Some maps just really bad or is IV next the the homeworld not a big deal?

[ckessel]

I started a new game (level 6 AI) and 2 of my 4 neighboring planets are tagged as "IV" in my scout report. They have Core/V units and bunches of IV units!

Am I just hosed or is this a setup that can be dealt with?

[eRe4s3r]

I fear you are, hosed that is.. that shouldn't happen though, and i gave a suggestion for this eons ago, so maybe it will be fixed in the future, i hope so at least.

Generally if you have direct neighbours IV class and a bad AI combination that can mean you get core ships as raiders, a game ending situation indeed. Unless you have choosen eye bots i guess. then you could try to destroy their warp-gates as fast as possible and just pray they don't attack..

That all said, a IV world is a huge road block, one impossible to tackle in the start phase

[Revenantus]

You're not hosed, this isn't an entirely uncommon situation.

For now, place defenses at the wormhole leading to the MkIV planet, this should stop any wandering ships. You should include some ships in attack-move mode to chase down any enemies that make it past your defenses

The situation is that if that planet is left alone for too long it will launch a cross-planet attack.

Here's my recommendation;

Blockade wormholes leading to the planet, and concentrate on some easier planets, once you've built up some strength, capture the MkIV planet, making heavy use of lightning missiles if you have to.

You could potentially have a nuke on standby to destroy the planet if it starts to prepare a cross planet attack and you haven't yet built up enough strength to defend against it.

[darke]

Start building the missile-builder unit at the start, queue up lightning missiles and use them to systematically take out the control points on the worlds whilst you're expanding in other directions. Once you've taken all the control points out, there should only be ships remaining on the wormholes and on the command station.

You can either take out the command station and try to survive whatever is on the non-adjacent wormholes flooding you, or take a couple of missiles in and take out the wormholes then the command center one after another.

But yes, it's a not-uncommon situation, deliberately designed like that (thankfully His X-ness has removed all the Ion Cannons from adjacent IV worlds...), and is supposed to make the start a little more interesting from time to time.

[Haagenti]

If you have parasites, a IV world has some very nice goodies to grab early

[ckessel]

Well, after 12 hours I gave up. I only had 5 planets and was struggling to hold onto those (AI level 6). There were 4 links to my home planet, two of which were Mark IV planets. I only got a couple hops out on the easier planets and got stuck up against more Mark IV planets, a couple in a row in each case, some with SuperFortresses.

Not sure what I could have done. I did get ahold of one advanced research center, but got auto cannons which seemed pretty useless.

[Revenantus]

Well, after 12 hours I gave up. I only had 5 planets and was struggling to hold onto those (AI level 6). There were 4 links to my home planet, two of which were Mark IV planets. I only got a couple hops out on the easier planets and got stuck up against more Mark IV planets, a couple in a row in each case, some with SuperFortresses.

Not sure what I could have done. I did get ahold of one advanced research center, but got auto cannons which seemed pretty useless.

Sorry to hear that - sounds like you had quite a tough map on your hands there!

It's part of the nature of the game that difficulty can vary, and out of the billions and billions of possible maps in AI War some are bound to be much tougher than others. Don't worry - no one wins them all.

I hope those 12 hours were still good fun, and wish you better luck in future campaigns.

[darke]

For the truely impossible IV worlds there's always nukes, but if you're getting to the point of needing to use more then one or two of those in a single game it's probably time to pack up and try another map.