9/9/9 Happy fun time[WON]

[Pireciter]

Easily done, I just have to remember how to use Mantis.

[BadgerBadger]

Bug is fixed in next release. Thanks for the report!

I don't really ever get to play much, so I get to play vicariously through people's AARs. I might be rooting for the AI though.... Thanks for sharing!

[Pireciter]

I might be rooting for the AI though....

Isn't there some saying about AI War not having PvP?


9:00:24 - I sense a great disturbance...as a massive ball of threat goes up in a poof a smoke. 150 left.

9:08 - Unity cleared. Next!

9:18 - Heh, wave on Wallach spawned right on top of the cookie monster. Nomnomnom

9:26 - Butler cleared. Dark Spire are annoyed.

9:30 - Of course, the instigator decided to spawn at the extreme opposite end of my territory.

9:33 - Dark Spire locus? Not seen one of those before. KILL!

9:46 - Why not? Dyson liberated. Now I'm not fighting them as well as I move through.

Heh, what do you know. There's the super terminal. 5 hops from anything on Vincetori.

9:48 - Wallach going down again. It's held off almost 80 threat that's staggered in over the last few minutes, but the wave of saws is going to finish it.

9:50 - There is goes, but it probably took out 70-80 strength worth before it went. Schischak cleaned.

9:52 - Are liberated Dyson supposed to trigger Raid Engines? I keep seeing the timer for the Hadley engine popping up when I have nothing on planet. That's going to be annoying if they do.

10:00 - Wallach is back up, and I'm moving on Kalixa right now.


I'm not going to capture Kalixa yet. My goal is to get the guard posts before the CPA. I don't know yet if I'm going to hit the Co-pros before or after that. I need to do some math.
4 planets plus the 40 AIP from the Golem & Ark is another 120. Total earned will be 326, with 180 reduction right now...puts me at 146. I may not need the Co-Pros...with the floor at 92 I may lose more than I gain by taking them out. Even a 5th planet will be 166. I'll decide later. I think it may depend on how many warp gates I choose to clear when I mobilize toward the AIHW.

Threat has stabilized around 100 or so. About where it was the previous CPA. I think I'm in good shape for the next one. I'm figuring around 180-200 strength.

Current AIP: 92

No updates to the union.

[Ovalcircle]

9:52 - Are liberated Dyson supposed to trigger Raid Engines? I keep seeing the timer for the Hadley engine popping up when I have nothing on planet. That's going to be annoying if they do.

Raid engines can trigger for factions that don't hold territory, though they don't spawn ships in that case. But there was some foolery going on in a Civil War game I played, where I found out that raid engines can actually target planets on the other side of the galaxy if 1. there is no warp gate on the raid engine planet and 2. There is a warp gate next to a planet that is held by the faction being targeted.

[Pireciter]

Raid engines can trigger for factions that don't hold territory, though they don't spawn ships in that case. But there was some foolery going on in a Civil War game I played, where I found out that raid engines can actually target planets on the other side of the galaxy if 1. there is no warp gate on the raid engine planet and 2. There is a warp gate next to a planet that is held by the faction being targeted.

Hmm...interesting...I'll have to keep that in mind.


10:02 - Alright, I'd like to get the science from the Dyson, but it's prepare time for this CPA. Moving fleets back home and doing some cleaning.

10:03:12 - Vengeance strike incoming.

10:07:33 - AI, didn't you say you liked the soup I served you at Wallach? Good. Come have some more.

10:17 - Still no CPA? Alright, I'll keep at this cleaning and stocking metal.

10:24:13 - There it is.

10:29:17 - I'm cleaning up Cinna to burn some excess metal and also get scouts in place to watch for threat.

10:34:07 - CPA 1 second

10:34:08 - 2985 ships, 268 strength. *blinks* That's a bit more than I expected. I got scouts in place, full metal reserves, and fleets are on alert. Little over 400 total threat.

10:34:11 - Hmm...I got full metal reserves. Speed switching Wallach CS for a MilII. I'm going to need it because of it's key position.

10:34:34 - Threat inbound. Here they come

10:35:56 - Fleets on station at Wallach. Let's burn this down.

10:38:18 - Now a wave at Wallach AND an AIP Instigator? That's just cruel. At least those have a 10 minute timer. I can wait for a bit.

