scapegoats, something I've never used before. Not only that, I'm not sure how to use them very well. They're more expensive than anything I can build at the beginning, so they're not very cost-effective to use. However, I do like to use mercenary fighters in the mid- to late-game and Scapegoats fit well into that strategy. It's been pretty effective, but I wonder if I would pick them if I had the choice. They're underwhelming considering the ships I got from the ARS': Autobombs, Etherjet Tractors, Armor Ships, and Neinzul Fireflies. I also captured Spire Railcluster V fabricator. I'm glad I did.
The combination of Autobombs and Fireflies makes two jobs very easy: clearing the enemy side of a wormhole, and defending against incoming waves. Once upon a time there was a threat fleet of 700 camped on a wormhole, and in 45 seconds or so, there wasn't any more.
I usually play very starship-heavy games, so I wasn't sure about how the recent changes would affect my strategy. I've been using them for about 10 hours, and captured a Starship IV Fabricator about four hours in. I like just about every change that's been made to them. The combination of lowered K cost and caps, plus the ability to manufacture Mark IV in the same way you do with fleetships, makes for a lot of interesting strategic choice. That Mark IV Zenith Starship is a beast, by the way. You're going to want it on your side.
I like most of the changes to guard posts. They affect the game in more important ways than they used to, and interact more interestingly with guardians as well. I've had a quite a few difficult battles as a direct result of this. Try getting close to an MLRS guard post when two Laser Guardians and a Gravity Guardian are hanging around it, for example. Oh, and don't buzz an MLRS post with your Raid Starships unless you like rebuilding them.
I've just captured a Spire Corvette V factory and am looking forward to putting it through its paces. The idea of having more modular starships like the Riot intrigues me and I've got some knowledge saved up. I think I'll get as many modules as I can and experiment. I would love to hear how other people have used them.
I'd love to play some Shattered Haven, but AI war is taking up a lot of my time right now. Maybe I'll get to it in April...
