Why you should always keep fighting

[laughingman]

I just started up a new game last night, a 7.3/7.3 against some random moderate/easier AIs. It's a realistic 80-planet map and I started with Teleport Battle stations. I've never tried them before, and I was interested to see how they worked.

I scouted the immediate vicinity and found two ARS two jumps away from my Homeworld. That's the good news. I also discovered that one of the AIs likes Zenith ships. All of them. Half of the nearby planets are Mark III and IV, and are crawling with Bombards, Electric Bombers, Beam Frigates, Shredders, and other things that make me want to abandon humanity to the AI and find a nice quiet corner of the galaxy to retire to.

Instead, I build some leech starships and send the fleet to battle. I capture the two planets leading to the ARS with moderate casualties and get a few Zenith ships for my trouble. The first ARS is on a Mark I world and lightly defended, and I capture it easily. I get the Teleporting Leech, another unit I have never had much experience with. I'm happy to have another reclaimer, though. I build a cap of them and set my sights on the other ARS. It's Mark IV, a tough nut to crack. I do several raids to whittle down its defenses, coming away with a few more Zenith ships every time. It eventually falls, and the ARS gives me....

Parasites.

All of a sudden, high-mark worlds don't look like difficult obstacles so much as resources to harvest. A few Parasite/Teleporting Leech/Leech Starship raids later and I have caps of my favorite Mark III and IV Zenith ships and I'm happily laying waste to the planets around me. My biggest concern now is building enough reactors to power my ludicrously large fleet.

I'm really enjoying how this story is playing out.

[keith.lamothe]

Glad to see reclaimers can still pull that off under some circumstances

[Coppermantis]

On a related note, do zombie parasites still reclaim? I've always wondered what using a botnet golem against two Parasite AIs would look like.

[TechSY730]

On a related note, do zombie parasites still reclaim? I've always wondered what using a botnet golem against two Parasite AIs would look like.

Nope, when a ship is a zombie, it automatically gets an immunity to reclamation. This is to prevent abusing hacking response spawns from being easy parasite farms.

[keith.lamothe]

On a related note, do zombie parasites still reclaim? I've always wondered what using a botnet golem against two Parasite AIs would look like.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but parasites are immune to reclamation, which I think means the botnet cannot zombify them.  I could be wrong

[laughingman]

Glad to see reclaimers can still pull that off under some circumstances

I just scouted a Nanoswarm V factory, so I suspect this might just be the perfect storm.

The leeches are pretty fragile and not as helpful as I thought they would be at first, but combined with parasites and a  complement of Light, Fleet, and Mark I-III Leech starships, they do all right. Like any teleporting unit, they're as good as the amount you micromanage them.  I plan on seeing how well they do at Mark IV, and call it my "can't beat me, may as well join me" strategy.

[Coppermantis]

On a related note, do zombie parasites still reclaim? I've always wondered what using a botnet golem against two Parasite AIs would look like.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but parasites are immune to reclamation, which I think means the botnet cannot zombify them.  I could be wrong

Yeah, that's what I meant. Never knew that the botnet couldn't do anything to them, that's dissapointing. I wanted to have a fleet that could constantly replenish itself free of charge. Oh well.

[TechSY730]

On a related note, do zombie parasites still reclaim? I've always wondered what using a botnet golem against two Parasite AIs would look like.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but parasites are immune to reclamation, which I think means the botnet cannot zombify them.  I could be wrong

Yeah, that's what I meant. Never knew that the botnet couldn't do anything to them, that's dissapointing. I wanted to have a fleet that could constantly replenish itself free of charge. Oh well.

Yea, sometimes the devs let obvious exploits through, but they caught that one. Would of been hilarious to watch though.

[Ricca]

All you need to do now is find a Microparasite fabricator, and you've got the set.

[laughingman]

All you need to do now is find a Microparasite fabricator, and you've got the set.

As luck would have it, the next ARS I found has that very same fabricator. I'm one world away from capturing it. It's taken a long time to get there, for reasons I'll explain in a minute.

My Homeworld has three planets connected to it. Between them, they have 12 wormhole connections. They only share three of them. This means that while it's easy to scout a large part of the galaxy, it's hard to defend in force everywhere. I fortified those planets as best I could and captured the first two ARS. Waves had been coming regularly and threat had built up to uncomfortable levels. I took a planet I planned on using as a whipping boy because it only had one incoming wormhole, and started neutering every other planet around my territory.

It took a couple of hours to clear 13 planets of guard posts and warp gates. Two AI Eyes and a CPA slowed the process down, but in the end I did it.  I wasn't happy about the AIP, which was 80 or 90 points higher (I forget exactly). I destroyed the two data centers I had found and started expanding. There's a screenshot to the post to make things clearer. On the right hand side of the map is a line of four planets that I took quickly and made into a nice layered defense using a lot of Mark II turrets. Bode, the P9 planet in the lower right, has the microparasite factory.