10:41:42 - Score stands at 307 threat, 11 attack, and 5:36 left before that instigator ticks. Threat has been focusing on Wallach and the Hivehom/Gehenna group. Wallach has been holding it's own for now and the others are being distracted by Dark Spire and two battle stations jumping in and out.

10:43:02 - Ok, I can't wait any longer. 2 transports on a run to get the Instigator. 255/12

10:44:05 - Fleets are passing through Radev. It has an OMD and a Dire Tetuida on site. The OMD rapidly takes out one transport, it's dropped units immediately head straight for it before the other one drops. Then I look closer at that Tetuida...fully charged shield, but 10 health. Group of bombers unloaded to quickly take it out.

10:44:09 - OMD and Tetuida down, but both transports are crippled. Fleet group makes a suicide run at the instigator.

10:44:28 - Got it. 284/4

10:45:57 - Fleets back and recharging. Metal reserves are drained. 245/7

10:46:21 - Taking a gamble...switching Thone CS for a LogiI. I need to get some more economy to bridge through this. Of it's three wormholes, two are blocked by MilIIs and the 3rd is on my southern transport route. I think I'll have a fast enough response time if the AI tries to come through that way.

10:47:00 - Perfect. 4 converters dropped.

10:50:29 - AI taunts: "Error corrected". Umm...I didn't lose anything?

10:55:37 - Things have calmed down quite a bit. Still a little over 200 threat out there, but I'm on a cleaning mission.

11:00 - Back to Butler. Cleaning threat and Dark Spire. Got vision on about 80 of the threat and I know the area to where another 50 or so is moving. Got most of it pinched between the Dyson and my fleet group. Either it dies horribly or...well...dies horribly.


Full disclosure: I did save-scum the CPA once. However, it was due to a misclicked transport load and it pulled all my scouts. I lost threat data and didn't catch it in time so it grouped up, punched through Wallach and rolled up my south flank. Tried saving it, but lost 3 planets and they were hammering on the MDC when I threw in the towel. So, score 1 for the AI. When my scouts were in place I was able to keep watch on where the threat was gathering and whittle it down.

Since there isn't really a true "scout" unit, my scouts that I mention are actually that group of eyebots I captured back in hour 1. Fleet kills any tachyon sentinels, send an eyebot to the farthest corner of the gravity well in low power mode, and you have planet vision.

I'm back to clearing the treasure corner. I've rearranged my fleets a bit so I have a partial fleet back home on roving patrol vs. the static defense and battle station sentries I had been using. The AIP and threat is getting a little high for pure static defense.


Current AIP: 92

No updates to the Union.

[Pireciter]

Come one come all, for the main event this evening. You are in for a real treat. A two-for-one special. The AIW2 2-hour event.

Massive fleets? Check.
Evil AI? Check.
Lots and lots of explosions? Check!

Grab your popcorn and buckle up, we are in for a wild ride.

11:10 - Continuing to clean. Fleets and factory back on Schischak picking apart the AI on Kalixa. Threat down to 173 and I got eyes on about 90 of it.

11:10:10 - Ohh..trader pokes his head into Bolo...my MDC planet. I think a few goodies are coming down here. How about the other OMD, force field and the other eidolin. And why not...I'll drop the ZPG as well.

11:10:46 - Cursed golem with this Exo. First one of those I've seen.

11:12:10 - Dark spire poke their heads into Hivehom. "Hi! Don't mind us, we are just going to kill all of your turrets. Ok, Bye!"

11:19:12 - The AI is hitting Thone hard.

11:22:15 - And Wallach. Both Thone and Wallach are done, but fleets are on station.

11:24:01 - Ok, things have calmed back down. Thone and Wallach are back up, but I'm drained on metal.

11:30.29 - There is a massive dark spire fleet forming up on Cormack. AI has almost 80 threat there right now. I just hope the spire goes into the AI planets versus me...

11:32:33 - Thank goodness, they are. A 143 strength dark spire fleet in that area would not have been a good thing.

11:37 - Finally got everything cleared and repaired. It's almost like I'm running in place here.

11:46 - Ugh, now an instigator. It's warden fleet. Threat down to 163

You know what, I'm fighting things quite a bit with these battle stations...

