Best. Start. Ever.

[MaxAstro]

So I decided to start a game with these Viral Shredders I've heard so much about - taking the first map I random generated that had them as an option - and see if they are as three wolf moon as everyone seems to insist.  Well, it turns out that not only are they giant swarming Von Neumann machines of death, they also can bend the laws of probability to their will:



The planets marked with P8 - Rici, Iusta, and Revwigach - all have Advanced Research Stations.  Methinks this game is going to go in my favor...  ^_^

[CMDR Duck]

Careful not to praise one unit to highly. You will invoke the wrath of Nerf, Goddess of fail.

[MaxAstro]

Well, I haven't tried Viral Shredders on the offense much - not many planets I've run into have large enough ship swarms to get non-diminishing returns out of them - but as a defensive unit they are golden.  With Advanced Warp Sensors to know where the enemy is coming from, I just park my Mark I-III unit cap+ fleet of Shredders on top of the wormhole and generally come out of warp raids with a fair amount more Shredders than I went into it with.  It's nice to have a reliable homeland defense while the rest of my fleets are out pounding planet after planet.

So far I've only managed to take one of those ARS, but the second one is my next priority and the third should be pretty quick after that - I just discovered what an A-Team Light Starships paired with Frigates are if you can punch them past the wormhole defenses.

[Chimpster]

They are a better defensive unit for sure but sheer numbers can do huge damage to enemy ships, especially starships. Next thing for me to try is leech starships with them. The way I see it, the leeches mark them for reclamation, the shredders then attack and replicate some free ones by killing them off so i'm getting a ton of freebies

Bombers, shredders and Leeches are goung to be my fleet of free ship goodness!