Somewhere along the way, my reclaimed Zenith fleet outnumbered my triangle fleet, so I started using it instead. I supported it with starships and my reclaimers, and watched as it grew. And grew. And grew. I have over 600 Bombards, Electric Bombers, Beam Frigates, Chameleons, Mirrors, and Paralyzers as my attack force, while my Fighters, Frigates, and Bombers stay behind the lines dealing with threat.

Playing with an all-Zenith fleet is really, really fun.

The improved reclamation mechanic is something I really appreciate in this particular game. I have noticed that it makes it easier to get and maintain a cap of ships from a wave. If the wave is large enough it can take out your reclaimed ships pretty quickly, but I've used this to great effect so far.

I'm looking forward to the endgame. I assume something will backfire on me, as it always does, but I'm enjoying the ride so far.

[zoutzakje]

very nice ^^ I should try out parasites as well now that they're somewhat better. Be careful of taking Bode. I see you haven't scouted all of it's surrounding planets yet. Since it seems that you don't know any of the Core / Homeworlds locations, I suggest doing some scouting before you suddenly run into a coreworld and get a nasty surprise.

[Cyborg]

That is a gem of a game right there. You have found quite the combination. Let us know how it turns out!

[laughingman]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement! This is the furthest I've gotten in a game in a while. It's been a wild ride. The funny thing is, I hadn't used reclaimers much at all before this game. My preferences might change after this.

I had some free time this weekend and scouted out the rest of the galaxy before deciding what to do. The screenshot shows the situation currently. As you can see, I took Bode and a few other planets. Things were mostly smooth, but I ran into a couple of setbacks. Do not underestimate a wave of 641 Zenith Beam Frigates that is closely followed by 750 armor ships. You will be very, very sorry  and you will fight a running battle where you lose several planets before you get things under control.

Unfortunately, I lost the Microparasite Factory to the most recent CPA. You can never have enough shields over things like that. Still, they were fun while they lasted. Are they really supposed to have a 20x multiplier against polycrystal?

On the map, P4 worlds have Co-processors on them. P5 have data centers. P7 means a golem. There's  two Botnets and two Regeneration Golems, and one each of Hive, Artillery, and Black Widow. I'm playing on Medium and repaired a Hive so far. It's been a great addition and my first choice for clearing a system. I'll probably repair the Black Widow and one of the Regeneration Golems. At this stage of the game I'm starting to be very selective about what AIP hits I take.

P8 means it has a Fabricator on it. The lower left quadrant is pretty rich with them: Owkedi has two: A Blade Spawner V and Spider Bot V. Jeruhha, in the same general area, has a Mirror V. Yarisizi has the previously mentioned nanoswarm facility.  On the right hand side of the map, Vuafr has a Warbird and Zarqa has a Bomber Starship IV. Osarksharp has Speed boosters. In the upper left, Dicmigen has a Microfighter V factory.

The P9s in the top and right parts of the map are the Factory IVs. The P9s in the left part of the map are the remaining ARS.

And I have 90 minutes to liberate the rebel colony at Suoash. As you can see, it probably won't take me more than 10. As luck would have it, I want the Fabricators near that planet anyway. After that, I think all I have to do is capture the rest of the fabricators, fortify them, and take the Homeworlds. Boompe will be my first target.

I'll let you know what happens after the next round of expansion. I have a feeling it will be pretty easy because the CPA drained a lot of AI ships from their worlds.

[zoutzakje]

may I suggest you take that Botnet golem? Since you were going on the reclaiming journey anyways...
and I knew it! Boompe is a homeworld. Now the enemy suddenly seems awfully close

[keith.lamothe]

Do not underestimate a wave of 641 Zenith Beam Frigates

OW! Those do a ton of damage against condensed formations, yea.

that is closely followed by 750 armor ships. You will be very, very sorry  and you will fight a running battle where you lose several planets before you get things under control.

Yea, but rolling defense is so much fun

Still, they were fun while they lasted. Are they really supposed to have a 20x multiplier against polycrystal?

Microparasites haven't been rebalanced in... a long, long, long time

A Blade Spawner V

Sounds like something worth taking; Blade Spawners are very powerful.

On the right hand side of the map, Vuafr has a Warbird and Zarqa has a Bomber Starship IV

Wow, those would be a significant boost.  Bomber IVs are just straight up battering-ram powerful, and the Warbird was recently rebalanced like a mkV starship, and is thus pretty dangerous if used well.

I have a feeling it will be pretty easy because the CPA drained a lot of AI ships from their worlds.

How nice of it to tidy up for you