Unlock:
CitadelII
150 Science left

11:51 - Where did Kalixa get that magnifier? Oh, trader...traitor.

11:55 - I swear, the AI somehow knows exactly which planets to attack with waves...it's always the farthest from my fleet group.

12:00 - Well, this was a "slow" hour


Clearing the instigator woke up another 100 or so threat. I'm back up to 252. Probably the only thing good I got so far this hour was the new ZPG to 70% and completing the force field and eidolin. I feel I'm only treading water. I gotta get back on solid ground.


-Intermission-
Please wait...we will return you to your evening dose of explosions momentarily.
-End Intermission-


12:07 - 1 guard post left on Kalixa. I really need to get this thing cleared.

Part of my problem is actually the Dyson. The AI spawns a wave against it, clears it, then all that wave becomes threat. I may need to drop some extra warp gates over there to keep the AI from sending waves that way.

12:10 - ZPG complete. Now I can clear some converters.

12:12 - This threat is getting a little out of hand though. Sitting at 349.

12:16 - Threat back down to 269, vengeance strike underway.

12:24 - CPA declared. 204 threat outstanding.

12:32 - Alright, Kalixa is cleared. I'm pulling most of my forces back except for a few units to drop the CS. I'm waiting for the CPA to be declared before I drop them...keep that AIP lower for the trigger.

12:34:08 - CPA 1 second. 219 threat floating. I'm figuring 250 or so. I'm in a similar position to last time.

12:34:09 - 2707 ships, 255 strength. 473 total threat. Here we go.

12:34:26 - Kalixa CS down.

12:36:32 - Dropped the warp gate on Schischak. I don't want any waves coming back this way if I can avoid it.

12:38:05 - Oh boy. Thone is in trouble. I'm both happy and sad I switched out that CS. 60 strength attacking, a 48 wave incoming, and another 50+ threat enroute.

12:38:39 - I love my tractor units. Pulled ~40 threat straight off right into the MilII planets...then returned for more, because they keep coming. There is still another 50 or so threat moving through Lynx. Mores has about 35, Wallach 40, and Thone...below 3 digits...barely.

12:41:36 - Thone is stable. 265/10. Now I need to get help back out to Kalixa. Threat is starting to gather out there. I'm speed building defenses...another bonus to bringing that factory out there.

12:45 - And that's why...because the other warp gate is still active. Wave incoming to Kalixa. At tempting as it is to delay it by blowing the gate, I'm going to let it land and take it out afterwards.

12:46 - I think the stuck warden came back. Small group on Cormack. It's a bunch of sentinel gunboats...but not firing on my units. They only woke up when the Dark Spire spawned.

12:48:25 - These waves are getting a little stronger. 2600 ships in this one.

12:50:54 - Argh. Dire Widow steals about 50 ships and takes them into Hadley...with the raid engine.

12:53:03 - Yep. Warden is stuck. Two battle stations approaching like turtles...and all those gunboats just sitting there not firing. Looks like hunter fleet is affected as well. I'll mantis a save.
Edit: Playing around with my test save, it seems to be intermittent. They wake up on the save load, but sometimes "die" again after a bit. I'll hold off on the mantis for now unless I can find something consistent that triggers it.

12:53:56 - OMD done, now I have a battering ram against those Exos.

12:54:35 - Wormhole Instigator? Well...I'm not going to hit that AIP until real late, and maybe not at all. I'll let it stew for a trigger or two. Still cleaning threat up.

12:54:44 - Prepare for the swarm. Hive golem repaired. +30 AIP though. It's amusing...on the floor at 119, one point below threat waves

12:54:52 - Alarm post on Hinton hacked. No AIP increase for you!

12:57 - Oh dear...reprisal wave and I screwed up with the golem. Kalixa is in trouble. Almost 120 strength bearing down on it.

13:00 - That was too close. Lost Kalixa command and almost lost the coordinator as well. A little engineer micro on the force fields was the only thing that saved it.


A long one this time, but productive. Only took one planet, but with that one having a hive golem it was worth it. A lot of this session was long term investments. I got another ZPG online and the OMD to help out against those Exos. I'm going to continue clearing this threat and get the Ark and converter on that other corner planet. I have ~200 threat, but have eyes on about 120 or so. I also need to dispatch a fleet to take out that instigator. I've let it sit longer than I would like...4 triggers.

