Topics

1

After Action Reports / 9-9 Trial and error

« on: March 31, 2013, 10:46:20 AM »

It's been a while since my last 9-9 attempt (I've been plagued lately by this terrible affliction called a "day-job") and after suffering a crushing defeat against a crafty spire I restricted myself to the lower difficulties for a while.
But now it's time to take revenge for all those mocking taunts I received last time when another of my core planets fell to the AI onslaught and finally make a serious attempt at very hard difficulty.

The setup is not too brutal (meaning not all neutral factions are on):
9- 9 non technologists on a simple clusters map with a random homeworld.
Minor factions will be dyson sphere, devourer golems, human marauders, human resistance and roaming enclaves.
I'm playing with all expansions but I don't take a champion, since I'm not too keen to meet these nemesis frigates when I'm assaulting the homeworlds.

Broken golems and spirecraft are set to "hard", while the botnet golem (which seems to have turned into some sort of demi god and got it's own faction) will be set to "medium".

And off I go...


Things seem to go in my favour:
I got the teleport station as a bonus ship and started building a cap of these to hold off the first AI wave which turn out to be bombers and are easily dispatched.
There is a Mk IV world bordering on my homeworld though and since it's the only one with decent resources I decided to attack it early after I took over Murdoch.

Currently things seem to be looking up with a slight chance of rain and exo waves later on the afternoon.

2

AI War Strategy Discussion / Strategic reserves

« on: March 03, 2013, 02:03:28 PM »

I hadn't played in a while due to free time constraints and when I started a new game about a week ago I checked the patch notes of the latest (and not so latest) updates and noticed the addition of "strategic reserves" to the AI's arsenal.
I'm now nearing the end of this game and I am assaulting the first homeworld and I've been doing battle with the AI fleet for about an hour now..
Before my assault on the core- and homeworlds there were about 2000 Mk II and III ships patrolling the home- and coreworlds and about 3000 - 4000 Mk V ships on the homeworld themselves. At the start of the attack I got the message "AI is deploying reserves" at 70 % and since I only have lighter ships (cutlasses, etherjets, ...) I decided to wear them down by spamming a gazillion reinforcements while keeping them at bay with a black widow golem and riot control starships.
The problem is I can't figure out which ships are actually the reserve ships and if I can bait them away from the homeworld themselves (the whole point being probably they don't chase after you but stay close to their homeworld).
This is important because there is a wrath lance on the homeworld which can apparently vaporise my fleet in a few seconds so I would prefer to fight them on the coreworlds if at all possible.
Is it possible to lure the strategic reserves on the core worlds to beat them there or do they stay on the home worlds themselves (and how can they be recognized) ?
If not, is it at all practical to destroy a wrath lance through a stealth attack by etherjets or penetrators so I can engage the strategic reserves on the homeworld themselves ?

Any helpful tips would also be greatly appreciated.

3

AVWW Technical Support / Wrong Serial Key ?

« on: February 22, 2013, 03:10:13 PM »

I recently bought AVWW2 on steam (I use steam solely for easy purchases without using credit cards but don't actually run AVWW or AI War through it).
Can I use the key I got on steam to unlock the game ?
Yesterday I downloaded AVWW from the Arcen site and had it running on wine.
I tried to unlock it but the game kept telling me (very politely ) I had entered the wrong key.
I checked again if I hadn't inadvertibly used the AVWW I key.
Am I missing something here and entering the wrong key, did I download the wrong executable or is it not possible to unlock the stand alone application with this key?

4

AI War Strategy Discussion / Countering armored golems

« on: February 12, 2013, 02:48:21 PM »

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to efficiently counter an Armored Golem.
Yesterday the AI was apparently in a bad mood and sent two of these in separate exo wave strikes (meaning one in the first strike and another one about two hours later).
I had prepared my defenses by building multiple force fields on home command and neighbouring wormholes, a full cap of gravity turrets (Mk I) on every path to the home system, full cap of sniper turrets on home world, all Mk I turrets covering the most likely attack routes.
My fleet consisted of full caps of the triangle ships and bonus ships, but I unlocked only light and fast ships (etherjet, cutlass, raider).
Even though I received ample warning through scouts positioned in outlying systems I had a hard time defending against the Armored golem(s).
I focused the entire fleet on the golem but it was still able to make it's way through to my homeworld (it did completely ignore my fleet) and blast its way through the home command center's shields before I blew it up with a spirecraft ram: if it had placed one more shot it would have destroyed the home command.
The second one was the same story, it ignores my fleet and just crawls to the home command.
The problem is I don't see how I can avert this, since none of my ships have much firepower and I don't know if upgrading starships would have much effect.
I only have access to black widow and regen golems (as well as a botnet but that one wasn't finished repairing yet).
Can exo waves from spirecraft, golems and botnet "add up" to create tougher lead ships or is this just the randomization logic of one of the waves at work here ?

5

AI War / Fallen Spire Questions

« on: September 08, 2012, 08:26:14 AM »

I've just finished a first fallen spire game to the end and there were a couple of things I didn't  quite find out.
Does anyone know if there is a way to choose the position of the spire city facilities ? Several times they were built at the edge or outside the existing forcefields and I had to research the mk II module to get them protected.
On a related note: is it possible to lose a city hub ? The seem to be invisible and have a lot of hitpoints but what would happen if you lost one before building the galactic capitol. (it guess would be too easy if you would just get another shard)?
Atfter the transmitter was built the attacks became really nasty and I wondered if there was any wave-like mechanic for it.
It just seemed a continuously escalating attack but there were some odd pauses in it.
It was a truly epic ending even though my CPU thought otherwise.

