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Newbie AAR

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barryvm:
Hallo,

I'm fairly new at this game and I've already played a few games on the lower difficulties (dif 5 and 6, which posed no problems).
I've read several AAR's and looked through the strategy discussions (very helpfull forum this is) and thought about submitting an AAR of my own.
Since I'm a beginner at this game it will probably not be the "spectacular win against all odds" type of post: I'll probably get a sound pounding at some point.
Any comments and tips are appreciated as well as identifying strategic mistakes.

Now I think I'll begin my first "real" game with the following setup:

map type: complex
AI: both at difficulty 7 (all types enabled).
0 AIP per 30 minute because I will problably be very slow at this and I don't want to be rushed.
all bonus ships enabled (all expansions)
Dyson Sphere, Human resistance, medium golems and spirecraft enabled. (I only leave on the things that make the game a little easier)
I always play with random AI and homeworld and don't savescum..., or at least not too often  ;D.

With a suitable feeling of dread I push the start game button...

barryvm:
And I'm off!



I seem to be in an good definsible position (only two wormholes).
My bonus ship is the laser gatling which seems a low damage low cost swarmer if I understand the tooltips correctly.

I unlock Economic command II and bombers II and start building a fleet to assault the neighbouring planets.
After assembling a small fleet I send them through to Tetherwasic and blast the defenders and command center to bits.

At first glance I'm lucky: there are two advanced research stations at Erroha and at Soafrea two hops away!
The party doesn"t last long however as a second look revealed that Erroha borders on a chain of mark IV worlds and Soafrea contains no less than four of those nasty Mk III counterattack guard posts (which I only noticed once I had popped the first one  >:().
It seems the map generator has been designed to play sadistical mindgames with unsuspecting players.

As I can't afford to let a mk IV planet build up a few hops away and my special ship is not exactly build for heavy Mk IV assault purposes I decided to gate raid Erroha and  Chalea (the other world neigbouring my homeworld) with a raid starship and attack Soafrea instead.

I popped the counterattack guard posts one at a time with a few minutes in between to spread the counterattack waves (700 Mk III ships total) and capture the planet.
I get the Spire Teleporting Leech and test it on the counterattack waves and on the "normal" waves which (naturally) spawn at the same time.
The AI's seem to be big fans of  Spire Gravity Rippers, Armor ships and raiders (no problems there).
Can't seem to use this unit properly though, they are teleporters so they don't stick with the fleet but they have a far too low attack to actually reclaim something.

Time to fortify Soafrea to absorb incoming waves (in the range of 70 - 120 ships) and prepare for the attack on Erroha.

The current plan is to capture Erroha and hope the ARS yields something with a little more firepower and (partially neuter) Murdoch (Mk IV).
Once I have a sound economic base I can then capture Murdoch and activate the hive golem on there (I heard these are really good but I've never tried them myself).
I also think I should periodicly attack Murdoch (with less than 50 ships ?) to keep the reinforcements from building up.
At this point I have no idea what to unlock (except scouts II,  fighters II and bombers III) so I'm leaving it at that.

I'm really feeling optimistic at this point.

zoutzakje:
ah yes, I always feel optimistic whenever I start my game as well. Until I get hammered on the AI homeworlds that is lol.
You play with random AI types right? Did you also enable the reveal random ai types option to see who you're up against? I'm curious about that.
So far you seem to be starting out good =) Just be careful of the mk IV worlds. Only put them on alert if you really have no choice.
As for unlocking things. I usually wait with unlocking stuff. I save my knowledge for when i really need it. It all depends on what happens in your game. Harvesters mk III will always get unlocked in my games. But when I unlock it all depends on how much of a hard time the enemy gives me.
Just try some stuff out I guess. See what works for you.

barryvm:
Thanks for the tip about the mk IV, they seem a bit more deadly challenging on this difficulty.

Can you turn the view AI type option on after starting ? (I seem to have forgotten that one) ?

Are higher level harvesters better than economic stations ? I saw several posts dismissing their usefullness in favour of economic command stations but they seem to have changed in one of the patches.
The current plan would be to put only the first mk IV on alert and partially neutering it, I kind of hope that would keep me safe from too much buildup  but I'm not sure.
I just hope the ARS unlock isn't some swarmer or my decision to take the Mk IV's out later could turn out to be a quite nasty mistake.

Diazo:
Welcome to the game.  8)

It looks like you are off to a good start.

If the ship type the ARS will give you is a big deal, you can see what you could get in advance by dropping a Science ship into the system with the ARS. (Make sure to use a Science Mk I or Mk II, NOT a K-Hacker or Ship-Hacker). A Transport works great for getting the science ship there alive.

A new tab will appear in the science menu called ARS with 3 ship types. If you capture the planet, the ARS will give you one of those 3 types at random. If you really want a specific ship you can use a Ship-Hacker but that will provoke a response from the AI.

Note that if you capture the system randomly, the ship you get is determined by the map seed. Save-Loading to get a different ship does not work.

On the command station vs. harvester, it depends on your situation. The fewer systems, the stronger economic command stations are, the more systems the better harvesters are. I think the patch notes have the actual math. Patch 5.033

I tend to go econ stations and build them in my behind the lines systems, but in my current game (The 14 wormholes of fun AAR) I don't have any systems behind the lines so I went harvesters.

I am a fan of military command stations for systems exposed to the AI, even at only 20% for the Mk I, the attack bonus is a huge boost.

As for finding out the AI types after the game starts, you either have to guess based on what it does or use a cheat code.

Let us know how it goes.

D.

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