Current AIP: 119

Have a full picture this time on the union:

[Pireciter]

Nearing the endgame here. My focus this hour is on cleaning the threat down and preparing the way to the AIHW.

13:03 - Instigator down. 5 triggers

13:09 - !!! Where did that spire fleet come from. 80 strength just popped into Ormuzd...my homeworld. I'm guessing they choose to run through Hivehom? Well..I have an OMD there. Should make short work of it.

13:14:45 - So, Hive golem into Hinton...all by itself. Let's see how long it takes it to clear it.

13:17:44 - And done. Hive golems are awesome.

13:20 - And now I have a Thanatos.

13:23 - I'm going to station the ark and golem on the Dyson while I suck all the science from it.

Taking a look over the science..I'm a little confused on the Citadel unlocks. If I'm interpreting it correctly, it says it gives more citadels with the upgrade?


Unlock:
Melee IV(V)

1150 Science left

Scary, scary melees. I think I'm going to clear to a couple extenders to bump my count of them a bit.

13:40 - Eden drained. Now I'll pop my CS and let Dyson go do Dyson things again.

13:52 - Enki and Rondelle cleared. Probably going to clear Shortliffe and Radev next for the extenders there. I'm going to double at least two groups of saws and maybe my siege frigates.

14:00 - Clearing continuing. Hive about MarkIV, and Thanatos almost MarkII. Thanatos on defense duty and Hive is helping clear. Threat at 138.


Boring hour I know, but this is all prep work for the final push. I'm still thinking about the details, but I have a rough plan. I'm clearing the route down toward the AIHW now so I can press quickly after the CPA. I'm hoping this is the last one.

I'm still debating on the AIP plan. 2 planets to cap, possibly some distrib nodes, and I see a couple other AI structures that I may just kill instead of hacking. I'm figuring another 25-26 floor, with 50-~52 progress. I have 19 buffer left, so it's real close. I got AIP coming from the HW structures...there's 96 from the 12 posts there. If I hit the Copros, that will give another 60 buffer, but 40 floor. Ugh...I may grab the second MDC. I'll only have to suffer an Exo or two before this ends. With all my fleets nearby, reinforcements will be close. I'll make a final decision later.


Current AIP: 130 (Earned: 291, Reduction: 180, Floor: 130)

State of the Union:

[Pireciter]

A couple days off. Real life takes precedence of course. But, time to get back at this.

Hour 14. We are firmly in the endgame. My goal right now is to secure a protective border so that I can have a roaming defense fleet run around to cover my territory easily while the bulk of my forces are pushing on the AIHW. Right now, it's way too many hops to get from one end of my planets to the other. It's too risky to depend on a single planet to hold right now with the current AIP and wave/threat strength. I think I'm going to do some hacking en-route for some science and maybe get either turret/mine upgrades as well as a couple more fleet upgrades. I hope I can push through and finish this before the 16 hour CPA. Things are starting to get to the point where the AIP will slowly overwhelm me if I let this drag on. I'll be spending all my time cleaning and defending that I'll never get the initiative back.

14:01:39 - Wave instigator on Anabas. A little off track from my routes, but I can get ships over there quickly.

14:03 - Instigator cleared. No triggers. Hive and my sniper fleet are attacking Presidio to clear it. 2 other fleets neutering Teevan. Going to hack the magnifier there. Don't want the AIP from it.

14:07 - Presidio cleared. Hive redirected to Teevan. Reprisal timer counting.

14:09 - Bout 75 or so threat running Cormack-Hivehom-Tertius to come at my homeworld from the backside. I'll send a fleet that way.

14:10 - Here they come.

14:10:47 - So, either I've been missing them or the AI has gotten quite good at adjusting to my force makeup. Got a TON of spider guardians in this threat ball.

14:11 - Cleaned up. Hive on Teevan. Fleets moving to reinforce.

14:13 - Another threat ball taking that same route...bout 70 this time. Total threat at 268 FYI.

To give you an idea on the theatres here:

Thanatos with Dyson fighting 2 waves
Hive and Long Range fleet clearing Teevan
One fleet threat clearing
One fleet threat clearing on a different planet.
Two battlestations doing a dance in/out of Cormack to distract threat
Another fleet moving to reinforce my homeworld and cover Hivehom

Yes, that is 6 battles at once. What's your point?

