AI War: Fleet Command

[NickAragua]

At this point, you don't need to worry about going to AI level 2, since killing the AI command station will bump AI Progress up by a whopping 100. Plus, the reinforcements that spawn on the AI homeworld are always maximum tech level. The main problem will be that "waves" will start consisting of mark II ships, but since you're using IV turrets that shouldn't matter much.

If it helps, this AI homeworld will now be easier because you destroyed some of the guard posts - so every time it gets reinforced, there will be fewer reinforcements. So, keep it up, sounds like you're doing well.

[Lorini]

This has been a fascinating read!!! I'm really enjoying it.

[Moliere]

This has been a fascinating read!!! I'm really enjoying it.

Always good to hear. Thanks for reading.

So, tonight I only had time for 1 raid on the AI homeworld. I sent my 36 starships in and split them into 3 groups. The heavy bombers did a suicide run north across the map to take out the Orbital Mass Driver because those things can one shot my star ships. I sent my Human Raid ships on a suicide run west across the map to take out the Ion Cannon because those things were one shotting all of my leached ships. These raid ships are great for killing things hiding behind a forcefield generator which this canon was doing. The rest of my ships took out the closest Guard Post to the east. Once all 3 objectives were completed I exited back out the friendly worm hole with 16 of my ships remaining though badly damaged. The AI had 4 or 5 retaliation waves sent to various planets, but nothing exceeding 2000 ships. All defenses are rebuilt along with my starship fleet. Maybe by the end of this weekend I will finally take the first AI homeworld.

[NickAragua]

You keep this up and I'm going to start wanting to play another round of this game.

[Zenn7]

I was refraining from commenting so you and Nick could focus on the game but I too am greatly enjoying reading this. Thank you for posting all this!

[Moliere]

The AI homeworld with 2 remaining guard posts and a ton of random ships against my 36 star ships.

Spoiler:

After killing the 2 guard posts I have 22 ships remaining. Run away or go for broke?

Spoiler:

I ran away. Good thing too because that AI planet on the bottom left sent about 2000 ships after me. Instead I dealt with retaliations like these:

Spoiler:

After stopping all the retaliations, building up my defenses, and rebuilding my star ship fleet I am back at the AI homeworld. It has a Mark III fortress and TWO Mark V force field generators.

Spoiler:

I attack the force field generators until they shrink enough to expose the Fortress. I focus all my ships on that until it's gone, then take out each of the generators until they are gone. You know what else is gone? Almost all my remaining star ships. You know what's not gone? The thousands of ships coming after me from the bottom left AI worm hole. What to do?

Spoiler:

With only 8 damaged ships I was never going to make it back to the friendly worm hole in time. This just became a suicide mission so I had them attack the AI Home Command Station.

Spoiler:

DOWN GOES THE AI! DOWN GOES THE AI!

Two of my star ships died taking out the Command Station, the rest died before they got anywhere near the friendly worm hole. With the station gone I could finally send a scout to the planet. What is this? Only 46 AI ships remaining here?

Spoiler:

Would they let me stick my own Command Station at this former home world?

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YES! I'm using my last Warp Jammer station so we'll see how long I can hold the planet. I certainly like the 12 metal producers and the formerly enslaved human colony also producing metal.

[GreenGoo]

Fired it up last night, played the first tutorial (i.e. move your scout to the enemy planet) then quit after looking at all the numbers on display.

Steam says I've put in over 30 hours in this game but I have absolutely no recollection on how to play it. Will try again.

[Moliere]

I'm not sure if I will be able to take the 2nd AI homeworld. After destroying the first 3 guard posts I have been attacked relentlessly by waves of Spire ships. I haven't faced these the whole game and now it's all I see. They make a beeline through my various planets until hitting my home Command station. After having this happen multiple times my only remaining idea is to pull back on the planets of the left fork towards the first AI homeworld I took. Leaves these undefended so I can reorganize my defenses along the single path between my home station and the 2nd AI homeworld.

[NickAragua]

Did you hit the half-hour mark? There's a nasty wave that spawns every half hour or so when you hit an AI homeworld.

I agree with your assessment that you need to pull back from the left fork. It's not critical for that to be defended.

[Moliere]

My first attack on the second AI Homeworld. I took out the closest 2 guard posts.

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This is the galaxy map after I retreated from the left fork leading to the first AI Homeworld.

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This is an example of an exogalactic attack.

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How the f*@k am I supposed to defend my Home Command station against this? The original armada was 44 "massive AI ships" representing over 55,000 total ships. You can see the timer is ticking down another 30 minutes so even if I did stop this attack I can't do it with 20 minutes remaining on the clock. Total b.s. Oh, and the regular wave of 4000 ships is also coming in from somewhere.