6

AI War Strategy Discussion / Core CPA Fun

« on: August 11, 2012, 04:41:58 AM »

I had a run-in with a Core CPA yesterday and since I'd never encountered them before and their description mentiones "brutal galaxy wide attacks" I build defensive strongpoints everywhere and prepare for impending doom.
When I attacked the homeworld I cleared it in about 2 minutes and then rushed back to my home command station, arriving there just before about 3000 mk III ships and 500 mk IV/V ships are released and start attacking my outher planets.
I survived only because I managed to lure the main attack right across a devourer golem's path, after which I only had to deal with the Mk V's and by using two black widow golems to pick apart the other attack group but I still lost most of my planets.
Are there ways to lessen the amount of released ships (can you weaken the attack by thread hunting before attacking the homeworld) or is it best to invest in insane defences?

7

AI War Strategy Discussion / Hybrid Strategy

« on: June 19, 2012, 04:40:07 AM »

Hello,

I've just started my first game with hybrids turned on (4 for both difficulty 8 AI players) and I'm not sure what strategy to pursue.
I'm currently two hours in and they are currently trying to defend AI planets I'll be attacking soon to get access to an ARS and striking at my rear production worlds.
At the moment I do not have any problems dispatching the attackers but the defending hybrids always retreat when I periodicaly clear the neighbouring systems.
I assume they do this to replenish their shield and supporting fleet.
There are currently about six of those support structures on several planets just behind the front lines and I'm wondering if I should:

A) destroy them, assuming the hybrids will then have to travel further out to repair.
B) guard them, use them to lure  weakened hybrids to this system and destroy them with a strike force as they come in.
C) Ignore them (if they are not important enough)

After a violent encounter with a large force of defending Hybrids an hour ago I now try to periodically clear any planets I can of hybrids to prevent them from building up.

My long term goal is to destroy the hybrids completely (or at least make them totally uneffective) before I assault the homeworlds.

8

AI War Strategy Discussion / Spire Shield Guardpost mechanics

« on: June 06, 2012, 06:36:19 AM »

Hello,

I've been wondering for some time now about the mechanics behind the spire shield guardpost, hoping to use these to short-cut the usual all out bomber strike.
Somenone on this forum told me they would self-destruct when the last ship under their shield is destroyed so when I encountered about a dozen of these during my "burn-a-path-to-the-homeworld-with-my-huge-fleetball" campaign last night I tried a couple of things but I couldn't get consistent results.
As several of these guardposts are placed on planets with an Eye I resolved using raid starships to snipe the ships and (hopefully) destroy the post easily without wearing down the shields.
Apparently this works... sometimes, but other times the guardposts would still be left standing.
I tried scanning them with tachyon beams (scout starships) but there were no ships visible under the shield, although sometimes Mk III engies would teleport in and out again.

Does anyone else know the mechanics behind this ?

1) Is the "self-destruct" trigger checked only when a ship is killed underneath the guardpost or also when a ship leaves the shield?
2) Do buildings and engineers count ? (the AI seems fond to back up its spire shields with multiple Mk III force fields)
3) Is it possible to use tractor beams to pull ships from under the forcefield. (I would assume no, since etherjets aren't able to do this).

9

AI War Strategy Discussion / An effective counter to Zenith Chameleons

« on: May 31, 2012, 04:20:22 AM »

Hello,

I've just finished my first 7/7 game and I started anew with Fallen Spire and Hard Golems on.
Surprisingly the exo-waves are not the hard part of this game: it's the medium to large waves of Zenith Chameleons one of the AI's throws at me.
Since they have a "swarmer" type hull I ordered my missile frigates to defend against the early waves of these and they would take care of them (but it would take a long time before they finally expired) but they seem incredible tanks, surviving against them for several minutes.
At the start of the game this wasn't the problem, they would eventually die, but last night I barely survived a 1.5k counterattack guardpost wave: the chameleons went straight for the home command station, ignoring my entire fleet (including an armored golem) firing at them and nearly exhausted my shields before finally expiring.
Waves of about a 1000 of them now blow almost all turrets (even flak and tractor turrets) at my whipping boy and when my frigates come in to help fend them off they just run (barely damaged), after which I can spend the next twenty minutes thread hunting in neighbouring systems.

I'm considering unlocking the missile frigates Mk III and the riot control Mk II just to deal with them but I'm short on knowledge at the moment and I don't know if any of these will be effective.
I would also try gravity turrets to slow them down but this would obviously not impede their escape.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on this one, I would be very gratefull.

10

After Action Reports / Newbie AAR

« on: May 03, 2012, 05:40:16 AM »

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  .

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

11

AI War Strategy Discussion / Zombie Guardians + Gravity + Spire shield

« on: April 06, 2012, 06:00:04 PM »

Hello everyone,
I'm fairly new in this game and I'm wondering if anyone has some strategic/tactical tips for taking out a few (2) zombie guardians.
They seem to have decided to camp right under a force field in range of my entry wormhole.
I've tried raiding them with the raid starships (I guess their primary use is shooting through forcefields, or am I mistaken) but they always get destroyed before they come into range because there is a gravity drill on the other end of the map.

I was just wondering if there are any ships available which ignore both gravity and shields (or have a huge amount of attack power and range to blast the shield to bits)

At the moment they are happily wreaking havoc on my main fleet ad I'm getting the ominous feeling this will end in a rather stupid defeat at the hands of my own (zombified) ships.