14:17 - Teevan cleared.

14:17:49 - Now a vengeance strike.

14:18:06 - Of course they would attack Hivehom.

14:18:29 - They are leaving? Ok. I'm not complaining.

I think I am going to grab the MDC planet. I can cover a couple Exos there. My fleets will be close...but after the CPA trigger. I need to finish clearing my defense routes.

14:21 - Grabbing extender on my largest saw group. +130 saws...Mark V at that.

14:22 - Popping a D. node on Presidio and doing a science hack.

14:24:10 - CPA declared.

14:26:24 - Another D. node.

Unlock: Minefields IV

300 Science left

Those are going to really neuter any waves/threat at planets before they even get to my turrets.

14:34:09 - CPA 1 second. Full metal stocks, fleets ready to go.

14:34:10 - Here comes the CPA. 4,107 ships. 341 strength. 587 total threat. 1600+ Mark IV and 1100+ Mark V in this bunch.

14:40:53 - Score stands at 474/33.

14:51 - 401/356, but that 356 is actually ~15 because of cookie monster

So, a shot of Cormack right now:


Guess how well that one is working out for the AI.


15:00 - Alright, down to about 300 threat. We got an hour and a half until the next CPA.

I don't know if I'm going to get all my clearing that I want done. MAYBE I'll be able to beat the next CPA timer...I'm not sure now. I got two planets to capture and at least 4 to neuter/clear...not including the AI home world.


Current AIP: 131

Endgame plan:

[Pireciter]

15:01 - Threat at 309. Relocating fleets to my southern flank. I got some cleaning to do.

15:03:24 - A 101 strength wave to Gehenna. Didn't expect one that strong. Hey you! Yeah, you Mr. Fleet. Turn around and go back.

15:08 - Ahnit cleaned. I'm pushing on to do some more cleaning on Estocade before I capture it. Going to keep the reinforcements down on my route in.

15:13 - CPA Instigator. THAT needs to die quickly.

15:16 - Done. Oh, and Estocade is cleared. Dropping the CS on Ahnit and setting down a MilII over that MDC. At least it's in a far corner so I can cover it heavily.

15:19 - Big threat ball on Cormack. I love that the AI keeps gathering there. 245/14 right now.

Shan is going to be fun. I'll have to send in a smaller group to hack that alarm post first. I really don't want to wake up both a Mark VI and Mark VII planet.

15:22 - Score now 197/28.

15:25:30 - Hacking Shan...I just hope it targets the post and not one of the other items here...

15:25:56 - YES! For the record...there was no save-scum for it, and if it didn't drop it I would have just hacked again until I got it. I decided to take the chance on it because anything here would have been ok to get rid of. Now that it is done...everybody in!

15:27:28 - Ah...here comes the Praetorians. I was wondering when I'd start seeing them here.

15:33 - Shan cleared. Took out about 1k of the Praetorians as well.

I'm going to do a little something with the science I just got from Ahnit...

Unlock:
EngineerIV

300 Science left.

I need the factory support for these pushes. Plus, it will help out with repairs during threat holds. I've had zero metal problems since I've picked up the hive so I don't worry there. Taking Shan for instance...I didn't drop below 4 million metal. Total reclaim so far this game is >40 million.

15:34 - Let's take a look at Knuth, my next target.

Not as many ships as I thought...only 731 total. A lot of the strength is loaded in the turrets.

15:44 - Knuth is cleared. Dropping a LogiI for now. I want to clear Golumb before too many AI reinforcements show up and I want the engineering power of a Logi. I'll want to switch to a MilII for the archive hack.

15:48 - Alright, starting my attack on Golumb. I'm going to do this in two waves. Hive in first to distract and cause havoc. 2nd wave has a mountain of saws to wipe out the posts as quickly as possible. They are all MRLS posts...so ugh.

15:54 - Hmm...threat senses weakness...attacking hard on Hivehom...but repelled shortly after by my defense fleet.

15:55 - Something interesting I just noticed. Cookie monster I think reacts strangely if you have hacked vision on a planet, but no ships actually there. He's on Hadley right now and I have permanent vision from hacking. If I'm not actively looking at or have the planet selected, he doesn't fire on AI ships. Once I switch my view to that planet, he goes nomnomnom.