Spoiler:

[NickAragua]

Hope you had a save from before starting the assault. Did those two cross planet attacks start before or after you showed up at the homeworld? If so, you might be looking at a CPA guard post. The problem with CPAs is that they'll often hang back if you've got good defenses and then pile in once a stronger attack hits. So you might consider letting those two go off and cleaning up a bit before hitting the homeworld. If you're looking at a CPA guard post, then kill it ASAP, ignore all other considerations. Since this is the last homeworld (i.e. you don't care about AI progress any more), feel free to drop an EMP or armored warhead in there to give you a little breathing room at the wormhole. I still find it weird that you have just the starships attacking the homeworld - I would be tempted to bring in some more mobile units, if for no other purpose than to absorb enemy fire so your starships can survive a bit longer. Another option is to use riot starships loaded up with as many force fields as possible.

That exogalactic attack looks nasty. That's what, 40 golems? Sheesh. If you can swing it, I would recommend getting a mass driver from a Zenith Trader if he happens by one of your systems, those things clean enemy starship clock like nobody's business.

Another thing you could do is post your save at the arcen games forums, those guys love coming up with ways to take down the AI.

[Moliere]

Because I am cursed with being a gaming completionist I am giving this one more try. I loaded the saved game from right before I attacked the 2nd homeworld. The periodic waves are easily managed while I reorganized my defenses: pull back from the left fork leading to the 1st AI world and changing the position of the turrets from protecting the command ships to causing maximum damage to enemy armadas passing through the system on their way to my homeworld. I got most of that done last night with one planet left that needs to be rearranged. I also spent my remaining knowledge points on a couple of turret upgrades including the gravity ones that slow enemy traffic. We'll see how much any of this matters when I attack the AI again.

[NickAragua]

The grav turrets are great against fast enemy ships. Some enemy ships are immune to gravy, which is superb from your point of view because they're likely to go running off on their own and get killed separately from their pals. Don't place them directly on the projected AI path, put them down a little to the side.

Also, if you haven't already, crank out all the mines you can along the projected AI path. Every little bit helps.

[Moliere]

The grav turrets are great against fast enemy ships. Some enemy ships are immune to gravy, which is superb from your point of view because they're likely to go running off on their own and get killed separately from their pals. Don't place them directly on the projected AI path, put them down a little to the side.

Also, if you haven't already, crank out all the mines you can along the projected AI path. Every little bit helps.

Mines are considered stealth and therefore were excluded from this game. Normally I create hallways of death with my turrets because I know they're coming from a single point and attacking a single point (my command ship). With this new configuration there are some planets with multiple possible paths for the AI to use as they pass through the system. That requires more clustering of turrets and flooding the whole area with gravity turrets.

[NickAragua]

Man, that 'no-stealth' restriction is a real bummer.

[Moliere]

NickAragua...you magnificent bastard, I read your post! Here's what happened when I got around to using missiles for the first time.

I reloaded my save game from right before attacking the 2nd homeworld. I reorganized my turret defenses to protect against ships travelling through the system. I also pulled back on some of the planets to the left fork and the 1st AI homeworld I defeated. I couldn't pull back from all of them because I needed the metal and energy production. This picture is taken right after defeating 3 waves of 5000 ships. You can see the AI completely used up its entire threat.

Spoiler:

After rebuilding my defenses I sat idle letting the game run to build up my metal reserve and build 11 missiles.

Spoiler:

This is what the homeworld looks like. 2 Ion cannons, 6 guard posts that need to be defeated before you can touch the Command Station, 1 Orbital Mass cannon, and 1 missile cannon. Being the AI homeworld it's also full of a ton of ships, mostly Mark V ships and Mark V star ships.

Spoiler:

Fortunately, the anti-missile cannon is right next to my wormhole. I sent my 3 lightening missiles to destroy this first. The first missile is cannon fodder and the remaining 2 missiles have 10 seconds before it reloads to destroy the cannon, which they do. Step 2: send in the nuke! And for good measure, Step 3: send in the EMP! That disables and destroys all non-Mark V ships. Step 4: send 6 armored missiles after the 6 guard posts.

Spoiler:

As soon as the 6 guard posts are blown up by the missiles I send in my 36 star ships. They make a beeline right for the AI Command Station.

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Ten of my ships go down blasting at the double force fields.

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Twenty one ships survive to the end. Down goes the AI! Down goes the AI!

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Thank you NickAragua and everyone else who helped me get through this game. I've now spent twice as much time playing this game than any other steam game. Kind of scary since it's not my usual preferred game genre. It just goes to show how addictive it can get.

[Zenn7]

Awesome! Congrats.

Thank you for sticking with this and keeping us filled in. This has been a very entertaining trip through the game.

[GreenGoo]

The number of people who have finished this game has to be fairly small, and now you're part of that elite group. Good job!

[NickAragua]

[GreenGoo]

AI war 2 is a thing.

steam AI War 2

[Zitterbacke]

Nice!