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Keith's Challenge

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zoutzakje:
original:


--- Quote from: zoutzakje on March 01, 2012, 05:48:56 PM ---
--- Quote from: keith.lamothe on March 01, 2012, 12:42:08 PM ---Concentric is my favorite for anything, really, and I like it for FS too.

It'd be interesting to see someone win a diff 9+ on grid (crosshatch is probably too brutal), as it really complicates the defensive situation.

--- End quote ---

I will take you up on that challenge when I have finished my current game. Not going to play with random AI types though... I'm not THAT confident.

--- End quote ---


So here goes :P

80 planets, dif 9/9 and AI types are Vanilla and The Tank. I was planning to go with Gravity Driller instead of The Tank, but after giving it some thought I figured Gravity Driller would be to much of a pain in the butt. Besides, i have already played against Gravity Driller quite recently (even though that was only a 7/7 game) and I like variety in my games.
map seed: 1777452422
map style is Crosshatch of course and I play with complex avilable ships. all ships are turned on, even the hateful (to a lot of players, but not to me) CSG's.
Furthermore there is a 1 AIP increase per 30 minutes. That's more than i used to play with in the past (0 AIP increase), but I figured one per 30 minutes wouldn't matter much.
Minor factions are resistance fighters, traders, miners, dyson sphere, fallen spire, golems moderate and spirecraft hard.
Usually I play with the avenger on, but I figured I'd leave the plots alone for this game (especially the hybrids). I've already made it hard enough as it is.
Oh and I play on ultra low caps. In my previous 120 planet low caps game, my crappy laptop was still having trouble with the thousands of zombies who were patrolling my systems. I have a feeling that this game is going to last longer than 18 and a half hours (if I don't screw up) so I figured the new ultra low option would be best.
I have to be honest and say that I cheesed with the "new map seed" option until I had my fav ship type at the location I wanted; blade spawners at an edge (not in a corner, but it would probably take to long to get that done :D).
So, here's a screenshot of my current galaxy layout. I'll occasionally post some updates.

keith.lamothe:
Very interesting :)  That's a lot of wormholes to defend... ;)

Hopefully the rounding-down-ness of ultra low caps won't mess with you too much.

Moonshine Fox:
There's a reason they call laptops "craptops" when it comes to raw crunching power :(

I wish you the best of luck. This should become interesting :D

zoutzakje:
wow, this game sure is interesting. I didn't want to post again until I had my first planet captured. And god it took me more than 2 hours :D
2 out of the 5 bordering enemy worlds turned out to be mk IV. "Could be worse",I thought. Well probably it could, but it was painful nonetheless. The worlds were reinforcing faster than i could kill off ships (and they still are). The numbers of enemy ships were going into the 200... on ultra low caps -.- Sending my fleet in would be suicide and I didn't have the resources to handle it. so I send waves of caps mk I and II fighters. I had to attack about 3 or 4 times to kill a single guard post. The enemy starts out with Tractor Platforms -.- have a few fighters get taken away, destroy them before they enter another wormhole, and TP still goes into that system, waiting there as threat. After I few maneuvres involving fighters and frigates (I have way more crystal income) I could finally destroy 2 more guard posts. My ships die and a threat of 70+ ships stalks the wormhole. A wave launches and the threat comes by to join the fight. Damn, that was tough. Good thing I had gravity and tractor turrets up everywhere already. About 100 mk I and II ships really isn't enough to kill 70+ Mk IV ships before they reach your home command lol. Thank god I had plasma siege starships, they saved the day by succesfully destroying large chunks of enemy engines.
After I managed to destroy the attacking threat, I noticed I had free game on that mk IV world (the one in the corner), so I send in what little remained of my fleet and my full caps of mk I and II blade spawners... Blade spawners did all the work, destroying guard posts and enemy ships from afar. Finally victorious. It will soon be time to take out the other mk IV world, which is getting close to the 300 ships now.
I don't think it will be possible for me to get very far in this game, but so far I'm enjoying the early epic battles :D
As a side note, enemy Armor ships are Extremely hard to kill. Even bombers do fairly little damage, even though they're supposed to be hard counters. 24k armor on mk IV... Yeah, they're Armor ships allright.
A small list of the goodies I've found so far in my galaxy:

co-p and Warbird factory on Ember
Zenith power generator on Rime and Balm
ARS on Eclipse and Neptune
Factory Mk IV on Spark
Black widow golem on Sleet
Hive golem on Flower and Fog

and my favorite and most important target for now:
Botnet golem and Blade spawner mk V fabricator on Haures

Black widow, hive and botnet planet are all in a straight line at the upper edge. If I can reach the Botnet I can pretty much take care of my defense for the rest of the game (I hope) and actually move my progress "inland". But getting there is another story since it's 5 hops away
-.-
I already figured it would be best to destroy every single wormhole guard post whenever I neuter a planet... And I neuter a lot.
First spire shard is on a planet deeper in enemy territory (Balm). I figured I'd wait with the first shard until I have that botnet. Or at least the black widow.
So far very entertaining and really challenging already. Not enough challenge to run me over, but enough to keep me on my toes. I have to admit I have already savescummed several times though. Not because I lost the game, but simply because I knew I could play more optimal and have fewer losses. Learning new strategies along the way I guess. I'm so not used to playing dif 9 games :D

Adding screenshot of current galaxy. More to come!

Wanderer:
2 Recommendations when arguing with High Level MK IV worlds.

1) Use Raid starships to 'buzz' guardposts and release threat.  They should come at your HW and you should be able to handle them easier.
2) Attack from alternate wormholes when possible.  Sneak through MK II/III systems you've cleansed and come in via a different angle.  The wormhole campers will stream at you, giving you a better chance of chewing through them.  At the least more will die before your fleet is in disrepair.

With the # of wormhold guardposts you're facing you're right, full neuters are mandatory to clean out border aggression, but it shouldn't be a signficant concern until you're at 3-4 worlds taken.  Right now only one/two worlds will reinforce at a time, so CBA shouldn't be a huge deal.  Wait until you've got Bomber IIIs then go back and 'cleanup', or you'll spend way too much time on the guardposts and not enough taking on the early game.  I've blown a few AI 9/10 games trying to do that and ended up on the wrong end of CPAs and the like because of time.

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