15:58 - Golumb clear. Now...I need scouts in place.

16:00 - Let's take a peek into the AI homeworld for some updated intel.

~680 strength. ~4000 ships. A couple evil posts, but here's the rundown:

1x Tethuida
1x Heavy Beam
1x Sabot
1x Concussion
2x Parasite
2x Nuc
4x Gravity

At least the Dire guardian on site is a force field. I remember one game I had a dire shredder with a Tethuida post. That wasn't fun.

I'm going to pull back though for the moment. I'll keep a fleet on Golumb to intercept any ships leaving the AIHW, but I'm going to focus back on threat clearing and get that spire archive. Currently 266 threat and I fully expect a 400+ strength CPA. I'd like to burst this down before then, but it's chancy. I either get it right around CPA start and I don't care what my AIP is, or I fail right before the CPA and I have a ~200 AIP CPA to deal with. Granted, if I'm close enough I should be able to stall but I'm going to have to think on it. I've come too far to lose this now.


Current AIP: 149

AIHW Intel:

[Pireciter]

I've had a marathon session here, but I couldn't let this thing keep going another day.

I'm still typing things up, but for a sneak peek:

[Pireciter]

Oh...another update. Version 1.332. I sure hope those developers didn't leave any surprises around for me...

Well, I think I'm stuck with one more CPA before the final assault. I'm going to focus on getting some threat whittled down and the spire archive hack. There were a lot of Mark VII ships released during my push down to the homeworld that are running around.

16:02 - I'm on a threat cleaning mission. The hive is keeping an eye on Golumb and the remaining fleets are cleaning between my bridge planets.

16:02:16 - Damn...Dyson was taken over again and now there's a Dire pike there? Ugh.

16:05:43 - Ohh...massive threat swarm charged the hive and disabled it when I wasn't looking. Pulling it back and moving another group in place.

16:07 - Switching Knuth for a MilII. Time for the hack.

16:10:45 - Hack underway. Still have ~200 threat running around. I'll have to stay on top of it with my fleets that are not clearing hack zombies.

16:11:45 - These spawns are nasty. I'm concerned about the later ones as this hack goes on...

16:12:22 - Hive at Mark V. That's a scary unit.

I'm impressed with the spire archive response. It's tons of shield killers. Eyebots, rams, and even some dire spawns.

16:12:42 - Exception? Something about tooltips and can't generate them. I grabbed the stack trace and a save right after it. Too much insanity...the game can't handle it!

16:13:32 - Several exceptions now. Not sure what's up with that. All about the same thing.

16:13:46 - Dire widows are amusing when they tractor a million of my melee units. I think those two didn't even last 3 seconds.

16:17 - Under 3 minutes on the hack.

16:19:45 - Got it. Delicious 8k Science. Knuth back to a LogiI.

Now...what to spend it on... I actually think another defense upgrade would not be a bad idea.

Unlock:
TurretII
ConcussionIII

50 Science left.

I came to a realization that I really didn't have good AoE damage in my fleets. So...it's a siege frigate upgrade with an extender on something else coming soon. Think I may grab the Concussion Tech as well...I've already neutered the planet. Got a CPA Instigator that decided to pop up that I'll take out here in a second.

16:23:57 - What the hell is that?! Extragalactic War Maugrim?! Never seen one of those. Strong sucker.

16:23:59 - Dear god...it's FAST! Blew right past the Hive without a care in the world.

16:24:11 - There's the CPA. 195 threat outstanding.

16:25:24 - !!! That Maugrim is already at Lynx?! That thing moves!

16:27:08 - I don't know what that was...but it's dead now.

16:28:37 - Oh...seems the AI gets to spawn those. Looks like a new trick.

16:29:01 - Hmm...what should I double...I think I'll do the gunboats. With so many melees I need some more support to target those gravity and spider ships.

16:31:45 - Ah ha. Threat says a wave means it's time to attack. Good. I can thin it out.

16:32:04 - What the heck? Brownout?! I didn't lose anything...must of been a rebuild trigger.

16:32:06 - Of course, that's the signal to charge...

16:33:06 - Everything back up. I'm going to go hack this tech real fast. CPA about a minute out.

