After Action Report: Raiders of the Lost Ark

[zeusalmighty]

This was a pure raider game. (Hence, the low-hanging reference)
10/10/10 Vicious Raider, 10 Marauder, 10 Human Resistance, 10 Dyson, 10 Trains, 5 (Hard) Golems. Bonus ship: Raiders. Ark: The shield one (Hegira?)

Immediately unlocked mark 3 raiders, nucleophilic turrets, and concussion turrets, and rest of science to unlock raid starships.

I do scouting raids for the first hour, keeping AIP very low and getting my scouts all over the map by sniping tachyon sentinels with raid starships. Find some good intel and take over my neighbors to start my expansion. Goal is to kill all data centers ASAP with raid starships so I can basically take some planets for free

Keep spending science to improve raid starships (***only get 1 extra for mark 3; bug). These ships are performing spectacularly at their function. TBH these are too good at killing fortresses (once you have Mark 4).

These units are amazing at hit and run. 1) Kill Tachyon and retreat. 2) Kill concussion guard posts (hard counters raid starships) and recloak by moving away from AI. 3) Super-Kite! (use speed to stay at max range and send damaged ones away to recloak and regen shields). 4) Once all major threats are gone (i.e. Eyes), send in fleet to clean up.

I found a way to exploit the Marauders that seems legitimate. I neuter worlds on the way to planets I want. I let the marauders take over and kill the command station. Now, I can get science on the planets!!! Just defend science station and clean up marauders and there you go. They can also make good buffers against the AI. (***Marauders at 10 were easily dealing with AI waves, which seems right at that setting)

Start hacking mercenaries and other good finds (***Shield Ark is amazing for hacking; just keep hacker in the bubble shield and you got it). I soon found template for vicious raid starships, so I also got these to mark 4 and holy cow do my combined raid starships kick ass! Even shield guard posts pop like a bubble. Raiders (fleetship and starship varieties) are pretty great at defense because you get them to the attacked planet super-fast.

My earlier intel revealed all the co-processors, so I got my raid starships in position to take these all out at once. (***I got WAY more reduction than 120 so that’s a bug—I debugged to get my AIP at the right level)

Hunters and Wardens felt pretty absent this game. I was able to cut off the Wardens in my intimal land grab and because I kept the AIP low (I think) the Hunters never had a fleet that could threaten me. It acted kind of dumb, trickling units through my wormhole instead of amassing the fleet together before.

With my low AIP (only 85) I felt justified in taking over a corner of the galaxy that had 3 golems. I neutered the planets with raids and then took out the three command centers simultaneously in order to quickly colonize them. Now with my golems, I felt powerful and started clearing out a path to the AI HW, colonizing the surrounding planets to get mark 7 raiders (these fleetships are pretty fun and powerful) and making sure the Overlord has no escape.

I bring everything with me because between the Dyson patrolling my base, the Human Resistance, low AIP, and my powerful turrets, I felt safe enough to bring all my mobile forces. Between my mark 7 raiders, my mark 4 vicious and normal raid starships, and unleashing ALL the mercenaries I found, killing the Overlord was easy.

Victory!

[BadgerBadger]

Nice work! The Marauder killing command center/player getting science is an allowed interaction (because the marauders will try to fight you). If it feels too powerful we may have to change it.

If you have a save game that right before killing the last coprocessor that would make it easy to figure out what's going on.

[zeusalmighty]

If you have a save game that right before killing the last coprocessor that would make it easy to figure out what's going on.

I'll have to check (on my other computer) later, I'm not sure if I'll have a save but I can probably just replicate it.

[Fluffiest]

Nice work! The Marauder killing command center/player getting science is an allowed interaction (because the marauders will try to fight you). If it feels too powerful we may have to change it.

If you have a save game that right before killing the last coprocessor that would make it easy to figure out what's going on.

It feels like the answer to that is for the AI to get sick to the back teeth of the Marauders after the first few times, and then go kill them all. This is something I'd really love to see in AIW2, actually - the AI responding to Minor Factions with the same kind of hostility it shows to the player. I would be absolutely delighted to watch the Marauders cause trouble and take systems, until eventually the AI Has Had Enough and drops a gigantic fleet on them, eradicating them from the galaxy map and essentially removing the possibility of them ever recovering. It's a good way to make a player think "Crap, that could have been me. Better keep the AIP low!". Same for the Nanocaust, really, except that the Nanocaust is meant to be a real threat to the AI and at higher levels of Minor Faction it'll actually start winning.

(Alternatively, make it difficult or impossible to gather science while the Marauders still hold a world.)

[BadgerBadger]

The AI tracks a variant of "progress" for any faction that captures systems (right now the Nanocaust and the Marauders), and will send waves/the hunter fleet against them. So what you would like to happen should be happening already.

[RocketAssistedPuffin]

Though I found for the Nanocaust the AI just feeds it more ships, so it helps it instead.

[Ovalcircle]

The Marauders successfully defending against Intensity 10 AI waves is the most surprising thing of this AAR.

[zeusalmighty]

TBH I really like the ability to get science from planets that the AI has lost control of for whatever reason. I think it encourages some different playstyles which is a good thing.

If it turns out that this is just way too easy for players to get science, then maybe only letting the player get half the available science would be a good middle ground, so to get the rest the player needs to actually capture the planet

[RocketAssistedPuffin]

Feels like the higher difficulties need a few tune ups if it's already a bit of a joke...

[HeartHunter]

Gratz with win
Dont nerf Raider Starships, better blame AI, that he cant outplay invisible ships.

[zeusalmighty]

The Marauders successfully defending against Intensity 10 AI waves is the most surprising thing of this AAR.

Once the get mark 3 bases and the raider starships they make a strong defensive position. A couple cojoined planets had about 600 raider starships and I felt fine never trying to get the science on that planet lol