AI Troop Accelerator - zeh true evil

[eRe4s3r]

Well here is something for the lol effect

For the first time ever, i have seen this structure in my game today - it was on pivotal point (A III planet) to a 4 planet loop i wanted to take. Well after doing the usual - supply cutting off, etc. i thought that supply cut off and command station/warp gate gone, would be enough.. well i was very wrong.

After 2 hours in i wanted to clean this sector, only to see 2000 IV and III ships sitting around, in huge circles around every command post - and they grew fast enough to make attrition impossible. Unlike on normal planets where you can always take out guard post by guard post - here the guard posts had enough III and IV rings growing minutely that by the time i had them all destroyed i would face much more than the original 2000 ships

My first attack with 2000 ships ended in a flattening defeat, but i got the troop accel down to 40% .. well now the true horror started - while rebuilding i noticed that the ai ships grew faster than my own ships were built (and i only had 1 type of III ship)

So the next 4 hours i tried running this planet down to a grind. I used lightning missiles to clean command posts (which freed them, that cost me 4 planets which i had taken before this one. And worse - 100's space planes meant every command post without tachyon and a decent defense was in danger.

After 4 hours.. i finally destroyed the troop accelerator which meant huge waves of ships coming in straight at me, but i was prepared - all turret types fully built (mk1-3 lasers, mk1 missiles, MK1-2 basic turrets, mk1 mrls, mk2 tachy detectors everywhere. And well, i survived, and got me a lot of IV ships in the process (thanks parasites)

I only barely survived it...

Well yeah.. just a little story

- During the invasion i had about 5000 ships on my homeplanet (ships and turrets together)
- And all that because of an AI troop accelerator on a III world....

Sadly, the adjacent world is a IV world with even more ships.. but at least normal reinforcement rates!

Edit: Also the AI focus on destroying bombers is TRUE evil in that situation after 10 minutes flight time to the accelerator (it was placed in the farthest end of the map +.+) i always lost all my bombers before even getting in range... ;/

[Inglonias]

Dang right. Also: I've never seen an accelerator in a III system. I hope to god that I never do.

Personally, I would have used an EM missile and used the fastest ships to make it to the accel, and if that failed, I would nuke the system, clearing the remaining enemy forces myself. A bit drastic, but it would have worked.

[eRe4s3r]

Well i wanted the resources though  

Sadly, even the fast ships were gone before getting there, MK2 and MK3 snipers..

Its a very long haul from right side of the sector to left side of the sector, and those guard posts were all cluttered there - 2 were next to each other close to the accelerator so if i'd come close they would all attack me.

A nuke is 50 + 30 = 70 (command station/warpgate/troop accel) - i invested 30 progression + (5 missiles) = 40 - i don't play with timed progression increase. I played with the thought of nuking it, but someone once said to me to never use a nuke that early.

Troop Accelerators are like the hell-spawn of command stations - 6 million HP are not something you get down fast without bombers and with 2000 ships all around it, you don't even get into range ;p (though for a moment i thought of using lightning missiles, but then i would have a problem surviving a "all loose at once" wave.

In the end i built MK3 lasers just in range to hit the troop accelerator - all ships instantly attacked but with my few ships remaining i guided them away from there, and i got it down, after that it was "run like hell to my fortified homeworld"

I never knew what these things do, but i gather they are more like a super command station - because guard posts still got reinforcements as well (you can imagine how that is bad when you first focus on destroying the command post/warp gate.. oh and a ion cannon and then notice that reinforcements don't stop, in fact they got faster because now i had the ai pissed off, it seemed.

The side effect is that i now know that i can easily survive even 3000 MKIV ships, as long as i have my fleet around. My defenses are massive, i even play with the thought of going for gravity turrets and fortresses next

Also its vs a Homeworld Backdoor AI , so my homeworld is a real fortress nowadays, shizo waves too (yeah, that was actually a good idea, because my defenses can handle everything now ,p)

I think i am going to clean the adjacent IV world the l33t way, destroy command station and warpgate, run like hell ;p - My defenses should be able to handle it...

[RCIX]

Noe though that the main purpose of fortresses are to soak up damage; by that point in the game i bet you got MkIII MLRS turrets which are waaaaay better in terms of weapon power....

[eRe4s3r]

Ok then i will go for those - you are right, i want something that soaks up first salvo when it comes out of wormholes because that backdoor is VERY close to my homestation and I've been hit with spaceplanes .. when the waves become larger i won't be able to dish out 500 ships worth of damage in first salvo - spaceplanes are so fast shots trail them a long while.. so by the time the shots reach them they have reached my command station.. (hence i need a gravity turret ,p)

[RCIX]

You should also have a few "high priority targets" like transports or colony ships or something to distract these guys for a while and keep them in turret range.

[Oewyn]

transport ships are great for keeping your bomber's safe until they reach their target.  As for my experience with the accelerators... We tend to wait for a cross planet raid from them, then once that is over, we counter-attack and crush the accelerator as fast as possible.  At least that way, we get rid of about half of the defending fleet (In our case, it's usually about 4-5k worth of guys on the planet).

[eRe4s3r]

I don't think i could survive a cross planet raid of such amounts.. mind you i am playing Solo ,p

In the end even after 4 hours there was no cross planet raid so i had to take the planet down no matter what, i couldn't afford having 2 4000+ MK4/3 ship planets right next to my homeworld

But i am sure i can win this ;p (its dif7/7 medium ais) would be the first time, heh ,p