16:33:45 - Ok, that was hilarious. I've never seen a force field frigate do that. Turned a threat frigate into a zombie. Instead of "pushing" everything away like it normally does...it instead LAUNCHED itself through the whole horde like a battering ram, parting them like a plow, and embedded itself at the edge of the gravity well.

Strange...it's a zombie, but it's listed as part of the sentinel fleet. Oh, and is also stuck.


Right afterwards...The stack of them split and became a single zombie and a sentinel fleet unit. Weird.


Yeah...there's something strange going on here. Now the sentinel is not a sentinel-zombie.

16:34:11 - CPA Fires, and it's....surprisingly small. 3,951 ships, but only ~300 strength. >600 total threat.

Back to our sentinel/zombie/guardian...now it multiplies!!! They are taking over! It's not stuck anymore though.


16:37:13 - There's that Maugrim. It's on Lynx. Looks like threat is preparing to come at Thone.

These forcefield guardians are really strange. Just had two more freak out and launch themselves. Massive stacks of them. I keep seeing the forcefield drop and "repop" like they want to go zombie, but the stack wins out. Zooming and moving your cursor around on them seems to make them dither between the two factions.

16:47 - Clearing continuing. Score is at 297/0

17:02 - Well, things continue to clear. These new AI ships are quite annoying. Score is at 307/0. I'm moving down to my southern flank for the final push. I have a 400 strength spire fleet currently "pushing" the AI as well...one of those Maugrims died on a dark spire planet.

17:08 - Ok. Threat at 259. I'm still watching that spire fleet running around. It's moving between Cormack, Rulif, and Rondelle right now. It makes me a little nervous if it comes my way. However, it's time to finish this.


I've done some fleet reorganization. Thanatos staying back on defense watching my western and central planets. A second fleet covers the rest. My remaining forces have gathered on Golumb for the push. My main fleets are set as this:

Hive: Distraction and free ships
Chop Shop Brigade: Fleet with nothing but saws acting as a "bomb" to drop on major targets.
Boom Boom: Siege Frigates, and siege frigates only. Drop, fire, load, and run away.
Long Range: All my infinite range units to run around the gravity well edge to target key units.
Kitchen Sink 1/2: Everything else. Cannon fodder and chaff.

Total assault strength: ~260.

It will be a process to thin things out, but I have a plan.

One way or another, this ends now.

[Pireciter]

This is it. The final round. The endgame. Let's do this.

17:14 - Hive enters Kamp to drop a load of yellow jackets to incite ships to run out. Hive retreats to Golumb to preserve itself.

17:14:06 - It worked. Here they come.

17:14:40 - Over 200 strength AI fleet on Golumb. Homeworld looks empty.

17:15 - Adjusting defenses a bit by dropping several beam cannons. 6 matter converters gone. I'm going to need the metal regen.

17:18:21 - Initial rush cleared. Now to push the hive again.

17:18:59 - First gaurdpost down. Concussion.

17:19:47 - Tethuida gone

17:20:46 - Another 150 threat pulled from Kamp. Come on AI, send me all those Mark VII ships. Right into the chop shop.

17:22:29 - Cleaned. Next! 474 strength left.

17:23:54 - Dire Parasite down next.

17:25:50 - All these AI sentry ships are quite annoying.

17:33:30 - The Thanatos is moving after one of these Extragalactic...things...He's keeping it occupied for now, but it's a scary unit running around.

17:35:13 - Instigator? Warden fleet? I'm going to ignore it...this thing won't last much longer.

17:41:40 - 1st gravity post. I'm hoping the remaining units can get another one as well...

17:42:04 - Nope.

7 posts left. And I'm fighting a 150 strength reprisal timer from a bad click and a fleet popped.

17:50 - I'm stalemated...I got one trick left to try...all in. Everything but the Thanatos on the other side of the galaxy. Chop Shop will use the distraction to go after them all.

17:52:52 - 3 left. It's all or nothing here. The worst ones are gone. 2 gravity and a Nuc left. Chop Shop is on a roll, but the rest of the fleets are starting to falter.

17:53:17 - 2 left. The reprisal is a nuke right now. 338 strength, and my total fleet strength is about to drop below the requirement.

17:53:53 - 1....Select all, right click...Kill!

17:54:13 - Hive just went down. Post at 70% shield. Counter attack strength at 519, I no longer have enough on planet...timer ticking.

17:54:21 - Come on! Almost there!


17:54:34 - Shields down! KILL IT!

17:54:45 - DEAD! Reprisal gone. Less than 400 of my ships still on planet. Pulling everything and retreating to Knuth for the moment. I need to rebuild quickly.

17:57:40 - Hive is repaired enough. Get back in there.

18:00:33 - The last bits of the AIHW are gone. Now for the command station.

18:00:53 - PHASE 2.

18:01:15 - Shields down!

18:02:05 - 30%. Almost there!

18:02:29 -


18:02:30 - VICTORY!



Hard fought. The AI put up a fight with this one. I'll have some after action items and MVPs to throw up tomorrow, and maybe a mantis or two...but for now, I need sleep.

[BadgerBadger]

Congrats on your win!

[Pireciter]

This one was a fun one. I will say that's my first 9/9/9 win, but then again...I haven't really put enough effort into a game to force myself through it. Would get to the final bit with a large chance at the win, then quit and start anew because of a patch or something.

The stars of this show though:

Let's start with The Hive. Made things so much easier with the constant swarm of free ships. When clearing the planets down to the homeworld and the homeworld assault itself, it was a great swarmer. I do wish we could adjsut priority on the swarm somewhat...kind of annoying when you see them firing on something that doesn't count or run all the way across the map to kill that one ship when there is a swarm of other ships right in front of you. The not loading for transport when there is even a single cloaked mine left on the planet...THAT was very annoying.

Next on the list, surprisingly was the Dark Spire. They kept a couple planets of my defense border covered and even though sometimes they came at me, they were quite adequate at keeping AI forces bottled up sometimes.

Last, goes to everything that Metabolized metal, a.k.a. Salvage. Almost 73 million metal recovered over the course of this game. It went a very long way sustaining pushes and keeping things moving when I was loaded down with converters at a couple points.

Most Hilarious failure: Moving hive into a planet to tempt AI out...but not paying attention and leaving all the yellow jackets behind when it jumped. THEN, forgetting about it until the reprisal alert popped up on the screen from it being disabled. That was the mistake around hour 13 I mentioned.

Most Hilarious moment: Watching Force field frigates launch themselves like rockets across the gravity well during that last hack. I almost choked on my drink when it happened the first time.

Honorable mention: Devourer Golem a.k.a. cookie monster. Amusement, hatred, and annoyance all rolled into one giant ball of death

A couple ideas that I thought of over the course of this round:
-Reprisal adjustments
-Tractor units
-Melee

First, the reprisal. A couple times being able to reset that timer saved my bacon, but it was quite easy to jump a transport in and out for 2 seconds to give 2 more minutes while I was rebuilding. Maybe a mechanic where each time the timer is stalled, the required strength jumps by a couple %? That would still allow resets, but not allow it forever. Don't increase the reprisal strength when this is done, but only the required strength to delay it.

Tractor units...awesome but dear god the micro when combined with melee. Keeping those persuaders corralled so the saws could kill everything was quite a chore. Sometimes I'd see a single tractor towing away one lone ship...and 400 melee saws running after it like a dog chasing a bone. Amusing...if it wasn't for the dire guardian and all the pikes they were ignoring in their chase. They were also VERY strong when splitting groups of units. I'd suggest a larger speed drop when a unit is under tractor. They were quite powerful when they could outrun about everything to split off a group through a wormhole.

Then melees...are there things in progress to help improve the attack when chasing a retreating unit? Seen them many times as a large group chasing a unit...being ON TOP OF IT...but not doing any damage because it was retreating. Even if the unit was slower than the saws, they still wouldn't damage it. I'd manually grab the group and click in front of the unit to break them from their funk, but still annoying.


Time for a break for a bit. I've got some ideas for my next adventure against the AI apocalypse. Who knows...maybe I'll try 10...


This is Pireciter.

Signing off.

[Cyborg]

Pireciter, mechanically, would you mind answering how you managed to use your fleets on the sidebar? Are you moving giant balls of ships? Are you moving different types of ships into different areas strategically or just fleetballs? Also, are you using the different types of fleets to accomplish your goals or are you trying to put them all in the same place when the events happen? I'm wondering what other people are doing with the fleets and what their gameplay behavior is.